Ghost Physician Fu Wan shook his head. "No. It was a one-way mission to begin with. I was only an ordinary physician accompanying the team. Even if returning had been possible, I would have had no chance without my teammates."
"So you stayed?" Hu Xiaotian asked.
Ghost Physician Fu Wan nodded. "To me, this was an entirely new world. From my very first day here, everything began in bloodshed and brutality. I had to struggle desperately just to survive. You should understand that loneliness and bewilderment."
Of course Hu Xiaotian understood, but compared with Ghost Physician Fu Wan, his own beginning in this world had been far more fortunate. At least he had arrived in the household of Great Kang's Minister of Revenue, rather than on a battlefield where men fought to the death. He was intensely curious about Ghost Physician Fu Wan. If everything he said was true, why had he chosen this time and space? What had been the purpose of their Time-Space Leap Project? Since the Ghost Physician was already doomed never to return, why had he faked his death? Once everyone believed him dead, why had he risked sneaking into the Imperial Mausoleum Underground Palace? What exactly was he after?
Ghost Physician Fu Wan suddenly began coughing violently, his shoulders shaking with each cough. He took out a handkerchief and covered his mouth, coughing for a long time before he finally stopped.
Hu Xiaotian watched the Ghost Physician and thought, A physician cannot heal himself. It seems Ghost Physician Fu Wan's health is poor too.
Ghost Physician Fu Wan caught his breath and said quietly, "I don't have long to live."
"What illness?" Hu Xiaotian asked with concern.
"Probably lung cancer," Ghost Physician Fu Wan said. "But it has already spread extensively throughout the organs in