Li Xu and Zhang Yanquan got into the private car sent by the Wu Family.

On the ride back, Zhang Yanquan could no longer suppress his eagerness.

He rubbed his hands together and, looking a bit sheepish, said to Li Xu, "Um... Fellow Friend Li, I have a somewhat presumptuous favor to ask. I was wondering if you could spare some of your Yabulu? Of course, I won’t take it for free. You can name your price."

He knew that a natural treasure of this caliber was something you could only stumble upon by chance, not actively seek out.

If he could obtain some, it would be a priceless treasure, whether for research or for treating other difficult and complex illnesses.

Li Xu didn’t refuse him.

The Yabulu he had brought back this time weighed over ten pounds.

Besides what was needed to treat Elder Wu, there was still plenty left over.

"Dean Zhang, you’re being too kind."

He took out a pre-portioned medicinal packet from his backpack and handed it to Zhang Yanquan. "Here’s about a pound. Please take it. Just consider it my contribution to the hospital."

He only accepted a symbolic ten thousand yuan.

Of course, the true value of the Yabulu was far more than ten thousand yuan.

This was more of a gesture of goodwill from Li Xu toward an elder.

Just then, Li Xu’s phone buzzed with a text message from his bank.

[Bank Alert: A deposit of 700,000.00 has been made to your savings account ending in XXXX...]

Seven hundred thousand.

It was Wu Jingmei, wiring over the consultation fee.

Li Xu hadn’t named a price at the time.

But Wu Jingmei had been very generous, calculating the payment based on a price of one hundred thousand yuan per dose.

For a miracle medicine that could save a life, this price was absolutely reasonable.

Of course, Li Xu knew that the greatest gain from this house call wasn’t the seven hundred thousand yuan fee, but Elder Wu’s promise.

...

「After they left.」

Elder Wu couldn’t wait and personally dialed Li Gui’s number.

"Hello, Old Li, HAHAHAHA..."

As soon as the call connected, Elder Wu said with a laugh, "Let me tell you, that Doctor Li Xu you recommended is a miracle worker. I’ve only had one dose of the medicine he prescribed, and my asthma of several decades is already mostly gone! He said that once I finish all seven doses, the illness will probably be completely cured."

On the other end of the line, Elder Li was also genuinely happy for his old friend.

"Haha, that’s wonderful! I told you, Doctor Li is no ordinary man!"

The two happily agreed over the phone that once Elder Wu had recovered, they would definitely make time to get together for a few drinks.

...

Back at his hotel, Li Xu didn’t immediately return to Feng City.

He went to the Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine again.

In the consultation room, Li Xu took out a medicinal packet sealed in a plastic bag and placed it on Professor Gao’s desk.

"Professor Gao, thank you for your guidance during this time. I’ve especially benefited and made huge progress from the Liang’s Pulse Diagnosis Method you taught me. This is an herb I gathered. I wanted to give you some."

"You kid, there’s no need to be so formal with me."

Professor Gao said this, but he still opened the packet out of curiosity.

A powerful medicinal aroma filled the office.

Professor Gao froze. He took a closer look and said in astonishment, "Corpse Ginseng? No, this isn’t the Corpse Ginseng from the border regions... Did you dig this up in Stan Country?"

"Professor Gao has a keen eye," Li Xu said with a smile. "This type of Yabulu truly grows together with a corpse. Its effects are better than the domestic, plant-based Corpse Ginseng. If you’d like to research it, feel free."

Professor Gao took out a small piece, held it up to the light to examine it closely, and clicked his tongue in amazement.

"Incredible, truly incredible," he exclaimed. "The growing conditions for ’animal-based Corpse Ginseng’ are extremely harsh, so it’s incredibly rare. I’ve tried to buy some before, but everything on the market was fake."

He looked at Li Xu and said earnestly, "Ah, Li Xu, this gift is exactly what I’ve been hoping for. In that case, I won’t be polite; I’ll gladly accept it."

His mind was already racing, formulating a series of research topics.

"I plan to conduct a comprehensive analysis of its components. I want to see what kind of marvelous chemical changes occur inside it after growing symbiotically with an animal carcass."

Professor Gao said excitedly, "If we can unlock its secrets, we might be able to use modern bio-cultivation technology to simulate the process. We could improve our domestic, artificially cultivated Yabulu varieties and achieve a qualitative leap in their medicinal efficacy."

Li Xu was also pleased. He had given his gift to the right person.

The two of them chatted for a while longer before Li Xu stood up to formally take his leave.

...

「Meanwhile, in Xingtai, after more than a month of strict controls.」

Although the practice of harvesting the unripe fruit hadn’t been completely stopped, most of the sour dates had been saved.

In the late autumn, the sour dates had all turned red.

They hung on the branches, bright red and lovely.

The nearby villagers all began to harvest them, preparing to sell them for a good price.

A long line still snaked in front of the purchasing station for Northern Divine Wood Sour Jujube Processing Co., Ltd.

Xu Bingguo was organizing his staff, continuing to buy up the sour dates being brought in from all over.

By now, he was rarely seeing any of the greenish, unripe fruits among the sour dates he was purchasing.

The baskets were mostly filled with plump, deep-red, fully ripened, high-quality sour dates.

But this didn’t mean the market had returned to sanity.

In another corner of the factory grounds, several workers were furtively mixing the mountain of unripe sour dates bought earlier at a low price with the recently purchased, high-priced red ones, blending them according to a specific ratio.

Then, they would send this "specially made" mixture of fruit to the workshop to be processed into "special grade" Sour Jujube Seeds that were nearly impossible to tell from the real thing, ready to be sold to pharmaceutical companies downstream.

Xu Bingguo watched all of this, his heart long since numb. ’This is just business.’

Just as he was directing workers to load the latest batch of "special grade" Sour Jujube Seeds onto a truck for delivery, the phone in his office began to ring urgently.

He glanced at the caller ID. It was the purchasing department of their biggest client—Jingrui Pharmaceutical.

"Hello, Manager Liu!"

Xu Bingguo immediately put on a warm, beaming smile. "Don’t you worry, the batch you ordered is all ready. I guarantee it’ll be delivered to you this afternoon."

However, the voice on the other end of the line delivered a cruel piece of news.

"Manager Xu," the other person’s tone was full of resignation, "I’m calling to let you know. Our company won’t be needing your Sour Jujube Seeds for the time being. As for the supply contract we signed earlier, let’s just terminate it."

"What?!"

Xu Bingguo was stunned.

He wondered if he had misheard.

It was a bumper crop for sour dates.

This was the prime time for all the pharmaceutical companies to make their move.

And they didn’t want any?

"Manager Liu! You’re not joking, are you?"

Xu Bingguo, getting angry, demanded, "Why? We’ve been working together for so many years, and everything’s been fine. How can you just say you don’t want them anymore?"