Chapter 201: The Ginseng

Yunice picked it up and glanced at it. “Is this ginseng?”

“Yeah,” Quinton said. “Ginseng helps with energy and vitality. I’ve always had a habit of drinking ginseng tea.”

Yunice fished out the ginseng and brought it close to her nose for a sniff. Quinton looked puzzled. “Something wrong?”

Then he shook his head, thinking it couldn’t be. “I’m in the pharmaceutical business myself. There’s no way I’d end up with fake medicine.”

“You usually drink ginseng that’s under six years old?” Yunice asked.

“Of course not,” Quinton denied. “This one’s a rare hundred-year-old root. If it weren’t for this recent diagnosis, I wouldn’t have had the heart to use it.”

“But this isn’t even six years old,” Yunice said. “Immature ginseng is considered hot in nature. Taking it directly like this is bound to cause inflammation.”

“So I’m just inflamed?”

“Even with cancer, there’s no way it jumps from early stage to advanced in just three days,” Yunice replied.

Hearing that, Quinton lit up and quickly asked for confirmation. “So what you’re saying is, my condition didn’t suddenly worsen—these symptoms were all caused by over-supplementation?”

Yunice didn’t answer directly. “Do you still have any of this ginseng left?”

“Yeah, of course!” Quinton immediately pulled a box of ginseng from the medicine cabinet.

Even before he opened the package, Yunice recognized it. “Wait, isn’t this one of the gifts you sent to the Saunders family?”

She remembered it clearly—among the ten gifts he had sent, the jade bracelet and the hundred-year-old ginseng had been the most valuable.

Quinton opened the wooden box. “Exactly. I couldn’t re-gift something like that after it had already been given. It felt like such a waste to just leave it sitting there, so I started brewing it for Arthur.”

Yunice got a bad feeling. Once the box was open, sure enough, there was a huge ginseng root.

Quinton said, “See? How could a six-year-old ginseng grow this big?”

The root was indeed massive, and every single tendril was secured with gold wire—perfectly arranged and visually impressive. The whole ginseng looked seamless, nothing like a small, immature six-year-old one.

Yunice reached out, snipped a tendril, and chewed it before spitting it out. Then she broke off another from the opposite side and tasted it again.

Quinton had no idea what she was doing, but Yunice declared with certainty, “This is a high-quality counterfeit—a spliced root.” Because it was pieced together, different sections of the root had wildly inconsistent medicinal properties. And since all the parts used were under six years old, the overall effect was heating in nature.

Quinton refused to believe it. “I got this through a reliable source, all tested. No way it’s fake. I’ve been in this business for years—my reputation counts for something.”

If a business partner handed him counterfeit medicine, that partner wouldn’t last long in the industry.

“It might not have been fake from the supplier,” Yunice said.

Quinton caught something in her tone. Sure enough, Yunice continued, “It’s possible someone swapped it out after testing.”

“I only handed it to the Saunders family; no one else touched it after that,” Quinton said.

That statement left little room for doubt. Yunice said nothing.

Quinton’s expression darkened. His voice grew cold. “They really dared to pull something like this. Looks like Chwen doesn’t take me seriously at all.” He looked like he was about to go confront Owen.

“Owen’s your brother, sure, but after everything he’s done to you…”

“This isn’t defending him; I just know the kind of person he is. He’s arrogant and pretentious, even if he wanted something, he wouldn’t stoop to stealing it.”

“And you suggest we have proof the ginseng was swapped. If you go straight to Owen, the real culprit will just sit back and enjoy the show.”

Yunice knew that family all too well. It wouldn’t take much to figure out who was behind this. She had better ways to make Elsie suffer.

Quinton waved her off. “It’s not that big a deal…”

Yunice’s expression turned cold. “This isn’t about a single root of ginseng. It’s time I fought back.”

She was going to make sure Elsie learned the hard way that taking what didn’t belong to you came with consequences.

Meanwhile, at the Saunders mansion, Giana stood outside Elsie’s room, holding a delicate box. A delivery had just come from Wyatt’s people. She knocked on the door. “Ms. Saunders…”

Grinning with smug satisfaction, Giana looked like a cat who’d stolen cream. Elsie sat at her vanity, trying on different pieces of jewelry, and replied offhandedly, “Put it there—I’ll take a look.”

It was her usual routine. Anytime a letter or gift arrived at the house, Giana would always bring it to her first for inspection.