The system spoke up. "I thought you'd make him stew a bit longer."
Qin Jingzhou lifted his hand and ruffled his foolish son's hair. "Look at those eyes, full of hope and expectation."
Lu Jiuxiao might not be as handsome as his father, but he was still a good-looking young man, and his eyes were especially striking. The system studied Lu Jiuxiao for a few seconds. "His eyes look like the original host's."
Qin Jingzhou tore off another bloody scab from his foolish son. The part that had yet to fully heal began to ooze blood. "First time acting cute and yielding. I should encourage that."
So, the rice cooker that had once simmered miracle medicine made its "triumphant return."
Qin Jingzhou made a point to explain, "This is a special face mask that can repair all kinds of skin issues in a very short time, but the price is some damage to your vitality. I figured you'd rather feel a bit drained for a while than look a mess in front of Old Master Lu."
Lu Jiuxiao gave a distracted "mm."
Lin Baiming looked at his left hand, which had once been wounded down to the bone and was now covered by a layer of muscle, and curiously asked, "Does this count as slow nourishing therapy?"
Qin Jingzhou stirred the herbs in the pot with a wooden spoon. "Right. Unless there's a special case, we default to slow nourishing therapy."
Lin Baiming, much like another master with a chronic neck injury, had been ill for so long that he’d basically become a medical expert himself. He could tell what most of the "additives" were and what they did, and he was secretly amazed: These herbs might seem ordinary, but in Mister Cheng’s hands they became something miraculous!
He waited for Qin Jingzhou to finish stirring and set the spoon down on a clean plate beside the pot, then asked carefully, "Can I try this medicine?"
Qin Jingzhou answered, "Sure."
Amusingly, he found Lin Baiming pretty easy to get along with—at least more so than his own foolish son.
Once the two bowls of water had boiled down to almost nothing, he used sterilized tweezers to pick up a wad of cotton, dipped it into the herbal liquid full of remnants, and handed the tweezers and cotton to Lin Baiming. Then he tossed a sheet mask into the rice cooker. When the sheet had soaked through, he fished it out with tweezers, now dripping with the medicinal liquid.
When the liquid had cooled enough, he handed the sheet mask to his foolish son, gesturing for Lin Baiming to press the cotton ball to his own injury.
Lin Baiming didn't hesitate. He pressed the herbal-soaked, not-at-all-appealing cotton ball straight onto the new muscle growth.
As soon as the medicinal liquid met flesh, a fresh fragrance wafted up, clearing his mind. The cooling, tingling sensation on the wound made him break into a hearty laugh. "This is just magical!"
Lu Jiuxiao plastered the sheet mask on his own face. Right now, he still couldn't shake the suspicion that his father didn't really love him or truly care, but he could never question his dad’s... unmatched medical skills.
Even with his mind a tangled mess and little desire to speak, the feel of the liquid against his skin made him blurt out, "This... is really good."
Qin Jingzhou ruffled his foolish son's hair again. "Maybe you won't say that when you get back." After half an hour, when the liquid had dried, he told his son and Lin Baiming, "Alright, that's enough."
Lin Baiming removed the cotton. Where it had pressed, a new layer of skin had grown:...
Lu Jiuxiao pulled off the sheet mask. Apart from some uneven coloring, his face was almost "as good as new," even the lashes on his injured left eyelid had regrown. He stared at himself in the mirror, stunned.
Qin Er couldn’t help but mutter under his breath, "This is fucking outrageous..."
Xu Chen and Assistant Li also nodded in agreement.
Qin Jingzhou let a fleeting smile appear on his face. "It’s not outrageous. You’ll know the price by tonight." He looked at Lin Baiming. "Old Lin, I’m relying on you."
In an instant, Lin Baiming's expression and tone changed. "I’ll give it my all!"
Lin Baiming claimed law as his main job and martial arts master as his side gig.
His mentor was one of the leading legal authorities, who’d helped draft numerous laws and regulations, with connections and students all over the country after decades of work.
With Lin Baiming’s formidable skills and terrifying network, his promise to go all out meant that Old Master Lu wouldn’t take advantage of them at all—in fact, he’d probably find himself in hot water, and that trouble would not be minor.
Qin Jingzhou gave his son another instruction. "Get yourself dressed up nicely in a bit, it'll make me happy just to look at you."
Lu Jiuxiao lowered his eyes. "Alright."
With Xu Chen nudging him to take care of his personal hygiene, Assistant Li contacted the makeup artist and tailor, and the custom-made prosthetic eye was already on its way—Lu Jiuxiao’s left eye had been so badly damaged that the doctors had removed it without hesitation once he was in the hospital.
After everyone finished fussing over him, Lu Jiuxiao looked at his reflection again. Even with his complicated feelings, he had to admit, "I really do look decent again." His tall, thin, pale frame paired with striking features was one thing, but there was nothing he could do about the lingering air of gloom and illness between his brows.
Lin Baiming, seeing it more objectively, observed, "Looks even better than before, honestly. Can’t argue with ‘all dressed up.’" His left hand was wrapped up again, but thanks to acupuncture and medicinal salve, he had regrown significant muscle, and just now another patch of skin had formed. He was even able to grip a cigarette with his left hand. "It sure works."
Qin Jingzhou lit a cigarette as well. "Not so crazy anymore."
At this, Lu Jiuxiao even smiled. "Yeah, I think so too."
At 2:15 in the afternoon, Qin Jingzhou’s group arrived in four cars—two luxury vans in the middle, flanked front and back by modified SUVs—right on time outside the especially lively front gate of the Lu Corporation headquarters.
The Lu Corporation headquarters was in the Central Business District of the Capital City, newly built less than five years ago. Of course they had an underground parking lot designed to avoid reporters, livestreamers, and gawking bystanders—yet, inconveniently, the parking garage gate was under maintenance...
Lin Baiming and Qin Jingzhou, seated in the second van, just laughed when they learned of this. "The new heir is already playing these petty tricks. The Lu Family's days are numbered."
Qin Jingzhou just smiled and kept quiet, his gaze pinpointing the onlookers in the crowd, landing exactly on Xiang Feng and... Gu Su. If Gu Su didn’t step in, his foolish son would no doubt get agitated.
Sure enough, his foolish son Lu Jiuxiao pushed open the car door hard, and with the help of the bodyguards, got himself into the wheelchair and headed anxiously in Gu Su's direction.
The bodyguards followed just a step or two behind, but someone took advantage of the moment—an individual burst out from the mass of reporters, acting as if he’d been shoved from the crowd and toppled Lu Jiuxiao to the ground.
The bodyguards reacted instantly, swarming forward to restrain the "intruder," but momentarily left Lu Jiuxiao where he was.
Because Lu Jiuxiao, sitting right there on the ground, looked utterly unruffled—though his brow was tightly furrowed, and he immediately lifted a hand to press his forehead.
Lin Baiming’s gaze sharpened. "They actually hired a little expert."
Qin Jingzhou could see more clearly than Lin Baiming: the attacker was at the third layer of qi refining, and had pumped a burst of true qi into his foolish son while knocking him over.
Bodyguards from the other car hurried over and opened the door. Qin Jingzhou stepped out, straightening his suit before striding over to Lu Jiuxiao.
He bent down and stretched out his arms, one hand on his son's shoulder, the other scooping his legs up, and carried Lu Jiuxiao in a princess hold. Using the physical contact, he easily shattered the foreign burst of true qi.
Lu Jiuxiao unconsciously relaxed his brow... and when he realized he was in his father’s arms, his entire face flushed red, even foundation couldn't hide it.
Lin Baiming rushed over. "How is he?"
Qin Jingzhou answered quietly, "No big deal." He couldn’t be bothered to put his son back in the wheelchair; he just carried him inside the building.
Assistant Li quickly made arrangements and hurried after them.
Thanks to Xiang Feng's posts on social media predicting that Lu Jiuxiao would officially sever ties with Old Master Lu today, all kinds of nosy netizens were paying close attention to the related news and topics.
Meanwhile, a livestream room titled "Live Broadcast: The Lu Family’s Chaotic Feud" drew tens of thousands of viewers in a short time. The streamer, confident they held the secret to racking up views, worked professionally, keeping the HD camera fixed on the main players.
When Qin Jingzhou appeared on screen, the high-definition lens faithfully captured his image: as tall and thin and pale as his son, but with gold-rimmed glasses, a face of luxurious ennui, and a perfectly-fitted three-piece suit that looked grown onto his frame... For a few seconds, the constant barrage of on-screen comments stopped, then returned in an explosive flood.
The top-rated comment was: Is this the brightest star in the night sky? No, this is the moon!
Next, as he picked his son up off the ground and Lin Baiming also entered the frame, viewers’ theories went wild: Were both the eldest Miss Lu’s ex-husband and ex-boyfriend fighting for Lu Jiuxiao? The speculation about their true relationships made everyone's head spin.
Leaving the netizens aside, Old Master Lu was in his office waiting for the son-in-law he disliked the most and the former almost-son-in-law he’d once favored—that last boyfriend of his daughter. He was somewhat surprised. "Xiao Lin, whatever they paid you as a retainer, I can double it."
Old Master Lu’s assistant pursed his lips, brought in tea himself, and then shrank away into a corner.
Lin Baiming studied Old Master Lu for a moment, sighed, and said, "Old Master, you weren’t like this before... No need to jump to conclusions, Jiuxiao is sincerely here to transfer his assets."
Old Master Lu turned his gaze to Lu Jiuxiao, who sat facing him, and let out a scornful laugh in his anger. "You even lied about your injuries and condition to me... Turns out I raised a heartless wolf."
Still lingering on the memory of being carried in his father’s arms, Lu Jiuxiao snapped back to reality at Old Master Lu's angry tirade. He wanted to explain, but it didn’t seem worth it. "A heartless wolf wouldn’t want to give back shares and property. The reason I’m paraplegic—you know perfectly well. You never tried to nurture me, only tried to destroy me. If I refuse, to you that’s always wrong, always a sin."
This cut to the heart, and Old Master Lu was quick to retort. "I used to think your father was latching onto that little upstart from the Qin Family, but it seems now he can still cozy up with Lin Baiming—do you expect that someone like..."
Qin Jingzhou smacked his palm down, and the desk in front of them instantly collapsed. He stood, stepped forward, and grabbed Old Master Lu by the collar. "I’ll give you a chance to organize your thoughts, alright?"
Old Master Lu’s assistant and lawyer glanced at the remains of what used to be the desk—a solid wood tabletop with steel legs... Not only had the solid wood splintered into dust, but even the steel frame had twisted into a pretzel... They both froze in shock.
Quick-handed Lin Baiming was holding three glasses of water and muttering quietly, "What’s so bad about staying alive?"
When did his dad get so terrifying?
Lu Jiuxiao looked down at the wreckage at his feet, awakening as if from a dream: Wait, he hauls me around all the time like I’m a kitten! He covered his forehead. "So I’m not just crazy, but brainless too... am I?"
Lin Baiming smiled. "Just a small issue. After all, your dad can treat that too."