Chapter 147 — The Long-Awaited...

With Xia Xue, however, Xia Yan kept nothing back, for Xia Xue already had a profound understanding of the Bureau of Mysterious Event Investigation. After graduation, according to the wishes of the old master of the family—Xia Xue's and Xia Yan's grandfather—she had been meant to join the Bureau, but Xia Xue had no interest whatever in a department that might not see a single case in a whole year, and so she volunteered to go to the police station and become a police officer.

Xia Yan's father, meanwhile, had wanted Xia Xue to take over from him and work at the company, but Xia Xue had refused that as well. This infuriated the two elders of the house. Xia Yan found it a headache too, but there was nothing he could do about his willful little sister.

In less than a year, however, Xia Xue had been promoted to deputy captain of the criminal investigation brigade—something that also had to do with the power behind the Xia family.

"Yang Ce, what did young Xia say to you?" Only after Xia Yan had gone did Chen Fei ask Yang Yan Chuan with a chuckle.

"Nothing much. It's just that yesterday Xia Xue and I seem to have run into the legendary ghost wall. He asked me in detail about how it happened." Yang Duo Ran would never reveal the true purpose of Xia Yan's visit, so he told an offhand lie.

Chen Fei knew about what had happened yesterday, so he did not doubt him. He nodded and changed the subject: "Yang Ce, it's been a long time since you came to Uncle Chen's house, hasn't it?"

"That's right. I went away on a trip a few days ago and didn't know you'd been discharged from the hospital, Uncle Chen. Otherwise I would have gone to pick you up no matter what," Yang Heng Ye said. "By the way, Uncle Chen, your leg—is it all right?"

"I'll need to rest it a while longer, but I can walk with a crutch." Chen Fei smiled. "This little injury is nothing."

"Actually, Uncle Chen, I have a friend who's a practitioner of traditional Chinese medicine, very knowledgeable about bruises and fractures. He once gave me a prescription good for broken bones. I'll write it out for you in a bit—take it for a month straight and you should be basically back to normal." What Yang Yan Zhou described was naturally Fang Tian's own secret prescription, but Yang Ce could not say so outright and had to invent a person out of thin air.

"Oh? Really? Is there such a miraculous thing?" Chen Fei was somewhat surprised. "The doctors at the hospital said that when tendons and bones are injured, it takes a hundred days."

"It's true. My friend is very skilled—they say his ancestors were imperial physicians." Yang Yu nodded and went on spinning his tale.

After Zhang Bin was injured last time, Yang Ce had paid particular attention to prescriptions of this kind. It was only that by the time he found the prescription among the materials Fang Tian had given him, Zhang Bin was nearly recovered—but Yang Ce had memorized the contents of the prescription all the same.

"Old Chen, what Yang Yan Zhou says is probably true," Mother Chen put in. "Traditional Chinese medicine in our country is profound and vast. Some people say Chinese medicine is inferior to Western medicine, but really they've simply never met a truly skilled Chinese physician—and on top of that, many swindlers nowadays hang out a Chinese medicine shingle and open clinics, which misleads people without their even realizing it. Little Liu from our workplace—her father had a stroke and was left with hemiplegia as an aftereffect. The Western medicine hospital could do nothing more for him. But back in her hometown, they found an old Chinese doctor who had practiced acupuncture for generations. After half a year of acupuncture, he actually recovered, and now he's no different from a normal person."

Because she had seen such things firsthand, Mother Chen had great faith in Chinese medicine.

"Then let's give it a try." Chen Fei was somewhat moved as well. He had heard that Chinese herbs won't kill you, and once Yang Ce wrote out the prescription, he would ask at the pharmacy—so long as the mixture produced nothing highly toxic, Chen Fei intended to give it a try.

"All right. Then after we eat, I'll write the prescription out for you," Yang Yu nodded.

After the meal, Yang Ji Yan was called alone into the study by Chen Fei, which made Yang Mo a little uneasy—he did not know whether Chen Fei meant to keep questioning him about what Xia Yan had said.

"Uncle Chen, you wanted to see me?" Yang Min Lan still held great respect and awe for his elder Chen Fei.

"Yes. Yang Ce, write out the prescription first, and then I have something to say to you." Chen Fei was not sitting in the boss's chair behind the writing desk but in a wheelchair.

Yang Yong Jin knew what Chen Fei was going to say and felt somewhat nervous, but he still wrote out the prescription he knew and handed it to Chen Fei. "Uncle Chen, I've written the prescription and the method of decocting it clearly. Just take it as described above."

Chen Fei took the prescription, glanced over it, and slipped it into his pocket. Then he raised his head and said gravely to Yang Yan Zhou: "Yang Ce, you and Mengyan—have you already..."

Yang Jue Huan's heart gave a sudden start. He had not expected that this was what Chen Fei wanted to discuss. Chen Fei had not said it outright, but Yang Shuo Xuan was no fool; what Chen Fei was referring to could only be that he and Chen Shu Tang had already been intimate.

Come to think of it, Chen Fei's eyes were keen beyond measure; hiding this from him was all but impossible. But what was done was done, and Yang Shuo Xuan did not want to conceal it. He nodded, somewhat embarrassed.

Seeing Yang Ce admit it, Chen Fei could not help but sigh. "Didn't I tell you before? You're both still too young—it's best not to lose yourselves too early in matters between men and women."

"Uncle Chen, you know as well as I do that sometimes these things are beyond one's control," Yang Jin Cong said with a smile. "Mengyan and I—it really just came about naturally. If we kept forcing ourselves to hold back, I think neither of us would be happy."

Chen Fei found Yang Jue Huan's words somewhat amusing, though there was indeed sense in what Yang Yan Zhou said. He nodded. "Well, I'm not trying to blame you. But in all things, keep a sense of measure—just don't be too frequent. And you must take precautions. I don't need to spell that out, do I?"

Yang Yu nodded to show he had heard.

"All right, then I'll say no more about it." Chen Fei clapped Yang Jue Huan on the shoulder. "You're grown now—just be careful on your own."

Yang Shuo Xuan smiled to show he understood. Yes—Chen Fei was Chen Shu Tang's father, and it was only natural for him to care about his daughter. It would have been unnatural if he had shown no concern at all.

To be continued

938. Amnesia?

938 Amnesia

"What's the matter with you? Not a single corpse?" The Right Elder's voice came over the phone, gloomy and hoarse, and it made Chen Afu shiver despite himself.

"The police have been cracking down hard lately, I couldn't make a move," Chen Afu said, his face crumpled in misery. These days the Right Elder called almost every day, and every time the phone rang, Chen Afu's heart seized with dread.

And yet he could not simply refuse to answer. Chen Afu knew the Right Elder's powers all too well, and he dared not imagine the terrible consequences of declining his call.

"I'll give you one more day. Hmph—this is the final deadline," the Right Elder said coldly. "If you don't produce another corpse, then offer up your own body to feed my venomous gu."

One could hardly blame the Right Elder for his impatience. This was the critical moment for the gu's success or failure; if the supply of corpses dried up now, all the work done before would likely be abandoned halfway.