"I'm familiar with Saluxing; I've already arranged a visit. Spiral Star will also be opening an embassy there soon," Jiang Ye said. "Why do you need to travel all the way to Spiral Star to buy medicine? As far as I know, Saluxing's medical standards are quite advanced, a system that grew out of wartime."
"Saluxing's medical standards are indeed quite advanced, but they have serious imbalances. Some illnesses are very treatable on Saluxing, like chemical warfare casualties, but many rare diseases are simply untreatable," Xiao Zhuo explained. "You might have heard about the war between Saluxing and the insectoids. During the war, many rare diseases emerged, affecting one in a million people."
"In peacetime, medical resources from different planets can support each other. For instance, if Saluxing can't perform a certain surgery, but a neighboring planet can, they could easily invite doctors from across planets. However, Saluxing has been in a state of war, and other planets' spacecraft dare not approach. This makes it difficult to borrow rare disease medical expertise from other planets."
"Moreover, Saluxing's focus has been on the war. In terms of healthcare, they only cater to the basic medical needs of the majority, completely disregarding the rare diseases of a very small number of people. They simply lack the energy and financial resources to attend to these individuals."
"Therefore, patients with rare diseases can only save themselves through specific methods, such as trying to concoct their own medicine or buying it on the black market," Xiao Zhuo said.
"So your job is to supply medicine to the black market?" Jiang Ye asked.
"Yes," Xiao Zhuo nodded. "Legally speaking, my work is illegal because I don't have a license to sell medicine, and often I'm smuggling drugs back to Saluxing, which involves tax evasion."
"But in reality, it's a gray area. As long as there are no major issues, Saluxing's police don't bother me. The police know that our work actually saves many patients with rare diseases. If they were to arrest people like me, it would mean leaving patients with rare diseases with no way to survive. So, the police turn a blind eye."
"How do you contact clients on the black market?" Jiang Ye asked.
"There's an online forum filled with patients suffering from rare diseases. It has special encryption methods. Most people trying to access the website will see an access failure message; you can only enter by logging into a specific encrypted window," Xiao Zhuo said. "The forum is a world of its own, with unimaginable people within it. For example, biologists, medical professors, leading pharmaceutical companies, alien pharmaceutical companies, and of course, patients from all walks of life."
"Under normal circumstances, pharmaceutical companies and medical professors don't say much on the forum. They simply collect data there. They use web crawlers and AI software to automatically analyze all the posts on the forum; they just need to keep their accounts active."
"Of course, there are exceptions. There's a virologist named Kang Bufan who received the provincial highest award. He's very active. He can understand the ingredients of many rare disease medications through reverse engineering. Then he guides patients on the forum to buy raw materials and concoct their own medicine according to his formulas."
"Quite a talent," Jiang Ye remarked. "Does he charge for it?"
"He charges, but very little. He mainly does it to help people," Xiao Zhuo said. "However, last year, this Brother Kang Bufan made a mistake with the formula ingredients once, resulting in two patients dying after taking the medicine. The police then took Kang Bufan away, and he was sentenced to many years."
"Do you post on the forum to contact buyers?" Jiang Ye asked.
"We don't post. Because police accounts occasionally infiltrate the forum. Although they are cleared out periodically, it's not entirely safe. We just keep an account active on the forum without any introductions," Xiao Zhuo said. "For clients to buy medicine from us, it's basically through referrals from acquaintances. Referrals are safer because very few people would report us."
"For example, if I sold medicine to Zhang San, and Zhang San knows other patients, he'll introduce them to me. They'll then search for my account on the forum, add me as a friend, and ask if I have any medicine for sale," Xiao Zhuo explained. "I won't answer their questions first. I'll ask them who introduced them. If they say Zhang San, and I recognize the name, then I'll continue the conversation. If I don't know them, I'll say I don't sell medicine."
"After you've made contact, how do you deliver the goods?" Jiang Ye asked.
"Cash on delivery. We have several fixed cities where we've arranged contacts. Patients need to travel to those cities to meet us. The entire meeting process is just like in the movies," Xiao Zhuo said.
"First, we tell the client to meet us at the north gate of the farmer's market. After the client drives there, they wait for ten minutes. If they get impatient, they call us, and we tell them to meet us at the braised chicken restaurant five kilometers away. The client drives to the braised chicken restaurant, and then we say, meet us at the People's Park ten kilometers away."
"The client drives to People's Park and might be very annoyed. They'll call us and yell, asking why we're playing games with them. Once they arrive at People's Park, we'll say, meet us at Xiangshan Restaurant."
"The client drives to Xiangshan Restaurant. Before they can even park, our person will suddenly open the rear car door and get in, startling them. At this point, they should understand that we've been watching them all along, checking if any other cars were following them."
"The person who gets in the car will explain. They'll apologize profusely, saying they don't want to go through all this trouble, but they have to be cautious in their line of work. Finally, we'll tell them to return to the original north gate of the farmer's market, and the medicine will be placed in a corner behind the north gate."
"Wow!" Jiang Ye exclaimed, surprised. "You have the potential to be secret agents."
"There's no other way; we're forced into it. We take counter-surveillance courses; we can tell if the police are following us," Xiao Zhuo said. "This isn't just necessary for transactions on Saluxing; sometimes when buying medicine on certain planets, there's similar pressure. This is because many planets prohibit the outflow of such drugs. Fortunately, Spiral Star has no such restrictions. I buy medicine here following all procedures, and I even get electronic invoices."
Jiang Ye smiled. "No need to explain. It's not a heinous crime. Even if you were buying it stealthily on Spiral Star, I wouldn't let the police arrest you. Our conversation today is completely private."
"I know you are a magnanimous leader who cares about the people. However, I have indeed not committed any crimes on Spiral Star," Xiao Zhuo also smiled. "This is a matter of 'oranges grown south of the Huai River are sweet, but north of it they are bitter.' I am a law-abiding citizen on Spiral Star."
The table was filled with knowing smiles, and the atmosphere became cheerful.
"How is your income from this job?" Jiang Ye asked.
"Last month, I earned about seven million. In the first ten days of this month, I've already earned six and a half million." Xiao Zhuo replied.
Everyone was stunned!
An aura of wealth erupted.
Everyone stared at Xiao Zhuo in shock, never expecting that someone who looked so ordinary would have such a high income.
"That's quite a lot. Your income... do you pay taxes on it?" Jiang Ye asked with a smile.