Chapter 144: Healing-Type Ability User Xu Yi
Around 5 a.m., as the sky brightened, Lu Weiyi quietly gathered a few people and laid out his plan.
He would have Liu Rui and Gu Qingji return to base with the main group, while Antonio would accompany him and Li Zhuang to Xiangning City Base.
“We could all go. More people, more help,” Gu Qingji suggested.
“No need. If none of us go back, the base will worry. Li Qing knows Su Yan, and he’s coming with us. With more supplies, there shouldn’t be any problem,” Lu Weiyi said. With Li Qing along, it meant they had Qingyuan’s military support—everything would be much easier to arrange.
It was the most reasonable plan. After a few more words, Li Qing had already made his preparations. Lu Weiyi took out a small cargo truck with a cabin from his space and asked Antonio and Li Qing, “Which of you wants to drive? Keep it steady.”
“I’ll drive.”
“I’ll drive.”
They answered in unison—then immediately added, also in unison: “I’ll take the passenger seat.”
“Oh, then both of you sit in front,” Lu Weiyi decided, then had Li Zhuang, still asleep, carefully carried into the back of the truck.
Li Qing and Antonio exchanged a glance and both silently let out a breath. They discreetly checked on Li Zhuang and Lu Weiyi in the back. After a moment, they both had the same complicated expression and wordlessly climbed into the vehicle.
The journey was kept as smooth as possible. Lu Weiyi had padded the cargo area to avoid worsening Li Zhuang’s injuries. After traveling for two full days, they finally arrived at the Xiangning City Base again.
“The Director already told us—you guys can stay in our corner of the base when you arrive. Lots of empty rooms there,” said Wang Ming, the man who came to pick them up. He looked to be around thirty years old, wore gold-rimmed glasses, and appeared refined—until he opened his mouth.
“Just what we needed. We were worried about not having a place to stay,” Li Qing replied as he drove, chatting with Wang Ming and asking about the hospital at the base.
“The hospital? That was originally built by the Xu family to treat their son, in cooperation with all the major powers within the base. It used to be a public facility, but something big happened recently. Now the hospital is practically becoming Xu family’s private turf,” Wang Ming said, looking helpless.
“What happened? Something that makes everyone afraid to complain?” Li Qing asked with some curiosity.
“The Xu family produced a healing-type ability user. His powers can directly cure illnesses—healing wounds, setting broken bones, that kind of thing is nothing for him,” Wang Ming explained.
“That… sounds like a rumor. Is there really such a powerful ability?” Li Qing said, although he was already half-convinced. It’s easy to trick one person or a small team, but if no one’s denying it, then it’s probably true.
If it was true, then Li Zhuang would have a real chance at recovery. That thought eased his mind. After all, he had brought the man out here, and he wanted every one of them to return safely.
“It’s real. Plenty of people have seen it,” Wang Ming confirmed. “If you want treatment, though, you’ll probably have to negotiate.”
Li Qing nodded. “Let’s wait for Su Yan to return and talk then.”
“Alright, for now you guys can settle in,” Wang Ming said, pointing the way forward. A few minutes later, they arrived at a police station. “Here we are.”
“Su Yan sure knows how to pick a place,” Li Qing said as he parked the vehicle and looked around.
Before the apocalypse, this must’ve been a local precinct—two stories tall, with a blue “POLICE” sign above the door. Inside, the layout formed a small enclosed courtyard. Not too big, not too small.
“Haha, well, it is our own turf,” Wang Ming laughed. He called over a few people to help, and they carefully lifted the unconscious Li Zhuang from the back of the truck and carried him inside.
“The upper two floors of the main hall are where the smaller squads and their families live. It gets a bit noisy with kids around. The Director’s room is deeper inside. That kid of yours—he’s staying next door to the Director. How about you guys take the room next to his?”
“Sure, anything works. We’ll go with your arrangements,” Li Qing replied. “Is Lu Xi here?”
“Nope,” Wang Ming said. “The Director had a buddy of his set up a booth at the base’s trading post to collect jade. He’s been super motivated, working from dawn till dusk. Sometimes he even shouts through a megaphone in the street. Makes me feel lazy in comparison. He won’t be back for a while—do you want to go check it out?”
Li Qing glanced at Lu Weiyi, who was a bit worried, but with Li Zhuang unable to move, he replied, “Let’s wait until he gets back. No rush.”
Wang Ming arranged two rooms for the four of them—about 30 square meters each, likely converted from old offices. Each room had two single beds and a nightstand, with a shared bathroom in the courtyard.
“Alright, you guys get some rest. A squad just returned—I’ll go check out their haul,” Wang Ming said, bidding them goodbye.
They split into two rooms—Li Qing and Antonio taking one. Once Wang Ming left, all four of them gathered in the room with Lu Weiyi and Li Zhuang. Li Qing then told them about the healing ability user Wang Ming had mentioned.
“If it’s true, even if Li Zhuang’s nerves are damaged, there’s still hope,” Li Qing said.
“But the whole base only has one. I bet treatment won’t come cheap,” Antonio added.
“That’s fine. As long as he recovers,” Lu Weiyi said. “Who knows, maybe someone in our team will awaken a healing ability in the future. Then we can start trading treatment for supplies too.”
“And if no one does?” Antonio said, thinking Lu Weiyi was overly optimistic.
Lu Weiyi gave him a meaningful look. “Then I’ll stab you a few times.” Maybe the urgency would trigger Dean’s ability awakening.
“Why stab me?” Antonio asked, stunned.
“Maybe… because you jinxed it,” Li Zhuang, lying in bed, joked with a smile.
The group chatted for a bit, and soon Su Yan returned from a supply run—he hadn’t even changed clothes. “You guys got back quick. How’d it go?”
Li Qing gave a bitter smile and motioned toward the bed. “Two dead. Several seriously injured.”
Su Yan patted his shoulder. He didn’t offer any hollow comfort—words meant nothing against pain. “Wang Ming told me you wanted someone checked out at the hospital? Maybe get surgery?”
“Yeah. Also wanted to ask if you could get that healing-type ability user to come take a look. Looks like his spine nerves might be injured,” Li Qing said.
“Surgery and tests will just be expensive. But getting the healer involved—that’s tough. There’s only one in the base, and his rates are sky-high,” Su Yan said, clearly reluctant to even mention the guy.
“Even sky-high has a price. If he can cure him, ask how much he wants,” Lu Weiyi said. “If it works, I’ll come back again. We’ll bring plenty of supplies.”
Hearing that, Li Qing immediately realized Lu Weiyi was also scouting for a way to treat Zhuang Mingxu. His gaze drifted toward Li Zhuang for a second—only for Li Zhuang to notice and look back, making Li Qing give a sheepish smile before turning back to Su Yan.
“With that tone, you’re basically walking up to the butcher’s table,” Su Yan said, rubbing his brow. “That guy’s no good.”
“How so? Booze, gambling, women?” Li Qing asked.
“Worse,” Su Yan sneered. “Before the apocalypse, there were plenty of boys and girls who were ruined by him—some not even of legal age…”
“Then how is he still around…”
“He’s powerful and well-connected. I was just a minor official with no real backing—there’s only so much justice I could serve,” Su Yan said, tone flat.
Li Qing looked at his once idealistic comrade, now hardened by the world, and didn’t know what to say.
But Su Yan didn’t seem to care and went on, “Before the apocalypse, he was the second son of the Xu family’s side branch. He caused all sorts of trouble and had already been disowned. Then the apocalypse hit. The eldest son from the main Xu branch got seriously injured and is now being kept alive at the hospital. That guy—he awakened a healing-type ability, and now the whole Xu family is depending on him. They treat him like royalty.”
Xiangning City, the Xu Family…
Lu Weiyi thought for a moment and asked, “Xu Sen?”
“That’s right, the eldest son of the main Xu family is Xu Sen,” Su Yan was surprised that Lu Weiyi knew.
“The second branch is… Xu Yi,” Lu Weiyi said quietly.
“You know him?” Li Qing asked.
“…” Lu Weiyi hesitated for a moment before replying, “High school classmate.”
“A… not-so-friendly classmate?” Antonio looked at his expression—it definitely didn’t look like they had a good relationship.
“More like… a sworn enemy,” Lu Weiyi finally found the right word. Seeing the others looking at him, he explained, “He tried to set me up, got caught by bodyguards, and Zhuang Mingxu wanted to kill him. The old master of the Xu family had to beg Zhuang Mingxu. In the end, Zhuang Mingxu had his tendons cut and broke one of his legs.”
“…” Everyone went silent for a moment. “Then… he probably won’t help us.”
“What happened to Xu Sen’s body?” Given Xu Yi’s personality, there were surely many who disliked him. Lu Weiyi didn’t answer the previous question but turned to ask Su Yan.
“He was crushed during the earthquake,” Su Yan glanced at Li Zhuang’s direction. “Paralyzed.”
“Did Xu Yi treat him?” Lu Weiyi asked.
“He did, but said it was too severe and would take multiple sessions,” Su Yan wasn’t sure whether that was an excuse. After all, Xu Yi was the first known healing-type ability user in the base—nobody really understood how it worked.
“Heh.” Lu Weiyi scoffed. He might have looked down on the dirty tactics of rich families, but that didn’t mean he didn’t understand them. It was obvious what Xu Yi was doing—using people’s ignorance of healing abilities to his advantage. Otherwise, how could a family that had been grooming heirs for generations not control someone like him?
“Help me arrange a meeting with Xu Sen. Tell him I can make Xu Yi behave. Urgently,” Lu Weiyi said to Su Yan.
“You know each other?” Su Yan asked.
“…Sort of. He’s one of Zhuang Mingxu’s business partners and has attended a few of my birthday parties,” Lu Weiyi replied.
Zhuang Mingxu was always eager to show the world how much he valued Lu Weiyi, and many of his business partners tried—and failed—to win Lu Weiyi over. Xu Sen had done the same when he took over the family business, and because Zhuang Mingxu agreed to partner with him, Xu Sen believed Lu Weiyi had played a role in securing that.
Zhuang Mingxu had loved making it obvious how important Lu Weiyi was to him, and naturally, never denied such things. As a result, every year during holidays, Xu Sen would send Lu Weiyi a special gift along with the regular ones.
Su Yan glanced at Li Qing. Seeing no objections, he nodded. “Alright.”
By then, it was already late. Just as they were about to eat together, someone rushed in and shouted from afar, “Chief! Bad news—Xu Yi took a liking to Lu Xi and just took him away!”
Su Yan shot up and cursed. “Anyone following? Do we know where they went?”
“Yes, some of our guys are on it. But we couldn’t risk barging in,” the man said.
Lu Weiyi stood up and straightened his clothes. He turned to Su Yan and said, “Please go bring Lu Xi back. Make sure he doesn’t get hurt. As for the others… as long as they’re alive, I’ll take responsibility for the rest.”
It was an extremely arrogant thing to say. But Su Yan didn’t know much about Lu Weiyi’s background, so he didn’t dwell on it. “Then you…?”
“Antonio and I will go meet Xu Sen. Please find someone to show us the way,” Lu Weiyi said, then turned to look at Li Zhuang lying on the bed.
Li Qing immediately said, “I’ll take good care of Brother Li.”
Lu Weiyi nodded. Before leaving, he said to Li Zhuang, “I’ll bring the person back.”
Li Zhuang lifted his head and smiled at him. “I’ll be waiting.”
At that moment, the refined young master stood tall and confident, exuding a natural charisma. Even Li Qing, watching from the side, was a little awed. He stole a glance at Li Zhuang and sighed silently.
