"Little Stone, I've treated you well, and this is how you repay me?"
Old Man Li never expected that Little Stone would dare to meet him alone.
"Shopkeeper, you know my temperament. I had no choice!"
Little Stone looked guilty, but Old Man Li sneered, "Forced? I heard you even got married. Looks like Fatty Liu has been good to you, finding you a wife!"
Little Stone's face darkened. At the time, he hadn't thought it through, but later he realized that it was all Liu Pangzi's doing, including his wife.
But now that he has betrayed them, there is no way he can go back.
Thinking of Fatty Liu's dark face, Little Stone's hands trembled.
"Shopkeeper, I used to follow you wholeheartedly. I thought you were sincere towards me, but I never expected that you would be hiding things from me!"
Hearing this, Old Man Li laughed heartily: "What? You have my prescription but can't figure out how to make an ointment? You heartless wretch, you're getting anxious now?"
Little Stone's face darkened. He hadn't expected that even though he had memorized the prescription perfectly, the ointment he made was significantly different from that of Fu'an Hall.
When he made the ointment for the first time, Fatty Liu was extremely excited.
He even patted him on the shoulder and said that once he made money, he would share some with him, and that he would give him every penny he owed…
However, the ointment still needs to be tested after it's made, and the results of the tests...
At that moment, Fatty Liu kicked him, almost making Little Stone gasp for breath.
He didn't expect that Old Man Li had been wary of him all along, and that the prescriptions he received were all fake.
"Impossible! My prescription is genuine, and the ointment is definitely the same as the one over there!"
Little Stone still couldn't believe it. Fatty Liu, afraid of wasting the ointment, had only found one person to test it on. Hearing Little Stone's words, he was also worried that the test results might be inaccurate, so he went out and found three more people.
Fu'antang's ointment shows results the next day, with noticeable improvement by the third day. However, the one Xiaoshitou made wasn't significantly different in efficacy from their original ointment.
Fatty Liu kicked Little Stone hard again, almost knocking out his throat.
"Didn't you say they were the same? Is this what you call the same?"
This time, in order to test the efficacy of the medicine, he applied different medicines to the hands of each test subject, one side was theirs and the other side was Fu'antang's.
The result of this comparison is that the disparity between the two sides is simply too great.
Even if Fu'an Tang's ointment were slightly cheaper than theirs, people would still prefer to use Fu'an Tang's, let alone the fact that it's a little more expensive.
One ointment doesn't make much money, but the key is that there are other things too.
For example, when people go to buy ointment, sometimes they also need to buy other medicinal herbs at home, so they buy them at Fu'an Hall as well.
Because of this ointment, their business has suffered a lot, how could Fatty Liu sit still?
"But I'm sure I haven't misremembered, this is our prescription!"
Little Stone was at a loss for words. Fatty Liu glared at him intently: "You know I don't keep idle people here! If you can't make that ointment, then you..."
Fatty Liu waved his hand: "Bring that brat over here!"
In the blink of an eye, the girl was dragged in. Fatty Liu smiled cruelly: "Take her to..."
Little Stone was so frightened that he knelt down with a thud: "No, don't send her away!"
"I'll think of a way. I'll go find Old Man Li and get the prescription from him no matter what!"
Fatty Liu scoffed, "Give me another fake one?"
"No, absolutely not! This time I'm determined to get the right prescription!"
Little Stone paused, a fierce glint appearing in his eyes.
Old Man Li was his savior, and he wouldn't have taken this step if he hadn't been truly desperate.
"Shopkeeper, I've always considered you my mentor!"
Little Stone lowered his head and lowered his voice: "Do you know, that day Fatty Liu grabbed me and they beat me badly, making me faint several times, but I didn't let go."
Old Li felt a pang of heartache; he knew then that Little Stone was not an ungrateful person.
"Then you can come find me later!"
"There's no going back!"
Little Stone gave a bitter smile: "While I was unconscious, Cui'er came to my side and helped me clean my wounds. That Fatty Liu is no human being; he even lit aphrodisiacs in the room. When I woke up, I was already with Cui'er..."
"Boss, Cui'er is a pure and innocent young woman. I can't just sleep with her and then abandon her, can I? Fatty Liu said that if I don't cooperate with him, he'll send Cui'er to a brothel!"
"Shopkeeper, what can I do?"
Old Li sighed, picked up the teacup on the table, and downed it in one gulp: "You've already betrayed me, what are you doing here looking for me?"
"Shopkeeper, although you've never treated me like an apprentice, I've always considered you my master. Why are you still hiding something from me?"
Hearing this, Old Man Li was so angry he laughed: "You stole our Fu'an Hall's prescription and gave it to our rivals, and now you're accusing me of not giving you the correct prescription?"
Little Stone looked embarrassed, but thinking of Cui'er, he couldn't back down now. If he said he couldn't get the correct prescription, his Cui'er would have to be sent to a brothel.
"I... Boss, please, for the sake of all these years I've worked for you, please save my Cui'er!"
Little Stone knelt down with a thud. Old Man Li stared at him intently, surprised that Little Stone could still speak so confidently even at this moment.
"You... I don't have the correct prescription either!"
The shopkeeper looked up, his eyes red. Seeing Little Stone again still made him feel a little sad.
"How could that be? You're the manager of Fu'an Hall!"
"I really don't have it. My prescription is the same as the one you saw. As for why I can't make the same ointment, I don't know either!"
That day, he rushed to find Madam Han, but his senior brother told him that the most crucial part of the prescription was not the medicinal herbs, but a special kind of water.
He didn't believe it at the time, so Doctor Xu had him try two different types of water.
One type is their ordinary water, and the other is special.
Old Li never expected that the two types of water would produce completely different ointments. In fact, the two types of ointments used the same medicine.
At that time, Old Man Li was extremely shocked and asked Doctor Xu where this water came from.
Doctor Xu simply smiled and told him not to meddle in other people's business.
At that moment, Old Man Li felt relieved, but his heart was filled with bitterness.
If Little Stone knew that the formula for their ointment could never be replicated, would he regret his betrayal?
"Shopkeeper, are you really going to be so heartless?"
Seeing that his pleas for mercy were ineffective, Little Stone stood up abruptly, pointed his finger at Old Man Li's nose, and said, "If you don't hand over the correct prescription, you can just wait to die!"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
