The General's Delicious Wife Chapter 036: Sales speech
"Talking about the origins of this medicinal sweet, there is a very touching story involved! If everyone is willing to listen, I will tell you about it."
These words flows out as soon as Xia Yue Chu opens her mouth, making Xue Zhuang and Qin Zheng stun as they listen.
She stretches out her hand and gives Qin Zheng a pat on his shoulder. "The ancestors of this brother of mine, from one of the forefathers of more than ten generations above, he is famous in his filial piety within the ten miles and eight villages. His mother is bed ridden for ten over years and he has taken care of her the same way every single day. But this old mother has eaten many years of medicine, on top of that she is aging, constantly crying about lack of taste in her mouth, or that she can feel a lingering bitterness in her mouth. At times when this is serious, it even affects her appetite, whatever she eats does not taste good and she would stop eating altogether."
This condition is common in many of the aging population, hearing how Xia Yue Chu is describing, the older sirs and madams in the crowd are filled with empathy and keep nodding their heads.
"If it is other people in this situation, they can eat a candy or suck on a plum, but his old mother has a weak constitution, anything too sweet or too sour will make her stomach uncomfortable. The days pass by with his mother becoming even more thin and fragile right before his eyes, this extremely filial son watches this with his eyes and feels the pain in his heart, which made him unable to eat well or sleep well every day. Waking up in one morning when he is brewing his mother's medicine, he isn't paying attention for a moment and accidentally drops a plate of sugar, which his wife has prepared for making sweet dumplings, into the medicine brew. As the sugar is poured into the boiling hot medicine brew, surely it is dissolved in an instant. An entire pot of medication, throwing it out is such a waste, finally, he chooses to pour it out and serves it to his mother and let her try it. Who knows that this old mother finishes the medicine, her stomach is no longer in pain, her mouth is no longer bitter, smacking her lips together, saying that the medicine today is strangely delicious."
The people in the surrounding crowd laughs at the story, and one of them shouts out in a loud voice. "Adding a whole plate of white sugar, how can it not be delicious!"
"That's right, adding sugar into the medicine will naturally make it delicious, the most important thing is that his old mother gains back her appetite after drinking that, eating more than she usually does for dinner. This extremely filial son is someone with a good heart and he starts looking into this matter, flipping through many medical books, and eventually he found a good proportion of a herbs mixture that are not distasteful, developing a way to make this medicinal sweet and making these medicinal sweet cubes for his mother to snack on when she is bored."
"You don't say, this medicinal sweet is actually quite useful. Eating one when this old mother has no appetite, eating one when she is feeling nauseous and lack of breath, eating one more when she is coughing or when her mouth is dry. Slowly, her body recovers to become even better comparing to before."
"But again, this is a medicinal sweet. Even if medicinal herbs have been added into it, could it actually be more effective than actual medicine?" There are some who remain doubtful, raising a question aloud.
"Of course it is not as effective as the actual medication." Xia Yue Chu does not get offended, smiling as per usual as she replies. "But all uncles and aunties, big brothers and big sisters here, think about it, when we need to eat medicine during the times when we are sick, we will often feel down, drinking the bitter medicine brew every single day will make our mouths and stomachs dull, needless to say for this old mother, being sick for ten over years, drinking medicine every day, how can she be feeling good about it? Her actual illness could be a seven pointer, but it become ten points in its effect."
"These words aren't wrong in the saying."
"Not mentioning ten over years, I was sick for over a month after the new year, taking the medicine makes me unable to eat my meals and my weight went down in over ten jin."
"This is exactly the reason, although we say that medicinal herbs are added into these sweets, but at the end of the day, it is only but a snack. It tastes sweet and is beneficial to your health, improves salivation and quenches thirst, aids digestion and stirs appetite, lightening one mood at the same time, so naturally the body and health will get better too." Xia Yue Chu observes that the audiences are mostly persuaded, she then continues her speech at a sincere tone. "But everyone also has to know, this medicinal sweet is fundamentally just a snack, eating it will refresh your palate and aid digestion, strengthens spleen and improves appetite, but it is not a cure for illnesses."
"This madam is pretty honest in what she says."
"My mouth has also been feeling rather tasteless recently, there is a taste of bitterness when I wake up in the morning, buying a few back home to try is also good."
"Madam, how many types of medicinal sweet do you have? How are you selling them?"
"Today in stock, we have monkfruit and osmanthus sweet, for revitalising salivation and quenching thirst, moisturizing lungs and relieving coughs. We also have gynostemma and chrysanthemum sweet, for reducing heat and removing toxic, relieving inflammation and strengthening health. Hawthorn fruit sweet for cleansing the palate and improving appetite…"
Xia Yue Chu's mouth is working hard with the recommendations, and she pokes Qin Zheng signalling him to open the box.
Qin Zheng then comes to react, opening the lid of the box in a rush and taking out the waxed paper that they have cut into size at home, following her example and attending to the crowd. "Everyone can buy a few pieces back to try. Like the hawthorn fruit sweet, the children can eat it too, after eating it their appetite will increase and they will be able to eat one more bowl of rice."
One copper coin for most of the people in town is nothing much, getting a bowl of food in the night market would have cost them ten coins.
Now that they have listen to Xia Yue Chu's story, and hearing that the medicinal sweet have beneficial properties to their health, there are plenty of people who begin digging for their coins so that they can buy some for a taste.
There are some who has brought their children along to watch what is going on and being unable to refuse their children's curiosity to try the sweets, they too buy two coins worth to pacify them.
In a flash, the three of them are surrounded by people, it looks as if there is a fight over some limited edition goods.
There are some people who are enjoying the liveliness, they too join in the crowd and buy some with their spare coins to eat.
Qin Zheng and Xia Yue Chu are busy packing the medicinal sweets and collecting the payment, then when they can no longer cope with the volume, Xue Zhuang takes over the task of collecting the money instead.
The three of them becomes so busy that they end up sweating profusely from their foreheads in the cold day.
Xia Yue Chu's hands moves fast and packs the sweets efficiently, and her mouth does not stop holding onto the conversations with others.
"Madam, is this your grandson? He is born with such a tiger head and tiger brain*, so cute!"
"This is your medicinal sweets, if it is good, please come back and buy from us again! I have too many chores at home which keeps me from coming here, my brother will be here by himself to sell the sweets in the future, and we will still be depending on everyone for your support!"
There are also some big sisters and madams who think Qin Zheng is born with good looks, so they crowd around Xia Yue Chu to enquire.
"Big sister, if you come back to buy the medicinal sweets again, you can just come and look for my brother! What? Arranged marriage? Don't see that he is already no longer young, his parents are no longer around at home, so there isn't anyone who are arranging this matter. Now that he has come to me seeking shelter, such an issue will become my worry as well. If you can help find a suitable marriage partner, it will surely be nothing short from us bringing presents to your home to thank you!"
Qin Zheng's face and ears turn red with what she is saying, which is making the big sisters and madams tease him all the more. In the end he drops his head down and focuses on wrapping the medicinal sweets, no matter who ask him questions he refuses to speak.
"This brother of mine is born bashful and would even get embarrassed to cry out for the sales. There is no less in helping him out in his initial stage and taking care of him. If I have a say, it would be best to form a family soon, finding him a nimble and neat wife to marry and bring back home, I can enjoy with much lesser worries."
The whole group of them laughs merrily, and very soon, the medicinal sweets are sold almost to the bottom of the box.
When the crowd disperses, Qin Zheng looks at all the copper coins that Xue Zhuang is holding in his embrace, and he becomes so overjoyed that he forgets about his predicament earlier. Grabbing two big handful then releasing his grasp, listening to the sound of copper coins hitting against each other and he smiles in a dumbstruck.
Xue Zhuang lifts his hand to mess with his face in disdain. "How many lifetimes have you not seen copper coins, are you not embarrassed!"
Qin Zheng exclaims excitedly. "Big Brother, this is my first time earning money!"
"The sweets are not cooked by you, the sales speech is also not done by you, even the wooden box is what I have made, you have only just wrapped a few pieces of sweets and it becomes the money you have earned?" Xue Zhuang dowses a bucket of cold water over him, cooling down his heart completely.
Qin Zheng's head droops down in an instant, his initial ear to ear grin is also drooping downwards, as if a hunting dog that has received a blow.
Xia Yue Chu feels that she can almost see his ears drooping too because of how sadden he is, creating an urge to rub his head and console him.
"Qin Zheng helped out a lot when we are making the medicinal sweets, how old is he only, you don't keep putting him down."
Xue Zhuang listens to what Xia Yue Chu has said and spares Qin Zheng a side glance. "After going back this time, learn the proper ways of making that, you have to do it yourself in the future."
Qin Zheng quickly nods his head in agreement.
Xia Yue Chu sees that there are not much medicinal sweets left in the box, she decides not to continue selling. Packing up all that they have, they go to the medical hall to purchase more ingredients and wait for Liu uncle at the spot that they have agreed earlier on to go back together.
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Translator Notes:
*Tiger head and tiger brain is used as a positive description mainly for children, to describe how healthy, strong and honest the child looks.
Translated by Yellow. Oct 2022.