How The Little Medical Cultivator Saves the Furries – CH70

Chapter 70

Lei Qi was the director of the Royal Sanatorium. How could Ye Yumeng’s access level possibly be even higher than his?

Ye Yumeng was immediately suspicious.

Cold sweat broke out on Lei Qi’s forehead. Realizing he had let something slip, he forced himself to keep a calm expression, but every brain cell in his head was already working at full speed.

How was he supposed to explain this?

If he exposed His Majesty’s identity and it affected Doctor Ye’s treatment in any way, the prince would definitely kill him!

But the more anxious he got, the harder it was to come up with an answer.

“Well…”

Suddenly, something occurred to him, and inspiration struck. “Of course it’s because of the… life-saving talisman!”

Ye Yumeng blinked.

“The life-saving talisman?”

To be honest, because life at the Royal Sanatorium had been so free and easy, even though he had not made any life-saving talismans lately, he had not been restricted in any way, and no one had asked him to make any either.

So Ye Yumeng had almost forgotten all about the talismans.

At the very beginning, Lu Qi’s warning had made him nervous, but now it seemed to have had no negative impact on him at all. It had only brought benefits.

Seeing Ye Yumeng thinking it over, Lei Qi quickly pressed on, trying to encourage him. “Yes. Because of the life-saving talisman, the Yaojin Imperial Family values you very highly and has granted you extremely elevated access privileges.”

“But isn’t that a little too high?” Ye Yumeng still felt that something was off.

He was clearly only a junior doctor, yet he held access authority higher than the director’s… Then it suddenly hit him why he had been able to move freely throughout the Royal Sanatorium.

But had that freedom of movement not come from becoming little rabbit’s attending doctor?

He still remembered that after Mo Yin told him, he had run to District Two that very same day to visit little Shan Lan.

Wasn’t that because little rabbit’s family had some kind of partnership with the Royal Sanatorium, and that was how they had secured that level of access for him?

But if that access level really surpassed even the director’s, then it was far too outrageous. Unless the Royal Sanatorium belonged to little rabbit’s family—but that… was impossible, right?

Ye Yumeng thought back to what little rabbit’s older brother looked like.

He was definitely a rabbit. Those rabbit ears had even twitched. They did not look fake. And little rabbit himself really did look like a baby rabbit…

Could it have been granted separately?

Had this higher-than-the-director level of access been awarded because he had produced the life-saving talisman? But if so, why had no one told him?

This was obviously a move to win him over, yet not even the slightest hint had been given, to the point that even he, the person involved, knew nothing. Did that make any sense?

The more Ye Yumeng thought about it, the more wrong it felt.

He sized Lei Qi up. By now Lei Qi had already regained his composure—if he did not even have that level of self-control, he would not be fit to be the director.

“This is the Imperial Family’s preferential treatment and protection for you.”

He quickly organized his words. “If the extent of your privileges were made public, it would inevitably attract attention. At that point, your safety would no longer be guaranteed.”

He cleared his throat and lowered his voice. “You know yourself how important the life-saving talisman is. If word got out…”

That was true enough, but…

Ye Yumeng looked at him suspiciously. “Then why didn’t you tell me earlier?”

Lei Qi’s thoughts raced like lightning. In the end, he put on an innocent face and said, “I’ve always told you that if you need anything, you should just ask. We can provide it for you.”

Could that really be interpreted that way?

Ye Yumeng looked at him for a moment, then finally nodded. Though he felt Lei Qi was twisting the logic, he also knew he probably would not get a real answer no matter how much he pressed.

“Then how do I use the Royal Sanatorium’s internal AI?”

Lei Qi let out a breath of relief. At last, he had managed to bluff his way through. He quickly showed Ye Yumeng how to use it, then fled the scene immediately, not daring to stay any longer.

Ye Yumeng watched him walk away. Only after a while did he withdraw his gaze and return to Room 006.

Following Lei Qi’s instructions, he opened the Royal Sanatorium’s internal AI, searched up the materials and tools he needed, and had the robots deliver them all to the spirit plant garden.

Looking at the “delivery in progress” notification, Ye Yumeng recalled the conversation he had just had with Lei Qi. The more he thought about it, the more suspicious it seemed.

The director was definitely hiding something from him!

After thinking it over for a moment, Ye Yumeng opened his work wrist-computer and searched the forum for information related to the Yaojin Imperial Family.

Are the Yaojin Imperial Family’s beast forms rabbits?

He clicked search, only for the result to come up as: [Sorry, the content you searched involves prohibited information and has been blocked.]

Ye Yumeng remembered what Gan Xiaoyang had told him before—

If you tried to search for information related to the Yaojin Imperial Family on the Starnet, you would not find it.

If he wanted to learn about the Imperial Family, he could only do so through the official imperial website and news reports.

Ye Yumeng changed course and went to the official site instead.

The moment he entered, he saw a photo of the Emperor of Yaojin at age fifteen when he ascended the throne.

A golden-haired, green-eyed boy with a young, still-somewhat immature face sat upright on the imperial throne, his expression taut. There was a sort of cold, contrasting cuteness to him.

He really did feel a lot like Lu Qi’s relative…

Ye Yumeng looked through the official website. There was a long list of the young emperor’s achievements, and at the bottom was a comment section with terrifying traffic.

The key point was that massive amounts of new comments were appearing every second.

[Daily confession check-in!]
[His Majesty is seriously way too handsome, I can never get enough of looking at him!]
[Coming here to look at His Majesty every day is my motivation for getting up and going to work!]
[I want to have monkey babies for His Majesty!]

Seeing that line, Ye Yumeng froze.

Ah, so he really had guessed wrong. The Yaojin Imperial Family’s beast forms were actually monkeys?

Compared to harmless rabbits, monkeys did seem more likely. Back in the cultivation world, he had heard of a powerful Monkey King among the demon clans.

Ye Yumeng could not help imagining Lu Qi in monkey form…

Mm. He would probably still be a beautiful monkey!

Aside from fan comments for the emperor, the comment section was full of praise for his achievements and analyses of his military record. There was basically no hateful speech to be seen.

This emperor really did seem to have the people’s full support and exceptionally high prestige.

Ye Yumeng gave the golden-haired beauty on the homepage one more look, then closed the site.

If little rabbit had nothing to do with the Imperial Family… then could it be that Director Lei Qi really had not lied to him? Had the highest-level access really been granted because of the life-saving talisman?

Although it still felt odd, he had no evidence, and he could not accuse people unfairly.

Ye Yumeng stared blankly at the AI interface.

If his access really was higher than the director’s… then didn’t that mean he could check every patient’s records?

Even though Lu Qi had said that when he felt the time was right, he would tell him.

But…

Ye Yumeng still desperately wanted to meet him in the real world.

Otherwise, it felt like floating duckweed with no roots. The connection between them could be severed at any moment, and that left Ye Yumeng deeply uneasy.

At the very least, he wanted to know something about Lu Qi’s real-life identity…

In the end, Ye Yumeng gritted his teeth and entered the two characters “Lu Qi” into the internal AI, searching for his file. However—

[This patient does not exist. Please check for any mistakes.]

Ye Yumeng stared blankly at that line.

This patient does not exist…

There was no “Lu Qi”? No such person existed in the Royal Sanatorium?

Could it be that because he belonged to the Yaojin Imperial Family, just like on the Starnet, his records were inaccessible? That would make sense…

But Director Lei Qi had clearly said Ye Yumeng’s access level was even higher than his.

Could it really be that even the director of the Royal Sanatorium could not access the internal medical files of members of the Imperial Family receiving treatment here?

Ye Yumeng frowned.

Lu Qi, obviously…

Some piece of information flashed through his mind. Ye Yumeng paused, then went still again.

He suddenly realized—

Lu Qi’s online nickname was also “Lu Qi.”

Who would use their real name as their online handle? At least among everyone Ye Yumeng knew, no one did that.

Even he himself had chosen a different name on the Starnet.

Ye Yumeng’s face gradually turned pale.

So the name “Lu Qi”… was fake?

Still unwilling to give up, he had the AI search for homophones.

This time, it did find something.

“Lu Qi”—different character for “Lu.”

Ye Yumeng looked at the name and let out a small breath of relief. Homophonous but written differently—that was normal. Either way, the pronunciation was still “Lu Qi.”

But if the surname was “Lu,” then did that mean Lu Qi really was not part of the Yaojin Imperial Family? Had his earlier guess been wrong?

Ye Yumeng stared at the button for viewing the detailed profile, but he did not click in to see the man’s photo.

Even the photo might differ from the real person. Better to go and see with his own eyes.

So Ye Yumeng memorized the district and room number where this “Lu Qi” was staying, then left Room 006.

As he entered the elevator, he did not forget to send a message to He Jun—He Jun was still helping Lan Fangyu package those two hundred calming sachets.

[He Jun]: Got it!

Even without He Jun, there were always other guards following Ye Yumeng, and he had grown used to their presence.

Ye Yumeng rode the hover disk out of the core inpatient department. Along the way, he kept chanting silently to himself.

It had to be his…

It definitely had to be his…

He arrived at District Five and finally found the room of that “Lu Qi.”

He felt lost and hesitant.

But before he could back out, the door to the room slowly opened, and a nurse pushed a patient out in a wheelchair.

“Mr. Lu, would you like to go sit on the lawn in the sun today?”

This Mr. Lu should be the “Lu Qi” in question.

Ye Yumeng sized him up, and the light in his eyes slowly dimmed.

The man looked to be around forty. He had brown hair and brown eyes, was short in stature, and wore a thick beard. He was an entirely unfamiliar man…

Although he knew the odds were low, Ye Yumeng still reminded himself of how advanced cosmetic surgery was in this era and adjusted his emotions before walking over.

“Hello, are you Lu Qi?”

“I am.”

When this man named Lu Qi looked at Ye Yumeng, his eyes were filled with obvious confusion and total unfamiliarity.

Ye Yumeng forced out a smile. “All right. Thank you.”

After nodding politely, he hurried away under the confused gazes of Lu Qi and his nurse.

[What’s wrong with Doctor Ye?]
[No idea.]

The guards following Ye Yumeng in secret and protecting him immediately sensed something was wrong.

[Could there be something wrong with this Lu Qi?]
[Doctor Ye looks like he’s been hit hard. Did that guy bully him?]
[I’m going to look into it right now!]

Ye Yumeng returned to the top-floor ward in a daze.

He Jun, who had already rushed back after handling the calming sachets, looked at his pale face with concern. “Are you feeling unwell somewhere?”

Ye Yumeng shook his head. “I’m fine. I just want to rest for a while. Don’t let anyone come in and disturb me.”

“Understood.”

He Jun watched him walk into the room with worried eyes, until the metal door closed behind him.

Back in Room 006, Ye Yumeng was visibly deflated. Even Wugang the robot dog noticed something was wrong and wagged its tail as it tried to cheer him up.

He forced himself to pat its head, then sat down by the sofa and began staring into space.

It was only a name, after all. That did not really prove anything… Ye Yumeng still could not help making excuses for Lu Qi.

After a while, he finally made up his mind.

Ye Yumeng closed his eyes and called for Lu Qi in his heart. When he felt his spiritual energy suddenly decrease, he opened them again.

That figure he had thought about constantly, the person he had wanted to see every single day, appeared before him once more.

The moment he noticed his surroundings had changed, Lu Nanzhou—already very familiar with this state—instinctively began looking for Ye Yumeng.

Sure enough, the moment he looked down, he saw him sitting on the sofa.

A slight smile curved Lu Nanzhou’s lips, and he habitually condensed a brand-new outfit for himself. Yet this time, when Ye Yumeng raised his head, he was not looking at him with those bright, sparkling eyes he always had before.

Ye Yumeng was staring at him, his expression complicated, his complexion no longer carrying its usual healthy color.

Only then did Lu Nanzhou realize something was wrong.

“What happened?” He crouched down in front of Ye Yumeng and tilted his head slightly upward to examine him. “What’s wrong?”

Ye Yumeng bit his lip.

Seeing how nervous Lu Nanzhou seemed, he still chose to go straight to the point in the end. “I found someone in the sanatorium named Lu Qi. It wasn’t you…”

“There is no patient named Lu Qi in the Royal Sanatorium at all. You don’t actually use that name.”

Lu Nanzhou froze. He gazed at him fixedly. Ye Yumeng’s words had caught him completely off guard. He had always known this day would come sooner or later—he just had not expected it to happen so soon.

After a moment, he lowered his eyes and avoided Ye Yumeng’s gaze.

“It’s only a name,” he said softly. “Is it really that important?”

Ye Yumeng stared at him in disbelief. He had thought Lu Nanzhou would explain, but instead what came out was a response so brazenly dismissive.

“How can it not be important?”

His face was full of shock. “I told you so many of my secrets. I’ve talked to you about almost everything. Whenever anything came up, you were the person I went to discuss it with…”

“I treated you as the only person in this world I could truly trust, but you wouldn’t even tell me your real name.”

“That isn’t fair!”

It was the first time Ye Yumeng had ever been this angry.

“You’ve hardly ever told me anything about yourself. Other than summoning you, I had no way to know anything about you at all…”

“And now I find out that even the name you gave me was fake, and you still dare say it doesn’t matter? If this doesn’t matter, then tell me—what does?”

The more Ye Yumeng spoke, the more wronged he felt. The more he spoke, the more his heart ached.

He asked, his voice starting to tremble, “Did you never really keep me in your heart at all? Did you never really see me as a friend?”

The moment those words came out, Lu Nanzhou—who had been instinctively trying to avoid the issue—suddenly raised his head and looked at him again.

The hurt and humiliation on Ye Yumeng’s face, and the distance he was drawing between them… It was as if Lu Nanzhou could see an invisible barrier standing between them.

He panicked.

“That’s not what it is at all,” he denied quickly.

“Then what is it?”

Ye Yumeng stared at him with reddened eyes, demanding an explanation.

“The first time we met, you used a false name. I could understand that. But after that, you had so many chances to tell me…”

“Did you never intend to meet me in the real world at all? I brought it up so many times before, and every single time you kept refusing…”

Thinking back on all the overt and hidden refusals, Ye Yumeng felt wave after wave of bitterness rise up inside him.

It was not that he had failed to understand. It was not that he had not cared.

“If all you wanted was to maintain this kind of intangible connection, then why were you so kind to me? Why did you send me so many gifts in real life?”

It made him feel as though Lu Qi was right there beside him, and yet forever beyond his reach—like a wisp of smoke that might disappear from his world at any moment.

Lu Nanzhou opened his mouth to explain. The words reached his lips, then stopped there. His throat worked painfully, like coarse sand rolling through it, making speech difficult.

When Ye Yumeng saw that he still refused to explain, he bit his lip hard.

Tears welled up in his eyes, nearly spilling over. At last, losing patience, he got to his feet and tried to flee.

But after he had only taken two steps, the man’s voice sounded from behind him. “When you found that Lu Qi, what was he doing?”

Ye Yumeng stopped in his tracks and turned back to look at him, confused as to why he was asking that.

The lights in the room were off, and the surroundings were dim. Lu Nanzhou stood where he was, turned half to the side, and Ye Yumeng could not clearly make out his expression.

After hesitating, he still replied, trying to recall, “He was sitting in a wheelchair and was about to go outside to sit in the sun… Why?”

“What if I told you,” Lu Nanzhou said, “that my condition is far worse than his?”

Ye Yumeng froze. It was like a heavy hammer slamming into his chest.

And Lu Nanzhou did not fall silent again. He looked up at him, then turned and walked toward him step by step, not stopping until he was right in front of Ye Yumeng.

He lowered his eyes and looked at him. A tiny curve tugged at the corner of his mouth.

Yet despite that, those ice-green eyes were full of bitterness and humiliation.

“Yumeng, you really like this face of mine, don’t you?”

He said, “But in reality, not only is my appearance ruined, the rest of my life may well be spent lying in bed, dragging myself on like rotting mud…”

“Could you still like someone like that?”

True, his condition had stabilized now. But to Lu Nanzhou, that was nowhere near enough.

He was the Emperor of Yaojin, once the strongest being in the star systems, able to sweep across the cosmos unchecked. And now? Even his regressed beast form was an ugly, furless little rabbit.

Lu Nanzhou had never placed importance on his appearance before, but the moment he imagined showing Ye Yumeng this version of himself, he rejected it with every fiber of his being.

He could not bear to let Ye Yumeng see him so wrecked, so useless. He could not even manage the simplest daily meals by himself—he had to be fed, had to have his digestion assisted.

And though Ye Yumeng had never once shown any disgust toward him, Lu Nanzhou knew perfectly well—

That was only because, to Ye Yumeng, “little rabbit” was merely a pitiful baby animal hovering on the edge of death, a patient in need of saving.

But what Lu Nanzhou wanted from him went far beyond that.

So he had chosen concealment. He had chosen delay. Time and again, he had refused to meet Ye Yumeng in reality under the identity of Lu Qi.

And now, under Ye Yumeng’s hurt questioning, he no longer had any choice but to tell the truth. It felt like ripping open a wound that had never finished healing and laying it bare, blood and all, in front of him.

Ye Yumeng stood there, stunned. He had never expected such an answer.

He shook his head urgently.

“We’re friends. We’re kindred spirits,” he said. “I don’t mind. I wouldn’t stop liking you because of this. I can treat you…”

“But I mind!”

Lu Nanzhou cut him off. A manic edge had entered his deep voice. “Ye Yumeng, I mind.”

Did he mind being treated by him?

Ye Yumeng stared at him blankly, suddenly not knowing what he could possibly say that would ease this pain.

“Yumeng, give me a little time, all right?”

For the first time, when he looked at Ye Yumeng again, there was something pleading in his gaze. Carefully, slowly, he stepped closer and lifted a hand to touch Ye Yumeng’s cheek.

Even though he was only a translucent spirit, Ye Yumeng could somehow feel the tears on his face being gently wiped away.

But even more tears kept coming.

He really did like Lu Qi’s face—but even more than that, he was terrified of losing him.

“Give me a little time, all right? I really am recovering.”

Lu Nanzhou wrapped his arms around him and pleaded softly into his ear, “Wait until I recover a little more, until I look a little better. Then we’ll meet, okay?”

Ye Yumeng leaned against him, unable to feel any real warmth or weight from his body… Only then did he realize that he had long since stopped being satisfied with simply seeing Lu Qi.

His attempts to investigate and chase after Lu Qi’s real-life identity had all been because… he wanted to touch him. He wanted to feel for himself that he truly existed.

Ye Yumeng lifted his head to look at Lu Nanzhou. He had just opened his mouth to say something when he suddenly froze.

The light in Lu Nanzhou’s eyes had dimmed. Pain was written across his face. And what made Ye Yumeng’s heart lurch in panic was that his spirit-body had begun fading rapidly.

“What’s going on? This time I used spiritual energy to summon you. You shouldn’t be going back this quickly!”

Enduring the pain, Lu Nanzhou still tried to comfort him. “Don’t worry. I’ll be all right…”

But before he could even finish the sentence, his spirit shattered into points of light and vanished from in front of Ye Yumeng—just like the very first night they had met.

The instant he was gone, Ye Yumeng’s heart seemed to hollow out.

The next moment, he felt an overwhelmingly powerful wave of spiritual consciousness sweep through the area.

Boom—

Glass shattered. Ear-piercing alarms blared from outside.

“Lu Qi? Lu Qi?”

Ye Yumeng covered his ears and called for him anxiously, but this time his summoning spell would not work.

He could no longer summon Lu Qi!

What in the world had happened? That overwhelming consciousness was…

Then something struck him, and he hurriedly opened his communicator, trying to call Lu Qi’s number.

Yet before he could, another call came in instead, marked in bright red as urgent.

It was Mo Yin.

Ye Yumeng froze, then answered at once.

Usually calm and gentle, Mo Yin now sounded panicked and strained, the words practically forced out through clenched teeth. “Doctor Ye… Young Master… something’s happened!”

So that powerful wave of spiritual consciousness had been little rabbit?

Panic surged through Ye Yumeng’s chest, but he had no choice except to put Lu Qi aside for the moment and rush toward the spirit plant garden.

Along the way, many patients—even medical staff—had collapsed to the ground, clearly showing severe symptoms. Robots were sounding alarms. The entire district was in chaos.

He could feel a powerful force of spiritual consciousness—no, to be more precise, mental power—spreading wildly in all directions.

And the source of that power was unmistakably—

The spirit plant garden!

Ye Yumeng ignored the people who had fallen along the road and rushed straight toward the spirit plant garden.

Before he even reached the rest building where little rabbit was supposed to be, waves of searing heat hit him.

And the closer he got, the more clearly he saw the building ahead, lit crimson by roaring flames.

Ye Yumeng’s heart dropped straight to the bottom.

Little rabbit’s mystic flame had rebounded.

Read More Extra Chapters (EPUB & PDF Format)