SEC Chapter 83 A Taste of the Junk
Chapter 83 A Taste of the Junk
Afternoons at Renxin Pharmacy are usually "hell time" for Li Siyuan and Zhao Na.
Wang Minyu not only required them to memorize the "Huangdi Neijing" (Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic), but also added pathological analysis from modern medicine.
At this moment, the two were worrying about a human skeleton model borrowed from the medical school, while Guan Shan was using a thigh bone as a dumbbell to train his biceps.
The wind chimes at the door rang.
Instead of patients, a group of people carrying cameras and reflectors came in.
Surrounded in the middle was a middle-aged, overweight man dressed in a Tang suit, holding Buddhist prayer beads in his hand.
His face was ruddy, but his lips were an unnatural purplish-red. He was holding a folding fan with the words "God of Food" written on it.
"Jin Dazui?" Li Siyuan recognized the person who came.
This is the most famous food critic in Changxiang City, known as the "radar on the tip of the tongue." Restaurants he criticizes usually go out of business, and roadside stalls he praises will raise their prices the next day.
"What brings Teacher Jin here?" Boss Liu quickly went to greet her; she's a big internet celebrity.
Jin Dazui ignored Boss Liu and walked straight to the counter, tapping the table with his folding fan: "I heard you have a kind of 'Qi-boosting tea' here, which claims to be able to bring people back to life? Give me a cup, I want to test it on the spot."
His tone was arrogant, carrying a sense of superiority as if he were examining counterfeit goods.
The camera was immediately shoved right in Wang Minyu's face.
Wang Minyu was reading a book called "Postpartum Care of Sows" (actually, he was browsing the system's online store) without even looking up: "Nine yuan and ninety cents, scan the code, and get in line."
Jin Dazui's face stiffened. Wherever he ate, wasn't the boss always there to accompany him? This young doctor actually made him wait in line?
"I'm here to help you promote your products," Jin Dazui said with a forced smile. "If your products are good, I can get them listed on the stock exchange with just a word. If they're not good..."
"You're going to ruin my reputation if it's not good?" Wang Minyu closed his book, finally raising his eyelids. "Fine, Zhao Na, pour him a glass. Extra strong."
Zhao Na brought out a glass of dark brown liquid from the back room.
This is made with second-grade blood peppermint and astragalus, and the flavor is stronger than before, with a strange taste that is a mixture of cast iron rust and menthol.
Jin Dazui picked up the cup, struck a professional pose for the camera, smelled it first, then swirled it, and finally took a small sip.
The entire room fell silent, awaiting his evaluation.
"Pah!" Jin Dazui spat directly onto the ground. "What garbage! It smells like swill! This is the miracle drug you guys touted as? It's an insult to my taste buds!"
He shouted into the camera, "Family members, beware! This is industrial wastewater that's designed to rip you off! It's bitter, astringent, and fishy, with absolutely no aftertaste. Even a dog wouldn't drink this stuff!"
Guan Shan was eating a steamed bun when he heard this. He looked up at him with an unfriendly expression.
Wang Minyu laughed, a very happy laugh.
"You're saying this tea is only bitter, astringent, and fishy?" Wang Minyu walked out from behind the counter, holding a tongue depressor. "Open your mouth."
"What are you doing?" Jin Dazui asked warily, backing away.
"Guanshan".
Guan Shan put down the steamed bun and pressed Jin Dazui onto the chair like a chick.
Wang Minyu grabbed his chin and forcibly shoved the tongue depressor into his mouth.
"Tsk tsk tsk." Wang Minyu looked at the fat tongue. "The coating on the tongue is peeling off, and the surface is as smooth as a mirror. This is not a tongue, it's more like a polished piece of pigskin."
"You're talking nonsense!" Jin Dazui mumbled incoherently.
"Li Siyuan, tell him what this disease is." Wang Minyu began the on-site instruction.
Li Siyuan leaned over for a look, then adjusted his glasses: "Atrophic glossitis, accompanied by severe degeneration of taste buds. It's usually caused by long-term consumption of excessively hot, spicy, or chemically additive-laden foods, leading to necrosis of the taste nerve endings."
"Bingo." Wang Minyu snapped his fingers. "Jin Dazui, your so-called 'golden tongue' is long gone. You can't taste any subtle flavors when you eat now. You can only rely on extreme spiciness, saltiness, and umami to stimulate the last bit of pain receptors you have left. You think my tea is bad because you can't taste the herbal aftertaste. You can only taste the bitterness of the alkaloids."
Touched on a sore spot, Jin Dazui's face turned a deep liver color.
Indeed, in the past six months, he found that nothing tasted good to him. In order to maintain his image, he could only add more strong flavors, which resulted in a vicious cycle.
"You...you're talking nonsense! My sense of taste is excellent!" Jin Dazui was still being stubborn.
"Really?" Wang Minyu pulled a small brown bottle from his pocket. "This is my extracted 'ultra-pure capsaicin.' Even a normal person would sneeze just from smelling it. Do you dare try some?"
To prove himself, Jin Dazui snatched the bottle and poured a drop onto his tongue.
One second, two seconds, three seconds.
He didn't react at all, and even smacked his lips: "That's it? It's not even as spicy as hot pot broth."
The surrounding photographers were stunned.
That's capsaicin extract!
"See? You're still stubborn." Wang Minyu threw away the tongue depressor. "You've lost your sense of taste, and your spleen and stomach are burning. If you keep eating like this, you'll get esophageal cancer in less than three months. At that point, you won't be able to even drink liquids, let alone critique gourmet food."
Jin Dazui finally panicked. He made a living by his mouth; losing his sense of taste was equivalent to losing his job.
"This...can this be cured?" His arrogance vanished instantly, replaced by a humble plea for medical help.
"It can be cured, but it will be painful." Wang Minyu pointed to the backyard. "Your tongue has been marinated in chemical seasonings; it needs to be 'washed.' How? By fighting poison with poison."
Wang Minyu asked Su Qing to go to the backyard and scoop a bowl of dark liquid from the large vat used for pickling "sauerkraut".
The liquid emitted a nauseating, sour smell; it was the result of herbs that had been fermenting for an unknown period of time, and... some kind of biological metabolites.
"Drink it," Wang Minyu said.
"What is this?" Jin Dazui almost vomited when he smelled it.
"This is a 'resurrection soup'," Wang Minyu said with a straight face, "It's specially designed to corrode the dead skin on your tongue and stimulate your taste buds to regenerate. Once you drink it, I guarantee you'll never forget it."
Under Guan Shan's "physical persuasion," Jin Dazui pinched his nose and swallowed the bowl of sour water.
"vomit--!"
As soon as he drank it, Jin Dazui let out a tremendous gagging sound.
The sour taste drilled into his throat like a drill, followed by a burning pain that exploded from the back of his tongue.
"Ah! Spicy! So spicy! Sour! Bitter!" Jin Dazui jumped up, frantically clutching his throat, tears and snot streaming down his face. "I can taste it! I can feel it!"
That long-lost, rich, though extremely disgusting taste made him tremble with excitement.
"This is just the first step." Wang Minyu handed him a glass of water. "After you go back, you must abstain from spicy food for a month and drink only plain porridge every day. If you dare to sneak a bite of hot pot, not even a god can save you."
Jin Dazui drank plain water and found it incredibly sweet.
He knelt down with a thud and kowtowed to Wang Minyu: "Miracle doctor! You're truly a miracle doctor! This water tastes so good!"
After seeing the group off, Li Siyuan looked at the remaining bowl of sour water and asked weakly, "Master, is that really medicine? Isn't that...that person's bathwater?"
"Shh." Wang Minyu held up a finger. "That's a high-grade fermentation liquid rich in active enzymes. By the way, pour what Jin Dazui drank into the old locust tree in the backyard. Don't waste it."
A system notification sounded: [Harvested 5000 "Gluttony" mood points. Unlocked new recipe: Spleen-Strengthening and Digestive Pill (Enhanced Version).]
Wang Minyu looked out the window; the sky was gradually darkening. Although he had resolved the issues with two peculiar patients, a sense of unease lingered in his heart.
The words that "pickled cabbage" said yesterday kept echoing in his ears.
The mother is incubating.