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Everyone nodded in agreement when they heard Mr. Luo’s proposal.

“At present, all three strategies are feasible. They should work out well.”

“Then which one do we choose?”

“Since Fang Qiu refused to negotiate, he must be quite hostile toward us. So, we should pick up the third plan to crush him first. After that, we’ll talk about other things.”

“I agree! This ungrateful guy did not appreciate our kindness. We sent someone to discuss things with him, but he refused the offer. Since he doesn’t know how to appreciate favors, don’t blame us for being ruthless!”

“No. We should proceed step by step. Fang Qiu would likely have obtained the key evidence of the case. But under pressure, he would not dare to release it. In this situation, we can’t corner him. If forced to a dead end, he may release the evidence. Both of us will be weakened by the dispute.”

Upon hearing these words, everyone fell silent.

Indeed.

A cornered man would do something desperate!

They had pushed Fang Qiu too far. If they carried out their deadly schemes, they were not sure if Fang Qiu would expose their crimes.

“Then what should we do?”

After a long interval of silence, one of them asked.

“In my opinion, we should use the first-best plan!”

Another one said, “Though under our threat, Fang Qiu refused our offer. It was because he could afford to pay the price. We should stop using force as a form of intimidation. This time, let’s resort to inducements. We will give him whatever he wants. As soon as we get the cultivation technique, we’ll wrangle our way out of the tight corner.”

“I second that.”

Mr. Luo opened his mouth. “It’s exactly what I thought.”

The others heard their discussion.

They repeatedly nodded as they mulled over their thoughts.

“Okay, then it’s settled. Let’s start with the first-best plan!”

Mr. Luo finally made the final decision.

But at this time…

“But if Fang Qiu can’t go through with this, he might fight against us at the risk of mutual destruction. What shall we do then?”

The man asked with an extremely anxious look.

Obviously, he was a bit timid and overly worried.

But…

Weren’t the others beset by the same concern?

After his question, everyone fell silent.

“No way!”

There was suddenly a strained atmosphere. Mr. Luo frowned and said, “The government will never allow him to do so. The truth involves many big things. Don’t forget that we are major taxpayers from all over the country. Even if Fang Qiu discloses the evidence, local governments will come to our aid.”

After his little speech…

Everyone felt slightly relieved.

In their minds, Fang Qiu wouldn’t dare to make this into a life-and-death situation. But after all, they had broken the law and were engaged in all kinds of discreditable affairs. It was normal for them to feel a little worried and afraid.

“Then, let’s choose the person.”

Mr. Luo thought about it and asked, “Any suitable candidates?”

In Beijiang…

At the cultivation base…

“Boom…”

After he drove Yang Wenjun away, Fang Qiu waited in the office.

In the afternoon…

The sounds of an engine could be heard in the base.

Instantly, Fang Qiu walked out of the office.

He knew what was going on.

Even if those medicine merchants were ready to pester him, they couldn’t have sent another person so quickly.

The person was unlikely to be a representative of those pharmaceutical companies. Then, only his people could freely enter and exit the cultivation base.

Recently, only one person had gone away.

It was Zhao Shanlin!

As Fang Qiu had expected…

When he came out of the office, he saw Zhao Shanlin hurriedly getting out of the car and walking over. He seemed to be quite worn out by the long journey.

“Mr. Zhao.”

Fang Qiu walked up to greet him.

“I have completed the task you gave me.”

Zhao Shanlin replied with a smile, but his face immediately darkened again.

“Let’s go to the meeting room and talk.”

...

Hearing that, Fang Qiu took Zhao Shanlin and the others to the meeting room.

Soon…

They came to the conference room.

Fang Qiu first asked someone to bring a pot of tea. After he poured a cup of tea for Zhao Shanlin and the others, he sat down at the conference table.

Zhao Shanlin also took his seat hurriedly. After taking a sip of tea he shook his head, looked at Fang Qiu, and said, “It’s terrible. If I had not done this market investigation, I would never believe the Chinese medicinal herb market was like this!”

“What’s the problem?”

Fang Qiu’s face changed when he heard that.

Mr. Zhao Shanlin, who had always been mild, would only become serious when dealing with things related to traditional Chinese medicine.

And now…

He made these critical remarks. Fang Qiu couldn’t help wondering how bad the current Chinese Medicine market might be.

“The status quo is much more serious!”

...

Zhao Shanlin shook his head and said, “We split up and visited practically all the centers that distributed Chinese medicinal herbs throughout the country. It was shocking to see all the undesirable scenes!

“What did you find out?”

A frown crossed Fang Qiu’s brows.

“Even Mr. Zhao Shanlin has said so.

“The facts about the pharmaceutical market might turn my stomach.”

“I’ve fully investigated the present market. Lots of chaotic phenomena exist. First of all, the market is glutted with fake and inferior products!”

Zhao Shanlin frowned and said, his face growing grave. “With the faster exhaustion of our wild medicinal plants, the prices of Chinese medicinal herbs have been rising every year. As a result, different species are mixed up on purpose, and many substitutes appeared in the market. In one distributing center for Chinese medicinal herbs, I saw herbs like bletilla tuber, Paris polyphylla, atractylodes rhizome, root of herbaceous peony, and Viola philippica. The consumption of their substitutes and inferior products is even higher than that of the genuine ones. The same is true for many other medicinal herbs!”

Fang Qiu heard his report.

His face fell.

He also didn’t expect the current Chinese Medicine market to be so chaotic.

However, judging from Mr. Zhao’s attitude, making use of shoddy drugs was just a minor problem.

Zhu Benzheng and the other two came back with Zhao Shanlin. Fang Qiu noticed that all of them looked solemn and serious.

“Besides low-quality products, the adulteration of herbs was more common.”

Speaking of this, Zhao Shanlin couldn’t help rebuking angrily, “Those black-hearted businessmen are utterly detestable. Some produced medicinal herbs using Epsom salts. What’s worse, most of their products are drugs that are in great demand, for example, umbellate pore fungus, rhizome of large-headed atractylodes, root of balloon flower, and coptis. Medicinal herbs processed with this chemical method look pale and are covered with crystal substances. Such herbs are heavier in weight and it’s very difficult for customers to tell the genuine from the fake.”

“I also came across a series of methods to increase the weight, such as adding talcum powder to radix paeoniae alba, sand grains to plantain seed, brown sugar to longan, dirt to cicada slough, and dyed sawdust to safflower. Patients are the ones who suffer when they take all these shoddy herbs!”

“Besides, they produce counterfeits with molds, look for replacements similar to genuine herbs, add medicine dregs, sell non-medicinal herb parts, and so on.”

“Some counterfeits look so real that even I can’t tell whether they’re real or fake drugs.”

“These counterfeits simply have reached the acme of perfection!”

Zhao Shanlin denounced indignantly, his face flaming with anger.

He must have been pissed off when he did a study of the market.

“In addition to counterfeiting, there is another big problem: profiteering.

At the mention of this, Zhao Shanlin could no longer sit still. He stood up and said, “Before being processed, herbs are regarded as subsidiary agricultural products. Thus, even poor-quality medicinal herbs can enter the market, and anyone can trade and sell them. As a result, sole traders and small companies undertake most of the jobs of growing, processing, and making herbs. However, the standard operating procedures of these people are poor. Their workshops are usually underdeveloped, with merely a few pieces of working equipment and they work amid primitive conditions. These places are usually poorly managed and with bad sanitary conditions. I even saw them spread the medicinal herbs on the road to dry them. Mildewed and worm-eaten medicinal herbs could be seen everywhere!”

“Well, that’s not the worst part. The most worrying thing is that these products that vary dramatically in quality will face all kinds of competition in the market. Those dealers seek nothing but profits. They’re willing to disregard moral principles for the sake of money. Cheap but medicinal herbs that only look good are the most favorable. These people are ready to sell anything to make money.”

“As a consequence, more problems emerge in the Chinese Medicine market. Gradually, genuine and indigenous medicinal herbs vanished from the mercenary market. Herbs are no longer harvested according to the season. There are serious problems like herbs with excessive pesticide residue and the blinded introduction of varieties, etc.”

After that…

Zhao Shanlin kept shaking his head in great disappointment. After a heavy sigh, he turned to look at Fang Qiu and said, “Growers are suppressed, processors pay no attention to the hygienic conditions, producers are trying their best to use cheap herbs and increase the weight of the herbs, traders raise the prices in every possible way to make more money. All of this is the overall situation of the current Chinese Medicine market.”

“When a medicinal herb goes from the cultivation field to one patient, do you know how many times its price has increased?”

Zhao Shanlin asked Fang Qiu.

“I have no idea.”

Fang Qiu shook his head.

“20 to 30 times, at least!”

Zhao Shanlin said, “In particular, the prices of some high-end healthcare medicinal herbs will rise more than a hundred times. These herbs bring in huge profits!”

At this point…

“In the past few days, I hardly rested and visited all the people and firms related to the distribution of Chinese medicinal herbs.”

“With the information from the distributing center, I went to the small companies that collected and sold medicinal herbs. Also, I visited the self-employed households that planted medicinal herbs and the pharmaceutical factories. At last, I paid a visit to the market that sold the end products.”

“I’ve been to privately owned workshops. The sanitation was poor and their products were also of poor quality. There were some herbs that no longer had any medicinal effects, but they could still sell them to some enterprises.”

“Small enterprises would collect medicinal herbs from these individual workshops. In general, they divided medicinal herbs into three grades: effective, ineffective, and harmful herbs. Paying only meager prices, they take away all the medicinal herbs from the workshops. After that, they would carry out further processing. They would adulterate good medicinal herbs with poor ones to increase their weight and sell them at higher prices. As for those ineffective herbs, they would be further processed and turned into normal-looking herbs. These people would mix harmful medicinal herbs with some inferior ones and grind them. The medicinal powder could be sold at high prices!”

“The current situation of the whole market is exceedingly shocking!”

Zhao Shanlin said. He closed his eyes tightly as he recalled the miserable scenes he had encountered.

“The youngest.”

On one side, Zhu Benzheng had not spoken for a long time. Suddenly, he poured out his grief to Fang Qiu, “Mr. Zhao is right. We’ve seen everything. If it goes on like this, the days of Chinese Medicine will be over!”