Daily Life

At Dragon Ascending Health Food Production Factory in Linping, inside the machine-roaring First Workshop, Wang Yan wore a mask and dustproof coveralls. He sat cross-legged in a corner, watching the various parameters fed back on the computer while idly observing the production process in the workshop.

A pot of herbal decoction worth more than two million yuan boiled continuously. After water had been added several times, the filtered decoction was transferred into the compression equipment, while the boiled herbs were dumped into a container beside it. Then, amid a buzzing roar, the various herbs were ground into pulp.

The compression equipment ran, and viscous raw liquid flowed out from within, delivered into dry powder made from dozens of crushed and blended medicinal herbs. It was mixed evenly like kneading dough, then squeezed through a narrow tube. At the other end of the connection was a compact machine holding bamboo blades. The blades moved rapidly up and down, cutting the extruded strips of medicinal paste—slightly thicker than hand-pulled noodles—into small pieces. They fell into another dry powder blend made from many herbs below, then were carried by a conveyor belt into connected boxes.

Once a certain amount had been collected, a quick-handed worker replaced the box with a new one and took away the previous box. It was then brought to a cylindrical machine nearby, and the pile of small, unformed pellets was poured inside. There was more medicinal dry powder in that machine. Once it was turned on, the cylinder rotated for a while, dumping out the formed pills along with the powder. After they were sifted once, the powder was poured back into the machine.

The formed pills were sent to another machine. Workers took processed, labeled glass bottles, counted out thirty pills into each bottle, and placed them