"What are you staring at?" After Abel hung up the phone, he looked at the
translator whose face was pale white. He then realized that she could understand
what he was saying.
He figured this woman must have been scared by what he had just said.
However, Abel did not intend to explain anything to her. He hired her to be his
translator, and he was the boss. Did it matter if she heard the threats?
She did not have any evidence to prove anything about him.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Abel." The translator came back to her senses after thinking about
how frightening he was. She apologized to Abel with a lowered head. Then, she
asked, "Would you like to look around now?"
Abel looked disdainfully at the bustling venue.
Initially, there were not many people who came to the networking event. Now, it
was crowded all because of Luke.
Moreover, the venue was mostly open-air. Even though there were large fans
blowing air around, as the afternoon approached, the weather became
increasingly hot and humid.
Abel, being a native Russian, could not tolerate such humidity.
However, he needed to help Shanks find medicinal herbs now. Abel glanced
around the venue. He could not spot Shanks and had no idea where he had
gone.
Shanks was a medical genius who was particularly passionate about researching
naturopathy.
He believed it was something passed down from the millennia-old civilization of A
City. It was far superior to Western medicine, with plenty of room for research.
Therefore, whenever he encountered herbal medicine, he would be excited to
study it thoroughly.
"Where did he go..." Abel could not help but wonder. None of the others on the
Island of Despair had a talent for medicine, and neither did he.
Still, he needed to help now. Without Shanks, he figured he could easily be
deceived at any moment.
"Are you referring to Mr. Shanks?" asked the translator. Shanks understood
English. Even though he could not speak fluently, regular communication posed
no problem.
Therefore, the translator's most important task was to translate for Abel.
"Did you see him?" Abel glanced at her.
The translator replied, "When you were on the phone earlier, Mr. Shanks was still
over there..."
She pointed in the direction of a stall where Shanks was no longer present. "He
was talking to those medicine vendors. I don't know where he went now. Would
you like to give him a call?"
"No need." Abel remembered Shanks mentioning something about acting
separately earlier.
After all, saving Kassy was not Shanks’ responsibility.
They had to split up and act separately.
"Okay." The translator felt a bit puzzled but did not continue speaking. Then, she
heard Abel say, "Let's go. We'll check out the stalls now. I need to find some
herbs, and you'll help me with the translation.”
"Sure, Mr. Abel," agreed the translator.
They walked among the various stalls.
On the other hand, Luca had been browsing for a long time and had talked to
some medicine vendors. However, none of them had the herbs Shanks needed.
After a while, Warren approached with a serious expression on his face. "Dr.
Craw."
"What's the matter?" Luca was already irritated.
"Mr. Turner said he found one of the herbs Mr. Crawford wants. Do you have any
specific instructions?" Warren relayed Luke's message to him.
Abel was present, and Luke did not want Luca to follow him around.
"Found it?" Luca knew that the herb Mr. Turner was looking for was the same
herb Shanks needed.
She did not know how Luke managed to find out what Shanks and the others
wanted, but it was obvious that he did.
Otherwise, Warren would not have come to inform her.
"Yes." Warren nodded, confirming it once again.
"Alright, I got it. Please inform Mr. Turner to..." Luca quietly explained some
things to Warren.
There were many people at the venue. Their behavior did not seem abrupt, so
the others did not pay much attention to them.
Warren noted Luca's instructions and then nodded before leaving.
Ten minutes later, Luca received a call. She checked her phone. It was from
Warren. She answered, "How's it going?"
"Dr. Craw, we've followed your instructions. I've also confirmed that it's the herbs
you need. I'll send you the stall location now," replied Warren.
"Good," responded Luca.
She hung up the phone and received a message from Warren with information
about the stall.
Luca knew that Evan must have found this stall under Luke's arrangement.
She had just instructed Warren to have Evan privately purchase some medicinal
herbs to confirm if they were what they wanted.
Evan offered some benefits to convince the herbalist to sell the herbs to him. If
the herbs were what they wanted, they would buy them all regardless of the
price.
The herbalist could not resist this temptation and agreed directly.
Now that Luke's men had confirmed it, the herbs sold by the herbalist were
indeed the ones Shanks needed.
Luca had to go to the stall to negotiate with the owner now.
She followed the location Warren sent to her earlier and arrived in front of the
herbalist.
The herbalist's business was not doing very well. The other stalls were
surrounded by several people, but there were not many people at the herbalist's
stall.
When the herbalist saw Luca approaching, he immediately noticed the company
name on the permit badge on her chest. He asked with a smile, "Miss, are you
here to buy some medicinal herbs?"
"Yes, my colleague bought some herbs from you just now, and they've been
confirmed to be genuine. I'd like to purchase the remaining herbs,” replied Luca.
"Really?" The herbalist's eyes lit up. He did not have much hope for the deal just
now. Those herbs were poisonous and had little medicinal value for
pharmaceutical companies.
"Yes, it's true. How much do you have?" asked Luca.
"I don't have much of it either. Even though this herb is effective, most people
don't grasp its medicinal value, so there's hardly any market for it. Nobody
bothers to grow it.
"It just popped up in my medicinal field one day, and I thought, why not leave it
be? Plus, if it's meant to grow on my land, there might be some special reason
for it, so I left it alone.
"I didn't expect a company to actually have a use for it." The herbalist did not
expect that the herbs he planted would bring him profit. He happily told Luca how
the herb came about but did not mention exactly how much of it he had.
After the herbalist finished speaking, Luca patiently asked again, "So how much
of it do you actually have?"
"Not much, just ten kilograms at most," replied the herbalist. Even though he
called it an empty patch of land, it was actually a small area in his backyard.
He felt that even for the medicinal herbs in demand in the market, this small
space was insufficient. He could not be bothered to remove the herbs, so he let
them grow freely.
However, he did not tend to them much, so the yield was not high.
At this moment, the herbalist regretted it. If he had known that someone needed
this herb, he would have cultivated and planted more.
"I'll take it all. How much?" said Luca. She quickly composed a message on her
phone to inform Abel of the progress on her end.
Shanks had requested five types of medicinal herbs, and now, through Luke's
contacts, she had found one of them.
The herbalist did not expect Luca to be so straightforward. He reckoned that she
must be desperate to get the herbs, so he decided to ask for a hefty price...