Village Doctor's Women-Chapter 108 - 103 Drug Dealer Business

Cai Qiong mentally compared her butt to the palm-sized space on the seat and ultimately decided against sitting down.

She seriously doubted Wang Jian had some kind of misunderstanding about her figure. It was true she had a slim waist, but her rear was by no means small.

So, Cai Qiong shot him a look and simply ignored his request, asking a different question instead. Perhaps she hadn’t even realized it herself, but the old her, with her aversion to men, would never have even considered it. Yet, the current her had. The thought felt so natural that she paid it no mind.

"Let’s get straight to business," she said.

Cai Qiong took a bite of a steamed bun and a sip of soy milk. The hot liquid slid down her throat, a comforting sensation even in the summer. For someone like her, who was prone to feeling cold, a hot drink in the morning was quite important. This was also why Wang Jian had specifically given her a hot cup while he and Li Shuang had iced ones.

"It’s like this..."

Li Shuang sat to the side, watching Wang Jian and Cai Qiong chat and joke with ease, a wave of emotion washing over him. Li Dayu was right, I really have been slacking off all these years. I always thought Wang Jian going to university wasn’t that big of a deal.

But looking at them now, Li Shuang felt a pang of regret for the first time. The regret deepened as he watched Wang Jian talk and laugh with the young miss of the Cai Family, completely at ease and without a hint of stage fright. He realized that if their positions were reversed, he probably wouldn’t be able to hide his own deep-seated feelings of inferiority. He was even a little curious. Wang Jian’s background wasn’t much better than his own, so how did he manage to be so calm and composed around a member of the Cai Family?

Could it be that education really provides this kind of benefit? Is it true what they say? ’All other pursuits are inferior; only learning is noble’?

Li Shuang had seen the phrase in online novels before, but this was the first time he had felt its weight.

By the time Wang Jian and Cai Qiong finished their discussion, Li Shuang was still lost in his thoughts. It took several calls from Wang Jian to snap him out of it.

"What’s this about your medicinal herb trade? Explain it again."

Wang Jian had already heard Li Shuang mention it once. The Cai Family ran the biggest chain of pharmacies, but trading in medicinal materials was not part of their business domain. The products sold in Cai Family pharmacies were all finished goods: Chinese medicinal herbs, pre-made medicine packs, Western medicine, Chinese patent medicines, health supplements, and so on. Raw materials, like unprocessed medicinal herbs, were not part of the Cai Family’s sales scope; those suppliers were considered upstream partners. Consequently, it was common knowledge throughout the city that the Cai Family had connections in the medicinal materials trade.

Li Shuang organized his thoughts and began slowly, "This story goes back to when Xiao Jian returned from Beijing to open a clinic in the village..."

Originally, Li Shuang had planned to step in, take over Wang Jian’s clinic, and set up a profit-sharing deal to reap the rewards without doing any work. But after Li Dayu explained the situation and he learned about Wang Jian’s connection to the Cai Family, Li Shuang abandoned the idea. It was because of the clinic, however, that Li Shuang discovered a path to wealth.

Where did the medicinal herbs for Wang Jian’s clinic come from?

Li Shuang fixated on this question. He and Liu Zi spent a full week running around, mulling it over. Eventually, they understood. Although the Cai Family supplied the herbs for Wang Jian’s clinic, they were all processed, finished products. The supply chain for the raw materials was practically nonexistent. There was only one supplier in the entire city.

Isn’t this a massive business opportunity? How the hell has no one else noticed this?

Both excited and baffled, Li Shuang and Liu Zi started asking around. Their inquiries led them to Gao Yang and his herbal medicine company. Li Shuang and Liu Zi weren’t fools; it immediately struck them as strange that his was the only such company in the city. After learning that Gao Yang was the one in charge, they came to a stark realization. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

"It seems it’s no accident his company is the only one," Liu Zi had said with a sigh of regret, voicing his suspicion. "He must have eliminated all the other companies behind the scenes."

This sort of thing was nothing new, and Li Shuang knew it. But this was an opportunity, a rare one at that. How could he possibly let it go? He was aware of the risks Liu Zi pointed out, but he still decided to take the gamble. As long as we keep the business small and stay low-key, we should be able to avoid detection.

Li Shuang and Liu Zi’s goal was simple: they wanted to build something for themselves instead of constantly being looked down on in the village. At first, as the only two young men there, they were content to just get by. But after Wang Jian returned, the comparison made them uncomfortable with their own idleness. It was hard to justify being twenty-seven or twenty-eight and still loafing around at home.

Of course, it wasn’t as if this feeling came out of nowhere. Wang Jian’s return and his actions had simply triggered a chain reaction, bringing years of accumulated dissatisfaction to the surface. When you reach a certain age, you inevitably start thinking about stability, whether you want to or not. Now that a path had opened up, Li Shuang didn’t want to let it slip away. He bit the bullet and decided to give it a shot. Liu Zi, initially afraid of provoking Gao Yang and his crew, was swayed by Li Shuang’s determination and steeled himself to join in. This was why Liu Zi had been so courteous to Wang Jian when he returned to the village.

As Li Shuang finished explaining their venture into the raw medicinal materials trade, Cai Qiong’s expression grew strange.

She interrupted, "You two have a lot of guts. The medicinal materials trade is a tricky business, but Gao Yang’s group keeps a very tight grip on it. By entering this business, you were bound to be targeted." She paused. "Based on what I know about them, they probably cut off your supply channels and are now trying to extort you, right?"

Li Shuang smiled wryly. "Exactly. That’s what happened last night. I was going to look for help this morning when I ran into Uncle Zhao’s situation."

"That Gao Yang used to be a gangster," Li Shuang continued. "Even though he’s a businessman now, his methods are anything but clean. Liu Zi is being held by them as we speak. They said I have to pay a contract termination fee to get him back, and there’s no use even reporting it to the police."

Cai Qiong had heard of such things before; this wasn’t the first time. Prior to this, she didn’t know Li Shuang and was unaware he was a local ruffian. Her first reaction was to wonder why he hadn’t asked Wang Jian for help, turning to Zhao Chunyang instead. But then she noticed Li Shuang glance at Wang Jian’s shoulder and immediately understood. He knew about Wang Jian’s injury and didn’t want to trouble him.

In that instant, Cai Qiong’s impression of Li Shuang improved significantly. A person who avoids burdening others when they’re in trouble can’t be all that bad, no matter what they do for a living. And this matter just so happens to have a connection to the Cai Family...

Cai Qiong suddenly asked, "Do you know that Secretary Zhao also works with the Cai Family?"

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"I remember you said Secretary Zhao was poisoned, correct?"

Wang Jian nodded. "If my diagnosis was right, he was likely afflicted by this insect toxin during an outing about a month ago. But what does that have to do with Li Shuang’s problem?"

Cai Qiong smiled, pursing her lips. "I also came to see Secretary Zhao to discuss something. Why don’t you two take a guess what it was about?"

Wang Jian and Li Shuang exchanged a look as an absurdly coincidental thought struck them both. "It couldn’t be the medicinal herb business, could it?"

"Uncle Zhao and his people from the second division are professional herb gatherers," Li Shuang said, a hopeful light appearing on his face. Seeing the possibility, he knew his problem might be solved. "They’ve been selling medicinal herbs for a long time."

"That’s right," Cai Qiong confirmed with a nod. "Although the Cai Family’s business has grown significantly over the years, we’ve always been throttled when it comes to the herb supply chain. So, we had to start thinking of a solution, didn’t we?"

Wang Jian immediately understood. The Cai Family is getting into the raw herb business too. They’re moving from downstream to upstream, aiming to build a complete production chain. Although this was unfolding in a small village, he doubted this was the only place the Cai Family was making a move.

He immediately countered with a question, "Are you implying that what happened to Secretary Zhao wasn’t an accident, but was orchestrated?"