Chapter 498 — We Sell the Deluxe Edition Too

"What I mean is, Xiaoxiao, you're not a child anymore. Don't you think it's about time you found yourself a boyfriend?" Feng Tianlong cleared his throat. He too felt this was hardly the most fitting topic for a father to raise with his daughter just now, but it had to be said.

It was Feng Xiaoxiao's peculiar condition that forced the thought upon him. Other parents dreaded the idea of their children dating young, let alone having a child out of wedlock—but Feng Tianlong actually wished his daughter would hurry up and give him a grandchild.

Deep down, Feng Tianlong knew the truth: his daughter's illness was all but incurable. He could scour the world, and hope would remain pitifully slim. Even if some miracle doctor appeared, a few extra years of life would be the most they could manage; a full recovery was pure fantasy.

That was why Feng Tianlong was so urgent about his daughter finding a boyfriend. He wanted to see her life continue—and in that moment, he cast aside all reserve and broached the matter with her directly.

"Um... I don't think that's necessary, is it?" Feng Xiaoxiao flushed even deeper. "Me... me, get a boyfriend?"

"I won't say any more about it. You just handle it your own way!" Feng Tianlong smiled, started the car, and drove off.

He dropped Feng Xiaoxiao at the hotel, gave her a few parting instructions, then quickly drove away. People on the other end were waiting for him; he had no choice but to go on ahead.

Alone in the hotel room, Feng Xiaoxiao found herself turning her father's words over in her mind. What exactly did he mean by that? That he supported her getting a boyfriend? She found it a little strange—she wasn't even of marriageable age yet...

Ah! Feng Xiaoxiao suddenly recalled her own peculiar circumstances. When her mother had given birth to her, hadn't she been around the same age? This hereditary disease of hers was a strange one—passed from mother to daughter, never to sons. A boy would be perfectly fine; only a daughter would be afflicted. She vaguely remembered her father once speaking of her mother's youth—it seemed her maternal grandfather had been every bit as anxious, pushing her mother into her father's arms. The two of them hadn't even registered their marriage before she was conceived.

Her father, though, was a man of deep devotion. All these years, he had never remarried. Now his thoughts were probably the same as her grandfather's had been back then. Feng Xiaoxiao shook her head. But times had changed; she was still a high schooler. Being told to find a boyfriend and have a baby—wasn't that a bit odd?

She had never once considered such a question before, because in her eyes, her brief life held no room for friendship, let alone love.

Feng Xiaoxiao didn't want to become entangled with anyone, didn't need anyone's pity, and wanted even less the grief of parting by life and death. So in eighteen years she had made no bosom friends—only a crew of fair-weather underlings. She had never let her heart stir for any boy, because she couldn't bear to face that kind of wrenching pain.

Yet Feng Tianlong's words had, for the first time, plunged her into deep thought. Her, find a boyfriend? Was that possible? Could she allow herself to like someone?

Hah—Feng Xiaoxiao shook her head with a bitter smile. Who would ever like her? To take a girlfriend like her, one foot in the grave already, would be the worst luck of eight lifetimes. Before anything could even come of it, she'd be gone...

Huh? Feng Xiaoxiao suddenly thought of Wei Zhao. If it came to that—if she made Wei Zhao fall in love with her, then even if she didn't dump him, he'd surely suffer terribly, wouldn't he? At that thought, the resolve in her heart only hardened...

"Second Uncle, Lai Changshan and his group have left..." The young man who had earlier bid against Fatty Lai for the sheepskin map whispered into his earpiece.

"Xiaokun, follow them. See which hotel they're staying at, then find out the identity of that young man beside Lai Changshan!" ordered the middle-aged man sitting next to Yu Haitian.

"Yes, sir!" The young man called Xiaokun nodded. Once outside the auction house, he flickered and vanished into the vast night.

Fatty Lai had no car in Yanjing, and the hotel the three of them were staying at wasn't far from the auction house—about a kilometer on foot. For all his girth, Fatty Lai was in decent shape; Guan Xuewen, hale and hearty, could only benefit from an occasional stroll; and Wei Zhao, of course, had no problem at all.

So the three of them didn't take a cab, but simply walked back toward the hotel. It was a good bit of exercise, and once there they could grab some late-night snacks at the tea restaurant.

"Boss, have you figured out what we're going to auction yet?" Fatty Lai was still thinking about making another splash at the auction house, and afraid Wei Zhao might have forgotten, he offered a reminder.

"I really haven't given it any thought," Wei Zhao said, brow furrowing slightly as he sank into contemplation. What Miracle Doctor Kang had put up for auction was the deluxe edition of his Golden Wound Medicine. If he were to put out a deluxe edition of his own wound medicine, it would obviously smack of bandwagon-jumping...

"Boss, the way I see it, why don't we just come out with a deluxe edition of our wound medicine too? They have theirs, we have ours—no need to overcomplicate things!" Seeing Wei Zhao's dilemma, Fatty Lai made his suggestion.

"Wouldn't that just be following the crowd? Wouldn't that put us a notch below them?" Wei Zhao countered.

"Well... Boss! I'm out of ideas too. Our pharmaceutical company is still in its early stages, and I don't intend to release too many varieties. Having the Life-Extending Detoxifying Pill as our signature product is plenty. If we offer too many kinds, it'll only obscure how good our wound medicine and painkillers are. Besides, we should reveal our trump cards slowly—showing them all at once goes against the principles of business."

"That must be the deluxe edition of the wound medicine!" Wei Zhao nodded, already turning something over in his mind. "Our deluxe wound medicine is different from Divine Doctor Kang's. I've added a few more herbs to the wound medicine. It has a marked effect on old, lingering scars and can rapidly clear away decay and regenerate flesh!"

"Huh?" Lai the Fatty's eyes went wide, and he stared at Wei Zhao in disbelief. "Boss, it really has such miraculous effects?"

"It's nothing miraculous, really. It's just the wound medicine with a few other Chinese herbs added in. The only catch is that the cost goes up considerably." Wei Zhao shrugged and spoke in a very matter-of-fact tone.

"Well... a bit higher cost is no problem. These are the fine pieces for auction, after all. The ordinary version won't have the extra ingredients," Lai the Fatty said. "Going by the annual auction prices for Divine Doctor Kang's deluxe Golden Wound Medicine, a single box goes for over five hundred thousand!"

"Oh? That's quite high, then. The cost is certainly covered!" Wei Zhao was somewhat surprised. A single box of Golden Wound Medicine could sell for five hundred thousand?

"That's nothing. Five hundred thousand means nothing at all to those rich people. They're the sort who make hundreds of thousands a second. If they cut their hand, recovering a day sooner might let them earn even more money!" Lai the Fatty laughed. "To be honest, I bid on a box last year myself!"