Chapter 500 — Someone Is Following

"Oh? Very well..." Fatty Lai had no idea what Wei Zhao needed to take care of, but seeing that Wei Zhao had no intention of explaining, he thought it impolite to press further. He took Guan Xuewen by the arm and ducked into a boutique not far away.

As for Wei Zhao, he turned on his heel and strode briskly toward the pharmacy where he had purchased his herbs earlier.

What Wei Zhao had not anticipated was that on his very first day in Yanjing, he would find himself being tailed...

"I'm sorry, sir." The shop girl gave Xiaokun a sweet smile. "Our pharmacy keeps its customers' purchases confidential."

It had to be said that Xiaokun was strikingly handsome - he had the air of a leading man straight out of a Korean drama, and even the pharmacy's attendant found her eyes drawn to him more than once.

Xiaokun frowned. His looks had always been a surefire weapon with women; he had expected her to answer honestly. Instead she spoke of confidentiality. Still, Xiaokun did not give up. He pulled out his wallet, drew a few hundred-yuan bills from it, and laid them on the counter. "Come on, beauty, do me a favor. The man who was here just before me is my brother. He got hold of some folk remedy somewhere and came to buy medicine for my father - but I don't know what he bought, and I'm worried it might cause my father harm. I just want to confirm."

"Is that so!" The not-quite-pretty attendant felt a small stirring inside. Xiaokun's looks were pleasant enough, but the bills on the counter were far more tempting. For a working girl like her, pulling in barely over a thousand yuan a month, this was no small temptation - Xiaokun had just slapped down five hundred at once, and she found it hard to refuse.

After a moment's hesitation, the attendant swiftly swept the bills off the counter and tucked them away. Then she reached beneath the counter, pulled out an itemized list, and set it down in front of him. "You may copy from it, but you can't take it away."

Xiaokun picked up the list and ran his eyes over it. His memory was exceptional to begin with, so the names of the medicines were committed to memory in no time. He returned the list to the attendant. "I study medicine myself - one glance tells me whether anything conflicts. Nothing out of the ordinary. No problems. Here, keep it. Thank you."

"Oh... of course!" The attendant let out a breath of relief. Selling out a customer's private information like this was a first for her, and she had not felt entirely comfortable doing it. Hearing Xiaokun say there was nothing amiss, she relaxed at once. He had only glanced at it, after all - surely no harm done.

"Goodbye, beauty. Thanks again!" Xiaokun turned and walked out of the pharmacy. But no sooner had he stepped through the door than his expression froze - for there, standing squarely in front of him, was Wei Zhao.

"Why were you following me?" Wei Zhao regarded Xiaokun from where he stood and asked flatly.

Wei Zhao had no desire to make trouble for himself in Yanjing, but if someone was tailing him, he could hardly turn a blind eye. When it came to unknown dangers, Wei Zhao's preference was always to strike first.

Still, the jade pendant had given no warning, which meant this person harbored no serious hostility toward him. That was why Wei Zhao had merely given him a chance to explain rather than immediately eliminating this mid-Yellow-Stage expert on the spot.

The young man before him could not have been much past twenty, yet to possess the strength of a mid-Yellow-Stage cultivator at that age was truly remarkable.

"Following you? You must have me mistaken for someone else." Xiaokun's shock lasted only an instant before his composure returned. But a flicker of surprise had passed through his eyes - he had not expected Wei Zhao to detect his tailing.

Xiaokun had not gone to any great lengths to disguise himself while tracking the three of them, but even so, with his mid-Yellow-Stage strength, being spotted was genuinely unexpected.

"Is that so? It's best if you haven't been." Wei Zhao shrugged. He committed Xiaokun's face to memory and ultimately abandoned the idea of killing him. In unfamiliar territory, Wei Zhao preferred not to invite unnecessary trouble.

Since the man in front of him showed no evident hostility, Wei Zhao intended only to issue a warning - so long as the fellow stopped following him, that would be the end of it.

Watching Wei Zhao's retreating figure, Xiaokun's brow furrowed. He could not quite fathom how this perfectly ordinary-looking young man had spotted him.

But it was plainly no longer appropriate to tail him further. Xiaokun had no choice but to dial his uncle's number. "Second Uncle - the other side has made me."

"Oh?" The middle-aged man was momentarily taken aback. "They made you? Do they have capable guards around them?"

"Still unclear. I don't know how they spotted me either, but that young man blocked me on the way out and asked whether I had been following him..." Xiaokun was thoroughly vexed. It was just like the old saying - walk by the river often enough and you're bound to get your shoes wet. He had actually capsized in the gutter, taking what he assumed to be a simple tailing assignment and getting it blown wide open.

"Never mind. Come back. The fact that we now know Lai Changshan is with Guan Xuewen is enough." The middle-aged man pondered for a moment, then said, "For the time being, infiltrate their company. Tomorrow I'll find another opportunity to probe Lai Changshan and see what his purpose is in buying that map."

"Understood, Second Uncle!" Xiaokun nodded, turned, and vanished into the night. The matter of the pharmacy, however, he did not mention to his uncle.

Wei Zhao arrived at the boutique. Guan Xuewen and Fatty Lai had not really come to buy anything either; they had merely wandered about inside, and when they saw Wei Zhao approach, they went up to meet him.

"All done?" Fatty Lai asked.

"Yes. Nothing much to begin with - I just ran into an acquaintance." Wei Zhao smiled and said nothing about being followed, lest Fatty Lai and Guan Xuewen worry.

Instinctively, Wei Zhao did not believe Xiaokun had come for him. The man had likely seen the prospects of Doctor Kang's Pharmaceuticals at the auction and followed him to see what he might discover - especially since Wei Zhao had just come out of the hospital. No need to ask: he must have gone to inquire what Wei Zhao had bought. So Wei Zhao took him for someone fishing for trade secrets and never considered the fragment of the map.

Fortunately, Wei Zhao had been cautious earlier and had not bought all the medicines he needed in one go, which saved him a great deal of unnecessary trouble.

In fact, even if he had bought everything, it would have been useless without the base medicine for the trauma ointment. Only when added to the ointment would it have the effect of healing old scars.

Along the way they passed another pharmacy, and Wei Zhao went in to buy the remaining Chinese medicinal herbs. Fatty Lai showed not the slightest inclination to memorize them, which set Wei Zhao's mind at ease.

Back at the hotel, Wei Zhao set about preparing the deluxe edition of the trauma ointment. This was no difficult task for him, and he soon had it done and poured into the disposable small medicine bottles he had bought earlier.

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