Bai Jingfei perked her head up with a little grin and got back onto her feet with a tiny jump. She then stuck her hands behind her back and bent forward with a smile.
Heavenly doctor Ming had the sudden realization that he had probably been scammed and was going to make a loss off of this deal. He didn't complain though. He smiled back at Bai Jingfei and the two of them headed back to their carriage so they could return to the mountain.
Bai Jingfei was positively elated.
She had no clue what the pill was used for but she knew it was worth a lot of money and thus was valuable.
Anything worth a lot of money made Bai Jingfei happy. She was a money grubbing cave creature after all. The love for money probably flowed through her veins.
The next morning Bai Jingfei and heavenly doctor Ming headed to the alchemy room in the back.
It was a dingy and slightly dark room, much like the cave Bai Jingfei had once inhabited. In the corner was a pile of cauldrons, haphazardly stacked to the roof.
Heavenly doctor Ming walked up to the pile and pulled out one cauldron that was in the middle of the stack without making sure to not topple the pile.
With a rumble every single cauldron fell to the ground messily and the noise was as if every gong in a temple was hit at once. Bai Jingfei covered her ears with a groan but heavenly doctor Ming walked away from the mess casually without a second glance at the mess he'd made.
Bai Jingfei now understood why all the cauldrons were dented and scratched as if they'd been buried for a couple thousand years.
Bai Jingfei skipped around the fallen cauldrons and opened up the curtains slowly causing dust to fly out of the curtains.
One would think that the room had been unused for a few months if not a few years but heavenly doctor Ming used this room on an almost daily basis and it was still a mess.
Bai Jingfei couldn't help but wonder what a room he hadn't used for years would look like.
On the floor of the room were jars of herbs and powders. Heavenly doctor Ming had dumped the cauldron down and was now sorting through the various herbs on the floor and checking things off of a list he had prepared before they had come to the room.
He then stuffed the list into Bai Jingfei's hands and leaned back casually.
"Go get those…" he said, waving his hand casually, "the ones I haven't crossed out."
Bai Jingfei grunted and headed out to the storage room.
She should've been suspicious considering heavenly doctor Ming rarely let her touch the glass jars with herbs in them, let alone transport them. He had no trust in her capabilities not to break the jars so it was obvious something suspicious was going on.
Bai Jingfei pulled a few bottles off the shelves in the storage room, shattering one in the process after knocking it over with her elbow.
She then had to go back up to clean the darn mess she had made and get a new jar.
While Bai Jingfei was meandering through the house looking for things to fix the mess she'd made, heavenly doctor Ming had already started working.
He lit a fire under the cauldron and began stirring a powder into it, waiting for the powder to coat the walls of the dented bronze cauldron.
Then he sat back and removed the pouch of the saffron the two of them had stolen the previous day and opened it. Then he carefully removed a slight bit of the saffron and put it into his pocket. Then looking right and left he got a little bolder and took some more.
Then he closed the packet and put it next to a cauldron and did his fake whistling to appear unsuspicious.
Bai Jingfei soon returned.
She placed the jars on to the messy floor, panting after walking around the entire house looking for a broom.
"Here's- the- jars-" she huffed at heavenly doctor Ming.
Heavenly doctor Ming got up and got to work, he poured in the ingredients one by one waiting and stirring occasionally. Bai Jingfei was handing him ingredients and watching him do his magic on the ingredients.
It took hours.
The room was filled with smoke and Bai Jingfei kept coughing because of it. Heavenly doctor Ming was a pro at this and didn't seem to have any reaction to the smoke at all.
Once in a while a few crackles and pops could be heard from the cauldron as if heavenly doctor Ming was making her a batch of popcorn.
But unlike popcorn the potion stunk and made Bai Jingfei's eyes water.
A few minutes later heavenly doctor Ming ushered Bai Jingfei over to the cauldron and had her stir it for him instead. He instructed Bai Jingfei on what to put in and when to put it in.
Bai JIngfei was having quite a bit of fun playing around with the pills, especially knowing that half of them were hers. She looked quite odd, standing on a stool and stirring a huge pot with a ladle as big as her head.
In the pot the mixture quickly thickened and Bai Jingfei couldn't help but admire the bright orange color of the potion, probably from the saffron they had added.
Soon the mixture had become a slush that was too thick to stir and Bai Jingfei was struggling. Heavenly doctor Ming pulled her aside and put a cover on the cauldron and then sat back down to take a nap.
Bai Jingfei went to her room to take a nap too. The dingy potion room wasn't somewhere she could sleep, especially with the smell.
Hours later when the sun had set and night had fallen, Bai Jingfei came back to check on the pills.
"Wow those pills are pretty!"