Astor served a big bowl of ramen and was met with a group of drooling contestants, and he smiled. “Dig in…”
The contestants gulped for a moment, and then they charged at the food.
“This is delicious. Did you use to be a chef, Mr. Larson?”
“I bet he was. Astor could be a chef at a five-star hotel.”
Through bites, these contestants praised Jamie’s cooking skills.
“I’m not a chef. I just used to cook a lot.”
Back when he was a live-in son-in-law, he was the one who made the whole family’s food. With his mother-in-law being a picky eater, he had to be good at cooking.
“Hey, I made those specifically for the monk. Leave some for him. Lads, learn from the ladies. Look at how elegant they’re eating. Hey, that’s the last piece of meat. Slow down. Nobody’s going to take it from you.”
“As if! The meat’s running out!”
These people rarely had the chance to eat good food, so of course they would as much as they could!
Laughter filled the air, and eventually, all the food was gone. Everyone rubbed their tummies and belched.
Aside from the ladies, everyone else was lying in comfortable positions. Some were on the stone bench, some were on the long chairs in the pavilion, and others took a seat on the stone staircase and shook their legs.
“If my mentor saw me like this, he would kill me.” The lad from Valley of Herbs changed into a more comfortable position and lay back down. “Ah, that’s nice…”
“So, Mr. Larson, who’s your mentor?”
“I heard Master Levi’s one of the smartest tacticians around. Is that true?”
“When will the Reconstruction Pill hit the market?”
The contestants had a lot of questions, and after they were answered, everyone started chatting freely. They didn’t have many chances to meet up with people their age, and since everyone was a doctor, they had a lot to talk about. Some talked about their lives, some talked about herbs, and then some talked about diseases.
Eventually, the night grew old, and the moon shone brighter.
***
Moments after dawn had broken, Jamie emerged from his room. The conversation went on until late at night, so Jamie returned to his room groggily.
The moment he got into his bed, he fell asleep. Now, he was coming out with a yawn.
To his surprise, a few hidden sect members were still sitting around a table in the pavilion. They were engaged in a furious debate.
“Since the pill can treat three kinds of cancer, then according to the theory Dr. Larson proposed, my deduction is sound!”
Jamie approached the group and noticed the lad holding a pill similar to his Reconstruction Pill. Judging from the color, it just came straight out of the oven. Once the lad had made his argument, the other contestants rebutted it.
“There’s something called too much power. The Reconstruction Pill’s effects are already at their maximum, and the ingredients are keeping a tenuous balance. If you add more herbs to it, not only will it gain no effects, but you’ll also reduce the pill’s efficacy. This isn’t feasible.”
The lad and his friends had no counterargument, and his face became red.
Just when he was about to say something, he saw Jamie out of the corner of his eye, and he was delighted.
“Just in time, Dr. Larson.” Astor dragged Jamie over to his side. “We’ll ask for the creator’s opinion.”
The lad picked his pill up. “Dr. Larson, I made some modifications to the Reconstruction Pill. This pill here has royal red, seeds from some tricolor lotus, some chicory, and a bit of trachelospermum. Aside from the three cancers that the original pill can treat, this modified version can also help with laryngeal cancer.”
Jamie’s lips twitched.
‘Man, these people are terrifyingly smart…’
