Zhou Qi was always very careful whenever he traveled between worlds. Not only did he do it only inside his own home, he also drew the curtains and disinfected himself every time he went in or out.
But his precautions were far from foolproof. There had been one flaw—his very first trip!
He had brought medicinal herbs back from the One Piece World and sold them!
Granted, the herbs he sold all existed on Earth, but their ingredients might not have been the same!
What if scientists got hold of those herbs and discovered compounds or elements that didn't exist on Earth?
Back then, he had not been as clever as he was now. Blinded by his superpower, he had never considered that possibility. Now that Cao Song had brought it up, he immediately remembered.
Not only did he realize something was wrong, he even considered silencing everyone involved permanently!
"General Manager Cao, I'm here!" Zhou Qi shook his head and replied first.
He had barely sent the message when a reply came back immediately.
"Ah, Mr. Zhou, I've finally reached you! Good thing I didn't give up!"
A long string of messages followed. "General Manager Zhou, do you still have medicinal herbs like the last batch? Save some for your brother, will you? Money isn't a problem. I can make the call and raise your price by 20%!"
"So urgent?" The more anxious Cao Song seemed, the more irritated Zhou Qi became. After thinking for a moment, he replied, "Did that batch of medicine work well?"
He needed to confirm whether the herbs had been consumed by someone or taken away for research.
"Er..." Cao Song narrowed his eyes. His years of experience as a store manager immediately helped him come up with the right response.
"Of course! Sixty-year-old, all-natural medicinal herbs are naturally more effective than artificially cultivated ones. And you know what the pandemic is like right now. New mutated strains keep appearing over and over, so as long as good herbs like these hit the market, there's no worry about selling them!"
"I only sold you twelve jin of herbs. That wouldn't even be enough to divide among a few wealthy people, would it?" Zhou Qi replied.
"Er..." Cao Song choked on his words. What a sharp fellow.
These days, there were more and more smart people, and making money was getting harder and harder.
With no other choice, Cao Song said, "Brother, you've got sharp eyes. I really can't hide it from you. Here's the truth: a wealthy man bought up all your herbs, and judging from the feedback, they worked extremely well. He's almost run out, so he's pressuring me again!"
"Fifty percent!" Cao Song continued. "I'll raise your price by fifty percent this time. How about it? You can ask around all you want—no one in the country will offer you more than I will."
Zhou Qi asked, "Who is that wealthy man?"
"Th-that's a trade secret. And that man's health is a serious matter. I can't tell you!" Cao Song replied.
"Is it Liang Ruzhang?" Zhou Qi asked again.
"Huh?" Cao Song blinked. How did he know?
Zhou Qi looked at the webpage before him. The website was called Enterprise Search, and it specialized in looking up corporate structures.
He had just paid for an annual membership and looked up Tongfu Hall.
Sure enough, he discovered that Tiantai Pharmaceutical held 26% of Tongfu Hall's shares.
The Baofeng Pharmaceutical Factory Zhou Qi had bought had once been a contract manufacturer for Tiantai Pharmaceutical, whose head was Liang Ruzhang.
Liang Ruzhang had been admitted to the ICU a month ago, directly causing internal turmoil at Tiantai and a plunging stock price. That was why Zhou Qi had gotten the chance to acquire Baofeng.
Yet Liang Ruzhang had somehow held on in the ICU for an entire month without dying.
Zhou Qi had once wondered how the man could endure so much. Only now did he understand—it was because of the Chinese medicinal herbs he had brought back from One Piece.
"Liang Ruzhang extended his life with my herbs, didn't he?" Zhou Qi asked.
"Mr. Zhou Qi, Chairman Liang has survived this long mainly thanks to the advances of modern medicine. Your herbs merely added a finishing touch!" Cao Song thought Zhou Qi wanted to raise the price, so he was still downplaying the herbs' effects.
"You know, Chairman Liang has assets worth over a hundred billion, and he owns a listed pharmaceutical company. Naturally, he can hire the best specialists and take the best medicine! Your herbs are useful, of course, but they're definitely not as important as you think. How about this? I can authorize a seventy-percent increase. That's really the highest I can go!"
"It'd better be..." Zhou Qi frowned. If they had merely added a finishing touch, then probably no one would think to research the herbs.
But if they had played a decisive role, then this was a huge problem. For all he knew, the herbs might already have been sent to the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Zhou Qi did not think it was the former. After all, the Straw Hat Pirates had been pulled back from the brink of death more than once by Chopper's herbal medicine.
The herbs from that world could truly create miracles!
"I don't have any left!" After some thought, Zhou Qi replied, "I only got this batch of herbs by chance. This is all there was!"
"Then where did you get them?" Cao Song asked. "Tell me the address, and I'll go look!"
"Northern Myanmar. Want to go?" Zhou Qi asked.
"Uh..." Cao Song froze.
If it were somewhere within the country, then going would be no big deal.
But Northern Myanmar...
That place was notorious for harvesting people's kidneys. Even state media and embassies had issued warnings about it!
"Mr. Zhou, you're not joking, are you? How about you name a price? We can discuss it!" Cao Song asked.
"Why would I joke about this..." Zhou Qi replied. "You know better than I do how effective those herbs are. Do you think herbs like that can be cultivated through normal methods?"
"Er..." Cao Song blinked, then fell deep into thought.
Naturally, he understood the herbs' effects better than anyone else.
After Chairman Liang was hospitalized, the higher-ups ordered everyone below to gather precious medicinal herbs and send them over. Cao Song happened to obtain a batch, and wanting to curry favor with the big boss, he personally drove them over.
Then he saw Chairman Liang, whose many vital signs had already been on the verge of death, miraculously survive after drinking a dose of herbal medicine.
Even the traditional Chinese medicine doctor who prescribed it had been stunned.
At first, they thought it was merely a final burst of life. But after Chairman Liang woke up, he could eat and drink, and he even slept well.
The only issue was that he really was old, and his condition kept relapsing. Yet as long as he took a dose of medicine, he immediately recovered.
That was how he had held on for an entire month.
The doctor felt that the medicinal herbs were indeed highly effective, but he believed the prescription deserved more of the credit.
But yesterday, the herbs Cao Song had delivered ran out, so the doctor replaced them with other herbs.
The age of the new herbs was not lower—in fact, it was higher—but their effects were poor, or rather, almost nonexistent.
Liang Ruzhang had been put on a ventilator last night. After studying the cause all night, the doctors even tested the medicine themselves and finally discovered that there was something unusual about the herbs Cao Song had sent.
This time, they did not follow the prescription. Instead, they combined several herbs Cao Song had sent over that were not part of the prescription according to their medicinal properties, then gave the mixture to Liang Ruzhang. Liang Ruzhang actually pulled through the critical period!
It was neither scientific nor logical, but it was the truth!
The doctor felt that he had stumbled upon a huge secret. He set aside some herbs for his own research. Maybe he could produce a major paper from it.
And if he could develop a new medicine like Elder Tu Youyou, wouldn't he be able to win a Nobel Prize too?
Meanwhile, they informed Liang Ruzhang's family.
The family then notified Cao Song.
The herbs Zhou Qi sold were all extremely common Chinese medicinal herbs. If they truly had special effects, scientists should have discovered them long ago.
And even if they had some unusual properties, only one or two types of herbs should have had them. Why did every single herb have life-extending effects?
Since all the herbs shared this special effect, it could only be related to their place of origin or cultivation method.
Cao Song did not think it was their place of origin. After all, when it came to producing medicinal herbs, China was the most authentic and suitable place, yet no such effect had ever appeared.
Then the issue had to lie in the cultivation method.
"Could it be?" Thinking of the rumors about kidney harvesting there, could those kidneys have been used not for transplants, but for...
But that made no sense. Aside from genetic differences, human kidneys and pig kidneys should not differ much in nutritional content.
If human kidneys worked, pig kidneys should not be bad either. But people had long tried cultivating medicinal herbs with pig kidneys.
How should he put it? The results were worse than simply adding chemical fertilizer!
But then again, maybe not!
Thinking of legends from that place about curses and venomous sorcery, could there be some unscientific secret method?
Cao Song was already fifty-seven. He was not exactly a staunch materialist, and following Zhou Qi's train of thought, he could not help wondering whether there truly was some method that could cultivate herbs with extraordinarily powerful life-extending properties.
"If that's the case, then I can only let it go!" Cao Song replied. "Sorry for bothering you!"
"It's fine, it's fine..." Zhou Qi hurriedly said. "By the way, you're not interested in going there, are you? That place is very dangerous!"
"Of course I won't go. I just think it's a shame to lose such a money-making opportunity. Oh, right, this concerns Chairman Liang, so don't go telling anyone about it!"
As he said that, Zhou Qi actually received a transfer notification.
Fifty thousand?
"Consider this compensation for you!"
"Thank you, thank you, brother!" Zhou Qi replied, then scratched his head. What did this mean?
I was planning to make you keep this secret, but now you're the one telling me to keep it secret?
Feeling a little confused, Zhou Qi did not know for a moment whether he should silence Cao Song permanently after all.
On the other end, Cao Song snorted and tossed his phone onto the table.
Dangerous?
If you were afraid of danger, then don't think about making money!
Anyone could tell just by thinking with their backside how enormous the profits from such a miraculous herb-cultivation method would be. If I could master this method, why would I still work as a store manager?
I'd start my own company, become chairman, and monopolize the nation's medicinal herb market!
As for the fact that the herbs required human kidneys, was that even a problem?
How much could a kidney cost? How much was a life-extending ginseng root worth?
I'd offer two hundred thousand for each one, and people would line up to sell!
A bumpkin was still a bumpkin. He had his secret tricked out of him so easily. He deserved to stay poor for the rest of his life!
"Old Cao, when will the medicinal herbs arrive?" His phone lit up, and a message appeared on the screen.
Cao Song glanced at it, ignored it completely, and lay down.
Before he obtained the secret, Chairman Liang was practically his own father.
But now?
Who knew that old man? Get lost!
Before you continue