章 266: Business Expansion
When Doctor Leah heard about their encounter with Tiger and Des's promise to repay him double, Des saw the kind doctor become angry for the first time.
"What were you thinking?! Stupid boy! Do you even understand what you have done? You actually agreed to repay Tiger with 100% interest for no good reason!"
Des was surprised by Doctor Leah's sudden outburst, he had never seen the soft-spoken man act like this before now! Seeing Des's shocked expression, Doctor Leah sighed and rubbed his head. He tried to calm himself down, but his frustration was still evident in his tone.
"Sigh…you made a mistake, and we need to fix it." Leah sighed, shaking his head.
Originally, Tiger leant Des 15,000 Origin Berries. He would need to start repaying this with 10% interest once he turned 15, the age of adulthood in the village.
In Namuh Village, 'Origin Berries' were used as currency. These bright red berries were used by hunters during their training, allowing them to recover from their fatigue rapidly…training with the assistance of Origin Berries also allowed the hunters to gain strength far surpassing ordinary people!
A single Origin Berry was already very valuable. One Origin Berry could buy you up to five pounds of meat, depending on the animal and the cut. Naturally, this could not be used as the lowest denomination of currency, so the village used its own metal currency for lower value transactions.
If Des really payed Tiger back double, that meant 30,000 Origin Berries…
The entire hospital building, along with all of their equipment and supplies, was probably worth 10,000 Origin Berries! Their yearly expenses were actually far more than this, but it remained a fact that 30,000 Origin Berries was an enormous sum of money.
Even if he worked tirelessly for decades, how could Des possibly repay such a huge debt?!
"I haven't made a mistake…uncle."
Leah was about to respond, but suddenly froze. He stared at Des with wide eyes, whilst Des scratched his head, feeling a bit embarrassed to finally address this man as 'uncle' for the first time.
Calling someone 'uncle' or 'auntie' in this village was like acknowledging them as your second mother or father.
Des knew that both Leah and Cujie wanted a child of their own, but they were unable to conceive. They had considered adopting, but there were no kids to adopt. They also felt uncertain…would they be able to provide an adopted child with the parental love that every child deserved?
As for Des, he didn't feel comfortable with calling anyone his mother or father when he had no idea whether his birth parents were still alive.
However, he had been healed, supported and even taught by this couple. At this point, he was clearly not just another patient. After all, would a doctor become so angry when a mere patient made a poor financial decision for themselves?
Des realised that Leah's anger was born from his love and worry. Doctor Leah cared about Des so much that he lost control over his emotions when Des did something that he deemed stupid and dangerous. After understanding this, Des finally decided to call the kind doctor 'uncle'.
Well, he had also called Cujie 'auntie' just a few minutes ago.
Seeing her husband's shock, Cujie covered her mouth and hid her laugh. She was also taken by surprise earlier when Des called her 'auntie' for the first time, seemingly out of the blue. But she finally realised that Des really did consider her, and her husband, to be family. This realisation made her feel a tremendous sense of joy, to the extent that she would hug Des right now, were it not for the fact that he was being reprimanded.
They were not a typical family…but they were family. They were the sort of family that were originally strangers, but ended up bonding with one another over their shared difficulties.
Leah was stunned for a moment, and he even smiled despite himself, but he quickly shook his head and looked at Des sternly.
"Des, you need to take this seriously!"
"But I am, uncle." Des smiled. "Is it not true that the hospital is struggling? Is it not true that Tiger's money could completely turn this business around?"
Doctor Leah paused and frowned. He slowly nodded, but he still didn't approve of Des's decision.
"That money was intended for your treatment. Now that you no longer need medical care, you should save the money and use it to start repaying Tiger once you become an adult."
"That's just delaying the problem, it's not a solution." Des shook his head. "Regardless, I need to earn more money than I have right now in order to pay this debt back, right? And now, we have the capital to invest, as well as another three years until I need to start repaying anything."
"I see…I understand now why you want to hold onto the money. However, you promised to pay Tiger back double, that was completely unnecessary!" Leah sighed, rubbing his forehead again.
Des blinked, feeling like this point should be obvious.
"I want to repay Tiger for his kindness. He helped me in my time of need…I just want to repay the favour two fold. At the same time, I can finally repay the two of you…I know that you've been undercharging me for just about everything."
Leah and Cujie shared a wry smile. They thought that they had been quite subtle, but this kid was just too observant!
Nobody could remain angry at Des, not when his heart was filled with so much gratitude and appreciation. He was really doing all of this for others, to repay them for the kindness they had shown him. At this point, he had already made his promise to Tiger, and nobody could change Des's mind. In the end, Leah and Cujie could only accept Des's decision.
Unknowingly, he had already been accepted into this family. For the first time in the past few years, the hospital household was filled with a certain warmth.
And so, the work began.
Despite Des possessing no memories of his life prior to Namuh Village, he seemed to have a very firm understanding of economics, as well as the human heart, and how these two concepts could be combined to create a thriving business.
Yaan had experienced business on all sorts of levels throughout his life as a cultivator. He once worked in the underground corpse trade. He had also been involved with the development of a vast empire. During his time on the Blood Plane, he engaged in countless trades and established many economic arrangements between different tribes.
Of course, Des could not remember any of these experiences. Even so, his intuition for business remained intact. These things felt like common sense to him, so when he realised that most of the people around him were completely clueless when it came to managing a business, his jaw actually dropped.
In the end, Des convinced Leah to let him go through their finances properly. The problems were numerous and blindingly obvious to Des.
Firstly, if they just reduced the spacing between the four hospital beds, they could easily fit another two beds in the hospital's main hall!
Leah protested, saying that his patients these days were very affluent, they valued their own space and privacy.
"Then why not expand?" Des asked curiously.
"Land is far too expensive, Des. Renting our land costs 500 Origin Berries per month. I know that sounds like a lot, but it costs 200 months of rent to buy a piece of land, we simply can't afford it."
Des stared at Leah with wide eyes.
"But isn't this land the part of Namuh Plains with the worst fertility? How much does it cost to rent an entire farmland?!"
Leah sighed and shook his head.
"The price is because of the location. We're right outside of Namuh Market, of course the land is expensive here. Once you step over that border and enter Namuh Market, the price instantly doubles."
Des pressed his face down into his palm. As he looked up, he said:
"Each store in Namuh Market occupies very little land, the buildings are tall and thin to avoid the high land cost. But here, we live in a bungalow, and we even have a nice garden!"
"I know it's expensive here, but my family has lived here for generations, ever since the village was first established…" Doctor Leah said with a sigh. "It was my father's dream that one day, we would be able to own this land, and I…I just can't give up on that…"
Since Leah was emotionally attached to this place, Des didn't want to suggest moving to a cheaper area, even if it made more sense financially. Instead, he brought up their best choice for expansion; building a second floor.
Previously, doing this would have been impossible. Leah and Cujie did not have much disposable income, despite their extremely high expenditure. All of their money was always invested in keeping the hospital running…until now. Now, they had Tiger's loan, meaning that Des's idea was actually possible!
And so, they set about expanding.
With Leah by his side, Des finally visited Namuh Common. Although he couldn't see much, he could hear people coming and going, it was clearly a more bustling region compared to Namuh Plains. Well, this was the village region with the highest population after all.
They visited the village's lumber mill, the place where felled trees were processed, before the wood was sold to various businesses and individuals. They were aiming to hire the lumber workers directly from the mill, as this would reduce costs.
After some back and forth conversation, they hired a group of six men who were skilled in building wooden buildings. One of the workers had experience when it came to designing building structures, so it seemed that they were in safe hands.
After a few days of planning, they were ready to begin.
Des insisted on getting things done quickly, even if it cost slightly more to do so. To achieve this, he provided the workers with incentives to work diligently and efficiently.
After each receiving an Origin Berry before they even started working, the workers trusted that Leah would indeed pay up. After this, they were not paid in daily wages, but instead, they were paid whenever they reached certain stages in the upper floor's development.
After ensuring that the workers were doing their jobs properly, Des returned to help out in the hospital. Between the three of them, Des, Leah and Cujie, they struggled to juggle the hospital's usual work alongside their management of the builders.
Of course, this couldn't go on; they needed more workers.
"One doctor is fine for now. But we need to split the tasks properly. Everyone is doing a bit of everything, that's simply not right. Uncle, you should be handling all examinations and writing prescriptions, but that's it. Currently, you're splitting your time by making your own medicines…so, we need an alchemist."
Des was about to go on, but at this point, Cujie patted his shoulder with a smile.
"Des, how about you take on that role?"
"Huh?" Des blinked in surprise, then frowned and shook his head. "I know nothing about making medicines though…"
"But you're excellent at identifying different herbs, right? You can tell the majority of them by smell alone! And I know you can't see, but isn't this the sort of process that you'll be able to visualise in your mind after doing it a few times?"
Des agreed with Cujie's suggestion. He actually wanted to become a doctor like Leah, but learning more about medicines would be very useful too.
The builders continued to work on the hospital's upper floor.
After the upper floor of the hospital was complete, there was a total rearrangement throughout the building.
The basement was still used to store various materials, medicines and pieces of equipment.
Now, on the ground floor, there were six beds, whilst the cost of each bed had reduced significantly. As before, an office and consultation room was attached to the ground floor's hall.
The upper floor was split into two sections. One section could be accessed from the floor below via a stairwell. This section contained three individual rooms, intended for affluent patients. The other section could only be accessed via a newly built stairwell from outside. This section was segregated from the rest of the hospital because it was the newly established dwelling for patients with infectious diseases.
Many people avoided visiting the hospital because they feared picking up an infectious disease. With this new arrangement, the risk would be drastically lowered.
With the hospital's refurbishment completed, Des decided to take Cujie's advice, devoting himself to the study of alchemy.
This was not the alchemy known to cultivators, but mortal medicine production.
Des couldn't read the books, but Cujie was happy to help him, reading through these books in her free time. She often watched Des in wonder as he nodded along, almost always managing to memorise and understand at least half of the recipe after hearing it just once.
Des wasn't coming from a place of complete ignorance, after all, he had been helping out around the hospital for a while now. Doctor Leah had been steadily teaching him, and although there were some things that Des could not do due to his blindness, he was becoming surprisingly competent as a doctor's assistant. With this medical knowledge to support him, he found the study of alchemy to be quite simple.
Gradually, Des started to learn. By the time he finally decided to take a break from alchemy, he was stunned by what had become of his home.
The upper floor of the hospital was to be expected…
But the upper floor above their home was not!
Without telling him, Leah and Cujie decided between themselves that it was time to finally give Des his own bedroom!
Des felt a cosy warmth in his heart. A feeling of determination came over him…he would absolutely repay these people for all they had done for him! He would make his auntie and uncle rich, helping them to finally buy this land which they loved so dearly. Of course, he hadn't forgotten about his debt to Tiger, but Des felt confident that he would be able to repay everyone in time.
The future was looking good.
Months flew by.
Des found himself lost in various tasks. He regularly explored new places across the village, meeting different people and building strong connections.
By the time he had been living in Namuh Village for a full year, Des had fully integrated himself into the community.
His name had spread across the village by now; after all, it was rumoured that Des was the one responsible for transforming that small, struggling hospital, into a large, thriving business.
Des stared up at the building and nodded his head in satisfaction. He couldn't really see what it looked like, but at least he could tell that it was large.
After further adjustments, they managed to fit yet another two beds into the ground floor hall. With eight beds on that floor, the hospital became able to cater to as many people from the village at once as necessary. Not only that, but the cost of those ground floor beds was much lower compared to before, making medical care more affordable for the common people. As for those with more money, they were able to pay for their own room on the floor above.
"One year, and finally…I'm out of money." Des smiled. Honestly, it was amazing that he had developed the hospital to this extent with the limited funds he'd started with.
Today marked a big day. After a year of highly focussed and driven work…
He had nothing to do.
He was done!
The hospital had been transformed. He had also refined enough medicines to keep the place going for at least the next month.
There was no need to expand further, and besides, they didn't possess the capital to do so.
Des was 13 now, but he estimated that in just one more year, he would be able to save enough to repay Tiger all in one go.
He was confident that he could earn 30,000 Origin Berries by that time!
Why?
Because even though they had spent a lot to set all of this up, and even though their expenses had more than tripled, their profit margin had increased from tens of Origin Berries each month, to thousands of Origin Berries every month!
Des smiled as he walked around the hospital. He could not see the fruits of his labour, but at least he could hear the people inside. There were those who had been given jobs, and those who were finally able to afford medical treatment.
Des turned away from the hospital and made his way into town. He was now familiar with this place, it wasn't too large after all. After adjusting to the environment in the market, he didn't bump into people, despite his poor vision.
"Hey Des! How's the hospital going?"
"Everything is running smoothly, Rose. I'm glad to see that you're back on your feet again!"
"Oh you~ I know that you can't see a thing!"
"True, but you sound healthy to me." Des chuckled, looking towards the older woman called Rose, whom he had treated in the hospital using a specially made medicine not long ago.
Rose laughed and thanked him again before they went their separate ways.
As Des walked through the streets, he was greeted by people time and time again. He smiled and greeted everyone with a friendly and polite attitude, before eventually reaching the end of the street.
He stared forwards longingly, even though he couldn't see what lay beyond the Namuh Barracks border.
"Come on Des, you know we can't let you in…" One of the guards softly urged Des to turn back.
"I'm just looking is all, I won't make things difficult for you guys." Des shook his head, turning away and leaving.
"Thanks Des…and sorry…"
As Des walked away, feeling disappointed that he had failed to meet Flora yet again, the second guard suddenly called out to him.
"Hey Des, wait a second!"
"Hmm?" Des turned back with an inquiring expression.
"So, I heard a rumour…I'm not saying this is true, but…apparently, Flora tried to sneak out to see you some time ago, but she got caught. She was punished, Tiger said that she has to write out the entire volume 1 of 'Forest Gathering' by memory, without making a single error! But…I guess she didn't want to, because she snuck out again, getting caught immediately. Tiger was mad, he banned her from leaving the family manor until she memorised the first three volumes!"
Des stared at the guard blankly. Normally, he didn't believe in baseless rumours, but one year ago, he overheard Tiger threatening her with a very similar punishment!
This rumour…seemed quite credible.
That evening, Des went home and asked Cujie to read him the first volume of 'Forest Gathering'.
There were nine volumes to this book series. They were 250 page books which detailed all of the known plants that could be found throughout the forest which surrounded the village.
Memorising such a book to the finest detail seemed insane enough. But three such books? Was that even possible?
With a sigh, Des shook his head. He was sure that achieving such a thing would take a few years, right?
But maybe it wasn't as bad as he was imagining…would a father truly punish his daughter for multiple years in such a manner? It seemed unlikely. Des had met Tiger, he didn't take him for such a cruel man.
"Tiger wouldn't restrain her to their family manor for so long, but he might have forbidden her from leaving Namuh Barracks…" Des muttered, considering this with a frown.
He sat back and sighed.
"Tiger probably only values strong men like hunters, but…that isn't me. I can't even see properly, how would I even hunt?"
Cujie, who was still sat in the chair beside Des in their newly refurbished living room, smiled dotingly as she listened to his worries.
She knew that Des wanted to see Flora again. She thought that he must have fallen in love with the girl!
Des knew what she was thinking and smiled wryly. It wasn't like that, really…but he had tried to tell her that before, to no avail.
"I'm sure that in one year, when you repay Tiger with twice what he gave you back then, he will definitely acknowledge you, Des." Cujie comforted. Des turned towards the middle-aged woman and smiled.
"Thanks auntie, I hope so. We've only met twice, but we had such interesting conversations on both occasions…I can't wait to talk to her again."
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