The yield of gastrodia tubers was extremely gratifying, and seeing basket after basket of them, Father Shen’s smile never faded.
“Yaoyao, these gastrodia tubers have grown so well!” Father Shen said with a smile, weighing a few damaged tubers in his hand.
These damaged tubers wouldn’t fetch a high price, but they were still good for drying for their own use.
Gastrodia tubers were already expensive, and the workers were careful, so there weren't many damaged ones.
However, even with the utmost care, some damage was inevitable.
At first, when the workers damaged a gastrodia tuber, their hearts sank, fearing a deduction in their wages.
Later, they discovered that this family didn't mention it, which put them at ease and made them even more cautious.
For work like the Shen family’s, let alone for people in their village, even in the county town, if you could offer such a high daily wage, many people would flock to it.
Therefore, they all cherished the jobs provided by the Shen family, hoping to perform better and satisfy the Shen family so that they would be the first to be considered for future work.
Similarly, through their work with the Shen family, they had also discovered many business opportunities. Who said farming wasn't profitable? It all depended on what you grew!
Many people were secretly making plans, thinking that after this busy period, they would discuss with the village cadres whether the Shen family could guide them.
Gastrodia tubers and Bletilla striata were harvested at the same time and planted not far apart.
These two medicinal materials were considered essential in many prescriptions.
There were also ginseng and lingzhi. The Shen family cultivated ginseng, but growing lingzhi was more challenging.
If one only needed to find lingzhi spores and cultivate them in a greenhouse, it would indeed be much more convenient. However, greenhouse-grown produce was ultimately inferior to wild-grown produce.
But what could be done? Lingzhi was an annual plant. If you didn't harvest it this year, once it finished releasing its spores and the season passed, it would wither and rot.
After all, the lingzhi here was not like those in the cultivation world that could live for thousands or tens of thousands of years. In the real world, growing for two years was already quite good.
“Comrade Shen Yao, please find a way to try cultivating lingzhi.”
Sun Yue, preparing to leave with all the medicinal herbs, said to Shen Yao with a heavy heart.
The world often said that television had exaggerated the uses of lingzhi, and that in reality, it had little use.
However, anyone who truly understood the field knew that lingzhi indeed had many uses!
“I will try my best,” Shen Yao replied, her tone full of sincerity, as she did indeed have this plan.
However, the lingzhi in her spatial artifact was too extraordinary, so she was currently cultivating lingzhi of younger ages, and their spores would be ready for collection soon.
Once the spores were collected, they could attempt to cultivate lingzhi in the pine forest behind the mountain.
However, the pine forest behind the mountain now had a lot of Poria cocos. It was worth noting that this Poria cocos was truly wild and had not been blessed by the spiritual spring water.
To be able to grow such good quality Poria cocos independently without the aid of spiritual spring water indicated that this pine forest was undoubtedly in an advantageous position!
She was currently struggling with whether the cultivation of lingzhi would affect the Poria cocos, as she didn't want to lose the sesame and end up with the watermelon.
Therefore, before that, the Shen family had already planned to use this small pine forest behind the mountain as their first experimental site.
///
Meanwhile
Sun Yue, carrying the medicinal materials he had purchased from the Shen family, rushed into the laboratory.
At this moment, every staff member in the laboratory wore a serious expression.
But as the manager, Sun Yue saw more joy than seriousness in their expressions.
“What’s going on?” Sun Yue grabbed his assistant, who was standing nearby.
As he had been following Sun Yue for many years, his assistant naturally understood the implied meaning of his question and quickly provided an explanation.
“The batch of medicinal materials you had someone bring back earlier was immediately taken for testing by everyone upon their return.
They even specifically compared them with high-priced medicinal materials that were purchased externally, and the conclusion was that the batch you brought back was several times better in quality than the ones they had purchased at a high price.
With better medicinal materials, everyone’s mood was naturally good. Coupled with such excellent efficacy, many people finally had the confidence to proceed with plans they had contemplated for a long time.
And, I heard they even prepared a special surprise for you!”
After hearing his assistant’s words, Sun Yue himself became very excited. It wasn't for any other reason than that this research institute was funded by him.
Its purpose was to benefit humanity. The technical personnel he had recruited were all prominent figures in their respective schools, and many were called geniuses from childhood.
Now, hearing that they wanted to prove their ideas, this was undoubtedly an excellent signal for him!
“That’s truly wonderful. I’ll go and file the relevant documents tomorrow. Apart from the medicinal materials needed for alchemy, the rest will be handled by them!”
Sun Yue was also very generous!
After receiving the batch of medicinal materials from the Shen family, the research institute, with its skilled techniques, produced pills at a speed and quality they had never dared to imagine.
As a result, not only the technical staff of the research institute but also the employees they had specifically hired had become emotionless pill-rolling robots through the labor of rolling pills!
That’s right. Shen Yao had explained the prescriptions to them from the beginning. She knew that they wouldn’t be able to refine them into pills directly.
After all, they had no spiritual energy, so they couldn't condense the refined medicinal materials into pills by relying on spiritual energy and consciousness. Therefore, they could only make them by hand, rolling them out one by one.
Of course, it wasn't necessarily necessary to use their hands. Shen Yao had specifically emphasized when explaining to them that the effect of machine-made pills would be slightly inferior. That’s why, even if they were rolling pills and sparks were flying, they dared not use machines!
The appearance of these pills immediately attracted global attention. However, their focus was not on the pills. After all, if even their own countrymen couldn't imagine such a thing, how could foreigners, who always worshipped science, believe in these things?
Even foreigners who knew the preciousness of the Shen family's medicinal materials had no idea that their function was to refine pills!