Chapter 2566 - Lushi Powder
"I ended up waiting an entire year, and the prizes never came. I had people inquire a few times in between—they kept saying distribution hadn't started yet. I was too busy to follow up, and only before taking this post did I learn the organizers had already contacted all the winners and distributed everything. The problem is, nobody ever contacted me!" Zhang Xiao laughed bitterly as he recounted the story.
As the saying goes, where there's smoke, there's fire. The group had already sensed something amiss. As Marx observed, when profits reach three hundred percent, men will trample on every human law—to say nothing of drugs, where margins could multiply ten- or a hundredfold.
"Should we notify Cheka? Isn't auditing their domain?" Lin Motian raised the key question. "Come to think of it, hasn't Cheka discovered any problems before now?"
"Perhaps Cheka isn't familiar with the pharmaceutical sector," Fu Qiliang suggested. "They might not understand drugs."
"Alright, enough of these killjoy matters. Tonight we discuss only romance, not politics. Come—bottoms up."
"This is serious business," Deng Bojun declared with exaggerated gravity. "We must get to the bottom of this! So many drugs!"
Though he appeared righteous, Lin Motian knew he was actually mourning all the pharmaceuticals that had been "skimmed off"—how much more money could have been made!
Despite their differing motives, Lin Motian shared the sentiment. If all this medicine could reach the hospital, it could save countless additional lives. The leaked drugs might still treat illnesses elsewhere, but without proper diagnosis and treatment protocols, used casually as "miracle medicine," they sometimes wouldn't save people—they might even harm them.
"I agree we should investigate thoroughly. Drugs aren't ordinary commodities—misuse can cost lives."
Zheng Mingjiang pulled out her little notebook and jotted this down. "Alright, I'll investigate. I'm just sitting idle anyway."
"Do you have the authority to investigate cases?" Lin Motian asked.
"Since drugs are involved, let's tentatively classify it as a counterfeit drug case. Our health department does have police, you know—sanitary police operate under our professional guidance. As a health sector Elder, there's no problem with me leading this investigation."
"A gentleman's son doesn't sit beneath crumbling eaves," Zhang Xiao cautioned. "You're a dignified Elder personally taking charge of a counterfeit drug case—please be careful. Just have Cheka or the police handle this. Isn't it excessive for you to go personally?"
"On the contrary—this matter probably implicates quite a few places. As the aggrieved party, our health sector should send someone to demonstrate we take it seriously," Zheng Mingjiang replied.
"If we crack this case, it'll truly be manna from heaven!" Deng Bojun gestured excitedly. "Our hospital will be able to save so many more patients!"
"Heh heh."
"Since we're apparently not short on drugs, I'll try to apply for an emergency shipment." Lin Motian's emotions were difficult to describe. "Speaking of which, a couple days ago Du Yibin sent over a note saying Zhang Jiayu's mother was sick. He'd come to Du for help and wanted me to take a look. I originally said I'd get to it after clearing my plate, but got busy and completely forgot. I never expected the man would go directly to County Magistrate Zhang!"
Zheng Mingjiang nodded. "Right. Go ahead and make an emergency request to Lingao—order a batch under the 'special use' designation. Then have Lingao's pharmaceutical company send us the logistics node information separately. That way we can identify which link has problems and investigate every naturalized citizen who had access, one by one."
The antibiotic situation was a black box. They knew that Lingao Pharmaceutical Factory's antibiotics were continuously flowing in, yet the output was completely mismatched. As for what mechanism was operating inside, they could only speculate.
Zheng Mingjiang decided to start with the Lushi Powder appearing on the market—after all, she was just sitting idle in Guangzhou anyway.
She didn't go undercover herself, however. This wasn't from unwillingness to get into the field, but because she felt going personally risked tipping off their targets. That day, the shop assistant had immediately recognized her as an Elder, even without knowing exactly who. As a female Elder especially, she might stand out too much in Guangzhou. So she dispatched her guard and life secretary to investigate instead.
After reminding Jingshan to be careful when going out, Zheng Mingjiang settled onto the sofa with tea and newspapers. Today's Yangcheng Express devoted considerable space to introducing the new Nanhai District head Zhang Xiao, praising this Medicine Master to the skies—light of the Senate, savior of countless lives, kind and charitable, caring for the elderly and the poor, loving the people like his own children, and so on. Flattery, after all, was free.
"Heh! If I didn't know you, I might have believed it."
After finishing the Yangcheng Express, Zheng Mingjiang carefully reviewed materials about conditions around Guangzhou, particularly the traditional herbal medicine markets.
The antibiotics certainly came from the Senate, but exactly which link had problems, where they'd been stockpiled after leaking, how they were fenced, how they circulated on the black market—all this remained completely unclear. Perhaps the center was in Guangzhou, perhaps not, but either way it would be connected to the herbal medicine trade.
Zheng Mingjiang's knowledge of traditional medicine markets remained stuck in the old timeline's framework: the four major markets of Bozhou in Anhui, Yuzhou in Henan, Hehua Pond in Chengdu, and Anguo in Hebei. She vaguely recalled Guangzhou having a Qingping Market, but that was from the 1970s and 80s—not even a shadow of it existed in this timeline.
Traditional Chinese medicine was normally Liu San's domain. She had no intention of encroaching on his territory, so she hadn't paid much attention to this area.
Currently, the nearby medicine markets appeared to be twofold. One was in Foshan, where Runshi Hall—which had close ties to the Senate—maintained a branch. Foshan, one of the realm's famous towns, drew merchants from all directions, and unlike Guangzhou proper wasn't directly under the Senate's watchful eye. Perhaps distribution occurred there as well. The other was Luofu Mountain in Huizhou.
Luofu Mountain's "Dongtian Medicine Market" had been established during the Song dynasty and was once the largest medicine market in Lingnan. At its peak, the market stretched for miles, with medicine merchants from Lingnan and even Southeast Asia all congregating there. In the other timeline, the Luofu Mountain area preserved some market functions with several pharmaceutical companies like Luofu Mountain National Medicine and Xianfeng Pharmaceuticals, but overall it had declined considerably, leaving Zheng Mingjiang unfamiliar with its current state.
Moreover, though Huizhou fell within the Bobo Army's military reach, it hadn't been deeply administered. Zheng Mingjiang doubted it served as the distribution hub for black market antibiotics—after all, the place barely had any naturalized citizen cadres. Combined with the greater distance, it certainly wasn't as reliable as Foshan from a safety standpoint. She decided that if she were to venture out investigating, Foshan would be the safer choice. Such large quantities of antibiotics would certainly circulate to surrounding areas, unlikely to accumulate solely in Guangzhou. First, Guangzhou might not absorb it all; second, spreading supplies out could artificially create scarcity and drive up black market prices.
Though she'd come to relax, the Guangzhou municipal government still sent her internal reference materials. Jingshan had neatly stacked the document boxes on the desk before leaving. Zheng Mingjiang casually picked one up and exclaimed, "This expensive!"
According to the External Intelligence Bureau's report, so-called miracle drugs had appeared in Hankou, Nanjing, and even Beijing. Like the Lushi Powder circulating around Guangzhou, they claimed to treat all manner of redness, swelling, heat, pain, and epidemic diseases—with the highest priced selling for up to fifty taels of silver per box.
Didn't expect the black market circulation to spread so fast, Zheng Mingjiang grumbled to herself. Or rather, the case had been going on long enough to reach these major cities. Fifty taels of silver was a considerable sum even for ordinary naturalized citizen cadres—enough to pay her secretary twenty months' wages, for example. These people were making quite a fortune. Would be nice to fleece them a bit.
After Jingshan wandered around Guangzhou for several days, she purchased various "miracle drugs" from small pharmacies and traveling doctors at the steep price of one tael of silver per packet. Among them was the so-called Lushi Powder.
"Really expensive," Jingshan complained while organizing the samples she'd acquired. "Just the goods on this table would be enough to buy me. Jinghan told me that back in Shandong the prices were even lower—you could buy three or four girls for this much. All going cheap to these drug dealers."
"Alright, alright. You have to spend money to catch a wolf. Investigation requires expenses." Zheng Mingjiang took out a microscope and adjusted it. "I'll take you out to play in a couple days."
While peering through the eyepiece, she flipped through the abridged edition of Traditional Chinese Medicine Identification Studies approved by Truth Publishing House. This was her blind spot. Through the eyepiece she observed rows of relatively wide cork layer cells on the cortex, individual and clustered stone cells, bundled pericyclic fibers, and vascular bundles. Typical coptis, certainly. Besides that, there was a relatively pure powder dyed yellow—obviously the crystalline product of Lingao industry. Unfortunately, chemical analysis couldn't be performed in Guangzhou, so the exact components remained undetermined for now.
Zheng Mingjiang sequentially observed and identified the dozen-plus packets of "miracle drugs" Jingshan had purchased. She found that the additives besides coptis also included other traditional medicine ingredients, varying by packaging and brand. But regardless of what packaging, brand, or name was used, all contained some form of chemically synthesized powder.
As she had expected, these people had apparently mixed antibiotics with powdered traditional Chinese medicines to create so-called "miracle drugs," selling them at high prices for enormous profits. This scheme could be considered the ancestor of counterfeit drug manufacturing in the old timeline.
She found Lin Motian and had him bring over an experienced pharmacist from Runshi Hall's Guangzhou branch to identify the traditional medicine ingredients in the various Lushi Powder samples by smell.
After the old pharmacist's careful identification, these "miracle drugs" proved to contain anywhere from one to five or six traditional medicine ingredients. Besides coptis, there were tian qi, ox gallstone, snake gallbladder, and similar substances.
Though Zheng Mingjiang didn't understand traditional Chinese pharmacology, she roughly knew these drugs all served to clear heat and detoxify, disperse blood stasis and stop bleeding, reduce swelling and relieve pain in traditional practice—each possessing some anti-infection capability. Mixed together, they could indeed produce tangible effects. It wasn't completely fake.
(End of Chapter)