Chapter 156

Chapter 156

Yu He had a fever all afternoon, feeling sore and weak all over. He leaned on Fu Yunzhen for a while but felt a chill down his spine and curled up back in bed.

Fu Yunzhen tucked in the blanket for Yu He and asked, "Are you cold?"

Facing Fu Yunzhen, Yu He answered, "Not cold, just listless and my eyes are sore."

Fu Yunzhen added, "You need to eat something. What do you feel like eating?"

Yu He rested his hand on Fu Yunzhen's leg, tapping gently with no particular intention, and started to complain: "I want to eat everything you won't let me eat."

"Is this my fault now?" Fu Yunzhen couldn't help but chuckle: "Do you still want to drink duck soup? The kitchen has prepared a new batch for you. Duck soup is cool in nature, it can clear the false heat and relieve the steam in bones caused by tuberculosis. You managed to expel the heat in your blood by drinking the duck soup. Shen Mingyue said that expelling it is good, it becomes a hidden danger when it stays in the blood."

Yu He toyed with Fu Yunzhen’s fingers, teasing, “How come after just one illness, Mr. Fu has turned into Dr. Fu? You’re spouting more Traditional Chinese Medicine terms than me, and you sound even more professional.”

Fu Yunzhen checked the temperature of Yu He’s palm in return, saying, “All of this comes from Shen Mingyue. His medical skills are not bad. He could tell what you usually like to eat just by taking your pulse. This apprentice of his might be a bit arrogant, but he truly cares about you. He insisted on staying to take care of you, but I sent him away.”

“He is quite an interesting character, telling me that as a disciple, he should fulfill his filial duties at his master's sickbed,” Yu He said. “But I thought to myself, we’re about the same age, isn’t he just making fun of me? Besides, just seeing him when I'm not sick gives me a headache, so how could I possibly get better with him waiting on me hand and foot?”

Fu Yunzhen measured Yu He’s body temperature with an ear thermometer, commenting, “So what you mean is, your fever has nothing to do with your poor routine, and it’s all Shen Mingyue’s fault for shortening your life?”

Yu He took the opportunity to play along, pretending to have an epiphany, “Mr. Fu, your keen analysis and insightful observations are truly unparalleled. Just think about it, it really is a bit strange. He had just mentioned fulfilling his filial duties, and then I fell ill right afterwards.”

Fu Yunzhen: "......"

Finally able to shift the blame for his illness elsewhere, Yu He perked up entirely, propping himself up on his elbows and looking at Fu Yunzhen with sparkling eyes: “What do you think?”

Fu Yunzhen also looked at Yu He, saying, “I think you're being unreasonable.”

Yu He gasped in feigned shock, retorting, “You think I’m being unreasonable?”

Fu Yunzhen shot back, “Are you?”

Yu He: “......”

Fu Yunzhen continued, “Fine, be unreasonable if you want. You’ve been making a fuss for more than a day or two now... What do you want to eat? I’ll have the kitchen bring it up.”

Yu He, not feeling hungry, intentionally decided to be difficult with Fu Yunzhen: “I’m not eating. I’m already full from all the anger.”

Fu Yunzhen nodded, ignoring Yu He’s words, dialed the internal line, and instructed the restaurant to bring up the duck soup and porridge, adding a few light dishes.

Yu He wasn’t originally hungry, but hearing Fu Yunzhen order dishes to his taste made his mouth water. He prodded Fu Yunzhen, indicating that he wanted to eat sticky rice with chicken, but Fu Yunzhen rejected it on the grounds that it wasn’t easy to digest. Then, Yu He asked for spicy dry pot duck heads.

Yu He said earnestly, “Duck is cooling in nature, I should be able to eat it, right?”

Fu Yunzhen, without sparing Yu He a glance, mercilessly informed the kitchen, “No dry pot duck heads.”

Yu He was extremely disappointed, wanting to be very principled and resist Fu Yunzhen to the end, planning to go on a hunger strike to make a statement!

Unfortunately, when the food cart was pushed in, his overly sensitive sense of smell betrayed his will, continuously sending the wrong signals to Yu He’s brain.

So fragrant, so fragrant, so fragrant.

Hungry, hungry, hungry, hungry, hungry.

The servant wheeled the food cart to the side of Yu He’s bed, positioning it perfectly over the bed to form a table.

The rich aroma of the creamy white duck soup relentlessly invaded Yu He’s nostrils.

Fu Yunzhen ladled out half a bowl and handed it to Yu He: “Drink it while it's hot.”

Yu He took the bowl of soup.

The resistance was declared a failure.

Perhaps alerted by the commotion here, Shen Mingyue arrived a few minutes later with his needle box, intending to perform acupuncture and bloodletting on Yu He to reduce the fever and expel the pathogen.

Yu He refused, saying, “Forget it, I faint at the sight of needles.”

Shen Mingyue frowned at Yu He, “Master, how can you, a master of acupuncture, faint at the sight of needles?”

Do you think I enjoy fainting at the sight of needles?

That’s what Yu He thought internally, but he didn’t say it out loud. After all, when dealing with his own disciple, he still needed to maintain a friendly and caring image.

Yu He patiently explained, “Even your grandfather knows about this. He even accepted a disciple who faints at the sight of needles, which shows that fainting at the sight of needles isn’t a big deal, right?”

Shen Mingyue felt that his master was being unreasonable and was avoiding treatment. As a disciple, he couldn’t openly contradict his elder, so he turned to Fu Yunzhen, who was more reasonable, for help.

Fu Yunzhen avoided eye contact with Shen Mingyue, deliberately keeping himself out of the tug-of-war over the specific treatment.

Shen Mingyue: “???”

Seeing Shen Mingyue’s persistent attitude, Yu He had no choice but to say, “Just give me the needle, I'll do it myself.”

Shen Mingyue handed over the needle box: “Where's your needle box?”

Yu He fell silent for half a second before boldly stating two words: “Lost it.”

Shen Mingyue: “!!!!”

"You lost your needle box?" Shen Mingyue, who had just sat down, forgot to use honorifics and couldn’t help but stand up again, looking at Yu He in shock: “Have you forgotten the ancestral teaching that a needle should never leave your hand?”

Feeling a bit guilty, Yu He touched his nose, “I was on a plane recently, and security wouldn’t let me bring it.”

With a pained and earnest expression, Shen Mingyue interrogated, "Is that really your excuse? You lost your belongings just from a single trip? How can you heal and save others without your needles? Are you planning to use telekinesis?"

This was the first time Fu Yunzhen had ever seen a disciple scold their master like this.

Although Shen Mingyue was somewhat presumptuous, compared to a disciple like him, a master like Yu He was one in a million, so it was no wonder that Shen Mingyue was so agitated.

With their differing personalities, they naturally had their own way of getting along. Yu He’s strongest trait was his stubbornness; if he really wanted to persuade Shen Mingyue, he naturally had his own rationale.

Sure enough, Yu He didn’t take Shen Mingyue’s attitude to heart. He took out a needle, dipped it in alcohol, and swiftly inserted it into his own fingertip.

Shen Mingyue uttered a surprised sound.

Yu He felt like he was taking an exam with the examiner standing behind him, watching his every move. The moment Shen Mingyue made a sound, he felt uneasy.

Yu He stopped his movements and asked, "What's wrong?"

Shen Mingyue frowned slightly, his face showing a bit of suspicion as he stared at the bead of blood on Yu He's fingertip, murmuring, “The force you use to insert the needle... it's strange.”

Yu He’s needle insertion was too fast!

So fast that almost only a shadow was left behind, and the human eye could hardly catch it.

Although Shen Mingyue had seen many people perform acupuncture, he subconsciously felt that the force Yu He used was strange—it was a method he had never seen before.

Yu He inserted another needle into his finger and explained, "I faint at the sight of needles, so I insert them faster than others."

Shen Mingyue still couldn’t see clearly. He blinked and said, “It's not just a bit faster; it’s almost leaving a shadow. How can you accurately locate the acupoints this way?”

Each acupoint in the human body varies in depth, and the exact location of an acupoint is closely related to a person’s height, weight, and thickness of body fat. Most acupuncturists slowly insert the needle, using their sense of touch to determine if they have hit the right spot.

Acupuncture and bloodletting don’t require finding the acupoints as precisely, but it still... shouldn’t be this fast.

After all, it's about piercing the skin to let blood, not about cursing someone using voodoo dolls.

Yu He pondered for a moment, weighing the options between telling the truth and lying. In order to not mislead his disciple, he ultimately decided to answer truthfully: "I rely on my intuition."

“Intuition?” Shen Mingyue stared at Yu He in shock, “Aren’t you afraid of paralyzing someone if your intuition is wrong?”

Yu He’s gaze wavered, and he cleared his throat, “Everyone has their own fate.”

Shen Ming Le: "......"

This is my first time seeing someone so audaciously unconfident in their own medical skills!

Shen Ming Le's entire worldview was crumbling. How could such an irresponsible person end up in the Shen family lineage, and even become grandpa's last disciple?

Is this the so-called genius they've been talking about?

Isn't this a bit overrated?

Shen Ming Le took a deep breath, struggling to maintain the last bits of his rationality: "So what did you do during your travels? You mean to tell me you didn't save people?"

Upon hearing this, Fu Yun Zheng’s gaze darkened.

The atmosphere in the room abruptly solidified, the previously light mood completely vanished, replaced by a prolonged silence.

Shen Ming Le didn’t know what he had said wrong, he looked at Yu He, then at Fu Yun Zheng.

But no one was there to clear his confusion.

"Shen Ming Le, you leave first." Fu Yun Zheng lowered his eyes, displaying a senior’s attitude toward Shen Ming Le for the first time: "You are not needed here anymore."

Before, when Fu Yun Zheng watched Shen Ming Le and Yu He bicker, it was like watching two fledgling birds pecking at each other. Even though Shen Ming Le was not completely convinced of his master, Yu He, Fu Yun Zheng had never intervened. Yu He had been somewhat listless recently, and having a lively apprentice brought some excitement.

If he were to scold Shen Ming Le on behalf of Yu He, it would not only be bullying a child but also overstepping his boundaries, making it seem as though Yu He couldn’t control his own apprentice.

However, the phrase "not saving people" was akin to stabbing a knife straight into Yu He’s heart.

The speaker might not have intended it, but the listener read into it.

It’s true that Yu He is laid-back and casual, but his dedication to saving lives and helping the world has always been genuine. If there was even a hint of falsehood in his devotion, he wouldn’t have ended up so injured after his trip to Myanmar.

Whether it was the pangolin, the child with leukemia, or even his childhood friend who he went to school with...

After returning from Myanmar, Yu He always said that he couldn't change the world, so he shouldn't have gotten involved in the first place.

Fu Yun Zheng didn’t know how far back Yu He's "beginning" went — was it the last time he saw Huang Shao Hang, or was it when they first met?

"Actually, when I think about it, I'm quite selfish," Yu He leaned on Fu Yun Zheng's shoulder, feeling dizzy and disoriented, "I've always just done whatever makes me happy."

Fu Yun Zheng stroked Yu He's hair: "In this world, there are very few things that truly go as one wishes. As long as you are happy, that’s enough."

Yu He looked up at the ceiling and murmured, "I can't save anyone."

Fu Yun Zheng pressed his forehead against Yu He's, saying, "But you saved me. You brought me to the temple."

Yu He chuckled softly, “You saved me first. You pulled me out of the river when the current was so strong... Fu Yun Zheng, in those few minutes when I stopped breathing, what were you thinking?”

Fu Yun Zheng answered honestly, “I wasn't thinking about anything.”

“What if I had never woken up?”

Fu Yun Zheng had never made such an assumption, nor did he want to: “I don’t know.”

“I have thought about it. Before taking out the glass bead in the main hall of the temple, what I was thinking was...” Yu He lowered his head and whispered five words into Fu Yun Zheng's ear.

Hearing those five words, Fu Yun Zheng’s eyes flickered, and he sternly warned, “Xiao He... you can’t think like that.”

Yu He lifted his chin and smiled with his eyes curved, “So you have to think carefully when you're in danger. If you die, you won't be able to control me anymore.”

Fu Yun Zheng sighed.

He was both worried about Yu He's stubbornness regarding life and death, and happy about Yu He's unwavering affection.