Chapter 16

As Ceng Rou had descended into the depths of depression, the person had stood up yet again. This person was none other than Xia Tian, and he had instantly struck down the man in black. Seeing Xia Tian still alive had caused Ceng Rou to involuntarily lose control of her emotions.

She cried. There was no trace of any lady-like grace to her bawling, nor was there any semblance of a strong-willed woman. Ceng Rou was bawling her tears out, and so too was her daughter. However, since Ceng Rou’s daughter had been injected with a drug, her crying was muffled.

Ceng Rou plunged directly into Xia Tian’s embrace, and at that instant, she felt as if there was nowhere else as safe as his arms. They were extremely warm, and a wish sprung out of her at that moment. She would not leave his arms, and her mind was devoid of all else.

“Ahem! Ahem!” Xia Tian let out two pained coughs, and continued with, “Quickly, we must leave this place.”

Although Xia Tian had struck down the captors, he did not kill them. Living in a peaceful society, Xia Tian had been taught to never kill others since he was a child. Now that he had rescued his targets, he needed to leave the area as soon as possible. The police would arrive at any moment, and if they were to spot Xia Tian being shot, Xia Tian would have a hard time explaining himself to them.

“Oh okay.” Ceng Rou wiped off her tears and carried her daughter again. It was only while doing so that she noticed the puddle of fresh blood on the ground. The blood was real, which meant that Xia Tian had indeed been shot.

She had spotted the wound. It was on Xia Tian’s lower left abdomen, and blood was constantly gushing out of it as Xia Tian applied pressure.

“You’ve been shot! I’ll dial 120 1 , hang in there.” With that, Ceng Rou hastily brought out her phone.

“No,” Xia Tian grabbed hold of Ceng Rou’s handphone. “the situation just now was too complicated, and I’ll definitely be interrogated by the police if I were to enter the hospital. Thanks for the offer, but I don’t want to bring unnecessary trouble for myself.”

“But you’ve been shot,” Ceng Rou replied with a distressed tone.

“Follow me.” Xia Tian was now even more certain that his body had been strengthened several folds. Otherwise, forget being shot or standing back up to strike down the man in black, even a single slash from a knife would be enough to send him fainting from the pain.

After shutting down Ceng Rou’s phone, Xia Tian led her out of the warehouse.

His house was located within a kilometer from the warehouse, and since he had frequently played around the area in his youth, he knew the place like the back of his palm.

While bearing the pain, Xia Tian led Ceng Rou and her child to his home. The little girl was sensible, and she was no longer crying. It was a long and tiring day for her, and as such, the moment they reached Xia Tian’s home, she immediately collapsed into Ceng Rou’s embrace and began to sleep.

Xia Tian trod cautiously, and in order to prevent a blood trail leading back to his home, he had torn off his clothes and wrapped it around his wound.

Xia Tian’s house was not big, but it was quite clean. Everything was neatly arranged, and though it had been a while since Xia Tian last visited, his aunt would occasionally send someone in to tidy it up. As such, everything in the house was spick and span.

“You live HERE?” A maelstrom of emotions began to stir within Ceng Rou’s heart the moment she saw the things within the house. It was clear from the furniture that Xia Tian was no rich man, and if that was true, why did he reject her money? Was it because of pride? Was pride even something more important than money in the modern world?

All this time, Ceng Rou had regarded money to be above all else. However, her mindset was changed completely after the earlier events; even with all the money in the world, she could not get someone to save her.

In the end, the one that saved her was one did not care for money. Moreover, that person had even claimed her to be his woman when he rescued her.

Had it been anyone else who had spoken the words, she would have personally sent a slap flying their way. However, when the words had come from the mouth of a child who was several years younger than her, all she felt instead was pure bliss. She did not know whether this emotion was a result of Xia Tian saving her, or whether it was Xia Tian’s backbone.

Xia Tian located some matchsticks and cotton gauze, and at present, these were the only useful items within his home.

“This used to be my home, but now I live with my cousin.” Xia Tian held onto a corner of a table with his left hand, and he began to claw at his wound with the other, turning it into a mush of flesh and blood.

Ceng Rou stared at Xia Tian with disbelief. ‘Is he planning on extracting the bullet? That makes no sense! He’ll get an infection!”

Sensing the look of worry on Ceng Rou’s face, Xia Tian responded with a faint smile. “Don’t worry, I’ll be fine.”

MMPH!!

A muffled roar thundered out from Xia Tian’s mouth. At present, Xia Tian’s eyes were bloodshot, and his forehead was filled with sweat. With a powerful tug of his right hand, Xia Tian managed to extract the bullet.

Ceng Rou was crystal clear on why Xia Tian had refused to shout; to prevent her daughter from being startled. Despite that, she dared not imagine the amount of pain that Xia Tian had to go through. After all, he was extracting a bullet from his body without the aid of any sedatives.

‘Agony!’

Xia Tian had almost fainted from the pain he experienced. He had learned his lesson the hard way; being a hero sucked. He could feel death creeping upon him, as blood continued to gush out from his wound. There was no way to stop the leakage, and while he had originally intended to use the matchsticks to cauterize the wound, if he were to do that now, his intestines would undoubtedly be burned to a crisp.

‘Am I really going to die here?’ Xia Tian mentally howled. His body had already collapsed, and Ceng Rou had hastily rushed to support his body. She was clueless as to what to do. She wanted to call the police, she wanted to dial 120, but she also remembered Xia Tian preventing her from doing so.

Just as Xia Tian’s head drooped down, a yellow light appeared from the inside of his pocket. Following this, the yellow light descended into his wound, and when Ceng Rou saw the light, she hurriedly checked Xia Tian’s wound. However, what she saw gave her a major shock.

The yellow light was moving by itself, and after sinking into Xia Tian’s wound, the wound began to recover. Not even ten seconds had passed, but the bleeding had already stopped, and the wound was still rapidly healing.

Ceng Rou was an atheist, but she could not explain what was happening in front of her. What was the yellow light? How did Xia Tian’s wounds heal? A mere minute later, Xia Tian’s wound had completely disappeared, and no scar was left behind.

Although Ceng Rou could not provide any explanations about the events unraveling in front of her, what she did know was that Xia Tian was in a comatose state. As such, she lugged Xia Tian onto the bed and placed her daughter beside him. The house was now quiet, and her heart was finally at peace.

She had never experienced such tranquillity before, and whenever she looked at the teenager and child before her, she felt extremely fortunate.

Frankly speaking, this was everything that she had ever wished for. However, as she had never encountered the right person all these years, the only kind of relationship that occurred to her were those that provided economic benefits. Aside from her familial ties, no other relationship had existed in her mind.

Gradually, Ceng Rou descended into slumber as well. She was assailed with fatigue, and with that, the trio shared the same bed that night.

That night, Xia Tian had concocted a weird dream. He dreamt of a giant buddha sitting cross-legged on top of his solar plexus, and it was as if the buddha was mending his wound. This dream had struck him as weird, as he could clearly feel the recovery occurring within his own body.

The next day, Ceng Rou was greeted with a pleasant sight when she woke up. She was hugging Xia Tian, and her daughter was caught between them. Ceng Rou then gave a light kiss onto Xia Tian’s cheeks.

However, that kiss seemed to have disrupted Xia Tian’s slumber, and as such, Xia Tian was forced to pretend to sleep.

Xia Tian opened his eyes, and his first view in the morning was Ceng Rou and her cute little daughter. After gently placing a kiss on Ceng Rou’s face, Xia Tian then got onto the ground. He had not noticed how red Ceng Rou’s face had become.

Walking around in his old house had caused Xia Tian to feel a wave of nostalgia.

“Plenty of things have happened recently. Everything used to be so simple, but now, nothing is simple anymore.” As he observed the familiar surroundings around him, he felt as if his worldview was changing. His father had had strict demands towards him ever since he was young, and while studying hard was among these demands, his father had also drilled plenty of external knowledge into him.

However, now that he thought back on it, he could not seem to recall his father ever working. If that was truly the case, where on earth did his family’s money come from? While they were not rich, he had never experienced having an empty stomach, and there was also the matter of his father being extremely knowledgeable despite living in the suburbs. That alone added to the suspicion.

‘There’s definitely something odd about my father’s death. Also, what the heck is the scroll that Quicksand is searching for?’ He had never heard of any scrolls before, and his father had never mentioned it to him as well. Besides that, he needed to investigate his father’s death as well.

‘It seems that I’ll need to first locate the scroll in order to figure everything out.’ Xia Tian began to look around. His house was not big, and there was nowhere to hide anything. It was also highly likely that Quicksand had already gone through his house before.

Xia Tian carefully recalled his past. His father had never smoked nor drank, and his hobby had been planting flowers and growing crops.

‘Tch, there’s no way my father would hide a scroll inside the house.” After scouring the house and finding nothing, Xia Tian took out his phone, only to notice that it had run out of battery. After all, his current phone was no Nokia, which could have lasted seven days without being charged.

He knew that his cousin and the others would be worried sick about him by now.

It was at this moment that Xia Tian suddenly had an ill omen.

“Xia Tian, are you trying to throw us off?” Three figures appeared from afar.

“You guys are truly like shadows. I originally planned to hide a while longer, but I never expected you guys to arrive this early.” Xia Tian was certain that Quicksand would locate him sooner or later, but what he did not expect was for them to locate him this fast.

“Xia Tian, we had originally given you seven days to locate the scroll, but now, you only have two days. Since a day has already passed, it means that you’ll need to hand in the item by today.” Seeing that Xia Tian had already returned to his abode, Quicksand’s members had decided to shorten Xia Tian’s time limit.

“A day?” Xia Tian frowned. It seemed that the day would not end peacefully. Forget knowing where the scroll was, even if he had known its location, Xia Tian would never hand it over, as that was his father’s memento.

Xia Tian balled his hands into a fist. Although these three guys from Quicksand were powerful enough to intimidate Shan, Xia Tian did not want to go down without a fight.