Chapter 29: Back At The Imperial Kitchen
Translator: TYZ Editor: Book_Hoarder
"Prepare some fruit and leave them to the side. After some time has passed, the fruit will become moldy. Next, collect the green-colored mold from the surfaces of the fruit. After you have collected the mold, I will then tell you the extraction method," Ren Baqian explained.
"Alright. The penicillin you're talking about is the hairy substance on the fruits after they have decayed?" Chen Zisheng asked. Then, before Ren Baqian could reply, he asked again, "I have never heard of the medical terms you said just now. Where did you learn them from?"
"This is medical expertise from the distant west, we called it Western medicine," Ren Baqian replied, "If you want to learn it, I can pass you two books on Western medicine for you to read."
When Chen Zisheng heard these words, he immediately stood up from his chair in exultation and cupped his hands towards Ren Baqian. He said, "Brother, thank you very much."
Ren Baqian waved his hands. Subsequently, his mind hesitated for a moment. Initially, he was prepared to talk about another matter but swallowed his words after thinking about it.
Typhoid was a troublesome type of disease with the highest mortality rate in the ancient times. Even in modern times, many people still died from it for not treating it in time.
In modern times, the main treatment for typhoid was chloramphenicol. However, it would be very difficult to produce in this world as the conditions weren't right.
Initially, Ren Baqian had been prepared to add in the two medical books, Theory of Typhoid and Typhoid and Diseases, in case the extraction method for penicillin was not enough to exchange for the black mud cream's formula.
However, now that the extraction method for penicillin was adequate to exchange for the black mud cream's formula, there was no point for him to keep these two books. Chen Medical Shop always enjoyed an extremely good reputation in Lan City, and the fees it charged the locals were very low. Ren Baqian was prepared to gift the two books to Chen Zisheng in the hope of doing something good for this world.
"I shall bring the two medical books here next time," Ren Baqian thought to himself. The troublesome thing was that, even though the people in this world spoke the same language as China's, their word characters were not the same. Therefore, Ren Baqian would have to read the two books to Chen Zisheng.
"We shall leave first then. I will ready the things and bring them here four to five days later." Ren Baqian stood up and prepared to leave.
Chen Zisheng sent Ren Baqian and Caretaker Shi to the doorstep.
"You can treat tetanus?" Caretaker Shi asked Ren Baqian after they left Chen Medicinal Shop.
"I indeed have a way to treat it," Ren Baqian replied while nodding his head.
"How nice it would have been if you were here ten years earlier!" Caretaker Shi sighed.
When Ren Baqian heard these words, he immediately knew Caretaker Shi must have had family members or friends that died from tetanus.
"But, how old would I have been ten years ago? I didn't even know anything at that time."
"That's true. It's still not too late now", Caretaker Shi forced a smile and said.
Following which, Caretaker Shi did not feel like talking any longer.
Ren Baqian went to the blacksmith shop where he previously made the metallic boxes and ordered a few fan blades and a bearing. He was going to need these items to make an indigenous electric fan.
He drew the things he wanted on a paper and showed it to the blacksmith. The blacksmith immediately replied, "These things are easy to make, come back for them two days later."
After having his lunch, Ren Baqian went to the ice cellar to take a look.
He was in charge of the ice cellar but did not come very often. Fortunately, the odd-job workers that Caretaker Shi arranged for him were very hardworking and capable, saving a lot of his time and effort.
Now that the ice cellar was fully filled, the odd-job words were taking a break. Ren Baqian waved his arm and said, "Everyone, take an ice cube and place it under your bed and have a good night's sleep."
In any case, all he needed to do was to make sure the ice cellar was completely filled with ice. Therefore, he might as well make the best use of everything.
"Thank you, Caretaker Ren," the ten odd-job workers chuckled and said. This was a good thing to them.
After walking around the ice cellar, Ren Baqian saw that there was nothing much left to do, and he called a few odd-job workers to follow him and cultivate the sweet potatoes.
When he returned, he saw the two small pandas lying in a shady area. They were so hot that they looked like they did not want to get up.
Ren Baqian filled a basin with water and threw the two small chaps into it.
The two small chaps immediately squeaked and climbed out of the basin. It seemed like they did not like to soak in the basin of water.
They crawled around the ground, and their bodies were covered with mud.
When Ren Baqian saw the two chaps going to rub themselves against him, he quickly took two steps backward.
Tiantian and Gungun squeaked and crawled back to the shady area to lie down once again. After a while, the fur on their bodies dried.
Following which, the two small chaps swayed their heads and climbed back into the basin of water. After soaking themselves in the water, they climbed out of the basin again.
He had no choice but to admit that these two chaps were rather clever.
"Caretaker Ren, their meat isn't nice to eat, there's no point for you to rear them." The one speaking was Teng Dilong. He was a simple and honest individual that possessed huge strength.
However, when he said the two chaps' meat wasn't nice to eat, Ren Baqian felt like giving him a kick.
Other than eating the pandas, don't you have any more uses for them?
"I keep them for fun," Ren Baqian replied casually. "Next time when I'm not in the beast park, all of you have to take care of these two chaps. Give them some water and bamboo leaves. Do you know where to get the bamboo leaves?"
"Yes, don't worry, Caretaker Ren," the few of them said.
Following which, Ren Baqian went and lugged out the bag of sweet potatoes from underneath his bed.
Then, he slowly instructed the odd-job workers on what to do.
First, cut the sweet potatoes into half sections.
Next, get a basin filled with water and place each section in the basin with half of the sweet potato below the water and the other half above.
Use wooden sticks to hold the sweet potatoes in place.
Once they had germinated, they could be used to grow sweet potatoes.
After he taught the odd-job workers everything, someone from the palace came over at the right time to summon him to the palace.
The person who came this time around was Shi Hu. He pulled Ren Baqian to one side and asked, "I heard you have a wager with the people in the imperial kitchen?"
"You can consider it as a wager. The main point of this wager is to expand their horizons," Ren Baqian said delightfully. He turned around and picked up a bag. From the bag, he took out small bags of spices and wrapped them with a piece of cloth. Then, he carried the bundle in his arms and left the beast park.
"These are the things you prepared?" Shi Hu asked with curiosity as he looked at the bundle in Ren Baqian's arms.
He had heard about the incident at the imperial kitchen.
Logically speaking, the imperial kitchen had the best cooks in the country. Whatever they said should be correct.
However, Ren Baqian was someone that appeared out of thin air in the middle of a marching army and could make ice in such a hot environment. Shi Hu felt that he was quite mysterious and that his chance of winning the wager was rather high.
When Shi Hu saw the small bags of spices, he knew they must be Ren Baqian's preparation for the wager.
Soon after, they reached the imperial kitchen. When everyone in the imperial kitchen saw Ren Baqian arrived, they stopped what they were doing and stepped forward. Previously, when Ren Baqian made the wager, everyone was present. These people had been waiting to teach Ren Baqian a lesson. This day had finally arrived.
"Caretaker Ren, show me the spices that you talked about that day. If you can't show them, I will break your legs and hang you on the city wall," Caretaker Gou said with a fierce look on his face.
He really did not believe Ren Baqian could take out spices that were unknown to him.
To him, all the existing spices were already in the imperial kitchen. Even if there were some spices unknown to him, they would be in some unknown places or in places that were extremely faraway.
Could Ren Baqian show him spices that were unknown to him in just a few days' time?
Caretaker Gou did not believe so. Other cooks were waiting to enjoy a show. They wanted to teach this rubbish-uttering scoundrel a lesson.
"Hey, let me expand all of your horizons. Next time when all of you see me, you better stand up straight and call me 'Brother'," Ren Baqian chirped, not feeling angry at all.
After finishing his sentence, he unwrapped the bundle and took out the small bags of spices.
"Can you see them? This is anise, this is cinnamon, this is MSG, this is cumin, this is pepper and this is Thirteen Spices. Have you seen them before?" Ren Baqian listed out the spices one by one.
When everyone saw Ren Baqian took out so many spices, their facial expressions turned ugly. Suddenly, someone said, "Who knows if these things are real or fake?"
Just as that person finished his sentence, Caretaker Gou gave the back of his head a tight slap and said, "Are you stupid?"