Part 3
Luo Shizhen leaned in and said seriously, “You’re good-looking. You’ve always been very good-looking.”
He took out a band-aid and stuck it on the small wound under Chu Xiao’s eye.
Chu Xiao felt his closeness and said softly, “That’s good. I don’t want you to think I’m ugly.”
Xiao Shan and Lu Qiujin had done it on purpose. When sparring, they specifically aimed for his face. If it weren’t for protecting his face, Chu Xiao wouldn’t have sustained so many injuries.
Luo Shizhen smiled and said:
“You know, after being injured in battle, wearing a band-aid on your face actually makes you more charming.”
Chu Xiao’s gaze faltered slightly. He had never heard Luo Shizhen say he was charming.
After all, with Luo Shizhen’s personality, hearing him say an exam paper was charming was more likely than him saying a man was charming.
“You think I’m very charming right now?”
“Yes.” Luo Shizhen leaned closer to Chu Xiao and carefully and seriously smoothed out the band-aid. He let go and straightened his body.
He looked at Chu Xiao, his eyes sincere, and gave a naive smile. “You aren’t ugly at all. This is called ‘battle damage.’ A lot of people like it.”
Chu Xiao touched his face, the corners of his mouth lifting slightly. “Is that so?”
“Yeah, that’s what Zhang Cai said.”
Chu Xiao: “…Zhang Cai?”
the smile on his face quickly faded. “Isn’t she preparing for exams? She still has time to chat?”
“I didn’t see you guys chatting in the group. Are you chatting privately?”
Luo Shizhen continued to rub medicine on the wound on his arm:
“Zhang Cai isn’t like me. Her grades are great, she’ll definitely pass. And she hasn’t chatted much, just a bit with me at night.”
“We chat privately. She said there are too many messages in the group and she can’t keep up with the ‘flooding.’ It’s too much of a waste of time, so she doesn’t check the group anymore.”
Chu Xiao was silent for a moment.
“Flooding” the group wastes time, but chatting privately doesn’t waste time?
Luo Shizhen was still praising Zhang Cai. “She really has a lot of ideas. According to her, her ‘brain holes’ are very large. She gave me a lot of useful suggestions. I plan to try them one by one.”
Hearing this, Chu Xiao felt slightly more at ease.
It seemed Luo Shizhen’s mind was still focused on the Qi separation experiment, and he didn’t have any romantic thoughts about Zhang Cai.
Xiao Shan walked out of Chu Xiao’s room carrying a ladder:
“Chu Xiao! I’ve fixed the air conditioner in your room. Go back to your own room to sleep tonight. Don’t crowd my little brother!”
Chu Xiao looked at him coldly. “I didn’t know you could fix air conditioners.”
Lu Qiujin walked out from behind Xiao Shan. “It’s simple. Just pay a repair master to provide full guidance via video.”
Luo Shizhen was happy for Chu Xiao. “That’s great! Then you can go back to your room tonight. Chu Xiao, you should cancel the repair appointment you made for the day after tomorrow.”
Chu Xiao: “…Fine.”
Xiao Shan put the ladder away and sat down nearby. “Shizhen, I’m injured too. Help me rub some medicine on.”
Luo Shizhen hurried over. “Okay, Big Brother! Let me see where you’re hurt and what medicine we need!”
Lu Qiujin also sat down, directly squeezing Chu Xiao aside. “I’m injured too. Help me rub some medicine on as well.”
“Okay, let me see.”
After living together for a month, if nothing else, Luo Shizhen’s skill in applying medicine had improved by leaps and bounds.
He now had a firm grasp on what medicine was needed for bleeding, what was needed for no bleeding, and what was needed for scrapes, sprains, and the like.
Cheng Yunshao watched this scene from the second floor, took out his new phone, and snapped a few more photos.
Looking at Chu Xiao with his dark face, Xiao Shan and Lu Qiujin vying for attention, and Luo Shizhen, who was completely oblivious and happily treating everyone.
He should buy a camera.
After watching the fun for a while, Cheng Yunshao spoke up: “The first patient for the silver needle contamination removal appointment arrives this afternoon.”
Luo Shizhen’s attention was immediately drawn. He looked up at Cheng Yunshao.
In those bright black eyes, only Cheng Yunshao remained.
Cheng Yunshao felt a subtle sense of satisfaction. He waved his new phone:
“I’ll send you the patient’s data. If it really is contamination, it can be cured.”
In Luo Shizhen’s research on Zou Tangzheng, he discovered that among the patients who sought treatment from Zou Tangzheng, not every single one found it ineffective.
Some actually did claim their pain had lessened significantly after taking his medicine. After checking, they found these people weren’t “shills.” It was likely due to psychological reasons combined with other treatments, but they credited the success to Zou Tangzheng.
The reason Zou Tangzheng’s “miracle doctor” reputation didn’t collapse was that he relied on a majority of shills and a minority of patients who credited him with the work of others to promote him.
The advertisements had been running for a month now. With Yongzhou’s cooperation, basically every major TV station had the figure of a kind-faced old “miracle doctor” saying forcefully, “I have made a decision that goes against my ancestors.”
Fake medicine definitely couldn’t be sold. The reason they gave was that making the medicine takes time. Anyway, they boasted and puffed it up however they could, making it sound as if the medicine contained ginseng, lingzhi, and hundred-year-old snow lotus, so it required more time to produce.
Crucially, quite a lot of people actually believed it and were really lining up for the medicine to be completed.
Zou Tangzheng’s scamming technique was a mix of truth and lies. The fake part was already no problem; now it was time for the real part.
Once a few patients were truly purified, according to the plan, that would be the moment Luo Shizhen’s “miracle doctor” reputation reached its peak.
After reading the patient data, Luo Shizhen was basically sure he was contaminated. He immediately got up:
“I’m going to find Lin Ke for makeup!”
Lin Ke hadn’t left the villa for a month, but he didn’t leave his room much either. He only had contact with them when applying makeup every day.
The rest of the time, he maintained a state of being deaf, blind, and mute, demonstrating the sense of distance to the fullest.
After all, the young high-sequence Awakeners outside could literally cause a gale just by looking at each other, and they’d be fighting in the next second.
When they fought, their Qi bodies scurried everywhere. An Awakener without combat power like Lin Ke would feel like he was about to suffocate after ten seconds outside.
He was truly afraid he’d make eye contact with someone and then be dragged off to spar. He couldn’t beat this bunch of high-sequence Awakeners.
He really didn’t know how Luo Shizhen could stand it, to the point of even helping them apply medicine.
He was currently in his room watching makeup videos. Hearing the knock, he immediately responded, “Shizhen, come in.”
Luo Shizhen entered and asked curiously, “I didn’t say anything. How did you know it was me?”
Lin Ke chuckled. “Because in the entire villa, you’re the only one who visits people.”
The higher an Awakener’s level, the more territorial they became. Unless necessary, they wouldn’t go to someone else’s territory.
Luo Shizhen let out an “oh” and stated his purpose.
Lin Ke was fine when he heard about the makeup, but when he heard Shizhen was going to treat a contaminated patient, he was a bit stunned.
“Is it a shill?”
“No.” Luo Shizhen was confused. “Didn’t I just say? It’s a real patient. That’s why I need the makeup.”
Lin Ke: “Oh! Then it’s a fake contamination that just looks similar to the symptoms.”
“No, it’s real contamination.”
Lin Ke immediately thought of a new reason. “I get it! You guys want to take the ‘black-red’ route! First, say you can treat contamination, then actually go do it. In the end, you won’t be able to cure it, which will lead people to curse at you. Once you’re cursed onto the hot search, you’ll have traffic. With traffic, you can attract anomalies, right!”
Luo Shizhen looked at him in confusion, then suddenly, a light dawned on him.
“Ah! That’s right! I don’t think I told you.”
The young Awakener smiled in a friendly way:
“I am Sequence 03—Energy User—Purification.”
“If you have any friends who need purifying, you can bring them to me too.”
Translator’s Note:
- Brain Holes (脑洞 – Nǎo dòng): A very common Chinese internet slang term meaning someone has a wild, vivid, or surreal imagination. It’s like saying someone has “holes” in their brain where all the crazy ideas leak out!
- Flooding (刷屏 – Shuā píng): Refers to a chat group being overwhelmed by a high volume of messages in a short time, making the screen “scroll” rapidly.
- Black-Red (黑红 – Hēi hóng): A marketing strategy (common in C-entertainment) where someone becomes famous by being controversial or hated. Basically, “bad publicity is still publicity.”
- Battle Damage (战损 – Zhàn sǔn): An aesthetic trope in ACG (Animation, Comics, Games) culture where a character looks especially attractive or “charming” because they are wounded or bloodied from a fight.
- Atavism-types (返祖系 – Fǎn zǔ xì): In this world’s lore, these are Awakeners who manifest traits of ancient or mythical creatures (like Rong Nian being a merman).
- The “Ancestor” Meme: Just a reminder that the line “a decision that goes against my ancestors” is Shizhen’s team leaning hard into the medical scam trope to bait out anomalies. It’s hilarious that the most honest guy in the world is acting like a professional con artist!
Hope you enjoyed the chapters! The jealousy in the villa is reaching a boiling point, and Shizhen is just there with his iodine and band-aids. Truly the heartthrob!
Recommended Reads
