Chapter 105: A Warm and Caring Mother
“Benefactor Tang, our luck is really good. We just arrived here and have hunted and killed so many 2nd Class fierce beasts. I think it’s already sufficient. Then, shall we return?” Dao Master Ziyi went in front of Tang Xiu as he wiped off a trace of bloodstain on the corner of his mouth, asking with a smile.
Tang Xiu asked, “Aren’t you still looking for precious ores?”
Dao Master Ziyi said with a wry smile, “If we want to find precious ores, we need to enter the depths of the island. Benefactor Tang doesn’t fear to encounter danger on the island?”
“This…”
Tang Xiu stared blankly for a moment before he gave up his intention to look for precious ores. Although catching a tiger cub, one must enter a tiger den. But if one had known perfectly well that it would only lead to his death and was still impatient to get it, then, he was either not sane in the brain or sleepwalking. And Tang Xiu neither had brain damage nor was he sleepwalking, he would not bite more than he could chew and do something out of his capabilities.
At least… he would not do it now!
After having been silent for a moment Tang Xiu said seriously, “Such being the case, then let’s go home. We’ll load these 24 White Alligators onto the ship first!”
Although Miao Wentang had minor injuries, but he was still in deep excitement. Upon hearing Tang Xiu and Dao Master Ziyi’s words, he hastily said, “Going home like this? Although we have hunted and killed 24 fierce beasts, but we have just arrived. It would be quite a waste if we go back now. I just talked with Brother Shao, if we stay for a few more days and look for fierce beasts again, we can kill more.”
Dao Master Ziyi shook his head and said, “Encountering this White Alligator group is our luck. This Evil Dragon Sea Area might have other fierce beasts, but the population is not that many. This group of White Alligators are territorial strong fierce beasts, I think they would not tolerate other fierce beasts living here. If this Poor Daoist’s inference is correct, other fierce beasts in these waters might have been killed or driven away by this White Alligator group.”
“This…” Miao Wentang was speechless.
If it were Tang Xiu who said it, perhaps he could refute a bit, since Tang Xiu was after all, too young and had too little experience. But Dao Master Ziyi was older than him and he had experienced a lot of things. Regardless of experience or character, he was someone that he respected.
Shao Mingzhen said with a laugh, “Since Dao Master Ziyi has said so, then let’s go back! There are 24 2nd Class fierce beasts, so it would be 6 for each one of us. That’s satisfying enough.”
Miao Wentang was somewhat unwilling as he said, “But we have yet to get the precious ores. Wasn’t Dao Master Ziyi the one that said that there are precious ores on the island nearby.”
Dao Master Ziyi replied, “They indeed have it. But Benefactor Tang predicts an ominous existence on these three islands! So, rather than disbelieving it, I chose to believe his words. We must not be greedy and become a greedy man who’s never content because of greediness.”
“Then, let’s go back!”
Miao Wentang didn’t want to be despised as a greedy man and said decisively, even though he actually had a slight disapproval. His heart was in disapproval. Human beings would die for riches just as birds would for food. In any case, crises and opportunities had always been coexisting whenever dangers and riches were involved.
2 hours later, all the 24 White Alligator corpses had all been loaded onto the freighter. Upon seeing those White Alligator corpses, all the crew members were shocked. But since Miao Wentang had them under a sealed contract and promised some rewards, they treated it as though they did not see anything.
On the way back to Jingmen Island from the South China Sea, Tang Xiu asked Miao Wentang and the others about Jingmen Island’s Medicinal Herb Market situation. And the results made him quite surprised. Therefore, after having returned back to Jingmen Island, Tang Xiu entrusted Miao Wentang to ship the White Alligator corpses to South Gate Town in Star City, while he went alone to Jingmen Island’s Medicinal Herbs Market.
Since mountains, rivers, and a lot of natural places had developed all over the country’s mainland, a lot of precious herbs became extinct nowadays. But Jingmen Island was different because it was located in the South China Sea with a lot of islands nearby that were still untouched by human hands for many years. They still had a large number of medicinal, precious herbs growing there. Once they were picked up by humans, it would be shipped first to Jingmen Island’s Medicinal Herbs Market.
Therefore, Jingmen Island’s Medicinal Herbs Market’s size was on par with Beijing and Shanghai Medicinal Herbs Market. Occasionally, there were also extremely valuable herbs, which made countless big buyers and medicinal ingredients merchants flock toward the market.
Neat and clean.
This was the first impression Tang Xiu had when he arrived at Jingmen Island’s Medicinal Herbs Market. Booths were placed on both sides of the wide street, with their owners behind the booth greeting all the visitors. Tang Xiu had seen the Medicinal Herbs Market’s layout, and the entire market was divided into 4 areas indicated with A, B, C, and D.
Area A and B belonged to the booth area, two areas and four streets, with more than 1,000 medicinal ingredient stalls.
C area and D area belonged to the shop area, which also had four streets, but with only 500 shops.
There was still 90 million yuan in Tang Xiu’s account. This might look like a huge number, but it was actually few if he wanted to buy a lot of precious herbs. A 1,000-year-old wild ginseng was already extremely expensive to the point that it was appalling. And as for other precious medicinal ingredients, the price probably would not differ by much.
Therefore, Tang Xiu strolled around in the booth area. The last time he was in Star City’s Medicinal Herbs Market, he got an extremely precious herb there, the Blood Spiral Shell Flower.
This time, he wanted to buy a large number of medicinal herbs. On one hand, he had to collect medicinal ingredients to concoct the Golden Bell Liquid, and on the other hand, he also had to buy medicine ingredients to concoct the Spirit Condensation Pill. Whether it was the Golden Bell Liquid or the Spirit Condensation Pill, Tang Xiu knew that it would be difficult to gather all the medicinal ingredients he needed. But he also could substitute the ingredients with other medicinal herbs of the same efficacies.
“Young Big Brother, are you here to buy medicinal ingredients?”
A bearded middle-aged man pushing a cart stopped and asked as he saw Tang Xiu.
Tang Xiu said, “Yes!
The bearded middle-aged man said with a laugh, “Young Big Brother wants to buy a lot of medicinal ingredients? If so, how about hiring my “porter” service? The price is very cheap.”
Porter?
Tang Xiu asked inside with some puzzlement. After having heard the bearded middle-aged man’s explanation, only then did he understand that “porter” was the service offered by some people for visitors who bought a large number of medicinal herbs as they followed the visitor along with their carts, helping the visitor to carry and load the herbs. He thought for a second as he nodded and asked, “How much?”
With a happy expression, the bearded middle-aged man hastily said, “100 yuan per 2 hours if you only buy a cart of herbs. 200 yuan for 5 hours. If you buy more than one cart, I recommend to directly take a day package of 500 yuan for a day.”
Tang Xiu pondered for moment and then asked, “You’re familiar with this Medicinal Herb Market, yes?”
The bearded middle-aged man said with a grinning smile, “Yes, I’m way too familiar. I’ve been a porter for 8 years here, so I know which stalls have good medicinal herbs, and which ones don’t. I’m crystal clear what herbs the shops have, and which shops that have genuine valuable medicinal herbs. If you buy my porter service, I’ll take the responsibility to become your guide and explain to you about the Medicinal Herbs Market’s situation.”
Tang Xiu said, “I’ll give you 1,000 yuan. You’re to be my porter for the day.”
Doubled?
The bearded middle-aged man was overjoyed. His expression turned more respectful and said with a smile, “Young Big Brother is a good man. I, Zhao Dazhuang, will absolutely make your spending worth it. What medicinal herbs do you need? You can tell me and I’ll take you there in no time.”
Tang Xiu shook his head and said, “You accompany me first! If I can’t find and buy the medicinal herbs I want, then you guide me.”
“OK!” The bearded middle-aged man happily complied.
Two hours later, Tang Xiu had bought all the needed ingredients to concoct the Golden Bell Liquid, and the number he bought each ingredient was 10 times more. The small cart pushed by the bearded middle-aged man was about to be fully filled.
“Huh?”
When Tang Xiu had just finished the last transaction and was prepared to continue buying the other herbs to concoct the Spirit Condensation Pill, he suddenly saw that in the middle of the square, a booth and shop area was surrounded by a lot of people. A lot of people ran from all directions toward that place.
The bearded middle-aged man followed Tang Xiu’s eyes as he suddenly shook his head and said with a wry smile, “A 100 year-old mother has always been able to bring up 80 children. A mother surely is the greatest human being in the world. How many times has it been? The 16th time?”
Tang Xiu said, “What does that mean?”
The bearded middle-aged man said, “2 years ago, a mother and daughter came to our Medicinal Herbs Market. The mother was 40-years-old at that time, and her daughter was still very young and very pitiful! She suffers from a strange disease and has always been suffering from pains. In order to cure her daughter’s illness, the mother has travelled to all major cities in the country, looking for famous doctors everywhere. Unfortunately, even though she has met countless Western medical doctors or Chinese medical doctors, nobody was able to cure her daughter’s strange illness.”
“During these 2 years, she always comes with her daughter and takes a spot in the square of this Medicinal Herbs Market, having consultations with all doctors to treat her daughter’s illness. She also announced that anyone who is able to cure her daughter, she would give him millions worth of her family assets.”
“2 years have passed by and not only was she unable to find a godly doctor to cure her daughter, she also has spent most of the 1 million she has. It’s been 2 months since the last time she opened the spot here. The last time, she only had hundreds of thousands of yuan, so now, she should have less.”
Tang Xiu was in a daze as he looked at the bearded middle-aged man. His heart was filled with sorrow and grief. The caring and loving mother’s hands moved along the lines of the jacket on his body, slowly closing the seam button before he left, and reminding him to not return home late.
Mothers were indeed the greatest humans in the world.
And the person he missed the most when he was in the Immortal World for 10,000 years was his mother. The thing he was holding in the palm of his hand fell as his mouth was unable to speak the “mother” word!
At this instant, his compassion was moved…
“Let’s go there and take a look!”
The moment Tang Xiu finished speaking, he strode to the square between the booth and shop area.
In the middle-sized square center, a half meter high platform was built whilst a few Medicinal Herbs Market’s security guards were maintaining the order there. A single bed with a curled up and trembling little girl was placed at the center of the 20 square meter platform.
A graceful middle-aged woman was at the bedside with a pitiful and sad face as she constantly looked around at the crowd with a longing expression.
“Everyone, the remaining money I have is only 300,000 yuan. I beg whoever is able to cure my daughter. I’ll give all the remaining wealth I have. She’s too young. There should be a lot of Chinese medical doctors at this Jingmen Island’s Medicinal Herbs Market. Please, I beg you!”