“Do you know what you’ve put me through? I was already in despair after learning that I had lung cancer. I wanted to try some cheap medicine to save up some money, but this scammer of a pharmacist even exploited dying cancer patients like us! He sold me expired, fake medicine, and I suffered from a 40℃ fever!

“Look, it’s this pharmacy called Mercy Pharmacy, and the owner is Luke Zimmerman! You have to avoid this place!”

Peter’s choked-up complaints were incredibly persuasive. The comment section went wild.

[Holy crap, he even scammed a cancer patient’s money? He’s a monster!]

[My mother’s condition got worse after she bought special medicine from his pharmacy! Someone is finally exposing him!]

[I lost huge clumps of my hair ever since I took the special medicine from his pharmacy! It’s definitely fake!]

[I’ve heard of this pharmacy and thought that the owner was a good person. Bah!]

[Scammers should all just die!]

[Let’s all call the Drug Administration Bureau! We need to make sure scammers like him go out of business!]

The internet was filled with insults toward me and my pharmacy.

But I ignored them all. Instead, I frowned as I clicked on the two accounts that claimed to have suffered from side effects after taking the special medicine I sold.

I believed they were ghostwriters Peter hired to slander me, but upon going to their account page, I found them to be familiar clients.

The person who claimed that his mother’s condition worsened had been buying from me for two years.

Last year, his daughter fell sick, and he needed to pay thirty thousand dollars for her surgery. I pitied him for having such a hard life, so I had given him his supply of medicine for free that year.

At that time, he had bawled as he thanked me for saving his mother and daughter. He said that I was his benefactor and that he would repay me even if it meant he had to work like a slave for it.

Apparently, he was furnishing said repayment.

As for the second one, she was even more of a familiar face.

She was Ruth Queen, and last month, she had moved out of the dorm I provided for the pharmacy’s employees.

Half a year ago, Ruth did not have the money to pay her rent. Her landlord chased her out, causing her to become homeless.

I pitied her for being a single mother. She had to take care of her son, but she had also been afflicted with cancer. Her life was truly tough.

That was why I had let both her and her son live in the employees’ dorm for free.

Last month, she moved out of the dorm because her son was about to start school.

To think that they were all ungrateful pieces of trash who bit the hand that fed them!

I clenched my phone tightly and looked at my parents’ memorial photos. My heart stung in pain.

Five years ago, my father was diagnosed with late-stage lung cancer. He pitied me and would rather die than take the special medicine costing 38,000 dollars from the hospital.

To help him get better, I took every step I could, reached out to everyone I could, and finally established a direct import channel for a special medicine from overseas.

Hospitals sold it for 38,000 dollars, but I managed to get it for only five hundred.

As I saw other patients suffering from lung cancer but not having any money to buy their medicine, just like my father, my heart went out to them, and I sold them the special medicine at the original price.

More patients learned that they could buy cheap special medicine from my pharmacy, and they begged me to sell medicine for them.

When I saw them descending into despair and how their families were destroyed because of their illness, I found myself pitying them and agreed to sell them the medicine.

When my father passed away, I had wanted to put an end to my selling medicine to these people, since it was tough work and didn’t earn me any money, but upon learning that I wanted to stop, the patients wept and begged me to continue buying and selling medicine to them.

They treated me as their savior, and their eyes were full of pleading and gratitude when they looked at me.

Touched, I opened the pharmacy.

I wanted every patient, like my father, to be able to take the special medicine and not be tormented by pain and agony.

To think that my kindness had turned into a weapon they used to attack me!

While my thoughts wandered, my phone rang.

I had received a message. When I opened it, I found that it was a message from Peter.

[It doesn’t feel good to be insulted and betrayed, does it, Mr. Zimmerman? Are these ungrateful traitors really worth you insisting on selling the medicine for cheap? I suggest you think about working with my hospital.]

I stared at the phone. Before my rage and sorrow faded away, I suddenly heard loud knocking on my door.

I looked at the pharmacy’s pulled-down roller shutter.

After all, how could I still be in the mood to open my pharmacy for business when I had been insulted this way? I had closed down shop a long time ago.

Suddenly, Peter’s voice pierced through the thick roller shutter.

“You scammer, don’t just hide in there and stay silent! I know you’re in there! Come out here and solve this problem!”

With a scowl, I pulled up the roller shutter to argue with Peter, only to find patients surrounding the pharmacy.

They were not here to buy medicine. They were here to demand an explanation.

When they saw me, the TV news stations and reporters immediately shoved their microphones in my face while asking me all sorts of questions.

Very smugly, Peter stood at the front of the crowd. He looked like a general who was about to win a war.

Some returning clients who were once grateful to me and said that I saved their entire families were standing behind Peter and demanding explanations as well.

“Mr. Zimmerman, is your medicine really okay? My wife has been taking it for a long time, but it doesn’t seem to work.”

An old man who had been buying from me for three years had asked that question, but his eyes were shifty, and he did not dare to meet my gaze.

Peter immediately took over the conversation with a loud voice. “It doesn’t seem to work? That’s because it’s fake! How can it be effective?!

“I’m a real-life example! I took the medicine he sold, and I immediately suffered from high fever! That’s not special medicine! That’s poison!

“Luke Zimmerman, you must answer to this right now! We all trusted you, and you sold us fake medicine?!”

Their accusations pierced into my body like sharp arrows.

As I watched the formerly friendly faces warp into something even scarier than demons, I found my heart turning cold.

I sucked in a deep breath to squash down my anger and indignation.

“I contacted a legal drug manufacturing plant abroad to buy the medicine. On the boxes are traceability QR codes from the plant itself.

“They’re cheap because I practically didn’t increase the price!

“I just don’t want more people to end up like my father and end up dying in pain because they couldn’t afford medicine charged at exorbitant prices.”

When I said my final sentence, I was already choking up.

“A private hospital sent Peter over to ruin my reputation so that I won’t sell special medicine at an affordable price anymore. He wants all of you to buy their medicine for 38,000 dollars!”

The crowd exchanged glances and started doubting Peter.

But when Peter saw this, he swung his arms and shouted at the crowd, “Don’t listen to him, everyone! This scammer is slandering me! Don’t trust him!

“Make him give a full refund of all the medicine he sold, then pay all of you five thousand dollars as compensation, or we’re trashing his pharmacy today!”

His words caused the crowd to look at me with hate again.

Someone threw an egg from the crowd, and it hit my head.

Before I could react, they demanded that I refund them while they surged into the pharmacy and started trashing the place.

When I wanted to stop them, someone shoved me down.

Amid the chaos, someone kicked me.

I covered my head to avoid it getting attacked, but that meant that the rest of my body was open to burning pain.

While my guard was down, someone stomped on my fibula.

With a loud snap, my fibula snapped. The sharp pain caused me to cry out in pain.

But they did not seem satisfied. Peter stomped down on my other leg and said to the crowd, “People like him should be bound to a wheelchair forever and never stand up again! If he can’t move anymore, he won’t be able to hurt anyone!”

I tried to resist, but Peter still stomped down on my other leg.

The pain caused my mind to white out. Unable to bear with the pain, I fainted.

When I woke up next, I was in the hospital.

The people still surrounded my bed and demanded that I refund them while compensating each of them five thousand dollars. It only made me feel mentally exhausted.

So, I nodded and said calmly, “Fine. From now on, I’ll refund all the people who bought medicine from me before, according to the purchase records. But as for compensation, I will not offer any.”

With that said, I turned away and ignored all of them.

Once I left, I called the drug manufacturing plant, apologized to them, and told them that I did not want to buy any special medicine anymore.

The drug manufacturing plant manager was stunned for a moment before giving me a reminder. “Mr. Zimmerman, you signed a contract with us earlier than most. That’s why you were able to buy the medicine for cheap.

“Right now, this special medicine’s price has increased to an exorbitant amount. If you give up on buying from us, we will terminate your distributorship entirely. You won’t be able to buy the medicine for such a low price anymore.”

As I stared at my cast-covered legs, I said yes resolutely.

After I got slightly better, I started dealing with the refunds.

Some people came with a ton of empty boxes. Judging by the amount, they had bought all their medicine from me over the years.

I quietly refunded these people, just as I had promised.

When I refunded the last sum, I stared at my bank account. Most of my savings were gone at that point.

I sighed.

In the end, I pulled the roller shutter down over my pharmacy with my own two hands and put an end to this short-lived and ridiculous charity work.

Then, I wrote a note on a piece of paper.

[Mercy Pharmacy will be closing down temporarily for reorganization and will reopen in half a month. We welcome everyone to visit by then.]

Upon seeing the notice, the people started spreading the word.

“Look, that scammer is closing down for reorganization!”

“Justice has finally prevailed! It feels great!”

But some people thought that things were off.

“Is he really just reorganizing? He looks like he has shut down the business.”

“Stop guessing. He must have been scared because of us and has admitted defeat. Once he reopens for business, we’ll go and cause a ruckus with Peter again to make him lower the price for the medicine even more!”

Peter grew even more smug.

He uploaded another short video on the short video platform and declared that he had led a group of cancer patients against a scammer and obtained complete victory.

For a time, everyone praised him for being a hero who cared about the people.

He received tons of praise. Some people even wanted to interview him.

As I saw how full of vigor Peter was as he spoke confidently, I just found the whole situation ironic.

I ignored them and just focused on getting my mini market ready for business.

It was actually easy to convert the pharmacy into a mini market. I just put all my remaining funds into renovating the pharmacy and installed standard market shelves before filling them with various daily necessities.

A month later, Daily Life Market was open for business.

The salesperson was my former pharmacist attendant.

Plenty of people visited the mini market, though most of them were just curious visitors.

A lot of them were residents living nearby and came to buy daily necessities.

The next afternoon, Peter brought a group of patients and their families who had finished their special medicine to my place. He strutted over like an arrogant peacock.

He was even saying smugly, “He must have learned his lesson when he reorganized his pharmacy and refunded all of you. Don’t worry, with me around, I’ll definitely make you buy the special medicine at an even cheaper price!”

With that said, he came in with the crowd to buy special medicine.