Chapter 9 (2/2)
Seeing that there were no responses from Ren Jie, Gao Ren thought that he was criticized and had his expenses cut again back at home.
Ren Jie looked at Gao Ren and smiled. “Looks like you shouldn’t call me Big Brother, but instead a meal ticket. Just look at how agonized you look when talking about my expenses getting cut.”
“Um…” Gao Ren was stunned momentarily. Afterward, he clasped his hands together and said while giggling, “Meal ticket sounds good. Big Brother, if you’d like me to call you Meal Ticket Big Brother, I can do so too. I think that the meal ticket shows my deepest respect for people. If you think about it, if I were to depend on you for even my meals, that means that you control my life and death. That’s why you are the most admirable, Big Brother. The meal ticket represents an attitude. It implies that I know who feeds me. Shall I call you Meal Ticket Big Brother from now on?”
Ren Jie pointed out the fatty’s concern about money and food. However, after he heard the fatty’s meal ticket theory, he was so impressed that he nearly gave him a thumb’s up.
Look at that. That was the epitome and the pinnacle of licking one’s boots. He spent no effort in defending himself but instead took the meal ticket issue to new heights.
Looking at how agonized he looked when speaking about the expenses cut, Ren Jie wanted to tease him intentionally. He pointed that out explicitly to observe his reactions. It never occurred to him that the fatty could make up such incredible excuses. Such talent!
“I’m pleased with the way you’re sucking up to me. I shall not quibble about how you value money more than me. Nevertheless, you do not need to worry. They did not cut my expenses this time around.”
After hearing that, the fatty sprang up from the ground for half a meter and exclaimed, “Wow! That’s great! I thought there was no hope this time. In that case, I can pre-order some things. Meal Ticket Big Brother, you’re awesome!”
Sweat! Meal Ticket Big Brother… Ren Jie was speechless. He merely wanted to tease him, yet his reaction made him dumbstruck.
He lifted his head and looked at the house which Gao Ren had come out from. There was a pungent medicinal smell drifting from inside. It was obvious that that was an apothecary room.
“Ah… My medicines…” Gao Ren followed Ren Jie’s gaze and saw the apothecary room. It suddenly occurred to him that his medicines were still inside and he darted inside.
Ren Jie followed him into the room. There were absolutely no recollections of that room in the previous Ren Jie’s memory. He was there for half a year, yet he had never stepped foot into the room. That room was enormous and was about a hundred and fifty square meters. Apart from the few cauldrons in the middle which were used to brew medicines, there was a variety of medicinal ingredients at the further end of the room.
At that moment, Gao Ren was busy with his medicines. Ren Jie glanced around the room and his gaze stopped at the medicinal ingredients picked out and placed on the Chinese medicine cabinet.
There were about a dozen medicinal ingredients placed there. A quick glance left Ren Jie momentarily stunned. That feeling was similar to the first time he read. Everything came to him naturally. Looking at those medicinal ingredients, Ren Jie could conjure the effects when those medicinal ingredients were concocted. The elixir was an incredibly strong laxative that was lethal to ordinary people. Even those at the eighth or ninth level of the Body Refinement Realm would be enfeebled by its effects and the only cure was excessive diarrhea.
“Thousand feet solution, woolly ordure tree bark and lxeris chinensis plant, then some salamander blood and love root plant.” Looking at some dozen medicinal ingredients in front of him, their effects clearly flashed in his brain. Concurrently, he knew who Gao Ren wanted to use the medicine on.
After his rebirth, he initially did not want to care about that woman Fang Qi. The previous Ren Jie was head over heels for her, but the current Ren Jie detested her due to what he knew in his memory. If that woman no longer provoked him, he would not bother to care about what happened before. However, she did not want to let go of the matter. After killing the previous Ren Jie, she still wanted to create trouble for him.
If that was the case, Ren Jie was not letting her get away with it easily. Since she wanted to play, he was game for it.
“What?” Gao Ren was controlling the flame under the cauldrons that were brewing medicines. When he heard Ren Jie mention the names of the medicinal ingredients, he turned his head immediately to look at him.
“I said that you should add some thousand feet solution, woolly ordure tree bark and lxeris chinensis plant, then add some salamander blood and love root plant,” Ren Jie repeated.
Gao Ren’s pale and chubby face froze momentarily. He thought that he was hearing things. In the past, Ren Jie would never enter this room. Even if he wanted to find him, Ren Jie would send someone in to notify him. What was going on today?
Not only did he enter, but he also managed to identify the names of so many medicinal ingredients. Although these ingredients were pretty common but…
Gao Ren looked at the medicinal ingredients that he had picked out but had yet to concoct. The light in his eyes gradually changed.
F*ck. Are you kidding me? Coincidence. This must be a coincidence. But this probability is way too low for it to be a coincidence.
There was nothing special about those medicinal ingredients that Ren Jie mentioned, but they each reacted differently with the seventeen ingredients that he had picked. The thousand feet solution would become lethally poisonous after reacting with three ingredients that he picked. The woolly ordure tree bark would cause discomfort to people who consumed the medicine after reacting with five of the ingredients. The lxeris chinensis plant must not be included in the mix as the reaction would produce a poison that was deadly to even those in the True Qi Realm. Then, there was the salamander blood and the love root plant. Those two medicinal ingredients had adverse reactions with many of those seventeen ingredients. Those medicinal ingredients that Ren Jie listed sounded baffling. However, he actually listed ingredients that produced adverse reactions and conflicted with the ingredients that he picked. What he did was tougher than listing a middle-grade or even superior-grade medicinal prescription.
Gao Ren opened his mouth and wanted to say that Ren Jie was messing around with him. However, his expression gradually turned solemn. Although he was only a high-grade apothecary, he secretly knew that his knowledge and cognitive thinking abilities were better than ordinary alchemists.
If ordinary high-grade or even superior-grade apothecaries heard what Ren Jie said, they would be scornful or might even berate him. Those words were nonsensical and were insults to apothecary medicinal prescriptions. No one would add those ingredients to the prescription. That was akin to suggesting to someone to rub salt in his wounds, before adding some honey to invite ants over to play. Otherwise, its absurdity was also similar to finding a few mice to be the brides for cats so as to ensure their lineages.
However, Gao Ren had a vague feeling that if he were to do that, he could at most think of three medicinal ingredients that conflicted with those seventeen ingredients. It was hard for him to come up with five like Ren Jie did even if he aimed to do so.
“Three, seven… seventeen… five…” Gao Ren mumbled when thinking. Thereafter, he grabbed both of Ren Jie’s hands and looked at him in disbelief. “A hundred and seventy-five… There are actually a hundred and seventy-five poisonous reactions that are mutually influencing and changing. Even superior-grade apothecaries would not be able to do that. Oh my god. Meal Ticket Big Brother, how did you think of that? Don’t tell me you just said that absent-mindedly. I will not believe that no matter what you say.”