Three Days of Firing

"Oh, you're inside. I thought a burglar had broken in."

Su Ziyang spoke first to ease the tension.

"Where did this thief come from? I was just worried you'd get too tired from making medicine. I made you some Bones broth, a nourishing, slow-cooked soup!"

Fairy Li was very happy, but Su Ziyang's scalp tingled whenever he heard the words "old-fire soup," as he still vividly remembered the taste of the soup he had last time.

"No need, I'm not tired at all."

Su Ziyang actually wanted to say that it was unnecessary, but he was afraid of hurting Fairy Li's feelings.

After forcing himself to drink some soup, Su Ziyang said he was full, but was then forced to drink two more bowls.

"Can I stay at your place tonight? I'm too lazy to drive back."

Fairy Li blinked her big eyes and stared at Su Ziyang, seemingly pleading, but her attitude was unquestionable.

"Hold head high..."

"Cough..."

"Alright, you can sleep inside then. I'll meditate in the living room."

"Okay!" Fairy Li happily went to wash the dishes. Su Ziyang watched Fairy Li's busy figure, somewhat lost in thought...

The next day after work, Su Ziyang arrived at the courtyard early.

Mr. Mengfei squatted on the ground, motionless, seemingly looking at something.

After Su Ziyang walked over, he also squatted down. "Master, what are you looking at?"

Shh, look, there's an ant nest here.

Su Ziyang looked and indeed there was an ant nest. "Ah, what's wrong with the ant nest?"

"They're looking for food. Look at this, I put a crumb of bread here, and a little ant found it and went back to get its teammates! It can't move it by itself."

Su Ziyang searched for a long time but couldn't find the bread crumbs that Mr. Mengfei had mentioned.

"Where? Bread crumbs. I don't see any. And the ants? I don't see any either."

Su Ziyang searched the ground again but still found no bread crumbs or ants.

"Tsk, the ants went back to their nest to find their teammates. Of course they didn't."

Mr. Mengfei clicked his tongue, annoyed that Su Ziyang kept talking.

"Where are the steamed buns?"

Ignoring Mr. Mengfei's attitude, Su Ziyang continued to ask.

At this moment, Mr. Mengfei stretched out his hand, and a corner of a steamed bun appeared in his palm.

"After he left, I picked up the steamed bun. When he called his teammates and they found there was no bun, I wanted to let them know he was a lying little ant! Hehehe..."

Hearing Mr. Mengfei say this, Su Ziyang stared wide-eyed at Mr. Mengfei, but Mr. Mengfei remained intently focused on the ant nest. "Look, they're coming out! One, two, three, four, five! Five! This little ant is doomed; it's about to die."

Looking at Mr. Mengfei's happy expression, Su Ziyang sighed deeply. Sigh...

"That's boring. I thought they were going to fight."

To Mr. Mengfei's disappointment, several little ants came to the spot where the steamed buns had just been placed, nudged each other with their tiny antennae for a while, found nothing there, and then lined up and went back.

"Master, let's make the medicine instead."

Su Ziyang really didn't know what to say.

"Yes. Business comes first!"

Mr. Mengfei first filtered out the incense that had been soaked yesterday, and then used gauze to remove the moisture.

This is tea oil.

Mr. Mengfei took out a small bucket and explained it to Su Ziyang.

I measured out 1,500 milliliters of tea oil with a measuring cup, and then added several kinds of incense.

With dry firewood and a strong fire, the tea oil quickly boiled.

"Look, see if this medicinal herb is rolling around in the oil."

Su Ziyang watched the medicinal herbs tumbling in the oil and nodded.

Then Mr. Mengfei took the pot off the stove. As the temperature dropped, the tea oil gradually stopped boiling. After letting it sit for a while, Mr. Mengfei put the pot back on the stove.

As the tea oil boiled again after being heated, Mr. Mengfei removed the oil from the heat and let it cool, repeating this process three times.

This has a scientific name in traditional Chinese medicine decoction. "Three up, three down".

After frying the herbs, Mr. Mengfei let the oil cool again, then filtered out the dregs and poured the oil into the ceramic jar that he had sealed with mud the day before.

"Ziyang, take a look at this size and use a shovel to dig a hole in the ground that's about the same size, but don't make it too big."

Mr. Mengfei asked Su Ziyang to dig a hole. Su Ziyang looked at the size of the jar and dug a hole of about the same size in the ground.

Mr. Mengfei looked at it, put the jar into the pit, found it wasn't quite right, and then adjusted it so that the mouth of the jar was basically parallel to the ground.

After finishing these steps, Mr. Mengfei put the crushed Jiajian medicine into another ceramic jar. Then he added 300ml of honey and 300ml of white wine, and stirred it well.

After stirring evenly, Mr. Mengfei took out a layer of cotton cloth and sealed the mouth of the jar. Then he used a thin bamboo strip to make a buckle to tightly fasten the cotton cloth to prevent it from falling off.

After finishing all this, Mr. Mengfei placed the ceramic jar sealed with cotton cloth directly onto the jar buried in the ground, aligning the two openings and fitting them tightly together.

"Ziyang, mix some more sesame paste, about the same amount as what you used to paste the jars yesterday."

Mr. Mengfei held the jar and let Su Ziyang mix the clay. Su Ziyang quickly mixed the clay and brought it over.

Mr. Mengfei used clay to firmly seal the mouths of the two joined jars together. Only after he had finished sealing them did Mr. Mengfei release his grip.

"Ziyang, pile the chaff on top of this."

Mr. Mengfei instructed Su Ziyang to take the chaff from the sack, then use the chaff to surround the bottle and bury it.

"Okay, light it, from top to bottom."

Su Ziyang tried to light it with a lighter for a long time, and found that he could smell the aroma of roasting rice, but the chaff showed no sign of igniting.

"Haha, let me teach you a trick. This thing can't be lit directly with this kind of fire."

As he spoke, Mr. Mengfei took out a piece of mugwort from his pocket and placed it on the pile of chaff.

The aroma of mugwort fills the air when it is lit.

"Need to ignite it?"

"Indeed!"

Mr. Mengfei nodded.

"Alright, I'll leave it to you. This chaff needs to burn for three days. Once you see the chaff slowly burning down, keep adding more chaff. It won't go out. Just don't forget to keep adding more chaff."

After giving Su Ziyang his instructions, Mr. Mengfei left... and then... left.

"Oh, Master, then I'm not going to sleep."

Mr. Mengfei didn't even turn his head, and didn't answer Su Ziyang's question at all.

"Absolutely amazing..."

Su Ziyang made a complaint, then took out a small stool from the house and quietly watched the chaff slowly ignite, the air filled with the aroma of burning chaff.

Three hours later, with the bright moon high in the sky, Su Ziyang found it quite interesting to watch the little ants returning to their nests on the ground.

After three days and two nights, Su Ziyang felt himself becoming a little restless.

Ah~

Yawning, Su Ziyang glanced at his phone and realized it was almost time. The chaff in the sack was almost gone.

"Damn, it's finally done. This was agonizing!"

Seeing that the rice husks were almost burned out, Su Ziyang turned around and rushed into the house, lay down on the bed, closed his eyes, and fell asleep.

"Hey, wake up. The fire's out!"

Upon hearing that the fire had been extinguished, Su Ziyang instinctively jumped out of bed and ran outside.

Running out of the house, Su Ziyang turned back and rolled his eyes at Mr. Mengfei had a mischievous grin on his face.

"Master, it's done. What should we do next?"

Yawning, Su Ziyang asked.

"Let it sit here for three days to allow the heat in the medicine to dissipate. You don't need to worry about it; go back and rest. You have to go to work tomorrow."

Su Ziyang didn't stand on ceremony with Mr. Mengfei and, still half asleep, took a taxi home.

Upon entering, still groggy, Su Ziyang threw himself onto the bed without even taking off his clothes, only to suddenly realize someone was on the bed.

Startled, Su Ziyang immediately jumped out of bed...

"Uh-huh..."

A soft groan came from under the covers, Fairy Li sat up.

"You're back."

Su Ziyang looked at the sleeping Fairy Li and exclaimed, "Ah... you've been sleeping here for the past two days?"

"Yes. Mr. Mengfei said you were coming back today, so I left some food for you in the pot. Go and have a bite, then wash up; you smell like smoke from a fire."

Fairy Li, dressed in her pajamas, got up to heat up Su Ziyang's meal.

Su Ziyang quickly called for a stop, then ran out and closed the door.

After a quick rinse and changing into loose training clothes, Su Ziyang sat on the futon.

"Come inside and sleep."

Fairy Li rubbed her eyes and stood at the door, speaking to Su Ziyang.

"Ah, no. I'll meditate and regulate my breathing for a while."

Su Ziyang quickly refused, and Fairy Li didn't say anything more, closed the door, and continued sleeping.

Breathing softly and faintly...

Su Ziyang quickly entered a meditative state, reaching the realm of embryonic breathing, and his vital energy, depleted over three days and two nights, rapidly recovered.

The next morning, Fairy Li got up early to cook porridge for breakfast. Su Ziyang drank a bowl of porridge and ate an egg cooked by Fairy Li.

Fairy Li said she would cook something delicious for Su Ziyang at noon, and Su Ziyang quickly thanked her and went out to the clinic.

The clinic had just opened when someone walked in. It was Li Weiwei, who had been taking Fluid-Increasing Qi-Coordinating Decoction for three days.

"Hello, Doctor Su."

"Alright, please have a seat."

Li Weiwei entered the room with a beaming smile, "Doctor Su, the medicine you prescribed really works! After taking one dose, I started passing gas constantly and then felt the urge to defecate. I didn't take any medicine today, and my bowel movements were still smooth this morning. I've also noticed that the bleeding has decreased over the past two days."

Li Weiwei's prolonged lochia was caused by internal heat. Now, with the treatment of clearing heat and replenishing body fluids, the reduced bleeding is to be expected...

"Then do you think I still need to take this constipation medication?"

As Li Weiwei spoke, she rolled up her sleeves and placed her hand on the pulse diagnosis kit.

Su Ziyang began to take Li Weiwei's pulse and found that her pulse was indeed not as rapid as before, and her skin temperature was not as hot as it had been last time.

However, compared to the pulse of an average person, Li Weiwei's pulse was still a bit fast.

"I've prescribed some medicine to regulate your lochia this time. If constipation persists, we'll have a more detailed diagnosis and treatment. Please don't take the constipation medication I prescribed without consulting a doctor."

Li Weiwei now trusts Su Ziyang completely, nodding repeatedly as she listens to Su Ziyang speak.