The next day, Zhufeng came to a gathering place of medicine shops only two streets away from Daquwan of the market.
This is a rare gathering place for large-scale medicine shops. There are dozens of large and small medicine shops on two crisscrossing streets. Some specialize in a certain kind of medicinal materials, and some sell all types of medicines.
Some sell medicine, wine, sachets and other items, which are inseparable from the word medicine.
At the crossroads of the two streets, there are two largest pharmacies, one with the surname of Si and the other with the surname of He. One is labeled as a century-old store, and the other is labeled as the No. 1 Pharmacy. They are both three-story lofts and full of bustling shops.
It seems that there is no distinction between high and low.
Zhufeng looked around and randomly chose a direction, observing the medicine shops on both sides of the street as he walked. When he saw a door plaque with Salvia miltiorrhiza written on it, he walked in and asked, "Shopkeeper, how do you sell Salvia miltiorrhiza here?"
The store owner quickly greeted him warmly, pointing to the four small bags of samples on the counter, "How many do you want to buy? The first-class salvia costs 90 copper coins one tael, the first-class 80 copper coins, the second-class 70 copper coins, and the third-class 60 copper coins."
Zhufeng looked at the medicine sample marked third grade and frowned: "These are the most useless roots and leaves. How can you still sell them? For sixty copper coins or two?"
The store owner looked at his samples in surprise. They were all dried and chopped. Even if the quality was not as good as the previous three, it would not be obvious at a glance that they were roots and leaves.
He thought to himself that this person might know something, so he explained with a smile, "This third grade is indeed not as good as the previous ones, but it's not medicine.
Moreover, the prices in this store are absolutely fair. If you don’t believe it, go out and compare, they are almost all at this price.”
"Although Salvia miltiorrhiza is good, it is not so expensive." Zhufeng shook his head, "It is indeed too expensive."
The store owner also explained, "What the customer doesn't know is that I bought the salvia from Puzhou. Puzhou is a famous medicine state all over the world, so it is naturally more expensive."
"Why do you still buy it from Puzhou? What about the local salvia? I buy the local one." Zhufeng said again.
The store owner smiled again, "There are not many local salvias and the quality varies, so we all buy them from Puzhou."
Zhufeng thought for a moment and then asked: "How to sell local salvia?"
“There is no local salvia here in the store.”
"Then what price do you charge for the local salvia miltiorrhiza crude medicine?"
The store owner lost his patience after being asked, and his enthusiasm waned, "It depends on the quality of the salvia, you can't tell for sure."
Zhufeng shook his head, left the store, and randomly entered a few drugstores. The prices were indeed about the same, and most of them said they did not have local salvia miltiorrhiza, and they all bought it from Puzhou. A few had local salvia miltiorrhiza, but the quality was very poor and the price
They are all about fifty copper coins per tael.
Such a result made Zhufeng a little unexpected. He did not believe in evil, so he left the gathering place of medicine shops and walked some distance to the outer circle, specifically looking for those scattered medicine shops.
However, this delayed a lot of time. By the time he had finished asking around, it was already afternoon and he had even missed lunch, so he casually had a late lunch at a roadside stall and then returned to Taoyaju.
Hongtao followed Qian Laoer to run into a house. Only Qingyu and Shian were at home.
When Zhufeng returned to the house, he washed his face and changed his clothes, then came out and told Qingyu and Shian about the results of his inquiry.
"Many medicinal materials are bought from Puzhou, and the prices are generally relatively expensive. As for local medicinal materials, some say the quality is not good, and some say it is not enough. In short, local medicinal materials are not the main source of medicines sold in drug stores.
Moreover, drug dealers deliberately describe local medicinal materials as worthless, but in fact, local medicinal materials are treated as foreign medicinal materials and sold at high prices."
Shi'an was puzzled, "Are the local medicinal materials really so bad?"
Zhufeng shook his head and said: "I don't think so. It should be because there are not enough local medicinal materials. After all, there are not even large-scale medicinal fields. Just relying on wild picking and small amounts of planting will definitely be in short supply.
I can probably guess why the prices of local medicinal materials have been so drastically reduced. Because there are not enough local medicinal materials, pharmacists have to buy them from other places. Puzhou is rich in medicinal materials, but it is not close to Yinzhou, so the cost of transportation back and forth is high.
So they lowered the price of local medicinal materials, and used more money to buy medicinal materials from other places to reduce their total costs. At the same time, they sold them at high prices under the name of Puzhou medicinal materials."
Shi'an was surprised, "Then this medicinal material business is a huge profit for drug dealers."
"Yes. In addition, there is another point. It seems that the Sihe family only owns one of the medicine shops behind Daquwan, but I think there are many small medicine shops there that are owned by the two of them. Because of the medicinal materials
The quality, form and price are all about the same, it’s not such a coincidence.
The prices and quality of medicinal materials in those small pharmacies are better than those of the two largest ones. Oh, people think they have many choices, but in fact they go around and around, and they never get around the Sihe family."
Shi'an thought for a while and said, "The supply of medicinal materials in the fifty acres of land is obviously in short supply. The drug dealers, mainly the Sihe family, will definitely continue to lower the prices aggressively, and most of them will go to other places to purchase."
Zhufeng tilted his head and leaned on the back of the chair, murmuring thoughtfully, "Medicine...pharmacist..."
"Senior brother, don't worry." Qingyu said slowly.
Zhufeng sat upright suddenly and looked at Qingyu, "Junior sister, do you have an idea?"
Qingyu smiled slightly, "Since we can't rely on the normal selling price of the drug dealer, then we just don't sell it to the drug dealer."
*
Time flew by, and in a blink of an eye, it was the day for Fang Ya's assessment. Early in the morning, Hong Tao followed the time and came to the open space in the back hall of Hucao Yamen with great interest.
At that time, there were already some people standing in the open space. They looked young, but they were all older than Hearts.
After noticing the arrival of a little girl, these people began to talk about it. They had already heard that a little girl had signed up this month. They didn't believe it at first, but they didn't expect it to be true.
Someone sneered, "Am I right? Look, is that a girl?"
"I think I put on the wrong clothes when I went out in the morning. Where can I find a girl to be a teether? She's still so young."
"I guess you ran to the wrong place." He shouted to Hongtao again, "Little girl, the place where you wash your clothes is in the backyard. You ran to the wrong place."
A group of people burst out laughing, obviously trying to be funny.
Hong Tao squinted at the group of people, pointing to the sign on her waist, "I think you are not only brainless, but your eyesight is also bad. My sign is so obvious that you can't even see it. Your eyes are like the soles of your feet."
Of?"
"You... stinky girl, you have a very strong mouth. You think this is your back garden..."
"Do you think this is your toilet? You still fart here." Hong Tao pinched her nose and stood back, "Don't talk, I'm suffocating from the smell. You have a bad stomach, I suggest you go back.
It tastes good and takes some medicine.”
The speaker's face turned red as a pig's liver, and he pointed at the red peach and cursed angrily: "You damn girl..."
"You still won't shut up, haven't you seen that the people around you are almost suffocated to death? Killing people will pay for their lives. Stinky people will also count."
"I..." The face of the speaker was extremely ugly, and he subconsciously looked to the left and right. I don't know if it was a psychological effect or something else, but these people seemed to be really holding their breath.
A great sense of humiliation made him feel ashamed, and he could only close his mouth in shame and anger, staring at Hongtao resentfully.
Hong Tao continued to mutter, "Take medicine when you are sick, don't disobey the old man..."