Chapter 5: Loss on Drying

The method is perfect. The material isn't. A humid week leaves the bitterroot damp, and damp powder clumps instead of sifting — water, the oldest adulterant. Lin Chen builds a balance out of sticks and string to prove it, then burns one of his six monthly pills on a purge trial that fails exactly the way chemistry says it should. And Su Lan is asking questions he can't answer honestly. Read along: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/198248/the-apothecarys-dao