Chinese Medicine: Starting with Daily Intelligence

Chapter 599: Chapter 599: Grafting

The market was almost entirely flooded with fakes.

Even the genuine products didn’t meet Li Xu’s standards.

Frustrated, the two decided to stop wasting their time at the market.

Gao Yuan had been to Xinhui in his younger days and knew an old local friend named Old Liang.

Old Liang was a Xinhui native and an old farmer.

After some difficulty, the two finally found Old Liang in his village.

Old Liang was thrilled to see Gao Yuan. He enthusiastically welcomed them into his home and brewed a pot of tea made with genuine ten-year-old Dried Tangerine Peel.

The tea was a translucent golden color, its aroma rich and mellow, with a sweet aftertaste that lingered on the palate.

"Now *this* is real Dried Tangerine Peel!"

Gao Yuan took a sip, overcome with emotion.

After they explained their reason for visiting, Old Liang sighed and revealed the truth of the situation.

"Ah, Old Gao, you’ve come too late. The market has completely changed."

"Genuine product is scarce! Our core production area here in Xinhui is only so big, so the annual yield of Chazhigan tangerines is fixed. On top of that, high-quality peels have to be aged for at least three years to even be called Dried Tangerine Peel. The truly old stuff, aged ten years or more, is even rarer. Most people keep it as a family heirloom."

"The way things work now is through a ’pre-order system’."

"Every year, before the harvest season even begins, major pharmaceutical companies from Guangzhou and Shenzhen, along with high-end gift brands, show up with cash to sign contracts with us. They send people to supervise the entire process—from harvesting the fresh fruit to sun-drying and warehouse aging. Nothing ever makes it into the hands of individual buyers."

"Even new peels that have only been dried for a year are completely pre-ordered from the workshops. They get sealed up, and once they’ve aged for the required number of years, the buyers come and haul them away directly."

"A regular wholesale buyer? Forget about buying old Dried Tangerine Peel; you can’t even get your hands on the new peels."

Old Liang shook his head helplessly. "The price of Dried Tangerine Peel has skyrocketed in recent years. The saying ’an ounce of peel is worth an ounce of gold’ is all the rage. Ordinary people don’t know any better; they see something dark and assume it’s good, which gives counterfeiters an opening. Meanwhile, we don’t have nearly enough genuine product to sell, which just makes the chaos worse."

"Is there really no other way?"

Li Xu asked, unwilling to give up.

"It’s difficult," Old Liang said. "But since you’re here, I’ll take you for a walk around the orchards in the core production area. We’ll see if we can get lucky and find something."

「The next day.」

Under Old Liang’s guidance, the three of them headed to Meijiang Village, the foremost of Xinhui’s core Dried Tangerine Peel production areas.

In the orchards, the Chazhigan tangerine trees were lush and green, covered in small, unripe fruits. The growth was promising.

However, the response at every orchard was the same:

"Sorry, this orchard has already been booked by So-and-so Pharmaceuticals."

"This batch was ordered by Boss So-and-so. The deposit has already been paid."

"Peels from the last few years? Long gone. We don’t even have enough left for our own use."

Their hopes were dashed again and again.

The two then visited several small Dried Tangerine Peel workshops hidden in the village.

These workshops were small and didn’t cooperate with the big companies. They did indeed have some genuine Dried Tangerine Peel on hand.

But then another problem arose.

First, the quantity was too small.

A single workshop could only offer a few dozen, maybe a hundred, catties.

For the needs of Ding’s Pharmaceutical Factory and Li Xu’s clinic, this was just a drop in the bucket.

Second, the price was absurdly high.

Because it was genuine, it was the stock they specifically held back to sell at a premium.

The price for three-year-aged peels was more than three times the normal rate.

The ten-year-aged peels were astronomically priced, far exceeding their budget.

"What do we do?"

Stepping out of the last workshop, Gao Yuan stood on a ridge between the fields, a worried expression on his face as he looked out at the endless citrus trees.

Having money but being unable to buy what you need—it was the first time in many years he had encountered such a frustrating situation.

Li Xu frowned as well.

’If we really can’t acquire the goods, Ding’s Medicinal Materials Company will fizzle out before it even has a chance to make its debut.’

’Plus, the clinic urgently needs high-quality Dried Tangerine Peel for its medicinal formulas.’

’Are we really going to return empty-handed?’

They were disappointed, but there was nothing to be done.

Night had fallen.

They stayed over at Old Liang’s house.

「Early the next morning.」

Li Xu looked at the intelligence report with great anticipation.

As was usually the case,

whenever he encountered a significant obstacle, the system would definitely provide relevant intelligence.

[Today’s Intelligence: At the eastern end of Tianma Village in Xinhui, there is an abandoned old orchard named the ’Ancient Tangerine Garden.’ Although the owner stopped tending to it many years ago, the garden still contains several dozen old Chazhigan tangerine trees that are over 50 years old. They have grown wild and no longer bear fruit. By using grafting techniques to join them with pomelo trees, they can produce high-quality citrus suitable for both food and medicine. One year of aging will produce an effect equivalent to ten years...]

Just as he expected, the intelligence was a huge help.

It provided a crucial lead.

Li Xu was overjoyed.

Plant grafting is a common agricultural method used to improve varieties, increase yields, and enhance disease resistance.

In simple terms, it involves attaching a branch or bud (the scion) from one plant onto the stem or root (the rootstock) of another, allowing the two parts to grow into a single, complete plant.

This method preserves the desirable traits of the scion—such as delicious fruit or special medicinal properties—while taking advantage of the rootstock’s strong root system for nutrient absorption and resilience.

For example, grafting a watermelon seedling onto a disease-resistant pumpkin rootstock can make the watermelon immune to fusarium wilt, allowing it to grow large and sweet.

The "grafting technique" mentioned in the intelligence, however, was clearly something more profound.

Grafting a 50-year-old Chazhigan tangerine onto a pomelo tree could not only rejuvenate the old tree but also produce fruit where "one year of aging equals ten."

’If this is true, this would be the nuclear weapon of the Dried Tangerine Peel world.’

If it were any other plant, Li Xu might have been skeptical. ’Could that really work?’

But this was citrus.

It was entirely possible.

Because the citrus family is one big melting pot.

Many people have shared the same confusion:

pomelos, tangerines, oranges, mandarins, and lemons...

Not only do they look alike,

they also taste similar!

So what’s the connection between them?

The truth is,

they’re all "one big, happy family,"

all belonging to the citrus family.

Around eight million years ago, in the southeastern foothills of the Himalayas, the three "founding members" of the citrus family quietly made their debut, kicking off an evolutionary feast that would span millions of years.

The fruit of these primitive citrus plants was completely different from what we see today:

they were as small as cherries, with peels as thick as bark, and so sour they could make your teeth fall out.

But it was these inconspicuous little fruits that quietly planted the seeds for the family’s future prosperity.

With changes in the global climate, around six million years ago, the seeds of primitive citrus began to spread across Southeast Asia, carried by birds and surface runoff. This led to the gradual differentiation of three key "family founders": the citron, the pomelo, and the mandarin orange.

The citron was the "oddball" of the group. Its skin was bumpy, its flesh sparse and bitter, but it possessed its own enchanting fragrance.

The pomelo was a natural-born "adventurer." It traveled through dense tropical rainforests, reaching Australia around four million years ago and evolving into the uniquely tangy Australian finger lime, Australian round lime, and desert lime.

The mandarin orange, on the other hand, was the "sweetheart." Its peel was soft and easy to remove, and its sweet-and-sour juice would burst forth with a single bite. It became the "mainstay" of the citrus family and the "core parent stock" for future hybridization.

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