Chapter 30 Uncle Quan's Derring-Do

Naturally, the person picking fruits would hardly be able to escape the senses of the tiger when it lunged for the wildfowl. The man would also end up as a game of the tiger's conquest to quench its hunger. Then again, the director and the chief physician understand nothing of the underlying message behind Old Man Xie's parable; their dazed expressions fully conveying their perplexity, as if waiting for the old man to give them the answer to his riddle. Old Man Xie scowled at the two men, sighing with his ire in full display and grumbled. "You still don't understand, do you? You nerds... For all the books you've been poring over... The beefsteak plant is the wildfowl that I tossed in to trigger the patients' immune system to kick in. Moreover, beefsteak plants have a poison of their own, although the amount of toxin they contain is hardly lethal. Villagers these days neither plant beefsteak plants for food nor for chicken food but as natural pesticides. They ward off bugs and insects. The immune systems of the patients will begin working towards protecting the patients against the poison of the plant. But once the poison has been eliminated from the body, the immune system will, in turn, be dealing with the ancient bacteria which had similar properties to the poison." The two men remained motionless as they finally understood the entire method, fossilized in their seats at the truth of the timeworn bacteria from the ancient past. Realizing his cue to slip away, Old Man Xie lowered his glass and gestured for Lin Feng and me to leave. But we were still halfway into the meal, I grimaced, could we not wait till we were full? But the old man remarked to the two men, "I have revealed to you what you want to know. I'll take no more questions." With that, he turned and left, leaving Lin Feng and me scurrying in his wake after tossing down our chopsticks in dismay. The two men were still awe-struck at the table, their eyes locked against each other, the mental gymnastics of them trying to juggle what Old Man Xie had just said and the reality of him leaving still left them frozen. This was why Old Man Xie chose to hardly meet anyone. He just loved being stylish and showy, riding into the sunset like a hero after slaying a monster. This was also why he barely had any friends.