Tu Youyou was born in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, China. Her name comes from the poetry: “With pleased sounds the deer call to one another, Eating the southernwood of the fields.” It's more than a coincidence that the southernwood in poetry is Artemisia annua, which may indicate that her life will be bound up with this plant. Roman was not built in a day, nor were the drugs. It took Tu Youyou three months to collect more than 2000 prescriptions from ancient books and she spent plenty of time on experiments. But unfortunately, all failed. How would she do in a desperate situation?