Lin Banxia casually found a clean stone to weigh down the page, then began unpacking and sterilizing the silver needles.
Up to this point, everything looked fairly normal. Lin Banxia also wore quite a serious expression, making it seem as though she really was taking this seriously. So not only did everyone else think she seemed somewhat reliable, even Jingting, lying on the recliner, quieted down.
Yun Zhaozhao thought, No wonder doctors at hospitals always look so unsmiling. Being a little more serious really does make people think you're more reliable.
Then, the very next second, she saw Lin Banxia pick up a silver needle and begin tentatively searching Daoist Priest Jingting's body for an acupuncture point.
As she searched, she even asked Daoist Priest Jingting, "Is it here?"
Jingting said, "...Are you asking me? If I knew, wouldn't I just do it myself? Would I need to suffer through this torture?"
Lin Banxia thought about it and decided he had a point, so she stopped asking Jingting and tentatively inserted the silver needle into the Zusanli point she had located. This acupuncture point was on the outside of the lower leg, four finger-widths below the hollow of the knee... According to the medical text's description, when the silver needle first went in, it gently pierced the skin and caused a tiny bit of pain. But as it went deeper, as long as the point had been located correctly, the pain would be very slight, with at most a mildly sore, swollen feeling.
The only problem now was, as a self-taught beginner, how could Lin Banxia tell whether she had actually found the right point?
So, as she inserted the needle, she couldn't help asking Jingting again, "Well? How is it? What does it feel like?"
Jingting said, "..."
With Jingting staying silent, Lin Banxia felt uncertain, so she gently withdrew the silver needle and repeated the process of locating the Zusanli point. This time, she was a little more confident than before, so the needle went just a little deeper.
But it was only a tiny bit deeper before she felt resistance.
Who knew how other practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine would adjust at this point? In any case, Doctor Lin simply gave the silver needle two turns. If clockwise didn't work, she tried counterclockwise. Although the needle was very thin and really didn't hurt much when it pierced the skin, the sensation was still quite frightening.
So the instant the needle came out, Jingting stood up. This time, he didn't simply stand upright; he stood on tiptoe. Once he was up, he even told Lin Banxia solemnly, "No need for any more needles. I feel taller already. Instant results. Very effective."
Lin Banxia said, "..."
Everyone else said, "..."
Lin Banxia wanted to try again afterward, but Jingting had already run far away, and the others were even less likely to agree. And so, once again, Lin Banxia's dream of practicing acupuncture shattered into pieces.
Yun Zhaozhao comforted her. "If you really like it, why not find somewhere to study it properly after you leave Clear Breeze Temple? Once you've learned it, you're welcome back at Clear Breeze Temple anytime."
Lin Banxia was a little dejected. "So you believe I can learn it well? Even my grandfather doesn't believe I can. He says I'm just not cut out to be a physician and that I should give up the idea sooner rather than later."
Yun Zhaozhao said, "How should I put it? It's not really about whether I believe in you. I just think that if you like something, you should give it a try so you won't regret it when you're older. What if it works out?"
Lin Banxia said, "I think you have a point."
Yun Zhaozhao said, "But studying traditional Chinese medicine is pretty hard, and it probably costs quite a bit in tuition, too. Do you have any money right now?"
Lin Banxia shook her head. "No. My grandfather does have some savings, but I'm sure he wouldn't agree to use that money to let me study."
Yun Zhaozhao said, "Then don't think about all that just yet. Focus on growing the fruit trees first! Once you've sold a few more batches of fruit, you'll have money, and then you can study traditional Chinese medicine. If you learn it well, come set up a stall at Clear Breeze Temple as a divine physician. If you don't, come set up a stall at Clear Breeze Temple selling fruit..."
Lin Banxia kept feeling that something wasn't quite right, but she couldn't put her finger on it. Only after Yun Zhaozhao had gone far away did she slowly realize. Good grief, so whether she studied acupuncture or not, she couldn't escape the fate of setting up a stall at Clear Breeze Temple?
No wonder people said it was easy to enter the Daoist gate but hard to leave! So this was what they meant by hard!
While Lin Banxia was questioning her life over Yun Zhaozhao's words, Jingting was clutching the leg that had just been needled, still shaken. Although Yun Zhaozhao had let Lin Banxia stick a needle into Jingting, she was still rather unsure about it herself, so after talking to Lin Banxia, she went straight over to ask Jingting how he was doing.
Jingting moved his leg and said, "It feels fine. It just looked really scary. Temple Master, are you sure there wasn't a punishment in ancient times called 'acupuncture on the living'?"
Yun Zhaozhao said, "...Probably not. After all, there was no Lin Banxia in ancient times!"
Jingting let out a long breath. "My master used to tell me to beware of women, and I never understood what he meant. But now I finally understand. He meant it literally: beware of women!"
Yun Zhaozhao said, "..." Listening to him speak was like listening to him speak.
Chapter 31
After hearing that Clear Breeze Temple had introduced lotus leaf tea and lotus leaf congee that helped with weight loss, Xie Yu and Xu Tingting made a special trip to Clear Breeze Temple one weekend to try them.
Although the two of them had been Clear Breeze Temple's college campus agents for some time now, they were usually busy with their studies, so it had actually been quite a while since their last visit.
When they arrived this time, they discovered that Clear Breeze Temple had changed enormously. Setting aside the bustling crowds and flourishing incense offerings in the front courtyard, the real difference was the backyard, which seemed like an entirely different world. They remembered it as a bare patch of dirt overgrown with weeds, but it had long since been turned into an orchard and a medicinal herb garden. They could smell a fresh fragrance from far away. They couldn't tell whether it came from flowers or herbs, but it was certainly refreshing.
Moreover, with spring bringing warmth and blooming flowers, butterflies and bees flitted through the orchard in swarms. Anyone who didn't know better might have thought they had arrived at some holiday resort.
The two girls spent ages taking photos beneath the fruit trees in the backyard, then spent ages editing them before coming over to drink tea and chat with Yun Zhaozhao.
The moment Yun Zhaozhao saw them, her biggest concern was still the talisman tube blind boxes. "How have your talisman tube blind boxes been selling lately? Have you sold out of the ones I delivered last time?"
Xu Tingting felt a little embarrassed at the mention of this. "I haven't sold all of mine yet. I still have a few left, but Xie Yu has already sold out. Her talisman tube blind boxes have always sold better than mine."
Yun Zhaozhao wasn't at all surprised that Xu Tingting hadn't sold out. After all, it had been less than half a month since her last delivery. But she was quite curious about how Xie Yu had sold out so quickly. Turning to Xie Yu, she asked curiously, "How did yours sell so fast?"
Xie Yu smiled and said, "It was a coincidence, really. A junior bought a talisman tube blind box from me a while ago, and then she happened to stop being single. After that, all the girls in her dorm came to buy one from me. One thing led to another, and even the girls from the dorm next door came looking for me, so I sold out pretty quickly."
After hearing this, Yun Zhaozhao couldn't help remarking, "...Romance really is a required course for college students! The moment they hear it can help them find a partner, even talisman tube blind boxes become easy to sell."
Holding a cup of lotus leaf tea, Xu Tingting agreed. "Exactly. If I weren't completely uninterested in dating, I'd definitely get myself a blind box to help me find a partner. But actually, besides romance, losing weight is another topic college students really care about. I think this lotus leaf tea tastes pretty good. Has Clear Breeze Temple prepared any tea bags? If you have, we could stock some lotus leaf weight-loss tea and sell it alongside the talisman tube blind boxes."
Had anyone else made this suggestion, Yun Zhaozhao might have agreed. But considering that Xu Tingting and the others were still students, and that even though they were already in college, blindly trying to lose weight wasn't good for their health, Yun Zhaozhao ultimately refused. "A gentleman loves money but earns it through proper means. Let's forget about weight-loss tea. If you really want to sell tea, you can wait until the tea in our tea garden is ready and recommend the Clear Breeze tea we grow ourselves to your classmates."
Xu Tingting's attention suddenly went off on a tangent. "...Clear Breeze Temple has its own tea garden now?" What other surprises does Clear Breeze Temple have that we don't know about?
Yun Zhaozhao took a sip of lotus flower tea and said unhurriedly, "A tea garden is nothing. We don't just have our own tea garden now, we also have our own rice paddies and wheat fields! And you saw the fruit trees and medicinal herb beds in the backyard, right? In the future, Clear Breeze Temple will have its own fruit orchard and medicinal herb garden, too. In short, there are things you haven't thought of, but nothing Clear Breeze Temple won't sell. Oh, right, did you notice the pool in the first courtyard when you came in? Before long, all the fish in it will be ready to eat. So not only do we have an orchard, a tea garden, and a medicinal herb garden, we also have our own fishpond..."
Xu Tingting said, "..." She felt that if Temple Master Yun put in a little more effort, by the time they graduated and came here for internships, Clear Breeze Temple might already be a well-known company listed on the stock exchange.
Xu Tingting and Xie Yu counted as unofficial members of Clear Breeze Temple, after all. Besides, they rarely had time to visit, so now that they had finally made it over, Daoist Chang Kong was certainly going to show the two youngsters what he could do in the kitchen.
Considering that the youngsters rarely got to eat much meat at school, Daoist Chang Kong prepared two meat dishes for them that day: pig's trotters braised in his special stock, and a spring-exclusive dish of red-braised pork stewed with spring bamboo shoots.
Since Daoist Chang Kong himself liked bamboo shoots, they appeared frequently on Clear Breeze Temple's menu. In winter, they had eaten winter bamboo shoots, and now that spring had arrived, those had been replaced with spring bamboo shoots. When summer and autumn came, there would still be the dried bamboo shoots Daoist Chang Kong had prepared earlier. It had to be said that while bamboo shoots were a limited-time offering at other people's tables, in Clear Breeze Temple's dining hall, they were supplied on demand.
Of course, besides these two meat dishes, Daoist Chang Kong also prepared two seasonal side dishes for them: scrambled eggs with Chinese toon shoots, and shepherd's purse soup with shrimp.
Speaking of Chinese toon and shepherd's purse, both were available in abundance around Clear Breeze Temple. Ever since everyone at the temple had tried Daoist Chang Kong's scrambled eggs with Chinese toon shoots and shepherd's purse soup with shrimp, whoever had some free time would take a couple of walks around Clear Breeze Mountain behind the temple. And practically every time they went out, they came back with something. So lately, the dining hall at Clear Breeze Temple had had all the Chinese toon and shepherd's purse anyone could eat. Besides scrambling them with eggs, the Chinese toon shoots could be blanched and tossed with seasonings to make spicy oil-dressed toon shoots or toon shoots with chilies. As for shepherd's purse, that went without saying: chopped up with minced meat and used to fill dumplings, it was so delicious that they practically wanted to swallow their tongues.