光抓药就花了一两多
“the medicine alone cost over a tael.”
THE DIALOGUE REEL
“And when Song Yan got sick the year before last,”
光抓药就花了一两多
“the medicine alone cost over a tael.”
也是樊二给掏的呀
“Fan Erniu paid for that too.”
“Don't forget how much money was poured into saving his life.”
In imperial China, silver was the currency of significant transactions; spending more than one tael on basic medicine represents a substantial sum for an ordinary working family.
LEARNING CHUNKS & PARTICLES
to fill a prescription for traditional Chinese herbal medicine
Refers specifically to picking and weighing herbs from multiple drawers in a traditional Chinese apothecary.
just doing [X] alone already cost/entailed [Y]
A widely used grammatical pattern emphasizing that a single component already represents an excessive amount.
Parallel Spoken Cinema Scenes (语义近邻切片)
“Some medicines are not covered, so you have to buy them at the pharmacy.”
“to the hospital and it'll cost a lot.”
“and see if you're carrying this drug I'm holding.”
“wasting countless herbs to produce this single pill.”
“I can tell it is good medicine.”
“There's no medicine. Why didn't you get more?”