Chapter 571: Light at the End of the Tunnel

Chapter 571: Chapter 571: Light at the End of the Tunnel

The old man sniffed the lingering scent on Li Xu and, like someone rattling off a list of dishes, named dozens of medicinal ingredients in one breath.

Now it was Li Xu’s turn to be shocked.

It was one thing for the man to detect the Dragon’s Saliva Fragrance. Li Xu had just completed a trade for it, and the scent was still clinging to him.

But the Sandalwood Fragrance? He had burned that once a week ago to save someone. ’He could smell even that?’

Not to mention the seahorses and Pearls—he had only opened their boxes for a moment at the clinic.

The old man’s nose was more sensitive than a precision mass spectrometer.

’Is this the legendary ability to identify herbs by scent?’

Li Xu was ecstatic.

Combined with the information he’d received yesterday, he was almost certain that the man before him was the expert he’d been told about.

Elder Li had mentioned yesterday that the "wild man’s" surname was Gao.

He asked tentatively, "Sir, forgive me for asking, but is your surname... Gao?"

The old man was taken aback. "How do you know?" he asked, puzzled. "Do you know me?"

Li Xu was both surprised and overjoyed. He had searched high and low for this man, and now he had stumbled upon him by complete chance.

"I don’t know you, but an elder I respect does."

Li Xu quickly explained, "It’s Elder Li from Feng City. Just yesterday, he was telling me about you, from thirty years ago in the Qinling Mountains..."

"Him?"

A nostalgic look crossed the old man’s face. "The official who led the poverty alleviation team into the mountains back then? Heh, I can’t believe he still remembers a simple mountain man like me after all these years."

"He does, of course he does. Elder Li holds you in the highest regard. He said you’re a true master of pharmacology," Li Xu said.

After exchanging some pleasantries, the old man introduced himself. His name was Gao Yuan.

"Elder Gao, since you’re here, why not come to my place for a while?" Li Xu said, seizing the opportunity to extend an invitation. "I have a collection of medicinal ingredients I’d like you to lend your expert eye to."

The moment Gao Yuan heard there were medicinal ingredients to inspect—especially after smelling those top-grade scents earlier—his curiosity was thoroughly piqued. He readily agreed, "Alright. I’m also curious to see what kind of good fortune you’ve had to gather so many heavenly treasures."

Li Xu told Wang the Third to keep an eye on the rice paddy, then hailed a cab and took Gao Yuan back to his clinic in the city.

The two of them headed straight for the warehouse in the back.

As the security door opened, a rich medicinal fragrance washed over them.

Like a man presenting priceless treasures, Li Xu opened the exquisite boxes one by one.

"This is top-grade, grayish-white Dragon’s Saliva Fragrance, fresh from the sea. It weighs ten kilograms."

"This is the heartwood of an eight-hundred-year-old rosewood tree, incredibly resinous."

"These are large, wild Pearls with extremely high medicinal value."

"This is Ten Thousand Year Old Agarwood... I dug it up in the deep mountains of Guangxi."

"This is a Natural Rhino Horn... I bought it at an auction..."

With each item Li Xu presented, Gao Yuan’s eyes grew wider.

In his life, he had traveled to famous mountains and great rivers, seeing countless medicinal herbs, and he considered himself quite knowledgeable.

But this was the first time he had ever seen someone hoard legendary treasures in a warehouse as if they were common cabbages.

With trembling hands, he caressed the Dragon’s Saliva Fragrance, then cradled a large Pearl, muttering incessantly, "Incredible... truly incredible things. These are all once-in-a-lifetime treasures. With these ingredients, so many difficult and incurable diseases can be treated."

Seeing Gao Yuan’s captivated expression, Li Xu smiled and pulled an herb bag from a corner.

"Elder Gao, take a look at this."

Li Xu took a dried, ordinary-looking stalk of foxtail grass from the bag and handed it to Gao Yuan. "Can you tell what’s different about this grass?"

Gao Yuan took the withered grass, not underestimating it in the slightest.

He knew that if Li Xu, a man who possessed so many legendary items, was showing him this, the plant couldn’t be simple.

He took out a magnifying glass he carried with him to carefully observe the texture of the stalk. Then, he pinched off a tiny piece of a leaf tip and placed it in his mouth, tasting it thoughtfully.

A moment later, Gao Yuan’s expression changed.

"This... it looks like ordinary foxtail grass, but this flavor... It has a cooling property that affects the liver, and its bitter-sweetness nourishes the yin. Moreover, the qi contained within the stalk is exceptionally pure and flows directly to the eyes."

Gao Yuan looked up and concluded with certainty, "This grass has an excellent effect of improving vision, clearing away cloudiness, and purging heat from the liver. If I’m not mistaken, this must be some kind of special, mutated variety, or perhaps it grew in an extremely unique environment."

After hearing this, Li Xu was completely won over.

This foxtail grass was the core ingredient for making Mao Dudu Eye Drops.

Many laboratories had studied it for a long time without figuring it out.

Yet this old man had gotten it almost completely right just by tasting it.

’He’s the real deal.’

"Elder Gao, you’re truly incredible," Li Xu praised with genuine admiration.

Gao Yuan put down the foxtail grass and looked at Li Xu, his eyes full of appreciation. "Young man, you’ve really opened my eyes as well. Any one of these fine medicines could cause a sensation if you took it outside."

Li Xu sighed, his smile fading as his expression turned grave. "Elder Gao, my ingredients may be good, but their quantities are limited. They can only save a very small number of patients. The real key is to clean up the chaotic market for medicinal materials."

He then went on to explain in detail the current situation: the proliferation of fake medicine in the City Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine’s pharmacy, how people like Dong Haitao passed off inferior goods as premium ones, and how bad products were driving out the good.

"Even a proper, top-rated hospital like the City Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine can’t guarantee the quality of its medicinal ingredients, to say nothing of the smaller clinics and pharmacies. A lot of the time, what ordinary people are consuming isn’t medicine—it’s just useless weeds, or even poison."

"The saying ’Traditional Chinese Medicine will die by its own medicinals’ isn’t just an empty phrase. If things don’t change, there really will be no hope for TCM."

Li Xu looked at Gao Yuan and made his sincere invitation. "Elder Gao, my friends and I are planning to establish a legitimate medicinal materials company, one that specializes in honest, trustworthy medicine. We have the capital, the channels, and even these top-grade ingredients as our foundation. But what we lack is a pair of infallible eyes to see through the fakes."

"I want to formally invite you to come out of seclusion and join us, to oversee our quality control. This isn’t just about making money. It’s about giving Traditional Chinese Medicine a fighting chance and giving ordinary people access to medicine they can trust."

Gao Yuan fell silent.

For decades, he had been a wanderer, living with the sky as his roof and the earth as his floor. Life was austere, but it was also free and unrestrained.

The thought of returning to the city, joining a company, being subject to someone else’s rules, and having to face the backstabbing and intrigue of the business world made him instinctively resistant.

But...

He also knew that what Li Xu said was the truth.

He had been on the road for so many years, personally witnessing too many medical accidents caused by poor-quality ingredients and too many tragedies where TCM doctors were left helpless, with no good medicine to use.

’If even the medicines are fake, then what’s the point of the pharmacology he’d spent his entire life studying?’

Looking at Li Xu’s sincere eyes, at the room full of top-grade medicinal ingredients, a flame that had long been extinguished in Gao Yuan’s heart flickered back to life.

"Alright."

After a long pause, Gao Yuan slowly nodded. "I accept. For the sake of Traditional Chinese Medicine, I’ll put these old bones to work one more time."

"That’s wonderful."

Li Xu was overjoyed.

’With a true master like him on board, the banner of Ding’s Medicinal Materials Company could finally be raised for real.’

He immediately called Ding Kaifang to share the good news.

When Ding Kaifang heard, he was absolutely thrilled, immediately clamoring to hold a celebratory banquet.

"No rush." Gao Yuan waved his hand. "Since I’m in Feng City, I’d first like to pay a visit to Elder Li. It’s been thirty years; I should see my old friend."

"Of course, of course." Li Xu nodded. "I’ll arrange it right away."