Chapter 59: Thieves
"There are so many overdue accounts, and the highest interest rate is only 2%, while the majority are interest-free. Why is this?"
The owner of Ji'antang has been working here for more than ten years. When he heard Lu Weiqing's question, he was not flustered at all and explained to him slowly and methodically.
People who come to the clinic to buy medicine usually buy on credit.
Firstly, many patients from struggling families came to see the doctor on credit. If the illness was life-threatening, the clinic couldn't afford to ignore it. Secondly, some were wealthy families, using expensive herbs and billing them annually. The clinic struggled to keep up, and so the bills were collected layer by layer.
Patients will not be paid interest when they buy on credit from the clinic, so the clinic has to negotiate terms with the pharmacy and strive to reduce costs.
The drug store's accounts are all with long-term cooperative medical clinics. In order to maintain these stable drug sales channels, Ji'antang can only give up some profits.
Jiang Ran was clear about this. In the beginning, the interest rate was mostly three or four percent. The shopkeeper always said that it was difficult to collect the debts and that running a clinic was not easy.
She went to the clinic and found that there were indeed many poor people who could not afford medical treatment.
The Jiang family's business did not rely on the small profits from the pharmacy. Later, she did not interfere too much with the shopkeeper's decision to reduce the interest rate. As long as the accounts could be collected at the end of the year, it was fine.
Now it seems very necessary to verify the real situation.
Jiang Ran wrote down the Baiyun Medical Clinic that had the most credit sales, closed the account book and returned it to the shopkeeper, thanked him for his hard work, and then walked out of the pharmacy side by side with Lu Weiqing.
Seeing them walk away, the shopkeeper of Ji'antang, who had just been so submissive, suddenly changed his expression, spat to the side, and said viciously, "Bad luck."
"I finally managed to make some money, but this little girl ruined it all."
He was not afraid of Jiang Ran investigating, because he had watched this little girl grow up, and she was tough on the outside but soft on the inside.
What's more, it still makes sense on the books, so even if it's discovered, it won't be a big problem.
Jiang Ran was not in a hurry to go to Baiyun Medical Clinic. Instead, he and Lu Weiqing went to Yishanju, which was opposite Tongfu Inn, and chose a private room facing the street to have dinner.
There weren't many decent restaurants in this remote place, so Jiang Ran ordered a few signature dishes, which made him grin from ear to ear.
This is definitely a work injury.
Complaints aside, Jiang Ran showed no intention of leaving even if he only wanted to drink tea.
Lu Weiqing didn't rush them and told Eleven to go to the West Market to buy some snacks and fruits. The two of them sat by the window and waited.
After waiting for two or three hours, I finally saw the three bearded drug dealers entering Tongfu Inn cursing.
The three bags of medicinal herbs were still on his back, obviously they had not been sold.
Jiang Ran pondered for a while. These three people were definitely not drug dealers, but she couldn't guess what they did for the time being.
Jiang Ran concluded that they were not Ganyang drug dealers for many reasons.
First of all, people who are in the medicinal materials business will not grow beards. If they accidentally fall into the medicinal materials, the quality and price will be greatly reduced.
Secondly, the way they sell the fine materials is too ostentatious. They just keep lowering the price just to get rid of it. Add on the travel expenses to get back, and it is a real loss-making business.
Finally, there is this inn. A veteran merchant would never choose an inn like this to stay.
Seeing her frown, Lu Weiqing couldn't help but reach out to smooth it, and reminded her, "These three are really brave. They carry such precious medicinal herbs and flaunt them in the city, and they dare to stay in such a remote inn."
"Who says not? These foreign merchants are extremely cautious. Even if they don't stay in a large inn, they'll at least find one in a bustling area with convenient transportation. If they save a little money on accommodation, but their goods are stolen, wouldn't that be worth it?"
Lu Weiqing raised his eyebrows, "Unless they are not afraid of being robbed."
"You mean, they're bandits? Could it be that they stole these things?"
Jiang Ran recalled the three tall and strong men with unfriendly faces, and his heart began to beat wildly with fear.
Fortunately, she encountered this incident today and stopped the shopkeeper in time.
These were stolen goods! If they were found, confiscating them and paying compensation would be a piece of cake. Even if the government wanted to close down the pharmacy, they would have nowhere to appeal.
She regretted her blind trust in the old shopkeeper. She thought he would at most take a few cents of money, but she didn't expect him to be so bold as to do something that would land him in jail.
"They are not bandits. The world is peaceful now, so they wouldn't dare to come to Chang'an to do such things."
"But the medicinal herbs were probably stolen by them."
Such a large amount of precious medicinal materials were stolen, but no one reported it to the police to look for it. Lu Weiqing already had some guesses in his mind.
"Catch them and bring them to justice!" Jiang Ran was filled with righteous indignation.
Those daring thieves dared to plot against her. If she didn't arrest them and put them in jail, she would not be able to calm her anger.
"I'm afraid there are more than one group of people who want to kill them. Let's just wait and see what happens." Lu Weiqing suggested.
Seeing that he already had a plan, Jiang Ran nodded obediently.
There's no rush to close the net here, so it's a good opportunity for her to explore Baiyun Medical Clinic first and deal with the owner's matter.
Lu Weiqing guessed what she was going to do and had already ordered Eleven to drive to Baiyun Medical Clinic, but was stopped by Jiang Ran.
"Brother Weiqing is really good at pretending to be sick." Jiang Ran said this with gritted teeth.
She actually took care of Lu Weiqing for more than ten days, boiling medicine three times a day, changing the medicine twice a day, asking about his health, getting up earlier than the chickens and sleeping later than the dogs.
I haven't slept in for more than ten days! It brings tears to my eyes just talking about it.
It was not until Lu Zhaoyang couldn't help but click on her that Jiang Ran realized that the great Prime Minister Lu had such good acting skills.
When Lu Weiqing's face turned pale, he knew that Zhaoyang's mouth was like a colander and could not hide any secrets.
No wonder her attitude had subtly changed in recent days. The girl knew the truth, and she hadn't come clean until now, which was quite a bit of growth.
Lu Weiqing looked at the little girl and saw that she was so angry that her hands were clenched. How could he dare to argue?
After all, he had lied to her for so long, and it was too embarrassing to refuse. He immediately left for home and asked Eleven to invite the doctor from Baiyun Medical Clinic to come to his house for a consultation.
"Cough, cough, cough..."
As soon as the doctor arrived, Lu Weiqing started coughing and blowing his nose.
If Jiang Ran hadn't agreed with him to pretend to be sick, he would have been fooled.
All the noble families have their own doctors. The doctors in the small Baiyun Clinic would never examine such a distinguished person. They took the patient's pulse for a long time before carefully prescribing a prescription.
Jiang Ran paid the doctor the consultation fee and sent him out. When he came back, he met Eleven who was taking the prescription to get the medicine. He felt that this official was really meticulous and could deceive people with all his tricks.
Unexpectedly, the medicine was brought back, and Lu Weiqing asked her to boil the medicine again.
Jiang Ran had been boiling the medicine for so many days that he felt like vomiting just by smelling it, so he quit his job immediately.
"Is there anyone who is as troublesome as you? You haven't taken enough medicine lately."
"Don't take this medicine. You keep taking medicine when you are not sick. If it makes Prime Minister Lu stupid, I can't take the responsibility." She was furious and couldn't help but tease him.
Lu Weiqing's eyes were red, and he kept coughing while wrapped in the quilt. He said aggrievedly: "Madam, you are really sick this time."
He had been sitting by the window today to shield his wife from the wind, but he was blown by the cold wind for three hours.
Jiang Ran touched his burning forehead and left angrily with the medicine.
My enemy, I really owe him in my previous life!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
