Chapter 58: The Good Kids Clinic

Du Zhengyi pulled Luo Qi up from the ground and quickly checked his physical condition. "How are you?"

Luo Qi trembled in his arms; his clothes were coated in a layer of ice, his face was pale, his gaze was somewhat unfocused, and his lips quivered as he muttered something.

"Luo Qi!" Du Zhengyi shook him slightly. "Tell me, where are you injured?"

Luo Qi frowned in a daze, then suddenly came to his senses. His gaze cleared a little, and he looked back at Du Zhengyi carefully, as if confirming something, before going completely limp, the breath he had been holding entirely spent. He had never felt so aggrieved in his life, and he trembled as he whispered something in despair.

Du Zhengyi gripped him tighter. "I can take you away immediately, but hold on a little longer. Tell me, where do you feel the most wrong? I can't risk taking you through space, but we have to hurry; the Qionglin defenses will recover at any moment."

"Du Zhengyi," Luo Qi groaned clearly, grabbing Du Zhengyi's sleeve; he was almost crying.

Du Zhengyi hurriedly lowered his head to listen to him, only to hear him say in a panicked, tearful voice, "I think I might have wet my pants..."

Du Zhengyi was stunned, but then felt a wave of relief. "I take it you're probably fine?"

Luo Qi gripped Du Zhengyi's sleeve tightly. After such a long struggle, he had long since exceeded his limits, relying only on a shred of willpower to fight on. In his daze, he realized that the other voice calling him was indeed Du Zhengyi; that familiar feeling was truly right at this moment.

Just then, an even greater pressure suddenly made Luo Qi almost vomit. He shoved Du Zhengyi's arm and looked toward the riverbank in shock. He had never seen such a terrifying yet magnificent sight in his life; at least several dozen nightmare-like monsters had emerged from the woods, silently and slowly approaching them.

"It's fine," Du Zhengyi said dismissively, helping Luo Qi stand up completely.

"What are those things?" Luo Qi asked, trembling.

"Those are Qiongqi," Du Zhengyi said, looking back toward the direction of the herd. "I knew you would walk along the river. No Mage would be willing to come to a Scavenger's riverbank. I guessed you would head toward where there are fewer people."

Du Zhengyi's words were very strange, Luo Qi thought. Why would he think that, and why would he do that? But his attention was snatched away by the monsters again. He vaguely remembered what a Qiongqi was. Ancient legends said that creatures like Qiongqi were attracted to conflict, and then, they would bite off the nose of the party who was in the right. Luo Qi trembled even harder. "They will bite off your nose, Du Zhengyi."

Du Zhengyi laughed. "Thanks for always thinking I'm in the right."

Luo Qi looked at him in a daze. In the torment of these past few days, he had finally seen the only familiar face. This person was always so indifferent, probably because nothing could really do anything to him, not even a pack of Qiongqi. Qiongqi, Luo Qi—the names were actually quite similar. Just as he lost focus again, his vision blurred, and without any warning, he fell into Chaos, his stomach churning violently.

When he landed on solid ground, it felt like falling into an Abyss; he couldn't help but plummet into the depths, but the arm wrapped around his stomach held him tightly, and as a result of all this, he threw up.

"Whoa, it's just a bit of space travel, why such a big reaction?" a somewhat familiar voice said.

Luo Qi had no energy to care who this person was. Du Zhengyi, for the first time ever, didn't show disgust; one arm supported him, while the other hand helped soothe his back.

"Cut the crap, see if he's alright," Du Zhengyi said.

Du Zhengyi looked up, and only then did Majiang notice his tense expression. He didn't say anything else and immediately took over Luo Qi.

Unexpectedly, Luo Qi shoved him away violently, suddenly clutching his ears as if in agonizing pain, and let out a painful roar. Majiang and Du Zhengyi were caught off guard and were both startled by the roar, which was filled with immense pain.

Luo Qi's world suddenly became exponentially noisier. This was no longer the occasional argument within the silence of Qionglin; the background of his world had turned into white noise, and above this noise were countless chaotic shouts.

"I want to eat a lollipop."

"This bear looks like it wants to eat people."

"Don't give me a shot, don't give me a shot, I don't want a shot!"

Luo Qi clutched his ears amidst the chaotic screaming, but the sounds seemed to pierce directly through his skull.

"Damn it, Majiang, can you think of something?" It was Du Zhengyi's voice, filled with immense panic. He thought that he could actually make Du Zhengyi this anxious, so was he about to die? "He was perfectly fine the whole time, why is he suddenly like this when he gets to you? Doctor! Think of something!"

"Did this nurse prick the kid wrong?"

"Those are some big breasts."

"Is that bitch looking at the nurse's breasts?"

"How can this brat Du Zhengyi be so noisy! What's wrong with the little brat he brought? His intracranial pressure is rising! Damn, all the vitals are skyrocketing! Damn, his blood pressure is high enough to explode!"

Luo Qi opened his eyes wide. Majiang was struggling with him, trying to pin down his arms. He gasped for air and suddenly met Majiang's eyes; the pupils behind the lenses were shifting slightly. Luo Qi suddenly felt an instinctive rejection of him. He struggled and reached out to Du Zhengyi at his side; he wanted to tell Du Zhengyi that he only wanted to trust him alone.

"Du Zhengyi," he said in a hoarse voice, "I can't hear you."

Du Zhengyi looked at him in surprise, seemingly not understanding what he was saying for a moment, but suddenly, the depths of those eyes flashed. "Damn." He stood up. "Majiang, how many people are in this clinic of yours?"

"People?" Majiang was taken aback. "A lot. It's peak flu season recently. There are over twenty kids in the clinic, and at least twice as many parents, why?"

"I brought him to the wrong place," Du Zhengyi muttered. "We have to find a way to get them to leave immediately."

"That's so unprofessional," Majiang said, but he stood up almost immediately and walked toward the door.

Luo Qi sat on the ground in pain, his world still noisy and incessant. Du Zhengyi half-knelt down, one hand gripping his shoulder. "Did Majiang speak just now?"

Luo Qi looked at Du Zhengyi with trembling lips, his eyes radiating despair. He understood what he had been unwilling to face, and he also knew that Du Zhengyi knew. "He said..." Luo Qi said, "He said it was unprofessional."

Du Zhengyi took a deep breath. "Do you trust me?"

"Bull..." Luo Qi said, "Bullshit."

"I promise you, Majiang didn't say anything just now," Du Zhengyi said. "What you heard were not sounds."

"I know," Luo Qi muttered. "I... I can guess."

"Alright," Du Zhengyi said, patting his face. "I don't want to know anything else, you don't have to tell me."

Luo Qi gasped. He stared at Du Zhengyi, seemingly unable to understand what Du Zhengyi was saying for a while, but gradually, the anxiety began to ease. Whether it was because the noise was endless and he had started to adapt, or because Majiang had really thought of a way to drive people away, his Yajian gradually became steadily clear. "Then... why... I can't hear... I can't feel you..."

Du Zhengyi smiled slightly, a smile that held something Luo Qi couldn't see through, as if Du Zhengyi himself had softened quite a bit. He raised two fingers and tapped his own temple. "A defensive line was built inside here by some big shots. The ones who did it were Pei Shu, Majiang, and your father. Isn't it normal that you can't get in?"

Luo Qi opened his mouth slightly. He suddenly realized a question he had never thought of, but the question had always been in his subconscious; he even knew the answer to the question entirely. "My dad... my parents... they couldn't have not known about me... could they?"

His voice was extremely low, as if afraid of being heard by anyone.

Du Zhengyi's expression became increasingly hesitant. "You'll have a chance to ask them later. I guess they must have had their reasons."

The door behind him was pushed open, and Majiang walked back in. "Everyone has been sent away, the doors are locked, the doctors and nurses are on break. There won't be a fourth person here today."

Luo Qi stared intently at Majiang's mouth, afraid that it wasn't him speaking this time either.

"Alright," Majiang said cheerfully, clapping his hands, clapping his hands with feigned excitement. "How about it, do you want to change to a more comfortable place to sit down before we start again?"

"Do you know what you're doing, Doctor?" The world in Luo Qi's ears was left with only low-frequency noise, though his body still couldn't escape its involuntary trembling.

"Of course, buddy." — "Of course I know what I'm doing, you little brat. Ask me again and I'll pull your little teeth out."

Majiang smiled steadily, looking just like a human psychologist.

Luo Qi's eyes blinked, his eyelashes trembling uneasily, his gaze fixed tightly on Ma Jiang's mouth.

"Is there a problem?" Luo Qi asked.

"Of course there's no problem." — "If there is a problem, I'm done for; that brat Du Zhengyi won't let me off easy. Why does such a thorny case always fall on my head, goddammit."

Ma Jiang smiled gently at him and reached out a hand.

"What are you going to do to me?" Luo Qi asked.

"Just a small check-up." — "I'm going to pry your head open and see what exactly is wrong with your brain matter."

A look of horror immediately appeared on Luo Qi's face.

"Ma Jiang!" Du Zhengyi suddenly shouted, "Can't you tell he's testing you?"

Ma Jiang froze abruptly, and then, as if several heavy doors had fallen shut, Luo Qi's world suddenly became half as quiet.

Ma Jiang's expression changed drastically, from disbelief to being on high alert; unease and vigilance appeared on his face in turns.

Du Zhengyi stepped forward irritably, helped Luo Qi up from the floor, pushed him to sit on the hospital bed, and casually pulled the blanket from the bed to wrap around Luo Qi. "Alright, since there aren't so many people here now, he doesn't need emergency treatment for the moment. I'll state the precautions first, and then I'll ask for your medical assistance."

Ma Jiang frowned, but still nodded. "Is he such a high-level Telepath? Why isn't he on record?"

"Now is hardly the time to discuss administrative loopholes, is it?" Du Zhengyi said impatiently. He suddenly remembered to go to the nurse's station nearby to dig out a bottle of water and handed it to Luo Qi. "Can you still hear Ma Jiang's nonsense now?"

Luo Qi shook his head.

"What happened these past few days?" Ma Jiang said with a straight face. "A few days ago he was still a moron, and in the blink of an eye, he reappeared stinking, suddenly becoming a Telepath. And one in this newborn state, unable to distinguish between shallow and surface Yajian, and unable to adapt? What, did he get reborn again these past few days?"

Du Zhengyi thought of the Crystal Coffin in the underground Interrogation Room and the liquid inside it. "It's a coincidence, he might have actually been reborn."

Ma Jiang looked at Du Zhengyi in disbelief. "Don't tell me you're the midwife?"

"Not me." Du Zhengyi said irritably, summoning the test tube and handing it to Ma Jiang. "You hold onto this first; tell me what this is when you have time."

Ma Jiang took it ungraciously. "I said that day that he was trouble; if you had handed him over to the Qionglin back then, this problem wouldn't have happened."

"Shut your mouth." Du Zhengyi also said ungraciously. "Why do you think he's in this state? I went to great lengths to get him out of the Qionglin; he almost died there for no reason."

Ma Jiang was startled, and his gaze toward Luo Qi was no longer as piercing.

Luo Qi caught his breath and suddenly decided that since things were already like this, he would not let this opportunity slip by. He pointed weakly at Ma Jiang and said to Du Zhengyi, "He actually calls you a brat all the time."

Du Zhengyi's gaze sharpened instantly. Ma Jiang licked his lips, blinked, and after a long time squeezed out, "Hey! I'm really unlucky as hell!"

"Let's solve the real problem." Du Zhengyi said. "You need to help him learn to disconnect from the outside world, but you must understand that this is very dangerous. He is someone who can take down a Mind Master like Li Xu by instinct alone."

"Fuck." Ma Jiang cursed. "Then what am I playing at here?"

"So if you are going to enter his Yajian, don't let him feel threatened, otherwise..."

Otherwise what would happen, Du Zhengyi did not continue. But Luo Qi suddenly realized he knew the answer; otherwise, his Yajian would engulf Ma Jiang's Yajian like a vast ocean.

He began to tremble and suddenly started to resist this matter completely.

Ma Jiang turned his head to face him, and he suddenly realized that Ma Jiang was also wavering; he lacked confidence.

A wavering will shall be engulfed.

Another fragment of someone's Yajian flashed through his mind. Luo Qi pulled the blanket tightly, shivering even more violently, his upper and lower teeth clattering together. It was as if a chill surged from the bottom of his heart, sweeping across his spine. He couldn't help but look at Du Zhengyi; Du Zhengyi's complete stillness was like a wider, warmer sea, and he couldn't help but want to lean toward it.