William Clark helped this person by giving them some Huoxiang Zhengqi water to take away, secretly wondering what was going on today. In the past, he wouldn’t see even a single patient in three or four days, but today, in less than two hours at work, he had already seen seven or eight people. The symptoms were all similar—basically all heatstroke, and most of them were from out of town.

William Clark was still pondering what was happening when the door was pushed open, interrupting his daze.

“Xiao Xiao, get me some Huoxiang Zhengqi water, I think I’ve got a bit of heatstroke.” William Clark looked up and saw it was Old Harris, who ran a stall on the first floor. He handed him the medicine and curiously asked, “Uncle Wang, what’s going on today? Why are there so many cases of heatstroke? The weather isn’t even that hot right now!”

“You don’t know, Xiao Xiao?” Old Harris was taken aback by William Clark’s question.

“Know what? I haven’t been at work these past two days,” William Clark replied, looking confused.

“No wonder! You haven’t been at work. There’s been a buzz for days now—CCTV’s ‘Treasure Hunt’ program ‘Into the Deep Sea’ is being held at our Antique City. There’s a free appraisal event this afternoon, and all the experts coming are nationally renowned. There’s ‘Teacher Harris’, ‘Teacher Carter’, ‘Teacher White’, ‘Teacher King’, and ‘Teacher Mason’ all helping with free appraisals! Out on the plaza in front of our entrance, people have been lining up under the sun for ages. No wonder they’re getting heatstroke!” As Old Harris mentioned those experts, he looked proud, as if he had some connection to them.

“Alright, I won’t chat with you anymore, I have to hurry over. Little Bear is holding my place in line! I’ve got quite a few good items waiting to be appraised. Once I get the certificates after the appraisal, the value of my stuff will skyrocket!” With that, he walked out, looking excited.

William Clark had watched quite a few episodes of CCTV’s Treasure Hunt. He never really understood how the antiques were appraised, but when he saw a piece of jade worth tens of millions, he couldn’t help but feel envious and once fantasized about owning one himself. Because of this, William Clark even went to Antique City and spent a few hundred yuan on a piece, only to have Brian Cooper take one look and tell him it was a fake made of glass. William Clark was so frustrated that he never bought antiques again.

After that, although William Clark still watched the Treasure Hunt program, his focus was no longer on the antiques, but on the experts’ erudition and humor—especially ‘Teacher Mason’, ‘Teacher Carter’, and ‘Teacher White’, who were the standouts. As nationally renowned experts, they didn’t put on airs at all and would patiently guide people on how to avoid being fooled in the future.

At this moment, William Clark suddenly thought of the box he had bought that held brushes, books, and a wooden sword. These past two days, while at home with nothing to do, he had used his Life and Death Eye, and once, by chance, he noticed that box. The box was very strange—by rights, something hundreds of years old should have long since lost all its lifeforce, but William Clark found that the box would only emit a trace of dead energy after a long while. At the rate this box was leaking dead energy, it wouldn’t be depleted in hundreds, even thousands or tens of thousands of years. This odd phenomenon left William Clark completely baffled.

Over the past couple of days, William Clark had looked up a lot of information at home, but still didn’t know what kind of wood it was made from. Coincidentally, with so many famous experts here for Treasure Hunt today, maybe he could ask one of them to take a look?

“Haha, William Clark, let’s go! Today, ‘Treasure Hunt: Into the Deep Sea’ is being held at our Antique City. I’ve got a few treasures for the experts to check out too. Come with me later!” Brian Cooper burst in like a whirlwind, speaking excitedly.

“Brian, I can’t today. There are too many patients, I don’t think I’ll be able to go,” William Clark said helplessly, spreading his hands.

“Let’s go—”

“Xiao Xiao, tidy up, we’ll be making a house call soon. Make sure to do well. Damn it!” Just as Brian Cooper was about to speak, the new manager of Antique City, Emily Foster, stormed in angrily.

“Oh! Manager Foster, what’s wrong? Who’s upset you so much?” Before William Clark could say anything, Brian Cooper crossed his arms and spoke with a teasing look.

Hearing someone speak, Emily Foster realized there were others in the room. Turning his head, he saw Brian Cooper. Emily Foster knew Brian Cooper’s father—they’d met a few times, but they weren’t on the same level. Brian Cooper’s father was a well-known figure in Deep Sea’s business world, while he himself was just a manager working for someone else.

“Young Master Cooper, you’re here too! Don’t even mention it, it’s all because of that bastard Chris Brooks. Relying on his brother-in-law who works in the government, he’s always making things difficult for me. He says I set up the clinic just for show and hired some quack doctor to fool people. He doesn’t care about the company’s money—damn it, he just wants to be the general manager himself.” Seeing Brian Cooper, Emily Foster reined in his anger and explained.

“Yeah, and yesterday, an expert from Beijing got sick. He was on an IV all night at the hospital and still didn’t get better. Just now, they brought it up again in front of the experts. I want William Clark to take a look…” Emily Foster sighed, looking helplessly at William Clark. From his expression, it was clear he didn’t have much faith in William Clark. After all, the clinic was set up just for show, and all he knew about William Clark was what Brian Cooper had told him—that he graduated from Deep Sea Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital. He didn’t know anything else. Back then, he just wanted the hospital’s name; he hadn’t considered medical skills at all.

“Let’s go, General Manager Foster, we’ll go take a look together,” William Clark said confidently, waving to stop Brian Cooper from speaking.

Chapter 9 Director Howard