"As usual?" w.a.n.g Yao asked.
"Sure," Sun Yunsheng said with a smile.
Soon, he arranged people to complete all the paperwork. w.a.n.g Yao transferred money to Sun Yunsheng online.
Now, both hills belonged to w.a.n.g Yao.
"Dr. w.a.n.g, do you want those houses?" Sun Yunsheng asked.
"No, thanks." w.a.n.g Yao shook his head. "I'll let you know if I need those houses in the future."
"OK," Sun Yunsheng said.
w.a.n.g Yao almost bought half of the village in one day with a relatively small amount of money thanks to Sun Yunsheng.
"How is your father?" w.a.n.g Yao asked.
"He's fine. He has settled the issues for now," Sun Yunsheng said.
"For now?" w.a.n.g Yao asked.
"Yeah, he had to deal with the same group of people. Now, they've left Dao for Miao area," Sun Yunsheng said.
"Miao area?" w.a.n.g Yao asked.
"Yes, they belong to a secretive group called Valley of a Thousand Herbs," Sun Yunsheng said.
"A secretive group called Valley of a Thousand Herbs?" This was the first time for w.a.n.g Yao hear about such a weird group. "So, the group is related to medicine and herbs?"
"It is related to herbs and poisonous herbs," Sun Yunsheng said. "I don't know much about it. My father is reluctant to talk about it."
Sun Zhengrong didn't tell his son a lot about the group because he didn't think it was a good thing for his son to know too much about secretive stuff, which could be a burden to his son.
The world has become more and more interesting, w.a.n.g Yao thought.
He had been seeing patients continuously these days. His experience bar in the system had been growing with visible speed. He could soon upgrade again.
…
In an old village in a valley thousands of miles away from Lianshan, a man was sitting inside a wooden house.
Ahem! Ahem! The man, whose face looked mildly gold, kept coughing. His cough started to get worse. It was as if he was about to cough his lungs out of his chest. His face started to change from the eyes, which turned gray and black, colors of death. The gray and black expanded to other parts of his face but stopped suddenly by something invisible. A moment later, the man's face turned normal.
"Teacher?" Someone was calling outside.
"Come in," the man said.
The wooden door was pushed open. A young man in his 20s came in with a black bowl in his hand. The bowl was filled with herbal soup, which was still steaming hot.
"Teacher, your herbal soup is ready," the young man said.
"Good, leave it on the table," the man said.
"OK. I'm leaving now." The young man left the room immediately since he knew his teacher didn't want him to stay.
The old man stared at the herbal soup in the bowl, which smelled awful. He grabbed the bowl and drank the liquid.
Bang! The bowl dropped onto the ground into pieces. The old man's body started to shake.
"Hmm!" It seemed he was trying to put up with great pain. After a while, his face gradually turned normal. "Almost there!"
…
In the village, a lot of people came to w.a.n.g Yao's clinic.
"He is not here again," said one of the patients who was disappointed. Apparently, he was not the only one feeling disappointed.
"What had Dr. w.a.n.g been busy with?" another patient asked. "This is the third time this week."
"Exactly," one more patient agreed.
w.a.n.g Yao was planting trees. He had been planting trees during the time the clinic was closed. He was very efficient. In three days, he had planted hundreds of trees, and dug two creeks to water those trees. Although the U-shaped land was right next to Nanshan Hill, the aura was different from his herbal field. The trees he had just planted required regular watering to survive.
He returned home after working for the whole day.
"A lot of people went to your clinic the past few days," Zhang Xiuying said.
"I know they came when I was not there. Has anyone come here?" w.a.n.g Yao asked.
"No," Zhang Xiuying said.
All the patients had followed w.a.n.g Yao's rule of not disturbing his family.
"Shouldn't you tell people in advance that you will be away so they don't waste their time to come. I heard some of them came all the way from Haiqu," Zhang Xiuying said.
"Well..." w.a.n.g Yao thought for a moment. "Maybe I should establish a Weibo account."
"What is that?" Zhang Xiuying asked.
"Something on the internet," w.a.n.g Yao said.
That night, w.a.n.g Yao registered an account on Weibo with a nickname as Nanshan Pharmacist.
The next morning, he put a sign in his clinic stating he had registered a Weibo account for everybody to see. Now, his patients would know in advance whether he would be in the clinic.
The clinic will close tomorrow. Sorry for all the inconvenience. w.a.n.g Yao uploaded a statement on Weibo by the end of the day. Someone quickly responded.
w.a.n.g Yao was a very old-fas.h.i.+oned guy. He rarely used social network applications such as Weibo and Wechat.
…
In Lianshan People's hospital, Pan Jun went to see the head of the hospital.
"Sir, did you want to talk to me?" Pan Jun asked.
"Yes, Dr. Pan, please sit down," the head of the hospital said. "I heard you have a teacher in Palm town?"
"Yes," Pan Jun said.
"He's good at treating people with strokes?" the head of the hospital asked.
"Yes, but not only strokes, he is good at treating all sorts of illnesses," Pan Jun said.
"I heard he has a kind of herb with a fabulous effect in treating people with stroke," the head of the hospital said.
"Well, likely," Pan Jun said after keeping silent for two seconds.
"Is it possible..." The head of the hospital tried to say something but stopped.
It would be really exciting to have a type of herb that could cure strokes. It was like having a hen that could lay golden eggs.
Pan Jun immediately got what the head of the hospital tried to say. "I'd have to ask him."
"OK, ask him for me," the head of the hospital said with a smile.
After leaving the head of hospital's office, Pan Jun felt really bad about the conversation he had with his superior. "What the h.e.l.l does he want? What a cheeky b.a.s.t.a.r.d!"
He went to the village to tell w.a.n.g Yao about his conversation with the head of the hospital in the afternoon.
"How did he know?" w.a.n.g Yao asked.
"You've been having a lot of patients lately," Pan Jun said. "Some of them had strokes and took herbs from you. Of course more and more people would know about it. It's not surprising for him to know."
"Is he a greedy person?" w.a.n.g Yao asked.
"He has a very bad reputation," Pan Jun said. "Yes, he is greedy. You can apply for a patent for your herb if you find a way to do it."
"OK, I see," w.a.n.g Yao said.
"By the way, I heard Mr. Zhen's family runs a well-known pharmaceutical company. You can ask him for advice," Pan Jun suggested.
"OK, thank you for reminding me," w.a.n.g Yao said.
"You are most welcome," Pan Jun said.
That night, w.a.n.g Yao went to Sun Yunsheng's house to see Zhen s.h.i.+xiong. He asked Zhen s.h.i.+xiong about applying for a patent.
"You want to apply for a patent for your herb? That won't be a problem." Zhen s.h.i.+xiong was very happy to help w.a.n.g Yao.
"Have you ever thought about running your own pharmaceutical company to manufacture your own formulas?" Zhen Weijun asked.
"To manufacture my own medication?" w.a.n.g Yao had not thought about that.
With the a.s.sistance of the magical system, he had a rich knowledge that was beyond anyone's imagination. He had grasped numerous herbal formulas. Some of the formulas could be made using existing herbs from the market. The others were unique since they were given by the system. No one else could access those licorice roots.
"Is it hard to establish my own pharmaceutical company?" w.a.n.g Yao asked.
"Not really," Zhen Weijun said.
In fact, the government was very strict with drug manufacturers. To get a permit to manufacture drugs was one of the most difficult things in the country.
"Will you consider it?" Zhen Weijun asked.
"To be honest, I've never thought about it before," w.a.n.g Yao said. "Since you've mentioned it, yes, I'm interested."
"You should start to put it into action," Zhen Weijun said.
It was a complicated process to establish a pharmaceutical company. A lot of initial preparations were required.
"How much money does it cost to establish a pharmaceutical company?" w.a.n.g Yao asked.
"It's hard to say, but you need at least several tens of millions," Zhen Weijun said.
"Gosh, that much?" w.a.n.g Yao asked with surprise.
"That's the minimum amount," Zhen Weijun said.
"I see," w.a.n.g Yao said.
"I can help you if you don't mind," Zhen Weijun said.
"What do you mean?" w.a.n.g Yao asked.
"I can partner with you to establish a pharmaceutical company," Zhen Weijun said.
He made such a suggestion because he wanted to thank w.a.n.g Yao for curing him, as well as appreciating w.a.n.g Yao's magical licorice roots. He had first-hand experience with those licorice roots. If those licorice roots could be manufactured in large amount, he and w.a.n.g Yao would be able to make a big profit out of it, which would be beyond imagination.
"Partners.h.i.+p?" w.a.n.g Yao asked.
"Yes, I'll let you have the majority of the shares," Zhen Weijun said. "And, power of making all the decisions."
"I'll think about it," w.a.n.g Yao said with a smile.
"That's fine. I'll arrange someone to look into the patent right away," Zhen Weijun said.
