After an hour of trekking along the mountain road, the two arrived at the main entrance of the Affiliated Hospital of the Dihua Ability Institute at the very top.
The main hospital's entrance was over ten meters high and magnificently imposing. Two guards in white robes stood at either side of the entrance, their gazes sharp.
Ning Yanzhi gestured for Yu Jing to wait where he was, then went over to negotiate with one of the guards.
In Yu Jing's eyes, Ning Yanzhi first spoke to the other man with the air of a good person. Then he took something from his pocket, causing the guard's expression to change dramatically. The guard immediately reported to the entrance management office through his intercom headset.
"Rumble!"
The entrance opened wide. When Ning Yanzhi ran back, he was holding two visitor badges used for visiting patients in the hospital.
This guy doesn't seem simple. Did he deliberately approach me from the start, or was it a coincidence? I'll observe him for a while. If he doesn't have any ulterior motives, perhaps I can become friends with him.
Yu Jing's evaluation of Ning Yanzhi rose, but whenever he looked at the man's squinting eyes, he always felt that he was hiding something.
"I suppose I've repaid you for the favor. Still, let me advise you: if you see anyone from the Yu family around the wards, you'd better not approach them. After all, the Yu family has influence in this Ability Institute too. They won't suffer any consequences for killing a newcomer."
Ning Yanzhi patted Yu Jing on the shoulder, and this time Yu Jing nodded seriously.
"Are you coming with me?"
"I'll take a look around. I've already taken care of all the dorm arrangements, so I have nothing much to do before the opening ceremony."
Ning Yanzhi put both hands behind his head and whistled, looking completely relaxed.
"Use the visitor badge I gave you to look up the patient's room number. If Yu Xiaoxiao is still in surgery, naturally you won't be able to find it." As they entered the central hospital's enormous circular lobby, Ning Yanzhi pointed at a machine inside and explained.
"Mm."
Yu Jing used the card on his chest to unlock the machine, and Yu Xiaoxiao's name was successfully matched to room number 2203.
The two quickly took the elevator to the twenty-second floor. Before approaching the ward, they confirmed that besides the nurses and doctors walking around, there was no one else who appeared to belong to the Yu family.
"Go in and visit her. Just as the rumors say, the Yu family is extremely cold toward its younger generation. Don't worry about how long it takes. I can sit in the hallway and read novels all night without a problem... Oh, right. You're really not professional at visiting patients. She's a pretty girl, yet you didn't prepare any flowers or anything. Fortunately, I have some spares here."
Ning Yanzhi sat on a chair in the corridor and took a detective novel and a bouquet of pale Shui Xian flowers out of his points card.
"Where did you get the flowers?" Yu Jing asked.
"A female classmate who'd been searching the whole hospital for me gave them to me earlier. I didn't expect them to come in handy here."
"Thanks."
It really would have been improper to visit without bringing flowers. Moreover, Ning Yanzhi was the reason Yu Jing had managed to reach Yu Xiaoxiao's ward smoothly. If he had come alone, he had no idea how much time he would have wasted. Thus, Yu Jing sincerely thanked him.
Yu Jing arrived before the tightly closed ward door. When he swiped the visitor badge hanging around his neck across the sensor, his information was immediately collected and transmitted to the nurses' station on that floor. After confirming that Yu Jing was connected to the patient and posed no danger, the ward door in front of him opened automatically.
Compared with Yu Jing's previous ward, this one was more than three times larger, resembling the presidential suite of a luxury hotel.
Yu Jing had assumed that the seriously injured Yu Xiaoxiao would still be in a deep sleep. Unexpectedly, when the door opened, Yu Xiaoxiao, who had been sitting on the hospital bed watching television, had already turned her gaze toward him.
Yu Jing had never been good at socializing, and he was even worse when it came to interacting with women. For a moment, he froze at the door, not knowing what to say.
"You're so handsome." Yu Xiaoxiao broke the awkward silence with a single sentence.
Yu Jing immediately came back to himself and looked at Yu Xiaoxiao's right hand, which had been crippled at the inn. Her arm had completely regenerated and looked no different from a normal one; there was no sign of anything wrong.
"Is your hand... all right now?"
Yu Jing walked to the bedside, put the Shui Xian flowers in a vase nearby, and asked with concern.
"Mm. Dihua's technology is incredibly powerful. Even if only the head remained, as long as the brain was still alive, they could reconstruct the body and keep the person alive. One arm is nothing. The most serious injuries were to my bones. Because I overused my body, a large number of bone cells died. Now I have to drink nutritional fluids every day to recover...
I really want to eat something. Do you have any instant noodles?"
When Yu Xiaoxiao met Yu Jing again, she once more shifted the topic to food as quickly as she had during their previous physical training session. She was even still thinking about the cheap yet delicious instant noodles Yu Jing carried.
Yu Jing answered helplessly, though he also felt like laughing. "Uh... about that. Your body hasn't recovered yet, so you can't eat junk food like instant noodles. Could you listen to the doctor? When you're discharged, I'll take you out to eat if I get the chance, all right?"
"Oh, okay. I'll come find you after I'm discharged!"
Suddenly, the air between them seemed to solidify.
Ever since she was little, Yu Xiaoxiao had rarely spoken more than twenty words to the same person at a time. Yet now she was chatting freely with Yu Jing. At the same time, the feeling of meeting again after surviving a life-or-death crisis made the atmosphere somewhat strange.
"...Get some rest. Call me when you're discharged. I heard Jiang Pengyu and Men Qian both survived. I'll contact them, and then we'll give that brat Jiang Pengyu a good meal to pay for."
"Mm."
After exchanging phone numbers, Yu Jing and Yu Xiaoxiao waved goodbye to each other, and Yu Jing left the ward.
"That fast? You really have no sense for romance. Meeting again after surviving life and death together is the perfect chance for love to blossom, and it's a shame to see you waste it like this. I really would like to see what it would be like if you dated the young lady from the Yu family."
Ning Yanzhi teased Yu Jing, who had just come out of the ward looking somewhat distracted.
The latter was not good at explaining himself either, and the two walked to the elevator.
"Ding!"
When the elevator arrived at the twenty-second floor and opened, a man dressed entirely in black stepped out. However, he stopped when he brushed past Yu Jing. Beneath the black brim of his hat, a black eye gazed at Yu Jing.
In an instant, Yu Jing felt as if he had fallen into an abyss tens of thousands of meters deep, unable to escape.
"Buzz!"
A ringing in his ears disturbed him, and Yu Jing shook his head as he returned to reality.
"Let's go, Yu Jing."
Ning Yanzhi seemed unaffected. He draped an arm over Yu Jing's shoulder, who was drenched in sweat.
"Mm." Yu Jing did his utmost to calm his mind and stepped into the elevator.
The moment the elevator doors closed, Ning Yanzhi, who had always looked like a carefree man with squinting eyes, opened his eyes for the first time. Inside was a beautiful pair of brown eyes.
"That man just now was the current head of the Yu family. He also holds a leadership position at our institute... Fortunately, he didn't make things difficult for you. Otherwise, I might have been dragged into it too. By then, our bodies would probably have been sent here and placed in the morgue."
Before you continue