"All done?"
"Yeah, thanks for asking."
Yolanda Fang glanced at the bandages wrapped around Evan Lin's left hand. "You were in there so long, I thought something happened."
"Xiao Yi, are you okay? I heard from Lynn that you got hurt. Is your hand alright? What did the doctor say?"
On the other side, Aunt Lu hurried over when she saw Evan Lin, her voice anxious as she noticed the bandages on his hand. "Do you need any medicine? Why are you always so careless?"
"I'm fine, Aunt Lu."
"Hmph, even picking someone up turns into a mess with you."
Charles Chen looked at Evan Lin coming out, his face dark and cold as he snorted.
"Can you not?"
Aunt Lu frowned at Charles Chen, who waved her off. "I'll go get the car. By the way, Yolanda, it's so late—why not stay over at our place tonight?"
Lynn Chen chimed in as well: "Yeah, Yolanda, it's not safe for you to go home this late. Just stay over and share my room tonight."
Lynn and Yolanda had been friends since middle school, and Yolanda had stayed over at Lynn's house plenty of times before.
"Alright, sure."
Yolanda let Lynn drag her out, but before leaving, Lynn shot Evan a warning look.
Now only Aunt Lu and Evan Lin were left in the lobby.
"Xiao Yi, tell me—what really happened just now?"
Aunt Lu looked at Evan with a very serious expression.
Evan looked at Aunt Lu. "Didn't Lynn tell you?"
"She did. She said you tripped and fell while picking her up, so she and Yolanda brought you to the hospital to get checked out."
Aunt Lu's words made Evan understand right away.
Lynn hadn't told the truth.
But honestly, that was pretty normal. If Lynn told Aunt Lu and Charles Chen that she got into trouble at a classmate's birthday party and pissed off people at Imperial Grand KTV, she'd probably be grounded for life.
What puzzled Evan was that just a moment ago, there were tons of students from No. 1 High outside. Now, in the blink of an eye, they’d all vanished.
While he was thinking about it, Evan spotted some people peeking around in another hospital corridor.
So that's it—once they saw their parents were here, everyone went and hid.
Evan couldn't help but find it kind of funny.
"Yeah, that's right. I just wasn't paying attention and tripped, scraped my hand a bit, but it's fine now."
"By the way, Aunt Lu, why are you and Uncle Chen here? Is someone not feeling well?"
Evan found himself sizing up Aunt Lu.
Aunt Lu was in her early forties now, but thanks to her excellent skincare, her skin was soft and flawless, like creamy jade. If you didn’t look closely, you’d never guess her age—she looked more like a woman in her early thirties.
Evan remembered that Aunt Lu had always been healthy and he'd never heard of her having any health issues.
"It's not me or your Uncle Chen. It's one of his company leaders—nobody knows what kind of illness he has."
Aunt Lu sighed and shook her head. "Let's not talk about it. We should head home now—it's late, and you have school tomorrow. If you get back too late and end up late for class, that'll be trouble."
Aunt Lu led Evan out of the hospital, and they got into the car parked at the entrance.
Charles Chen had a cigarette dangling from his mouth, blowing smoke out the open window like a chimney.
Lynn and Yolanda sat in the back seat. Aunt Lu told Evan to take the front passenger seat, then got in the back herself and closed the door.
"Stop smoking, it's late."
Once in the car, Aunt Lu glanced at Charles, who was still smoking, and spoke up.
"Let me finish this one last puff."
Charles took a deep drag, then flicked the rest of the cigarette out the window.
Inside the car, Yolanda looked surprised when Evan got in—she hadn't expected him to ride with them.
"So, Yolanda, how's school going lately?"
Charles Chen glanced at the rearview mirror as he drove and asked the question.
"Same as always, Uncle Chen. You know me."
Yolanda was as straightforward as ever. "If my grades were as good as Lynn's, that'd be amazing."
"That's not fair. Lynn might do well in school, but there are plenty of things she's not as good at as you."
From the back seat, Aunt Lu pulled out some tissues and wiped Yolanda's face. Yolanda squeaked in protest, making Aunt Lu frown. "You're still so young. Stop wearing makeup all the time—it's bad for your skin."
"I know, Auntie, thanks for caring. I promise I'll stop next time."
"How many times have you said that? You think I still believe you?"
"Mom, give it a rest. Every time you see Yolanda, you nag her about this. She's actually a little scared of you now."
"No way, no way. Auntie just cares about me—I know that."
"You kid..."
Sitting in the front passenger seat, Evan listened to the lively chatter in the back and figured Yolanda must be really close with the Chen family.
Charles Chen, who was driving, looked sour and kept a blank face.
The car drove all the way to Brightsea Garden Court. In front of the villa, Charles parked and let Evan, Yolanda, and Lynn out first, then drove off to park in the garage.
Once the kids were gone, Aunt Lu stayed in the car, looking at Charles's worried face. "Don't worry too much. Maybe Manager Sheng will get better tomorrow?"
Charles lit another cigarette and took a drag. "Get better? The hospital doctors said the worst case is he'll be bedridden for life. They've run all sorts of tests but still can't find the problem."
Charles sighed. "You didn't see Neil Ping outside the ICU just now. He's the deputy general manager and has been waiting for Sheng to step down for ages. The worst part is, he and I have never gotten along. If Sheng really goes down this time, I might not be able to keep my position. I don't care about myself—I'm just worried you and Lynn will have to suffer with me."
(This chapter isn't finished yet~.~ Please click next page to continue reading!)
"Don't say that. There's always a way. Didn't the hospital invite a famous traditional Chinese doctor from River City? Things can't be that bad."
Aunt Lu comforted Charles, but honestly, she didn’t know what else she could do.
"Let’s hope so. Just don’t mention any of this to Lynn—I don’t want her stressing out. Also, about that thing I talked to you about before."
At this, Charles looked even more helpless. "It’s about Jason Zhao, the son of Victor Zhao, the head of the head office’s Project Department. He’s coming to stay at our place for a while. I’ve already agreed, and backing out now would look really bad."
Aunt Lu was annoyed and wanted to refuse, but seeing how exhausted and worried Charles looked, she calmed herself and said, "He can stay, but he has to be in the room next to Evan’s—far away from Lynn."
"Sure, sure, no problem. We’ve got plenty of space anyway."
Charles brightened up when Aunt Lu relented.
"Alright, I’m heading in to wash up. I’m tired."
Aunt Lu got out of the car. Charles took a deep breath. "As long as Victor Zhao’s got my back, even if Neil Ping really becomes general manager, I won’t have to worry. Worst case, I’ll just transfer to head office."
The head office is in River City, which is the provincial capital. There’s way more room to grow there than in Brightsea City.
Thinking about this, Charles felt much more optimistic, like a weight had been lifted. He was actually kind of looking forward to meeting Jason Zhao now.
Evan went into his room, washed his face, and sat cross-legged on the bed.
"Tonight, I have to reach the first layer of qi-refining. Qi-refining layer one is the first threshold on the path of cultivation—drawing qi into the body, circulating it along the refining route, and expanding the meridians to strengthen the physique."
"Even with the dragon in my left hand, the dragon-qi right now is barely worth mentioning."
"If I, Evan 'Nine Mysteries' Lin, hadn’t spent three hundred years fighting and mastering countless martial arts and daoist techniques, I might’ve been finished by those guys at Imperial Grand KTV tonight. Besides, there must be martial arts masters in this world too. If I run into one before I’m strong enough, things could get ugly."
Evan calmed his mind, took a deep breath, and carefully guided a wisp of qi around his body, following the Grand Dao Qi-Refining route through his meridians.
In the darkness, faint wisps of white mist appeared beside Evan.
The white mist swirled around him, drifting along his skin before finally merging into his body.
The next moment, Evan snapped his eyes open—a flash of white light flickered in his gaze, followed by a wave of comfort as all his muscles relaxed.
"First layer of qi-refining. I’ve finally stepped onto the path of cultivation. With my current strength, I could wipe the floor with those Imperial Grand KTV thugs—twice over if I wanted."
Evan glanced at his left hand. "The dragon in my left hand still looks lifeless. I’ll probably need to reach Foundation Establishment to really wake it up. But to break through to Foundation Establishment, I’ll need to draw true spiritual energy into my body at the tenth layer of qi-refining. Too bad there’s basically no spiritual energy on Earth—cultivation’s going to be a real headache."
"But I’m only at the first layer now. It’ll take a while to reach the tenth, and I’m sure I’ll figure something out by then. Plus, after breaking through, I can really feel how much stronger my left hand is. I could probably punch through a thick old tree now—maybe even steel."
Evan was pretty satisfied with his progress. He glanced at the clock—it was already 2 a.m.
Meanwhile, in Lynn’s room, Yolanda stripped off her clothes in one go.