Chapter 107

After hearing this story, I couldn't help feeling a bit gloomy deep inside, and at the same time I secretly worried about Pangzi, fearing he would suffer the dreadful five detriments and three deficiencies because of it.

"One dead egg faces heaven, undead lives ten thousand years, what's there to fear? I, the old man, believe Heaven has eyes and won't strike a good person like me." Pangzi was very carefree, unlike me who was anxious and fearful.

"It's best to use the forbidden needles of the Thirteen Needles of Ghost Gate as little as possible; not to mention severing the reincarnation path of the spiritual body and foreign entities, even the host's body will be harmed. Those with strong constitutions are fine, they'll be weak for a period after expulsion; those with weak constitutions won't recover for a long time." Pangzi sighed again.

He took out a pen and notebook, sat in the chair thinking for a long while, then wrote a prescription.

"Pangzi, what are you doing? Medicine and needle methods together—are you treating Shishi's illness?" I asked curiously from the side.

Pangzi shook his head and said, "This prescription is to nourish Shishi's body." Then he seemed to recall something, put down the pen, turned his head and asked me, "By the way, do you have money? I didn't bring any."

I rummaged through my pockets and had about a hundred or so.

"Just over a hundred? That's probably not enough!" Pangzi shook his head.

I: …Damn, are the mountain delicacies and seafood you prescribed still medicine? Over a hundred isn't enough for two doses?

"You don't know jack, this medicine has a few ingredients that are expensive—costing dozens per gram even inland; what about Aomen?" Pangzi waved the prescription and gave me a look.

"So what now? I only have this hundred or so on me—am I supposed to go back to the guesthouse to get more?" I muttered speechlessly.

Pangzi rolled his dark eyes, thought for a moment, then gave a hehe laugh and pointed at the room: "Hehe, isn't there a tycoon in there?"

"Holy shit… why do I have to borrow when you wrote the prescription?" I clenched my fists, protesting unwillingly at Pangzi, but the protest was feeble; Pangzi dragged me outside the room and gave me a hard kick, sending me flying into the room.

With a bang, I stumbled into the room; the three people inside were gathered at the bedside carefully attending to Shishi, and upon hearing the sound they all turned to look at me in unison.

"Hehe… uh, Yirong, I have something to ask you." I stood there uneasy, stammering for a while before managing to blurt out those words.

Yao Yirong followed me out of the room, blinking her big eyes curiously as she asked, "What's the matter? Why so mysterious?"

I rubbed the back of my head, thumbs twirling at my waist: "I… I… I, uh, the medicine money isn't enough, I want to borrow… borrow some." As soon as I said the word "borrow," the pressure on me eased, like a load lifted. Emma, borrowing money from a woman is really not easy to handle.

"Just this little thing, right? You should have said so earlier," Yao Yirong said cheerfully, pulling a stack of bills from her bag and shoving it in front of me.

I… stared at the small stack of red bills in my hand and couldn't help exclaiming: "I've heard tycoons waste money like this."

Then I glanced at Yao Yirong again, very curious and cautiously asking: "Hey, have you ever smashed someone with money before? When you do, do you feel a rush of pleasure, like one wave after another, wave after wave of surging climax…"

"Get lost…" Yao Yirong blushed and kicked at me fiercely; luckily I was agile and dodged in time.

They say a man shouldn't be foul-mouthed, or lightning will strike him immediately; now I find my character becoming more like Pangzi's… so whenever I'm foul-mouthed, the karmic retribution comes right away.

After I dodged her kick, Yao Yirong's fist came right after; this time I couldn't dodge back, and her pink fist slammed hard into my nose bridge.

"Let your foul mouth get slapped…" Yao Yirong snorted, ran into the room, and slammed the door shut with a bang, leaving me alone squatting on the floor, wanting to cry but unable to.

"Damn it, my foul mouth gets slapped—you don't have to punch my nose every time; each time it's like this, could you at least leave my nose some dignity?"

"Hahaha…" Pangzi held his stomach inside the room, laughing uproariously.

"Laugh at your sister, go grab the medicine." I glared at him viciously and flung the money into his hand.

"Hehe, fine, not saying it, let's go get the medicine!" Although he didn't say it, Pangzi still licked his lips with lingering desire, lewdly muttering low: "I never expected you to be worth some money; if it were me, I really couldn't afford this price."

I: "……"

Suppressing the urge to beat Pangzi senseless, I dragged him out of the building. I feared that if we went out together, other wandering ghosts might cause trouble. Before leaving, I also deliberately left Hong Nainai in the house.

Having taken the money, Pangzi and I dared not hesitate; we rushed into the alley and onto the street looking for a pharmacy, but for some reason, although there were many drugstores, they all sold Western medicine—there wasn't a single Chinese medicine shop.

"What the hell, why does Aomen's pharmacy not sell Chinese medicine at all?" I gulped down saliva under the scorching sun.

"There seems to be one that looks like it sells Chinese medicine." Pangzi wiped the sweat from his forehead and pointed to a shop at the corner.

Following Pangzi's finger, I saw a pharmacy with a rather classical style; walking in, I saw the signboard read "Hongji Tang" in three characters. Seeing that name, I couldn't help but feel overjoyed—from the layout and the name it was clearly an old-established shop; such a place usually carries medicinal herbs, and maybe the owner is an old Chinese doctor.

Pangzi and I entered, and sure enough on the left side of the pharmacy were many medicine cabinets; beside them stood a fifty- or sixty-year-old old man wearing spectacles, busy grinding common herbs like codonopsis and goji berries on the table.

I handed the prescription to the old man and said, "Please fill two doses…"

The old man took the prescription, glanced at it, then shook his head and handed it back to me.

"I can't fill this prescription; I'm missing antelope horn and processed ephedra."

"What do you mean you don't have them? Behind you the medicine cabinets clearly show the names of those two herbs—don't lie to us!" I pointed to the old man's rear cabinets, where two of them had large labels reading processed ephedra and antelope horn.

"Really none—those cabinets are empty." Seeing my disbelief, the old man pulled out the drawers labeled with those two herbs; sure enough, they were completely empty.

"Boss, I say you're not running this pharmacy properly—ephedra and antelope horn are fairly common herbs; how can your shop not stock them? Isn't this just preparing to close down?" Pangzi expressed some dissatisfaction with the shop's work ethic.

While organizing the herbs, the old man lifted his head, his cloudy eyes gazing at us, then lowered it and sighed sorrowfully: "Just close it then; it's bound to shut sooner or later."

"Oh…" The old man's words sparked strong curiosity in Pangzi and me; this simple remark seemed to carry some other implication.

"By the way, sir, why are there so few pharmacies on this street? I came from the street and only saw yours; the others are gone." I guessed the scarcity might relate to your sigh—could it be that these pharmacies are being suppressed by triads and can't stay open?

Hearing my question, the old man sighed in disbelief, glanced at us, and gave a wry smile: "Nowadays everyone finds Chinese medicine's effects too slow, too troublesome, too expensive; when they get sick they all go for Western medicine—who would still come buy Chinese medicine?"

"That's right, Chinese medicine is bitter after all; nowadays few young people can endure bitterness." The old man gave another self-deprecating smile, picked up the prescription and looked at it again, then told us: "We don't have processed ephedra, but we have raw ephedra; antelope horn is too expensive—about a hundred per gram—I feared no one would buy it and the medicine would go to waste, so I didn't stock it. However, we do have a few herbs here with similar effects to antelope horn."

"Fine… just give us the ephedra; as for antelope horn, we'll substitute." Pangzi made a quick decision.

The old man's movements were swift and sure; despite his age, he showed considerable experience—he finished preparing the two doses from the prescription in over twenty minutes.

"The medicine's ready—take it. In a few days I'll be closing this shop; if you want more medicine later, you'll have to go another block over, where there's an old-established pharmacy. Though its business is also poor, that old fellow has more savings than I do and can hold on a bit longer." The old man handed us the filled medicine packets, took the money, then said nothing more, continuing to grind herbs from the newspaper with his head down, his eyes full of pity, as if he were looking at his own children.

As we walked out of the pharmacy, I inadvertently glanced back and saw the old man remove his heavy spectacles and quietly wipe away a tear.

Gazing at this prosperous city, the bustling crowds, the ancient yet desolate pharmacy and the flourishing street form a stark contrast.

"Pangzi, do you think traditional Chinese medicine has really declined? Will the art of diagnosing fate and prescribing medicine be eliminated by society?" My heart felt most unpleasant.