Chapter 24

The Shi Family Bridge was right by the road. To be safe, Li Zhuiyuan stood by the roadside beneath the bridge, glancing south from time to time to see whether the car had arrived, then looking at Uncle Qin standing beside him.

Seeing Li Zhuiyuan's gaze repeatedly fall on him, Uncle Qin lowered his head and asked, "Is there something you want to ask?"

"Uncle, was the movie tonight good?"

"Mm, it was good. Too bad you and A Li were sitting too far off to the side. You probably couldn't see it clearly."

"I saw it clearly. It was good too."

After that, Li Zhuiyuan said nothing more and stopped looking at the person beside him.

Uncle Qin straightened up. He had thought the boy would ask about that sort of thing, but he had not.

This child always seemed to understand boundaries, which made people easily grow fond of him.

Yet on reflection, whenever something important was needed, he seemed to break those boundaries without hesitation, like last time and this time.

A black sedan slowed as it approached the bridge. The window rolled down, and the driver leaned her head out. She was a woman with permed wavy hair.

"Hello, are you Li Zhuiyuan?"

"Yes."

"Engineer Luo sent me to pick you up. Get in."

The car turned around and stopped beside them.

Li Zhuiyuan and Uncle Qin got into the car, both sitting in the back seat.

In order to save time, the driver went very fast. Sometimes, to avoid bicycles and tricycles without headlights, she had to jerk the wheel or slam on the brakes.

After sitting for a while, Li Zhuiyuan began to feel unable to take it. He was carsick.

The matter was urgent, and he felt too embarrassed to ask the driver to slow down. He could only turn the little handle on the car door beside him, hoping to open the window a crack for some air.

He turned and turned, but the window did not move. After a few more twists, he pulled the little handle straight off the door.

Li Zhuiyuan could only fit the handle back in place, then lean against the seat in helplessness.

At that moment, Uncle Qin leaned over and reached out, pressing his palm against the window.

With a piercing scraping sound, the window was forcibly pulled down.

Fresh air blew in from outside, and Li Zhuiyuan let out a relieved breath.

Still, he worried that the driver might get angry. But perhaps she was too focused on driving to notice the change in the back.

Li Zhuiyuan tried turning the little handle in the opposite direction. Only after discovering that he could still roll the window back up did he relax.

After helping open the window, Uncle Qin kept his eyes closed as though he had fallen asleep.

Li Zhuiyuan also turned slightly to the side, resting his head against the back of the seat as he tried to take a nap.

Yet for some reason, the car made an unusually loud trembling noise as it moved. Especially with his ear pressed to the seat in that position, he could hear a constant whooshing wind.

At first, Li Zhuiyuan thought it was because the window was open and air was rushing in. He rolled the window up a little, leaving only a narrow crack.

But when he returned to that position, the sound of wind in his ear did not change in the slightest.

Li Zhuiyuan could not help wondering, How could this Japanese car be as thin as paper?

Curiously, he reached out and pressed against the back of the seat. Then he pressed a dent into it, and it did not spring back.

Li Zhuiyuan silently sat upright. Better not sleep, then. He would endure it until they reached the hospital.

He looked out the car window. There were no streetlights yet on the rural roads, so everything outside was pitch-black and there was nothing to see. But every time they passed through a town, he could see shops and slightly denser crowds.

It was just that the lights in those shops were so glaring.

In a daze, it felt as though the light outside was not shining in through the windows, but as if the whole car itself was glowing.

Yet this was not downtown, and the nighttime shops in town did not have dense neon lights.

The car left the township roads and entered the city. The roads improved, but there were also more cars.

These cars seemed terribly unruly. Cars cutting in and changing lanes without signaling were everywhere, making the driver repeatedly honk her horn while muttering curses.

Her Nantong Dialect was utterly authentic. Li Zhuiyuan felt that even his grandfather, Li Weihan, did not speak the dialect as naturally as she did.

After a difficult journey, they finally saw the People's Hospital building ahead.

But at that moment, Li Zhuiyuan noticed the driver watching him and Uncle Qin through the rearview mirror. When she noticed his gaze, the two of them began staring at each other through the mirror.

Li Zhuiyuan could not understand it, because the driver's eyes seemed never to return to the road ahead.

Yet through the windshield, he could see that their car had entered the wrong lane, and a truck was coming straight toward them.

"Watch out for the truck!" Li Zhuiyuan shouted.

But the driver still did not take her eyes off the rearview mirror. Not only did she fail to brake, she even accelerated.

At this rate, they would crash head-on into the truck any second.

Uncle Qin opened his eyes. He raised both feet and stomped downward.

Bang!

Li Zhuiyuan's eyes widened. He saw Uncle Qin's feet stomp straight through the bottom of the car!

Then Uncle Qin reached out and grabbed the boy beside him by the back of the neck. Li Zhuiyuan felt himself being lifted up.

The sensation was strange. You were sitting inside the car, but the instant you were lifted, it felt as though your movement had detached from the car's. What happened next violated every physical instinct in his mind.

Crash...

The car seats, rear windshield, and trunk all slammed past his body.

His body felt the impact. It hurt a little, but not badly.

The next moment, Li Zhuiyuan found himself standing on the road, held up by Uncle Qin. Ahead of them was a sedan whose rear seats had been punched through, speeding away.

With unstoppable momentum, the sedan crashed toward the truck.

The expected collision never came. Most of the sedan directly broke apart, while the rest was run over by the truck.

All around them were scattered bamboo strips, wooden slats, and fluttering colored paper.

That car had actually been made of paper!

Uncle Qin sidestepped, taking Li Zhuiyuan up onto the curb. The truck drove past them, and they could see the driver inside vigorously rubbing his eyes and repeatedly looking in the rearview mirror.

He seemed to feel that he had hit something earlier, and was wondering whether fatigue had caused him to hallucinate.

Uncle Qin set Li Zhuiyuan down. Li Zhuiyuan took a deep breath and asked, "Uncle, what kind of car were we just riding in?"

"You've seen it before. There's one on the first floor of the house."

"But..." Li Zhuiyuan looked around, then looked again at the hospital building ahead. "Did we really reach the People's Hospital?"

"We did."

Li Zhuiyuan subconsciously reached out and touched Uncle Qin's arm. He could not tell whether the Uncle Qin before him was real or fake. What if Uncle Qin had failed to steady the soy sauce bottle again this time?

Uncle Qin pointed ahead. "The hospital entrance is right there. Aren't you going in?"

"But did we really get here?" Li Zhuiyuan still could not understand.

"What else would it be?"

"How did we do it?"

Li Zhuiyuan frowned. He could understand Paper People becoming living people, and he could understand all kinds of bizarre things in dreams. He could even understand personally experiencing a car made through Paper Crafting.

But what he could not understand was that he had actually ridden a paper car all the way from Siyuan Village to the city!

Uncle Qin gently patted Li Zhuiyuan on the shoulder. "She carried us here."

"Huh?"

Uncle Qin seemed unwilling to explain further. "Go in. If you keep dawdling, your big friend may die."

"Oh, right."

Li Zhuiyuan put aside his thoughts and entered the hospital with Uncle Qin. At this hour, they should first ask at the emergency department.

But on the steps beneath the building, Li Zhuiyuan saw the female driver from before, wearing identical clothes and sporting the same wavy hair.

The woman held what seemed to be either documents or test results. Her face was full of anxiety, and she kept stopping passing medical staff to ask questions.

Most importantly, she seemed not to know the two of them at all. Even though they were standing so close to her, she showed no reaction.

"Uncle, is she alive?"

"Mm."

Li Zhuiyuan stepped forward and asked, "Auntie, may I ask where Xue Liangliang is now?"

"Little friend, who are you?"

"My name is Li Zhuiyuan. Director Luo asked me to come."

"Director Luo... The car I arranged only left a short while ago. Did you come by yourselves?"

"Mm."

"All right, I'll take you upstairs first."

The woman led Li Zhuiyuan and Uncle Qin upstairs. During their brief exchange, Li Zhuiyuan learned that although Xue Liangliang had just finished emergency treatment, his condition was very poor, and all his organs were at risk of failing.

In the ward, Luo Tingrui stood beside Xue Liangliang's bed, watching him with an anxious expression.

He truly did not understand why merely falling into the water after the boat rocked, only to be rescued immediately, could lead to such a situation.

At that moment, Xue Liangliang's face was pale, and he was still muttering deliriously.

"No, no, I don't want to stay here. I won't become a live-in son-in-law. I won't become a live-in son-in-law."

Luo Tingrui adjusted his glasses. He could not understand why Liangliang was having such a dream.

He had not even introduced his daughter to him yet, and he had no interest in taking on a live-in son-in-law. So whose family was forcing him?

But then again, who could force him?

Luo Tingrui knew about Xue Liangliang's situation at school. The kid was quite capable of making money, and he had no intention of staying at the university or remaining in the area. Nor did he plan to enter some good public institution. He was wholeheartedly preparing to go to the far southwest after graduation to help with development.

Honestly, as an outstanding graduate of Haihe University, combined with the current positions and working conditions in the southwest, they would be thrilled if he wanted to go. There would be no need to pull strings or rely on connections.

Yet however hard it was to understand his current delirium, at least it was comprehensible. What Xue Liangliang had said before was:

"Don't lock me up, don't beat me, don't strangle me. It hurts so much, it hurts so much. Please, let me go. Stop torturing me..."

At the time, Luo Tingrui had even begun to wonder whether Xue Liangliang had suffered some inhuman abuse as a child that had left him traumatized.

The ward door opened. Li Zhuiyuan entered with Uncle Qin. Luo Tingrui nodded to Li Zhuiyuan, but his attention was focused mainly on Uncle Qin.

It was only natural to overlook a child. Luo Tingrui had already guessed that the person who could help was probably this middle-aged man.

The doctors had already said they had done all they could. Though Xue Liangliang was connected to monitoring equipment, they could only continue observing passively. If his vital signs worsened further, the outcome would be difficult to reverse.

Luo Tingrui was not an old-fashioned man. Thinking of Zhao Hequan, who was still lying in the hospital, and what had happened to Xue Liangliang before, he had reason to suspect that the matter caused by that statue was not yet over.

"You go out first."

"Yes, Director." Luo Tingrui sent the woman out of the ward.

Then Luo Tingrui pointed at himself and asked, "Do I need to leave too?"

Uncle Qin did not answer. He walked straight to the other side of the hospital bed, placed his hand on Xue Liangliang's forehead, and gently rubbed it.

Very quickly, cold sweat appeared on Xue Liangliang's face. There was so much of it that the pillow was soon soaked through.

Luo Tingrui picked up a towel, intending to help wipe him down. But as soon as he wiped, he found the sweat unexpectedly slick and greasy, like lubricating oil used in a workshop.

How could human sweat possibly be like this?

At that moment, Uncle Qin clenched his fist and punched down at Xue Liangliang's abdomen.

"Don't!" Luo Tingrui had no time to stop him.

Bang!

Li Zhuiyuan noticed that Uncle Qin's fist had not actually landed on Xue Liangliang. It stopped short, yet the blanket over Xue Liangliang's body rapidly sank inward.

A shrill scream instantly echoed through the entire ward.

Li Zhuiyuan immediately covered his ears, but it was useless. His eardrums hurt terribly, as if they were about to be pierced through, while his brain felt as though someone were continuously smashing it with an iron sledgehammer.

Luo Tingrui only faintly heard what seemed to be a strange sound. He looked at Uncle Qin in confusion, then at the boy crouched tightly in the corner. He wondered what was wrong with the boy.

Uncle Qin's gaze also shifted toward Li Zhuiyuan.

Surprise appeared in Uncle Qin's eyes, because he had not expected Little Yuan's perception in this regard to be so keen.

Liu Yumei's instruction to him involuntarily surfaced in his mind: only teach him martial arts.

Uncle Qin swallowed.

Could a child like this truly be taught nothing but martial arts?

After Xue Liangliang had sweated and then received that "empty punch," though he had not woken up, he looked much more relaxed.

Only then did Luo Tingrui feel relieved. He closed his eyes and let out a long breath.

"Ah..."

The scream finally stopped, but Li Zhuiyuan still felt a buzzing in his head.

He was about to brace himself against the wall and stand up, but when he had barely lifted his head, he saw a pair of red embroidered shoes in the southwest corner of the ward. Above them were pale bluish-white ankles, and above those, the hem of a red dress.

He did not know what was above that, because he did not dare keep looking.

He had seen several people in Death Collapse, but none had ever given him such intense alarm and pressure.

She was not something he could observe. He could not even sneak a glance at her. If he kept looking at her, disaster would immediately befall him.

Records of Strange Tales from the Jianghu had recorded some powerful Death Collapses, using a description like this... those who saw them would suffer calamity.

It used "calamity," not "death," but sometimes calamity was more terrifying than death. With such an existence, even merely establishing a connection through one's gaze would cause disaster to descend instantly.

Uncle Qin noticed that Li Zhuiyuan, crouching on the floor, had changed the direction he was facing.

He followed Li Zhuiyuan's previous line of sight, then looked back at Li Zhuiyuan. His mouth had gone dry.

Not because of the one currently standing in the corner of the ward.

But because...

Little Yuan, you could even see her?

He knew A Li could see her, but what meaning was there in A Li being able to see?

She had completely shut herself inside her own world, almost entirely cut off from the outside.

But this little boy could speak, act, and run around full of life!

Li Zhuiyuan heard footsteps. They belonged to Uncle Qin. He was moving from the bedside toward the corner behind him.

Uncle Qin had gone to find that woman.

That was indeed the case. From Luo Tingrui's perspective, he saw the middle-aged man walk to the corner and simply stand there silently, as though facing the wall in self-reflection.

Luo Tingrui could not understand it. Of course, he also knew that if he could understand such things, he would not be working in his current department.

As Xue Liangliang's condition improved, he began muttering deliriously again.

"I won't live here. I don't want to stay here. I still have a career to pursue. I still have dreams to fulfill. You can't keep me here. I don't agree. I absolutely don't agree!"

Luo Tingrui was a little confused. Was it because Xue Liangliang was doing better that he now sounded more forceful and resolute?

Li Zhuiyuan stood up with his back to Uncle Qin and slowly made his way to the hospital bed, looking at Xue Liangliang.

He had not heard the first two bouts of delirious talk, only this one. There was not enough key information, so he was still completely confused.

Still, his own situation was rather twisted too. On one hand, he felt it was dangerous; on the other, Uncle Qin's presence made him feel quite safe.

Luo Tingrui pointed at Uncle Qin in the corner, but Li Zhuiyuan shook his head at him. Luo Tingrui understood and remained where he was.

Xue Liangliang did not continue babbling either, and the ward fell into a long, eerie silence.

Finally,

Uncle Qin broke the atmosphere.

He walked back to the bed, took off his undershirt in front of Li Zhuiyuan and Luo Tingrui, and tossed it onto the IV stand.

Then, the index fingers of both Uncle Qin's hands began tracing across his arms, shoulders, chest, and other places.

With every stroke, bruises of varying lengths, depths, and shades appeared.

Any one of them would have made an ordinary person howl in pain, yet Uncle Qin looked as though he were merely applying paint to himself.

His expression was utterly calm, as though he were doing the simplest, most ordinary thing in the world.

Luo Tingrui did not understand what the man was doing, but when Li Zhuiyuan noticed that the bruises on Uncle Qin's left and right sides formed a symmetrical pattern, he understood. Uncle Qin was drawing runes.

His fingers were the brush, his body the paper, and the fresh wounds he had made were the paint.

Once he was done, Uncle Qin walked to the ward door and opened it.

He looked once more toward the corner where he had been standing earlier,

and said:

"I know why the matriarch sent me here today. She wanted me to tell the Bai family this: the Qin family isn't dead yet!"

After saying that, Uncle Qin pressed his right thumb to the center of his brow. When he lifted it away, it left behind a streak of blood, marking the completion of the final stroke of the runes.

All of a sudden, wind rose inside the ward.

The wind was not strong, only faint, but it was freezing. Li Zhuiyuan shivered involuntarily. Across from him, Luo Tingrui did the same, wrapping his arms around himself.

The wind was not limited to this ward. It swept through the entire floor, even several floors above and below, converging here.

Li Zhuiyuan vaguely saw what seemed to be countless shadows riding the wind into Uncle Qin's body, including a red shadow from inside this ward.

Was he taking all those filthy things into his own body?

Uncle Qin stood in place for quite a while before moving again. He returned to the bed, took back his undershirt, and put it on.

Li Zhuiyuan noticed that Uncle Qin's steps had initially been stiff, and even his expression seemed somewhat wooden. But after getting dressed, he appeared to recover... or perhaps he had simply adapted.

The lights in this ward also seemed much brighter and clearer. In fact, it was not just here; nearly half the building had become noticeably brighter.

Sometimes, a hospital's lights seemed dim and hazy at night not because of the lighting itself, but because places like hospitals tended to have more of certain things.

And the appearance of that female driver and the paper car earlier meant that the terrifying filthy thing had long since covered this ward. Even Luo Tingrui's actions had been within its sight.

Uncle Qin looked at Luo Tingrui. "I need to go somewhere. I need a vehicle."

Luo Tingrui said, "The car I sent to pick you up should still be downstairs at the hospital."

"Director Luo, that car isn't there," Li Zhuiyuan said.

"Then how did you get here so quickly?"

Li Zhuiyuan said, "We came by pedicab."

"Then... I'll arrange a motorcycle. Um, can you ride one?" Luo Tingrui looked at Uncle Qin.

Uncle Qin nodded. "Yes."

"Alright, I'll have someone arrange it right away." Luo Tingrui led Uncle Qin out of the ward, called over the female staff member, gave her instructions, and gestured for Uncle Qin to follow her downstairs to get the bike.

As they went out, Li Zhuiyuan, who remained in the ward, heard Xue Liangliang's delirious muttering:

"No, I won't marry you. There's no love between us. This is the first time we've met. I'm not someone who treats marriage so casually. Stop dreaming!"

Li Zhuiyuan could not help wondering whether Brother Liangliang was acting out a Qiong Yao drama in his dream.

At the time, the Qiong Yao drama craze had already arrived, and college students on campus were among its audience. Li Zhuiyuan often saw older students chatting about the shows or carrying paperback novels in their hands.

Just then, Uncle Qin returned to the ward door. "Little Yuan, let's go."

"Coming, Uncle."

Li Zhuiyuan followed Uncle Qin downstairs, got the motorcycle, started it, twisted the handle, and the engine roared to life.

Uncle Qin drove very fast, weaving swiftly through the city before heading toward the outskirts.

Li Zhuiyuan sat behind him. Without a helmet, he could only press his face against Uncle Qin's back to block the wind, his hands gripping Uncle Qin's waist.

He found it astonishing. That afternoon, Uncle Qin had been working in the fields. Just moments ago, he had faced that woman in red in the ward. Yet now, he was speeding along on a motorcycle.

Li Zhuiyuan felt the madness of this world.

Meanwhile, back in the hospital ward, Luo Tingrui once again heard Xue Liangliang's delirious muttering:

"No, coming back once a month is impossible. My future work won't allow me to leave the construction site. That's the accumulated effort of so many people. I can't be so irresponsible.

"Six months won't work either. Future major projects won't have such short construction schedules, and not the slightest error can be allowed.

"My future isn't in Nantong, or in Jiangsu. I'm going to the far southwest. That's my dream, my future.

"So stop dreaming. Really, I won't marry you, and don't think you can tie me down here."

Luo Tingrui took off his glasses, breathed onto the lenses, then wiped them with his clothes.

He was touched, saddened, and also a little amused. You brat, you're already in this state, and you're still dreaming about building up the far southwest.

Putting his glasses back on, Luo Tingrui sighed.

Middle-aged people were always habitually dismissive of the idealistic glow in young people, believing it to be childishness and immaturity. Yet they rarely reflected on whether the ones who had fallen and lost their way might be themselves.

"Liangliang, if you recover this time, I'll personally take you to the southwest."

The motorcycle arrived by the river. Li Zhuiyuan got off, and after Uncle Qin propped up the bike, he clapped his hands and stared at the river with a wealth of emotion in his eyes.

Li Zhuiyuan remembered Liu Yumei saying that her ancestral home was on the river.

Since ancient times, great rivers had always been the birthplace of civilization.

The sand and soil on both banks had accumulated from countless joys, angers, sorrows, and pleasures. Who knew how many stories and mysteries had also settled at the bottom of this river with the passage of time.

It seemed Brother Liangliang had mentioned that the location of Bai Family Town recorded in the local chronicles was wrong... Facing in the direction of Chongming Island, Li Zhuiyuan roughly estimated the bearing and distance.

A suspicion gradually rose within him:

Could Bai Family Town really be beneath the river right in front of them?

Uncle Qin began taking off his clothes. Unlike at the hospital, where he had only removed his undershirt, this time he stripped completely. He folded his clothes neatly on the shore and placed a pebble on top.

Next, Uncle Qin first twisted his neck, then gripped the areas beneath both ears with his hands and tore hard.

Li Zhuiyuan heard the sound of flesh tearing. Looking closely, he saw five long wounds beneath each of Uncle Qin's ears.

Blood seeped from those wounds, but they also kept opening and closing.

They looked like... bloody fish gills.

Next, Uncle Qin began stretching his body. With every movement came a series of crisp cracks from his joints, accompanied by the tearing of flesh in places.

Soon, many dense marks resembling stretch marks appeared across Uncle Qin's body.

Only, they were not on his stomach. They were spread evenly across his arms and legs.

After finishing the stretches, Uncle Qin stopped and stood still, adjusting his breathing. The bloody wounds beneath his ears opened and closed with his breaths.

Li Zhuiyuan felt that Uncle Qin had changed. His physique had undergone an obvious transformation.

"Little Yuan."

"Mm."

"Watch our things from the shore."

"Alright, Uncle."

Uncle Qin nodded, then bent down. Under the moonlight, he began to run.

He was not especially fast, but his movements were extraordinarily coordinated. He reached the riverbank, leaped forward, and vanished the instant he entered the river.

Like a fish returning to the water.

Li Zhuiyuan looked at the river surface, which had returned to calm, then at Uncle Qin's clothes left on the shore.

He raised his hand and lightly slapped his forehead. Only after it happened did he seem to truly realize:

"He really... just went in like that?"

At first, Li Zhuiyuan stood there. After standing for a while, his legs began to ache, so he sat down.

Time continued to pass. Uncle Qin had been down there for a long time, yet there was no movement on the river surface—not even a strange bubble.

But waiting was the only thing he could do now.

Li Zhuiyuan yawned and looked toward the horizon. The night was like an article of clothing washed too many times; its original deep color was beginning to fade, and before long, it would turn white.

Shaking his head, Li Zhuiyuan forcefully dispelled his drowsiness. After rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand, he stood up once more and continued watching the river.

This time, he saw movement.

In the center of the river, a figure seemed to appear, then vanish again. Just as Li Zhuiyuan wondered whether his eyes had deceived him, he saw Uncle Qin walking out of the river at the shore.

His body was covered in horrifying wounds. Many of them had turned black and were leaking pus.

The most terrifying was the wound across his chest, so deep and long that the white bone inside was nearly visible.

Yet Uncle Qin acted as though nothing had happened. He crouched by the river and began washing his body with river water.

Li Zhuiyuan brought over his clothes. Once he got closer, he saw many long fingernails and teeth still embedded in Uncle Qin's wounds.

Seeing them, he could practically imagine how those things had rushed him and bitten him frantically.

At the same time, Li Zhuiyuan noticed obvious anger in Uncle Qin's eyes.

Uncle was angry.

"Uncle, how did it go?"

"Not well."

"You failed?"

"I was almost successful." As he spoke, Uncle Qin reached out and pulled a long fingernail from his body.

"And then?" Standing behind Uncle Qin, Li Zhuiyuan grabbed a finger embedded in his back and yanked it out hard. The finger was still moving. It was clearly a human body part, yet it felt like a freshly chopped piece of snake.

After Li Zhuiyuan threw the finger to the ground, it continued wriggling toward the river. Its blood-red fingernail gleamed with an eerie light.

"Smash it," Uncle Qin said.

"Alright." Li Zhuiyuan picked up a stone and smashed it down hard. The finger deformed, but it kept wriggling. Only after several more hard blows did it finally turn to pulp and stop moving.

"Huff, huff..." Li Zhuiyuan panted. He did not want to lower his head and look at that pile of mangled flesh again.

Smack!

Uncle Qin pulled another finger from his body and tossed it in front of Li Zhuiyuan. The meaning was simple.

Li Zhuiyuan could only raise the stone again and continue smashing.

If an early riser happened to pass by at that moment and saw this scene from afar, they might have thought it was a heartwarming image of father and son.

Once all the filthy things embedded in his body had been removed, Uncle Qin picked up his clothes and put them on.

"Uncle, your wounds..."

"I'll have your aunt deal with them when we get back."

"Oh." Li Zhuiyuan nodded, then asked, "Uncle, is Bai Family Town down there?"

Those Bai Family Empresses were simply impossible to get rid of. Li Zhuiyuan was truly afraid that another one would pop up after a while.

"They'll settle down for a long time, because the greatest Bai Family Empress has already spoken."

In truth, compared to his injuries, the outcome of the Bai family matter gave Qin Li a bigger headache.

His task had been to slap the Bai family back into line, but the slap had only made it halfway before the remaining half simply would not move.

He also had to think about how he would explain this to Liu Yumei after returning.

"Uncle Qin, Grandma Liu was only in a bad mood today. But it's already been a whole night now. I think after sleeping, Grandma Liu should be calmer."

Qin Li nodded. He thought the boy was right, and he could tell the boy was comforting him. Still, he had begun getting used to this side of the boy.

"Let's go, Little Yuan. Go check on your friend. Once we've seen him, we'll go home."

"Okay."

They went upstairs and returned to the ward just in time to see Luo Tingrui coming out with a thermos. "You're back. Perfect timing. Liangliang woke up earlier, but he's fallen asleep again. Help me watch him for a bit. I'm going to get some hot water."

Li Zhuiyuan entered the ward and saw that Xue Liangliang had been removed from the machines. He was no longer unconscious, but sleeping soundly.

"Uncle, he's alright now, right?"

"He's in deep trouble."

"What?"

"Ask him yourself when he wakes up. I'm going downstairs to buy some bandages." Uncle Qin stood and left the ward.

At that moment, Xue Liangliang, asleep in bed, began talking in his dreams while grinding his teeth:

"Two years? Two years won't do. At least three years. I can only promise to come see you once every three years."

Xue Liangliang rolled over with the quilt in his arms and continued talking in his sleep:

"Won't we have children?"

Hearing Xue Liangliang's words, Li Zhuiyuan's face filled with shock. He seemed to have pieced together something incredible, but it was so absurd that he felt he must have gotten it wrong.

At that moment, Xue Liangliang seemed to have woken up. He looked at Li Zhuiyuan standing beside the hospital bed, and Li Zhuiyuan was looking at him too.

After a while, Xue Liangliang withdrew his gaze and sat up, leaning against the hospital bed with a vacant expression, as though he had just suffered a devastating blow.

Li Zhuiyuan picked up an orange from the bedside table and silently peeled it.

Finally, Xue Liangliang spoke. His tone was desolate, full of deep melancholy and bleakness:

"Little Yuan, I need to tell you something terrible."

"Mm, go ahead, Brother."

Li Zhuiyuan finished peeling the orange, took off a segment, and held it to Xue Liangliang's mouth. Xue Liangliang opened his mouth and ate it, and his already grief-stricken expression immediately gained another hint of sour bitterness.

Xue Liangliang's mouth hung open, and for a moment, he could not speak. The emotions he had painstakingly worked up had been abruptly interrupted.

He had only just readjusted himself and was about to speak when Li Zhuiyuan brought a second orange segment to his mouth.

"Little Yuan, you should eat some too."

"No. It's sour."

"Then you..." The second orange segment was placed into his mouth.

Tears streamed from Xue Liangliang's eyes. Chewing, he spoke in a trembling voice:

"Little Yuan, your brother got married."

"Congratulations."

Li Zhuiyuan picked up another orange segment and held it out. This time, Xue Liangliang did not resist. He ate it, and whether from the sourness or genuine emotion, tears covered his face.

"Your sister-in-law is actually quite nice."

"As long as she's a good person." Li Zhuiyuan nodded in agreement. "My grandfather told us that when choosing a partner, what mattered most was character and temperament. Everything else—like how good-looking they were, or whether they were dead or alive—was unimportant."

Xue Liangliang looked at Li Zhuiyuan with a miserable expression and accepted another orange segment. "Your grandfather was quite open-minded."

"Mm."

Li Zhuiyuan had finally sorted out the logic. Uncle Qin had been fighting on the front lines, while Xue Liangliang had been handling negotiations at the table.

Uncle Qin and he had rushed all the way from the village, from the hospital to the riverside, steadily putting pressure on it. That had allowed Xue Liangliang to obtain increasingly favorable bargaining chips, while the other side kept making concessions.

Xue Liangliang himself did not know any of this.

In the end, Uncle Qin had nearly fought his way to its home and was on the verge of resolving the matter completely, but Xue Liangliang had thought he had obtained the best possible negotiating result and signed the papers.

If he had just held out a little longer, he would not have needed to get married.

No wonder Uncle Qin had been angry. He had been fighting desperately at the front and was just about to succeed, only for their side to sue for peace first.

That was why Uncle Qin had left the ward to buy bandages. It was probably an excuse. If he had stayed in the room and kept looking at the person lying on the bed, he would likely have been unable to stop himself from punching him to death.

Li Zhuiyuan could not bear to tell Brother Liangliang the truth. It was countless times more bitter than the remaining half of the orange in his hand.

The die was cast; it was already a fact. He should persuade him to look on the bright side instead, ask about happier things, and help ease his heart a little.

"Brother, was there a bride price?"

"Not necessary."

"That's good. A free-love marriage, a modern marriage."

"Actually, your sister-in-law wanted to give me a bride price."

"See? That's wonderful. Other people could only envy that."

"But I firmly refused." Xue Liangliang lifted his chin like a proud little rooster.

"Mm, my Brother Liangliang has the most backbone."

"Of course. I refuse to become a live-in son-in-law."

"I admire that."

"I discussed it with your sister-in-law, and she agreed. From now on, I only need to come back and see her once every three years. The rest of the time, I can go wherever I want and do whatever I want."

"That's really good."

Li Zhuiyuan suddenly realized that his worry had been unnecessary. This was Xue Liangliang, a person with an incomparably strong heart. No matter how difficult things became, he would never be unable to accept them. Instead, he could quickly adjust himself.

Otherwise, there was no way to explain the inexplicable note of smug boasting in his words. Most people were strong enough if they could find joy amid hardship, but Brother Liangliang could turn bitterness into sugar water.

"Still, Little Yuan, I did make a concession."

"Oh?"

"I agreed that the second child would take her surname."