Filed to story: Sweetheart Do You Still Love Me
“Alright, tell me.”
Now that it was just the two of them, Elspeth answered frankly.
“He’s Sonny Schwartz.”
The man’s expression stiffened at once.
“Are you sure that’s his name?”
“Yeah. Do you happen to know him personally?”
Elspeth’s heart skipped a beat, and an inexplicably ominous feeling crept up to her, for his expression wasn’t one of the joys of encountering a friend but the repulsion of meeting a foe.
Sure enough, the man turned grim at once.
“I can’t sell my herbs to you then.”
The next second, he turned and left angrily.
With that, Elspeth went up to him and grabbed his wrist in desperation.
She had such a firm grip on him that he couldn’t break free at all. For a moment, he didn’t know what to say.
“What are you doing?”
“I really need the herbs. I hope you can overlook the grudges between you two and sell them to me,”
Elspeth entreated anxiously, causing a chuckle of anger to escape the man.
“You think I have a grudge against him? Do you even know the backstory?”
Elspeth was rendered at a loss for words for a moment.
“But you turned me down as soon as you heard my mentor’s name. Is there no grudge between you two?”
The man hurriedly wrested his wrist free while she was distracted.
“Alright, fine. You’ve proven your point. You really have to buy them, don’t you?”
“Of course.”
Elspeth nodded.
“In that case, you have to pass my test.”
The man felt his chin before continuing,
“As long as you pass this test, I can give it to you for nothing.”
Have I just hit the jackpot?
“Alright.”
Elspeth nodded.
“What’s the test?”
“You can use all the herbs in this dispensary. I will specify a sickness, and you have to dispense it. As long as I am pleased with your results, I will give you the herbs for free.”
Well, it wasn’t a difficult task, but it wouldn’t be easy either.
Back when she was living with Sonny, the old man would force her to dispense medicine every day. With time, she would know what herbs have been dispensed for certain medications without even having to look at the prescription.
“But if I’m not happy with the result… You will have to leave immediately.”
The first part of his speech was nothing to take personally, but the latter part was obviously mixed with elements of subjectivity, and Elspeth couldn’t help feeling somewhat frustrated. What if he still kicked her out because he had a problem with her mentor even though she passed the test?
The man understood her thoughts at once when he saw her hesitating, and he hit the roof.
“Do you think I am that kind of person?!”
At that, Elspeth chuckled awkwardly while musing, Haven’t your words just now proven whether you’re that kind of guy?
But of course, she dared not say it upfront, seeing how livid the man was. So, she cleared her throat.
“Of course not.”
Finally, the man hmphed with content, then led Elspeth into the massive dispensary. With that, the young woman swept her gaze across the place, wondering,
“This place is massive. They should have what I’m looking for, right?”
“Alright, dispense a prescription for typhoid fever.”
At that, the man checked his watch, and as the minute hand arrived on the fifteenth minute, he said,
“You have half an hour.”
“Thirty’s a little long. Let’s do ten minutes.”
Elspeth was aware that he wasn’t putting her in a tight spot at all, but she didn’t want to waste too much time doing boring stuff like this, either.
As a result, the man widened his eyes with incredulity.
“The thirty minutes includes the time for you to find the herbs and distinguish them. But you want to shorten it to ten? Don’t tell me you want to tank now before even starting?”
Tank… That’s pretty fresh slang. Elspeth genuinely didn’t think she’d find someone who’d know the term on the other side of the world.
“I really don’t need thirty minutes. That’s too long.”
“Since you’re so confident, I won’t say no, then.”
The man nodded with peace of mind at that.
“Very well. Ten minutes it is. I’ll inspect your findings later.”
“I want medicine that will give the best result. Don’t go around thinking you can fool me with a common prescription,”
he added, worried she’d be somewhat lofty.
Common? Sonny would probably flip out if he heard what this guy said. That man constantly rambles about how everything he produces is the best of the best. But if this guy doesn’t make much of Sonny’s prescription, I’ll sever our mentor-mentee relationship with him.
That said, that would be a story for another day.
…
The countdown began, and the man sat down on the chair aside. As he sipped on the tea that had been pre-prepared, he sized up the young woman busying away with his peripheral vision.
Meanwhile, Elspeth’s eyes lit up after her gaze swept across the dispensary storing thousands of medicinal herbs.
She had thought she’d have a hard time finding the herbs with how they were organized, but it turned out that the arrangements were nearly identical to Sonny’s.
Can it be…
A bold notion came to her, but she quickly suppressed it. The most important thing right then was dispensing the medicine.
As she searched through the dispensary, she inadvertently grabbed a few herbs, and every time she did, the man would quirk his brows.
All else aside, this girl really knows what to pick out. All of them are rarities that I’m reluctant to use.
At that, his gaze finally turned from skeptical to admiration. However, Elspeth didn’t notice it. She was picking out the herbs while recalling what Sonny had taught her, which honestly had long been seared into her mind.
