Chapter 714 — Nothing Wrong? Thinking of This, Li Dilei Hung Up the Phone, Found One of His Boys Who Wasn't Lying on the Ground, and Had Him Accompany Him to the First People's Hospital

Under the astonished stares of everyone around him, Li Dilei felt mortified! The people in the hospital were all looking at him as if he were some kind of monster — after all, his entire body was studded with silver needles, porcupine-fashion, and anyone who didn't know the truth would think something dreadful had happened to him!

Li Dilei didn't dare linger either; he went straight to the surgery clinic. He was a man of the underworld, and among his crew there was no shortage of those who had been injured in clashes with rivals, so he was on familiar terms with all the surgeons here.

"Brother Wang, save me — quick, take a look at these silver needles in me!" Li Dilei spotted an acquaintance, Dr. Wang of the surgery department, a man he more or less knew.

Dr. Wang happened to have nothing on his hands. Seeing Dilei walk in, he was visibly taken aback. He couldn't help asking, somewhat puzzled, "Boss Li, what in the world happened to you? Did you go and get acupuncture?"

"Acupuncture, my ass! I was stabbed by someone!" Li Dilei was a little lost for words; just the thought of Wei Zhao made his teeth itch with rage. "That man told me not to pull them out — said if I did, I'd drop dead. So here I am, rushing to the hospital. Dr. Wang, you're a man of wide experience, do take a look for me?"

"You'd die if you pulled them out?" It was the first time in his life Dr. Wang had heard such a thing. A few silver needles stuck in a body — they caused no trouble going in, and pulling them out could kill you? Alarmist nonsense, surely. Dr. Wang didn't quite believe it, but Li Dilei sounded so deadly serious that he didn't dare treat the matter lightly. "I've never seen anything of the sort myself. How about I fetch our department head to have a look?"

"That... that'll do. Sorry to trouble you, Brother Wang." Li Dilei felt this whole business was somewhat humiliating and didn't want too many people to know about it — but with his life at stake, he couldn't very well stand on ceremony.

After a while, Dr. Wang came over with an old man and had him examine Li Dilei. The old man saw nothing out of the ordinary either; there was nothing remarkable about the needles. If they were poisoned, Li Dilei would long since have been a goner — whether they were pulled out or left in would have made no difference at all!

And if there was no poison, pulling them out certainly couldn't kill him either. The needles were lodged only in the shallowest layer of the skin, nowhere near touching a vital organ — how could extracting them possibly prove fatal?

But the old man was no fool either. Now that he grasped Li Dilei's situation, he wasn't about to commit himself outright: "In my personal opinion, there's nothing wrong with it, and we can pull them out for you. But if something really does happen once they're out, our hospital will not be held responsible."

"That..." Li Dilei's heart lurched. He had assumed that a few miserable silver needles would pose no problem whatsoever to have removed in a hospital — but when even the old expert here said he couldn't guarantee it, did he still dare have them pulled?

With no other way out, Li Dilei could only dial Li Cihua's number once more.

"Cousin, I'm at the hospital! But the people here say that if the needles come out and anything goes wrong, they won't take responsibility!" Li Dilei blurted in a small panic. "Cousin, think of something — what am I supposed to do?"

Li Cihua hadn't expected this cousin of his to be such a spineless milksop, but hearing him describe the matter so gravely, he couldn't very well wash his hands of it.

"Wait a moment — I'll come over and see!" Li Cihua asked which hospital Li Dilei was in and which ward he occupied, then hurried over.

When Li Cihua laid eyes on Li Dilei, he too was startled by the sight! Wasn't this a hedgehog? How had the man come to be covered head to toe in quills?

"Even the hospital can't pull them out?" Li Cihua examined the silver needles in Li Dilei's body and saw nothing amiss about them either.

"No. Brother Wang and the expert both said they couldn't guarantee it — if anything goes wrong, they won't take responsibility." Li Dilei nodded.

"Wait here, I'll go and ask." Li Cihua turned and stepped into the surgery clinic, where he caught sight of Dr. Wang.

Dr. Wang naturally knew who Li Cihua was — a man of considerable standing in this city — and dared not slack for a moment. He rose hastily and came forward to greet him. "Brother Cihua!"

"Dr. Wang, my cousin's condition — what is the verdict?" Li Cihua nodded, skipping the pleasantries altogether, and put the question straight.

"Well... actually, by my judgment, there's nothing wrong." Dr. Wang, for his part, spoke plainly. "The spots where the needles went in are all shallow — there's no way they could have damaged a vital organ. So the notion that pulling them out means death is, frankly, pure fantasy. As for the needles being poisoned — that has little to do with whether they are pulled out or not; he would be poisoned just the same if they stayed in. And besides, Mr. Li has needles in his hands as well, and there's nothing vital in a hand."

"Oh? Then what exactly are you suggesting?" Li Cihua too found Dr. Wang's reasoning sound — what vital spot could there possibly be in a hand?

"The crux of the matter is this: what your brother says is downright terrifying — he claims he'll die the instant they're pulled. Nobody can afford to shoulder that kind of responsibility. Better safe than sorry, wouldn't you agree?" Dr. Wang said with a wry smile.

Li Cihua nodded; he understood Dr. Wang's predicament perfectly well. Li Dilei was his own cousin, and if something did go wrong, he would very likely come looking to make trouble for him!

"How about this — we pull the needles from his hands first. I reckon nothing will go wrong. And even if it does, I'll take responsibility. How does that sound?" Li Cihua pondered a moment, then asked. He couldn't very well leave his cousin to go on porcupining like this, could he? One way or another, it had to be settled!

With this business settled, Li Cihua still had to head back to Bing Shao's place to discuss their countermeasures. Wei Zhao had to be dealt with, and now it was no longer as simple as breaking Bing Shao's legs and doing in Zhang Long and Li Yao — no, it was a whole tower block! A few casual bulldozers and bombs from Wei Zhao had written off upward of a hundred million in one stroke.

Bing Shao had merely torn down a single-storey house belonging to his girlfriend's family, and in return Wei Zhao had demolished an entire tower block. Ruthless!

"As for the needles in his hands, he could pull them out himself, for that matter. Why don't you lend him a hand, Brother Cihua?" Dr. Wang naturally wasn't about to lift a finger — who in his right mind would go and shoulder that sort of risk?

"Fine. Then you keep an eye on things — if anything goes wrong, you can deal with it in time!" Li Cihua nodded and agreed.

Seeing his cousin emerge together with Dr. Wang, Li Dilei hurriedly asked, "Cousin, how did it go?"

"I'll pull the needles out of your hands first. There's nothing vital in the hands, so it should be perfectly fine. Plenty of people lose hands or feet and go on living, don't they?" Li Cihua said.

Li Dilei thought about it and had to admit it made sense, so he nodded his agreement and said to Li Cihua, "All right then — the hands first."

Extracting a silver needle was hardly a momentous undertaking. Li Cihua slid the needles from Li Dilei's left hand with the greatest of ease — and not so much as a single drop of blood came from Li Dilei's hand!

"See? Told you there was nothing to it!" Li Dilei said, half elated and half scornful. "Damn it — and I thought there was some hidden trick to it. Turns out it was all a scam! It scared the life out of me! Not the slightest bit of pain, not the slightest itch — it didn't even draw blood!"