Another night passed, and the moment Han Li rose at dawn he made straight for the medicine garden, eager to see whether those few herbs had undergone any change.
Yet even before he reached the medicine beds, he suddenly caught the scent of several rich, heady medicinal fragrances.
Han Li paused for a heartbeat, then his mind stirred. "Could it be…?"
His pace quickened of its own accord until he stood before the herbs that were giving off such a powerful aroma.
Were these really the same plants from yesterday? Han Li could not believe his eyes. He slapped his face several times, hard enough to sting, before he stopped his little act of self-torment.
"The leaves of this Yellow Dragon Herb have turned faintly purple; the Bitter Lotus has actually opened nine petals; and the peel of the Forget-Sorrow Fruit has gone completely black—haha, haha!" Han Li could contain himself no longer. Even one so level-headed as he threw back his head and roared with laughter at the sky.
"I have struck it rich at last! In the space of a single night, herbs that held barely a year or two of potency have all become like plants of a dozen years and more. Looking at the color of the leaves, the shape of the fruit, the fragrance of the petals—these are without question rare herbs that have ripened for many a year." He examined each herb carefully again and confirmed that they matched the descriptions in his books of medicine in every particular. Truly they were precious, aged materia medica.
"If I can ripen herbs this way, then I will have as many rare drugs as I could ever want! And whatever I cannot use myself, I can simply sell to others—why, I could earn back silver in any amount." No longer able to restrain his excitement, Han Li's thoughts began to run away with him.
The more he thought, the more elated he grew, and the further his fancies ranged, until he felt he had stumbled onto a veritable treasure trove. All at once he dropped to the ground and turned several cartwheels on the spot. His usual composure was nowhere to be seen; he was behaving exactly like any carefree youth of fourteen or fifteen expressing his joy.
Only after a long while did Han Li come back to himself. His mind returned to its customary wariness, and he began to consider the difficulties that came with swallowing this pie that had fallen from heaven.
First, although the herbs appeared sound enough on the surface, their true potency had yet to be tested. After all, they had been transformed by absorbing that strange liquid—who could say whether some mutated ingredient lurked within them? Yesterday he had seen with his own eyes the miserable fate of those rabbits. It would be wise to err on the side of caution.
Second, the emerald-green liquid in the mysterious little bottle had now been used up. He did not know whether it would produce those droplets again, or whether the bottle was some one-use item. Tonight he would go and check again.
And if neither of those two concerns proved to be a problem, he would still need to grasp, firmly and in full detail, the exact process and steps of this herb-ripening method, and bring this incredible technique completely under his control.
Han Li gave the matter deep thought and arrived at the list of questions above. Until these riddles were solved, this windfall was nothing but a flower seen in fog or the moon reflected in water.
His deliberations done, Han Li set to work.
First he went to the great kitchen outside the valley and, from the man in charge, purchased two more gray-furred rabbits. This purchase left the steward both delighted and a little puzzled—why did this young man keep buying live rabbits? Could he be raising them to slaughter and practice his cooking skills himself?
Han Li paid no heed to what others might think. This time he did not tether the rabbits in the medicine garden, but tied them to the door of his own quarters, so that he might observe their condition at every moment.
Then he went into the medicine beds, carefully harvested those few sped-grown herbs, and turned them into several decoctions of excellent medicines for strengthening the sinews and nourishing the bones. He blended these medicines into the food the rabbits loved best, and fed them the treat three times a day, in order to test whether the herbs were poisonous.
That done, Han Li waited anxiously for night to fall. Time crawled by at an agonizing pace, but at last the darkness he had been longing for arrived.
The instant dusk settled, Han Li dashed outside, took the little bottle from his pouch, and set it on the ground. Then he stared at it with rapt concentration, waiting for some change.
A quarter of an hour passed. The bottle did nothing.
Half an hour passed. Still nothing.
Three quarters... and as the moments slipped by, Han Li's heart sank further and further. He kept watching until it was almost dawn, and still the bottle gave not the slightest sign of life.
He was utterly dejected. Was the bottle truly a one-time thing, after all? Or had he done something wrong?
Forcing his spirit up, Han Li surveyed his surroundings.
"Nothing suspicious here, except that the sky is somewhat dark," he muttered to himself.
Then he went still. He suddenly raised his head and looked up—the sky pressed down, black and heavy, showing not a single thing. "The sky is somewhat dark." Those words had struck a chord.
"Could it be because it is an overcast night, with neither stars nor moon?" Han Li recalled that every previous time the bottle had changed, it had been on a clear night, when the sky lay open and the stars and moon were plainly visible. But tonight the sky was sullen and overcast, covered over with heavy clouds from horizon to horizon.
Now that a notion had taken root in his mind, Han Li's spirits rose somewhat. Noticing that the sky was starting to lighten, he knew nothing more would happen tonight. He put the bottle away, resolved to try again once the weather cleared.
Yet against all his expectations, the skies did not clear over the fortnight that followed. Instead a fine, drizzling rain began to fall, and that weather had persisted right up to the present day.
Han Li stared out at the soft, clinging drizzle and his heart grew heavy with frustration. The more eagerly he waited for the sky to turn fair, the more stubbornly the rain went on without end, showing not the slightest sign of stopping.
He glanced back at the two rabbits sheltering indoors. Their lively hopping only made him gloomier. Since eating the food mixed with medicine, the creatures had suffered no ill effects at all—if anything, they were even more spirited than before. Every day for the past two weeks Han Li had observed them closely, and confirmed that they showed no symptom of poisoning; on the contrary, nourished by the fine medicines, they had grown stronger and sturdier.
Yet this good result did not cheer Han Li in the least. Instead it left him restless and uncertain, unable to set his mind at ease. To him, whether the bottle could produce new emerald-green liquid had become the key to every problem that plagued him—and this endless, clinging weather refused to let the mystery be solved. How could he not be utterly miserable?