Chapter 147: Trapping Xu Yi
They took a back door, so the test results came out quickly—within half an hour. The attending physician, a woman in her fifties, held the scans and explained the situation to the “family.”
Li Zhuang was lucky. The steel bar had just barely grazed his lung but hadn’t injured it. His ribs had shifted just enough to avoid damaging internal organs. Everything had been protected well enough to avoid secondary harm. He only needed surgery to reset his ribs.
“Did it affect the spinal nerves? He can’t sit up well,” Lu Weiyi asked.
“Probably this part—there’s a slight misalignment in the spine here. The rest looks fine,” the doctor said.
“Can it be reset?” Lu Weiyi asked.
“This is a major surgery, with high risks. We can’t guarantee the nerves will recover after. It might even make things worse,” the doctor replied.
“What do you think? Are you going to do it or not? I’ll try my best to get Xu Yi to treat you,” Lu Weiyi said, without making any concrete promises.
“Of course I’ll do it. If I end up paralyzed, don’t forget you’ll have to support me,” Li Zhuang replied with a laugh, as if he wasn’t taking it seriously.
Lu Weiyi gave a solemn promise. “Don’t worry.”
Su Yan was busy himself, so he sent Wang Ming to accompany them. They had all been working hard the whole day. After sending Li Zhuang into the operating room, Lu Weiyi set up a table not far from the OR and had a meal there.
The setting wasn’t ideal, but the food was excellent. Wang Ming and Li Qing were stuffing their faces, grease all over their mouths.
After the meal, Lu Weiyi told Antonio to keep an eye on Xu Yi. “You don’t have to do anything else. Every time he reattaches a finger, cut it off again. Keep repeating the process until he can’t reattach it anymore.”
“…” Antonio hesitated and asked, “Are you doing this just to torture him?”
“I’m testing the level of his ability. Helping him burn through his power to level up faster,” Lu Weiyi replied righteously.
Yeah, right.
Although Antonio didn’t believe him, he didn’t argue. He glanced at the burger, wings, and cola Lu Weiyi had brought for Lu Xi and said, “I’ll take another serving too.”
“Didn’t you just eat?” Lu Weiyi glanced at his stomach—it hadn’t changed one bit.
“I do manual labor,” Antonio shamelessly replied. Lu Weiyi rolled his eyes but gave him another portion anyway.
In the hospital, Li Qing and Wang Ming waited with Lu Weiyi for the surgery to finish. The three of them munched on sunflower seeds and chatted casually. Time flew by.
Around 9:30 p.m., Su Yan arrived with Xu’s father. “Too many things going on—I just finished handling them. Have you had dinner? I can get someone to bring food.”
“We ate already, boss. Young Master Lu treated us to a feast—braised pork with glass noodles, and some red-braised pork belly. It was amazing. Just thinking about it is making my mouth water again,” Wang Ming exaggerated with a laugh.
“We saved you a portion. I wanted to treat you to dinner, but the setting wasn’t appropriate, so take it back with you. We’ll eat together next time,” Lu Weiyi took several large portions of mutated meat dishes from his storage. “It’s from a mutated pig we hunted a while ago. The family cooked it specially for ability users—try it.”
“Mutated pig? I’ve seen mutated rats at the base, but never a pig. Alright then, I won’t be polite,” Su Yan accepted the packed plastic containers. He pointed at Xu’s father and said, “Mr. Xu said he wanted to see you, so I brought him over.”
Xu’s father came to deliver crystal cores—500 of them—and also inquired about the exchange rates between supplies, cores, and jade. All of this had been agreed upon earlier, based on current market rates. Lu Weiyi even explained the differences in value between fire and metal elemental cores compared to others.
“The rest will be settled in full by the day after tomorrow at the latest,” Xu’s father said, staring intently at Lu Weiyi. “I hope Young Master Lu remembers what he promised.”
“Sure. Also, find a group of people with nerve injuries—preferably all in the lumbar spine area. As long as the nerves are damaged,” Lu Weiyi said as he stored all the crystal cores into his spatial storage.
“What for?” Xu’s father frowned.
Lu Weiyi looked at him calmly without answering. After a moment, Xu’s father said, “Understood. I’ll send them over as soon as possible.”
Lu Weiyi nodded.
“What did you do? He gave you so many crystal cores,” Li Qing asked after Xu’s father left.
Even though most of the 500 were non-elemental, and the rest were mainly wood and water, the pile made Su Yan’s eyes green with envy. “Even my whole team combined doesn’t have that many.”
“He wants to improve Xu Yi’s ability. I traded a healing-type crystal core with him,” Lu Weiyi replied.
“Healing-type?” Su Yan raised an eyebrow.
“Got it off a mutated dog,” Lu Weiyi shrugged.
“Lucky guy,” Su Yan gave him a thumbs-up.
“It was the team that risked their lives for it,” Lu Weiyi said modestly.
After chatting for a bit, Su Yan had to head out again the next day. He left Wang Ming and Li Qing to help take care of Lu Weiyi and went back.
*
Past 2 a.m., Li Zhuang’s surgery was completed. The doctors and nurses all looked exhausted, but the news was good—his ribs and spine had been fully repaired. Now they just had to wait for Xu Yi to do his part.
After days of tension, Lu Weiyi finally relaxed a little.
Early the next morning, as the anesthesia wore off, Li Zhuang woke up.
Lu Weiyi was the only one in the room, lying on the edge of the bed, not sure if he was asleep. As soon as he heard movement, he opened his eyes. “You’re awake. How do you feel?”
Li Zhuang frowned and said after a moment, “…I can’t feel anything from the waist down.”
“Mm,” Lu Weiyi wasn’t surprised. “I’ll get Xu Yi to treat you as soon as possible. For now, pretend you can move, just don’t want to. Trick the doctors here.”
After all, treating Li Zhuang wasn’t part of the deal with Xu Yi. Who knew what would happen if Xu Sen and the others found out?
“Got it. Little Master, did you stay with me all night? The surgery went pretty well, huh,” Li Zhuang teased, not a hint of worry on his face—still in the mood to joke.
Lu Weiyi rolled his eyes at him but didn’t argue for once.
*
Xu Yi’s ability only lasted long enough to reattach four of his fingers before it was depleted.
While Xu Yi was delirious, Antonio gave him five crystal cores. If they waited for his power to recover on its own, the remaining severed finger might rot and become useless. Xu Yi had no choice but to absorb the five cores and reattach the last finger. But what came next was the same process—cut it off and reattach it again.
By the second time, he was already breaking down, begging Antonio to stop. When Lu Weiyi went to see him, Xu Yi was about to face the third round of finger reattachment.
The viciousness he had when he first met Lu Weiyi was completely gone. He was kneeling on the ground, begging, “Please, I beg you, let me go. I’ll do anything you ask. Just don’t cut anymore… don’t cut anymore…”
“Are you sure?” Lu Weiyi asked.
“I’m sure, I’m sure,” Xu Yi cried.
“I want you to treat someone—his nerves are damaged,” Lu Weiyi said.
Xu Yi’s first reaction was to think of Xu Sen. Although he kept his head lowered in a submissive posture, his eyes flashed with a trace of malice. “Fine. As long as you let me go, I’ll treat anyone.”
“Good.” Lu Weiyi pointed to his own eyes and pulled out a blindfold from his storage. He said to Antonio, “Take him over.”
Antonio took the blindfold, covered Xu Yi’s eyes, then picked him up and carried him out.
That morning, Xu’s father had sent over a patient with spinal nerve damage. Lu Weiyi had already explained that this was for experimentation and told him not to expect results. Besides, Xu’s father had already paid part of the compensation in advance.
After settling the patient, Lu Weiyi went to check on Xu Yi.
After driving in circles for a while and then being carried a bit by Antonio, Xu Yi was finally brought next door to his original holding room. Once inside, Antonio placed him down and guided his hand to a spot of bare skin through the clothes.
“Go ahead and treat him,” said Lu Weiyi.
“Okay, okay,” Xu Yi responded, reached out, felt the area, then suddenly punched down hard—he had actually figured out how to channel his power into his fist.
“Ah…”
“Hahaha…”
The pained cry of the elderly man on the bed and Xu Yi’s manic laughter made a stark contrast.
“Xu Sen, I will never treat you! You’ll stay a cripple forever, hahahaha…” Xu Yi laughed viciously, then yanked off the blindfold—only for his expression to freeze.
In the cramped room, Lu Weiyi and Antonio silently watched his performance. On the single bed lay a scruffy old man, currently clutching his lower back in pain.
“Happy now?” Lu Weiyi asked calmly.
Xu Yi shuddered, tried to run, but Antonio grabbed him immediately. At Lu Weiyi’s quiet command, “Entertain him properly,” Xu Yi was dragged back to the adjacent room—where tendons in his hands and feet were once again severed.
Lu Weiyi had deliberately let Xu Yi believe he was treating Xu Sen, both to test him and set a trap, while also laying groundwork for potentially treating Xu Sen in the future.
By the time Xu Yi begged for forgiveness a second time, Lu Weiyi gave him another trial patient. This time Xu Yi obediently treated the person’s spine and received a flat “Not bad. We’ll continue tomorrow” from Lu Weiyi—along with permission for Antonio to finally let the starving Xu Yi drink some water.
*
In the hospital
During morning rounds, the doctor asked about Li Zhuang’s condition.
Li Zhuang replied calmly, “No sensation. I must be paralyzed. Please tell that boy who stayed with me last night.”
The doctors found his indifference hard to believe. In this world, being paralyzed often meant being abandoned or dying.
They asked more questions, but all of Li Zhuang’s answers indicated things weren’t working, or he couldn’t feel anything. It sounded like he wanted to be paralyzed.
At noon, Lu Xi went back to get lunch for both of them. Left alone in the ward, Li Zhuang heard the footsteps of a doctor coming with IV fluid. He used both hands to push himself upright. Just as the doctor came in, he immediately collapsed again.
If Lu Weiyi had been there, he would’ve thought, So this guy has acting potential after all.
“You… weren’t you supposed to be numb?” the doctor asked, surprised.
Li Zhuang put on a guilty expression and whispered, “Doctor, I’ve got two crystal cores. I’ll give them to you—just don’t tell anyone what you saw, okay?”
“Why?” the doctor asked.
