I returned to the rental house carrying a large bag of dishes packed from the private restaurant I frequented. The tempting aroma soon wafted from the kitchen, and I deliberately cooked a few more light dishes that Lin Xiaoyu liked.
Sure enough, Su Yan came over following the taste and looked at me setting the dishes with bright eyes: "What a good day it is today? It's so rich!"
"Make some supper and talk about something by the way." I said while opening a beer.
Lin Xiaoyu also came out of the room and saw a table full of dishes, with a slight smile on his slightly pale face.
The three of us sat around the small dining table and ate in a relaxed atmosphere. After chatting some hospital gossip, I saw that the time was about right, so I naturally got to the point.
"Xiao Yu, I want to hear your thoughts on something." I put down my chopsticks, "Over at the drugstore, I plan to expand the scale of the "Rejuvenating Soup", which may require hundreds of servings of raw materials every day. Your cousin has been helping to supply the Heishun tablets. I wonder if he can keep up if the quantity is too large?"
Lin Xiaoyu listened, chewed the food in his mouth slowly, and then put it away. Putting down the bowl and chopsticks, he said seriously: "I have to call my cousin to confirm this. Although they can still collect some from the mountains behind the village, the quantity is really hard to say."
"Understood," I nodded, "Wild medicinal materials depend on fate and cannot be forced."
Su Yan interjected from the side: "Is this thing so popular? Does it have to be wild?"
“The effects are different,” I explained. “The Compendium of Materia Medica records that Heishunpian’s qi is sharp and reaches the sick place. This sharp qi largely comes from the wild nature of the world that it absorbs during its growth. If it is artificially grown and the environment is stable, its medicinal properties are often mild and mediocre.”
Lin Xiaoyu agreed: "My cousin often said that what is picked in the mountains and what is grown in the ground are two different things. He should go into the mountains tomorrow, and I will call him later to talk about it."
"Great, Ma. "I'm annoying you." I gave her a piece of fish, "Tell your cousin, in terms of price, as long as the quality is the same as now, we can raise it a little more without letting him suffer." Lin Xiaoyu nodded, took out his mobile phone and walked to the balcony to make a call. Su Yan came closer to me and lowered her voice: "Okay, business is booming."
I smiled, said nothing, and focused on the balcony. Lin Xiaoyu could vaguely hear her intermittent conversations in her hometown dialect.
After a while, she came back with her cell phone in hand, her expression more solemn than before.
"How was it?" I asked.
"I told my cousin," Lin Xiaoyu sat down again, "He said that the mountains behind their village alone would not be able to supply such a large amount. If it is urgent, he can go to the herb collectors in the neighboring villages to collect some for temporary emergency use."
This is good news, but there is obviously more to it. I waited quietly.
"However," she continued, "my cousin also said that in the surrounding mountains, there are only those wild black buckwheat slices. They are harvested every year, and the quantity is actually decreasing. If we want to supply a large amount as you said in a long-term and stable manner, I am afraid... we have to consider artificial cultivation in the end."
There was silence in the room for a moment. Su Yan looked at me, then at Lin Xiaoyu, and wisely did not interrupt.
Artificial planting. These four words circled in my mind. This is indeed the inevitable path for the large-scale and commercialization of most Chinese medicinal materials. Wild resources are limited and are greatly affected by policies and climate, making them highly uncertain.
"Did my uncle say that if it is artificially grown, how much of the medicinal effect can be retained?" I asked the most important question.
“He said that if we imitate the wild environment, don’t use too many chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and take careful care, we can probably retain about 70% of the medicinal potency. It’s definitely not as good as the pure wild ones, but it’s better because of its large quantity and stability.” Lin Xiaoyu conveyed the truth.
70%. I weighed it in my mind. For "Guben Huichun Decoction", Heishun Tablet is the king medicine, and its efficacy is crucial. Will the reduced potency affect the overall effect of the decoction? Will customer feedback get worse after drinking it? These are all unknowns.
But thinking about it on the other hand, if the scale cannot be expanded due to raw material limitations, or the existing market may even be lost due to supply cuts, it will be a dead end.
"I understand," I took a deep breath, "Thank you, Xiaoyu, and thank my uncle for me. In this way, you first tell your uncle that for now, you will continue to follow the old way and try to collect wild ones for us. At the same time, please ask him to help find out if there are any nearby. People are already trying to grow Heishunpian, or there is suitable mountain land that can be contracted for imitating wild planting. "
"Okay, I will tell him in detail tomorrow." Lin Xiaoyu agreed.
Things have taken a preliminary direction, but the road ahead is still full of uncertainty. The shrinking of wild resources and the challenges of artificial planting test decision-making at every step.
Su Yan saw this and immediately enlivened the atmosphere: "Oh, things can always be solved! Eat first, eat first, it would be a pity if such a good dish is cold!"
I raised the beer bottle, touched it with her, and signaled to Lin Xiaoyu: "Yes, eat first. The car must have a road to the mountain."
Having said that, I know that this is just the beginning of the problem of the supply chain of black tablets.
The next morning, I parked my car in front of the old laboratory building covered with ivy at the Medical University. Professor Huang Li's office is on the third floor. When she opened the door, she was leaning on the large mahogany desk, frowning and thinking in front of a yellowed thread-bound book, with tea smoke rising from the purple clay pot in her hand.
"Professor Huang." I knocked gently on the open door.
She raised her head, pushed up her gold-rimmed glasses, and smiled: "It's you. It's rare that you have time to come over. Sit down and try the Wuyi Mountain Rock Tea I just brewed."
Without too many pleasantries, I sat down on the wicker chair opposite her and explained my purpose directly: "Professor Huang, I'm here to ask you about Heishunpian. Do you think it would work if...if we use artificially grown ones instead?"
Huang Li's hand that was about to pour tea paused slightly, raised her eyes to look at me, and then slowly put down the purple clay pot, her expression becoming serious. "Why, the wild ones are no longer available?"
"Yes," I nodded, "The business wants to expand, but the volume cannot keep up, and the wild resources are also limited."
"Hmm..." She pondered for a moment, leaned back on the chair, and her eyes became distant, as if she was sorting out the knowledge in her mind. "You have to look at this matter from both sides."
“Let’s talk about the disadvantages first. This is also the most important thing - the efficacy.” She stretched out a finger and said, “The reason why the medicine Heishunpian is so powerful, it can restore the Yang and save the day, and break the accumulation of diseases and massacres, the key lies in the ‘violent pure Yang Qi’ that it is endowed with. This breath is that it can be used in deep mountains and deep valleys, and people.”