"Shopkeeper, are you still open for business?"
"Hey, Brother Shi, you're here?"
In the dead of night, a gaunt, pale figure pushed open the doors of the Treasure Medicine Pavilion.
He clutched a burlap sack tightly in one hand.
The shopkeeper, a silver-haired man in brocade robes, set down his abacus.
He looked over the bloodied, bedraggled youth. A strange glint flashed in his eyes as he called, "A-Tai, A-Ming, come help Brother Shi!"
Two shop assistants hurried over to support Shi Wen.
One of them reached out to take the sack from him.
Shi Wen pushed them away, dragged over a chair, and sat down. He hugged the sack tightly to his chest and said weakly, "No need for all that. Show me some decent medicines for injuries."
"Medicines?"
Su Yaobai looked surprised. "Brother Shi, are you sure? You want pills? They aren't cheap!"
"Just show me."
"Of course!"
Su Yaobai hurriedly pulled a catalog from behind the counter and opened it. "This is the Blood-Nourishing Yuan-Restoring Pill. It quickly restores your blood and energy. A bottle costs ten taels of silver and contains about twenty pills. It's made from the sinews and bones of mountain beasts, decades-old medicinal herbs, and exotic beast meat. It speeds up the tempering of a martial artist's blood and energy. One pill can restore a Blood Tempering warrior's full reserves in fifteen minutes."
"This is Black Jade Bone-Knitting Paste. Thirty taels a jar. It's a peerless medicine made from century-old herbs and the flesh of the exotic beast Red Taisui. Broken bones, severe wounds, all kinds of internal injuries... Apply this, and you'll be back on your feet in ten days or half a month."
"And this is the Spring-Returning Pill. Fifteen taels of silver per bottle, with about twenty pills as well. One pill invigorates your blood and energy, speeds up recovery from injuries, calms the mind, and nourishes the organs. It's rarely even seen on the market..."
Su Yaobai exaggerated the effects, bragging about them as much as he could.
The pills would be lucky to work even a tenth as well as he claimed.
Shi Wen's eyes flickered.
One tael of silver could be exchanged for thirty strings of cash. These pills cost at least three thousand strings a bottle. The shopkeeper was clearly asking an outrageous price.
"I'll take them! And some exotic beast meat, too. The kind that costs a hundred strings per catty..."
With a trembling arm, Shi Wen opened the sack and pulled out ten banknotes, placing them on the table.
The two shop assistants stared at the ten banknotes he drew from the sack, their eyes wide. They kept swallowing.
Even Su Yaobai's expression changed.
Shi Wen acted as though he hadn't noticed.
After haggling, he counted the banknotes, put the excess back in the sack, and tied it shut.
He looked wary and timid.
Su Yaobai examined the banknotes for signs of authenticity, then nodded. "All right. I'll take one hundred taels in banknotes and give you three taels and two mace in change."
Then he got up and packed the goods into a clearly expensive waterproof cowhide bag.
He handed it to Shi Wen with a smile. "Boss Shi, would you like us to send someone to escort you?"
"No need!"
Shi Wen warily picked up the two bags. He staggered, and when he first tried to stand, he nearly fell from weakness.
His face was deathly pale, and holding the two bags took all his strength.
Still, he disappeared into the darkness outside.
"Take care, Boss Shi! Come again when you have the time!"
Su Yaobai couldn't keep the grin off his face.
The youth had haggled, but clearly didn't know the market prices of exotic beast meat and pills.
He'd made at least twenty taels of silver. Pure, gleaming money straight into his pocket!
"Shopkeeper, that kid suddenly got rich, and he didn't even bargain like last time. He must've struck it lucky. His sack was packed full, so there's definitely more money in there!"
A-Ming made a throat-slitting gesture, greed flashing in his eyes. "Should we take him out?"
"Shopkeeper, just say the word. We'll find someone to kill the kid. You get seventy percent, we get thirty!"
A-Tai spoke up greedily, too.
Silence fell over the Treasure Medicine Pavilion.
Candlelight fell across Su Yaobai's weathered, aging face.
Greed flickered in his eyes, too, but in the end he stopped them. "Forget it. His money is his business. Why meddle?"
"Get back to bed, all of you. Don't let me catch anyone sneaking off to do this behind my back, or I'll cripple you!"
Ten highwaymen couldn't beat one medicine seller.
His medicine shop already earned him a handsome profit. He was getting old; why invite trouble?
If anything went wrong, his backers wouldn't spare his entire family.
A-Ming and A-Tai jumped, then hurriedly bowed and nodded.
These days, anyone who could deal in medicinal herbs was either ruthless or well-connected. And as employees of the Treasure Medicine Pavilion, they knew exactly how ruthless their shopkeeper could be!
They might be unwilling, but how could they dare defy him?
Meanwhile, out on the street,
Shi Wen staggered along, occasionally glancing back out of the corner of his eye.
The Treasure Medicine Pavilion closed without anyone coming after him.
Shi Wen couldn't help sighing.
He'd seen the shop assistants' vicious expressions and had planned to bait them into attacking him.
That way, he wouldn't just save a huge sum of silver; he could demand compensation, too.
If they paid, he'd take it. If they didn't, he'd take it himself!
Who would've thought they wouldn't come looking for trouble?
"Can you still find good people in this world?"
"Bah! Anyone who sells things this expensive doesn't count as a good person. I'm not going back next time."
Shi Wen muttered to himself.
He took out a bottle of Spring-Returning Pills, pulled out the stopper, and tipped them into his mouth. He chewed the slightly bitter pills like candy beans.
The pills crackled and popped in his mouth.
He swallowed them.
A moment later, Shi Wen felt warmth spread through his body like a furnace. It was wonderfully soothing.
The pain from his injuries eased considerably, too.
Within minutes of taking the Spring-Returning Pills, he could barely feel any pain at all.
"The pills they sell aren't bad. They really do help."
Shi Wen tipped half a bottle of Blood-Nourishing Yuan-Restoring Pills into his mouth and chewed them.
He also bought a change of clothes, then hurried back to Peace Lane under cover of darkness.
The journey was uneventful.
When he reached the alley outside his home, Shi Wen saw Old Shi pacing anxiously at the entrance, his dry tobacco pipe wreathed in smoke.
Shi Wen felt a pang in his heart and called out to him, "Dad, I'm back."
"A-Wen's back?" Old Shi visibly relaxed. He didn't scold his son, but hurried over to greet him. "You must be hungry. Come inside and eat. The food's been kept warm in the pot."
"Okay."
Shi Wen nodded.
When he got home, neither of his parents had eaten.
The food had been kept warm in the pot the whole time.
He ate with his parents, listening as Old Shi talked about how steady business had been at his little stall in Peace Lane. A smile spread across Shi Wen's face, too.
"We've saved enough money. When we have time in the next few days, we'll go look in the Inner City. If we find a suitable house, we'll buy it, and the whole family can move there."
Looking at his parents, whose hair had begun to turn white,
Shi Wen made a quiet decision.
After dinner, Shi Wen returned to his room and shut the doors and windows.
He set the things he'd bought at the Treasure Medicine Pavilion in a corner, then picked up a finger-thick strip of exotic beast meat and chewed on it.
This exotic beast meat was called Fu Bird Meat. It cost two hundred strings per catty.
Su Yaobai had claimed it had the effect of "eating it leaves you without sleep and with endless energy."
Aside from being dozens of times more nourishing than Grey Meat,
eating it over a long period could keep you alert and focused for hours, reduce the time you needed to sleep, and still leave you full of energy.
Many martial artists used it during long seclusions to study martial arts.
That was why Shi Wen had bought five catties to try.
Besides that, he'd bought some pills to maintain his energy and replenish his blood and qi.
They were for nourishing his body and for emergencies.
"Let's see what good stuff these Border Army soldiers had."
Shi Wen tipped an unremarkable burlap sack upside down onto the floor.
A clatter of things spilled out, forming a pile that came almost up to his knees...
Before you continue