Pharmaceutical Negotiator - Chapter 5

The two of them went to two more pharmacies, and Zhang Sitan took two whole pages of notes.

They drove to the fourth pharmacy, and it was nearly eight o’clock; the sky was already half dark. On the streets, yellowed by the sunset, the streetlights flickered on with a whoosh, and one of them flashed a few times before going out again.

The pharmacy they entered, however, was livelier than the ones they had seen earlier. Several aunties and grandmas were sitting inside, bringing folding stools and chatting together.

The shopkeeper, a woman in her 40s, looked up when Zhang Sitan and the other entered and asked, “What medicine do you need?”

Zhang Sitan smiled at her and shook her head, “No medicine. We’re doing research, wanting to see the inventory of medicines in our pharmacy.”

The shopkeeper didn’t seem to understand much, told them to look around, and then turned back to chat with the aunties and grandmas.

Zhang Sitan was happy to be left alone and walked with Qi An to the shelves to list the medicines.

“Sister Sitan, why do we have to find these small pharmacies for our research?” Qi An asked, looking at Zhang Sitan, who was half-squatting by the shelf, recording the medicines.

It was already dark, and this place was far from the hotel. If they drove back, it would probably be past 11 o’clock.

Zhang Sitan paused, straightened up, and stretched her neck, “The small pharmacies in remote places have more accurate inventory. Plus, these types of pharmacies usually have a simpler stock source, so it’s quicker for us to check.”

Qi An nodded slightly, but still felt it was a little too late.

Zhang Sitan leaned one hand on the shelf and held the thick notebook in the other. As if she could read minds, she looked at Qi An, “Do you have other plans for tonight? You can go back first.”

Qi An did indeed have someone she was meeting that evening. Hearing Zhang Sitan say this, she didn’t mince words, “Isn’t it Rainbow Festival tonight? I… I have an event tonight.”

Zhang Sitan was visibly stunned, a trace of apologetic smile on her face, “Then you go back first. You can take the car; I’ll take a taxi.”

“No need, no need. Mine is a night event; there’s no rush. Let’s finish work first.” Qi An felt a sense of guilt, like clocking out early to slack off, seeing Zhang Sitan offer to let her go first. After all, during her time as an assistant, she hadn’t done much in the way of proper tasks, and the effective work time was only this afternoon.

Zhang Sitan smiled gently, stepped back a few paces, and quickly scanned the shelves, “There’s not much left. Let’s finish recording this shelf and head back.”

“Okay,” Qi An responded.

The aunties and grandmas had loud voices, with every tone of the Shandong dialect winding around, serving as a background sound that wasn’t noisy at all, only the closeness and human touch of the world.

A large, vertical lamp overhead cast light that made the pharmacy appear alternately bright and dim. Several rows of slightly yellowed shelves were like white keys on a piano, forming neat blocks of color.

Zhang Sitan suddenly sighed. After so many surveys, she could already detect problems with great sensitivity.

Atenolol, a very common beta blocker, can be bought in a large bottle for ten yuan on the market, and a quick search on Taobao yields a pile of results.

However, in these four pharmacies, Atenolol manufactured by Taeyong Pharmaceutical was heavily out of stock.

“That shouldn’t be right,” Zhang Sitan pursed her lips lightly again, her brows slightly furrowed.

Qi An saw Zhang Sitan frown and couldn’t help but lean closer, though she didn’t dare to ask anything, only staring and waiting for Zhang Sitan to instruct her.

Zhang Sitan saw Qi An leaning in close, her big eyes fixed on Zhang Sitan’s notebook. The small person seemed to have a ball of fire above her head, writing, “What is it? What is it?”

Zhang Sitan recovered her expression, a smile on her face, “Do you know Atenolol?”

“Huh?” Confusion flashed in Qi An’s eyes, and she quickly opened a webpage to search for what Atenolol was.

“A medicine to treat high blood pressure, angina pectoris…” Although she searched on Baidu, Qi An’s tone was still a little uncertain.

Zhang Sitan found Qi An’s cautious look amusing and didn’t intend to make it difficult for her, “Hmm, that’s the main function.”

“Atenolol’s main role is to increase blood supply and cardiac output. Its value is not significant, but not insignificant either. The key lies in its difficulty in definition.”

“Difficulty in definition,” Qi An repeated softly, a little confused.

Zhang Sitan was also very patient. She stood with her hands down, the notebook clasped by her hand.

“In medicine, many values are only given as a range, so there are many ambiguities in aspects like medication, dosage, and so on.”

“Atenolol’s function is to increase blood supply, but how much is supplied varies from person to person. This kind of ambiguous value is actually very dangerous.”

Qi An tilted her head, watching Zhang Sitan with wide, unblinking eyes.

“Cardiac output is the amount of blood pumped out by the heart with each contraction. For adults, it’s generally between $60 { mL}and $70 { mL}. But even below $60 or up to $80 cannot be called abnormal, but this kind of not completely accurate value will actually greatly affect the efficacy of the medication.”

Saying this, Zhang Sitan chuckled, feeling that she had made the atmosphere too serious. She looked at Qi An, “What is your heart rate?”

“Nine… Ninety.”

Zhang Sitan smiled almost imperceptibly, unable to resist teasing her, “Maybe more than that, though.”

Before Qi An could react, Zhang Sitan walked towards the shopkeeper, her voice still habitually gentle, “Auntie, do you have a stethoscope in the shop that I could use?”

The shopkeeper was also enthusiastic and felt that Zhang Sitan had a good attitude, so she generously took a stethoscope from the counter for Zhang Sitan, “Just take it and use it.”

Zhang Sitan thanked her, took the stethoscope, put the earpieces in her ears, gently tapped the diaphragm with her hand, and raised an eyebrow at Qi An, signaling her to come closer.

Qi An, dazed, moved closer. Zhang Sitan placed the stethoscope head on Qi An’s chest, looking down at the timer on her phone, very seriously counting Qi An’s heartbeats.

Qi An was wearing thin clothes, and she could clearly feel the cold, smooth touch on her chest, causing her to shiver slightly.

She looked at Zhang Sitan. Zhang Sitan had her hair in a ponytail, the hair smoothly hanging down, with a few strands tucked behind her ear. At this moment, she was concentrating on listening to her heartbeat. Qi An suddenly felt her mouth dry, and a tickle in her heart.

“Sister Sitan…” Qi An felt her heart rate was about to explode even without Zhang Sitan counting.

Sure enough, Zhang Sitan suddenly looked up, a little surprised in her eyes, “Your heart rate is up to 120!”

Qi An turned her head away, trying to keep her expression natural, “Ah… Ah?”

“Pfft.” Zhang Sitan chuckled, putting away the stethoscope, clearly accustomed to Qi An’s “ah-ing” way of speaking.

Zhang Sitan straightened up, “So, whether it’s a person’s heart rate or cardiac output, it’s just a rough range. In most cases, falling below or exceeding this range is normal.”

However, why such a common medicine like Atenolol was out of stock, whether Taiyong Group was aware of this, and if it was related to the lack of news about the red pill since the press conference… Zhang Sitan put a question mark in her heart and did not continue the topic.

“Shall we go?”

“Ah, not checking anymore?” Qi An stared with wide eyes as Zhang Sitan put the notebook into her large shoulder bag.

“Hmm,” Zhang Sitan’s tone was light. She greeted the shopkeeper and went out.

Qi An followed behind her, feeling that Zhang Sitan’s mood was a little low. Having spent time with Zhang Sitan these past few days, she felt that Zhang Sitan was the kind of person who could handle things well internally, with her emotions not showing much outwardly.

This was the first time she could distinctly feel that Zhang Sitan was a little down.

If a medicine is widely out of stock, either a certain disease has suddenly broken out in society, increasing the demand for the medicine, or… someone is doing it deliberately.

Zhang Sitan recalled many years ago when her mother had cancer. At that time, the hospital also said that the intravenous targeted drug was out of stock, and the entire hospital couldn’t get it. At that time, she didn’t understand, didn’t know that the country actually had reserves of this kind of medicine upon application.

Not being able to afford it is one thing; not being qualified to take it is another.

Zhang Sitan sighed inwardly, looking at the completely dark sky outside. There were a few scattered stars in the sky, and the wind swirled and swayed.

Once in the car, Zhang Sitan’s mood gradually calmed down. She rolled down the window, feeling the slightly humid wind outside.

“Find a good place for me to get a taxi, and you can just go.”

Qi An looked at Zhang Sitan through the rear-view mirror. She didn’t know if it was psychological, but she always felt that Zhang Sitan was not in high spirits today, even her makeup seemed a shade dimmer, like crushed diamonds.

“Sister Sitan, if you don’t mind, why don’t you come with me to the event? I participated in this kind of activity once in college, and it’s quite fun and meaningful.” Qi An tried to phrase her words neatly, afraid that Zhang Sitan would refuse, and also afraid of upsetting Zhang Sitan.

Zhang Sitan looked at Qi An through the rear view mirror, her eyes still curved in a smile, “Young people like you are eating together. What would I go for?”

“There will be a lot of people; everyone arranged it online. Come and have some fun; it’ll be a chance to relax.” Qi An was still persistent and wanted to persuade her a bit more.

A smile finally reached the corners of Zhang Sitan’s eyes. She muttered to herself whether it would be awkward for her to go to a lesbian gathering, “Is it appropriate for me to go?”

“What’s inappropriate about it? It’s really fun; you’ll know once you go.” Qi An didn’t understand Zhang Sitan’s concerns.

“Hahaha, alright.” Zhang Sitan didn’t push back anymore and also felt that she had been too tense lately and should relax appropriately.

The car soon arrived at the entrance of a vegetable market. From afar, Zhang Sitan saw about a dozen people gathered, all girls, forming a long shadow under the streetlights.

There were almost no people in the vegetable market at this hour, and the streetlights cast a long beam of light. Zhang Sitan had thought they would be in all sorts of strange outfits, like carrying a large rainbow flag or wearing something very sexy and cool with large glitter eyeshadow.

But in reality, they were dressed very ordinarily, like passersby who had come out for a walk after dinner, only accessorized with a rainbow-colored hat or, like Qi An, wearing a pair of rainbow-colored socks.

As soon as Qi An got out of the car, a tall, thin girl from the crowd walked over to greet her, seemingly already acquainted, “An’an, you’re late! We’ve already divided the tasks.”

Qi An grinned broadly, “This is Zhang Sitan, Sister Sitan.” Then she looked at Zhang Sitan, “This is my best friend, Lu Youran.”

Zhang Sitan nodded and smiled at her. Before she could speak, she saw Lu Youran’s mouth form an “O” shape, and she exclaimed to Qi An, “She is also…”

Qi An cut her off, “Also what? Don’t talk nonsense!”

Zhang Sitan could guess what was after Lu Youran’s “She is also…” and didn’t feel uncomfortable, just a little awkward, feeling like she had intruded into a circle she shouldn’t be in.

However, her attention was soon diverted. Some people in the crowd began handing out large plastic bags, rainbow-colored ones, which must have been custom made.

When they got to Qi An, Lu Youran took three directly, one for Qi An, one for Zhang Sitan, “Stalls 13 to 47 are ours.”

Qi An nodded and explained to Zhang Sitan, “Our activity tonight is to pick up trash in the vegetable market. Everyone has a division of labor. We are responsible for stalls 13 to 47.”

Zhang Sitan was momentarily stunned, not expecting the activity Qi An spoke of to be picking up trash.

The group entered the vegetable market. Walking inside, they could see a row of cement built platforms with numbers marked in red paint at the front.

Lu Youran led the two of them to stall number 13, “I’ll take the front, Qi An will take the middle, and Sister Sitan will take the back, how about that?”

Both of them agreed, taking their plastic bags and starting to pick up the trash around the stalls.

Zhang Sitan quickly filled a large bag. With the action of picking up trash, she bent down and stood up repeatedly, working up a light sweat on her body, which felt a little sticky but also invigorating.

Coming to the middle of the line, she saw Qi An also busy with her head down, and a smile appeared on Zhang Sitan’s face.

“How is it, Sister Sitan, isn’t it very stress relieving?” Qi An saw Zhang Sitan coming over, straightened up, and smiled at Zhang Sitan.

“This is your Rainbow Group’s activity? It’s quite creative.”

“Right? I think so too. It promotes bonding and also does something meaningful.” Qi An’s eyes flickered brightly, thinking that Zhang Sitan calling them the Rainbow Group was quite fitting.

Zhang Sitan leaned against the platform, supporting herself with her hand, and pursed her lips lightly, “It’s a bit of a subversion of my usual impression of homosexuals.”

“Ah? Sister Sitan, what is your usual impression of homosexuals?”

“Just…” Zhang Sitan couldn’t answer and slightly tilted her head, “Just stereotypes, I guess.”

“Sister Sitan.” Qi An suddenly leaned closer, “I’ve noticed you have a habitual gesture, which is subconsciously pursing your lips.”

“Hmm, that’s true. But it’s not very noticeable, is it?” Zhang Sitan asked.

“Not noticeable. Your lips are thin.” Qi An paused, turning her head away, no longer looking at Zhang Sitan’s face. “It’s quite sexy.”

Zhang Sitan’s pupils widened slightly. She looked at the rainbow-colored bag in Qi An’s hand. The bag was bulging, filled with plastic bottles and cabbage cores.

She tapped Qi An’s head with her hand, “You’re quite colorful too.”

“What? What kind of adjective is that?” Qi An stared directly at Zhang Sitan.

Zhang Sitan didn’t answer, walked forward with her bag, and handed it to Lu Youran. Qi An quickly followed behind her and also handed her bag to Lu Youran.