CHAPTER 665: [659] QING CHUAN CHENG WANGFEI 28 (2 MORE UPDATES)

Yun Mi had made countless reminders and warnings before he once again entered the Imperial Palace. Today, they had to carry out a carpet-style search of the palace.

After he left, Xiyuan immediately entered her space and asked Liang Tian, "This medicine of mine seems pretty useless, doesn’t it? They haven’t figured it out yet. You’re not actually planning to make me become a ’medicine man’, are you?"

"Don’t belittle yourself. There are plenty of skilled craftsmen in ancient times, not to mention the thousands of years of traditional Chinese medicine inheritance. They just haven’t found the right person. Otherwise, how do you think humanity has survived these thousands of years? Such viruses are not a new experience, and our ancestors have overcome them time and time again through experiments and summaries. Even in the advanced future, the development of vaccines is always preceded by countless experiments and lessons learned. It’s normal for research to take many years or at least a year, so your argument doesn’t hold up."

"Are you saying I should conduct the experiments myself?"

"What else do you think your purpose in this world is?"

Xiyuan twitched the corners of her mouth, feeling like she had indeed missed a lot.

"You’ve emptied out the pharmacy, and you have detailed records of what medicines are there and what have been used. So far, you’re the only one who can carry out targeted experiments, not like those at the Imperial Hospital who are cluelessly thrown into the task. You’ve studied both Chinese and Western medicine and you’re involved in this incident; I’m afraid there’s no one more suitable than you in this world."

Xiyuan felt a bit panicked. "How can my superficial knowledge be considered having studied it? The field of medicine is profound, and I simply don’t have the capability. Those who were bitten are beyond saving. Even if I develop a medicine, I can’t test it for detailed data on uninfected people. I can only measure rough data on mice and rabbits. When will it be ready for human trials? By then, the ’dayilies’ will have gone cold, right?"

The creation of a vaccine represents the blood, sweat, and tears of many people. To resolve such a formidable poison on her own— this pressure, huh, was astronomically huge. It was rather like a pipe dream.

"So, I can make an exception and provide you with a modern laboratory."

This statement from Liang Tian made Xiyuan happy, but it once again left her feeling passive: "Even if you give me a lab, I don’t know how to use it!"

She had studied medicine, not biological research, nor medical imaging. She was no genius; the System was simply making things difficult for her.

Indeed, Liang Tian was asking too much of her: "Regardless, we still hope you will try."

"It’s not a matter of trying; it’s a matter of ability. I’ll just muddle through this life as best as I can. I can do business, save up some money using it, engage in good deeds—I think that’s enough for me. As for this research on the Undead, sorry, I don’t believe I have the ability. Besides, if they control this life’s supposed Undead properly, they could manage it even without an antidote; after all, people don’t need to be on guard against them at all times and can still go about their day normally. I am not a deity, you’re giving me too much credit. I don’t want that kind of pressure on myself," Xiyuan said.

The saying goes, you get what you pay for. All she had was a storage space—she couldn’t grow crops or buy things from the market with it. She hadn’t learned everything perfectly in her past lives. If she had the capacity, she would do it, but since she didn’t, why bother giving herself the trouble?

The more Xiyuan thought about it, the more she felt it was a losing deal, and she decisively refused Liang Tian. Although Liang Tian was the System, she hadn’t made a principled mistake, so there was no reason to penalize her. Moreover, what she said was correct: as long as the virus is controlled properly, it can be completely avoided.

Unable to do anything about her, Liang Tian let it be. Xiyuan, with her kind heart, decided that as long as the situation was under control, she would, like in her life as Yu Niang, wholeheartedly develop her own business; otherwise, she would squander the opportunity of her current status.

Although her Prince’s future was not bad, there was no need to go to a fief and he could stay in Beijing, Xiyuan didn’t want to become truly idle. She had to create a comfortable living environment for herself, and having money and skills could better captivate a man’s heart. As for the so-called concubines, they could go where it’s cool and stay there.

The second outbreak took another month to gradually subside. Yong Zheng now permanently resided in Yuanming Garden and even began to gradually arrange for Hongli to handle some important matters. As for Yun Mi, he was given increasing attention.

On April 20th, the twelfth year of Yong Zheng, a stele at the City God Temple was completed, and Yin Bi, in the status of Prince, went to offer sacrifices. On the first day of the seventh month, he went to the Ancestral Temple to perform rites, and this solidified his status as Prince Cheng.

After entering the summer, the Undead incident seemed to have disappeared completely, as it had been three to four months since the outbreak in March and the conclusion in early April.

During these three or four months, while Yun Mi was busy with his tasks, Xiyuan renovated and replanned the restaurant according to previous business models. Since she had informed Yun Mi beforehand and let him taste her original dishes, the addition of the new dishes went very smoothly, especially in the summer with the popularity of cold starch noodles, cold pastries, cold noodles, Cold Rice Noodles, rice noodles, chilled porridge, rolled Cold Rice Noodles, and so forth.

As for the ice needed to make these things—

Ice cooling drinks originated in China, where Emperors to beat the heat, commanded slaves to collect ice in the winter and store it in cellars to enjoy in the summer.

Around the end of the Tang Dynasty, people discovered during the production of gunpowder that a lot of saltpetre was being mined, and that saltpetre when dissolved in water, absorbed a lot of heat, enough to cool the water to freezing point, and thus people were able to make ice in the summer.

Later, profit-seeking individuals, they added sugar to the ice to attract customers.

By the Song Dynasty, there was a greater variety of cold dishes available on the markets, with merchants even adding fruits or fruit juices.

Merchants of the Yuan Dynasty even mixed fruit syrup and milk into the ice, which was very similar to modern ice cream.

So, she converted one of the tea shops into a pastry and tea shop, selling popular chilled drinks in the summer and hot skewers in the winter, making it seasonal and focusing on whatever was profitable. Milk tea was sold all year round, with both hot and cold options available for every taste. The pearls for the pearl milk tea were specifically made using cassava starch.

In fact, watermelons were already present during the Song Dynasty, so obtaining or growing them in the Qing Dynasty was nothing extraordinary. To supply her own need for selling watermelon in summer, she started looking for watermelon seeds before the year ended, and when spring came in April, she chose a sandy plot of land to specially cultivate watermelons, just so she could sell sufficient watermelon juice that coming summer.