Chapter 4: A Vegetable? He Can Be Saved!

Xander Zorn clutched his broken wrist and staggered out through the Residential Area's front gate. Under the streetlamp, his gold-rimmed glasses hung crooked on his nose. Fine beads of sweat seeped from his temples. "That bitch. She actually set me up!" He ground his teeth and scanned the area. "Who the hell was that guy?" The lamp by the entrance had burned out, leaving the gate swallowed in dim light. All he could make out was a pink Porsche parked not far away. The car rocked gently, rhythmically. Xander spat. "Fuck. Some shameless couple. They really picked a great time for it." Right then, all he wanted was to catch Yasmin Yonwin and the man who had appeared out of nowhere. He had no interest in whatever steamy business was going on in someone else's car. Gritting through the pain, he jogged toward the parking area. Not here! Not there either! He circled the whole place. Still nothing. A full ten minutes later, Xander found nothing at all. Panting, he hurried back to the gate. What stunned him was that the Porsche was still rocking. The windows were tinted too dark to see inside, but the motion only grew more intense, like it was mocking his uselessness. Heat shot up Xander's chest, but he did not dare provoke someone who drove a car like that. He could only glare and curse under his breath. "Rock your mother's ass. Enough already!" Irritated, he kicked the trash can beside him, then stormed off, swearing the whole way. He had to get back and figure out how to deal with Elliot Casson. That pervert was not someone you could afford to offend. If Elliot Casson really spread the word all over Valia that he was gay, then he was finished. Completely finished. Inside the Porsche, the movement finally eased to a stop. Christian Yale watched Yasmin Yonwin quietly straighten her clothes, his expression tangled and complicated. He had never even dreamed he would end up doing something like this with the goddess of his high school days, and worse, getting dragged into a mess he could not shake. And she had been the one to start it. Yasmin kept her eyes closed and said nothing. After a moment, Christian searched for a way in. "Yasmin… who is this 'Young Master Chen'? What the hell was your ex thinking, sending you to be a drinking companion for him?" Yasmin turned her face away. Sadness pooled in her eyes. "Drinking companion… it's humiliating, isn't it?" "I used to stand at a lectern and teach. And then I ended up…" "That's not what I meant!" Christian cut in, voice tight. "I just want to see if there's anything I can do." Yasmin pressed her lips together and lowered her gaze. "You can't help me." "He's one of Xander Zorn's drinking buddies. His name is Elliot Casson." "I heard he's the godson of Wilder Zuniga, the man behind Celestial Nightclub." "Xander Zorn got… his secret, that he's gay, used against him. That's why he's being forced around." Christian's stomach sank. That bastard Elliot Casson again? He still had not settled the score for the way that piece of trash had teamed up with Abby Heyland to screw him over. Looks like it was fated. They were going to clash sooner or later. "Yasmin, what are you going to do next?" Christian drew a slow breath. "Xander Zorn won't let this go. And Elliot Casson is pure filth." Christian remembered. Elliot Casson was notorious for going after married women. If he did not get what he wanted, he did not stop. Yasmin gave a bitter laugh. "I don't know. My dad is still in the hospital. He needs the Zorn family's money to keep his treatment going. I… might not have a choice." Christian's chest tightened. Then he remembered the medical section of the Inheritance. "What's wrong with your father? Maybe I can help!" "A car accident. He became a vegetable." Despair flickered in Yasmin's eyes. "The doctors said… he might never wake up. Not for the rest of his life." Christian's gaze sharpened. "Take me to see him." "Right away?" Yasmin froze. "Yes. Right away." Christian started the car and explained, half truth and half bluff, "I graduated from a medical university. When I was little, I also learned some folk remedies from my grandpa for vegetable patients. They work. He woke up every vegetable patient in the villages around us!" Hope flashed across Yasmin's face. "Really?" "Absolutely." "Thank you. Let's go to First Hospital. Right away!" As the Porsche rolled out of the Residential Area, Christian caught Xander Zorn in the rearview mirror, standing at the gate with his phone pressed to his ear. Panic was written all over his face. Christian ignored him. He stopped at a 24-hour pharmacy on the way and bought a pack of traditional silver needles. Soon, they arrived at First Hospital. The hospital grounds at night felt empty and still. They moved quickly toward the intensive care building. Yasmin suddenly tugged his sleeve. "The nurse on duty knows me. We'll go in the back." They slipped around to the freight elevator and rode quietly up to the third-floor neurosurgery ward. Only a small nightlight glowed in the room. An older caregiver slumped in the companion chair, sleeping soundly. On the bed, Yasmin's father looked gaunt, his body webbed with tubes and monitoring lines. Christian lightly rested his fingers on the old man's wrist. In an instant, the transcendent medical knowledge surged into his mind. A blood clot in the brain, pressing the nerves. Parts of the brain tissue had died from oxygen deprivation. "Can you treat him?" Yasmin could not hold it in, her voice barely a whisper. Christian did not answer. He took out the silver needles and sterilized them with alcohol. When the first needle sank into the Baihui point, he felt a warm current flow down the needle and into the old man's skull. It was real qi cultivation, the kind that could save lives. Then a three-dimensional image of the inside of the skull unfolded in Christian's awareness. He could "see" the clot slowly dissolving under the heat. Just then- "Hey! What are you doing???" A sharp female voice stabbed in from the doorway. The caregiver jolted awake. Christian's hand jerked. The needle nearly went off target. He and Yasmin both turned at the same time. A tall woman in a nurse's uniform stood at the door, pointing straight at them. And when Christian saw her face, he recognized her. Abby Heyland. Abby clearly recognized him too. She blanked for a beat, then her face twisted with fury. "Christian Yale? What are you doing, sticking needles into my patient's head?" "Are you trying to kill him?" She still had not recovered from what happened that morning. She had spent the entire day hiding in a coworker's dorm, not even daring to run to Elliot Casson and complain. Because once Elliot Casson found out that the toy he and she had worked together to control for five years had slipped through their fingers because of her momentary mistake, he would probably deal with her too. So she had taken the night shift to cool off, only to run into this devil again. "You know her?" Yasmin asked, tense. "My ex-wife." Christian clenched his teeth. The needle in his hand never stopped moving. "Hold her off for me." But Abby had already slammed the call button on the wall. "Security! Third floor, someone's practicing medicine illegally!" Before the words even finished leaving her mouth, she rushed in to yank the needles out. Yasmin stepped in front of the bed and blocked her. They shoved and grappled. Then Abby's eyes locked onto Yasmin's face, and she shrieked, "You're Mrs. Zorn? Oh my God! You're going to kill your own father with your own hands? He's a shameless bastard drowning in debt!" "I believe him." Yasmin did not give an inch. From the far end of the hallway came a mess of hurried footsteps. Cold sweat gathered at Christian's temples. His hands flew, needle after needle placed with ruthless precision. When the final needle fell into place- On the bed, the old man's withered finger suddenly twitched.