chapter 9 Millions of rewards

After waiting for more than ten minutes, the shop assistant finally finished his game, put his phone on the counter, took a sip of tea, and then lazily asked, "What medicine do you want to buy?"
Maximilian handed over the prescription he had written. The assistant's eyes lit up when he saw it.
There were many precious herbs on the prescription, all of which were from the previous year. With this prescription, he could at least get a few thousand dollars in rebate.
He asked, "Are you sure you want to buy so many herbs?"
Maximilian said, "Of course, I just don't know if you have all of them here."
"Of course we do, there's no herb that Herbs Hall doesn't have." The assistant's attitude suddenly improved, and he said with a smile, "Young man, wait a moment, I'll get all the herbs ready for you right away."
Soon, the assistant placed a pile of herbs on the counter. Maximilian checked them one by one. The herbs were all there, and they were of high quality.
He asked, "How much does it cost?"
The assistant picked up the abacus and calculated for a while, then said, "It's a total of 253,200 dollars, cash or card?"
"Ah? Is it that expensive?"
Maximilian was startled. Although he was studying traditional Chinese medicine at River South Medical University, he didn't have a good understanding of the price of Chinese medicine.
He had thought that the 30,000 dollars in his pocket was a huge sum, but now it wasn't even enough for change. He didn't expect that just the herbs for refining a Foundation Pill would cost so much.
He said a bit awkwardly, "I'm sorry, I didn't bring enough money."
The assistant's smiling face suddenly turned cold, "No money, why are you pretending here if you don't have money? Are you playing a joke on me?"
Maximilian explained, "I'm sorry, I just didn't expect these herbs to be so expensive."
The assistant said discontentedly, "If you don't know the price, why are you buying the medicine? In that case, if you don't have enough money, just buy less. I can't work for you for nothing."
Maximilian said, "That won't work, these are the herbs for one prescription, it's useless if there's less."
The prescription he listed was just the amount for one Foundation Pill. If the amount of medicine was insufficient, it would be impossible to refine the pill.
The assistant frowned and said, "Then just change the age of the herbs. You should know that the price of a ten-year-old herb and a two-year-old herb differs by more than ten times."
Maximilian said, "That won't work either, the herbs I prescribed are already the lowest age."
After he finished speaking, the assistant exploded, "This won't work, that won't work, you're just here to mess with me, aren't you?"
Maximilian apologized again, "I'm sorry, I didn't bring enough money this time, I'll come back when I have enough."
"Get out, you pauper, who knows when you'll have enough money." The assistant angrily put away the herbs, "It's all my fault for being blind. You look like a beggar, I shouldn't have given you the herbs."
He didn't get the expected rebate, and the assistant was furious.
Maximilian frowned, "What are you talking about? I've already apologized for not bringing enough money. Besides, you're an assistant here, it's your job to get me the herbs, what's there to complain about?"
"Oh, you're getting angry now." The assistant was suddenly enraged. He patted his chest and said arrogantly, "Haven't you seen where this is? This is Herbs Hall, our boss is old Mr. Prisca.
Every day we have the rich and the powerful coming here for treatment, do you think this is a place for a pauper like you to pretend to be a big shot?"
"You..."
Just as Maximilian was about to get angry, he thought better of it. After all, he was the inheritor of the Ancient Medical Sect, it wasn't worth it to argue with such a snobbish little man.
Thinking of this, he turned and walked towards the door. Suddenly, he saw a large red notice on the wall, with four big characters on it, Million-Dollar Reward.
He looked down and saw a text explanation, "I, Solarius Prisca, accidentally obtained Hua Tuo's Golden Prescription, but unfortunately, it's incomplete and missing three herbs.
If anyone can complete these three herbs, I am willing to offer a reward of one million dollars after confirming its accuracy."
Below the explanation was the prescription of Hua Tuo's Golden Prescription, but only the first 15 herbs were listed, and there were three blank spots marked, obviously waiting for someone to complete.
Seeing the reward, Maximilian was overjoyed. He knew Solarius, the owner of Herbs Hall, who was a venerable figure in the traditional Chinese medicine community in River South City.
As for Hua Tuo's Golden Prescription, he was even more familiar with it.
According to the records of the Ancient Medical Sect, Hua Tuo was from the Ancient Medical Sect, but he didn't practice martial arts and was just an outer disciple.
This Hua Tuo's Golden Prescription was not created by Hua Tuo, but was passed down from the Ancient Medical Sect.
He was worried about not having enough money to buy herbs to refine the Foundation Pill, and now a million-dollar fortune was delivered to his doorstep.
Thinking of this, he picked up the pen prepared next to him and began to fill in the remaining three herbs in the blank spots.
"Hey, are you done with this poor guy? Who let you scribble here?"
Just after he had written two herbs, the assistant rushed out from behind the counter and pushed him aside.
After being provoked by this guy time and time again, even a mud Buddha would get angry. Maximilian said angrily, "What are you doing?"
The assistant shouted, "I'm talking about you, do you know where this is? This is Herbs Hall, can you scribble here?"
Maximilian said angrily, "Isn't this a reward? Why can't I write it?"
The assistant said with a look of disdain, "Are you desperate? The million-dollar reward is indeed good, but what does it have to do with you?"
Ever since this notice was posted, it initially attracted numerous famous doctors, and many people wanted to come here to try their luck, but all of them failed without exception.
You should know that there are at least tens of thousands of Chinese medicinal herbs in China. If you want to fill in the remaining three herbs by luck, the probability is even lower than winning the lottery.
Even Mr. Prisca couldn't complete this prescription, and so many famous doctors also failed. He didn't believe that this poor guy in front of him could do it.
Maximilian sneered, "Isn't this an open reward? Since it's a reward, people should be allowed to try."
The assistant shouted, "The reward is for people to try, but not just any Tom, Dick, or Harry can come here and scribble, do you think anyone can get that million dollars?
If you can complete Hua Tuo's Golden Prescription, then I am Hua Tuo!"
"Michael Cason, what's the noise?"
Just then, an elderly man with a dignified demeanor walked over from the traditional Chinese medicine clinic.
Although this man was already white-haired, his face was ruddy and he looked very energetic. He was none other than the owner of Herbs Hall, Mr. Solarius Prisca.
"Mr. Prisca, you're here."
Upon seeing Solarius, the assistant named Michael immediately turned into a lapdog.
"What's the matter? Why are you shouting in the store?"
As Solarius spoke, he glanced at the reward notice on the wall. When he saw the two herbs that Maximilian had filled in, he was immediately stunned.
"Mr. Prisca, this poor kid doesn't have any money, he's making trouble in our store, and he was just scribbling on the reward notice..."
Michael didn't notice the old man's expression and kept chattering on the side.
Without even looking at him, Solarius said to Maximilian excitedly, "Young man, did you write these two herbs on the wall?"
Before Maximilian could answer, Michael interrupted, "Yes, he scribbled it. If it weren't for me stopping him in time, he would have written the third one too.
Mr. Prisca, don't be angry, I'll erase it right away..."
Before Michael could finish, Solarius slapped him in the face, "You damn thing, apologize to this young man right away."
"Ah...?"
Michael was dumbfounded, standing there with his mouth agape.
Solarius shouted again, "Didn't you hear me? Apologize to this young man right away."
"I..." Although Michael still didn't understand what was going on, he had to do as Mr. Prisca said. He respectfully said, "I'm sorry."
Maximilian said coldly, "Today I have seen what it means for a big shop to bully customers. The saying 'honesty in the heart, known to heaven' means that as a practitioner of traditional Chinese medicine, one should not deceive oneself or others. You at Herbs Hall are not worthy of it!"
"Young man, I'm sorry, it's my fault for not disciplining my people properly. I apologize to you again."
After apologizing, Solarius looked eager and said, "Young man, can you really complete Hua Tuo's Golden Prescription?"