When Lu Wenchuan arrived at the hospital, he saw the Xu Family coming out from the direction of the ward.
The man in front looked grim. Beside him, a young man supported a woman whose legs had gone weak. Her eyes were vacant, and she kept muttering something.
Lu Wenchuan stopped at the corner of the corridor and raised an eyebrow.
"Whoa."
The young team member behind him immediately lowered his voice. "Captain, what's wrong?"
Lu Wenchuan crunched the mint in his mouth, his tone lazy. "Doesn't look like they visited a patient. Looks like they ran into a ghost."
The team member fell silent.
Saying that in a hospital was a little tasteless.
But that was exactly what they had come for tonight.
Twenty minutes earlier, the Special Investigation Bureau had detected an abnormal fluctuation at this hospital. Its source was the top floor of the inpatient building.
Ordinary evil spirits didn't have energy this clean.
It was strangely clean.
Lu Wenchuan hadn't planned to come himself.
He had just returned from another assignment. The smell of blood still lingered on his coat, and the old injury in his right hand was aching.
But when the monitoring report reached his phone, one glance had changed his mind.
Hospital. Critical condition. The Xu Family's eldest son.
Put those words together, and nothing about it looked simple.
Lu Wenchuan walked up to the nurses' station and tapped the counter.
The nurse looked up and paused at the sight of him. "May I ask who you are?"
Lu Wenchuan took out his credentials, smiling casually. "Special Security Investigation. I'm here to see Xu Zhihan."
The nurse's expression shifted when she saw his credentials, and she lowered her voice. "Mr. Xu just woke up. His condition isn't very stable. His family caused a scene a moment ago."
"What kind of scene?"
The nurse hesitated.
Lu Wenchuan watched her with a smile.
He was handsome, and his smile easily put people off their guard. But anyone who knew him understood that the more Lu Wenchuan smiled, the more carefully he was calculating.
In the end, the nurse told him. "For some reason, his stepmother dropped to her knees and kept shouting, 'Don't come for me.' Mr. Xu also said... said she'd killed someone."
A chill ran down the team member's back.
Lu Wenchuan merely clicked his tongue softly.
"Quite a show."
The nurse couldn't help glancing at him.
Lu Wenchuan put away his credentials. "I'll go take a look. Don't worry, I won't scare the patient."
Beside him, the team member muttered, "You'd better not."
Lu Wenchuan gave him a sidelong look. "Getting bold, are we?"
The team member immediately shut up.
Lu Wenchuan headed toward the ward.
The closer he came to the door, the more the old injury in his right wrist hurt.
He had sustained that injury three years ago. A high-level evil spirit had bitten through his Fate Line. Though he had survived, it had chewed away a portion of his allotted lifespan.
Few people in the Special Investigation Bureau knew about it. Most simply thought Lu Wenchuan was a powerful fighter and hard to kill.
Only Lu Wenchuan himself knew the truth.
His Fate Line was still breaking apart.
Three years, if it happened quickly.
Five, if it happened slowly.
He rarely talked about whether he would die.
Talking wouldn't help anyway.
Lu Wenchuan stood outside the ward with his hand on the door handle, but didn't push it open right away.
It was quiet inside.
There was neither the putrid stench of an evil spirit nor the frail aura of an ordinary patient.
Instead, there was a coldness.
A coldness that was utterly clean.
The smile in Lu Wenchuan's eyes faded a little.
Trouble.
He hated things he couldn't see through most of all.
Yet he couldn't resist taking a look.
The door opened.
Inside the ward, Xu Zhihan leaned against the headboard, his face pale and his lips nearly colorless. An IV needle was still in the back of his hand, and his hospital clothes made him look thin.
He certainly looked like a patient who might die at any moment.
But Lu Wenchuan dismissed that assessment at first glance.
A patient wouldn't have eyes like those.
Xu Zhihan had been looking out the window. At the sound of the door opening, he merely turned his head slowly.
His gaze was cold.
There was no curiosity, no panic, not even much of the emotion one expected from a living person.
Lu Wenchuan had met plenty of dangerous people.
Mad ones, ruthless ones, ones who pretended to be normal.
Xu Zhihan was different.
He seemed to be watching people from somewhere far away.
Silence hung in the ward for two seconds.
Lu Wenchuan smiled first.
"Young Master Xu?"
Xu Zhihan looked at him without answering.
Unembarrassed, Lu Wenchuan walked in, draped his coat over the back of a chair, pulled up another chair, and sat down.
The team member stayed at the door, not daring to enter.
For some reason, he felt that the atmosphere in this ward wasn't suited to a third person.
Xu Zhihan finally spoke. "Who are you?"
His voice was hoarse and weak, but his tone was steady.
"Lu Wenchuan, captain of the Special Investigation Bureau's Seventh Team," Lu Wenchuan said. "In short, someone who deals with trouble."
Xu Zhihan looked at him. "You're quite a bit of trouble yourself."
The team member at the door sucked in a breath.
It was the first time he'd seen anyone speak to Lu Wenchuan like that.
But Lu Wenchuan smiled. "You noticed?"
Xu Zhihan didn't answer.
His gaze settled on Lu Wenchuan.
This man was strange.
On the surface, he looked careless. Even his posture was lazy, and his smile was entirely flippant. Yet his aura was steady, like someone ready to draw a blade at any moment.
His Fate Line was an even bigger problem.
An ordinary person's Fate Line extended from their soul, its length varying from person to person.
Half of Lu Wenchuan's Fate Line had snapped.
Something black coiled around the break, gnawing inward bit by bit like a living creature.
Xu Zhihan watched for a while, his brow creasing slightly.
That thing wasn't an ordinary evil spirit of this world.
Noticing his gaze, Lu Wenchuan tapped his knee lightly with a finger.
"Young Master Xu, why are you looking at me like I'm already dead?"
"Because you don't have long to live," Xu Zhihan said flatly.
The team member's expression changed at the door. "What nonsense are you talking about?"
Lu Wenchuan raised a hand, signaling him to be quiet.
The team member swallowed his anger and said nothing more.
Lu Wenchuan looked at Xu Zhihan, a smile still on his lips, but his eyes were perfectly clear.
"How long do I have?"
Xu Zhihan hadn't expected him to ask so directly.
He glanced at Lu Wenchuan. "Three years. Six months if you're unlucky."
Lu Wenchuan nodded. "Not bad."
The team member grew anxious. "Captain!"
Lu Wenchuan didn't turn around. "What's all the fuss? I'm not dead yet."
Xu Zhihan watched him.
This man really was rather interesting.
On learning that he didn't have long to live, his first reaction wasn't fear or disbelief, but to weigh whether his remaining time would be enough.
He was clearheaded to an almost irritating degree.
Lu Wenchuan leaned forward slightly, his tone still lazy. "Then how about saving me?"
Xu Zhihan said nothing.
Lu Wenchuan smiled. "Not for free, of course. Money, power, resources, access to the Special Investigation Bureau. Whatever you want, we can discuss it."
Xu Zhihan coughed softly.
He had little strength at the moment, and no desire to negotiate.
"Not interested."
Lu Wenchuan wasn't surprised in the slightest.
"Then what are you interested in?"
"Quiet," Xu Zhihan said.
Lu Wenchuan paused, then laughed.
The team member at the door wore a complicated expression.
Today, he had finally met someone who dared to tell Lu Wenchuan to be quiet.
Lu Wenchuan leaned back in his chair. "All right. I'll keep my voice down."
A trace of impatience flashed in Xu Zhihan's eyes.
He was about to close his eyes and rest when he suddenly saw the mass of shadow behind Lu Wenchuan's Fate Line stir.
The thing had been hiding in the broken Fate Line.
Now, as if it had sensed Xu Zhihan watching it, it slowly raised its head.
The shadow had no complete face, only a split-open mouth.
It was smiling.
Its smile was brazen.
Xu Zhihan's gaze turned cold.
Lu Wenchuan noticed the change immediately.
"What did you see?"
Xu Zhihan didn't answer right away.
Half the shadow's body emerged from behind Lu Wenchuan's Fate Line, as though it meant to crawl out along his soul.
Lu Wenchuan suddenly raised his hand and pressed it against his right wrist.
The old injury was hurting even more.
The smile remained on his face, but his voice grew a little quieter.
"Tsk. It really knows how to pick its moment."
Xu Zhihan raised his hand and lightly tapped the air with a fingertip.
The lights in the ward dimmed for an instant.
As though something had pinned it in place, the shadow's split-open mouth abruptly froze.
Lu Wenchuan couldn't see the shadow, but he felt the pain in his right wrist suddenly pause.
He raised an eyebrow.
"And you said you weren't interested?"
Xu Zhihan's face grew a little paler.
Using his power made his chest feel tight. Right now, he very much wanted to throw Lu Wenchuan out, along with the thing attached to him.
Trouble.
Living people were trouble.
Living people on the verge of death were even more trouble.
Xu Zhihan withdrew his hand, his voice cold. "There's something attached to you."
"Can you kill it?" Lu Wenchuan asked.
Xu Zhihan glanced at him. "Yes."
Before Lu Wenchuan could smile, Xu Zhihan added, "Along with you."
Lu Wenchuan fell silent for half a second, then suddenly laughed.
"Young Master Xu, you really have a nasty temper."
Xu Zhihan closed his eyes.
"Get out."
Lu Wenchuan didn't move.
"One last question."
Xu Zhihan kept his eyes closed. "I'm not answering."
Lu Wenchuan acted as if he hadn't heard. "Who exactly are you?"
The hospital room fell quiet.
Xu Zhihan opened his eyes.
Their gazes met.
A trace of a smile still lingered on Lu Wenchuan's face, but much of his casual air had vanished. He watched Xu Zhihan as though studying a danger whose full scope had yet to reveal itself.
Xu Zhihan was watching him too.
A man whose Fate Line was half severed, yet who could still stand so steadily.
A man who clearly disliked trouble, yet had walked right into it of his own accord.
A few seconds later, Xu Zhihan looked away.
"A patient."
Lu Wenchuan gave a short laugh.
"Patients don't frighten evil spirits."
Xu Zhihan leaned back against the pillow, his tone flat. "Then just think of me as a dying patient."
Lu Wenchuan stood and picked up his coat.
At the door, he paused and looked back at him.
"All right, dying Young Master Xu."
Xu Zhihan frowned.
Lu Wenchuan added with a smile, "I'll come again tomorrow."
"No need," Xu Zhihan said coldly.
Lu Wenchuan waved a hand. "Don't be polite. I've got a thick skin."
The door closed.
Out in the corridor, a team member finally couldn't hold back. "Captain, who exactly is he?"
Lu Wenchuan didn't answer right away.
He lowered his gaze to his right wrist.
The old injury still hurt, but for that brief moment just now, it really had gone quiet.
After a long pause, Lu Wenchuan said softly, "I don't know."
The team member froze. "Even you can't figure him out?"
Lu Wenchuan smiled.
"That's what makes it trouble."
He lifted his head and looked toward the hospital room door.
"But there's one thing I'm sure of."
"What?"
"Those people in the Xu Family picked the wrong thing to mess with."