During the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty, there was a pharmacy named Jisheng on Deheng Street in Jinan County, Shandong Province. The shopkeeper's surname was Zhao, who was more than 60 years old and had excellent medical skills. Shopkeeper Zhao was single and had no children. Many years ago, he came to Jinan County to operate a pharmacy by himself. Adhering to the business creed of genuine goods, helping the world and saving people, he enjoyed a high reputation among the people of Jinan County. In those days, there were often epidemics of plague, and poor people who had no money to treat often had cold and illness, and they were waiting to die. Shopkeeper Zhao has an ancestral secret recipe made from more than 30 herbs, which specializes in treating plague and cold and fever. Ordinary symptoms can be restored with 2-3 medicines, and severe patients can use 7-8 medicines. A little recuperation can also cure diseases and rejuvenate. For a time, Jisheng became famous, and there was an endless stream of people seeking medicine near and far. Due to the kind business of Shopkeeper Zhao, during the year of the pandemic, he often consulted for free and sold medicine for a small profit. When encountering poor people seeking medical treatment, they were even more meticulous, and the medical expenses were not charged at all.

The two men on the Jisheng ship only did some daily work selling medicine, and under consultation, the preparation of the secret recipe and other processes were only completed by Shopkeeper Zhao himself. The thirty or so herbs in the secret recipe were known to ordinary Chinese medicine practitioners. However, after the recipe was prepared according to the proportion of the prescription, it must be added with the last medicine prepared by Shopkeeper Zhao to become a divine prescription for healing and saving people.

Every time he prepared the secret recipe, Shopkeeper Zhao instructed his assistant to lock himself in the side room in the backyard. After he prepared all the medicines in proportion and added the last medicine, he carefully ground them, and after the ingredients were not found out by outsiders, the packaging was paid to the customers who came to the cabinet to buy the medicine. There are countless rich people in Jinan County who admire the secret recipe, but buyers who come to the door with a lot of money are politely declined. In the blink of an eye, Shopkeeper Zhao is nearly old, but there is no successor to inherit the secret recipe. There is a lot of discussion in the streets and alleys, and someone asks Shopkeeper Zhao but smiles and does not answer.

This year, there was a plague epidemic in Shanxi, seven or eight out of ten households were infected, and large numbers of refugees were displaced to neighboring provinces. One morning, the Jisheng had just opened for business, and the man rushed into the back hall to report to the shopkeeper Zhao that a young man and an old woman had passed out on the street in front of the door. Shopkeeper Zhao hurriedly called the man out to carry the two to the pharmacy, and each poured first aid soup before waking up. It turned out that the young man's name was Zhao Peijun, who was 25 years old at the time. He had a mother-son relationship with the old woman, and there was no one else in the family. He fled here, but his mother fell ill halfway through, and it was even more difficult to walk after entering Jinan City. Zhao Peijun carried his mother's back and wanted to beg for some food after dawn. Last night, he fell ill and both passed out.

Shopkeeper Zhao took the old woman's pulse and diagnosed the official cold and fever, so he took out his own secret recipe, boiled it into a soup for the old woman to take, arranged for the mother and son to live in the backyard, and instructed Zhao Peijun to take care of it every day. More than ten days later, the old woman recovered, and Zhao Peijun came to thank Shopkeeper Zhao for saving her life on behalf of her mother.

Shopkeeper Zhao looked at the young man in front of him with a smile and asked in a harmonious voice, "Your mother has just recovered from a serious illness, what are your plans for the future?"

Zhao Peijun smiled and replied, "People from Shanxi Province said that many people died in their hometown. It seems that they can't go back for the time being. They want to find a job in Jinan County first to support their mother."

Shopkeeper Zhao nodded. "I value that you are a person of duty. I want to keep you as a friend in the store.

Zhao Peijun hurriedly knelt down and said, "It's impossible to ask for it, but the old shopkeeper has sacrificed his life to save his mother, and left his late life in the store to enjoy a bowl of rice. How can I repay this great kindness?"

"Alas!Shopkeeper Zhao stepped forward to help Zhao Peijun, "You and I share the same surname as our own family, so why are you so polite? Besides, I want to keep you as a clerk in the store and want more people to help me. You work hard every day, and it is only natural that you eat my food. According to the rules of the medical company, the clerk does not have a penny of wages for the first three years, are you willing?"

Zhao Peijun thanked him, "To be able to learn the art of saving the world with the old shopkeeper, there is nothing else to ask for."

In this way, Shopkeeper Zhao built two small rooms for Zhao Peijun's mother and son on the edge of the city, and the two settled down in Jinan County. This Zhao Peijun had read some poems and wrote good characters when he was a child, and his mind was brighter than that of the two buddies in the store. He was simple and hardworking, and Shopkeeper Zhao liked it in his eyes and heart, and deliberately passed on all the skills below his veins to him. In the future, he would also be a successor to the pharmacy.

In the blink of an eye, three spring and autumn have passed, and the details do not need to be stated. Zhao Peijun's mother is old and frail, and she accidentally broke her bones in the winter, which makes it even more difficult to live with the inconvenience of mobility. She will go away before the spring of next year. After Zhao Peijun took care of her mother's future, he was called to the old shopkeeper alone and said, "You are now alone and have no worries. For three years, I have been carefully observing your words and deeds. I see that you take care of your mother every day and work hard. You are indeed a very filial person. I intend to teach you all the secret recipes of our store and my medical skills all my life. After a hundred years, the Jisheng will also have an inheritor.

Zhao Peijun knelt down and thanked him with tears.

From then on, Zhao Peijun followed Shopkeeper Zhao around every day to check his pulse, see a doctor, and prescribe prescriptions, and his medical skills improved rapidly. However, Shopkeeper Zhao's promise to teach the secret recipe was never mentioned again.

On this day, Shopkeeper Zhao called Pei Jun to the front and said, "I'm going out for a few days. My ancestors have a distant relative in the Hebei border. Recently, I asked someone to bring a letter saying that I have something important to discuss with me. On the day I leave, you can decide the big and small matters on the cabinet alone, don't worry about me, and report it together when I come back."

After Shopkeeper Zhao left, everything was normal. Suddenly, on the fourth day, hundreds of refugees who had fled the city gathered in front of Jisheng, shouting for help. After Zhao Peijun carefully asked, he found that these refugees had come from nearby villages and counties. They were suffering from a strange disease, weak, vomiting, and pale, and urgently needed several precious medicinal materials such as ginseng, snow lotus, and deer horns to save their lives. Zhao Peijun thought to himself that this strange disease had never been taught by the old shopkeeper. Besides, the old shopkeeper was not at home, and the precious medicinal materials listed accounted for almost half of the assets on the cabinet, so he never dared to make a claim. He had to let the refugees lie down in front of the Jisheng, anxious, and only hoped that Shopkeeper Zhao would go home soon.

A few days later, the refugees gathered more and more, and the people in the city were also discussing. Zhao Peijun was restless and went to the door to take the pulse of the victims with the most severe symptoms. The pulse was really troubled. If you don't treat it, you may not survive for a day or two. But there is no cure for this strange disease, so how can it be good? Some of the victims said, "Please be merciful to the shopkeeper and give us some precious medicinal materials!" "But, where did you hear that using these medicinal materials can cure this disease?" Zhao Peijun asked puzzled. "The rich families in our hometown have these kinds of medicinal materials, and it is necessary to treat this disease. The shopkeeper should be merciful!" The victims echoed. Zhao Peijun thought that instead of waiting for Shopkeeper Zhao to come back, it would be better to take the risk of experimenting. Anyway, the habits of these medicines can nourish the body without curing the disease, and it will not harm people's lives. Zhao Peijun prepared a small amount of soup according to the prescription provided by the victims, and fed it to a few seriously ill patients.

The Jisheng had always had a tradition of saving people from fire and water. Although the old shopkeeper was not at home now, he explained that he could make decisions about big and small things when he left, and even if shopkeeper Zhao was there, he would never watch so many victims sit idly by. Thinking of this, Zhao Peijun had a heart, and ordered his men to open the backyard warehouse and take out all the precious medicinal materials accumulated on the number for decades and distribute them to the victims, which became a good story in the city for a while.

Half a month later, Shopkeeper Zhao returned home and saw Zhao Peijun kneeling in the inner hall, asking the reason. Zhao Peijun came over one by one. Shopkeeper Zhao was not only not annoyed when he heard this, but also helped him up and said, "It is my business purpose to help the world and save people." You did the right thing this time.

From this day on, Shopkeeper Zhao let Zhao Pei Jun into the inner court to teach him the secret recipe for treating cold and fever alone. The proportion of each medicinal material was strictly weighed, and the secret preparation process and so on had to be operated by Pei Jun one by one, but the last medicine was still secretly made by Shopkeeper Zhao alone, and outsiders did not know. Shopkeeper Zhao specially explained that the thirty-odd medicines in this secret recipe were all medicines of tigers and wolves, and their nature was extremely violent. If there was no medicine combination, not only could it not cure the disease, but it would harm lives. As long as Pei Jun followed his studies with peace of mind, he would definitely teach him the secret of the medicine in his lifetime.

After midsummer, it was late autumn. Due to the exhaustion of precious medicinal materials accumulated on the Jisheng for many years, the shopkeeper Zhao ordered Zhao Peijun to go north to Jilin to apply for medicine, and before leaving, he brought him fifty taels of gold for the purchase of medicine.

Needless to say, it was hard work all the way. On the eve of purchasing the medicinal materials needed in Jilin and leaving for Shandong, an elderly man with hair and hair came to the inn where Zhao Peijun stayed. Zhao Peijun saw that the old man was familiar, and it was clearly Wei Ronghou, the boss of Ronghou Silver Manor in Jinan County. Millions of mountains and rivers met Zhao Peijun in the northern country and were puzzled. Wei Ronghou said straight to the point: "Peijun, the last time you gave away the precious medicinal materials in your account to the victims who asked for medicine, the old man deeply admired it. It's just that you opened the warehouse and sent medicine that almost exhausted the savings of Manager Zhao's life. Do you know where the cost of this medicine came from?"

"I think it must be the old shopkeeper's extra silver," Zhao Peijun replied.

Wei Ronghou smiled and took out a pawn ticket from his arms, which clearly read "Use Jisheng as collateral to get fifty taels of gold."

"Pei Jun," Wei Ronghou continued, "The old man has no other intentions, but it is inconvenient for Jinan County to speak, so he followed you all the way to Jilin. You can also see that the Jisheng number has nothing but the secret recipe. I heard that Shopkeeper Zhao taught you the secret recipe for treating colds and fevers.

Zhao Peijun looked at Wei Ronghou's eager eyes and said, "Old man, this is absolutely impossible!"

Wei Ronghou smiled and asked why.

Zhao Peijun replied, "Back then, when I fled to Jinan County with my mother, Shopkeeper Zhao had the grace of saving my mother, and then he accepted me as a disciple and passed on my skills of practicing medicine and saving people. Such a great favor is difficult to repay in my life. How could Peijun avenge his kindness and do such an unkind and unjust thing. It was also because of me that the old shopkeeper scattered the precious medicinal materials he had accumulated for half his life. He should have redoubled his efforts to revive the number of people who help people. The most important point is that the secret recipe passed down by the old shopkeeper to me lacked a single medicine. Instead of saving people, it would harm lives. This is a matter of life and is the bottom line of our medicine industry.

Just as the voice fell, someone called out, "Okay!"

Following the sound, Shopkeeper Zhao pushed the door out from the inside.

What was going on? Zhao Peijun was completely confused.

After the three were seated, Shopkeeper Zhao told a story from many years ago.

Thirty years ago, there was a young man who had a family-run secret recipe and opened a pharmacy in Beijing, specializing in cold and fever. Business was booming. There was a year-long epidemic, and there were many people seeking medicine. The young man took advantage of the benefits and raised the price of the medicine, which was still in short supply. Therefore, he rushed to work overnight and did not strictly prescribe the medicine according to the proportion and process of the secret recipe. He did not want the weak patients not to be cured, but died one after another. The government investigated it, and the young man's father fell seriously ill in a fit of anger and left. The lawsuit lasted for a year, and the young man was able to survive after exhausting his family's property. He escaped from Beijing and vowed to cure the disease in this life to atone for the sins of the dead. This young man was Shopkeeper Zhao himself, and he had been looking for a person who passed on the secret recipe for many years. He knew very well that the medicine of tiger and wolf could save people and harm people. The key was the virtue of the person who dispensed the medicine. There must be three hearts: "Filial piety, kindness, and conscience."

Shopkeeper Zhao paused for a moment, "Child, I accepted you as my disciple and passed on your skills. It was your filial piety to save my mother that moved me. Later, in order to test you, I used an excuse to go out to Hebei and arranged for someone to pretend to be a disaster victim and ask for precious medicinal materials to save your life.

"But master," Zhao Peijun asked puzzledly, "you haven't told me about the last medicine?"

"Hahaha..."   Shopkeeper Zhao smiled and said, "There is no such thing as a final herbal citation, that is my excuse for blocking people's eyes and ears. The process is complicated but not slow, and the prescription is too complicated but not simple. This is the real herbal citation of the secret recipe!"