When he saw the man who had caused a commotion earlier on hiding amongst the crowd to peep at him, Bi Yuntao immediately began to speak in a loud voice again, “Big brother, it’s not that I want to shame you! But what’s there to feel disgraced about having a weak kidney? It’s just a weak kidney, for goodness sake. In my dictionary, there’s no such thing as a weak kidney or an infertile male. Come up and let me take a look at you – I guarantee that you’ll soon be able to let this big sister have many sleepless nights.”
The woman turned peach red upon hearing Bi Yuntao, but the man still refused to step forward. Instead, he replied while still remaining in the crowd, “You brat. Not long ago, you said you’ll do it with my wife. Daddy’s not done with you! If you don’t apologize to me, don’t even dream of trying to treat me!”
Bi Yuntao could only wave his hands helplessly. “Could it be that everyone in this city behaves in this manner? Do all of them need a doctor to beg to treat them?” Bi Yuntao thought, before remembering his father’s advice to go with local customs whenever he was in a foreign place. As such, he brought himself to apologize to the man grudgingly.
“I say, big brother! Earlier on, I didn’t mean that I wanted to have carnal relations with your wife. By ‘doing it’, I meant coming up with a concoction for her. After she takes it, I guarantee that she’ll bear you a big healthy baby.”
It was only upon hearing this explanation that the man gave in. He stepped forward magnanimously and grudgingly allowed Bi Yuntao to treat him.
Bi Yuntao circled his fingers around the man’s wrist and focused on checking his pulse. After a while, the man began to grow a little impatient and said, “Can you do it or not? I’ve seen many quacks like you before. Don’t be duping us. If you can’t treat me, pack up and get lost!”
Bi Yuntao remained silent and only spoke up after a long while. “Big brother, your symptoms tell me that your kidney is not only suffering from a normal weakness. This condition has been caused by the opening of your Yang passage and the gateway to your vitality being left unlocked. This has been compounded by the long duration of these symptoms – about five or six years – which probably left some mental scars in you.”
As he spoke, Bi Yuntao fished out a pill bottle from his tattered backpack. “Come, take one of these pills every night, and after five days, you will be completely cured of your illness. After that, have some more confidence in yourself, will you? You’ll be able to produce big, healthy babies,” he continued.
“Your… your pills – how much will they cost me?” the man asked as he swallowed his saliva. In reality, Bi Yuntao’s description of his symptoms had been spot on, and he had began to trust the young chap somewhat. Even so, he would not give up trying to get a bargain on the pills.
A look of greed flashed in Bi Yuntao’s eyes for an instant. He then made a show of extending three fingers in a difficult fashion. “Three… three hundred!” he said tentatively.
The scrawny man exchanged a glance with the woman. “To think I was anticipating that this fellow would be asking for some astronomical price! I didn’t expect for him to ask for only 300 dollars!” the man thought.
“Hey, could this person be a quack? I think we should go to a bigger hospital to check you out,” said the woman. She was feeling somewhat uneasy as she believed only a charlatan could be offering his miracle pills for such a low sum of money.
Bi Yuntao panicked, believing that he had set too high a starting price. “How about 250? 200? Hey, don’t go! 100, I offer it to you for 100 based on goodwill!” he said hurriedly.
“It’s just 100 dollars. We’ll treat it as if we bought some nostrum!” said the man to his partner, before fishing out 100 dollars to pass to Bi Yuntao. The youth was afraid that they would go back on their word and hurriedly gave the pills in exchange. After all, he was going to be in dire straits if he still could not manage to earn any income.
The man left gleefully with his partner, but they were stopped by a young, beautiful woman after only walking for a short distance.
The woman looked at the pill bottle in his hand and said slowly, “Sir, would you consider selling me one of those pills? I’ll offer you 1000 dollars for it.”
The man was in esctacy. “I never expected I could sell off one of the pills I just bought for 10 times its original price! This is such a pleasant surprise!” he thought, immediately beginning to nod like a little chick pecking at rice.