The Million-Dollar Heart

The guests exchanged excited glances and raised their glasses in celebration, the atmosphere buzzing with energy.

"How should we pick the ten people?" someone called out from the crowd.

Karen flashed a small smile, microphone in hand, and slowly said, "There will be a raffle drum on stage filled with lots of cards, each bearing four different symbols. Those who scratch off the orchid symbol will be the lucky participants! Of course, there are only ten orchids."

With a gentle gesture, a crimson raffle drum was brought up and placed center stage.

Guests lined up, taking turns to draw their lots, each one eagerly scratching their card, hoping for the orchid.

Karen, with a light voice, announced, "Now, those who have found the orchid symbol, please come up and state your wish. I'll do my best to fulfill it."

The first to approach was a middle-aged man in a dark blue suit, sitting across from Karen. His pale, slightly gaunt face betrayed his anxiety as he hesitated, "Can you really solve any problem?" Karen's eyes shone with a calming light, "I'll agree to one request. Speak freely, within my means."

numerous doctors to no avail. When the illness strikes, my heart races, I break out in cold sweats, and my skin erupts in crimson blisters covering my body, save for my face and neck. The ones on my chest have burst open

of so many was a monumental act of bravery

addressed it, "The blisters have reached your neck. Within a month, they'll cover it, and then the ones on

frantically touched his neck, panic-stricken,

composed and serene, asked to examine

aware of the audience, until those near the stage

followed by a black shirt, and then a white vest, revealing his torso. The sight of densely packed, festering blisters oozing yellow pus was profoundly disturbing,

a treatment involving care herbs, "May Grass" and "April Blossom," not commonly found but available through the Linklater family. She instructed him

man's relief was palpable, his eyes

the

piercing eyes behind gold-rimmed glasses and clutching a stack of academic papers approached. Introducing himself as Cory, a postdoctoral researcher from M State Newford College's Department of Molecular

listened intently, briefly reviewing Cory's research before sharing her own experiences with