Chapter 24: Penicillin

Wu Dading leaned against Wang Tingxing's back; he had heard Li Qinxiang say just now, "The Xiang family and the Dang family have been making moves recently..."

So he opened his eyes wide to look at those earth-dwellers, feeling that the rustling indeed indicated some movement, yet he was too lazy to listen closely.

In this mid-September weather, he was so cold he wanted to tear off his ears and warm them in his crotch; he pressed his head against Li Qinxiang's back, muttering to himself in his mind...

"When did Brother You's brain finally open up? By my hammer, after studying for a few years, his mouth has become so crooked? Has he truly become a scholar? Damn it, why didn't I study hard with Short Song back then!"

The sky had not yet brightened; Li You had already risen early. Taking advantage of the time before hunger set in, he went out and ran two laps around the mining area, and on the way picked up several large stones to test his physical condition.

Although the weather was somewhat cold, the air was extremely fresh, far beyond anything comparable to the polluted atmosphere of the future era; a full breath of air entered his lungs through his nasal cavity, causing his lungs to undergo drastic changes.

His nerve endings also lengthened, while his muscle cells stretched, and his muscle fibers grew two or three times their original size; the range of contraction increased, and surging power flooded into his limbs and bones, making Li You instantly feel an explosion of strength.

"Lift!"

Li You could easily lift a blue iron stone weighing over eighty jin.

"It seems my strength is truly terrifying, though I don't know exactly how much it has increased! Recently, I've been starving every single day..."

Li You arrogantly felt that his physical strength, while not comparable to Xiang Yu, was certainly shocking to the world; yet with an empty belly and eating too little, he worried that if this continued, he wouldn't even be able to draw a bowstring!

This body had undergone bone-opening and polishing since childhood; the physique was not only solid but also possessed solid martial arts skills, and with this inexplicable surge of immense strength, in this chaotic world, this was his greatest capital, so Li You dared not let it go to waste.

He rubbed his stomach, then went to boil some hot water, and afterwards went to check on the wounded, including Xiang Ying; surprisingly, Qi Jingkun's fever had subsided, and his consciousness was slowly returning; it looked like he would survive.

Once everything was finished, Yu Zhengchun had already led a group of "students" to sit in front of the courtyard gate; everyone held a section of bamboo stick, and their hands had long since pressed the sandy ground before them flat and smooth for writing; seeing their attitude toward learning, Li You felt many emotions in his heart.

Especially Little Xiao Juzi, whose hair was messy like a bird's nest; at this moment, she was seriously clenching her small fist, hammering the small patch of ground before her until it was perfectly flat.

Seeing her cute appearance, Li You's heart softened; he grabbed a section of vine, walked over, smiled, and held her in his arms, saying, "Little Xiao Juzi, your hair is so messy; why don't I cut it off for you?"

"Okay... hehe..."

Li You tickled her, and for a moment she giggled, saying, "Then... then cut it off, cut it all off, round like the sun..."

"Haha... that won't work; your head is pointed, so it will mostly look like a smooth big radish!"

"Ah, pointed? Why isn't my head round?" Xiao Juzi's voice suddenly took on a crying tone.

Li You was also amused by her innocence and quickly comforted her, saying, "Pointed ones are smart; round ones are stupid; look how stupid they are, their handwriting isn't even as good as yours!"

"Really? Hehe..." Little Xiao Juzi suddenly stopped crying and laughed, with a hint of pride on her face.

After tying two bun hairstyles for her, Li You studied her for a moment; looking at her small, dark, round face with long eyebrows, a mouth like lotus petals, and a high nose bridge like a mountain ridge dividing her small face symmetrically, it was only because she was too thin and yellow that her large eye sockets were deeply sunken.

"Little Xiao Juzi is so beautiful!"

Li You couldn't help but kiss her small face; his straightforward words and bold intimacy made Ceng Ruan, Mei Dan'er, Song Baishun, Yu Zhengchun, and Da Niu all turn their faces away.

Only Song Man, the Little Mother, and Zhu Zi had slightly flushed faces, feeling somewhat uncomfortable, yet each secretly envied Xiao Juzi; after all, they were all just children.

Only Hei Liuzi was carelessly happy; he was already thirteen years old, acting silly and carefree all day long.

As for the Little Mother who helped in the kitchen, she was eight years old that year; the day she heard Tian Si had died, she cried all night; she certainly wasn't crying for Tian Si, but for her younger brother; her brother, Shuanlao, had been smashed to death by Tian Si with a stone that spring.

After putting Little Xiao Juzi down, Li You quickly changed to a serious expression; just as "class" began, the mine slaves and salt slaves gradually climbed out of the earth-dwellers, yet they did not go directly to work because the mountain bandits hadn't "clocked in" yet.

So they all stood up and looked in this direction; within a short while, the mountain bandits also emerged one by one from the side rooms; a small group of people did not rush to drive the mine slaves and salt slaves to work but simply sat not far from Yu Zhengchun and the others.

Listening to Li You teach them to read, Wa Qingyun, Lu Yi, Ceng Changshun, and others even moved their mouths, wanting to chant along, yet feeling too shy to do so.

Li You saw all of this; after finishing the lesson, he and Yu Zhengchun prepared to go to Qian Chengzhi's wooden shed, while the other children each went off to do their own work.

Because of Li You, the "Mr.", the mountain bandits were much friendlier toward these children; basically, the phenomenon of beating and scolding at the slightest provocation had ceased; although they were still hungry and still doing hard, tiring labor, their mental state was slightly better than before.

At noon, Li You either went to the blacksmith's household to observe iron smelting or went to the salt field to watch the salt households boil well salt; in the evening, he returned to tell stories to the mine slaves and mountain bandits, though recently he had not been telling "The Tale of Heroic Knights of the Jianghu" (Water Margin).

He felt that "Water Margin" itself was a collection of social scum; as for phrases like "acting on behalf of Heaven," "killing the rich to help the poor," or "gentleman on the beam," these were purely the spiritual comfort for most bandits; only by reciting these principles could they feel justified in killing and burning, and only then could they shout heroically when facing execution, "In eighteen years, I will still be a good hero!"

Therefore, Li You directly told the story of Yue Fei, specifically "The Complete Biography of King Yue in the Pure Loyalty Romance."

Such a fresh story naturally won the love of everyone in Nanshan; the crowd listened with great interest, especially Hei Liuzi and Yu Zhengchun, who were so stirred that they wished to immediately carve the four characters "Loyal Service to the Country" on their backs, but those characters were simply too difficult, and Li You had not yet taught them.

Today, Li You did not go to pick herbs but went directly to the kitchen door.

"Counting the days, it has already been seven days; I wonder how the penicillin mold I cultivated before is doing?"

Thinking this, Li You had already entered the kitchen, greeted Xing Shi and Wang Shi, and impatiently went to check his five clay jars.

The penicillin mold inside the jars had already merged into the culture jars; the milky-white rice water also showed a tendency to turn green.

"It's acceptable!"

Delighted, Li You took out some clean cotton as filter cotton and meticulously filtered the culture liquid from two clay jars.

After filtering, Li You asked Xing Shi for some of the remaining rapeseed oil and carefully added it using wheat straw; this was done to dissolve lipid-soluble substances; since penicillin is water-soluble, the water beneath the oil would dissolve the penicillin.

After completing these two steps, Li You rested for a moment and instructed Wang Shi to boil some hot water to wash and sterilize the two clay jars as well as some bamboo sections and bamboo tubes he had shaved.

He then slowly used a small spoon to remove the oil and fat from the upper layer, leaving the water below, and added some wood ash from under the stove to serve as activated carbon.

In ancient times, wood ash was used to stop bleeding and disinfect, specifically by having postpartum women sit on the burnt ash; in the remote, impoverished rural areas where Li You lived in the future, this habit was still preserved, commonly known as "sitting on ash."

The carbon would absorb the penicillin components, and the liquid in the jars would be sucked dry.

Li You placed this "activated carbon" into a self-made bamboo tube "separation tube"; he had shaved the upper opening of this bamboo tube large and the lower opening small, making it convenient for him to collect the liquid.

He was not in a hurry; he used the distilled water accumulated on the pot lid from the boiling water Xing Shi had prepared to wash the three sections of bamboo tube; here, only distilled water could be used for washing, otherwise it would be useless and contaminated.

Then he poured some vinegar inside to serve as acidic water, and finally dissolved alkali in water and injected it again for washing.

At this point, liquid had already begun to drip from the lower outlet of the bamboo tube; lacking Xuan paper, Li You had to spread some white cloth torn from his own undergarments earlier; to prevent waste, Li You also stuffed some filter cotton into the lower outlet of the bamboo tube to reduce the flow rate.

After about three drops, Li You moved the white cloth slightly; thus, the white cloth became covered with many green droplet marks, coagulated like wax drops; this was the penicillin he had collected.

With just three sections of bamboo tube, he collected thirty-two drops; dried under the sun, these became thirty-two "penicillin" pills.

Of course, it could be refined repeatedly to further increase the concentration of penicillin, but Li You felt it was not very necessary; at present, people's bodies had absolutely no resistance to antibiotics, so even a tiny amount would have an absurdly strong effect.

However, this operation lacked test tube gradations for measurement and lacked experimental comparison for verification, so Li You had absolutely no confidence in this self-made penicillin.

After drying the white cloth, Li You decided to extract some pus from Qi Jingkun's wound; the pus certainly contained staphylococci; these staphylococci would be cultured on a culture medium, and different penicillin molds would be smeared onto the staphylococci culture dishes...

If, after a few days, the staphylococci grew only around the smeared penicillin, it would indicate that the penicillin he produced was effective.

Actually, urine could also be used for testing, but Li You still felt it was not reliable.

"I wonder if this can cure Wu Zhuge's diabetes?"

Li You frowned, thought for a moment, and muttered to himself, "Save his ass? Even if I could, I wouldn't. This scum deserves to be tortured to death."