Elixir Supplier

“Hello Uncle Chen, you are here.” The woman had a weak voice.

“You look so tired,” Chen Zhouchuan said with a sigh.

The smell of herbs became stronger after the woman opened the door. It even became unpleasant.

“Please come in,” the woman said.

“This is Dr. Wang. I’ve mentioned him to you before. He is here to take a look at your son,” Chen Zhouchuan said as he pointed at Wang Yao.

“Oh, that’s great. Thank you,” the woman said.

“Let me take a look at the patient first,” Wang Yao said.

They all went inside. Wang Yao found the house only had a few pieces of simple and old furniture.

“The couple have sold everything they could in the past few years for their son,” Chen Zhouchuan said in a low voice.

Wang Yao saw the patient in the bedroom. It was an extremely skinny man. Half of his hair was gone. His face had turned yellow, and his eyes were sunken. He looked like a creepy skeleton. Wang Yao couldn’t even tell how old the patient was by looking at him.

The patient’s body stank with a strong odor of herbs. He was beyond cure.

“What happened to him?” Wang Yao asked.

“He’s got ulcers,” Chen Zhouchuan said.

He indicated to the woman to remove the cover off the patient for Wang Yao to see the body. The ulcers were located around his belly. The patient’s waist was surrounded by ulcers. His muscles had gone rotten. His body stank. Wang Yao could even see the bones.

“How long has he been like this?” Wang Yao asked.

“Over three months,” the woman said.

“Take a look here, Dr. Wang,” Chen Zhouchuan said.

“Yeah, I can see that.” Wang Yao didn’t say much. He went to check the patient’s pulse. “Fortunately, the bacteria hasn’t gone into his bones.”

“Can you save him?” the patient’s mother asked.

“I can certainly try,” Wang Yao said.

“That’s great,” the patient’s mother said.

“But, my herbal decoctions cost a lot,” Wang Yao said.

“Well…” Chen Zhouchuan said after thinking for a moment.

“I’m happy to pay,” the patient’s mother said.

“Look, I’ll pay the fee,” Chen Zhouchuan said.

“No way,” the patient’s mother said. “Uncle Chen, you’ve helped us a lot.”

“That’s fine. No more arguing. I’ll pay for Maoqi,” Chen Zhouchuan said. “Can I have a word, Dr. Wang?”

“Don’t worry about the herbal decoctions for now. Let me treat him with acupuncture first,” Wang Yao said.

He took out some silver needles and inserted them into the patient’s muscles with Qi to consolidate the patient’s fundamental health.

This was the first time for Chen Zhouchuan to observe Wang Yao treating a patient with acupuncture. He observed closely and paid extra attention to how Wang Yao manipulated the needles and the sequence of inserting the needles.

“Hmm, good job,” Chen Zhouchuan said.

Wang Yao’s acupuncture treatment was almost perfect. Chen Zhouchuan couldn’t guarantee that he could do any better than Wang Yao, and he didn’t understand why Wang Yao chose two particular acupoints.

“I’ll go back to prepare the herbal decoction,” Wang Yao said after he had finished treating the patient with acupuncture.

“When will the decoction be ready?” Chen Zhouchuan asked.

“Tomorrow,” Wang Yao said.

“Thank you very much,” the patient’s mother said.

She walked Wang Yao, Su Xiaoxue, and Chen Zhouchuan downstairs.

“When will Maoqi come back?” Chen Zhouchuan asked.

“About 8 p.m.,” the woman said.

“Tell him not to make himself too tired,” Chen Zhouchuan said.

“OK,” the woman said.

“Go home, you need to look after yourself, too,” Chen Zhouchuan said.

The woman didn’t leave until she couldn’t see the three of them anymore.

“Are they your relatives?” Su Xiaoxue asked in the car.

“No, I just happen to know them,” Chen Zhouchuan said.

“Happen to know them?” Wang Yao asked with surprise.

Since Chen Zhouchuan seemed to care a lot about the patient and was going to pay treatment fees for them, Wang Yao thought they were his relatives. In fact, they were just acquaintances, not even friends.

“I know the patient’s father, who I really admire,” Chen Zhouchuan said.

“Why do you admire him?” Su Xiaoxue asked.

“Because of the things he did. Even though I haven’t had the heart to do it,” Chen Zhouchuan said as he began to tell them about the man.

Apparently, Zhang Maoqi was a very kind person. He was passionate about helping people. He had been financially supporting a number of poor students for 10 years. He had donated $156,000 to help those students. It might not be a lot of money for some people, but it was a significant amount for Zhang Maoqi since he didn’t have a good income.

In this world, a lot of people who earned millions or even billions didn’t want to donate a cent to charity. Meanwhile, some people who only earned thousands were happy to support people poorer than them. There was a big difference among people.

Based on this, Wang Yao thought it was unfair that some kind people didn’t end up well while those nasty ones enjoyed a good life.

“So, I decided to help him,” Chen Zhouchuan said.

Wang Yao didn’t say anything. After a while, he asked, “Are you telling us the truth?”

“Do you think I would lie about it? I’m an old man. I don’t need to lie to you,” Chen Zhouchuan said with a smile.

“OK,” Wang Yao said.

It was after 7 p.m. by the time they took Chen Zhouchuan home.

“Would you like to have dinner at my place? My wife has prepared it,” Chen Zhouchuan said.

“No, thanks. We have to go,” Wang Yao said.

They went back to the cottage.

“Are you still thinking about that patient?” Su Xiaoxue asked.

“Yes, can you please help me find out if Dr. Chen was telling the truth? I trust Dr. Chen, but I don’t want him to be fooled,” Wang Yao said.

“No problem. It’s a piece of cake,” Su Xiaoxue said.

She made a phone call and told the person on the other side of the phone about Zhang Maoqi. While they were having dinner, the person called her back.

“Dr. Chen was telling the truth,” Su Xiaoxue said.

“I see. I won’t charge anything for the treatment then,” Wang Yao said. He couldn’t allow a kind person’s family to suffer like that.

“Maybe you are the person sent by god to help them,” Su Xiaoxue said with a smile.

Wang Yao laughed. He met the patient by chance. Or, maybe, God gave him an opportunity to help someone in need. He should probably thank Dr. Chen for the opportunity.

He looked up at the sky. He wished god would share the things he knew.

Wang Yao and Su Xiaoxue chatted for a while after dinner. Chu Lian came to pick up Su Xiaoxue. After Su Xiaoxue had left, Wang Yao started to prepare herbs for the decoction.

It was easier to treat ulcers in the muscles than to treat those in the organs and bones. Wang Yao needed to remove the heat toxins from the patient’s body and help the wounds heal. At least, he needed to reduce the pain and facilitate the growth of new muscles and skins.

He required two herbal decoctions to effectively treat the patient. One was the detox powder, and the other was the muscle revitalizing powder.

He only needed a leaf of detox grass for the detox powder. He still had half a bottle of muscle revitalizing powder in the system. He hadn’t used all the muscle revitalizing powder during the past few treatments.

He adjusted the components of detox powder by adding two herbs so the decoction could not only remove the heat toxin but also reduce pain. He put half leaf of Bajiaotong in when he was almost finished brewing the decoction.

It took Wang Yao the whole night to have the decoctions ready. Fortunately, he had stored some of the herbs he required in the system and brought it with him.

Wang Yao took some time practicing Chinese boxing in the yard the next morning. Chen Ying and Chen Zhou watched him practicing. They both found Wang Yao’s movement was unique. Sometimes he moved fast, and sometimes he moved slowly.

Chen Ying quickly finished making breakfast after Wang Yao had finished practicing boxing.

Meanwhile, in the Su Family house, Su Xiaoxue had finished breakfast.

“You are early today. Do you want more food?” Song Ruiping asked.

“No, thanks. I’m full,” Su Xiaoxue said.

Su Xiaoxue left her house early for the cottage. When she arrived, Wang Yao had finished preparing the herbs and started to brew the decoctions.

“You start early,” Su Xiaoxue said.

“Yes, this is a good time to brew the decoctions,” Wang Yao said with a smile.

Timing and location were very important when brewing a decoction. Wang Yao chose to brew the decoctions in the morning because he wanted to add a sense of vigorous aura into his decoctions.

“This is the same one as you brewed yesterday?” Su Xiaoxue asked.

“Yes, this is Regathering soup,” Wang Yao said.

Wang Yao brewed this decoction first because it would improve Zhang Anjing’s fundamental health. Zhang Anjing must take the decoction as his fundamental health had been damaged by the bacteria severely. He needed to continue to take the regather soup.

“Is this decoction very expensive?” Su Xiaoxue asked.

“Yes, very expensive,” Wang Yao replied.

“How much does it cost?” Su Xiaoxue asked.

“It depends on what it is for,” Wang Yao said. “If the decoction is for a kind person like Zhang Maoqi, I won’t charge a cent. However, if someone nasty or unkind wants my decoction, I won’t give it away no matter how much money he or she pays me.”

“I won’t treat six types of people,” Wang Yao added in a low voice.

The decoction was boiling in the pot. Wang Yao added firewood from time to time. He only brewed one decoction in the morning.

“Are you going to brew another one?” Su Xiaoxue asked.

“Another two actually. I’ve prepared one and will brew the other decoction in the afternoon or evening,” Wang Yao said.

He looked up at the sky. It was a sunny day. The sunshine was bright and scorching. “It’s too hot now.”

“Why do you care about the weather when brewing a decoction?” Su Xiaoxue asked.

“I care about weather, location, and people all the time,” Wang Yao said. “I can brew a decoction for driving the cold toxin out of the human body or improving Yang energy at this time of the day because the Yang energy on the Earth reached peak at noon. However, if I was going to brew a decoction to remove heat toxin or nurture Yin, it wouldn’t be appropriate for me to do it now. I should brew that decoction in late afternoon or evening, when Yin energy reaches peak.”