"Second Brother Qin, you're here."
When Old Xu saw the saber-carrying man enter, he quickly went up to greet him.
"That student left?"
Old Xu hurriedly nodded and said, "Yes, he left a while ago."
When Second Brother Qin heard this, he glanced at the row of shelves in the shop and asked, "What did he take?"
"Thirty-nine flower poison ginseng plants," Old Xu replied.
"What does he want flower poison ginseng for?" Second Brother Qin asked curiously, "Didn't he come here to cause trouble because of flower poison ginseng in the first place?"
Old Xu sighed and said, "I don't know. He just said that he wanted to confiscate all of them so that I wouldn't hurt anyone else with them."
Second Brother Qin touched his chin and smiled, "That's normal. The students of the University of Martial Arts have access to plenty of resources. How could they be interested in these petty things?"
"There was nothing worth taking, so all he could do was think of ways to disgust you."
The University of Martial Arts was a place that trained the city's top martial artists. It was highly valued by the government, and received all kinds of preferential treatment.
The standards of living of students who successfully enrolled there was far better than that of ordinary people.
The school not only received a regular supply of meat, but they also distributed medicinal concoctions to help students with their cultivation.
If the students performed well, they would also be eligible for various kinds of subsidies and benefits.
Therefore, the students there were rather well off. They had food stamps for rice, noodles, vegetables and fruits, as well as stamps for various other daily necessities.
Therefore, Second Brother Qin felt that Lu Heng had chosen to take away all of the flower poison ginseng plants to vent his anger on the shop owner.
"Moreover, I think that the kid has probably been reading too much in school. His mind seems to be filled with a sense of mission, a sense of justice, and he thinks of punishing evil and promoting good every day."
"To my knowledge, the teachers there love to preach about these things to their students. It's a trick to get them to go out into the wilderness to fight with all those monsters."
"But that's good too. With them placing their lives on the line outside, we can live peacefully in the city."
After saying that, Second Brother Qin asked again, "Did he only take the flower poison ginseng? Nothing else?"
"He took two books," Old Xu replied, "One is the Common Plant Pharmacology Handbook, and the other is the Encyclopedia of Small Monsters."
"What? Why does he need those books?"
Second Brother Qin was puzzled. He said curiously, "There are plenty of such books in the university's library. Moreover, they will learn about these things sooner or later. There are also specialized teachers to teach them. There should have been no need to take them from you."
This time, he really could not understand Lu Heng's motives. No matter how hard he tried, it remained a mystery.
After pondering for a moment, he could only go with the simplest explanation, "He probably thinks that as long as he takes those books away, he'll be able to stop you from selling poisonous herbs to others..."
"No, that doesn't seem right after all. It doesn't make sense. He should be able to think further than that. You must have already memorized all the commonly used medicinal herbs in your mind. There's no need for you to look for such information in the book."
"Moreover, if the book is gone, you can just get another one. It's not that difficult."
This time, Second Brother Qin was completely clueless.
After pondering for a while, he decided not to dwell on this matter anymore.
Anyhow, the matter had been settled and there were no major problems that had arisen, so who cared what the kid's purpose of taking the book was.
Just as he decided to give up on pursuing the matter, Old Xu suddenly said, "Second Brother Qin, I don't think he's a student of the University of Martial Arts."
"Oh? Why is that?"
Old Xu replied, "When he came last time, I carefully observed him and found that he exuded a scholarly aura. He did not have the fierce temperament of someone who had been practicing martial arts for a long time. No matter how I looked at it, he seemed like a student from the civil class."
"And judging from the skin on his hands, he seemed to be working on a farm in the outer city. I guess his family is not that well-off."
"Otherwise, how could I have sold him those flower poison ginseng plants? I knew that he was a weakling who didn't know any better."
"It can't be." Second Brother Qin looked at Old Xu disbelievingly. "I also observed him just now. He is definitely a martial arts practitioner!"
"I have been practicing martial arts for so many years. There's no way I'm wrong about this."
"Old Xu, stop making excuses for your mistakes."
Second Brother Qin refused to believe that a person's temperament could change drastically within such a short period of time.
Therefore, he felt that Old Xu was trying to find an excuse for his mistakes.
Old Xu saw that the man did not believe him and immediately turned anxious. "I'm innocent, Second Brother Qin. What I said is true. I swear to God, that kid is definitely not a student of the University of Martial Arts!"
"Enough!"
Second Brother Qin reprimanded Old Xu, "It doesn't matter anymore, Your excuses don't matter either. Even if he's not from the university, if he can carry a saber around in public without fear of being arrested by the police, it means that he has some sort of backing. Do you understand?"
"But, but..."
Old Xu wanted to say something else, but Second Brother Qin impatiently waved his hand to stop him. "Stop this useless nonsense."
"Let me tell you, regarding those thirty-nine flower poison ginseng plants, think of a way to make up for the loss yourself."
"Remember this lesson well. Next time, keep your eyes open."
With that, he left, leaving Old Xu standing there alone with a bitter expression on his face.
After a long time, Old Xu finally let out a long sigh, turned around and walked back to the counter.
"Thirty-nine flower poison ginseng plants. I've really suffered a huge loss this time!"
Old Xu's heart was bleeding.
He was just someone who worked for the big boss behind-the-scenes, so how could he afford such a loss?
It seemed that he could only try to fool more honest, powerless people to make up for the loss this time.
"You'll be hit by a car on the street and, if you go to the farm to work, you'll be bitten to death by a monster. Also, your whole family will die. F*ck!"
After cursing fiercely, Old Xu finally felt a bit better.
However, when he thought about how he had to make up for the loss, he immediately felt pained again.
"So many flower poison ginseng plants, sigh..."
Old Xu shook his head helplessly and pulled open the drawer.
The moment the drawer was pulled open, his expression froze.
Immediately after, his hands started trembling non-stop, tears started falling.
"My private stash! I've been saving up for so long!"
He finally remembered that his private stash had been hidden in the "Handbook of Common Plant Pharmacology" that Lu Heng had taken away.
He had hidden it there because the book was obscure and difficult to understand. No one who was not a professional in the field would want to read it.
In addition, the book was humongous, so no one could tell if there was something hidden in it.
"Argh!"
Old Xu slapped his thigh and slumped down on the chair weakly.
"How could I have forgotten such an important thing?"
At that time, he had only wanted to get rid of Lu Heng away as soon as possible. He had been afraid that Lu Heng would take a fancy to something valuable again, so he did not have time to focus on anything else.
In addition, after Lu Heng left, there were two more customers in the shop to serve, which distracted him.
After the customers left, Second Brother Qin came over again. In the end, he only realized that his private stash had been taken away by Lu Heng at this very moment.
"I knew that I had a bad feeling about something just now. I just didn't expect it to be... Sigh!"
Slap!
Old Xu was so angry that he slapped himself on the face.
When the passersby outside the door heard this incomparably crisp sound, they instinctively looked over.