Cheap goods are never good. That had been true since time immemorial.
And the pharmaceutical companies Zhao Dapeng recommended had all been established only recently.
Their equipment was rudimentary, their processes crude, and their ingredients poor in quality. Naturally, the drugs they produced came with severe side effects.
But what else could they do?
Just as Zhu Hong had said, he wanted to take medicine from a major manufacturer too. The problem was, he was broke.
With no savings to speak of, all he could do was take substandard medicine and tough out the side effects.
At least it gave him a glimmer of hope in martial arts.
Gao Teng let out a long breath, unable to help lamenting how difficult the path of martial arts was.
Then he pulled his thoughts back and asked the nurse, "Which floor is Zhou Xing on? I'd like to visit him."
"He's in the inpatient building. The entire seventh floor is full of patients who overdosed on medication and were brought in for emergency treatment."
Gao Teng smiled politely. "Thank you."
"You two must be close. You came to see him so quickly."
Gao Teng spoke earnestly. "We're very, very close. He helps me every day, helping me improve my strength.
Without him, I wouldn't have gotten stronger so quickly. He's helped me so much."
The nurse looked surprised. "That's strange. He has such a bad temper. He doesn't seem like the kind of person who'd go out of his way to help a classmate."
Gao Teng smiled. "Maybe he thinks of me as his own father."
"Huh?!"
Gao Teng didn't explain. After thanking the nurse again, he turned and left the emergency building.
He didn't go to the inpatient building. He could visit tomorrow morning.
For now, he needed to hurry home. He still had to hunt mutated creatures in the sewers that night.
Gao Teng quickened his pace, found his bicycle in a corner of the courtyard, unlocked it, and rode home.
After riding for more than half an hour, with some distance still left to go, Zhang Meizhu suddenly called.
Gao Teng looked at her name on his phone, puzzled, then answered.
"What's up?"
Zhang Meizhu got straight to the point. "Do you still want to hunt monsters?"
Gao Teng raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean? Weren't you unwilling to take the risk yesterday? Why the sudden change of heart?"
Zhang Meizhu sighed. "I haven't changed my mind. I don't want to hunt monsters at all. The problem is, there might be a monster living right next door to me."
"Oh?"
"How do I put this?"
On the other end of the call, Zhang Meizhu scratched her head. "There's a man living next door. Almost every night, he brings home a different woman, and then I hear all sorts of strange noises.
"But for the past two weeks, there's been no sound coming from his apartment. It's been especially quiet at night.
"I've been feeling more and more uneasy about it, so I checked the footage from my smart peephole camera. He's still bringing women home every night as usual.
"But once they go into his apartment, they never come back out!"
Gao Teng took a deep breath. Zhang Meizhu's neighbor really was suspicious!
His expression turned grave. "Where do you live? I'm coming over now."
"Xianghe Garden, Building 11, Apartment 1902."
Zhang Meizhu gave him the full address.
Gao Teng committed it to memory, then suddenly heard a doorbell ring through the phone.
After a few seconds of silence, Zhang Meizhu lowered her voice. "My neighbor's at the door."
As soon as she said that, the call went dead. When he tried calling back, her phone was switched off.
Gao Teng's heart tightened. There was no time to waste!
He hurriedly locked his bicycle to a roadside utility pole, flagged down a taxi, and headed for Xianghe Garden.
Once he was in a car, he could get there much faster.
It took only a few minutes for Gao Teng to reach his destination.
He paid the driver through his phone and dashed into the high-rise complex, finding Building 11 as quickly as he could.
Since the elevator required a keycard to reach each floor, he had no choice but to climb the stairs, one floor at a time, until he reached the nineteenth.
Just then, his phone rang.
Gao Teng pulled it out and glanced at the screen. Zhang Meizhu was calling.
Panting, he answered. Her familiar voice came through.
"It's fine now. My neighbor brought me some fruit and asked me to come over for a drink, but I already chased him away.
"My phone ran out of battery earlier. I spent ages looking for the charger, then realized it was in my coat pocket the whole time. That's why I took so long to call you back."
Listening to her, Gao Teng could only think how absurd it was.
He'd rushed all this way, only for it to be this?!
Was she kidding?!
He walked up to Zhang Meizhu's door and knocked.
It opened almost immediately.
Zhang Meizhu stared at him in shock. "How did you get here so fast? How'd you get up here?"
"What do you think?"
Gao Teng was soaked through, sweat dripping from his hair.
Zhang Meizhu looked astonished. "You ran up?"
"I flew up," Gao Teng said sarcastically. "Someone was setting off rockets downstairs, and one of them carried me up. Bet you didn't expect that, huh?"
Zhang Meizhu pressed her hands together. "I'm sorry. I didn't know my phone would suddenly die and make you worry. I'm really sorry."
Gao Teng put his hands on his hips, feeling completely helpless.
Zhang Meizhu immediately stepped aside to make room. "Come in and sit down. Have some water."
Gao Teng ran a hand through his damp hair and went inside.
The living room was cozy, with a soft, soothing color scheme.
Lots of photographs were displayed on the TV stand, from Zhang Meizhu's first-month celebration as a baby to snapshots of her adult life. There were also many family photos taken over the years.
"Gao Teng, have a seat."
Zhang Meizhu pointed to the beige sofa, looking embarrassed.
"No, I'm drenched in sweat. I'd get your sofa dirty."
Gao Teng waved her off, then lowered his voice to get down to business. "You just saw the neighbor next door. Did you notice anything strange?"
Zhang Meizhu's expression turned serious. "I didn't notice anything wrong with him, but he had a hard-to-describe fishy smell. There's definitely a monster in his apartment.
"He came over because he wanted to use his looks to charm me, then trick me into going to his place so the monster could eat me.
"After all, a warrior's flesh and blood is delicious to monsters."
Gao Teng felt a surge of excitement. Climbing all those stairs had been a waste of effort, but at least coming here hadn't been for nothing.
Zhang Meizhu continued, "The monster probably isn't very strong. Otherwise, it would've come straight for me. The two of us should be able to take it on together."
Gao Teng nodded slightly. Zhang Meizhu's reasoning made some sense.
He asked, "When should we make our move? Do you have a plan?"
"Do you want to rest a little longer?" Zhang Meizhu said apologetically. "I made you climb all those stairs for nothing. I'm really sorry.
"I didn't notice my phone was dead, and I never expected the charger to be in my coat pocket. I'm such an idiot."
"Be more careful next time."
Gao Teng sat down on the spot. There was no need to rush into hunting a monster. They could wait until his body had fully recovered before setting out.
"I'll get you some water."
Zhang Meizhu turned and went into the kitchen. She came back with a glass of warm water, with a few slices of ginseng floating in it.
Gao Teng took the glass and drained it. "Another one, please. From the toilet bowl."
"...Huh?!"
Before you continue