Country Bumpkin

Ye Feng spent the entire morning studying medicinal formulas before setting his sights on Huichuntang, the largest herbal medicine shop in Haifeng City. After lunch, he hailed a cab and headed straight for Huichuntang.

Huichuntang was situated beside a small square in the southwestern corner of Haifeng City. Its white, domed, three-story structure stood out, exuding an air of age and gravitas compared to the surrounding buildings. The signboard bore nothing but the bold characters of its name, “Huichuntang,” free from any ornamentation, as if to proclaim the owner’s unshakable confidence.

The entrance was rather deserted; after all, few people in this era truly understood medicinal herbs. Most would simply visit a pharmacy for their ailments. The primary clientele of herbal shops were the rare traditional medicine practitioners—which hardly made for a bustling crowd.

Upon entering, Ye Feng did not detect the usual mingled fragrance of herbs that typically lingered in such places. Instead, the absence of scent indicated remarkable management of the herbs within. Aroma signaled the dispersal of energy, and a blended herbal smell suggested poor preservation, leading to cross-contamination and potential alteration of properties.

Standing in the main hall, Ye Feng was surrounded by meticulously arranged, custom-built double-glass cabinets. These allowed customers to view the herbs from outside, while shielding them from the effects of external light. This thoughtful design made it easy and intuitive for buyers to select their herbs, without the frequent opening of cabinets that might compromise their quality. Of course, such careful attention to detail was costly—beyond the reach of most.

This alone kindled a genuine appreciation in Ye Feng for Huichuntang.

There was, however, one blemish: since his arrival, a middle-aged man—presumably the manager—had not so much as looked up in greeting, let alone risen to welcome him. Ye Feng surmised the man to be the manager by observing the shop’s layout; the owner was clearly someone attentive to customer experience, and would hardly be the type to ignore a guest’s entrance.

This was Huichuntang, after all—a name renowned throughout Haifeng City.

The manager, eyelids drooping, cast a glance at the young man who had just walked in, feeling a surge of contempt. A beggar in a banquet hall—who did he think would spare him a meal? Ye Feng’s clothes were unremarkable; everyone who frequented Huichuntang was impeccably dressed.

Since the age of nine, Ye Feng had eschewed designer brands. He was a man of modest means, never one to fuss over his appearance. Expecting him to dress up was pure fantasy.

Having instantly pegged Ye Feng as poor, the manager dismissed him in his mind. As long as the fellow didn’t bother him, he was content to let him look around and be on his way—hardly worth a word.

With that thought, the manager grunted in annoyance and lowered his eyes as though to nap.

Ye Feng was no naïve scholar; he could hardly miss such blatant disdain. At twenty-seven, he had encountered many such small-minded snobs. Ignoring the manager, he set about inspecting the herbs on display.

To Ye Feng, the staff’s attitude was irrelevant—he was here to buy herbs, not smiles. He had no intention of wasting time schooling someone else’s offspring. As he strolled past rows of glass cabinets, he did indeed find several of the ingredients he needed.

The formula for Ninghunsan, given to him by Huaihuai, was simple: cabbages, wind-proof root, chrysanthemum, jujube seed, cassia, raw rehmannia, kudzu, mint, prunella. The other formula, however, was baffling. It called for ingredients like Azure Dragon Bone, Xuanwu Shell, Vermilion Bird Pellet, White Tiger Claw, Black-banded Snake, Buddha’s Hand, and Poria. The first four were utterly unfamiliar to Ye Feng until Huaihuai explained that Azure Dragon Bone referred to the bones of the ancient tyrannosaurus, Xuanwu Shell was the shell of a thousand-year-old sea turtle, Vermilion Bird Pellet the heart of a fire phoenix, and White Tiger Claw the claw of a legendary snow tiger.

Ye Feng had spent the morning poring over the formulas. The ingredients for Ninghunsan were common, but the body-strengthening formula posed a real challenge. With Huaihuai’s guidance, he knew there were Azure Dragon Bone and Xuanwu Shell in his ancestral home, but the Vermilion Bird Pellet and White Tiger Claw were certainly beyond reach—even at Haifeng’s largest herbal shop.

Though the glass cabinets resembled supermarket shelves, the herbs inside were not for random handling. Drawing on his memory, Ye Feng listed the ingredients he could find for the formulas, added a few more at random to piece together three prescriptions, and approached the middle-aged manager.

“Please help me gather these herbs,” he said, placing the slip of paper with the ingredients on the counter.

The manager smacked his lips impatiently and glanced at the list. Collecting all these would mean traversing the entire hall. He remained seated, pressing a finger to the paper, rubbing it back and forth, then cocked his head to sneer at Ye Feng. “You want these herbs? Do you even know how much they cost?”

“What do you think?” Ye Feng’s brows knit in irritation. Where did all this nonsense come from? Just fetch the herbs and be done with it—his sleeping habits were of no concern to Ye Feng.

“Hmph. Young man, I advise you to be realistic. These herbs aren’t the most expensive, but they’re hardly within your means,” the manager said, pushing the list back and closing his eyes to doze again.

Ye Feng rapped his fingers on the counter. “Would you mind hurrying up and fetching the herbs?”

With a bang, the manager slapped the table and stood up. “You want these herbs? Pay up first. Otherwise, if I fetch them and you suddenly say you can’t afford them, it’ll compromise their quality. Who am I supposed to sell them to then?”

Ye Feng nearly laughed, but couldn’t be bothered to argue. “How much?”

“Hmph, fine, I’ll tell you,” the manager said, glancing at the list and flaring his nostrils. “Two hundred thousand!”

“How much?”

Two hundred thousand was pocket change to Ye Feng.

To put it plainly, if he’d been greeted warmly at the door and spent twenty thousand on herbs, he wouldn’t have blinked at leaving a two-hundred-thousand tip. But when someone tried to gouge him for two hundred thousand for herbs worth twenty, only a fool would pay up.

“Two hundred thousand. Can’t afford it, can you? Didn’t I warn you? You can’t play this game. Look at you—a country bumpkin trying to buy herbs. Do you even know what to do with them? Going to boil them into soup?” the manager sneered.

Ye Feng’s frown relaxed, and a faint, serene smile played at his lips. Watching an ignorant man show off was hardly infuriating—more amusing than anything. In fact, Ye Feng really was planning to boil the herbs into soup.

“Don’t kid yourself. Bumpkins like you should go back to wherever you came from. A pauper who can’t rustle up two hundred thousand—pathetic!” the manager spat, gesticulating wildly.

“Shameless!” Seeing Ye Feng still smiling, the manager grew even angrier, snatching up the paper and tearing it in half with a loud rip, crumpling it and preparing to hurl it at Ye Feng.

But before he could, he found that his hand wouldn’t move. Only then did he realize that, at some point, a plainly dressed young man had gripped his wrist. With a sudden yank, the manager stumbled backward, momentum sending him crashing to the floor.

As fate would have it, the one who’d flung him aside was Luo Ming. He’d just dropped by to pick something up, caught sight of someone resembling Ye Feng inside, and walked in just in time to see the manager about to throw the paper. Luo Ming stepped forward, seized the manager’s hand, and flung him away.

That this uncouth country bumpkin had an accomplice—and dared treat him so! The manager could hardly believe it. While he wasn’t a big shot in Haifeng, no one dared look down on a Huichuntang manager. His very title commanded respect.

“You… you!” the manager shouted furiously. “What do you think you’re doing? Don’t forget where you are. Our boss has close ties with the Ai family. Lay a finger on me, and you’ll never leave Haifeng alive.” He was an ordinary man, and that little scuffle had shown him the other’s strength. If Luo Ming and Ye Feng had looked like scions of a great clan, he’d have softened his tone or even begged. Of course, if they’d belonged to such a family, things wouldn’t have escalated this far.

But these bumpkins—one poorly dressed, the other merely decent—were clearly nobodies. The manager was confident in his judgment. He couldn’t best them in a fight, but his tongue was tireless.

“Open your eyes, you two. This isn’t the countryside. Huichuntang isn’t a place for your antics. Think carefully about the consequences before making trouble. So what if you’re strong? At best, you’re fit for manual labor. I’m not afraid!”

Just two rustic fools. Surely, a display of powerful connections would frighten them into apologizing!

But the manager’s judgment was not as keen as he thought. He failed to notice the look of disdain Luo Ming had worn from the start—someone like that would never be cowed by threats. Ye Feng and Luo Ming exchanged an amused glance.

At that moment, a rebuke sounded from the stairs, and someone descended from above.

“Zhao Liu, what’s going on down here? All this racket—don’t you know I’m upstairs negotiating important business?”

The speaker was none other than the true owner of Huichuntang, a shrewd-looking man in his fifties.

He had been upstairs, deep in discussion with a guest, when the commotion downstairs embarrassed him in front of his visitor. This was Huichuntang—a name known throughout Haifeng City. Even the mayor greeted him with respect. Who would dare cause trouble under his roof?