SWDnovel Chapter 20, This matter absolutely must be done!
Chapter 20, This matter absolutely must be done!
Lin Zhou, who hadn't slept all night, sat on the doorstep smoking one cigarette after another. He was in a state of great turmoil because Cheng'er had said that no matter how they did it, there was a huge risk involved. However, he had come here on a mission, and his first rule was to protect himself.
But here's the problem: Lin Zhou is a young man, and one who hasn't received any professional training. The scene of him carrying the dead child last night was too shocking for him.
Honestly, people shouldn't die like that. Stop spouting nonsense about "there's no other way." Didn't he have a solution?
The biggest problem now is how to break through that dead end using this method. If we could go back now, it would be much easier. Those old foxes would definitely have a perfect solution. But the bad thing is that we can't go back now. The cooldown period hasn't ended yet, so we can only endure it here.
The idea from Sihou's side can certainly be used. As for Fu Shuiliu, find a famous and powerful woman like Li Qingzhao to take the blame. But this is just a short-sighted solution. If someone wants to mess with him or threaten him, it will be easy for them.
Ever since he witnessed the depravity of the people here, his idealized view of the noble character of ancient people has been shattered. He believes that only flowers cultivated in greenhouses can be both beautiful and gentle, while the bright flowers that bloom in barren lands are mostly poisonous.
In resource-scarce areas, overestimating human nature will inevitably lead to a severe lesson.
Of course, Si Hou's approach wasn't wrong; it was classic empiricism. But Lin Zhou still believed the risk was too high…
Suddenly, a very counterintuitive idea popped into his head—if you can't beat them, join them.
He stared at the pile of highly concentrated powder in front of him, his mind racing, and finally, he slapped his thigh in a moment of sudden enlightenment.
He quickly mustered his strength and followed the address on the business card to find Cao Wenda. Cao Wenda, who seemed to have connections everywhere, was just a manager of a chamber of commerce on the surface. He was like a dog, but he couldn't stand up to his master's great power, which allowed him to act arrogantly.
"Brother Cao."
When Lin Zhou sat down opposite Cao Wenda, he was genuinely startled by Lin Zhou's haggard appearance. He put on a pretentious act and asked with feigned concern, "Young Master Lin, what's wrong? Why do you look so disheveled?"
"Don't even mention it, it took all night." Lin Zhou sighed, "It's just preparing medicine."
"That must be hard work, Young Master Lin. What brings you here so early in the morning?"
Lin Zhou licked his lips, his eyes showing a mixture of trepidation and madness: "I've added a few new ingredients to the original formula. It's low-cost, fast-acting, and 70% cheaper than the previous medicine."
"Oh?" Cao Wenda perked up immediately upon hearing this.
Plague relief is both a science and a business. The process involves the local government reporting the local epidemic situation, the Ministry of Revenue reviewing and evaluating it, then convening medical officials to discuss it, calculating the costs, and finally allocating epidemic prevention funds with an increase of 10% to 20% based on the cost calculation results.
The bulk of this expense is pharmaceuticals. Because of the lack of transparency in the pharmaceutical industry, there's significant potential for profit. And if Lin Zhou could reduce the cost of pharmaceuticals to 30% of the original price, then…
Cao Wenda picked up his abacus and quickly calculated that if the disaster relief funds were 100,000 taels, and 60,000 guan were used for medicine, the original budget was 30,000 guan, and the person in charge could get around 30,000 guan.
But if we could really reduce it by 70%, that would be a surplus of 21,000 guan, which would add up to more than 50,000 guan.
It seems like there are 20,000 more strings of cash, but in reality, the original 30,000 strings of cash would have to be bribed and greased, and it would have been very difficult to get even 5,000 strings of cash left. But with the addition of 21,000 strings of cash, the amount in hand is 26,000 strings of cash.
That's a five-fold surplus!
Seeing the fervent light in Lao Cao's eyes, Lin Zhou immediately knew he had taken the bait. No wonder Das Kapital is a masterpiece. Capital with a 50% profit will take risks, with a 100% profit it will despise the law, and with a 300% profit it will dare to sell the rope that hangs them.
Now, what Lao Cao is facing is 500.
"That medicine..."
Lin Zhou took out a small porcelain bottle and placed it on the table with a thud: "Just one last step."
"Which step!" Cao Wenda interrupted Lin Zhou before he could even speak, "What difficulties are there? Just tell me."
"Testing the drug." Lin Zhou rubbed his eyes. "This time I've added a potent and dangerous drug. If we don't test it..."
He stopped halfway through his sentence, a trick he learned from these idiots, letting them fill in the blanks with their own imaginations.
"Yes, yes, yes." Old Cao nodded repeatedly: "Although I don't understand pharmacology, I do know about the theory of evidence, so..."
"A normal argument would probably take three to six months."
"That's too long," Old Cao waved his hand and said, "If too many people die by then, and the officials come after us, neither of us will be able to get away with it."
"Yes." Lin Zhou lowered his voice and said, "So... I went to Nancheng yesterday."
"Oh? Nancheng?" Old Cao's eyes lit up immediately. "How so?"
"I heard from the people over there that there are now several thousand people infected in the south of the city, and nearly three hundred have died in the past few days."
Lin Zhou exaggerated the number of sick and dead, but since it was all hearsay, he figured no one would care about a few words of falsehood at this point.
"you mean?"
"Using these poor bastards to test the medicine," Lin Zhou said coldly, arms crossed. "According to pharmacology, the more people involved, the better the effect. One or two people won't work, ten or a hundred isn't much better either. Now we have thousands or tens of thousands of people. If it succeeds..."
Old Cao shrank back after hearing this: "Brother... you're so heartless. What will happen to those people..."
"Even if nothing happens, they won't live much longer." Lin Zhou just chuckled, his tone as if he were talking about puppies or kittens: "At that time..."
He wiped his nose: "Whether I say it's medicine or talisman water, if someone dies from medicine, you need to find a doctor. But if someone dies from talisman water, shouldn't you go to the Supreme Pure Spiritual Treasure Celestial Venerable?"
Upon hearing this, Cao Wenda shuddered, staring at him with wide eyes in disbelief...
"My friend, you've changed so much in just one day!"
"I'm just saying, Brother Cao, it's still up to you to decide."
"Go back and get some sleep. I'll go and discuss this with someone." Cao Wenda nodded repeatedly. "If there's a result this afternoon, I'll send someone to find you."
"Alright then, Brother Cao, I'm going back to sleep."
After Lin Zhou finished speaking, he left, leaving the approximately twenty grams of highly concentrated medicine on Cao Wenda's table.
After Lin Zhou left, Cao Wenda picked up the bottle of medicine, squinted at it, and then immediately summoned someone: "Go, find someone to verify whether this medicine works or not, and whether it's a potent drug."
Suspicious and cautious, these are the characteristics of Cao Wenda's personality. This can be seen from the fact that he asked the Grand Minister of Agriculture to inspect the grain. And this bottle of medicine is the hook left by Lin Zhou.
A highly concentrated drug, enough for hundreds of people—if you're going to prove it, that's not just a ferocious beast, that's a tiger-like drug…
It also contains a high dose of cephalosporin, and these quacks will try to take it with warm wine to enhance its effects during their research.
Hey... Cephalosporin with alcohol, the more you drink, the better!