He knew perfectly well what was going on with himself.
Lu Jiuxiao was painfully aware that after the car accident, his mind was in a much worse state than his body. But, bizarrely enough, after secretly visiting several psychiatrists behind his grandfather’s back, all the doctors had come to basically the same conclusion: he wasn’t really having any serious mental problems.
So then, what was up with that endless, nagging whisper in his ears… Was it just a hallucination?!
He was hallucinating, and they dared say “not a serious problem”?!
Lying there in the ICU, he kept obsessing over whether he was mentally ill, so much so that he didn’t even have time to hate Gu Su and Lu Zhentong, or the perpetrator who was still on the run.
And then, out of nowhere, his biological father, who he’d never had much contact with, suddenly turned up—bringing Qin Er and Xu Chen along with him!
He stopped torturing himself over whether he was actually sick, and instead poured all his energy into hating his biological father: If it weren’t for that man, he wouldn’t have ended up like this!
Sure, his mom was a bit of a flirt, constantly swapping boyfriends every so often, but he knew she was truly good to him—she cared, she took care of him, and she actually respected what he thought.
His dad, on the other hand, was the textbook definition of a deadbeat—good-looking but useless, and ever since his mom died, all he did was hit him up for money.
Even though the money transfers were always handled by an assistant, and his dad wouldn’t have been able to see him even if he’d wanted to, it still annoyed Lu Jiuxiao. Just the thought of his biological father set him on edge. Now, every time he thought of the man, he got so angry he could hardly contain himself—but when he actually faced him, his fury fizzled out halfway, leaving him with so little momentum it even made throwing a fit feel hollow.
Damn, the more he thought about it, the angrier he got!
Fueled by the idea that “if I’m miserable, I’ll make you even more miserable,” Lu Jiuxiao psyched himself up: I can even torment Gu Su! Cheng Jingzhou, you owe me! I don’t have long to live, but I’ll make sure you spend the rest of your days drowning in regret!
To be fair, Lu Jiuxiao’s face was half-wrapped in gauze, but just a look at his right eye was enough for Qin Jingzhou to confirm that this so-called cheap son was such a drama king only because there was something wrong with his head—really, something wrong upstairs.
Once they got home, he planned to demonstrate something in public, to give his employees something to talk about, and maybe boost collective morale.
While Lu Jiuxiao was making all sorts of plans for tormenting his biological father, the attending physician suddenly hurried in and asked, “Mr. Lu, you want to be discharged? Not transferred to another hospital, but discharged?”
Lu Jiuxiao froze. Not being transferred? He struggled to turn his head to look at his father. “Are you trying to kill me?”
Qin Jingzhou folded his arms. “Do you dare?”
Lu Jiuxiao glared with his single eye. “I don’t dare? I’m not even afraid of death.”
Qin Jingzhou said to the doctor, “The part of my son that’s the most seriously burnt is his brain. Keep going with the discharge process, your vice president will vouch for you.”
The Vice President of Jingguan Hospital happened to be Qin Er’s aunt.
The doctor snapped out of it, realizing he was almost back at his office... and he couldn’t help but feel regret: Why couldn’t Lu Jiuxiao be more like his father?
After Lu Jiuxiao was loaded onto the ambulance, the medical staff who’d cared for him gathered for a whispered discussion: Mr. Cheng really wasn’t how the rumors made him out to be...
The young nurse with the red face added, “If there’s gossip about a rich family, there’s no way to explain yourself out of it.”
The attending physician sighed. “Isn’t that the truth.”
The ambulance brought Lu Jiuxiao to the building where the Cheng family lived, and the bodyguards worked together to carry him up into the elevator.
The Cheng family’s building was less than thirty years old, neither old nor new, but at least it had elevators.
And over the past few days, Qin Er and Xu Chen had quietly gotten a lot done behind the scenes, for example, buying up half of the twelve-story, two-apartment-per-floor building: There were lots of wild stories about Uncle Cheng, but being as beautiful as a flower and loving to stay home were definitely true. Even after becoming a Gu martial master, he still had no intention of moving.
The two brothers had already planned it: as soon as renovations were done, they’d move in together. Qin Father and Qin Mother had also bought a house in a nearby upscale neighborhood, also just waiting for the renovations to finish so they could move.
Qin Jingzhou had been out two days in a row, and although the neighbors hadn’t spotted him the first time, it was obvious the brothers had activated their money-spending powers. But he was happy to see it. As far as praise went, though, the boys didn’t quite deserve it yet.
Anyway, Lu Jiuxiao was carried into the living room with great care. Qin Jingzhou went to the kitchen to wash his hands and put on gloves.
Xu Chen was even more efficient. He was already standing at the side of the stretcher, holding sterilized silver needles in his gloved hands.
Qin Jingzhou picked up a silver needle, infused it with true qi so that it transformed into a golden needle, and as the new assistants’ eyes focused in shock, he stuck the needle into the socket of his cheap son’s left eye—right beside it.
Lu Jiuxiao’s right eye went wide. “This has to be a hallucination! I’m hallucinating again!”
Qin Jingzhou ignored him and signaled the assistant with a medical doctorate to step forward and remove the gauze on Lu Jiuxiao’s face.
The assistant did so without hesitation; that display from the boss just now had utterly intimidated him.
Lu Jiuxiao was certainly erratic for many reasons and not the sharpest tool in the shed, but he wasn’t actually mentally handicapped. He noticed that the assistant was so careful about removing the gauze, and he felt no pain at all…
He couldn’t help but say, “So that needle just now was for pain relief! With skills like yours, why did Mom dump you? Why didn’t you try to get back together? If Mom wouldn’t have it, Grandpa wouldn’t have given you a hard time for my sake. If you needed money for cultivation, why not just tell me!”
Qin Jingzhou’s tone was utterly flat. “I’ve never asked you for money. Just so you know, back then, I got 20 million in breakup compensation, and I still haven’t spent it all.” After saying this, he picked up another silver needle, infused it with true qi, and poked it into Lu Jiuxiao’s chin.
Lu Jiuxiao’s eyes were saucer-wide, but he couldn’t make a sound.
Qin Jingzhou ordered the assistant, “Move a bit faster. You could peel his whole face off right now and he still wouldn’t feel a thing.”
The assistant hurriedly agreed. “Okay.”
Qin Jingzhou then instructed the nearest bodyguard, “Go and wash out the rice cooker from yesterday in the kitchen.” Then he sent Xu Chen off. “Go to my study and bring over those herbs on my desk.”
Qin Er couldn’t contain himself and whispered, “Is this that legendary rice cooker pill-refining?”
With the rice cooker cleaned, Xu Chen tossed each of the various herbs into the pot, added a bottle of mineral water, and pressed the “Start” button. All anyone had to do was wait.
Only Lu Jiuxiao, who still couldn’t speak and felt no pain, lay on his back with his entire wound exposed to the air.
He had a faint, almost unbelievable sense of hope.
After a quick science lesson from the assistant, everyone learned that Lu Jiuxiao’s burns were about as serious as third-degree burns could get—he absolutely needed a skin graft.
Exposing the wound like this was practically a death wish... If Mr. Cheng wasn't a certified Gu martial master, and if the assistant didn’t trust that Mr. Cheng wouldn’t harm his child, there was no way they'd have agreed to this.
Half an hour later, Qin Jingzhou signaled Xu Chen to open the rice cooker lid. As soon as it was lifted, the scent of jasmine washed over everyone, and each of them instantly felt a surge of energy.
The assistant, following Qin Jingzhou’s instructions, soaked some ready-made gauze in the pale brown medicine, took a mirror in hand, and walked over to Lu Jiuxiao—waiting for the boss’s order to proceed.
Qin Jingzhou took off his gloves, sat by the window, and nonchalantly lit a cigarette. “Let him take a look in the mirror first, see what sort of glory he’s sporting. I’m curious too, how you managed to act so spoiled and needy with me while looking like that. Gu Su tells you she loves you while staring at this face—do you even believe her? Xiao Li, take the needle out of his chin.”
The assistant’s surname was Li. Right now, he did whatever the boss said.
Pulling out the needle was like lifting a seal; Lu Jiuxiao was able to speak, and his anger flared. “You think I’m ugly!” But as soon as he actually took a good look at himself in the mirror, shock hit him so hard he fell silent.
Everyone present: ...
Wasn’t the point here that his dad, Mr. Cheng, treated third-degree burns the same way normal people treat a paper cut?!
Qin Jingzhou was unmoved. “Apply the medicine.”
The gauze, now saturated with medicine, was the perfect temperature. Assistant Li carefully laid it over Lu Jiuxiao’s wound.
Lu Jiuxiao nearly did a sit-up and tumbled off the stretcher!
He couldn’t feel any pain, but as soon as the medicine-soaked gauze touched his wound, it itched like crazy—like thousands of ants crawling across his injured face. The medicine trickled down his cheeks and into his nose and mouth, sweet and bloody, with a hint of stench... All in all, pretty disgusting.
It took every ounce of self-control he had not to reach up and scratch, or vomit on the spot. For a moment, he even forgot about the trauma of seeing his own ruined face.
Qin Jingzhou’s instructions came a little late: “Tie him up, the dressing has to stay on all day.” He added, with intention, “If the results meet my expectations, I’ll register for a patent and push for it to become an over-the-counter drug.”
Assistant Li grinned from ear to ear, “On behalf of—” He pulled himself up short. “Thank you, sir!”
The bodyguards swarmed over and tied Lu Jiuxiao securely to the stretcher.
At six in the evening, Qin Jingzhou sent the employees home and didn’t let anyone stay late.
Lu Jiuxiao thought his dad would wait until everyone was gone to talk to him, but instead, his dad completely ignored him, silenced him, and went to his study to play games... with the door wide open, just to spite him!
Frustrated as he was, he still couldn’t resist drowsiness, and when the morning sun hit his face, he realized he’d slept for over ten hours...
The most critical part: ever since he came back home with his dad, that omnipresent whisper in his ear... had vanished. Just like that—gone, without any warning!
He couldn’t believe it. What on earth was his dad?! Could he ward off evil spirits and bring good fortune to a house? If he’d known he might be possessed... he...
He was so emotional his head buzzed.
Just then, his dad walked out from the study, cigarette in one hand and a mirror in the other. His dad undid the strap binding his right arm and shoved the mirror into his hand.
He took the mirror and examined himself, “I don’t see much difference...” But then he caught the hint of change: through the thin gauze, he could vaguely see the wound beneath. “How did it—scab over in just one night?”
Qin Jingzhou’s lips twitched. He looked toward that grayish mass of fog in his cheap son’s mind. “Gu Su knows you’re here with me, she’ll definitely come looking for you, so pull yourself together. Otherwise, I’ll show you who your real father is.”
Lu Jiuxiao: ...
“Don’t think just because you healed me, I have to listen to you!”
Qin Jingzhou saw that gray cloud in his mind pulse slightly. Raising his hand, he jabbed in another needle, then grabbed his cheap son by the collar and hung him from the living room chandelier.