Testing Medicine

After leaving, Zhou Qi browsed a few clothing stores and bought two outfits with One Piece World flair before heading straight back.

He needed to find someone to verify the fabric's material and make arrangements for the tang peaches.

Back in his bedroom, he switched to another phone he used on this side, which was also his old phone.

A month ago, he had transferred fifty thousand yuan to his mother. She had called him back at noon, and he had said he would explain later. In the blink of an eye, a month had passed...

He checked the time. It was four-thirty in the afternoon, so she should have gotten off work.

He made the call, and it was answered quickly.

"Qi..." A familiar voice came through the phone. His mother was named Sun Yanping, and he could hear someone calling her name on the other end.

"I'm taking a call..." After answering someone, Sun Yanping asked, "What is it? Oh right, you still haven't explained that fifty thousand yuan!"

"One of my old classmates went to Africa. I'm partnering with him in trade now!" Zhou Qi said. "I've made a little money lately, so I sent some home..."

"Huh? Africa?" Sun Yanping froze. Though she was a rural woman, she had watched plenty of videos online and naturally knew what Africa was.

"You're in Africa too?"

"Uh, no. I'm in Nanhai City. He handles the business over there, while I buy things here and ship them to him!" Zhou Qi said.

"Oh, that's good, then!" Sun Yanping breathed a sigh of relief. Africa was no good place. Leaving aside the constant fighting among warlords, with the epidemics that had been rampant in recent years, it was not much different from being completely unmanaged.

"Keep more of the money you earn for yourself. Dating outside costs money too. We don't lack money at home, so there's no need to send any more back!" Sun Yanping said.

She used to urge him to get married, but after two years of getting nowhere, she had stopped.

"I know what I'm doing," Zhou Qi said. "By the way, who's looking after Uncle's peach orchard now?"

"Your eldest cousin!" Sun Yanping said. "But peaches haven't been selling well these past two years, so he dug up more than half the trees and switched to watermelons. If you came back now, you could still eat his watermelons..."

"What would I go back for?" Zhou Qi was speechless. Going back would be easy enough for him, just a matter of using a Space Gate, but many things afterward would be difficult to explain.

"Why are you asking about peach trees? Want some peaches? I'll pick some tomorrow and mail them to you!"

"No, no!" Zhou Qi hurriedly shook his head. "What I mean is, my friend has developed a New Peach Variety in Africa called tang peach. He wants Uncle's family to graft some. These peaches are big and sweet, and they're a variety that doesn't exist domestically. They should sell for quite a lot. Ask my eldest cousin whether he wants to do it!"

"Well, I'll ask him. Do you have samples? I don't understand this stuff, so I can't just tell him about it..."

"Yes. I'll mail you ten jin. Let him try them!"

"Alright..."

"Once I pack them up, I'll send you the tracking number!"

"Mm!"

After hanging up, Zhou Qi searched around the room and found an empty box.

He stuffed it with books he had bought over the years, sealed the box, and contacted SF Express to pick it up.

Once the box arrived, he could swap the books for peaches. That would save the peaches from getting bumped around in transit and ruining their appearance.

"But even if this works, there won't be a harvest until next year. For its influence to spread, it'll probably take until the year after..." He shook his head. There was nothing he could do. Agricultural products were just like that.

Still, he could not simply wait around during those years.

Zhou Qi opened Alibaba again and searched for Capsule Production Lines.

Buying capsules directly was not expensive, so there was no need to manufacture them himself. But the Zhou Family and his mother's Sun Family were both dirt poor, and the past two years had brought all kinds of natural and man-made disasters. He had lacked the ability before, but now that he had the chance to change things, why not do something?

"Pretty cheap..." A fully automated bottled capsule production line cost 130,000 yuan. It could produce ten to one hundred and fifty bottles of capsules per minute—nine thousand bottles per hour, or seventy thousand bottles in an eight-hour day.

Loguetown definitely could not consume that much medicine, but the East Blue was huge. There would certainly be enough demand.

Not to mention the West Blue, South Blue, North Blue, Grand Line, and New World.

This world was so unstable. Pirates and Marines fought every day, so the demand for Anti-inflammatory Drugs would definitely be high. Even if Zhou Qi did nothing else and only sold Anti-inflammatory Drugs, becoming the richest man in Zhongyuan Province should not be a problem.

But all of that depended on whether the medicine would still work after reaching the One Piece World...

He wondered how their drug testing was going.

Since it was an assignment from his master, even though he did not consider it important, Abbu still arranged it immediately.

There were forty pills in one bottle. He sent twenty to Loguetown Hospital and twenty to Loguetown Harbor.

Loguetown Hospital was for people who could afford treatment and medicine. At Loguetown Harbor, however, there was a group of beggars who stumbled through life, unwilling to spend money on medicine. Their wounds eventually became infected, causing them to lose their ability to work and leaving them to survive by begging.

The Tannis Trading Company was a major trading company. Every day, countless matters kept Abbu so busy that his feet barely touched the ground. After making the arrangements, he quickly forgot all about it.

At the Marine base, Smoker had just seen Zhou Qi off when he angrily slammed his fist onto the desk. Seeing Tashigi return, he snorted irritably. "Why were you so polite to someone like that!"

Tashigi chuckled. She was quite thoughtful in her work, but she was clumsy with words and gave off a somewhat dazed impression.

The common term for it was being reservedly capable.

Smoker sighed. "At this rate, you'll get bullied sooner or later..."

Tashigi poured the tea into her own cup so it would not go to waste. Then she turned her head and saw the range hood that was still running.

"Captain, this thing..."

"Hm?" The thing had been humming there for so long that Smoker had gotten used to it. Only now did he realize it had not been removed.

"Call him back. What kind of place is an office for installing something like this?" Smoker said irritably.

"Huh?" Tashigi froze. But with it here, the air in the office really had improved a great deal!

"Isn't it just a range hood? I'll pay for one myself later, and we'll install our own!" Smoker continued.

Tashigi immediately smiled. "Alright, I'll go find him right away!"

Tashigi promptly left the office. Smoker stared at the Space Gate and inexplicably felt that he had failed somewhat as a commanding officer.

He had been here for a year and had never thought of installing a range hood. That Zhou Qi had thought of it in less than three minutes.

Hmph. Cunning merchant.

"Captain, are you there?" A knock suddenly sounded at the door.

"I'm here. Open the door yourself!" Smoker said.

A soldier walked in. Once Smoker recognized him, his expression immediately turned serious. "How is Reza?"

"The doctor said we brought him in too late. The wound is already infected, so I'm afraid..."

"How could this happen!" Smoker froze, then hurriedly rose to his feet. "Come on, take me to him!"

Loguetown Hospital had been a Marine hospital in its early years. However, as the number of residents in the area grew, the hospital's functions expanded as well. It had now become Loguetown's largest hospital, with the most complete departments, the greatest number of doctors, and the highest standard of medical care.

In the surgical intensive care ward, Smoker saw Reza. He lay on the hospital bed, wrapped head to toe in bandages, with only one eye exposed. Now, even that eye was tightly shut.

Reza's family sat beside the bed: his wife and a child still in swaddling clothes.

"..." Even a hardened man like Smoker did not know how to face the woman. He could only lower his head in guilt. "It's all my fault..."

"It's not your fault!" The woman shook her head. "I know you're a good commander. Reza often told me how responsible you were, how much you cared about your subordinates. Every time you fought pirates, you were always the first to charge in. He was just unlucky enough to be hit by a cannonball. How could that possibly be your fault?"

"This..." Smoker fell silent. The more she spoke like that, the guiltier he felt. He almost wished the woman would curse him harshly; at least that would make him feel a little better.

"Doctor Galolo, you're here!"

"Mm!" At the door, a doctor in a white coat and mask walked in. He placed a hand on Smoker's shoulder. "We've done everything we could, but you know how inflammation is..."

Smoker nodded. Pirates did not exactly take care to clean their blades, and Reza had been injured by a cannon blast on top of that. Once Marines were wounded, infection was highly likely.

The hospital did have medicines for treating inflammation, but their effects were poor. Most of the time, patients still had to rely on their own constitution to endure it.

If they pulled through, they lived. If they could not, there was nothing to be done.

Smoker had seen scenes like this many times at Marine Headquarters.

He had simply never expected that something like this would one day happen to one of his own subordinates.

Reza was only twenty years old...

Seeing Smoker's grief, Doctor Galolo felt terrible as well. After all, what doctor did not want to cure their patients?

But inflammation...

Hm?

Doctor Galolo suddenly remembered something. He lightly patted Smoker's shoulder and gestured for him to step outside. "Captain, please come out for a moment..."

"What is it?" In the hospital corridor, seeing Doctor Galolo act so mysteriously, Smoker unconsciously lowered his voice as well.

"It's like this. At noon today, people from the Tannis Trading Company delivered a new medicine, saying it has excellent effects against inflammation!" Doctor Galolo said.

"Hm?" Smoker froze. "The Tannis Trading Company that operates throughout the East Blue and mainly produces red wine and fruit wine?"

"Yes!" Doctor Galolo nodded. "But they've begun entering the pharmaceutical industry in recent years as well. This is the first medicine they've delivered..."

"Then use it!" Smoker said hurriedly.

Doctor Galolo shook his head. "You can't simply find someone to try a new drug. We need to test it on white mice first and confirm that there are no abnormal effects before trying it on humans. They only delivered it today. If nothing unexpected happens, we'll conduct animal testing within three days and clinical trials in a month..."

"A month?" Smoker shook his head. "No. Reza will be gone long before then. The Tannis Trading Company is a major trading company. Its business extends throughout the East Blue and the first half of the Grand Line, and it has a considerable reputation. They wouldn't just casually send over some medicine—that would be destroying their own reputation. They must have tested it internally beforehand..."

"This..." Doctor Galolo thought the same, but Smoker could say such things while he could not.

Otherwise, if something went wrong, he would be the one held responsible.

"Then what do you mean?" Doctor Galolo asked.

"I'll persuade Reza's family. Use this medicine on Reza first!" Smoker said, immediately turning and entering the ward.

Doctor Galolo hurriedly followed.

More than ten minutes later, the woman holding the child nodded heavily.

Fifteen minutes later, Reza swallowed two Amoxicillin capsules.

Four hours later, he took another two.

The sky gradually darkened. Smoker's fists clenched and loosened, then clenched and loosened again.

"The medicine won't take effect that quickly..." Doctor Galolo comforted him from the side. "You should go get some rest first!"

"I'll wait here," Smoker said, shaking his head.

At first, he had only wanted to save his subordinate. But after thinking here for four hours, he had realized how important this medicine was to the Marines.

After all, because Marine equipment and training were superior to those of pirates, very few Marines died directly in battle. The vast majority of casualties occurred during the subsequent treatment.

And the greatest cause of death among them was all kinds of wound infections!

If these Marines could all receive treatment and return to their posts...

That would be far more useful than eliminating ten or even a hundred pirate crews!

The sky darkened further, yet Reza still showed no sign of waking.

Smoker stood straight, but his heart slowly sank.

That was right. A problem no one had solved for countless years—how could one or two pills possibly fix it?

Even if it could treat inflammation, it was probably only suitable for minor inflammation. Reza, on the other hand, had suffered extensive trauma...

"Sigh, forget it..." A wine-selling trading company that had only entered the field a few years ago—how could it possibly develop useful medicine? I really was overthinking it...

Turning around, Smoker called over the young soldier who had reported the news earlier. "Stand guard here. I..."

"Water... water..." A hoarse voice suddenly sounded behind him.

"Hm?" Smoker froze, then abruptly turned around. Reza's tightly shut eyes had opened!