Elixir Supplier

The door was a good one and had a good lock. It was naturally hard to open it or break it by force.

The young man tried hard to exert much strength, but he still failed. Even with such loud noise, there was no reaction from inside the room. His face quickly changed. “Call a lock company.”

After they called, the a lock company employee soon arrived. “Is it locked from inside?”

“Yes,” the woman said.

“OK, leave it to me,” the employee said.

Using professional implements, the door was unlocked with the sound of crack within two minutes.

The mother and son rushed into the room. The windows were open. Sunshine was all about. On the bed was a fully clothed man. He seemed to be asleep, except that his complexion was weird.

On the bedside table, there was a white plastic medicine bottle.

“Zhao?” The woman called him gently as she approached the bed. She quivered to stretch out her fingers to his nose. There was no breath.

The woman’s mind instantly went blank. Plump! She fell down and just sat on the ground.

“Zhao!” She shouted in a high voice and could not help crying.

There were no responses to her shout. The man on the bed would be asleep like that forever.

“Dad?!” The young man was stunned.

He never thought something like this would happen. Unreasonably, he did not feel any real grief. He did not cry. He just stood in amazement.

“Damn it! He died.” The man who came to unlock the door was shocked. Forgetting the payment, he quickly left, breaking a willow twig as he went. “It is so unlucky!”

In the room, the woman sat on the ground with a blank mind. Something kept nagging at her, but it was as if she was dull-witted as she consistently teared up.

It was what was always going on in the world. It was what it was like to have human affection. After being together a long time, a couple may eventually discover that what they were was not as good as it had been. It often led to seeing the partner’s shortcomings, such as idleness, coxcombry, eating too much, being stingy, being unromantic etc. Seeing the exposed defects, someone might regret the original choice. But, life was like that. It was more likely to be full of flatness and tolerance. Each part took one step back, no matter who took charge, who made decisions, or who was the host of the family.

Fireworks were splendid but transient. Running water was flat but sustaining. Couples in a marriage could not be spared from disputes. Only when losing a partner, could the other one find the original shortcomings were extremely trivial. As long as he or she was living, it was still worth the efforts, even under a poor financial support.

“Mom, call a doctor,” the son said.

It had to be settled. They could not wait with her sitting and him standing while a dead man laid on the bed.

“OK,” the woman responded. Her eyes were still glazed over.

“I will get you some water.” The young man poured a cup of water for his mother.

The woman did not take it. She did not want it. She was crying so much and could not stop.

“Your dad died because he was angry with me. He had been angry his whole life,” the woman sobbed.

“Mom, don’t talk that!” The young man hurriedly comforted his mother.

“It is my fault! My fault!” She ripped her hair.

“Mom!” The son didn’t know what to do.

The test result was simple. The man had died from an hypnolic overdose.

The doctor in charge of the test sighed thinking, One more family tragedy! Only the people whose heart was dead desperately pursued death.

The news quickly spread to the neighbors.

“Hey, did you know Mr. Zhao committed suicide?” one neighbor said.

“I heard. Alas, he was a good man,” another neighbor said.

“Yes, he was. Xu Meili is so mighty. She did not spare his feelings no matter it was at home or outside,” another neighbor said.

“Yes, you are right. If I dared to command my husband in the presence of others, he would lose temper,” the first neighbor said.

“Now that he passed away, she cries as if she lost her soul,” the other neighbor replied.

Since they lived in the same community, they knew each couple’s relationships. They also knew the hostess of the Zhao household was mighty.

The man’s widow organized the funeral. All his relatives came.

“Xu Meili, did our brother die because of you?” a relative asked.

They had come with anger. They knew that their brother was vexed for many years and the might of the sister-in-law. They could see it every time they met, but they never thought it would end in this way. He was dead because he drank pesticide.

“Yeah, I pushed him to death,” the woman said.

She admitted it because she regretted that she had been bad to her husband. Now, he was dead. Where could she find another one who could take care of her and love her like him?

“You, you…” The relatives of the deceased did not know what to say.

“No, it was not because of my mother,” the woman’s son suddenly said. “His death was related to the mistake of taking medicine!”

“What, what are you saying, Chongyang?” a relative asked.

“My dad had taken medicine before his death. It was Chinese medicine soup. In my view, it had something wrong with it,” the young man said.

“Xu Meili, did my brother take any medicine?” the relative asked.

“Maybe?” At this time, Xu Meili did not remember anything clearly, not even what she ate in the morning. Everything she thought of was about the pas, the abuse she inflicted on her husband.

“Didn’t the doctor say that it was because of the overdose of hypnotics?” the relative asked

“It must be in the medicine,” Zhao Chongyang decisively said.

“Do you have the medicine left?” the relative asked.

“Yeah,” Zhao Chongyang said.

“Go on to take a test,” the relative said.

“We can deal with it later. Now, we are holding the funeral,” Zhao Chongyang said.

…

In the village, Zhong Liuchuan’s sister received the first treatment. She took the medicine and received acupuncture and a massage on the acupoints to dredge the blood.

Wang Yao also used this method on Du Feng. Their symptoms were different, but some were same.

“Did you sleep well last night?” he asked.

“Good,” Zhong Anxin said with a smile.

She slept well indeed. It was very quiet and peaceful in the village. Since she had taken some painkillers, she fell asleep slept throughout the night.

“Did you still take the medicine prescribed in the hospital?” Wang Yao asked.

“Yes, it is to protect the liver,” Zhong Liuchuan said.

“Stop it. There is no need to take it,” Wang Yao said.

“OK,” Zhong Liuchuan said.

“Good. I’m finished this time. Take the medicine when you get back and keep optimistic,” Wang Yao said.

In the afternoon, Wang Yao closed the clinic. On his way back home, he saw Wang Zecheng back by a motorcycle. He looked exhausted.

“Coming back home?” Seeing Wang Yao, he stopped and greeted him. His breath was disordered.

“You must be tired,” Wang Yao said.

“Ah, not much,” Wang Zecheng said.

“You cannot go in this way. Your body will collapse sooner or later,” Wang Yao said.

“No worries, I can do it,” Wang Zecheng said. He had to work hard to support his family. It also was compensation to his family for his past misconducts.

Wang Yao watched him carefully, especially his Qi. Accumulated laborious work led to disease, which would happen suddenly like a mountain collapse. “Come to my clinic tomorrow morning.”

“What?” Wang Zecheng was stupefied, but he still agreed though he did not know the reason.

The next morning, it was a little bit overcast and sultry. At around 10 a.m., a luxurious car entered the village.

“Is it here?” a man asked.

“It should be. The doctor is called Wang Yao,” another man said.

The car parked outside the clinic.

“Ah, the building is not bad. It is stylish,” the first man said.

Two men got out of the car. One was over 30. He stood very straight like a pine tree. The other man, the driver was over 40 and a little bit fat but maintained himself carefully since his face was ruddy.

“Let’s go take a look,” the man in his 30s said.

Several patients in the clinic were sitting on chairs waiting in line.

“Hello, may I ask, are you Wang Yao, Dr. Wang?” the man in his 30s asked.

“It is me,” Wang Yao said. “Can I help you?”

“Can you see a patient?” the man asked.

“Get a plate and wait in line,” Wang Yao said, pointing to the plate hanging on the door.

“The matter is urgent,” the man said. “Would you please give us a privilege?”

Wang Yao raised his head to look at them. “Is the patient not coming?”

“No,” the man said.

“Where at?” Wang Yao asked.

“In Jing,” the man said.

“I don’t make house calls, sorry.” Wang Yao continued to see the patient.

“Please take his medical history,” the man said. “Would you please take a look?”

“Wait in line,” Wang Yao relentlessly said.

The driver grew angry, but the man he was with stopped him. “OK, OK.” He took a plate and waited in line.

Around noon, it was finally their turn. The man took out the medicine history and gave it to Wang Yao.

“He is 78?” Seeing the age, Wang Yao felt the disease might be troublesome.

“Yes,” the man said.

The disease was caused by the failure of his body and metabolic disorders.

“How long?” Wang Yao asked.

“Almost two years,” the man said after thinking for a moment.

“Bring him here.” Wang Yao returned the medical history to him.

“But, my father is too weak,” the man said. “Would you please…”

“Sorry,” Wang Yao said.

“Dr. Wang, we can pay for it. The price is not a problem,” the man said.

“Please go if you have nothing else.” Wang Yao felt disgusting. It was another smug person.

“Dr. Wang…” The man began to try and persuade him to no avail.

“Next.” Wang Yao did not respond and began to see the next patient.

The man took a deep breath to calm down and they turned away.

Out in the yard, the driver said, “Boss, he is too arrogant!”

“Since he is young, it is natural to be arrogant. I will call Mr. Chen to ask him,” the man said.

He called him and told them the situation.

“What? I told you before you went. Who do you think you are? In Jing, even Su, Wu, or I don’t dare to speak to him in that way. I cannot help!” Mr. Chen immediately hung up the phone.

The middle-aged man stood there for a long while stunned. “Is it serious like that?”

Honestly, he did feel there was anything wrong with his attitude.