Chapter 87: Outlaw

Da Wang also knew many people had soaked in winter seawater for him today; he went early to the homestead to wait for Bai Yang, and bought some potent fever-reducing medicine from him.

Bai Yang unpacked the fever medicine's aluminum foil wrapping, rewrapped it in oil paper, and sold it to Da Wang—one hundred pills for two ingots, warning him not to take too many, at most two per day, since ancient bodies had never taken such potent concentrated tablets.

Da Wang spent two ingots buying medicine from Bai Ge; upon leaving with it in his pocket, he was ruthlessly robbed of ninety-eight ingots by the homestead, making up the difference. Da Wang thought it over; at noon he had just promised not to complain about Meng Meng for five days, and with difficulty he swallowed the words that had risen to his lips.

Wei Shen soon welcomed Da Wang, who was carrying a small paper packet; Da Wang sat in his room and saw that his cousin was still lively and jumping about, feeling very relieved.

Having heard that fevers are worse at night, Da Wang opened the small paper packet and painstakingly divided out a few pills for his cousin.

"This is fever medicine; if your cousin happens to get a fever at night, take one pill—it works! An adult should take at most two pills a day; taking more will cause trouble. Here, take four pills—you look healthy."

Wei Shen was about to roll his eyes; he snatched the small wooden stick Da Wang used to divide the medicine and pulled away half of it. Da Wang exclaimed, "Hey hey hey, why do you need so much medicine?"

Wei Shen tucked it away into his attendant's arms, saying, "Quickly take it; it's definitely a good thing—look at how concerned our Da Wang is!"

Da Wang: "Ten taels of silver per pill—asking my cousin to act in a play is too expensive; next time I'll find Weini."

His cousin almost flung the teapot lid at Da Wang's head.

Weini, whom Da Wang had entrusted with importance, still got up in the middle of the night and ran to Da Wang's bedside; borrowing the warm glow of the nightlight, she glanced at Da Wang twice, confirmed he was sleeping soundly, then returned to her own nest and lay down.

Da Wang jumped off the ship, and Bear Weini followed, anxious enough to be furious; hearing only people coming and going shout 'Your Highness', and being too short to see anything, the bear was really anxious.

In the afternoon, he would stick close to Da Wang; even if he woke up at midnight, he still had to come over and check.

Bai Ze glanced up at it; this bear… really couldn't be sent away.

The remaining half of the fever medicine Da Wang gave to Zhang Tu before bed, asking him to distribute it to the soldiers and fishermen who went into the water today, in case they got a fever they could take one pill.

Who would have thought that several people actually came down with a fever at night; Wei Shen himself was feverish, went aboard a small boat, and was frightened into a sweat by his bear cousin; miraculously nothing happened to him, but several tall and burly soldiers and fishermen were quite severely affected.

The next day Da Wang received news that the fever-reducing tablets he gave were very effective; one tablet taken would reduce fever within half an hour, and by this morning all symptoms had completely disappeared.

Da Wang let out a sigh of relief; this was definitely better than on land—no mishaps occurred, which was truly great.

Immediately, Da Wang's clever little mind stirred again: in the Da Jin dynasty, fever reduction uses decoctions, which aren't nearly as fast or convenient; this fever-reducing speed could be called a divine medicine!

So… open a pharmacy!?

Da Wang didn't have time to go play in the water; he ran over to ask Bai Yang what especially effective medicine they had.

Bai Yang thought and said, "You definitely need antibiotics, but professions have specialties; medicine isn't something to be taken casually, especially antibiotics. But you have an army, injuries are unavoidable, so I suggest you stockpile some for emergencies."

"What are antibiotics?" Da Wang asked in his soul.

"... This is, for sword wounds that would fester and inflame, right? This medicine treats that, but medicine shouldn't be taken randomly—it can likewise cost lives. Opening a shop outside? Don't even think about it unless you have a medic who understands our drugs sitting in charge; otherwise there will be endless troubles."

Seeing Da Wang's disappointed expression, Bai Yang added, "However, you can buy some fever medicine and antibiotics to sell as effective drugs, one pill at a time."

Da Wang was disappointed because he also realized that treating illness isn't a joke; it can truly cost lives.

"Then please prepare some to keep at the mansion for standby; when I return, it will also be time to look for a military doctor."

Bai Yang saw that he had a plan and relaxed; to prove he wasn't speaking nonsense, he took out yesterday's effective fever medicine's instruction manual and showed it to Da Wang.

Da Wang was first stunned by the tiny characters on the paper, as small as a mosquito—look at their printing technique! Then he was frightened by the complex, hard-to-understand ingredients and side effects.

"Isn't your medicine made from herbs?"

"Not entirely."

Da Wang stored the instruction manual in his warehouse, never mentioning opening a pharmacy again—how naive, how naive, even reducing a fever is this scary.

Fortunately he is immune to all poisons; he thanks Meng Meng deeply.

Da Wang's pharmacy temporarily flew away; he can't stay idle—an industrious Da Wang can't sit still, so he's busy diving again.

The treasure ship drags four to six nets a day, and Da Wang is also busy underwater 'picking' various small seafood to store in his warehouse.

The treasure ship's hull has a coating of fish-attractant; one net dragged for half an hour rarely yields a poor catch, and the captain's rich experience has left the accompanying fishermen numb—first time they realize that fishing with a big ship is this easy, just need to cast the net.

The big ship carries away shoals of fish and shrimp, while Da Wang picks up all the strange and odd things left on the seabed.

No matter whether he recognized them before or not, once they're stored in the warehouse he knows them.

When other big ships catch something strange, they bring it to show Da Wang; Da Wang, not being in Chen Cang to confirm what's inedible, almost throws everything back—but no, he picks up all the junk and brings it back to give to his Bai Ge.

Bai Yang being startled by Da Wang into a cold sweat all over is considered mild, because the things Da Wang stores directly—when stored while alive, they remain alive when taken out.

Picking up sea stars and sea anemones is bad enough, but how do you even pick up cnidarians?!

This kid knows no fear; moreover, he is immune to all poisons, not even afraid of poisoning—this bear cub will touch anything.

Da Wang dares to pick them up, but Bai Yang really doesn't want to look at those wriggling cnidarian animals anymore; these nameless worms are truly disgusting, thanks.

He pulled out a photo of wild sea cucumber to show Da Wang, saying, "Listen to me: except for this one in the picture, don't pick up any other soft-bodied worms—they're worthless. This is called sea cucumber; your sea definitely has it—if you pick it up and send it fresh, I'll pay you thirty per catty." This is indeed wild sea cucumber from an unpolluted ocean.

What worm costs three hundred taels of silver per catty?

"Even golden worms aren't that expensive! This worm can be exchanged for three taels of gold per catty?!"

Da Wang merely sighed in amazement, while Bai Yang suddenly had an epiphany, finally realizing the problem he had long overlooked!

The gold-to-silver price ratio in Da Jin differs from that here!

He suddenly got excited, started frantically pressing the calculator; Da Wang looked bewildered, "What, is this sea cucumber really that hot?" Bai Ge rarely gets this excited.

"Good heavens, how did I not think of this sooner! In your place, one tael of gold equals one hundred taels of silver; here our gold is already 550 per gram, while silver is 8 per unit, giving a price difference of up to 3.43 times!"

Da Wang: "I don't get it~"

Bai Yang: "Listen, let me calculate: our silver converts to 350 of your taels, while a tael of gold is now 27,500! That's close to a 3.5 times difference with yours. Simply put, I'll procure silver for you to exchange into gold in Da Jin and give to me; this yields a 3.5 times profit. The same silver, here it buys one tael of gold, there it buys three and a half taels! Understood? Shall we split the profit fifty-fifty?"

The mathematical prodigy Da Wang had already been dazed by the numbers; Bai Yang couldn't help but laugh, and he spoke more plainly: "It's simply that here 343 taels of silver exchange for one tael of gold, while there you only need 100 taels. I'll give you silver for you to exchange into gold in Da Jin; we'll split the profit and earn some pocket money! Perfect—older brother, you've inspired me to work hard on a career and train my body; let's start a jewelry brand!"

Da Wang finally understood; the two hit it off immediately, stepping onto the irreversible path of cross-time arbitrage in precious metals.

Da Wang had no sense of being an outlaw; he realized that as long as he lives long, making silver isn't that hard! Heck, in just one day he's found two little money-making tricks.