Chapter 18 – Night Return

“Even if Lin Zhiqin and Yang Jiandong have a good relationship in private, it’s been more than half an hour; he should have left by now.”

Lu Yuan waited another five minutes in the stairwell on the eighth floor before finally deciding to go out and see for himself.

The entrance to the eighth-floor ward was marked in bright red letters: Orthopedic Ward.

Lu Yuan’s eyes flickered as he discreetly pushed the door open and walked into the inpatient area.

Compared to the ward where his grandfather, Lu Yueping, was staying, the eighth floor was much noisier.

From each ward came sounds of painful groans, both loud and soft, and even some hysterical screams that drew reprimands from the nurses.

Every now and then, he encountered family members of patients, rushing by with water bottles or bedpans.

Everyone seemed very busy.

No one noticed Lu Yuan.

“Bed 16.”

Lu Yuan’s gaze swept over the bed numbers on each ward door.

He quickly found the ward for bed 16.

“Yes, this is it.”

The patient name corresponding to bed 16 was indeed Yang Jiandong.

Through the glass window on the door, Lu Yuan saw a figure lying on the bed, head and body wrapped in bandages, with one leg in a cast.

Beside the bed sat a girl in a yellow dress, probably in her early twenties, looking very quiet.

“Wow, was this a car accident?”

Lu Yuan clicked his tongue silently in surprise but didn’t dare to look too long. He walked straight ahead.

When he reached bed number 20, he had a plan.

Lu Yuan turned around and walked back. When he returned to bed 16, he stood at the door and knocked lightly.

He stepped aside to the door’s edge so that the people inside the ward wouldn’t see him.

A few seconds later, the door opened, and a figure in a light yellow dress stepped out.

“Who are you?”

The girl looked at Lu Yuan with confusion.

Lu Yuan quickly said, “I’m a student of Coach Lin. It seems Coach Lin left a spare phone here. Could you help me find it?”

“Oh.”

The girl nodded and turned back into the room.

Lu Yuan breathed a sigh of relief, confirming that Lin Zhiqin had indeed been here.

Moments later, the girl reappeared.

“I didn’t see any phone.”

“Coach Lin just called me and said he found it; he left it in the car.”

Lu Yuan explained with a hint of apology, “Sorry for the trouble.”

“It’s okay, as long as it’s found.”

Maybe it was Lu Yuan’s polite attitude, but the girl even smiled at him. “If there’s nothing else, I’ll head back inside.”

“Alright.”

Just as Lu Yuan responded, he appeared “curious” and glanced in the direction of the ward, casually asking, “What happened to him? He seems pretty badly injured.”

“Yeah.”

The girl’s lips tightened, and her eyes began to redden involuntarily, her voice tinged with a sob.

“He was beaten up. He’s always been like this, even before learning martial arts, always getting into fights. After a few days of training, he went off to participate in some competition, saying he’d win money to buy a house and propose to me. It’s a miracle he didn’t die in the arena!”

Injuries from a martial arts competition?!

Yang Jiandong actually participated in a martial arts competition?

Lu Yuan was shocked, but he kept a look of sympathy and concern on his face, offering a few comforting words to the girl.

After watching the girl go back into the ward, Lu Yuan didn’t leave right away.

Instead, he went to the nurse’s station to inquire about Yang Jiandong’s condition.

Since he had chatted with the girl in the yellow dress, who was a family member, the nurse assumed he was a friend of Yang Jiandong and readily showed him the medical records.

“Multiple soft tissue contusions, fractures to the face, ribs, arm, and right leg.”

In the inpatient department cafeteria, Lu Yuan ate his meal while pondering this matter.

Lately, the number of students from their batch at Yuan Martial Arts Gym had been seeing less and less of Yang Jiandong.

His class schedule seemed completely out of sync with everyone else’s, and there were rumors that he was receiving private lessons from Lin Zhiqin.

Because of this, a few classmates had secretly complained to the gym about Lin Zhiqin, but nothing came of it.

This caused a rift between them and Lin Zhiqin, leading to one by one dropping out of the course.

Lu Yuan, however, wasn’t too bothered by it.

If a coach favored a certain student and gave them private lessons, wasn’t that the coach’s business? There was no such thing as absolute fairness.

He did feel a bit envious, but as his own skills improved, that envy gradually faded. After discovering today’s incident, it was completely gone.

Although Yang Jiandong’s girlfriend didn’t mention Lin Zhiqin, Lu Yuan couldn’t shake the feeling that Yang Jiandong’s injuries from the competition were somehow connected to Lin Zhiqin.

“Otherwise, why would he go out of his way to visit him? Could it be that Lin Zhiqin arranged for Yang Jiandong to participate in the competition?”

Lu Yuan finished his dinner quietly, temporarily setting aside this unexpected discovery. He then quickly went upstairs to rejoin his grandfather, Lu Yueping.

That evening, he kept his grandfather company by watching the evening news and later an old spy movie.

It wasn’t until around eight or nearly nine o’clock that Lu Xinghua finally appeared in the ward.

“Thanks for your hard work today.”

Lu Xinghua looked utterly exhausted, and even from several meters away, Lu Yuan could smell the strong scent of tobacco on him. It was clear he had been smoking a lot throughout the day.

“Why don’t you go home tonight? I’ll stay here with Grandpa.”

Lu Yuan, concerned about Lu Xinghua’s condition, couldn’t help but suggest.

But Lu Xinghua waved his hand dismissively, saying firmly, “I’ll take you home.”

Seeing Lu Xinghua’s resolute attitude, Lu Yuan had no choice but to relent, “Then I’ll head home on my own.”

Lu Xinghua thought for a moment but didn’t insist further.

“Alright then… be careful on your way home. Send me a message when you get there.”

“Got it.”

As Lu Yuan walked out of the hospital, it was exactly nine o’clock.

He called Zheng Qiuling and decided not to wait for the last bus, opting to walk home slowly.

The First Hospital was close to the center of Jiaoyan, and at nine o’clock, the streets were still bustling.

He frequently passed by street vendors selling fruits and various snacks at the corners.

Unable to resist, Lu Yuan bought a serving of fried noodles and two skewers of barbecue, which he ate while squatting by the roadside.

With his improved physique, his appetite had also significantly increased.

He needed to eat four to five meals a day to feel full, sometimes even six.

Recently, he had begun learning to create his own meal plans, experimenting with various high-calorie nutritious meals.

However, due to his limited budget, he hadn’t been able to put many of his ideas into practice.

“Once the monthly exam is over and the school scholarship comes in, I’ll be able to treat myself to better meals,” Lu Yuan thought.

“And there’s also the martial arts gym…”

Lu Yuan casually kicked an empty water bottle in front of him, sending it flying perfectly into a nearby trash can, catching the attention of two stray dogs nearby.

“Cheng Peng mentioned that to become an official disciple at the gym, one needs to master the basic martial arts techniques and have a boxing power of over 100 kilograms!”

“100 kilograms of boxing power is equivalent to a third-rank amateur martial artist.”

“It’s quite challenging, but it’s not impossible for me.”

Lu Yuan’s strength attribute had recently increased to 9 points.

Compared to the average adult male in this world, his current boxing power was roughly around 60 to 70 kilograms.

Lu Yuan’s confidence mainly came from the two unused attribute points he still had.

“If I put both points into strength, my boxing power will definitely reach 100 kilograms. But if I only add one point, I wonder if it will be enough…”

His plan was to ideally allocate one point to agility.

Compared to his other basic attributes, which were at 9 or 10 points, his agility at 8 points was noticeably lacking.

As he pondered this, he found himself leaving the bustling area.

The west district, the old town of Jiaoyan, was far less lively than the city center.

At just past nine o’clock, the streets were nearly empty.

Only the streetlights were on, illuminating the scattered trash that had accumulated throughout the day.

Lu Yuan looked up at the sky but couldn’t find the moon.

He only saw a hazy glow, shrouded by dark clouds.

“Looks like it’s going to rain,” he thought, quickening his pace.