bookmarkrole Chapter 146 Those Seeking Death Pierce the Door
Chapter 146 Those Seeking Death Pierce the Door
Rumors of "fake death therapy" spread like an out-of-control viral plague, not only sweeping through various circles in Changxiang City, but also beginning to spread wildly to surrounding provinces and cities.
Initially, this was just a half-kept secret circulating among the wealthy and powerful upper class.
They saw Renxin Pharmacy as their last lifeline, a mysterious place where they could sit at the negotiating table with death and bargain, even if the bargaining chip was their vast fortune.
But soon, with several short video bloggers conducting "on-site investigations" to attract attention, and some so-called "insiders" adding fuel to the fire with their revelations, the rumor completely changed, becoming more and more outrageous and surreal.
"Have you heard? That run-down pharmacy on the old street doesn't cure diseases; it brings people back to life!"
"My second uncle's neighbor's cousin had late-stage liver cancer. His belly was so big it looked like he was pregnant with triplets; he had to be carried in! But what happened? He walked out on his own half an hour later! I heard it cost three million yuan, and he even signed a confidentiality agreement, supposedly to extend his lifespan!"
"That's not all! I heard they use a lost Miao witchcraft called 'passing through the underworld,' which can snatch your soul back from the clutches of the King of Hell!"
The rumors grew increasingly outlandish, and the scene outside Renxin Pharmacy became more and more bizarre, almost like a contemporary "ukiyo-e" painting.
In the past, people who lined up here were seeking medical treatment and held their medical insurance cards.
Now, those queuing up here are trying to "extend their lives," and they're holding black cards.
At six o'clock in the morning, the sky was just beginning to lighten.
Zhao Shih-hao hummed a little tune as he drove his signature bright pink hand tractor to deliver the freshest vegetables.
When they got to the street corner, they were dumbfounded—not even a bicycle could fit in, let alone a tractor.
The area in front of the pharmacy was packed with people, a sea of heads.
The air was filled with the smells of expensive perfumes, disinfectant, and a suffocating sense of unease.
Some were sitting in wheelchairs worth tens of thousands of yuan, some were lying on custom-made stretchers, and some were surrounded by seven or eight bodyguards, panting heavily with every step.
Although their faces showed different expressions, their eyes all revealed the same thing—fear of death and a superstitious belief in the omnipotence of money.
What they were waving in their hands were not medical records, but gold cards from major banks, bright red property deeds, and some even held Ming Dynasty blue and white porcelain and jadeite bracelets.
"Dr. Wang! Dr. Wang, please open the door! Save my father! Our family has plenty of money. If you're willing to help, I'll buy this building... no, this whole street!" A woman wearing a mink coat and covered in diamond rings knelt on the ground, banging her head against the closed roller shutter door repeatedly, her forehead covered in blood.
"Master! Give me a chance! I'm only 25 years old, I don't want to die! I have 5 million followers, if you save me, I'll livestream every day to promote you!" A young man, thin as a skeleton with sunken eyes, was crying his heart out in front of the phone camera. He was clearly a terminal patient with some kind of incurable disease and wanted to use public opinion to put pressure on the patient.
The scene was chaotic and tragic, resembling both a disaster movie's escape scene and an absurd auction.
"Boss, what... what should we do?" Liu Yixin hid behind the counter, peeking through the crack in the door at the commotion outside. His legs were trembling with fear. "Judging by their attitude, if we don't agree, they might tear our door down! Just now, someone even offered to donate a golden statue to our pharmacy!"
Wang Minyu lay on the rocking chair, his face covered by the well-worn copy of "Postpartum Care of Sows," without uttering a word.
Only the slight rise and fall of his chest proved that he was still awake.
He knew exactly what was going on.
Things are developing in the most dangerous and undesirable direction he could have hoped for.
He was able to "reboot" Li Yang because Li Yang still had a strong physical foundation, a powerful will, and most importantly, a clear mind.
It was a gamble with a success rate of less than one percent, and it was only because that single speck of "energy-devouring spore" happened to work.
He won the bet, but that doesn't mean he can keep winning.
Moreover, the "energy-devouring spores" in his hands are truly "forbidden items," and each use reduces their availability. They are his trump card for saving his life in critical moments, so how could he possibly give them to these wealthy people as an "elixir of immortality"?
He's not a god; he's just a doctor with some special skills and a bit of magic.
He can cure the disease of "courting death" due to ignorance, but he cannot cure the fate of being "deserving to die," much less the greed of human nature.
"Guanshan".
Wang Minyu finally took the book off his face, his voice carrying a hint of annoyance at being woken up and a deep weariness.
"Yes, boss." Guan Shan was squatting in the corner gnawing on a pig's trotter when he heard the call. He immediately stood up, his towering figure exuding a strong sense of oppression.
"Go and hang up a sign at the entrance."
Five minutes later.
A brand-new ebony plaque, hastily made by Pierre using laser engraving technology, was slammed heavily onto the pharmacy entrance by Guan Shan with a loud "bang".
The crowd fell silent for a second as everyone craned their necks to look.
The sign bore only two lines of large, blood-red characters, carved by Su Qing with a scalpel. The characters were sharp and exuded a cold, unapproachable aura.
First line: [This shop does not cure terminal illnesses, but only saves those who are dying.]
The second line states: "Those who wish to 'restart' must simultaneously meet the following three conditions: 1. All family wealth is lost; 2. Relatives and friends abandon them; 3. They have a death wish."
When these three rules were announced, the crowd at the entrance was first stunned, and then erupted into a frenzy.
"What do you mean? What kind of unfair terms are these? They want to bankrupt the family before they can be cured? Isn't this taking advantage of someone's misfortune?"
"And to expect relatives and friends to abandon us? What kind of ridiculous rule is this! Is it wrong for our family to love each other?"
"Determined to die? I only came to him because I wanted to live! If I wanted to die, I could just jump off a building, why bother with all this trouble?"
A barrage of insults and questions arose, and some people even began to shove Guan Shan, trying to rush into the store to argue.
But soon, they stopped laughing and stopped cursing.
Because the first person who "meets the criteria" has appeared.
He was a homeless man.
He was dressed in rags, his hair was matted and clumps of hair, and he reeked of a nauseating stench.
His belly was alarmingly large, and his skin was sallow, clearly indicating late-stage cirrhosis with ascites.
He was carried over by Guan Shan like a chick, with one hand.
"Make way, make way! Don't get your mink coats dirty!" Guan Shan's loud voice made everyone's ears ring.
The woman in the mink coat covered her nose in disgust and took several steps back: "Where did this beggar come from! He stinks! Where's security? Get rid of him!"
Guan Shan ignored her and placed the homeless man on the steps by the door. He introduced him in a deep voice, "Boss, this man is called Lao Zhao. He has late-stage cirrhosis. He sold his house to pay for treatment, his wife ran away with the children, and all his relatives and friends avoid him. Last night, he tried to hang himself under the bridge, but the rope broke and he didn't die. I pulled him out while I was on patrol. All three rules apply."
Wang Minyu, wearing a slightly yellowed white lab coat, slowly walked out.
He didn't even glance at the wealthy people waving checks; his gaze was fixed solely on the trembling, vacant-eyed homeless man.
[Systemic scan: Decompensated cirrhosis with severe ascites. Extremely low will to live.]
Wang Minyu nodded, his voice not loud, but exceptionally clear: "Meets the requirements. Carry it in."
Under the gaze of hundreds of shocked, bewildered, and even mocking eyes, the homeless man, who had been abandoned by the world and even by himself, was carried into the mysterious "Hall of Rebirth".
The door was closed tightly.
Everyone held their breath; some were checking their watches, others were whispering.
"Hmph, what a charlatan! I don't believe he can really cure a beggar!" The mink-clad woman scoffed.
After half an hour.
"Squeak—"
The heavy wooden door opened again.
The homeless man came out.
Although he still walked with a limp and was still thin, everyone was horrified to discover that his belly, which was swollen like a ball and looked like it could explode at any moment, had miraculously shrunk by more than half!
A trace of color appeared on his sallow face.
More importantly, his once cloudy, lifeless eyes now held light.
Wang Minyu followed behind, carrying a bowl of steaming porridge, and handed it to him: "This is Pierre's 'Resurrection Porridge,' it's good for the stomach. Also..."
He then took out a wad of red banknotes from his pocket, probably two or three thousand yuan, and stuffed them into the homeless man's hand.
"Take the money, go take a shower, get a haircut, buy some clothes. Find a place where no one knows you, and live a good life. Remember, I saved your life, don't waste it again."
The homeless man took the bowl of porridge and money with trembling hands.
He opened his mouth as if to say something, but his throat was choked and he couldn't make a sound.
Finally, he knelt down with a thud and kowtowed three times to Wang Minyu, drawing blood from his forehead.
Then, he got up, clutching the money and porridge tightly in his arms, and limped away into the gaps in the crowd.
The entire room fell silent.
That silence was even more oppressive than the commotion just moments before.
Everyone understood what Wang Minyu meant.
He wasn't joking, nor was he using any marketing tactics.
He really only saves those who have been completely abandoned by the world.
Those family members holding property certificates and driving luxury cars watched the homeless man's departing figure, then looked at the checks in their hands, and suddenly felt a bit hot to the touch.
They're willing to go bankrupt; this amount of money is nothing to them.
But they cannot accept the abandonment of relatives and friends, let alone the kind of resolute determination to fight to the death.
They want their loved ones to live to continue the family's glory and to provide for their own emotional needs, but they lack the courage to first psychologically "kill" their loved ones in order to gamble on that one percent chance of survival.
The crowd began to slowly loosen and disperse.
Finally, only a few truly desperate people remained, staring at the black sign with complex expressions, seemingly deep in thought.
"Boss, why...why did you do this?" Liu Yixin looked at the departing crowd with a pained expression. "You could have made a fortune. You could have easily taken on a job that would have provided for you for the rest of your life."
"Uncle Liu, you can never earn enough money." Wang Minyu leaned back in his chair, casually covering his face with the book to block the glaring midday sun. "But you only have one life. My medical skills are for saving lives, not for satisfying some people's fantasy of 'buying life with money.' If even the fairest thing, life and death, can be arbitrarily measured by money, then this world is truly beyond saving."
Li Siyuan and Zhao Na stood to the side, listening to their master's words, seemingly lost in thought.
Looking at their master, who usually seemed greedy, cunning, and unserious, they suddenly felt that his image had become much more admirable.
Beneath his cynical exterior lies a world that is purer and gentler than anyone else's.
With the establishment of those three rules, the turmoil has finally subsided temporarily.
But Wang Minyu knew that this was just the calm before the storm.
The "key" in his hand has placed him in the eye of the storm. Neither the wealthy seeking survival nor the "S" organization lurking in the shadows will let him go easily.
He needs greater power to protect himself, to protect this seemingly crumbling little pharmacy, and to protect the group of "weirdos" he picked up from various corners of the world.
As dusk fell, the streetlights came on.
Just as Wang Minyu was pondering his next move, a man wearing a black baseball cap and a delivery uniform sneaked into the pharmacy.
Without a word, he strode to the counter, pulled an envelope stained with a little dark red blood from his pocket, slammed it heavily on the table, then pulled his hat down low, turned and ran, disappearing into the night in an instant.
Wang Minyu's heart tightened, and he immediately picked up the envelope.
There was no money in the envelope, only a small memory card and a crumpled piece of paper.
The note bore Qin Xue's familiar, slightly messy handwriting. It contained only a short sentence, yet it caused Wang Minyu's pupils to instantly contract:
"They are feeding a monster with 'seeds'."