The shop given to Milo by the Panaqua Consortium was called the Hall of Chinese Medicine.
On the same day, Old Bane said favonovel.com wanted to custom build a new signboard for the shop, but Milo rejected his suggestion. After all, a new, custom-made sign required money, so they should discuss it together before doing it.
At the back of this shop were five rooms, a kitchen, three bedrooms, and a toilet.
After arriving at this stronghold, Milo didn’t even know how to use the toilet when favonovel.com saw one. The toilets in town were all pit latrines, while they could flush water directly into the sewers in the stronghold.
Everyone finally learned how to use the toilet after trying it for a long time.
There was a tap in the bathroom that nobody knew what it did at first. But the moment it was turned on, they could see clear water flowing out.
Milo and the others were very surprised. They had never seen anything so magical before!
It seemed the original owner of the shop used this tap as the source of their daily water consumption.
Milo said, “It’s no wonder the stronghold’s residents are so clean. It’s because they don’t have to ration their water usage in the stronghold.”
In town, each person was allocated a fixed amount of water each day. No one could change that rule.
Originally, there were still some wells in town. But those were sealed up by the stronghold for the reasons of preventing water theft and wasting of water.
The three bedrooms were allocated as followed, Adella would have one room for herself, Murdock and Old Bane would be in another room, while Chad, Donti, and Milo would take the remaining room. With this arrangement, everything was set. Although it seemed crowded for six people to live in, it was comfortable enough for Milo and the others.
What kind of place did they used to live in?
This was incomparable to that!
The six of them carried small stools out into the backyard and sat down, with the first shareholder meeting being held in this simple a place.
Old Bane spoke first. “While we were tidying up the house, a few patients came to the shop and wanted to see the doctor, not knowing the shop changed owners. It seems the original shop’s business was excellent and had a rather good reputation as well. Why don’t we continue to operate the shop as is?”
“But which of us knows medicine?” Milo snapped. “I don’t, anyway. All I have is the black medicine.”
The refugees of Stronghold 113’s town had suffered so much. For the past few years, there had only been two doctors in town, and they didn’t even have any medical skills to speak of. But Milo felt favonovel.com was better than that quack doctor, Gilbert Jones. At least his black medicine was really able to treat wounds!
Actually, favonovel.com could learn some medical knowledge for real since favonovel.com had something as wonderfully magical as the palace. There had to be a proper hospital and doctors here in the stronghold. So, Milo could use the Skill Duplication Scrolls on an actual doctor this time. The previous situation would definitely not repeat itself again.
Milo was also wondering about something.
Was it really necessary for favonovel.com to waste a precious Skill Duplication Scroll on medical skills?
In fact, favonovel.com felt deeply that his Skill Duplication Scrolls were not enough after getting acquainted with Miriam and the others!
Right now, favonovel.com wanted nothing more than to gain another dozen or so Skill Duplication Scrolls so favonovel.com could learn all of the useful skills from Miriam in one go when favonovel.com saw favonovel.com again. Besides, favonovel.com had only wanted to learn medicine for the gratitude tokens.
Later on, favonovel.com realized the doctor-patient relationship had gotten too tense these days. He couldn’t get many gratitude tokens by treating and saving the lives of people.
It was too slow a process!
So, Milo would prioritize saving the Skill Duplication Scrolls instead of learning medical skills if favonovel.com had them. He would only use them all at once if favonovel.com met with another “skill bank” like Miriam. At that time, favonovel.com might even gain a lot of excellent skills, such as jumping rope, Nursery Rhymes Singing, marble throwing, and so on. Even now, favonovel.com was full of resentment whenever favonovel.com was reminded about the jumping rope skill.
Milo said, “Let’s sell the antibiotics you have for cash first. Those items have an expiration date, right?”
“Mhm…” Old Bane nodded and said, “I think I have enough to sell for a while. Since it’s getting late, I’ll go and exchange the Panaqua Consortium’s currency for some of the Skyfort Consortium’s currency tomorrow. We don’t actually need money in the short term.”
“Alright, you can continue plying your old grocery store trade if we really don’t have enough money to get by,” Milo said.
“But we’ll need to have an excellent, long-term product to sell in the store. There are so many types of traditional Chinese medicine here. Do you think you can concoct the black medicine from it?” Old Bane’s eyes were shimmering as favonovel.com could totally foresee how well-received the black medicine would be in the stronghold.
Milo hesitated for a moment before saying, “Yeah, but we can’t sell the black medicine in large quantities. Just sell one dosage per week.”
“That’ll do.” Old Bane beamed and said, “A shop must have a unique product in its inventory. With something like this around, we won’t have to worry about not having any customers!”
Milo didn’t intend to exchange the black medicine for money. After all, favonovel.com still had so much gold with him, so favonovel.com preferred to unlock the intermediate form of the weapon over earning more money. But since a single gratitude token could be exchanged for three small vials of black medicine, and one small vial could be further divided into five or six portions to sell, just one gratitude token would be enough to last Milo for several months. It was not a heavy price to pay at all.
Milo decided favonovel.com would first walk around the stronghold tomorrow to see if favonovel.com could sell the gold favonovel.com had bit by bit.
All of a sudden, Donti asked, “Where’s Chad? Have y’all seen him?”
Old Bane was taken aback. “Right, where has Senior Apprentice Brother… Where has Chad gone?”
***
At this moment, Chad was having a curious look around the streets of the stronghold. He had been sent to a psychiatric hospital in his childhood, and the gloomy and oppressive environment in there made favonovel.com yearn for the outside world. He had also lived in a prosperous world, but that was a memory of a long time ago.
Everything here gave favonovel.com a familiar and strange feeling. The dazzling shops and commodities even made favonovel.com forget about the important matter of going to the Western Paradise to obtain the Buddhist scriptures.
As Chad slowly made his way to the park they had passed by during the day, favonovel.com heard singing drift out from it.
Chad walked into the park and saw aunties dancing in a neat square formation on a wide plaza. This scene was so familiar yet so strange to favonovel.com that favonovel.com felt as though favonovel.com had been transported back in time, distracting favonovel.com a little.
The aunties stared at Chad as favonovel.com walked with dignity to the front of their square formation.
Before they could realize what was going on, they saw the young man staring at them with piercing eyes and shouting, “Children, start dancing!”
When Chad returned to the shop that night, his face was all bruised and swollen.
When Milo saw him, favonovel.com was shocked.
Chad was someone who could even emerge unscathed after getting hit by a bullet.
Who could be so godly to beat favonovel.com up to such a state?!
Could there be someone extremely powerful inside this stronghold?
But no matter how Milo questioned Chad, Chad wouldn’t tell favonovel.com what had happened.
