Chapter 379 — Grabbing the Trash

"I won't sell it," Wei Zhao said with a shake of his head.

"Why not... boo-hoo, young man, I have money, I have plenty of money! Whatever that old fox Liu Tianyi can afford, I can afford too—and more than him!" Fatty Lai was crying again.

"..." Wei Zhao was somewhat exasperated. Why was this fat man so fond of crying? A regular weeping willow? He explained helplessly, "I only have this one, and now it's gone!"

"Is that so... then when will you have more?" Fatty Lai's face fell into utter dejection at once. Only one? And it was gone?

"I can't say for certain." Wei Zhao barely knew this Fatty Lai, so naturally he would not casually give him a pill. The few pills he had left were to be given away when the company opened, as gifts to make its name known. Of course Wei Zhao would not waste them carelessly!

True, this Fatty Lai was a weeping willow, and seemingly a filial son besides, but there were plenty of filial weeping willows. If every one of them came running to his legs, sniveling and bawling, begging him for pills, then even if he did not die of exhaustion from refining medicine, he would die of annoyance.

So this precedent must not be broken! Under no circumstances could he give pills to people he did not know!

"Ah... is that so, boo-hoo-hoo..." At Wei Zhao's words, Fatty Lai burst into loud wailing again: "That unworthy descendant of Divine Doctor Kang, that bastard, wasting heaven's gifts like that, *** his whole immortal board of a family..."

"..." Though Wei Zhao felt some sympathy for Fatty Lai's plight, he could hardly give him a pill out of sympathy, could he? Wei Zhao was not a charitable institution.

Just then, a cleaner came over carrying a trash bag, about to dump it in one of the resort's garbage bins. Fatty Lai had sharp eyes and recognized the man at once as the very cleaner who had been sweeping the banquet hall when Kang Jingming crushed that pill underfoot. He scrambled up from the ground with a whoosh and ran swiftly to the cleaner's side: "Don't throw it away, just give me this trash bag!"

The cleaner jumped in fright, looking at the fat man rushing at him with a tear-streaked face, utterly at a loss and scared out of his wits: "You... you... what do you want?"

Fearing trouble if things dragged on, Fatty Lai offered no explanation and simply reached out to snatch the trash bag from the cleaner's hands. If the bag had not been full of nothing but garbage, the cleaner would almost have cried robbery!

But precisely because the bag held nothing but useless garbage, the cleaner saw Fatty Lai grabbing at it like a madman and did not contest him at all—he simply let go and turned to flee in fright...

Who would fight a lunatic over a trash bag? The cleaner thought: this fat man, dressed so respectably, turned out to be a madman. Clearly he had better keep his distance.

Fatty Lai paid the cleaner no mind—let him think what he liked. The real business was to find that pill Kang Jingming had crushed!

Wei Zhao, Kang Xiaofeng, Tang Zhi, Xiaofen, and even Liu Tianyi all stared in astonishment at the frenzied Fatty Lai, having no idea what he meant to do.

"Old Lai, what are you doing? What's gotten into you?" Though there was a bit of friction between Liu Tianyi and Fatty Lai, their relationship was still decent, and seeing Fatty Lai lose his dignity in such a frenzy, he hurried to warn him! If a business rival saw this and filmed it, he would be laughed to death!

But Fatty Lai seemed not to hear Liu Tianyi at all. He untied the trash bag and pulled the contents out one by one, tossing them into the garbage bin!

There were used lunch boxes, instant noodle cups, tissues covered in snot, chewed bubble gum, disposable chopsticks—all sorts of things, and flies and mosquitoes kept buzzing out of it.

Liu Tianyi felt a wave of nausea. Had Fatty Lai gone mad? What was he doing?

"Don't talk! I need to find where that prodigal son stepped the pill to pieces!" Fatty Lai roared, rummaging frantically through the trash bag for something.

Forget it, let him search. If he could find it, that would be his good fortune. Wei Zhao shook his head. Though it had been crushed by Kang Jingming, the medicinal effect was the same.

Liu Tianyi was stunned too. He had never expected Fatty Lai to come up with such an idea—to actually go looking for the pill Kang Jingming had trampled to bits!

"Found it! Found it!" Fatty Lai suddenly fished out a blackish clump from the trash bag, then held it up in his hands excitedly as if it were a priceless treasure: "Wonderful, I finally found it, hahaha!"

"Haha, congratulations, Brother Old Lai!" Liu Tianyi walked over and patted Fatty Lai on the shoulder.

"Get lost!" Lai Fatty shot Liu Tianyi a sour glare, then added, "And don't even think about trying to snatch my Life-Prolonging and Toxin-Cleansing Pill -- I'm not giving it to you!"

"I'm not trying to snatch it..." Liu Tianyi knew he had angered Lai Fatty by not telling him about Wei Zhao earlier, but he couldn't be blamed for that -- Wei Zhao had never given him permission to go spreading his business around, so how could he dare?

"Huh? Why is this pill so big? I don't remember it being this large before!" Lai Fatty suddenly frowned in confusion, clutching that lump of black matter and hurrying over. "Little brother, would you mind having a look? Is this the one...? Wait -- why does it stink? Could it be that pills are supposed to smell? Bitter medicine is good medicine?"

"... Wei Zhao glanced at the black lump in Lai Fatty's hand, then shifted back a step. Tang Zhi leaned in for a closer look, but Wei Zhao pulled her back.

"What's wrong?" Tang Zhi was puzzled that Wei Zhao would not let her go near.

"It's the pill, all right -- but it's stuck to a lump of dog shit." Wei Zhao told Lai Fatty, "Scrape off the lighter-colored bit on the left. That's dog shit. That's why it stinks."

"What?!" Lai Fatty's eyes went wide as saucers, sweat pouring down his face. "Dog shit...?"

Still, Lai Fatty gritted his teeth. Even if there was dog shit on it, he was going to dig that pill out!

A cold sweat broke out on Liu Tianyi's forehead. Stuck to dog shit? This Lai Fatty was having the worst luck imaginable!

But Lai Fatty didn't see it that way at all. On the contrary, he felt himself extraordinarily lucky. So what if it had touched dog shit? Finding it at all was the miracle -- that alone was the greatest stroke of fortune anyone could ask for. A bit of dog shit? Who cared!

Carefully, Lai Fatty scraped off the side that bore no dog shit. Though he hadn't gotten it all -- a little still clung to the mess -- he didn't dare scrape any further! He couldn't exactly have his old man eat dog shit!

Lai Fatty tossed the dog-shit half back into the trash bag, then cradled what remained with both hands. Having no container to put it in, he fished out a box of cigars, opened it, dumped every cigar into the waste basket, and placed the salvaged pill inside.