Chapter 23: Making Him Retreat in the Face of Difficulty

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Li Yadong and Pan Rongxing had originally planned to eat something at Feiyun Pavilion while discussing business.

But now, neither of them had any appetite to remain there.

Carefully carrying the sheet of white paper they had picked up from the floor, they hurriedly left Feiyun Pavilion.

Before long, they arrived at a villa in the outskirts of Luo City.

This was the residence of Pan Guangxing, one of Luo City’s three renowned miracle doctors.

At that moment, Pan Guangxing, his hair streaked entirely with gray, held a magnifying glass in his hand. Bent over, he carefully compared the two items spread flat across the table before him.

One was the sheet of white paper that Li Yadong and Pan Rongxing had recovered, bearing the name “Qi-Gathering Beauty Pill.”

The other was a tattered piece of parchment that Pan Guangxing had happened upon in his youth and carefully preserved for several decades.

That parchment contained the true Qi-Gathering Pill formula.

Unfortunately, the writing on it was riddled with holes, and the parchment itself was in a deplorable state.

Li Yadong stared fixedly at Pan Guangxing, hardly daring to breathe.

After Pan Rongxing’s explanations along the way, he already understood what it would mean to him—and to the entire Li family—if this Qi-Gathering Pill formula was genuine.

“Whew!”

After a long while, as Li Yadong and Pan Rongxing waited anxiously, Pan Guangxing finally lowered the magnifying glass and exhaled deeply.

“Well, Elder Brother?”

“Master Pan, is it genuine?”

Li Yadong and Pan Rongxing asked at the same time, their voices taut with nervousness.

Pan Guangxing nodded lightly. His voice was charged with excitement and absolute certainty.

“It’s genuine. I can state with certainty that this is a complete Qi-Gathering Pill formula.”

“Ah!”

Li Yadong was so elated that he nearly jumped for joy.

Pan Rongxing, too, clutched the table tightly, struggling to steady himself.

“Doctor Pan,” Li Yadong asked impatiently, “you mentioned earlier that the Qi-Gathering Pill is a medicinal formula used by cultivators. What use would it have for ordinary people?”

That was what concerned Li Yadong most at that moment.

“Hmph!”

Pan Guangxing snorted coldly, clearly disdainful of what he considered a foolish question.

“If it is an immortal medicine, how could it possibly be useless to mere ordinary people?”

“The way of alchemy is profound beyond measure. Even with this Qi-Gathering Pill formula, we would never be able to refine a true Qi-Gathering Pill. Even so…”

“If we follow the proportions in this formula and develop the Qi-Gathering Beauty Pill, an ordinary person who consumes it will not only preserve their youthful appearance and nourish their spirit, but may even look more than ten years younger. Even martial artists who take it will see their cultivation advance by leaps and bounds.”

“Is it really that powerful?”

Li Yadong was overwhelmed with excitement, and a brilliant light kindled in his eyes.

“My elder brother was being modest,” Pan Rongxing added from the side. “The benefits this Qi-Gathering Beauty Pill offers the human body are likely far greater than that.”

“Then if our Li Pharmaceuticals can put this Qi-Gathering Beauty Pill into production and release it to the market…” Li Yadong said, his voice trembling.

Pan Rongxing narrowed his eyes.

“If that truly happens, it won’t be long before Li Pharmaceuticals crushes every competitor beneath its feet and completely dominates the pharmaceutical market of Luo City—and perhaps even the entire country.”

…

Lin Ziqing had already arrived at the private room her best friends had reserved.

Only after entering did she discover that, besides the two friends she had arranged to meet over the phone, Wu Qianru and Yang Yuxian, there were also two young men present.

Wu Qianru stuck out her tongue at her, indicating that the two men had insisted on coming once they learned about the gathering, and that she had been unable to stop them.

Lin Ziqing did not pay much attention to it. After all, both men were her classmates, and she had a fairly favorable impression of them.

One of them was named Tang Zhanhao, the eldest son of the Tang family, the leading household of Luo City. Not only that, he had earned admission to the finance department of Capital University through his own ability.

Back then, he had been the top scorer in Luo City’s college entrance examination and had become famous throughout the city.

He had also pursued Lin Ziqing for many years.

“I never imagined that, after not seeing each other for several months, you’d already become engaged, Ziqing.” Tang Zhanhao greeted her with a smile.

“That’s right, Ziqing!” Wu Qianru pulled Lin Ziqing down beside her. “We all thought you and Zhanhao would end up together. Who could have guessed that, in the blink of an eye, you’d become engaged to someone else?”

Yang Yuxian leaned closer.

“Ziqing, tell us about your fiancé.”

“Don’t mention him.” Lin Ziqing rolled her eyes. “Every time I think of him, I get angry. If my father hadn’t been so forceful, who in their right mind would have agreed to marry him?”

“Oh?”

Tang Zhanhao immediately perked up at those words.

“I heard your fiancé is a miracle doctor. Wasn’t it he who cured your father’s illness?”

Lin Ziqing curled her lips.

“He did cure my father, that’s true. But after living with him for so long, I can’t see how he resembles a miracle doctor in the slightest. He stays indoors all day, doing absolutely nothing.”

“What young man behaves like that?”

“I seriously suspect that he only managed to cure my father because a blind cat happened to stumble upon a dead mouse. He just got lucky.”

Upon hearing that Lin Ziqing was already living with her fiancé, Tang Zhanhao felt a flicker of anger rise within him, but he forced it down and did not let it show.

Yang Yuxian could not help asking curiously, “What about his family background?”

“Heh…”

Lin Ziqing wore an expression of utter exasperation.

“What family background could he possibly have? I heard that his parents abandoned him when he was very young, and that he was raised in the mountains by some old man. Now, apparently, even that old man is gone.”

“Uh…”

Wu Qianru was rendered speechless.

“Raised in the mountains? No wonder he stays at home all day and never goes out. I imagine he simply can’t adapt to life in a big city.”

“Exactly!”

Whenever Xiao Nan was mentioned, Lin Ziqing’s resentment poured forth.

“You have no idea. The pharmaceutical company I manage has run into some problems recently, hasn’t it?”

“Most of them concern difficulties in developing the new medicine we planned to use to seize a new market.”

“Guess what happened? After hearing about it, that man actually wrote me some ridiculous formula for a pill—I don’t even remember what he called it—and claimed that if I put it into production, we could quickly seize the market and reverse the company’s current decline. I was practically speechless.”

“Pfft!”

“Ha ha ha…”

“Ah ha ha ha…”

The entire group burst into laughter.

After finally managing to stop laughing, Yang Yuxian said, “Was the formula he gave you called the Great Strength Divine Skill Pill?”

Lin Ziqing nodded vigorously.

“Mm-hmm. Something along those lines.”

The others broke into another round of mocking laughter.

“Do you still have the formula?” Wu Qianru reached a hand toward Lin Ziqing. “Let me see it. Who knows? Maybe if we made it and ate it, we’d become immortal. Hee hee…”

Lin Ziqing slapped her hand away.

“See what? I threw it away ages ago. Just carrying something like that around made me feel embarrassed.”

“Ziqing, I don’t think you really intend to marry him, do you?”

After their conversation, Wu Qianru had essentially seen through Lin Ziqing’s thoughts.

“Only a fool would intend to marry him,” Lin Ziqing replied at once. “Once my father has fully recovered, I’ll ask him to dissolve the engagement.”

Wu Qianru, however, shook her head.

“I don’t think it would be wise for you to bring it up yourself. You should make him be the one to propose it.”

“Exactly. That’s how it should be,” Yang Yuxian agreed. “For example, you could call him over right now and let him see the social circles you move in and the sort of people you associate with. He’ll realize how vast the difference is between your world and his.”

“If you do that a few times, he’ll probably retreat once he realizes he’s out of his depth.”

Lin Ziqing pondered this seriously, then nodded.

“Good idea.”

With that, she pulled out her phone.

…