Chapter Eighty-Seven: Travel Plan

After I got to the hospital, I asked the doctor to bandage it up lightly, but he insisted that a dressing would be useless and that the wound had to be stitched. My master also insisted that I listen to the doctor, so with no other choice, I nodded and agreed.

Very quickly, the doctor came in carrying the tools for stitching the wound. I lay face down on the hospital bed, and he wiped the cut with alcohol. I immediately hissed and shifted to the side, but he pressed me down and said, "Don't move. Bear with it for a moment and it will be over."

My master came over as well and held me down on the bed. The look in his eyes seemed to say, "You fight people and don't mind getting hurt, so why are you afraid of alcohol?"

I gave a wry smile. How could those things be compared?

"Where on earth did you get hurt like this? Why is the wound so deep?"

Just as my master and I were silently exchanging glances, the doctor suddenly spoke to us. I froze for a moment, then tried to brush it off. "Oh, well, I was in a hurry when I went out and accidentally scraped myself on a sharp corner by the door. Why do you ask, Doctor?"

The doctor said nothing. He only gave me a look, then drove the syringe into my skin. The wound that had still been aching a moment ago now felt numb, as if I could no longer feel it at all. After he pushed the anesthetic out of the syringe, he set it on a tray and said to me, "You say you were scraped by a sharp corner? It's such a long gash, and even the flesh inside has gone black. Still, it's nothing serious. Just be more careful from now on. Young people today are always rushing around, with no sense of order at all."

He kept talking without pause. I could only smile bitterly. So I had come to the hospital just to be lectured by a doctor?

My master glanced at the doctor, then at me, and shrugged. Soon the wound on my back was stitched up. With my master's help, I slowly stood and walked to the mirror nearby. I lifted my shirt and looked, and could not help sighing inwardly. How unfortunate, I thought. Such good skin, ruined like this, all stitches and thread, like a centipede crawling there.

I walked back to my master. The doctor packed up his things and said to me, "Come back every three days for a change of dressing. Your wound is fairly deep, so you'll need to recover for about half a month. During this time, don't eat spicy food, and don't let the wound get wet."

I nodded, remembering his instructions. Then he added, "And don't rush off yet. Go to the injection room in a moment and get a tetanus shot, then pay the bill, and you can go home."

I said all right. My master helped me to the injection room, and after I sat there for a while, a pretty nurse came in. She glanced at the form in her hand and said, "Lin Xuan, you're here for a tetanus shot, right?"

I nodded. Then the nurse told me to turn around and pull my pants down a little. I froze. Damn, was this going to be a shot in the backside? Seeing that I still had not lowered my pants, she caught on to my thoughts and said, "Little brother, don't be shy. I've seen plenty of people besides you."

At that, my face instantly turned red. My master snickered and nodded at me. I had no choice but to slowly reach out and pull my pants down a little, exposing a small patch of buttock. The nurse paused and said, "Pull them down a bit more. How am I supposed to give the shot like that?"

Without further ado, she personally got to work and tugged my pants down partway. A chill brushed my rear, and I immediately covered it with my hand. She slapped my hand away and said, "Hands off. You're already this old, and you're still embarrassed?"

My face burning, I felt the sting of the needle going into my backside. After a moment, the nurse pressed a bit of cotton against the injection site and said to my master, "Here, hold it down. Hold it for a while."

My master stepped right up and pressed the cotton in place. The nurse picked up the tray and said, "Go pay the bill afterward, then you can head back."

My master said okay. After seeing the nurse out, he finally laughed and asked, "Kid, how does it feel?"

I rolled my eyes at him. Then he said, "Though to be fair, your pale backside is actually kept in pretty good shape."

I blinked and said to him, "Master, can you please be a little more serious?"

With that, I swatted his hand away, tossed the cotton aside, and pulled my pants back up. My master burst out laughing as he watched me. "Well, that doesn't hurt anymore."

I shook my head and walked out in exasperation, while he was still laughing. Along the way, many of the people there for treatment turned to look at us, but he did not care. After paying, we finally returned home.

Back home, I went straight to my room and lay on my side on the bed. My master came in soon after. I looked at him and asked, "Master, why is it that after you crippled Gu Chengguang's powers, his hair turned white all at once? It was like he aged several decades."

My master sat down beside me, glanced at me, and said, "He devoured other people's souls and vitality in order to preserve his own youth. Now that his cultivation has been destroyed, his youth has gone drifting away with the smoke."

I lay on my side next to him and touched my wound, but there was still no pain. It seemed the anesthetic was pretty strong. Looking at my master, I said, "Serves him right. Someone like that doesn't deserve to be human. That really felt satisfying today."

He smiled. "Yes. It's a pity that in this society there are far too many who don't deserve to be human. There are too many of them to deal with, kid. But today, you really surprised me."

"Surprised? What surprised you?" I asked in confusion.

He looked at me and said, "You were a little too worked up today. If I hadn't held you back, you would have killed him outright."

I froze, then recalled what had happened earlier. He was probably right. At the time, I really had been furious, even close to losing my head. If my master had not stopped me, maybe I really would have killed Gu Chengguang. Well, it was all over now anyway. Gu Chengguang had lost his powers, and the rest could be left to Lin Fang and the others. I did not think about it any further, and instead said to my master, "Master, let's go to the bank tomorrow and send some money back to Grandpa."

My master nodded. "Get some sleep early. Tomorrow will be another quiet day."

With that, he stretched and opened the door to leave. Exhausted from the battle earlier, my eyelids were already fighting each other. I did not even bother washing my feet. I simply turned off the light and fell into a deep sleep.

The next day, I was woken by the glare of the sun. I got up and checked the time: nine in the morning. After breakfast, I told my master about what had happened last night, then drove to the bank. I took out my phone, wrote Grandpa's card number on the form, and handed it to the bank clerk. After taking care of things at the bank for a while, my master and I got back in the car. Since we had nothing better to do, we went to Bayi Square for a stroll. I also bought a few sets of clothes that looked quite fashionable, though I still preferred outfits with a Chinese style, since many people said they suited my temperament. After wandering around all morning, my master and I went into a restaurant, ordered a few dishes, and sat on our stools waiting leisurely. But then I heard some people at the next table discussing something excitedly.

"Hey, have you seen the news? The murder case at the Duoyue Lake residential complex was solved a few days ago. They say the killer was an old man."

The people beside him nodded and said, "Of course we know. Every time I open my phone, the news feed is full of updates on the Duoyue Lake case. But why would a perfectly normal old man go kill someone?"

"Who can say? Maybe he offended him somehow. These old men and women nowadays all have strange tempers," another person said.

The other two nodded just as the waiter brought over the food. Then they said with easy laughter, "Let's eat first. We can think about where to go this afternoon later."

With that, they all picked up their chopsticks. Not long after, the dishes we had ordered were brought out as well. My master picked up a bite and chewed on it, then looked at me and called through a mouthful of food, "Kid."

I looked up at him. "What is it?"

He swallowed and said, "We haven't gone traveling in a long time. How about we make some arrangements for the next few days?"

The moment I heard the word traveling, my interest was instantly piqued. I hurriedly said, "Sure, sure. Where are we going?"

He thought for a moment, twirling his chopsticks. "Didn't you always say you wanted to go to Beijing and have a look around? Since we have nothing else to do next, let's go to Beijing for a bit. I'll take you to the Forbidden City."

"Great. I've never been to Beijing. So when are we going?" I asked.

"Day after tomorrow. Your back injury should be all right, shouldn't it?" he said.

I blinked and touched the wound on my back. "Oh, it's fine. I'm sturdy. After sleeping last night, this morning it already feels itchy inside the wound. It won't keep us from going out to have some fun."

As I said that, I even laughed a little. My master nodded, peeled a crayfish, and was just about to put it into my bowl when he paused and took it back. I looked at him in confusion, only to see him toss the meat straight into his mouth. Then he said to me, "The doctor said you can't eat spicy food. Bear with it, kid. Ha ha."

After saying that, he dragged the entire plate of crayfish over in front of himself. I stared at him speechlessly. I wanted to eat, but I was also worried about the wound getting inflamed. After thinking it over, I decided that Beijing was more important. Crayfish and the like could wait until I was fully healed.

After finishing our meal, my master and I went wandering elsewhere for a while. I even dragged him onto a roller coaster. We stayed at the amusement park for a long time before finally heading home. That happy yet ordinary day was more or less over.

The next day, we did not go out either. We stayed at home, playing on our phones or on the computer. Lately, I had also gotten into a game called League of Legends. I was terrible at it, of course, and my teammates often cursed me out. Once, after being insulted so badly that I could no longer stand it, I simply shut down the computer and let them fight four against five.