Chapter Seven: Beg Me, and I Will Help You

With the protection of their bodyguards, Xie Qingtang and Gu Xiujin made their way through the crowd to the very front. There, at the entrance of the Huicheng Hall, they saw a stretcher laid on the ground. An elderly woman lay upon it, her legs clearly immobile, while a woman in her thirties sat by the stretcher, slapping her own thighs and wailing in misery. A middle-aged man, his eyes rimmed red, was gripping a young man by the collar, poised to strike him.

The old lady’s legs were evidently weak, and she glared furiously at the youth. Yet her mouth merely quivered; no words could escape her lips. Only a series of muffled, garbled sounds of anger emerged from her throat.

Some in the crowd recognized her and murmured, “That’s Aunt Zhao from the neighboring community. She talks like a machine gun—born with a mouth that never stops. For her to be forced into silence is worse than death. She really has become mute!”

The young man, barely in his twenties, had delicate features, but his sharp eyes betrayed his cunning. At this moment, however, he was being shaken like a ragdoll by a burly man, his face ashen with fear as he pleaded:

“Sir, this is all a misunderstanding! Truly! My ‘Supreme Vitality Pills’ only contain common herbs—yam, angelica, goji berries, cinnamon, and the like. In small amounts too. They're mostly just honey and flour! How could anyone get poisoned? You must be mistaken!”

The crowd erupted at these words. Several who had bought his medicine glared at the youth in outrage, shouting:

“So, Zhou Jinfan, you rascal! Didn’t you say your pills were full of rare ingredients like ginseng and bird’s nest? Turns out you’ve been palming off honey and flour!”

“That’s right! Give us our money back!”

“Refund! Refund!”

A throng surged forward, grabbing and beating Zhou Jinfan until his face was swollen and bruised in no time.

The young woman in the white coat who had first spoken out against him now squatted by the stretcher and addressed the middle-aged woman, “Ma’am, I’m an intern at the Gu Hospital across the street. This looks like food poisoning—she needs to be taken to the hospital for treatment immediately!”

Unexpectedly, the woman shook her head violently. “No, no! If this black-hearted clinic doesn’t pay up, I’m not going anywhere!”

The young intern frowned, trying to persuade her, “Ma’am, no matter how important money is, it can’t compare to a human life! If you delay any longer, the old lady could suffer irreversible harm!”

The old woman’s eyes grew panicked. She tried desperately to speak, but her mouth wouldn’t open, and all she could manage were muffled cries.

The middle-aged man could bear it no longer. He bent to lift the old woman and head for the hospital, but the woman beside him flung herself at him, clutching at him and wailing, “You fool! You believe whatever anyone tells you! If we go to the hospital and that black-hearted doctor runs off, who will pay for Mom’s treatment? We barely have any money left!”

The others, seeing this, stopped beating Zhou Jinfan and hurried over to either pull them apart or offer advice.

Amidst the chaos, Xie Qingtang walked over to the battered Zhou Jinfan, who had been tossed aside, and regarded him with a smile. “Young man, do you want a way out? I have a solution.”

Zhou Jinfan, swollen and weeping, looked up hopefully at the pretty girl kneeling before him. Forcing back his pain, he choked out, “You can help me?”

With a sly wink, Xie Qingtang replied, “If I said I could, would you believe me?”

His eyes lit up, as if grabbing a lifeline. “How? Tell me, please!”

Xie Qingtang chuckled, straightened, and looked down at him. “Asking for help means following certain rules. Trying to get something for nothing is a bad habit, you know.”

Zhou Jinfan understood and quickly said, “If you can help me, I’ll pay you! A hundred thousand—no, two hundred thousand! Is that enough?”

Li Zhao, ready to step forward and back Xie Qingtang up, scoffed. Two hundred thousand was nothing—their boss sometimes spent more than that on a single meal! But just as he moved, Gu Xiujin stopped him, whispering, “No rush. She knows what she’s doing.”

Sure enough, Xie Qingtang clicked her tongue and shook her head with a laugh. “I don’t want money.”

Zhou Jinfan was stunned. If she didn’t want money, was she some kind of Good Samaritan? No, she’d just mentioned compensation.

He stared at her in confusion as she added lightly, “I want this clinic.”

Zhou Jinfan nearly fainted from holding his breath. So she didn’t want money because it was too little—she had her eye on his property!

This was highway robbery!

Gritting his teeth, he said, “Miss, aren’t you being a bit greedy? This old house covers several hundred square meters. If I didn’t love it so much, I could sell it for over a hundred million! And you just want to take it over? Isn’t that going too far?”

Xie Qingtang snorted and squatted down again, shaking her head as if pitying his stupidity. “Who cares about your land or your house? I want the clinic itself.”

She glanced up at the plaque above the entrance, where the characters for “Hall of Benevolence” were inscribed in bold calligraphy. “In your hands, this clinic is just a front for selling fake medicine. It’s only a matter of time before someone reports you and the authorities shut you down. Rather than ruin a century-old reputation, why not let me revive it?”

Zhou Jinfan flushed with embarrassment—his bruised face looking even worse—and felt a surge of resentment. He wanted to refuse.

Before he could, the cold, stern man in the wheelchair nearby spoke up in a calm voice, “According to Article 141 of our Criminal Law, manufacturing or selling fake medicine is punishable by up to three years’ imprisonment or detention, plus a fine. If it causes serious harm to health or has other severe circumstances, the sentence is three to ten years, plus a fine. If it results in death or especially grave consequences, the penalty is over ten years, life imprisonment, or even death, plus a fine or confiscation of property. Judging by the old lady’s condition, you’ll be lucky to get less than ten years. And if, God forbid, she doesn’t make it…”

Gu Xiujin stopped there. Zhou Jinfan broke out in a cold sweat and cried frantically, “I agree! I agree! Whatever you want, I’ll do it—just save me!”

Xie Qingtang smiled in satisfaction, glanced back at Gu Xiujin, and playfully winked at him. She praised him without hesitation, “Mr. Gu, you’re amazing—reciting the law so fluently.”

Gu Xiujin was a little embarrassed by the compliment. He pursed his lips, coughed lightly, and tried to act calm. “Li Zhao, draft the contract.”