Chapter 40

Chapter 40

The shopkeeper's brow furrowed slightly at the surname, but quickly relaxed again, because he really didn't know any big shot with the surname Huo.

Although Dongling County was small, it wasn't too far from the capital, making it a popular retirement spot for officials returning to their hometowns. As such, there were quite a few distinguished personages here, but none of them bore the surname Huo.

But Shopkeeper Dong wasn't a man without discernment. Though he did glance at the patch on Huo Jilin's sleeve, he controlled his expression well and kept a smile on his face as he asked, "Young Master Huo, what kind of medicinal herbs are you looking to sell?"

He wanted to quickly get rid of this troublesome guest—regardless of who he was, the main thing was to shut him up before he spouted more nonsense.

Their Wanchun Hall did indeed have some medicines exclusively supplied from the capital—things like tonic pills and elixirs for nourishing the kidneys—but the rest of their herbs weren't from the capital at all; they were local.

However, for the sake of the Wanchun Hall brand, they always claimed everything came straight from the capital, because Wanchun Hall belonged to the Dong family of the capital. The Dong family's Wanchun Hall had branches all over the country.

They couldn't afford to tarnish their reputation, so this man had to be sent away. How he'd come by that information was a mystery, but the fact that he knew it meant he understood a great deal. Better to treat him with kid gloves.

This time, Chen Jue pulled the thirty-year-old ginseng out of the cloth pouch tucked at his chest.

Shopkeeper Dong just narrowed his eyes a little at the ginseng, which was as thick as three fingers.

A thirty-year-old ginseng was definitely worth a pretty penny, but in his eyes, it was nothing to write home about.

Wanchun Hall was, after all, a pharmacy from the capital—what kind of ginseng hadn't they seen?

Every ginseng that Imperial Physician He gave the emperor in the palace was at least a hundred years old.

Still, Shopkeeper Dong kept his smile in place, carefully taking the ginseng from Chen Jue and examining it closely with a magnifying glass before saying with a smile, "Quite good."

And that was it—nothing else.

Shopkeeper Dong had his own pride, and it came from the confidence Wanchun Hall gave him.

But Huo Jilin paid it no mind. He simply pulled something out from inside his robe. Shopkeeper Dong's hand trembled slightly when he saw the snake shed, folded as neatly as a piece of clothing: "This... this snake shed... was it on this ginseng? Protecting it?"

Anything that old had a certain spiritual energy to it. According to folk legend, old ginseng could run away, so when you spotted one, you had to pounce on it right away and tie a red string around it to claim it.

Ginseng growing in remote, uninhabited places might escape human greed, but it couldn't escape the greed of other animals. All things have a spirit.

Huo Jilin didn't pick up on the shopkeeper's line of questioning. He just flicked a speck off his clothes and said, "Whether it was guarding the ginseng, I couldn't tell you. I found it in a crevice between rocks beneath the ginseng."

He said it in a flat voice. The words were vague, but his tone made them sound completely believable.

If the snake shed had actually been wrapped around the ginseng, that would've been too obvious a fake—after all, it was only a thirty-year-old ginseng.

But the more you mixed truth with lies, the more room there was for imagination—and that's how the market got stirred up.

Once you packaged a product, the price doubled or even went up several times over.

That was the way a shrewd merchant did business.

Chen Jue watched Huo Jilin, thinking exactly that.

Huo Jilin glanced back at him. The look on Chen Jue's face said he thought Huo Jilin was a sly businessman.

Huo Jilin didn't deny it. He was a businessman through and through—and who ever saw a merchant who wasn't sly?

Seeing how matter-of-fact Huo Jilin was, Chen Jue realized he was overthinking it. This guy was just a merchant.

Huachen Pharmaceutical might be one of the biggest companies in the country, but at the end of the day, it was a capital-driven enterprise.

It ran on capital, and capitalists were just merchants.

Huo Jilin didn't really want to use this method, but he needed to feel out this Wanchun Hall shopkeeper—to see if Wanchun Hall was open to the whole packaging game.

The snake shed gave Shopkeeper Dong a convenient excuse to raise the price. Shopkeeper Dong's hand was trembling as he held the snake shed. He'd originally planned to offer sixty taels for the ginseng—ten more than the shop next door, and that was already his hush money. But now it was clear this guy had a big appetite—he was forcing him to raise the price.

The shopkeeper closed his eyes for a moment, then said to Chen Jue, "All things possess spirit. Since the two of you wrested this ginseng from the jaws of a serpent, its value has doubled. For this thirty-year-old ginseng, I'll give you both one hundred taels of silver, along with this snake shed. How does that sound to the two of you?"

Shopkeeper Dong's heart was bleeding—not because he'd lost fifty taels of silver; that wasn't the problem. What really got him was that even though he knew full well Huo Jilin was spinning a story, he still had to grit his teeth and pay up.

That was what really stung.

He hoped Huo Jilin would finish shaking him down and leave already. But Huo Jilin didn't leave.

He stayed put, calmly sipping his tea.

The tea was decent—not top-shelf white down, but fresh enough.

Seeing that Shopkeeper Dong had handled things pretty well, Huo Jilin said to him calmly, "I'll be coming to Wanchun Hall more often from now on."

Shopkeeper Dong's smile stiffened a bit, but he still said, "Of course, of course. You're always welcome here."

Huo Jilin saw the forced smile on his face and smirked slightly: "Shopkeeper Dong, have you ever heard of a miraculous herb that is born in snowy weather and unfurls its leaves in the spring breeze?"

Shopkeeper Dong didn't need to look at him like he was the plague. Huo Jilin genuinely wanted to throw him a bone.

Chen Jue had already called him a sly merchant, and merchants cared about profit—long-term profit.

In this world, there were no permanent enemies, but there were business partners who put profit first.

He figured Shopkeeper Dong wasn't half bad—at least for a small county like this. Compared to the honest Shopkeeper Li at Jishi Hall, Shopkeeper Dong had a real merchant's mindset—you could tell by how he'd turned Wanchun Hall into a wellness resort and recovery spot for the rich.

Shopkeeper Dong stroked his beard: "Are you referring to the snow lotus? That herb is extremely precious. Growing on high mountain snowfields, it's far too difficult to harvest. Such herbs are reserved exclusively for the imperial family. I've only heard of it, never seen it."

Huo Jilin covered the tea leaves, took a sip, then set the cup down before saying, "I'm not referring to the snow lotus. The snow lotus is precious but not miraculous. No matter how hard it is to harvest, it's still just a plant."

He dismissed the snow lotus so casually that it stunned Shopkeeper Dong. Looking at this man in patched clothing, Shopkeeper Dong thought to himself—this man doesn't even care about snow lotus. What kind of family must he have come from to have fallen so far?

It was truly a pity.

Shopkeeper Dong hurriedly asked, "Young Master Huo, then what miraculous herb are you referring to?"

Chen Jue couldn't help but glance at Huo Jilin too. He knew exactly what Huo Jilin was up to. He could see that Shopkeeper Dong was ripe for the picking, and Huo Jilin was about to pitch him cordyceps.

Sure enough, Huo Jilin said calmly, "Cordyceps."

Shopkeeper Dong repeated, "Cordyceps? What's that? A worm? Or a grass?"

Huo Jilin nodded at him: "Shopkeeper Dong is right. It's both a worm and a grass."

Shopkeeper Dong's curiosity was completely hooked. After Huo Jilin explained the origins of cordyceps, he was eager to see this miraculous herb.

Huo Jilin then pulled out the cordyceps that Chen Jue had wrapped layer upon layer.

The few they'd dug up beneath the pine tree that day.

Amid Shopkeeper Dong's exclamations of wonder, Huo Jilin continued, "The ancients said that summer insects cannot speak of ice, yet cordyceps achieves exactly that. It is born in bitter snow and cold, surviving the harshest winter. As you know, shopkeeper, the older a medicinal herb is, the better—because it has endured the trials of time and developed resistance to natural disasters, and thus its medicinal properties are superior."

Shopkeeper Dong nodded, impressed by the eloquence of this young Master Huo.

He added in agreement, "Indeed, the more a medicinal herb has weathered the changing seasons, the more potent its effects. A century-old ginseng is revered as a treasure precisely because it is hoped to sustain life at critical moments."

Huo Ji Lin gave a quick point at the herb in his hand and said, "So wouldn't you say this herb is miraculous? It raises the dead!"

Chen Jue watched him. Technically, Huo Ji Lin wasn't exaggerating—in the case of Cordyceps sinensis, it truly was a resurrection of a living organism. A worm frozen to death in the harsh winter sprouts leaves and branches through the fungus's growth, which is indeed a resurrection.

But when heard by someone unfamiliar with this herb, his words took on an exaggerated ambiguity, leading them to believe it was a miraculous life-saving pill.

He saw the sparkle of excitement in Shopkeeper Dong's already shrewd eyes and knew Huo Ji Lin had made the sale.

He had definitely found the right person.

The clientele of Shopkeeper Dong's Wan Chun Tang were mostly wealthy and influential patrons who feared death, clung to life, and sought every possible method of health preservation.

This demographic would consume Cordyceps sinensis.

As long as it was marketed as something even more high-end and exclusive, they would swarm to it like ducks.

Moreover, Cordyceps genuinely had tonic properties—with long-term consumption, one's immunity would greatly strengthen, and extending one's lifespan would naturally be a given.

Sure enough, Shopkeeper Dong asked eagerly, "What does this herb treat? Is it a life-saving miracle drug?"

Huo Ji Lin said in a flat tone, "Shopkeeper Dong, after all these years at Wan Chun Tang, you must have considerable pharmacological knowledge. You should know that no herb in this world can produce immediate life-saving results. Ginseng sustains life, but only for a brief moment."

When a person dies, they're dead—breathing stops, the heartbeat flatlines, and even the greatest immortals can't bring them back. Except for those like him and Chen Jue, whose souls were reborn in some parallel space. Only the soul.

Huo Ji Lin's gaze shifted to Chen Jue. The conclusion about life and death above was drawn by him while standing before Chen Jue's body.

Shopkeeper Dong looked a bit disappointed.

Huo Ji Lin noticed and pushed the memory of Chen Jue's body from his mind, then smiled. "Shopkeeper Dong, a man as perceptive as you should understand—why would one wait until the moment of death to think about sustaining life?"

Shopkeeper Dong had an epiphany.

This Huo Ji Lin was cut from the same cloth as him—he was pitching health products.

"So what are the effects of this herb?"

Huo Ji Lin smiled and looked at Chen Jue. "Let my husband explain the effects. His family has a lineage of medicine."

Chen Jue gave Huo Ji Lin a deep look. Huo Ji Lin was a businessman—when he didn't want to speak, no one could pry a word from him, but when he wanted to persuade you, every word he said was irrefutable, clear in logic, well-reasoned, and layered with traps, like a master hunter coldly watching you fall in.

Chen Jue took a deep breath. He shouldn't use the word "traps." The Cordyceps was legitimate, and Huo Ji Lin's sales approach as a herb merchant was perfectly sound.

It was Huo Ji Lin's past image that was deeply ingrained in Chen Jue's mind, making it hard for him to change his view and leaving him with an instinctive bias.