He furrowed his brow, pointing at the syringe in Sun Miao's hand, "Dr. Sun, is that saline?"
"Hmm?" Sun Miao, caught off guard again, "Why are you talking nonsense, I clearly said it's the Immune Correction Potion."
Ren Zhong feigned suspicion, "Dr. Sun, something's not quite right with you."
"What do you mean by not quite right?"
"Though I haven't studied medicine, I'm not dumb. You drew the liquid from that big bottle, without adding any other agents. The bottle clearly has the sodium chloride formula written on it."
Sun Miao, accustomed to dealing with patients who were obedient to him, had never encountered a wild card like this, "Ah, this..."
Ren Zhong pressed the advantage.
"Besides, I specifically inquired before coming. Though Dr. Sun, your reputation in town isn't bad, you're not so generous as to let hundreds of bucks of diagnosis fees go on credit. My treatment is already finished, yet you come up with this half a syringe of saline, still trying to deceive me with a non-existent immune correction potion. What's your real intention?"
Sun Miao: "I... you..."
"Dr. Sun, just tell me what you want to do, no need to hide anything. I'm not an ungrateful person. Just say it, say it."
I know what you want, but I won't expose it, waiting for you to speak up so I can make a high demand.
Oh, just playing around.
Ten seconds later, the tongue-tied Sun Miao admitted defeat, "I want to take some cancer cells from you for research."
Ren Zhong smiled, squinting his eyes, "Sampling? Well, that's business. You have to pay then."
Sun Miao, growing furious, "How can you be like this! I didn't charge you for the treatment!"
Ren Zhong: "But didn't I leave you an IOU?"
You ungrateful wretch!
Sun Miao was so angry he was gritting his teeth, "Alright, how much do you want!"
With no understanding of the research system in this world or Sun Miao's financial capacity, Ren Zhong didn't know how much to ask.
So he decided to kick the ball back, "Dr. Sun, why don't you decide? I think, as the only doctor in town, you surely wouldn't underpay a humble vagrant like me, right?"
"How about I waive your debt?"
Sun Miao rolled his eyes, testing the waters.
"Not good enough."
"I'll return the IOU to you and throw in another hundred!"
Sun Miao squinted, suppressing his rage, seeming to start feeling the financial pain.
Ren Zhong closely observed the other's micro-expressions, considering Sun Miao's financial pain to be thirty percent genuine, seventy percent feigned.
Not quite there yet.
"As far as I know, very few people let cancer drag on to my extent. Are my cancer cells really this cheap? It shouldn't be."
"Two hundred! No more! That can buy two vials of Abnormal Cell Eater! You know how expensive that drug is!"
Ren Zhong saw through it.
This time, Sun Miao was genuinely feeling the financial pinch.
Almost there.
Ren Zhong delivered the final blow.
"Two hundred after tax! Cash before the goods!"
"Damn..." Sun Miao finally admitted defeat, deflated like a frostbitten eggplant, weakly saying, "Alright, deal. Come over, let me transfer the money to you."
...
Standing at the clinic door, Sun Miao looked like a courtesan who had been fleeced for free, watching Ren Zhong walk away triumphantly.
Sun Huakui's mood was complicated.
Anger, helplessness, grievance, excitement—it was all there.
Poured resources into treating someone, didn't earn a penny, on top of that ended up losing an extra two hundred and twenty.
What's the world coming to?
The hearts of people are too treacherous.
...
At the intersection, with a screech, a hover truck stopped beside Ren Zhong.
Zheng Tian and Wen Lei had just finished selling goods and coincidentally came over to meet Ren Zhong.
"Mr. Ren, this is your money, a total of 0.72 Contribution Points."
Ren Zhong nodded, "Thanks a lot."
"By the way, the mayor will be available in an hour. I'll take you to report then. We need to resupply, do you have any plans, Mr. Ren?"
Ren Zhong: "Let's meet outside the town hall in an hour, I'll go explore the town on my own for now."
"Alright."
After parting ways with Zheng Tian, Ren Zhong jogged straight to the eastern edge of the town center by the White Wall.
There stood a relatively tall building, the town's only official general store, commonly known as the supply and marketing cooperative, under the Alson Group, which mainly deals in finance and commerce among the nine major enterprises.
Time for some shopping therapy.