Chapter 379 — Snatching Trash

"Not for sale." Wei Zhao shook his head.

"Why not... boo-hoo, young man, I have money, I have plenty of money! Whatever that old fox Liu Tianyi can afford, I can afford too — and I can spend more than he can!" Fatty Lai started crying again.

"..." Wei Zhao was rather exasperated. Why was this fatty so fond of tears? A regular crybaby, was he? With some resignation he explained, "I have only this one. There are none left now!"

"Is that so... then when will you have more?" Fatty Lai's face instantly turned utterly crestfallen. Only one? None left?

"I'm not sure." Wei Zhao and this Fatty Lai were strangers, so of course he would not casually hand him a pill. The few pills he had on hand were to be given away as gifts when his company opened, to spread the company's name; naturally Wei Zhao would not waste them carelessly!

The fatty might be a crybaby, and seemingly a devoted son besides, but there were plenty of devoted-son crybabies in the world. If every one of them came sniveling to his feet, weeping and wailing, begging him for elixirs, then even if he did not work himself to death over the refining, he would be nagged to death by them.

So this precedent must not be broken! To those he did not know, absolutely nothing could be given!

"Ah... is that so, wahhh..." The moment Fatty Lai heard Wei Zhao's words, he began bawling aloud again. "That unworthy descendant of Divine Doctor Kang, that son of a bitch, truly casts pearls before swine — *** his ancestral tablets..."

"..." Though Wei Zhao felt some sympathy for Fatty Lai's plight, he could hardly give him an elixir out of sympathy, could he? Wei Zhao was not a charitable institution.

Just then a cleaner came over lugging a garbage bag, meaning to toss it into one of the trash bins on the resort grounds. Fatty Lai had sharp eyes: he recognized at once that this was the very cleaner who had been sweeping the banquet hall when Kang Zhaoming crushed that elixir underfoot. He scrambled up from the ground with a whoosh and dashed to the cleaner's side. "Don't you throw that away! Just give me this garbage bag!"

The cleaner jumped in fright, at a loss, staring in alarm and bewilderment at the fatty who had come charging at him, his face still streaked with tears. "You... you... what do you want?"

Fearing trouble if he delayed, Fatty Lai offered no explanation and simply reached out to snatch the garbage bag from the cleaner's hands. Had the bag not been filled with nothing but trash, the cleaner would almost have cried robbery!

But it was precisely because the bag held only useless garbage that the cleaner, seeing Fatty Lai grab for it like a madman, did not struggle with him at all — he simply let go, turned, and fled in terror...

For a lunatic like that, fighting over a garbage bag — who would bother? The cleaner thought: the fat man was dressed decently enough, yet he turned out to be a madman; plainly he must keep well away from him.

Fatty Lai paid the cleaner no mind, whatever the man thought of him. The proper business was to find that elixir Kang Zhaoming had trampled to bits, and quickly!

Wei Zhao, Kang Xiaobo, Tang Yun, Xiaofen, and even Liu Tianyi all stared in astonishment at the frenzied Fatty Lai, not knowing what he meant to do.

"Old Lai, what are you doing? What's gotten into you?" Though Liu Tianyi and Fatty Lai had their minor disagreements, their relations were still decent; seeing Fatty Lai make such a shameless spectacle of himself, he hurried to warn him. If a business rival saw this and filmed it, would he not be laughed to death?

But Fatty Lai seemed not to hear Liu Tianyi at all. He opened the garbage bag in his hands and pulled the contents out one item at a time, tossing them into the bin.

There were used lunch boxes, instant-noodle cups, tissues smeared with snot, chewed bubble gum, disposable chopsticks — a bit of everything, really, with flies and mosquitoes buzzing out of it.

Liu Tianyi was sickened. Had this Fatty Lai gone mad? What on earth was he doing?

"Quiet! I need to find that elixir the wastrel crushed underfoot — where is it?" Fatty Lai bellowed as he rummaged frantically through the bag.

Never mind, let him search. If he could find it, that would be his own good fortune. Wei Zhao shook his head. Though Kang Zhaoming had crushed it, the medicinal effect would be just the same.

Liu Tianyi was astonished too. He had never imagined Fatty Lai would hit upon such an idea — that he would actually go looking for the elixir Kang Zhaoming had trampled to pieces!

"Found it! Found it!" Fatty Lai suddenly fished a dark clump out of the garbage bag, then held it up in his hands, thrilled, as though he had found a priceless treasure. "Wonderful, I've finally found it, hahahaha!"

"Haha, congratulations, Brother Lai!" Liu Tianyi walked over and clapped Fatty Lai on the shoulder.

"Get lost!" Fatty Lai glared at Liu Tianyi in ill humor, then said, "Don't you come trying to steal my Life-Extending Detox Elixir — I won't give it to you!"

"I won't steal it..." Liu Tianyi knew that having kept Wei Zhao's affairs from Fatty Lai earlier had soured him somewhat, but that was hardly Liu Tianyi's fault. Without Wei Zhao's permission, would he dare breathe a word of Wei Zhao's business to anyone?

"Huh? Why is this pill so big? When I saw it before, it wasn't this big, was it?" Fatty Lai suddenly looked puzzled. He came over clutching the dark clump. "Young man, could you take a look for me — is this the one... Huh? Why does it stink, too? Can an elixir be stinky? Good medicine tastes bitter, they say..."

"..." Wei Zhao glanced at the dark clump in Fatty Lai's hands and edged backward. Tang Yun wanted to lean in and see for herself, but Wei Zhao pulled her back.

"What is it?" Tang Yun was puzzled why Wei Zhao would not let her come closer.

"It is the pill, but it's stuck to a lump of dog shit." Wei Zhao said to Fatty Lai. "Pick off the lighter-colored lump on the left. That's the dog shit — that's where the stench comes from..."

"What?" Fatty Lai's eyes went wide, sweat pouring down his face. "Dog shit..."

Still, Fatty Lai gritted his teeth. Even if there was dog shit on it, he had to pick the pill free!

Liu Tianyi could not help breaking into a cold sweat on his forehead. Covered in dog shit? This Fatty Lai had rotten luck indeed!

Yet Fatty Lai did not see it that way. He felt himself rather fortunate instead. So what if it had dog shit on it? He had found it, hadn't he? That alone was a stroke of heavenly luck — a bit of dog shit hardly mattered!

Carefully Fatty Lai picked away the side without dog shit. He did not get it all off — some still clung to the dog shit — but he did not dare pick any further. He could hardly let his old father eat dog shit, could he?

Fatty Lai tossed the dog-shit half back into the garbage bag, then cradled what remained with the greatest care. Having nothing at hand to hold it in, he fished out a box of cigars, opened it, dumped all the cigars into the trash bin, and put the remaining pill inside.

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