flstandardbreds Chapter 171 The Inn Renovation is Complete
Chapter 171 The Inn Renovation is Complete
The inn renovation is finally complete.
At the third quarter of the hour of Yin (3:45 AM), the clapper shattered the moonlight, and Su Yunlan embedded the last three antidote pills into the hidden groove of the carved window lattice.
She spun the glass bottle in her palm, reflecting the newly replaced gilded plaque of the Yunlai Inn. In the lower right corner of the character "Yun" was a half-piece of black iron talisman—an anti-poison device she had refined using the spatial medicinal spring.
"The mugwort ash in the southeast corner is mixed with rooster blood." She lightly tapped the map on the ledger with her fingertip, and twenty-one silver needles wrapped with red ropes were nailed into the beams and pillars.
The stone guardian stone sent by Grandpa Qian was placed under the head of the Qilin in the main hall, and it was currently exhaling the purple aura of the defensive formation.
Xiao Yuhan's sword tassel swept across the back of her hand, his body heat carrying the scent of pine: "The secret passage in Zhao Ji's kitchen leads directly to the moat, and in the ironware boxes they brought..." Before he could finish speaking, the copper bells on the eaves suddenly tilted to the north, and the bamboo tubes with medicine packets attached played a strange tune in the draft.
“These are copper coin darts quenched with red scorpion powder.” Su Yunlan lifted the hidden compartment of the counter, and thirty-six earthenware jars containing detoxification soup began to steam.
The twenty-first young master was hanging upside down from the roof beam, stuffing medicine cakes into the gaps between the roof tiles, when he suddenly saw the lanterns of Zhao's Inn across the street burst into indigo sparks, startling the black cat in his arms, which stood on end.
At the beginning of the hour of Mao (5-7 AM), the first rays of sunlight shone on the newly painted vermilion pillars of the inn.
Su Yunlan sprinkled the last packet of medicine powder into the water tank in the courtyard, and the star map that appeared on the water surface suddenly split into three pieces—this was an ominous sign according to spatial deduction.
As she turned around, the tip of her embroidered shoe crushed half a withered leaf, and peacock blue venom seeped from the broken vein.
“What’s meant to happen will happen.” She handed the revised menu to Manager Li, and the words “Pharmacist’s Banquet” suddenly shone with golden light.
Xiao Yuhan's sword sheath tapped lightly on the ground, and twenty-eight glass lamps lit up at the same time, illuminating the newly arranged herb display rack as if a galaxy had fallen.
At 3:45 AM, the sound of the gong at Zhao's Inn made the blue bricks of the entire street tremble.
Five coins for plain noodles, three coins for coarse tea—three neighboring inns suddenly put up the same price reduction signs.
The traveling merchants, carrying their bundles, looked at each other, about to head towards Zhao's shop, when they suddenly heard smoke wafting from the Yunlai Inn, mixed with the aroma of medicine.
"Do you all know that today is the birthday of the Medicine Buddha?" Su Yunlan lifted the lid of the central celadon medicine stove, and the rising steam condensed into a picture of a hundred herbs in the air. "Anyone who dine at our restaurant will receive a refreshing medicine pouch." With a light wave of her hand, three hundred brocade pouches embroidered with cloud patterns floated down from the second floor and landed precisely in the palms of the onlookers.
At the end of the Wei hour (1-3 PM), the scorching sun caused cracks to appear on the bluestone slabs.
Mr. Zhao stood in front of his empty counter, fanning himself with a folding fan, watching helplessly as the eight water trucks from Yunlai Inn turned into the alleyway.
Those wooden buckets didn't contain ordinary well water, but medicinal spring water mixed with mint and honeysuckle—this was a summer-cooling soup diluted by Su Yunlan using the spiritual spring in his space.
"VIPs who purchase a monthly pass can enjoy priority access to the ice room for cooling off." Manager Li rang the newly made bronze medicine bell, and twenty-eight sandalwood boxes inlaid with ice crystals opened in response.
The snow lotus tea, transported by fast horses from northern Xinjiang, condensed on the rim of the cup due to the cold air inside the box, forming a lifelike image of the Medicine Buddha.
At the beginning of the hour of You (5-7 PM), the long queue in front of Yunlai Inn turned three corners.
Su Yunlan stood on the second-floor terrace, looking at the banner hanging at Zhao's Inn across the street that read "All you can eat for two coins," and a cold smile curled at the corner of her lips.
She distributed specially made jade plaques to twenty-one regular customers; the plaques, inscribed with the words "Distinguished Guest of Baicaoge," shimmered in the twilight.
"Those who hold this token will receive seasonal medicinal meals on each solar term." Before she finished speaking, a clear and melodious phoenix cry suddenly came from the backyard.
Everyone craned their necks to look, and saw Xiao Yuhan pouring the newly made medicinal wine into a glass jar. The wine, when exposed to light, transformed into a wondrous scene of blue phoenixes circling the beams—this was a calming wine made with herbs from the space.
At the hour of Xu (7-9 PM), the first wave of torrential rain pounded on the roof tiles.
Mr. Zhao stared at the glaring deficit in the ledger, his fingernails digging into the rosewood counter.
Across the street, the thirty-six carved windows of the Yunlai Inn simultaneously emitted a warm yellow glow. In the newly established pharmacist's lecture hall, Grandpa Qian was holding a silver spoon shaped like a medicine hoe, explaining to diners how to identify poisonous mushrooms.
"This is a special 24 solar term banquet for members." Chef Sun brought out a medicinal chicken wrapped in lotus leaves. When she lifted the leaf, the steaming heat formed a Bagua (Eight Trigrams) pattern in the air.
Zhang, carrying a medicine pot, moved among the tables, the angle of the pot's spout perfectly blocking the sound of rain from entering the defensive formation.
At the end of Hai hour, the night watchman, wrapped tightly in his straw raincoat, passed by the Yunlai Inn and was dazzled by the golden light spilling from the crack in the door.
The treasure cabinet in the center of the hall is lit up with a map of the Twenty-Eight Mansions, and each compartment contains medicinal herbs corresponding to the time of day.
Su Yunlan stroked the jade screen on her new clothes, then turned to see Xiao Yuhan adjusting the medicine bell array under the eaves. Where his black robe swept, the light of the defensive array became more and more solid.
As midnight approached, torrential rain gathered into streams on the bluestone slabs.
When the last two lanterns of Zhao's Inn were blown out by the strong wind, seventy-two Kongming lanterns suddenly rose from the third floor of Yunlai Inn.
Each lampshade is painted with a diagram of medicinal herbs, and instead of going out in the rain, it ignites with an indigo flame—these are windproof lamps specially made with herbs from the space.
Su Yunlan leaned against the vermilion pillars of the corridor, gazing at the pitch-black Zhao's Inn across the way.
Suddenly, the copper bells on the eaves swayed without any wind, and Xiao Yuhan's sword was already three inches away from her side, the jade pendant hanging from the tassel emitting a soft buzzing sound.
The torrential rain suddenly stopped a little after midnight, and seventy-two Kongming lanterns hung from the eaves of the Yunlai Inn, weaving an indigo net of light.
Xiao Yuhan's sword suddenly emitted a dragon's roar, and the black mist that had been emerging from the cracks in the second-floor window of Zhao's Inn retreated into the ground like tentacles.
Su Yunlan flicked a crimson pill from her fingertip. The moment the medicinal fragrance exploded, a muffled thud came from the opposite side as something heavy fell to the ground.
“The Gu worms are turning against us.” She leaned against the vermilion pillar and chuckled, the jade pendant adorned with a silver hairpin in her hair brushing against Xiao Yuhan’s Adam’s apple.
The final gap in the defensive formation closed where the two men's clothes overlapped, and the Twenty-Eight Mansions diagram suddenly illuminated the entire long street.
At the beginning of the hour of Yin (3-5 AM), Manager Li carried a gilded ledger through the brightly lit hall.
The herbal illustrations on the jade screen are slowly changing, displaying health-preserving tea recipes corresponding to the twenty-four solar terms.
Xiao Yuhan suddenly grabbed Su Yunlan's wrist, his dark-patterned sleeve brushing against her modified medicine pouch belt, where twenty-eight silver needles resonated within the pouch.
"The mugwort ash in the southeast corner needs to be replaced." His voice, tinged with pine resin, brushed past her ear, but his palm pulled her even tighter into his embrace.
From the third floor came the excited shouts of the Twenty-First Young Master. The young medicine boys were using specially made pestles to strike the ice crystals, and the cold air bursting out from the tinkling sound condensed into a three-dimensional map of the Hundred Herbs Pavilion.
As the first rays of dawn pierced the clouds at the hour of Mao (5-7 AM), Grandpa Qian, holding his medicine hoe and silver spoon, struck the bronze medicine bell.
Three hundred distinguished guests, each holding a jade token, flooded into the newly established Herbs Exhibition Hall, where the snow lotus tea inside the glass dome suddenly bloomed with six-sided ice flowers.
Su Yunlan turned to explain the medicinal properties, but Xiao Yuhan's sword sheath was already three inches behind her waist. The coldness of the black iron seeped through the modified silk skirt, causing the medicinal spring in the space to suddenly boil.
"Watch out for the steps." Before he finished speaking, the golden crow totem was simultaneously reflected on all thirty-six carved windows of the Yunlai Inn.
The last ripples of spiritual energy from the defensive array swept past Su Yunlan's temples, enveloping her in an embrace that smelled of gunpowder.
Suddenly, the medicinal wine jar on the second-floor terrace burst into blue flames. Amidst the cheers of the Twenty-First Young Master, Xiao Yuhan's kiss landed on the pale blue Gu mark on the side of her neck.
The sound of firecrackers at dawn startled the phantom of a blue phoenix from the eaves, and the shopkeepers of all the pharmacies on Zhuque Street crowded in front of the Yunlai Inn with their congratulatory gifts.
Just as Su Yunlan was about to raise her hand in return, Xiao Yuhan's sword tassel had already wrapped around the red rope on her wrist, pulling her back into his arms.
When the jade screen reflected the intertwined figures of the two, the defensive array automatically triggered its protection mechanism, and the twenty-eight glass lamps instantly formed a golden-red light curtain like a wedding tent.
"Congratulations, Madam Xiao!" Manager Li's congratulatory words mingled with the clear sound of the medicine bell, and twenty-eight sandalwood boxes popped open, revealing the double-hearted snow lotus delivered by fast horses from the northern frontier.
Before the blush on Su Yunlan's earlobes could even reach her collarbone, Xiao Yuhan had already lifted her by the back of her neck and kissed her lips, which were still fragrant with the scent of medicine.
Suddenly, the spiritual spring in the space surged with waves three zhang high, and the markers on the Hundred Herbs Pavilion map lit up one after another, indicating a kind of divinely ordained resonance.
The torrential rain at 1-3 PM came suddenly and fiercely, but it couldn't extinguish the aroma of medicinal cuisine wafting through Zhuque Street.
Su Yunlan leaned against the improved medicine counter, gazing at the revenue curve outlined in red ink on the ledger.
Xiao Yuhan's body temperature pressed against her from behind, his calloused fingertips brushing over the ink stains left from when she improved the defensive array, pausing heavily on the words "Mobei".
"The ice crystal reserves are enough to last until the beginning of autumn." He clicked the gilded abacus, while the scabbard quietly pressed down on her hand that was about to take the herbal medicine catalog.
When the twenty-first young master rushed in carrying the black cat, he saw the herb display shelf automatically rotating into the shape of a star chart, with twenty-eight rare medicinal herbs resonating in the hexagram positions.
As the sun began to set in the west at Shenshi (3-5 PM), Su Yunlan stood on the newly built stargazing platform, adjusting the medicine bell array.
Xiao Yuhan's sword energy swept across her modified bronze compass, and seventy-two Kongming lanterns suddenly lit up in the clear sky.
The sound of camel bells echoed from the end of Zhuque Street. As she watched the gradually emerging outline of the caravan, her fingertips unconsciously caressed the yellowed scroll of the Western Regions pharmacopoeia in the space.
The aroma of medicinal cuisine, mingled with the chirping of cicadas, drifted over the eaves at the hour of Xu (7-9 PM). Su Yunlan stroked the newly drawn menu of the Twenty-Four Solar Terms Banquet and suddenly chuckled softly at the blank space on the page for "Frost's Descent".
Xiao Yuhan's sword tassel hung down from the beam, and the medicinal jade adorning it perfectly reflected the sparks dancing in her eyes.
The light from the defensive array swept across the last page of the ledger, vaguely revealing a vast map of medicinal herb trade routes, with the westernmost marker gleaming with a faint purple light.
As the midnight drum urges down the Milky Way, Su Yunlan stands at the edge of the observatory, gazing at the still-circulating Hundred Herbs Star Chart below.
The improved medicine pouch belt suddenly trembled slightly, and the spiritual spring in the space began to reflect the outline of an unfamiliar mountain range.
She tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear, and the red string on her wrist traced a mysterious path in the night wind—the very direction in which Xiao Yuhan's sword had pointed this morning.