Xu Fu Tang

Xu Fu Tang (Chinese: 徐福堂; pinyin: Xú Fú Táng, lit. "Hall of Xu Fu") is a Chinese herbal pharmacy in Roanapur owned by an elderly Chinese man. Sawyer the Cleaner and Shenhua are acquainted with the owner and have visited him before.

Business

The shop is named after the Chinese alchemist and explorer Xu Fu, who was sent by Qin Shi Huang to find the elixir of life. The business sells alternative medicine consisting of items like herbal medicine and special noodle soup. Additionally, the signs outside the building advertise claims like rejuvenation and feeling younger.

Gore Gore Girl history

Volume 5

At a table outside Xu Fu Tang, Sawyer the Cleaner morbidly gulped down noodle soup with chopsticks while the elderly Chinese storeowner asked her how it was. Stating that the soup was an original recipe, the elder confided in Sawyer that his Chinese store's secret ingredient was in the soup, claiming that it could combat low blood circulation and irregular menstrual cycles. Hearing fast footsteps and thinking that it was Shenhua, the elder told her that she was late, but he and Sawyer turned around to see a Chinese girl carrying a young boy running into their table, accidentally knocking them out of their chairs. As the old man angrily asked what they were doing, they turned around again to see two straw-hat figures with capes speaking Mandarin, demanding that the girl hand over the child.

Smugly grinning, the girl showed the middle finger and expletively told the figures to screw off. She pulled out two sticks of lighted dynamite, causing the old man to instinctively shield the boy and warn Sawyer too. The two figures were set aback, though the explosion destroyed the store building, shocking the elder and making him ask several questions in pauses regarding what the newcomers were doing and who they were. Sawyer and the elder turned around to see the young boy stand up unharmed, with the elder being confused at first, telling the boy that if his disturbance was related to the boy's "home country," then he should see Mr. Chang. As he relayed advice to the boy, Sawyer senses trouble and a thin whip almost hits them both.

From the collapsed building emerged the two shadowy figures with their white, glaring eyes, surprising the elder. Both armed figures charged at them, making the elder plead with Sawyer to fight back quickly. Only having chopsticks in her hands, Sawyer froze as one of the whips inched closer to her face, but thankfully Shenhua arrived and blocked the whip with her corded sword, apologizing to the cleaner for being late. Shenhua calmly handed Sawyer her chainsaw, making her gleefully smile. Nervous, the elder asked Shenhua what was going on, but the Taiwanese woman replied that she only knew that the two assailants are bad guys, adding that she could not understand them since they did not speak.

Although the elder asked what the young boy had done, Shenhua and Sawyer began to clash with the hooked-sword wielder and whip wielder respectively. As the old man and young child watched the fight, the elder smelled something unusual, sensing something bad. Shenhua yelled that China was old, big and complicated, elaborating that there were many inviolable areas in the underworld and that the two men left their area and had entered Roanapur. Continuing to block the attackers, Shenhua clarified that she had been asked by the Triad to act as a watchwoman, saying that the men screwed up first. Both women then successfully knocked both men to the ground. With all sides exhausted from the fighting, Shenhua angrily ordered the men to calm down. With a trick up their sleeve, the two men suddenly enveloped themselves in smoke, but to their surprise, some exposed wire came into contact with a pipe's leaking water, making the silhouetted men appear to be charging up at first but were actually being electrocuted, shocking the two women.

The mist dissipated, showing the two men charred and dead, and the young girl who protected the child appeared, commenting on the black fog's thickness. The elder was relieved to see the girl, admitting that he was glad she survived. As the boy stared blankly, the girl confessed that the boy was hidden as a living god but was kidnapped by the two men. According to her, darkness would have supposedly enveloped the world if he was not saved, prompting her to thank Shenhua and Sawyer, who remained silent. In response, the elder lamented upon the destroyed Xu Fu Tang and how his burnt herbal products gave him a strange hallucination. The young girl responded that there would be compensation for him from her employer, and she broke her seriousness by happily bidding them goodbye. The elder asked Shenhua how she felt, but the latter immediately remarked that she did not care since she was no longer involved, professing that she hoped to never see the two children again. Walking away, the boy's eyes and smile were completely blank white.