When they arrived at Jiangzhou First Hospital, Xu Wenshan got out and opened the car door for Chen Xuan.
“Mr. Chen, we’re at the hospital.”
“Thank you.”
“It was nothing.”
Xu Wenshan smiled and stepped aside.
Qin Yufei looked at Chen Xuan through the car window.
“Are you still going to the Zhao family’s home in three days?”
“Mm.”
“Be careful. If something happens to Zhao Qingya three days from now, Zhao Tianxiong may not be as courteous as he was today.”
“Are you worried about me, Miss Qin?”
Qin Yufei froze for a moment before smiling.
“You are, after all, the one who saved my grandfather’s life. Isn’t it perfectly normal for me to show some concern?”
After a pause, she reminded him, “In any case, watch your safety. The Zhao family’s position in Jiangzhou today isn’t as simple as you think.”
“I know.”
“All right, I’m leaving.”
Qin Yufei waved at him and rolled up the window.
The black sedan drove away from the hospital.
Chen Xuan stood where he was, watching the car disappear at the end of the street. He then turned and walked into the rehabilitation building.
The secrets surrounding Xu Wenshan could be investigated slowly.
For now, he needed to give the contract to his sister.
Inside the elevator, Chen Xuan closed his eyes and circulated the Primordial Creation Art. Treating Zhao Qingya with acupuncture had consumed a considerable amount of his spiritual power, and the vortex in his dantian was far weaker than before. The spiritual energy on Earth was far too thin. Relying solely on breathing and cultivation, it would take at least a day for him to recover completely.
Still, he had gained quite a bit from this trip.
Five million yuan would be enough to pay off the family’s debts and settle their housing problem. It would also allow him to purchase a batch of medicinal herbs. The gemstones and wood Zhao Tianxiong had promised to find for him could be used in the future to refine the most basic array tools and magical artifacts.
In the cultivation world, truly valuable items were rarely measured in mundane money. Earth was different, however. As long as one had enough money, many resources could be purchased directly from the market.
In the hospital room, Zhou Lan had already packed up most of their belongings. Chen Jianguo sat beside the bed, holding the business card Qin Zhenghai had left behind. Chen Yan, meanwhile, kept staring at her phone, checking the time every few minutes.
“He’s taking way too long. Why hasn’t he come back yet? Dad, should we call Boss Qin and ask what’s going on?”
Just as the three of them began to feel that something was wrong as the sky darkened, the door was suddenly pushed open with a bang. All three turned toward it at once.
“Brother!”
Chen Yan was the first to stand up.
She hurried over to Chen Xuan and threw herself into his arms, hugging him tightly. Only after releasing him did she look him up and down, confirming that he had no obvious injuries. The tension that had gripped her all afternoon finally eased.
“Why did you take so long? You didn’t answer your phone after you sent that message.”
“I was discussing something, and having my phone ring would have been rude, so I put it on silent. I didn’t notice the calls.”
Chen Xuan took the contract and payment receipt from the document bag he carried with him.
“It’s all settled.”
Chen Yan accepted the documents.
On top was the proof that her contract with Huangting had been terminated. Beneath it was a payment receipt stamped with Huangting’s official seal, clearly stating that the entire debt of eighty thousand yuan had been repaid and that neither party had any further claims or debts toward the other.
She turned to the original contract.
She had signed it herself.
For the past six months, that contract had been like a rope tied around her neck. As long as her family could not repay the money, she had been afraid to leave Huangting, much less offend any of those clients.
Now, the contract was finally back in her own hands.
“Did Huangting really give up the remaining one hundred and eighty thousand yuan?”
“Zhao Tianxiong personally agreed to waive it.”
“Why would he be willing to do that?”
“Qin Zhenghai called him.”
Chen Xuan did not mention the conflict that had taken place in the office, nor did he reveal that he had saved Zhao Tianxiong’s daughter. Since Zhao Tianxiong had temporarily classified the matter as confidential to prevent word from getting out, Chen Xuan decided not to say anything about it at home either.
He merely gave them a simplified explanation, saying that the Qin family had intervened.
This explanation was completely consistent with what he had told his family before leaving the hospital. Once Zhou Lan and Chen Jianguo heard that Qin Zhenghai had truly helped, the last of their worries disappeared.
Chen Yan, however, still looked uneasy.
“Brother, the Qin family has already given us two hundred thousand yuan and even gifted us such an expensive wild ginseng. Now they’ve stepped in on my behalf too. Won’t we owe them far too great a favor?”
“If Qin Zhenghai was willing to make that call, it means the matter wasn’t difficult for him. Compared with Old Master Qin’s life, the things we consider precious aren’t worth much in their eyes. From now on, we need to broaden our horizons and conduct ourselves accordingly.”
Chen Xuan looked at his sister.
“You don’t have to go back to Huangting anymore, and you don’t need to answer calls from Wang Hai or that Boss Zhou. If anyone continues to harass you, tell your brother directly.”
Chen Yan lowered her head and looked at the proof of contract termination. Her eyes gradually reddened.
This time, she did not say that she could handle it herself, nor did she continue to put on a brave front. She merely nodded lightly.
“I understand.”
Zhou Lan carefully placed the contract and receipt back into the document bag.
“Keep these things safe. If Huangting refuses to acknowledge the agreement later, we’ll still have evidence.”
“Don’t worry, Mom.”
Chen Yan wiped the corner of her eye.
“With the termination document bearing their official seal, they won’t be able to deny it.”
Chen Jianguo glanced out the window.
“Who brought you back just now? I saw that car from upstairs. It looked expensive.”
Qin Yufei had not gotten out of the car, so Chen Jianguo had only seen a man wearing glasses. Naturally, he was curious.
“Miss Qin.”
The three people in the hospital room all turned toward Chen Xuan.
Zhou Lan asked, “Miss Qin personally brought you back?”
“Otherwise, how would I dare say that the Qin family would protect me?”
“Then we’ll have to properly thank Miss Qin the next time we see her.”
Chen Xuan took out the bank card Zhao Tianxiong had given him and placed it on the bedside table.
“There are five million yuan in here. It’s the Qin family’s payment for my treatment.”
Since Zhao Tianxiong did not want his identity exposed, Chen Xuan had no choice but to use the Qin family as an excuse for the five million yuan.
Zhou Lan was sorting through their clothes. The moment she heard this, her hands stopped moving.
Chen Yan thought she had misheard him as well.
“How much?”
“Five million.”
The hospital room fell silent for quite some time.
Zhou Lan was the first to recover.
“That much money? The Qin family has already helped us so much. We can’t accept this!”
She set down the clothes, picked up the bank card, and tried to hand it back to Chen Xuan.
“You only treated someone once, yet you’ve already accepted two hundred thousand yuan and a pile of medicine from them. Now you’re taking another five million? The Qin family isn’t ordinary people. Their money can’t be taken so casually.”
“This is a normal consultation fee. Since they gave it to us, we should accept it. Those wealthy and powerful people don’t care about money; they care about face. If we refuse, we’d be making them lose face and putting them in an awkward position.”
“But this is far too much.”
Chen Xuan placed the bank card back on the table.
“Buying Old Master Qin’s life for five million isn’t much to the Qin family.”
Zhou Lan had lived for more than half a century but had never seen such a large sum of money. When the family’s hardware store had been doing its best business, it had not even earned five hundred thousand yuan in a year.
To her, five million yuan was an unimaginable figure.
Chen Jianguo was somewhat calmer than his wife.
“Xiao Xuan, can we really accept this money without worry?”
Chen Jianguo looked at his son nervously.