Chapter 596 — After the Injury

"My kind of fierce isn't the same as hers... how do I put it?" Liu Xinwen was a rough-hewn sort of woman, but there was precision buried in the roughness, and her eye for people was sharp. "Hers is that innocent, adorable sort of fierce — though I reckon eight times out of ten it's an act! Either she really is like that — silly and innocent, sweet and ambiguous — or else she's nothing but a shameless, calculating one."

"What nonsense!" Tang Yun's cheeks flushed as she listened. "Why should I concern myself with other people's business?"

"Haven't you heard the saying? There's no couple that can't be broken up — only mistresses who don't try hard enough!" Liu Xinwen said, frustrated at her friend's failure to grasp the danger. "Yunyun, you can't afford to let your guard down!"

"All right, all right, I know..." Tang Yun had indeed taken Liu Xinwen's words to heart, but what good did it do? In the end, everything still depended on Wei Zhao's own attitude.

Tang Yun and Liu Xinwen were driven back to the hospital by Fatty Lai's wife. Tang Yun's head didn't hurt at all anymore; just as Wei Zhao had said, by morning the bandages could more or less come off. Before they left, Fatty Lai handed Tang Yun another bottle of painkillers — with Tang Jucheng also injured, they were burning through the supply.

Meanwhile, in the private residence behind the Geili Fuyun Bar, Zhao Qibing and Master Zhu both lay on their beds. Zhao Qibing had come round and was wailing for his father and mother in agony, while Master Zhu sat with his eyes shut, circulating his qi to mend his wounds.

"Young Master Bing, bear with it a little longer. The Medicine King is already on the way; he should be here before long!" Li Cihua said with a sigh. He had never imagined Wei Zhao could be so ruthless. Once, Li Cihua had considered himself a man of some standing in Songshan City, someone others were obliged to show face to — but since crossing Wei Zhao he had come to understand that he was nothing at all in the man's eyes, that Wei Zhao had never once looked him straight in the face.

"Damn it! Just who is this Wei Zhao? He actually dared to break my legs! What did my father say? Has he sent anyone to deal with him?" Zhao Qibing could hardly swallow this humiliation. He had only just arrived in Songshan City, and before he could even establish himself, Wei Zhao had given him a humiliating welcome — knocking his tower down was bad enough, he had shattered both his legs besides. How was he supposed to hold his footing in Songshan City after this?

Unless he had Wei Zhao killed, how could he ever show his face in Songshan City again?

"The family head is already investigating Wei Zhao's identity..." Li Cihua said with a bitter smile. "But from what Master Zhu tells me, Wei Zhao is a Profound-rank expert. That sort of standing, I'm afraid, is not low even in the boss's eyes!"

"Profound rank? Wei Zhao is a Profound-rank expert?" Zhao Qibing went rigid on the spot. He had been unconscious earlier and so had caught none of Master Zhu's words, but now that he heard them, the shock was every bit as great.

He hadn't pressed Master Zhu about his injuries either — his own legs were hurting too badly for him to concern himself with anyone else. He had simply assumed the man's wounds were the work of a bulldozer or a trench digger, and thought nothing more of it.

"Yes — early stage Profound rank." At that, Master Zhu, whose eyes had been closed until now, finally spoke. "Young Master Bing, Wei Zhao was gravely injured as well. Without heavenly treasures and earthly marvels to nourish him, even if he survives this, his strength will be gone. It all comes down to the choice before him: whether he gambles his life to hold on to his power, or scatters his cultivation and becomes an ordinary man."

"Oh? You're saying that if Wei Zhao has no such treasures to restore him, now is the best moment to strike? That in his wounded state he no longer has Profound-rank strength?" Li Cihua was a venomous man, and he caught Master Zhu's meaning at once.

"Heh — his condition will be no better than mine. Even with heavenly treasures and earthly marvels to feed him, and a skilled healer like the Medicine King tending him, he would need the better part of a year to recover his peak strength, and that is the ideal case," Master Zhu said. "In truth, the slightest slip, or a lapse in the supply of treasures, and he will not recover his power so quickly — whether he could ever regain his former peak is anyone's guess."

"That's wonderful! We strike before his strength comes back and leave him with no power to fight back!" Li Cihua had been itching to deal with Wei Zhao for a long time, but had never found a way in. Now that he had learned this, how could he let it pass? And best of all, it would avenge Young Master Bing — two birds with one stone.

"Better to wait for the family head's decision." Master Zhu was a man who submitted to the family's commands absolutely, so whether they moved against Wei Zhao was Zhao Guangyin's call to make; he was offering no more than a suggestion of his own.

Li Cihua nodded. Indeed — without Zhao Guangyin's order, there was no next step to take for the time being. All they could do was wait for the Medicine King to arrive and make up their minds then.

……………………

Wei Zhao drove carefully. The Young Miss's face was cold and stern; he could not tell what she was thinking. Shen Yushu, for her part, was still her usual dopey self, idling with her fingers, entirely unconscious of the strangeness in the air — or perhaps conscious of it, but utterly unmoved by it.

"Sister Yaoyao, are you going to start courting Brother Arrow in earnest?" Shen Yushu asked, having finished playing through her fingers one by one.

Wei Zhao broke into a cold sweat. Earlier, when Gu Mengyao had said as much, she had murmured it quietly to Tang Yun alone; for all his sharp senses, Wei Zhao could just as easily have pretended not to hear. But now that Shen Yushu had blurted it out, the moment grew decidedly awkward.

The Young Miss courting him? Wei Zhao hardly believed it — who knew what fit had come over her to say such a thing. Still, he didn't take it seriously.

Gu Mengyao's expression froze for an instant. She shot Shen Yushu an angry glare, and only when her face had settled back into calm did she speak in a perfectly composed tone: "Wei Zhao, don't listen to Xiao Shu's nonsense. Earlier, when I was arguing with Tang Yun, I only said it in a moment of temper! You are my attendant, and you got hurt on Tang Yun's account — frankly speaking, I can't stand the sight of her! That's why I said it on purpose, just to spite her. Don't take it to heart..."

"Heh, I know. I'm not taking it seriously." Wei Zhao smiled and nodded, thinking to himself: now that is the Young Miss.

A flicker of disappointment crossed Gu Mengyao's eyes, and a faint bitterness settled in her heart. The first time she had ever declared she would pursue a boy herself — and he hadn't even taken it seriously?

"From now on, if anything of the sort happens again, you must tell me first — do you understand? You are my... er, my attendant, so you're responsible for my personal safety!" Gu Mengyao went on. "What if I run into danger? What if Xiao Shu gets wedged in the iron railings again? And when we need you, you're laid up injured?"

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