Chapter 1247 — A Sure Cure
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
"Never mind. Give me a moment to fetch the medicine — I guarantee you'll be cured the moment you take it." Medicine King turned and walked into the inner room. Before long he emerged with an unlabelled bottle of pills, tipped one out, and handed it to Xu Shilan. "Take this now. I promise you will feel the effect at once."
Xu Shilan did not hesitate; she swallowed the pill Medicine King had given her without delay. And a miracle truly did occur! Before long her headache had eased, and soon after that it had vanished entirely.
"It doesn't hurt? It really doesn't hurt?" Xu Shilan's eyes went wide in astonishment. Was the medicine ever fast! It had worked with the speed of light, while none of the headache remedies she had taken in years past had ever done half so much.
"Naturally. If this medicine did not deliver, I would have no business calling myself Medicine King." Medicine King waved a hand with perfect composure, looking for all the world like a man of unfathomable depths.
In truth, all he had given Xu Shilan was a powerful painkiller. He had not the slightest idea what actually caused her headaches, and in the end he simply did not care. The doctrine Medicine King had always followed was to treat the symptom and never the root: cure the patient for the moment, and what happened afterward was no concern of his. Take the money in hand first; if trouble cropped up later, it had nothing to do with him.
And this particular painkiller was something akin to a narcotic — the sort fed to martial artists who had sustained grievous injuries, a single pill taken when they could barely hold on, enough to keep the life in them. But because its side effects and its capacity to breed dependence were so severe, taking more of it did more harm than good.
Medicine King could not have cared less what consequences Xu Shilan might suffer from taking it. All he wanted was the gain lying before his eyes.
"This medicine... it won't have any side effects, will it?" Xu Shilan was no fool. Something that acted this instantaneously was just a little too miraculous for comfort, so worry was only natural.
"Certainly not. What I dispense is a pure herbal preparation, entirely free of chemical substances. You know how Chinese herbs are — they have no side effects whatsoever; many of them are eaten as seasonings." Medicine King naturally had no intention of telling her the truth about what this pill could do.
"That's a relief..." Xu Shilan nodded, then asked, not quite reassured: "Is this medicine treating the symptoms or the root? It can ease the headache, but can it actually cure me?"
"Taken over a long period, this medicine will certainly cure the illness. But if you wish to recover sooner, it must be supplemented with other Chinese herbs." Medicine King went on: "Once you, Miss Xu, have decided on the treatment, I will write out the prescription."
"Of course we'll have the treatment! With Medicine King's extraordinary skill, staying here is exactly what we want to do," Sister Wang said quickly. "Only — I wonder about the fee..."
"As for the fee... I concern myself only with treating patients. The matter of payment you will need to discuss with Young Master Bing." Knowing full well what Zhao Qibing was after, Medicine King lifted him up and put him forward, leaving it to him to negotiate with Xu Shilan and her party.