"Are you really going to sell the trademark and the patent on the manufacturing process of 'heroin' to those European vampires?" Joshua had just boarded the carriage, and Scrooge and Dorothea had just lowered their arms, which were still waving reluctantly, when a courteous smile disappeared from Dorothea's pretty face, and a layer of frost covered her face almost instantly.

"Don't have faith in me?" Scrooge smiled and shook Dorothea's hand and said, "When did you see me doing something stupid while I was doing business?" ”

But this explanation did not satisfy Dorothea, on the contrary, she became more and more resentful. Dorothea snorted heavily, shook off Scrooge's hand, and walked straight away.

"This woman, what's wrong today?" Scrooge shook his head a little incomprehensibly, and turned around and walked towards the inside of Duck Castle. At this time, Dena was running panting from the front with Donald, and Anna was following behind.

"Don't run around with your brother all day, girls should be a bit ladylike." Scrooge grinned and grabbed Dena, "Look, where is the shoe on your left foot?" ”

Dena giggled, "Uncle Scrooge, the shoes are in Aunt Anna's hand." ”

Scrooge turned his head and saw that Anna was holding a small red dancing shoe on her right hand, exactly the same as the one on Dena's right foot.

Scrooge picked up Dena, sat down on a bench next to her, and placed her on his lap. At this time, Anna walked over and prepared to put on Dena's shoes.

"I'll do it." Scrooge took the shoes from her, lowered his head to put them on for Dena, then looked up into Anna's eyes and said, "These two bear children are so skinny, it's really hard for you." ”

Anna hung her head and said nothing.

"Okay, let's go play, but don't run around without your shoes." Scrooge lowered Dena off her lap and gently touched her head.

But Dena did not immediately run away with Donald, but said to him:

"Uncle Scrooge, I saw Aunt Dorothea just now, and she seemed very upset. Did you offend her? ”

"Go," said Scrooge, "don't talk nonsense, little devil. ”

Dena grimaced at Scrooge and ran away with Donald in a puff of smoke.

"Mr. MacDonald." Anna was about to follow, but glanced at Scrooge and stopped again.

"Ah, when no one is around, call me Shi Gao to cure him." Scrooge stood up and smiled.

"At about eight o'clock this morning, Dr. Menger came to look at Lady Dorothea, you know?" Anna asked in a whisper.

"What? Is Dorothea sick? Why didn't I notice it at all? Scrooge said.

"Lady Dorothea is not sick," Anna's voice grew deeper and deeper, as if with a long sigh, "when Dr. Menger was leaving, I asked Dr. Menger, and he told me that Lady Dorothea was pregnant, and why, didn't she tell you?" A pregnant woman is always unstable, and you have to coax her. ”

"Anna." Scrooge looked into her eyes, "Thank you, you're so kind." ”

Anna lowered her head, not looking into Scrooge's eyes, and whispered, "I'll go see those two children, don't make any more trouble." Then he walked briskly past Scrooge.

……

"Dorothea!" Scrooge hugged her shoulders, "You're pregnant?" Why didn't you tell me earlier? ”

"I'm going to die! Hairy. Dorothea scolded.

Scrooge hurriedly let go of his hand. Giggling and laughing.

"Humph!" Dorothea snorted.

"Hmm." Scrooge nodded deliberately in response.

"Bad stuff!" Dorothea laughed at Scrooge's actions.

"Bad stuff! I can't accompany you to Montana, you have to take care of yourself. Dorothea leaned into Scrooge's arm and said leisurely, "Also, don't play with women like Morgan while I'm away!" ”

"How can it? Where am I such a person? Scrooge immediately said that he and Morgan were definitely two different kinds of people, well, he was much more moral than Morgan or something.

"Cut! You men don't have a good thing, and you're no exception, don't think I don't know anything! Dorothea's little eyebrows rose suddenly, "Remember, don't mess me up." Oh yes! Do you have any secrets to hide from me? ”

"No?" Scrooge said, thinking to himself, "Did Dorothea know about me and Anna?" However, Scrooge knew that this kind of thing was definitely not admitted, and of course, if he was not killed, he could not admit it.

"Humph! That deal doesn't make sense no matter how you look at it. Unless you really have some big plans that I don't know about. What are your plans, and you have to keep it a secret from me! Dorothea grew more and more upset.

"Oh, that's what you said." Scrooge breathed a sigh of relief and said, "I haven't had time to tell you about this yet, and it was supposed to be talked about at the next family reunion." Well, not so long ago, someone completed a real yàn. That proved that heroin would be reduced to morphine in the liver of animals. ”

"Will it be reduced to morphine?" Although she doesn't know much about chemistry, Dorothea has been following Scrooge for so long, so she naturally understands what it means. "Doesn't that mean that what we advertised was wrong to say that heroin is not addictive? Since it turns into morphine in the liver, it is bound to become addictive. But why haven't we ever found a case of addiction? ”

"Because acetylmorphine, oh, heroin, is many times more potent than ordinary morphine, and only a very small amount is needed to alleviate symptoms. And this dose, under normal circumstances, is not addictive. As long as we can ensure the general efficacy, it is enough for us to make medicines, so the real content of acetylmorphine in a 'heroin' pill is very small, and more than 90% of the content in the pill is starch. So, we sold it for many years without any cases of addiction. But according to our recent drug, after increasing the amount of acetylmorphine, the animals did show signs of addiction, and the probability of addiction and the dependence after addiction were many times higher than morphine. Scrooge explained to Dorothea.

"But since we can control the dose and not make people addicted, even what? If you keep building, nothing will happen anyway. Dorothea said disapprovingly.

"Silly girl! Think about it, when the time comes, as soon as the patent expires, countless manufacturers will produce this, in order to compete with us, what kind of means will they use? Scrooge asked.

"What else can I do if we lower workers' wages?" Almost without thinking about it, Dorothea threw out such a sentence.

"Not only that, but for example, increasing the amount of acetylmorphine in medicines, claiming 'strong version', 'enhanced version', 'one pill is stronger than six' and other tricks will definitely appear. You say no, after all, it's easy, and the effect is obvious. Medicine, it still depends on the efficacy. But then, I dare say, there's going to be a whole bunch of addicted guys right away, and then, well, it's technically easy to prove that acetylmorphine is reduced to morphine in the liver or something, and as soon as a big deal of addiction comes along, the secret will soon be revealed. Moreover, the reason why 'heroin' is now able to maintain high profits is because we have a monopoly on this drug by relying on patents, and once the patent expires, even if there are no problems mentioned above, the profit margin will definitely drop significantly. So selling it isn't as bad as you might think. Scrooge replied.

"Well, it seems to make some sense." Dorothea put her hand in her mouth and began to bite her nails. This problem was developed when he was following Scrooge to make up for math. Every time she encounters a difficult problem, she will do this.

"Dorothea, you're going to be a mother, don't bite your nails, it's not good for your health." Scrooge hurriedly said.

"Ahh Dorothea immediately withdrew her hand. "Forget it, you can't be wrong about this kind of thing. Actually, I'm not worried about you making a wrong judgment - who else in the family knows about this? Also, what's going on with the guy who found out about the problem? ”

"You're the second to know about the family," said Scrooge, "Carol and they haven't come back yet, and I don't dare say anything like that by telegram or by phone." As for the man, well, we've got him in place. He would never have said these things. ”

"You've got to keep an eye on this guy and can't let him ...... Actually, it's better to put him in an iron mask and put him in a place like the Bastille, so that it is safe. Dorothea whispered.

"Don't worry, I'll take care of these things." Scrooge replied, and at the same time he said in his heart: "I have sent him to a more guarded place than the Bastille." That crappy chemist who likes to mess around has become a good crappy chemist. ”

"Well, when you are just pregnant, you have to pay extra attention to your body. In addition, you should also pay attention to maintaining a good mood and not work too hard. Well, I'll take care of the things you're in charge of now. "Also, I'll have Menger bring a medical team on standby here twenty-four hours a day." ”

"Hmm." Dorothea nodded obediently, but remembering that she had to hand over the management in her hands, even if it was only temporarily, and it was in the hands of her husband, Dorothea still felt a little uncomfortable.

"But you have to promise me to be by my side more, there is nothing important in the company that can't be hidden from me like this time. I don't want to go back and take over that file in the future and find that I can't figure out a lot of things......