Lying in bed, Fang Qiu couldn’t fall asleep but dared not speak.
Likewise,
Jiang Mengjie remained silent, lying on her side. It was pitch black but she gazed at Fang Qiu’s direction.
The pair didn’t sleep.
The night went by slowly.
A quiet night.
An eventless night.
The next morning.
“Awake?”
At daybreak, Fang Qiu saw Jiang Mengjie lying in bed with eyes open.
“Emm… I think my body misses my own bed so I wake up early.”
Said Jiang Mengjie, nodding her head.
“What about getting up to do some exercise?”
Asked Fang Qiu.
“Sure.”
Jiang Mengjie nodded with a smile.
The pair got up and left the hotel.
They began jogging on the track by the Central Lake of the university.
“I’m leaving today.”
Said Jiang Mengjie abruptly.
Fang Qiu was quiet for a while before asking, “What time is your train?”
“It would be time after breakfast.”
Jiang Mengjie replied.
“I’ll see you off.”
Said Fang Qiu.
“Of course. Otherwise you would let me, a girl, leaving alone?”
Jiang Mengjie laughed.
After two laps of jogging,
Fang Qiu and Jiang Mengjie stopped. They entered the cafeteria while talking.
After breakfast, it was 7:30 in the morning.
Jiang Mengjie’s ticket was for the 8:30 service.
Fang Qiu took a taxi to the high-speed railway station with Jiang Mengjie.
“Do you hate to part with me?”
After getting her ticket in the high-speed railway station, Jiang Mengjie asked Fang Qiu with a smile.
“You are leaving anyway no matter whether I hate to part with you or not.”
Fang Qiu laughed.
“Give me a hug.”
Jiang Mengjie opened her arms and said with a smile, “I’m boarding.”
Fang Qiu didn’t say anything.
He walked up and hugged Jiang Mengjie.
Jiang Mengjie with a sweet smiled leaned to Fang Qiu’s shoulder and whispered to his left ear, “We’ll see each other soon.”
After,
She let go her arms and turned around to leave.
In the waiting hall through the glass window, Fang Qiu watched Jiang Mengjie board the train and then turned around to return to school.
“See each other soon?”
Fang Qiu murmured to himself while walking.
He didn’t understand what Jiang Mengjie meant by this.
Would she return after going home?
No way.
The national day holiday would end soon and Jiang Mengjie should go back to school for her classes. She couldn’t come back.
After pondering for a good while,
Fang Qiu still couldn’t figure out. He shook out the thoughts.
Out of the high-speed railway station,
“Dee-dee-dee…”
His mobile suddenly rang in his trouser pocket.
He took out the phone and saw an incoming call from Jiang Miaoyu.
“Hello?”
Fang Qiu answered.
“It’s me.”
Jiang Miaoyu’s voice came through. “I want to ask when Mengjie will leave. I’d like to see her off.”
“She’s already left.”
Answered Fang Qiu.
“ah?”
Jiang Miaoyu was shocked. She asked, “When?”
“Just now. I just watched her board her train.”
Said Fang Qiu.
“Oh!”
Jiang Miaoyu nodded her understanding. After some hesitation, she asked again, “Didn’t you go back to school last night?”
“No.”
Fang Qiu hesitated but told the truth in the end.
It was silence from the other end.
After a long while,
“I have to study now.”
Said Jiang Miaoyu before hanging up.
Hanging up.
Lying in bed, Jiang Miaoyu frowned and felt blocked in the pit of the stomach.
Outside the high-speed railway station,
Fang Qiu put on a wry smile.
He knew Jiang Miaoyu had misunderstood.
He didn’t return to school all night.
It sounded too obvious to her.
Jiang Miaoyu knew he escorted Jiang Mengjie back to her hotel.
What kind of place was that?
A hotel!
He didn’t return to school so he must have stayed in the hotel.
With an empty dorm room in school, Fang Qiu wouldn’t have checked in another room in the hotel. If he didn’t get another room, then he must have slept in Jiang Mengjie’s room.
He knew Jiang Miaoyu had misunderstood and he wanted to explain but he realized he couldn’t clear it.
Why was that?
How to explain?
He could explain but would Jiang Miaoyu understand?
Spending a night with a girl alone… How would any girl think about it?
Fang Qiu looked up into the sky and laughed bitterly.
He decided to leave everything behind.
He must deal with the earth treasure first!
He took a taxi back to school with a wry smile.
“The national day holiday will end soon. I must hurry.”
Back in his dorm, Fang Qiu grabbed his backpack and left again.
Inside his backpack there were a few ganoderma and wild ginsengs.
He planned to sell them to a pharmacy.
People in other places might not know much about it. He had to find a Chinese pharmacy.
Walking out of the school gate, Fang Qiu was busy searching for Chinese pharmacy on his mobile.
Soon,
He found one named Shide Pharmacy with the label “over one hundred years old Chinese medicine store”.
The reviews were rather positive.
And this pharmacy was not far from the university, about several kilometers away.
Fang Qiu walked over instead of taking a cab.
Of course.
At a much faster speed than an average man.
After fifteen minutes,
Fang Qiu reached the pharmacy.
Raising his eyes,
This Chinese medicine store was decorated with aged black wood, giving off an air of great antiquity.
The store had three faces.
The two on the sides were blocked by glass and the one in the middle was wide open under a traditional inscribed board with four golden characters, “Shide Chinese Medicine Shop”.
“Looking good.”
Fang Qiu thought to himself as he entered the pharmacy.
As soon as he walked in,
All kinds of scents of Chinese medicine flew into his nose. It was not unpleasant.
He saw
The layout and decoration of the shop were very traditional with two waist-high wooden chests in the middle which were divided into several slots that each accommodated one type of medicinal materials that didn’t have any intense smell.
Three tall and wide medicine chests stood separately against three walls, almost covering the walls completely.
To his right,
There was a wooden counter with many bottles and jars.
A man in his 50s was sitting behind the counter, dealing with some medicinal materials.
Next to the counter was a consulting desk.
An old Chinese medicine doctor was sitting by the consulting desk reading a medical book with narrowed eyes.
“Hello.”
At the counter, Fang Qiu asked politely, “May I ask if you are the owner?”
The middle-aged man looked up at Fang Qiu and nodded with a smile. “I’m the owner. How can I help?”
“Your shop can diagnose patients?”
Fang QIu glanced at the old Chinese medicine doctor by the consulting desk with curious eyes.
“You mean him?”
The owner shook his head and continued, “He can’t really examine patients but he takes care of prescriptions because many people come to get medicine with a prescription. We don’t have to check much if the prescription was from a big hospital but we need to be very carefully if it was given by a random Chinese medicine doctor. After all, the medicine comes out of our shop. We need to be responsible for our patients.”
Fang Qiu nodded with understanding.
He felt reassured.
At least, this shop seemed decent so far.
With a good work style in medical field.
“Do you have a prescription?”
Asked the owner.
“Ah. I’m not here to get medicine.”
Fang Qiu shook his head and continued to explain, “I have medicine to sell.”
“Medicine to sell?”
The owner was confused.
Over there, the old Chinese medicine doctor put down the medical book and looked up at Fang Qiu.
“What medicine do you want to sell?”
Asked the owner out of curiosity.
“These.”
Fang Qiu took out three wild ganoderma lucidum and one wild ginseng from his backpack.
“Hmm?”
Seeing the plants, the owner quickly took them from Fang Qiu’s hand and called, “Li, come and have a look.”
The old Chinese medicine doctor came over.
The two of them put Fang Qiu’s plants down on the counter and looked at them carefully. From time to time they reached their hands out to flip them around.
“These plants are great.”
After a long observation, the owner said with a slight nod. Then he looked up at Fang Qiu and asked, “Where did you get such good plants?”
“Picked in the mountains.”
Answered Fang Qiu.
Hearing that,
The owner shook his head slightly and said, “According to my experience, these wild ganoderma and ginseng are not from some random place. At this age, I don’t think you can make it so deep into the mountains, can you?”
Fang Qiu was puzzled.
How did this have anything to do with selling medicine?”
“Young man.”
Said the old Chinese medicine doctor, “Your plants are good but our shop can’t take medicine of unidentified origin.”
Fang Qiu felt helpless.
He had to pack the plants away.
It was a pity for him but the response of this owner and the old Chinese medicine doctor was expected. Fang Qiu would hesitate if they agreed to buy generously.
After all, such wild plants of so good quality were rare.
It made sense that Fang Qiu was suspected for his young age.
For example, these might be stolen.
Or maybe there would be trouble after buying these plants.
A big medicine shop like this hated nothing more than trouble.
Once in trouble, the shop’s reputation would be damaged and nothing could make up for that.
Even if it was of a clear origin, would it be poisonous?
It was hard to tell without an inspection report.
“Sorry for the disturbance.”
Putting the plants away, Fang Qiu said with a nod, ready to leave.
In the meantime.
A voice came in.
“Ouch… Boss, do you have the same plaster I bought last time left?”
Looking up,
A man in his 40s walked in with his hands on his waist, appearing in great pain.
“What is it? The waist is hurting again?”
Asked the owner hastily.
“Yeah.”
The man burst out. “Get me a few plasters for some relief. I’m afraid I won’t be able to walk long if the pain continues.”
The man slowly moved towards them as he spoke.
Seeing this man,
Fang Qiu ceased his steps from leaving and gazed at him.
Probably due to the severe pain in his waist, the man didn’t notice Fang Qiu’s eyes on him.
He reached his arm out to the counter as he passed Fang Qiu.
With his eyes locked on him, Fang Qiu suddenly made a shocking move.
It could be seen.
Fang Qiu lifted his right foot and kicked abruptly at the middle-aged man’s waist as he moaned painfully.
“Bang!”
“Ouch!”
A loud scream came right after the kick.
The middle-aged man was sent to the floor by Fang Qiu’s kick.
Seeing this,
The owner’s face changed.
The old Chinese medicine doctor standing next to the owner froze there in shock.
What happened?
Why didn’t he suddenly get physical?
On the floor,
The fallen middle-aged man glared at Fang Qiu with anger and confusion.
“What are you doing?”
