“No.”
“Then how did you know he was suffering from aconitine poisoning?”
“I smelled it.”
The nurse glanced at the medication still on the floor.
She had been standing even closer than Chen Xuan, yet all she could smell was the bitter scent of traditional Chinese medicine. Chen Xuan, however, had been able to distinguish the unprocessed aconite among the scents of more than a dozen medicines mixed together.
The doctor who had accompanied them into the examination room also came over.
“What kind of acupuncture technique did you just use? I spent two years in the traditional Chinese medicine department, but I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“I learned it by chance.”
Chen Xuan clearly had no intention of explaining further.
The doctor wanted to ask more, but the examination room had already called Chen Xuan’s name.
Zhou Lan followed the transport bed for quite a distance before finally coming back to herself. She looked at her son’s pale face, worried and puzzled at the same time.
“Little Xuan, when did you learn acupuncture?”
Chen Jianguo looked at him as well.
When his son had been in the accident, he had been only eighteen years old. Although he had always achieved excellent grades, he had never had any contact with traditional Chinese medicine.
Chen Xuan had prepared his explanation long ago.
“During the ten years I was unconscious, I wasn’t completely unaware.”
Zhou Lan stopped in her tracks.
“You could hear us talking?”
“No.”
Chen Xuan shook his head.
“But I kept having a very long dream. In the dream, I went to another place and learned many things from an old man. When I saw that patient just now, I don’t know why, but the method of saving him simply came to me.”
It was the most suitable explanation he could think of.
A comatose patient sleeping for ten years and waking up with knowledge he had never encountered before sounded strange, but it was still easier to accept than the truth—that his consciousness had crossed into a cultivation world, where he had spent sixty years practicing immortal cultivation.
Zhou Lan did not doubt her son.
She was concerned about something else.
“You just woke up, and your body is still so weak. You were sweating so much just now, too. Do you feel unwell anywhere?”
“I’m only a little tired. I’ll be fine after resting for a while.” Chen Xuan smiled and shook his head, indicating that his mother needn’t worry.
“You mustn’t take such risks again. There are doctors to save people—you’re still a patient yourself.” Zhou Lan scolded him, but when she took out a tissue to wipe his sweat, her movements were exceptionally gentle. “Mom knows you have a kind heart, but you have to take care of yourself first.”
“I understand.”
Chen Xuan agreed aloud, but in his heart, he knew that the old man he had just saved might be the first opportunity to change his family’s circumstances.
Judging from Qin Zhenghai’s clothes, bearing, and the people accompanying him, the Qin family was clearly no ordinary family. Making someone like that owe him a life was far more valuable than simply receiving a sum of money.
The rest of the brain examinations went smoothly.
The results showed that Chen Xuan’s brain had suffered no new damage. The neural activity that had weakened during his long coma was also recovering rapidly. As for why he had awakened after ten years, the doctors were still unable to provide a definite answer.
By the time he returned to the ward, Chen Xuan was so exhausted that he could barely keep his eyes open.
Zhou Lan tucked him in and drew the curtains, allowing him to rest in peace.
Chen Xuan slept for more than eight hours.
When he woke up, his parents were still in the ward, along with three guests.
Qin Zhenghai had removed the suit jacket he had been wearing earlier, and the tension on his face had eased considerably. Qin Yufei stood beside him, still wearing the same clothes as that morning.
Another woman in her thirties stood respectfully behind them, carrying several exquisitely packaged gift boxes. She was probably Qin Zhenghai’s assistant.
Qin Suxi, who had stayed with the Qin family all morning, was nowhere to be seen.
The moment Qin Zhenghai saw Chen Xuan open his eyes, he immediately walked to the bedside.
“Mr. Chen, I’m sorry to intrude.”
“Mr. Qin, have you been here long?” Chen Xuan quickly realized what had happened. He turned to his mother and said, “Mom, why didn’t you wake me? You shouldn’t have made our guests wait so long.”
“This gentleman wouldn’t let me wake you,” Zhou Lan replied with an embarrassed smile.
Qin Zhenghai’s consideration had given Zhou Lan a rather favorable impression of him.
He was such a powerful businessman, yet he actually knew how to respect others.
“How is the old man?” Chen Xuan asked Qin Zhenghai.
“He’s out of danger.”
Qin Zhenghai’s expression grew much more solemn.
“The hospital detected an excessive amount of aconitine in the remaining medicine. The doctors said that if you hadn’t used silver needles to stabilize my father’s heart meridians, he wouldn’t have survived long enough to reach the emergency room.”
“Thank you for saving my grandfather, Mr. Chen.”
Qin Yufei also offered Chen Xuan a solemn word of thanks.
Chen Xuan nodded without saying much.
Qin Zhenghai did not immediately present the gift he had prepared. Instead, he fell silent for a moment before suddenly saying, “There’s one more thing you were right about, Mr. Chen.”
Chen Xuan looked at him.
“The medicine was tampered with?”
“That’s right.”
Qin Zhenghai nodded.
“My father has been in the medicinal herb business his entire life. He knows the properties of aconite better than most people. The Decoction of Ginseng and Aconite was also a prescription he formulated himself. Under normal circumstances, there shouldn’t have been any problem.”
“So after my father was taken to the emergency room, I had someone investigate the preparation process and the medicinal herbs used that day.”
Qin Yufei stood beside him, her expression clearly darkening.
Qin Zhenghai continued, “In the end, we discovered that the problem wasn’t with the prescription or the person responsible for preparing the medicine.”
“The aconite intended for my father had already been processed as required. But before it was sent to be decocted, someone switched it out.”
Qin Zhenghai’s expression turned grim.
“The person who switched the medicine was my niece—the one who stayed with us all morning.”
The ward fell silent for a moment.
There was no surprise on Chen Xuan’s face.
That morning, Qin Suxi had repeatedly tried to stop him from saving the old man. Later, she had even attempted to pull the silver needles out of Qin Baichuan’s body. He and Qin Zhenghai had already sensed that something was wrong.
Now, their suspicions had merely been confirmed.
Even now, Qin Yufei’s expression remained unpleasant whenever she brought up the matter.
“Grandpa has doted on her since she was little. None of us ever imagined that she would do something like this to him.”
“Perhaps what she did also had something to do with the fact that your uncle has never been valued by your grandfather.”
Qin Zhenghai sighed before looking back at Chen Xuan.
“But the evidence has been thoroughly investigated. She was the one who switched the herbs, and the people involved have already confessed. The reason she kept trying to stop you from saving my father this morning wasn’t because she was worried about him. She was afraid he might actually be saved.
“As for why she did it, that’s a private matter within the Qin family. I won’t burden you with it.”
Chen Xuan did not ask any further questions.
He had no interest in the Qin family’s internal conflicts.
The fact that Qin Zhenghai had uncovered the truth so quickly also proved that Chen Xuan’s judgment that morning had been correct.
The Qin family truly possessed considerable influence in Jiangzhou.
Qin Zhenghai soon composed himself.
“If you hadn’t stepped in, my father would probably have…”
He did not finish the sentence.
Qin Zhenghai took a bank card from his assistant and placed it on the bedside table.
“Mr. Chen, there’s two hundred thousand yuan on this card. The password is written on the back. It isn’t much—just a small token of the Qin family’s gratitude. Once my father’s condition stabilizes, he’ll personally prepare a more substantial gift and come to thank you.”
Looking at the bank card, Zhou Lan hurriedly waved her hands.
“No, we can’t accept this. It’s far too much. Little Xuan was only helping out. How could we possibly take so much money from you?”
The combined annual income of Zhou Lan and Chen Jianguo was less than two hundred thousand yuan.
To their family, two hundred thousand yuan was already an enormous sum.
Qin Zhenghai did not take back the bank card.
“Ma’am, your son saved my father’s life. Let alone two hundred thousand—even two million wouldn’t be too much in exchange for my father’s life. Besides, this isn’t even a thank-you gift. It’s merely a gift to mark our first meeting. My father will come personally to thank him later, and he’ll show his sincerity then.”
Qin Yufei added from the side, “Auntie, please accept it. This is what the Qin family ought to do.”
“The first thing Grandpa said after waking up was that he had to properly thank the person who saved him. He’s still in the ICU and can’t come over for now. Once his condition stabilizes, he’ll definitely come personally to thank Mr. Chen.”
Zhou Lan still felt that two hundred thousand yuan was far too much. For a moment, she didn’t know whether she should accept it.
She instinctively looked at her son.
Chen Xuan had already spoken.