"The pharmacy business is really booming, so many people everywhere."
As soon as the group entered Huian Pharmacy, Lin Yongzhen couldn’t help but sigh upon seeing seven or eight people inside purchasing dicine.
"Isn’t that the truth?"
Ji Xiuwen said, "No wonder people say that there are not many other types of stores in our country, but pharmacies are frighteningly abundant. This is just a small county town—big cities are even more intense. Like in the neighborhood where Lu Xuan and I rent an apartnt, there are three pharmacies within a ten-ter radius. It really proves that saying, ten steps to a pharmacy, not a grain store for three miles."
At this point, Ji Xiuwen was speechless.
Chinese people must be sick!
How else could so many pharmacies survive?
The streets are filled with pharmacies; you don’t even need a census to know they’re several tis more nurous than grain and grocery stores.
Frankly speaking, aside from funeral hos, there’s a pharmacy under every building.
The governnt’s focus on key infrastructures like food baskets and granaries hasn’t been as prevalent, but the pharmacy industry has realized full coverage.
Of course, that’s not even the most outrageous part.
The most outrageous part is that these pharmacies all make money.
All these pharmacies, steps away from each other, make money—how many people have to be sick for that to be the case?
Moreover, many people who get sick don’t even purchase from pharmacies, opting for hospitals instead. Yet, even with that, pharmacies just steps apart are profitable. It highlights how pathological the world has beco.
Speaking further, Ji Xiuwen added, "In the past, pharmacy couplets would say: ’It is hoped that people are free of illnesses; it’s okay if the dicine gathers dust on the shelves.’
But now it’s different; pharmacy banners read: ’Buy over 128 yuan worth of dicine and get 10 eggs for free—the more you buy, the more you get.’ The implication being: You surely have an ailnt, take dicine if you’re ill, strengthen yourself if you’re not, take so occasionally regardless, and stock up for future use; there’s always a dicine you need.
It’s as if, in the eyes of those who run these pharmacies, everyone is ill, and even if you’re not, you should be."
Lin Yongzhen nodded in assent, apparently recalling sothing, and murmured, "The industry that should least be expanded has grown strong and widespread nationwide, where stores start bullying custors and manipulating situations.
I still rember when I was a kid, my dad once went to buy a common dication, taking the empty dicine box to avoid confusion. The salesperson’s eyes lit up as if my dad was a God of Wealth, incessantly asking about his symptoms, blah blah blah, spewing a bunch of nonsense. In the end, my dad bought the dicine he needed and also what he didn’t need. Initially planning to buy dicine worth just over ten yuan, he ca ho with a couple of hundred yuan worth.
My mom was shocked at the ti, thinking my dad had so strange illness. Back then, as soone who didn’t understand much, it didn’t feel like a big deal, but now, looking back at all these pharmacies lining the streets, as a doctor, it’s indescribably distressing."
"Who could deny that?"
The group conversed quietly at the doorway, not loudly at all.
However, the faces of the three dical students were not pleasant.
It was Lu Ran who seed unfazed, taking it as a matter of routine.
Since childhood, where other stores were scarce on the streets, the abundance of pharmacies was the norm. To her, it was just typical.
Additionally, since Lu Guoquan runs a clinic, Lu Ran frequently visited and saw plenty of these dealings.
Not only pharmacies but clinics were equally prevalent.
In so shadier clinics, they would prescribe dications costing hundreds for a treatable condition that only needed ten to twenty yuan worth of dicine.
Even a minor cold, which could be cured with one box of dicine, would imdiately be treated with a plethora of anti-inflammatory drugs.
This is not unheard of.
Contrarily, it happens a lot.
And these clinics that hastily prescribe all sorts of antibiotics could end up being hailed as miracle workers.
There’s a saying: A person falls ill in the morning, takes dicine at noon, and is cured by afternoon.
If that’s not a miracle doctor, what is?
"Let’s stop talking about these trivial matters and get the dicine. We haven’t even gathered our dicine yet and the dicine pot is already on the way," Lu Ran urged.
The market selling dicine pots is a few kiloters further from the Lu Family compared to Huian Pharmacy. Plus, there was still so distance inside the market. Logically, it should take longer than the group returning ho.
But watching them dawdle, they might still arrive back later.
Lu Ran’s urging stopped the conversation, and the group moved directly into the pharmacy.
But as the four entered, they overheard a conversation at one of the shelves, where an elderly man in his sixties was engaging in a sowhat rushed exchange with a pharmacy worker.
Their attention was imdiately drawn over.
The old man glanced at the dicine in the worker’s hands and shook his head, saying, "No, I want to buy this dicine, it’s a different kind."
The worker persisted in enthusiastically promoting the dicine in hand, "Oh, sir, why not try this dicine? It’s pure Chinese dicine with no side effects, and it’s more effective than the one you ntioned. Yes, the price is a bit higher, but not by much, and there’s a reason good things are costly, right?
Good stuff is never cheap, sir, and good dicine is the sa. This dicine just ca in this month. Usually, when you want to buy it, it’s sold out. We sell it very well, and many people have said it works particularly well after taking it. If you’re skeptical, you can buy it and try it. You’ll know its effectiveness after using it.
I know the dicine you ntioned—it’s cheap, sure, but ineffective."
The old man clutched the perspiring bills in his hand, reminded of the price the worker ntioned, and whatever impulse he felt shattered, leaving a restored clarity: "No, I’m just buying this dicine!"
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