Mu Anxiao faltered, "You're so deceitful, and they still trust you?"
Guan Mian replied, "Initially, I thought the first old man's family would cause trouble for me. But after they learned the price of the medicine I was selling, they shifted all the blame to the quack doctor who treated the old man."
"No, why blame the quack doctor?" Mu Anxiao asked in surprise.
"Because the quack doctor charged only two taels of silver per visit and per dose of medicine."
"Huh?"
"From that moment, I understood a principle: in their eyes, the more expensive something is, the better it is; conversely, the cheaper it is, the more it is doubted. So, I set my prices high."
"What kind of thinking is that? Does everyone think like that?"
"The families of those old people were all wealthy. Naturally, they considered the adage 'you get what you pay for.' As for those who had no money," Guan Mian said, "they wouldn't buy my medicine anyway, so don't be too surprised."
Taking Guan Mian's words to heart, Mu Anxiao recalled the simple and plain clothing of those family members. Then, considering Guan Mian's plausible reasoning, she wondered, if they were all wealthy, why would they be greedy for her ten taels of silver?
"..." She fell into thought.
Guan Mian calmly observed the expression on Mu Anxiao's face. His eyes flickered, and then the corners of his mouth curved upward with ill intent. He asked, "Just now, did you think they were all poor?"
Mu Anxiao, not noticing the change in Guan Mian's expression, and certainly not realizing he had seen through her thoughts, asked in surprise, "How did you know I was thinking that?"
Hearing Mu Anxiao's question, Guan Mian relaxed. "Although the people who buy my medicine are all wealthy, due to the environment of this town, they are all accustomed to pretending to be poor, even stingy. But there's a difference: they are never stingy when buying tonics for their elders."
"You mean they are filial."
"..." Guan Mian chuckled.
Seeing this, Mu Anxiao looked confused. "What are you laughing at?"
"Let me put it this way: those old people are basically not sick. The people who buy my medicine for their elders are mostly those who are particularly fond of showing off and flaunting their wealth. In fact, most of them were introduced by others."
"You're just a medicine seller, yet you seem to understand them so well."
"I wouldn't say I understand them thoroughly, but if you want me to describe their situations, I still can. However," Guan Mian smiled, "it will take time."
"..." Mu Anxiao looked at the expression on Guan Mian's face and thought about how much those people loved money. Her eyes lit up. "I know."
"You know what?" Guan Mian was clearly startled by Mu Anxiao's "I know."
Mu Anxiao continued, "I won't beat around the bush with you. Is there something else you want to explain?"
In fact, Guan Mian had intended to use these words to shirk his responsibility.
But he didn't want to reveal his thoughts so bluntly, wanting only to convey his meaning by answering questions. Who knew that Mu Anxiao had seen through him, which made him lose the courage to shirk his responsibility.
However, thinking about those lives and what he was about to go through, he gathered his courage and said, "Yes, there is something I want to explain."
"Go ahead."
"Huh?" Guan Mian expected Mu Anxiao to interrupt him and have Xu Lanming escort him away. To his surprise, she was letting him speak, which truly startled him again.
"What 'huh'? Speak clearly, so neither of us feels uncomfortable."
"..." Guan Mian nodded slightly, pursed his lips, and said, "Those people agreed to buy my medicine themselves. In other words, it was a willing exchange. Why should I be the only one bearing so much punishment? It's unfair."
From the moment Guan Mian started talking about those people, Mu Anxiao had seen that he wanted to say this. Therefore, she said calmly, "When the first old man died, you discovered the booklet had a problem, didn't you?"
"I don't know."
"Lying at this point is meaningless."
"..." Guan Mian curled his lips. "I did know, but I didn't force them to buy it after that."
"How did the second old man come to buy your medicine?"
"After that, I set up my stall next to a quack doctor. Then, an old man came and asked the price of my medicine. Summarizing my experience, I deliberately quoted a high price. In the end, he didn't buy it and bought the quack doctor's medicine. Three days later, the old man came back, saying the quack doctor's medicine was fake. Then he said he wasn't short of money, he just trusted him, but the doctor's attitude had changed. He stood up and pushed the old man. I couldn't stand it, so I helped him. Then he bought my medicine. I didn't force him to buy it."
"At that time, you had a pang of conscience to help the old man, but you couldn't have a pang of conscience to not sell him medicine, Guan... no, Mu Mian, there are really few people in this world as ruthless as you."
"I didn't force him either. He wanted to buy it himself."
"You clearly knew there was something wrong with your medicine, yet you still sold it. That's your fault. If I'm not mistaken," Mu Anxiao continued, based on Guan Mian's previous account, "that old man died not long after, and his family blamed the quack doctor for everything again, right?"
"Yes."
However, the moment Guan Mian nodded in response, Xu Lan asked, "What do medical examiners do? Can't they detect poison?"
"That's demonic poison. Once it enters the human body, it's completely absorbed. Mortals can't detect it. Even if they could detect it, they would only find that the quack doctor's medicine was problematic. Anything else," Mu Anxiao sighed, "they couldn't find."
Guan Mian lowered his head after hearing Mu Anxiao's analysis.
Mu Anxiao continued, "Mu Mian, you're quite something. Deliberately staking out near quack doctors to trick old people into trusting you. If I'm not mistaken, you've harmed quite a few doctors, haven't you?"
Guan Mian remained silent.
Just as Mu Anxiao had guessed, in order to avoid bringing trouble upon himself, Guan Mian would deliberately station himself near a quack doctor in every place he went. Those doctors, for the sake of their own businesses, never paid him any attention. Gradually, the quack doctors became his shield. His life changed drastically after the ninety-year-old man died and then came back to life. From then on, he became the focus of attention in this town as a cultivator. Wealthy people from all over the town began to flock to him to buy medicine. And the elders in those families were generally advanced in age, so when they died, they just died. Before Guan Mian died, he bought a house. Because he had sold out of his poison, he thought about changing his business, but he didn't get the chance.