[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-the-first-iron-rice-bowl-of-great-jin":3,"chapter-the-first-iron-rice-bowl-of-great-jin-the-first-iron-rice-bowl-of-great-jin-chapter-31":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","The First Iron Rice Bowl of Great Jin",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":20,"prevChapterSlug":21,"totalChapters":22,"novelImage":23},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":16,"volume":17,"translator":18,"content_hash":19},151717,261,"Chapter 31: Friends","the-first-iron-rice-bowl-of-great-jin-chapter-31",31,"\u003Cp>\"Elder Sister Changxi, you've come to collect the medicinal herbs!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Seeing Hua Changxi arriving at the warehouse to collect herbs, Li Meng enthusiastically greeted her.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hua Changxi: \"Is Brother Yu awake?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Meng smiled and nodded: \"He's awake, Brother Yu can even get up on his own now.\" As she spoke, she approached Hua Changxi and lowered her voice.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"The palm print on Brother Yu's back is completely gone, Elder Sister Changxi, your medical skill is truly something.\" She gave Hua Changxi a thumbs-up.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hua Changxi smiled: \"As long as he's awake, that's good. He still needs to keep drinking the medicine. Brother Yu's internal injuries are quite severe—he'll need at least five days.\" As she spoke, she moved to carry some medicinal herbs.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Meng quickly said: \"Elder Sister Changxi, come get the herbs over here.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hua Changxi glanced at the herbs Li Meng was pointing at and shook her head: \"I'll just take these from here.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Meng grew anxious, walked over, and whispered: \"The herbs you're taking are all very hard to wash...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hua Changxi smiled: \"It's fine, I wash quickly. Besides, washing these herbs isn't difficult for me.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Every day, seeing the exhausted servants of the Sixth Bureau return to their rooms, watching their hard work, she sometimes thought—if she hadn't encountered that stroke of luck, she would be struggling just like them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>An ordinary servant, day after day doing heavy labor, earning a meager sum of money.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Whenever she thought this way, she felt both fortunate for herself and sympathetic toward the other servants.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Since washing herbs was no trouble for her, what did it matter if she washed a few more of the difficult ones while she was at it?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Seeing that Hua Changxi insisted on taking the hard-to-wash herbs, Li Meng felt somewhat helpless. Once the servants coming to collect herbs had mostly left and she had nothing pressing to do, she went to find Yu Gui.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Brother Yu, the wound medicine that Elder Sister Changxi made is really amazing. In just one night, your wound has started to scab over. I need to write down this formula so next time we get a bump or scrape, we can use it.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wan Xiaozhou carefully packed the crushed herb paste that Hua Changxi had prepared into a porcelain jar.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yu Gui was also amazed by Hua Changxi's medical skill. If this had been before, being injured by a Fourth-Rank Martial Artist would have left him suffering for at least half a month, but this time he hadn't experienced much pain at all.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wan Xiaozhou: \"Brother Yu, once you're fully healed, you should properly thank Elder Sister Changxi. Not to mention that she carried you back, just the fact that she treated you has saved us dozens of taels of silver.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yu Gui's expression turned slightly uncomfortable. When the warehouse staff had been targeting Elder Sister Changxi, he had ignored it. She must despise him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wan Xiaozhou noticed Yu Gui's expression, thought for a moment, and said: \"Elder Sister Changxi is a person of strong emotions, Brother Yu. If there's any misunderstanding between you two, it's better to clear it up soon.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At first, Brother Yu really liked Elder Sister Changxi. But then, for some reason, he suddenly stopped paying her any attention.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yu Gui gave a low \"Mm.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At that moment, Li Meng entered the room. She first asked about Yu Gui's injuries, and after learning that nothing was uncomfortable, she began talking about Hua Changxi's visit to collect herbs that morning.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"I have no idea what Elder Sister Changxi was thinking. I told her to take the easy-to-wash herbs so she could have an easier time, but she insisted on taking the hard-to-wash ones.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wan Xiaozhou thought for a moment and said: \"Elder Sister Changxi washes herbs very quickly. As for the other servants, even with easy-to-wash herbs, they're busy until evening, let alone when they get the hard-to-wash ones.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Maybe Elder Sister Changxi wanted to help the others? By washing the hardest ones herself, it makes things easier for everyone else.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Meng looked doubtful: \"Really? In the past, we've only ever met people who shirk responsibility. Seeing a girl who doesn't follow the usual rules makes me a bit skeptical.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wan Xiaozhou smiled: \"There are still many kind people in this world. There are people like Elder Sister Changxi, cold on the outside but warm on the inside, and there are people like Brother Yu who step in to help.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"If Brother Yu hadn't helped us, we would probably have been thrown into the Yong'an Canal to feed the fish by the dock workers long ago.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wan Xiaozhou and Li Meng were both country folk from villages near the capital, struggling to make a living at the Yong'an Canal dock on the South Gate. They had accidentally offended a supervisor and were nearly beaten to death on his orders.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They were truly grateful from the bottom of their hearts to Yu Gui, who had saved them and given them a stable job.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yu Gui had to speak up at this point: \"Why bring up that matter again? We're all brothers in hardship; it's only natural to help each other out.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wan Xiaozhou chuckled: \"I just happened to mention it because Li Meng brought it up.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yu Gui: \"...Elder Sister Changxi used to only take a small amount of each type of herb. When she comes to collect herbs, suggest that she continue doing it the way she did before.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wan Xiaozhou and Li Meng both smiled and agreed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yu Gui rested for seven days until he was completely recovered. Then he came to the warehouse to supervise the staff in distributing herbs.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hua Changxi came to collect herbs as usual. Seeing Yu Gui there, she smiled and greeted him: \"Brother Yu.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yu Gui looked awkward. He dawdled for a long while, and only after Hua Changxi had already loaded all the herbs she needed onto the cart did he speak: \"Elder Sister Changxi, thank you for saving me.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hua Changxi smiled: \"You're welcome. When I first joined the Servants' Hall, Brother Yu, you truly took care of me. I remember that in my heart.\"\u003C\u002Fp>",1033,"2026-05-29T04:10:26.746Z","2026-06-01T04:29:08.487Z",1,"deepseek-v4-flash","846b2ef024a96d909978fa8a16b76e7fca7843b6c5c7c52b0b462cadc708a84b","the-first-iron-rice-bowl-of-great-jin-chapter-32","the-first-iron-rice-bowl-of-great-jin-chapter-30",547,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fthe-first-iron-rice-bowl-of-great-jin-cover.jpg"]