More than two years ago, Blood Shadow went on a mission, passed through a deep mountain old forest, and found these two wild ginseng at the entrance of a cave.
She felt they were rare, so she took them with her.
At that ti, she was with a fellow sect mber who she had shared life and death experiences with, who was her only trustworthy partner in the Dark Shadow.
But that fellow mber did not manage to leave alive with her from that mission.
Blood Shadow buried the person on the spot. On her way passing the Capital City, in a daze she casually threw the two wild ginsengs in Ming Shan Hall.
Once sothing was given away, there was no reason to ask for it back. Whether Older Ming sold them, gave them away or ate them himself had nothing to do with her.
Moreover, at that ti when Older Ming saw she was not in a good condition, he had voiced his concern.
But since she had promised at the beginning to only use them for ergency treatnt, if the price Older Ming put on them was one thing he said and another he actually ant, then after taking these things today, Qiao Ying would never set foot in this Ming Shan Hall again.
"Go get a ladder and take down the things in the second compartnt on the top right for Miss Qiao Ying." Older Ming instructed the young apprentice.
"Teacher, let go get them." The middle-aged man did not know whether he regretted it or wanted to make ands and show goodwill.
Older Ming looked at him and softened his heart, nodding his head.
The middle-aged man secretly breathed a sigh of relief, and quickly took the ladder from the young apprentice's hands, climbed up, opened the compartnt, and just as he reached in, he heard Older Ming say, "Take both of them down."
"...Ah," The middle-aged man hesitated for a mont, before agreeing.
Older Ming then said to Qiao Ying, "These two 200-year-old wild ginsengs were given to by a young friend. She is about... "
After sizing up Qiao Ying, he kindly smiled and said, "She is about the sa age as you, and your personalities are a bit alike too." Then he couldn't help but sigh, "It's a pity she hasn't co by for a long ti. Young lady, I feel we have an affinity, so I'll give you both these wild ginsengs for you to take ho and use."
"Get a box and package them up for Miss Qiao Ying." With the two wild ginsengs in his hands, the middle-aged man nimbly packaged them, had the young apprentice bring over a box, and was about to put them in the box.
"Wait a minute." At this ti, Qiao Ying stopped him.
The middle-aged man was shocked, and looked up at Qiao Ying with uncertain, murky eyes. "Is there a problem?"
"Let see what these 200-year-old wild ginsengs look like."
Qiao Ying held out her hand asking him for the wild ginsengs.
"What? Could there be sothing wrong with the stuff from our Ming Shan Hall? Besides, what would a young girl like you know." Venomous persimmons spewed from the middle-aged man's eyes. "My teacher is generously giving them to you at no cost, yet you are unappreciative."
"Zhuo Zhong, watch what you say." Older Ming scolded him.
"When a custor cos to buy dicine, it's only natural that they can look at and check the dicine." Older Ming said sternly.
However, the middle-aged man did not move, still holding onto the wild ginsengs.
At this point, how could Older Ming not realize sothing was wrong? He imdiately went up and forcefully snatched the wild ginsengs from the middle-aged man's hands.
When he opened and looked, these were clearly just normal artificially fard ginseng from the shop.
Older Ming was shocked. "Where are my two wild ginsengs?"
He questioned the middle-aged man, and hurriedly had the young apprentice climb the ladder to check. The result was the compartnt was completely empty, with nothing inside.
"Older Ming, nothing is here." The young apprentice said.
The middle-aged man knelt down with a "plop", and crawled on his knees to Older Ming, grabbing Older Ming's pants leg with tears streaming down his face.
"Teacher, teacher, it was Zhuo Zhong's montary greed, I deserve death, scold , hit ." The middle-aged man cried bitterly, extrely regretful.
"You..." Older Ming pointed at the middle-aged man, speechless from anger.
"Hard to guard against thieves of one's own household ah!" Older Ming was so angry he raised his palm.
"These two wild ginsengs that are hard to find in a hundred years, the people we gave them to won't rember our kindness at all. When the other party needed them to save a life, it's only natural that we charge a reasonable dicine fee, isn't it?"
"You...you scoundrel." Older Ming trembled with anger, and that slap finally landed heavily on the middle-aged man's face.
The middle-aged man fell to the ground, got up and fiercely slapped himself several tis, then continued grabbing Older Ming's clothes.
"Teacher, you've hit and scolded , just forgive this once, I swear I'll never dare again."
Older Ming pushed him away, pointing to the door. "Get out, get out of Ming Shan Hall, don't let see you again."
Seeing Older Ming's resolute attitude, the remorse and fear in the middle-aged man's eyes instantly disappeared, replaced by cold ruthlessness.
He gradually stopped his pleas, looked at Older Ming for a while, then after so ti got up and walked out without turning back.
"Stole things, pocketed money, passed off artificially fard ginseng as 100-year-old mountain ginseng, damaging Ming Shan Hall's hundred-year reputation, and just leaving like this, there's no such easy thing in this world." Qiao Ying's indifferent voice sounded.
Successfully making the middle-aged man stop in his tracks.
He glowered viciously at Qiao Ying, warning her, "Little wench, you've no business butting in, if you dare to be foolish again, don't bla for making you unable to open your mouth ever again."
Older Ming had intended to let it be for the sake of master and disciple, to let him leave. But now seeing his lack of remorse, still full of malice and completely unworthy of being a doctor, he resented his own poor judgent. He called to the security guard at the door, "Stop him! Xiao Liu, call the police!"
Seeing this, the middle-aged man beca afraid. He pushed away the security guard coming in and was about to run.
The next second he was easily apprehended by Qiao Ying who had ghost-like flashed behind him.
The middle-aged man was stepped on under Qiao Ying's foot, and after struggling realized he couldn't get up no matter what. So he started cursing violently and threatening Qiao Ying.
Soon, the middle-aged man was taken away by the police.
"I'm really sorry you had to see such a farce." Older Ming forcefully suppressed his grief, and had an assistant bring out the best two ginsengs from the store for Qiao Ying.
He also gave Qiao Ying the things she wanted.
They were acupuncture needles.
Qiao Ying took them. They were exactly the sa as the set she had used before.
The world only knew Doctor Seely's surgical knife could bring people back from the brink of death, but they didn't know Doctor Seely's mastery of Chinese dicine and acupuncture technique was equally superb, unfathomable, almost reaching the realm of bringing the dead back to life and flesh back on white bones with a silver needle.
"Young lady, could you tell who your friend is?"
Older Ming's grandfather was an excellent blacksmith. But this craft had only been passed down to Older Ming's elderly granduncle.
The acupuncture needles sold on the market compared to those handcrafted by his granduncle were worlds apart. His granduncle said they were only given to fated people, charging just material costs. Not many knew about his granduncle's skills, and so far he had only gifted a set to that young lady.
When he received Qiao Ying's call earlier, he still thought it was that young lady on the other end of the phone, but the voice didn't sound the sa. Now seeing her, they were clearly two different people.
"It's who you think it is in your heart." Qiao Ying said.
Older Ming did not seem very surprised to hear this, and asked, "Is she doing well?"
"Very well." Seeing Older Ming's kind and benevolent face, Qiao Ying thought for a bit and added, "She asked to visit you in passing."
Unexpectedly, Older Ming had an "you can't fool " expression and lightly snorted, "She wouldn't do that."
Although they had only t a few tis, Older Ming could tell that young lady was not one to easily care about others.
Qiao Ying didn't say anything more, took the dicine and needles, and left.
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