Early the next morning, just as Sophia was preparing to go out, she noticed Scott Livinus, dressed in a suit, adjusting his tie as he headed out the door.
He glanced at Sophia briefly, expressionless, before leaving.
Sophia took the opportunity to observe his leg.
As expected, Boss Scott’s recovery ability was impressive. Although his walking still looked a bit strange, it was hardly noticeable, almost as if he was fully healed.
In the car.
The driver asked with concern, “Mr. Scott, is your leg better now?”
Scott paused briefly, gave a short nod, and replied in a deep tone, “It’s fine.”
The driver chuckled, “I can smell a medicinal ointment on you. Are you using some herbal patch? It’s amazing! Yesterday, you were still walking awkwardly, but now you seem much better.”
Livinus was silent for a moment. What the driver said was true. After applying the medicinal patch yesterday, he felt a lot better—nowhere near as painful as when he was first injured. While the wound hadn’t fully healed, using the patch last night and this morning had significantly reduced the discomfort. The effects were truly remarkable.
Thinking about it, he had to admit that Sophia’s medical skills were indeed impressive.
“Mr. Scott?” The driver noticed him lost in thought and asked curiously.
Scott came back to his senses. “It’s nothing. Let’s go to the company!”
—
Recently, for their anniversary, Chloe was promoting herbal baths with a major sale, hoping to popularize the treatment.
Sophia had to prepare many herbal packs, adding different spices to create a variety of scents to meet everyone’s needs.
After delivering the packs to the salon, Sophia was about to head back to the clinic. Just as she arrived at the bus stop, she noticed an elderly woman getting off a bus, carrying a black plastic bag. Sophia watched her for a moment as the woman walked away.
The elderly woman, carrying her bag, avoided the crowd as she made her way home.
“Ms. Mia, just finished work?”
“What did you buy today, Ms. Mia?”
“Where’s your husband? I didn’t see him exercising today.”
People in the neighborhood greeted her warmly.
The elderly woman smiled, “My husband had a fall and is in the hospital.”
“Oh dear! He should rest well. Was it serious?”
“Not too bad!”
After chatting for a bit, the elderly woman quickly moved away from the crowd, clutching the plastic bag protectively as she headed home.
At her door, she locked the door, took out a bottle from the plastic bag, and placed it on the table. She looked at the green glass bottle, sighed, and silently shed tears before opening the bottle, bringing it to her mouth, and taking a gulp.
As soon as she drank, the door burst open with a bang. There stood the property manager, a police officer, and a beautiful young woman.
Officer Mike stepped forward, snatched the bottle from her, and scolded, “Ms. Mia! Why are you being so reckless? If you’re going through something, you can talk to us. Why would you drink poison? And to think you’re a retired teacher!”
“That’s right!” The property manager added sadly, “Ms. Mia, you and Mr. Louis are both retired teachers, receiving over 10,000 a month in pensions. You’re financially secure. Look at your life; a few years ago, you even took care of your daughter’s child, who has turned out so well—gifted in music, chess, calligraphy, and painting, and went abroad to study in middle school. Who doesn’t envy you in our neighborhood? What could make you so distressed?”
Ms. Mia, in her sixties, wiped away her tears as she listened.
“Yes, everyone envies me, but I don’t deserve to be a teacher! I’ve spent my life teaching, only to be fooled in my old age, tricked into buying piles of health supplements. Look around my home! Health supplements are everywhere! They said these supplements could cure all illnesses and that I wouldn’t get sick if I took them. But when my husband fell, he ended up in the hospital. The doctor examined him and said his health was poor, lacking various nutrients. Those supplements did nothing! I was deceived!”
Hearing this, Officer Mike looked around the room. Indeed, as Ms. Mia described, health supplements filled every cabinet, with hundreds of bottles, and some varieties were bought in quantities of dozens. The place was filled with capsules and tablets.
“Ms. Mia, how long will it take you to finish all these supplements? They’ll expire before you can get through them all.”
Ms. Mia slapped her thigh and sobbed, “It’s all my fault for being so blind, tricked by those fraudsters! I’ve used up all my savings, and I can’t even afford my husband’s medical bills. I don’t dare tell my children because I’m afraid they’ll blame me. You all envy me, but what is there to envy? My son’s family is abroad, and my daughter serves the country. I barely see them once a year, and now even my grandchildren are overseas. I go all year without anyone to talk to. What am I living for?”
Everyone exchanged glances, speechless. They had all envied Ms. Mia for raising such successful children, not realizing she also carried such burdens.
Sophia felt a pang of sympathy, thinking of her grandfather and parents.
Since she had crossed over into this world, she had no idea how her family back there was doing, nor whether the original Sophia had gone to her world and taken care of her family.
Sophia opened a health supplement bottle, poured a few capsules into her hand, and sniffed them, frowning.
“What’s this?”
“Those are propolis capsules! They’re supposed to cure everything!”
Sophia sneered, “Cure everything? If three-dollar vitamin pills could cure everything, pharmacies would have gone out of business. How much did you pay for these?”
“999 for three boxes! Buy three, get one free. I bought over a dozen boxes.”
“…” Sophia took a deep breath, her anger boiling. Cheap vitamins sold for hundreds of dollars—no wonder the health supplement industry was so profitable!
The property manager and police arranged to take Ms. Mia to the hospital for a stomach wash, given she had just ingested a bit of poison.
Sophia glanced at S Ms. Mia’s face, then held her wrist to take her pulse.
After a moment, she picked up the green bottle, smelled it, and shook her head.
“No need for the hospital. This poison is fake.”
“Fake?” Ms. Mia eyes widened in anger. “That seller even sold me fake poison! I’m at my wit’s end, and they won’t even let me have that!”
