Chapter 443 — The Experiment Fails

"A wish? Don't you want to eat shark meat?" Gu Mengyao had no idea what Shen Yushu was after, so she gave her a gentle nudge.

"Oh! Right, right—I want to eat shark meat!" Prompted by Gu Mengyao, Shen Yushu was so excited she danced on the spot. "I'm going to have Zhong Yongliang take me for shark meat!" "Zhong Yongliang? Taking you for shark meat?" Gu Mengyao was taken aback.

"Yes. Zhong Yongliang just asked me whether there was anything he could do to make it up to you, to put you in a better mood," Shen Yushu said.

"Don't go running to him. If you want shark meat, have Wei Zhao catch some for you." Gu Mengyao wanted nothing to do with Zhong Yongliang.

"Relax, Sister Yao Yao. It'll be me doing the talking to Zhong Yongliang either way; you won't be dragged into it." Shen Yushu had long since reduced this sort of maneuver to a fine art.

"Suit yourself." Gu Mengyao couldn't be bothered to interfere anymore; over the past three years Shen Yushu had pulled this kind of trick so often that Gu Mengyao had gone almost numb to it. Still, she couldn't help wondering: after being fooled so many times, how could Zhong Yongliang go on believing Shen Yushu?

For the last class of the morning, Zhong Yongliang simply didn't show up. He raced Gao Xiaofu over to the night-market street, bought two portions of fried mushrooms in a feverish hurry, then hurried back to school—and just before the noon break he set both portions down in front of Shen Yushu.

"Mm. Wait until I've finished eating before you talk to me—once it goes cold it won't be crispy anymore." Shen Yushu waved her hand, dismissing him.

Zhong Yongliang bowed and scraped his way back to his seat. He and Gao Xiaofu had bought a few steamed buns, but with so much weighing on his mind Zhong Yongliang had no appetite for much of anything.

At long last he saw Shen Yushu finish the fried mushrooms. Zhong Yongliang sprang to his feet and hurried after her. Shen Yushu was on her way to throw out the takeout box; seeing how impatiently he trailed along behind her, she snickered to herself.

To think there was still such a fool in the world—one who never had his fill of being swindled, and was in such a tearing hurry to come and be swindled all over again.

"I say, Little Liangzi, can't you leave me in peace for once? I'm only taking out the rubbish and you come tagging along..." Shen Yushu fixed him with a show of displeasure.

"Heh heh, Xiaoshu, aren't I in a hurry? Let me carry that for you!" So saying, Zhong Yongliang took the bundle of rubbish from her hands. "What did Yao Yao say?"

"She said yesterday's little episode was passable, but the pressure of studying has been too much lately and she wants to get out and have some fun. The school's summer camp isn't until May—she wants to go now!" Shen Yushu had long since prepared her excuse.

"Oh, going out to have fun? Fantastic!" Zhong Yongliang was ready to cry hooray. His dream had always been to go out with Gu Mengyao—to go on a date!

"What are you dreaming about? Sister Yao Yao would never go out alone with you. She isn't your girlfriend, is she?" Shen Yushu rolled her eyes at him in contempt.

Yet in Zhong Yongliang's ears this sounded like no disappointment at all; it only excited him. Shen Yushu had said she was not his girlfriend 'now'—which meant she might be later on? That Gu Mengyao still had feelings for him?

At the thought of this, Zhong Yongliang was overjoyed. "Xiaoshu, tell me—where does Mengyao want to go?"

"How about the beach? Organize a spring outing—have all the classmates in our class come along. Otherwise Sister Yao Yao will never go with you alone!" Shen Yushu said.

"Sure, no problem—it's just a spring outing, isn't it? I'll go organize it right now." With a goal before him, Zhong Yongliang nodded eagerly and scampered off, all smiles, to throw away Shen Yushu's rubbish.

Shen Yushu had Zhong Yongliang sorted out; humming a tune, she strolled back to the classroom.

What surprised Divine Doctor Kang's whole family was that this clinical trial had produced no effect whatsoever!

The entire family—including Divine Doctor Kang himself, who had taken the 'original' Life-Prolonging Detox Pill—felt nothing beyond nausea and diarrhea of varying degrees. Not a single sign of detoxification appeared!

No filth was expelled from their bodies; all the runs gave them was the cold sweat of near-collapse.

Propping his weakened frame upright in his study, Divine Doctor Kang had no choice but to call an emergency family meeting to get to the bottom of this!

"Zhaolong, where exactly did it go wrong? Why have none of us achieved any detoxification?" Divine Doctor Kang was baffled. Logically, even if the composition of the dog shit was off, he himself had eaten the genuine Life-Prolonging Detox Pill. Kang Zhaoming had eaten half of it and plainly felt the effects; he had eaten the other half—so how was he now in no different a state than all those who had eaten dog shit?

"I don't know either, Grandpa. By all rights the contents were dog shit, while you took the genuine Life-Prolonging Detox Pill—so how could it have no effect?" Kang Zhaolong replied, weak all over and dizzy in the head.

"Could it vary from person to person?" Divine Doctor Kang said, puzzled.

"No, Grandpa—this time it didn't work for me either—" Kang Zhaoming got no further before he clutched his stomach and shot to his feet: "I can't hold it—I'm going to crap my pants! I've got to get to the toilet!"

With that, Kang Zhaoming charged out of the study, farting all the way.

But nobody complained about the smell of his farts, for every single person sitting there had been farting up a storm all day long.

"Zhaoming is right—he felt nothing either. Could there have been some mistake in our experiment?" Divine Doctor Kang nodded and asked.

"Well, Grandpa, I've considered every possibility I can think of, and there's no explanation that fits." Kang Zhaolong shook his head. "Could it be that what Zhaoming ate before, and what you ate afterward, were different?" "Different? Weren't they two halves split from the same pill?" Divine Doctor Kang frowned.

"It's only a guess, and I don't have a shred of evidence for it—but looking at things closely now, I believe we've been on the wrong track all along," Kang Zhaolong said. "We were all swept away by our excitement and decided that the most unlikely thing was the likeliest one: that dog shit was the Life-Prolonging Detox Pill! But think about it—could it really be that simple?" "You mean to say the Life-Prolonging Detox Pill isn't dog shit?" Calming down now, Divine Doctor Kang had to admit Zhaolong had a point. A miracle drug like the Life-Prolonging Detox Pill, if it was nothing but dog shit, that would be far too simple, wouldn't it?

"Correct—this is only a guess. But I have two bold conjectures!" Kang Zhaolong held a doctorate, after all, and was the most highly educated of the Kang family; he analyzed matters with impressive, point-by-point logic.

"Let's hear them." Divine Doctor Kang motioned for him to go on.

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