999 Cold Remedy Granules

I grew up hearing the same phrase over and over: “Taking medicine for a cold just makes you feel better psychologically—either way, you’ll recover in seven days.” Yet, my family always kept a stash of 999 Cold Remedy Granules at home. No one particularly loved it, but everyone regarded it with a certain dismissiveness.  My dad had no respect for it at all—he was convinced that his amateur acupuncture and moxibustion skills were more effective than any medicine. My mom, although also doubting its effectiveness, would still instinctively say, “Just take some medicine first and see how it goes.” whenever I got sick, as if it had become a ritual. Its taste, much like its green packaging, seemed unchanged over the years—not bitter, but have a pleasant herbal fragrance. Chinese prickly ash, calendula and silverweed, wild chrysanthemum. I liked it so much that I sometimes wanted to drink it even when I wasn’t sick.  

We never really knew if getting better was thanks to the 999 Cold Remedy Granules or just time doing its job. Since colds usually cleared up faster than expected, there were always leftover packets sitting around—until they inevitably expired in that old, white plastic drawer, and we had to buy new ones the next time someone needed them. This cycle only changed after my two younger sisters grew up and my parents divorced. With more people getting sick in the house—and my dad, the only one who refused to buy medicine, no longer around—the Cold Remedy Granules finally started getting used up on time.

– Munan

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