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Chu Yuening swiftly supported Qiao's mother with one hand, directing her gaze towards the hospital bed.

The black aura grew even more massive.

Qiao Ziyuan's eyes were tightly shut, his lips a ghastly pale. It seemed as though a huge hole had been ripped open in his chest, and the black aura expanded twice its original size, threatening to tear half his body apart.

There was no time to wait.

Chu Yuening hastily pulled out a talisman to attach it, but Qiao Tianxin intercepted her, his expression stern. "Miss Chu, please do not obstruct the doctors from saving lives!"

"Just let me place one talisman," Chu Yuening attempted to press the talisman down, but Qiao Tianxin still blocked her, his hand even positioned in front of the charm.

Qiao Tianxin didn't trust anyone. "Miss Chu, my family has been targeted for harm more than once or twice. Nowadays, there are all sorts of methods for poisoning. If I don't trust you, I won't allow you to touch Ziyuan."

The doctor also approached to clear the area. "Excuse me, please make way."

Chu Yuening couldn't offer an explanation. Recalling the cow's tears she had purchased from the feng shui shop, she quickly retrieved the bottle from her pocket, unscrewed the cap, and using her dampened fingers, swiftly swiped across Qiao's father's eyelid.

Qiao's mother, thinking something had happened, stepped forward to inspect and was also touched by the gesture.

Next came Qiao Xing.

"Whatever your intentions are, please leave immediately!" Qiao's father wiped his eyes, attempting to pull the person out of the ward. His gaze fell on the bed, and he was instantly rooted to the spot by the surging black aura.

An overwhelming black aura erupted from Qiao Ziyuan's body.

His pupils dilated instantly.

"What... What are these... These things?"

Qiao's mother paled in fright, her hands trembling as she tried to dispel the black aura. "How could this be?"

Qiao Xing had mentally prepared himself, but he was still stunned into immobility by the dark aura surrounding his elder brother.

"Are you not going to stop me now?" Chu Yuening frowned, gently moving Qiao's mother's hand aside. Without further explanation, he quickly affixed the talisman onto Qiao Ziyuan's chest before the black aura could create an even larger hole.

The black aura vanished in an instant.

The tranquility was such that it seemed as if the three Qiaos had just witnessed an illusion.

Experts wheeled the patient's bed towards the emergency room, urging, "Make way quickly!"

"Don't obstruct the act of saving lives!"

"You young lass! Don't be impulsive at your age!"

"Can you take responsibility if something happens to the patient?"

Chu Yuening looked at them, removing her hand from Qiao Ziyuan's chest and taking a step back.

The doctors were impatient. Just as they were about to say another couple of words to chase her out of the ward, a miraculous scene unfolded.

The machines suddenly fell silent.

The specialist checked the equipment again and found all the readings stable. Suspecting a malfunction, he fetched a new machine from the adjacent ward, only to find the same results.

The doctors were bewildered.

They also didn't expect a patient with heart failure to suddenly be fine.

"One who doesn't receive immediate treatment for heart failure, what happens?"

"They die."

They exchanged glances, both astonished by the confusion they saw in each other's eyes.

Right, a patient with acute heart failure wouldn't survive without prompt aid. There was no way they could recover so effortlessly.

But...

The person was perfectly fine.

Faced with the undeniable reality, they had no choice but to accept it, despite their lack of understanding.

Eventually, the doctors attributed all the issues to a malfunctioning machine. They wheeled the bed back to its original spot, still concerned about the patient. They instructed the Qiao family to keep a close watch and to notify the medical staff immediately of any irregularities.

After the doctors left, the hospital room door clicked shut once more.

Qiao Tianxin slumped back onto the sofa, staring at the clusters of black vapor still lingering above the ceiling. After a long while, he rasped, "Miss Chu, could you tell me what exactly these black substances are? Are they the cause of Ziyuan's condition?"

In the past, he would never have believed in mysticism.

But now, the inexplicable was staring him right in the face.

After witnessing such peculiar phenomena, disbelief was no longer an option.

Qiao Tianxin didn't have time to process the decades of information he'd accumulated. His first priority was to find out if his son could regain consciousness.

In just a few short minutes, he had gone from skepticism to seeing Chu Yuening as his only hope.

"Malefic aura," Chu Yuening waved her hand gently, dispelling the black vapor in the air. "Ziyuan's coma is closely related to this malefic aura. For now, he's merely unconscious. If left unchecked, he'll eventually succumb to it and die in the hospital."

Anxious, Qiao's mother nudged her husband. "I told you, if the hospital couldn't help, we should have turned to superstition. Miss Chu, the black aura has subsided, so why hasn't Ziyuan woken up yet?"

Chu Yuening looked at the comatose Qiao Ziyuan. He had a delicate appearance that surpassed Qiao Xin's. Despite being in a coma for months, he was still impeccably clean, a testament to his family's care.

"Put simply, the black aura has subsided, but the source of it remains unidentified. The malevolent entity that feeds on nutrients is still present..."

Suddenly, Chu Yuening's gaze fell upon Qiao Ziyuan's bony hand, which seemed to be pressing against a red string. She moved his hand aside and noticed a copper coin hanging from the thread on the bedsheet, emanating a faint black aura.

She turned to Qiao's mother and pointed at the coin, "Excuse me, do you know the purpose of this copper coin?"

"I do."

Chu Yuening looked back, noticing that the hospital room door had been quietly opened. An elderly lady, Fenpo, stood at the entrance with a thermal food container in hand.

Qiao's mother greeted, "Fenpo is here, give me the food."

Fenpo passed the container to Qiao's mother and, with a sorrowful expression, glanced at the unconscious Qiao Ziyuan before turning her attention to Chu Yuening.

"That copper coin was given by my grandson. They're about the same age and were born on the same day, in the same month. They've grown up together and their bond is unbreakable. Not long ago, my grandson went to a temple and sought two of these coins, claiming they would ensure safety while traveling. Each of them wore one."