Chapter 2

The ambulance arrived quickly. Although this was the outskirts of the city, there was a well-known public Grade A hospital that had set up a branch nearby to divert patients. Surprisingly, it wasn’t far from where Ruan Qing was. With Ruan Qing guiding them via phone and flashing her car lights, the driver easily located the spot, driving the ambulance off the main road.

The paramedics were seasoned professionals, unshaken by even the most gruesome scenes. This time, however, they did take a second glance at the man because of his unusual black outfit and traditional topknot hairstyle. Ruan Qing followed the ambulance to the hospital in her own car. Once they arrived, the doctors checked the man’s vitals and confirmed that he was in shock and unconscious. They asked Ruan Qing what had happened.

After hesitating for a moment, she replied, “He… fell from a great height.” After all, her car roof had been dented from the impact. The thought of the pain still made her wince. The man was wheeled into the emergency room, and soon after, a nurse handed Ruan Qing some paperwork and directed her to pay the fees.

After paying, she quietly waited in the hallway, her mind wandering in all directions. Time seemed to crawl by. Finally, after what felt like ages, a nurse came out and called, “Family member? The one for the man in the hanfu?”

“…” Ruan Qing quickly walked over, “Here!”

Inside, the man was still unconscious. The doctor explained his condition: “No life-threatening injuries. He has soft tissue contusions and some subcutaneous bruising. We’ll need to monitor him further to check for any signs of a concussion.”

The doctor then asked, “Are you his family?”

“No,” Ruan Qing replied. “I just… happened to pass by and found him unconscious, so I called the ambulance.”

“I see…” the doctor muttered.

Picking up on the hint in his tone, Ruan Qing asked, “Is there a problem?”

“He has a few wounds on his body. From what I can tell, they appear to be knife wounds,” the doctor said.

Ruan Qing was startled. She hadn’t noticed that earlier, likely because it was so dark by the river, and his black clothing made it hard to see. She had smelled blood, but in the dim light, she hadn’t been able to spot the wounds. Then she remembered the long knife she had stashed in her trunk, and her heart skipped a beat. “Do we need to call the police?”

The doctor hesitated. The cuts were clean, clearly made by a sharp blade. But they weren’t deep cuts or stab wounds, which would have prompted an immediate police report, as the hospital had protocols for such injuries. The wounds on this man, however, were puzzling. They were shallow slash marks. Though they had bled quite a bit and looked alarming to the untrained eye, they were, in medical terms, superficial.

If the injuries had been from a fight or an attack, they would have had to call the police. But these shallow surface-level cuts were confusing. The precision of the slashes suggested a controlled, deliberate hand—someone who had carefully inflicted them without causing real damage. The doctor couldn’t fathom how these wounds had been inflicted, especially in multiple areas of the body, and with such precise control.

The doctor had never witnessed the fierce battle atop a jagged cliff under the cover of ominous clouds, nor could they imagine the life-or-death maneuvers the man had performed, narrowly escaping lethal blows. It was only through his exceptional skill and agility that he had avoided fatal wounds, emerging with only shallow cuts instead of life-threatening injuries.

“Where exactly did he fall from?” the doctor asked.

Ruan Qing vaguely replied, “Just from the roadside. It’s near the river, and that area’s a lot lower than the road…”

The doctor was puzzled. “How did he fall like that?”

Ruan Qing continued to speak vaguely, “I didn’t see it happen. By the time I saw him, he had already fallen.” The doctor eventually decided, “It doesn’t seem like a case of assault. Let’s hold off on contacting the police for now.”

What the doctor didn’t mention was that when treating the man’s superficial wounds, they noticed numerous old scars on his body, all of a similar nature. However, old scars alone weren’t reason enough to call the authorities.

Upon hearing that the police wouldn’t be involved, Ruan Qing breathed a sigh of relief and asked, “When will he wake up?”

The doctor replied, “It depends. The body has its own protective mechanisms. He’ll wake when he’s ready.”

“Should I stay here and wait? Can I go grab something to eat?” Ruan Qing asked. She hadn’t eaten dinner yet, having been too upset over her ex-boyfriend’s situation earlier. Now, after staying by the man’s side for so long, she was starving and her stomach hurt.

The doctor said, “If you’re not a family member, you can leave. Oh, but you did cover his medical fees, right?”

Ruan Qing couldn’t exactly explain that she had other reasons for staying, so using the payment as an excuse seemed perfect, and besides, she really had covered the bill. She nodded in acknowledgment.

“Then go get something to eat first. His vital signs are stable for now,” the doctor added. “Leave your phone number, and we’ll notify you when he wakes up.”

After thanking the doctor, Ruan Qing left the emergency room and returned to her car in the parking lot. After a moment of hesitation, she opened the trunk. The trunk was cluttered with various items, and although there was a light, it wasn’t bright enough to see everything clearly. She switched on her phone’s flashlight, bent down, and examined the contents carefully—the hilt of the knife was wrapped in cloth, and from the looks of it, the knife had seen extensive use. Under the light, the blade gleamed with a cold, sharp edge. It was undoubtedly a real knife, and the bloodstains on it were unnerving.

Ruan Qing swallowed nervously and slammed the trunk shut with a loud bang. When she looked up, she was confronted by the dented roof of her car, a stark reminder that everything that had happened tonight was not a dream.

She got into the car, her heart still racing, and tried to calm herself down. After taking a few deep breaths, she pulled out her phone and searched for a nearby fast food place to grab a bite to eat. Since the hospital hadn’t called, it meant the man was still unconscious. The emergency room was chaotic and crowded, with no available seats, so Ruan Qing didn’t rush back. She sat in the restaurant for a while, trying to rest and recover from the day’s bizarre and stressful events.

Just as she was beginning to relax, her phone rang, jolting her back to reality. Glancing at the screen, she saw it was almost eleven o’clock, and the call was from an unknown landline number.

At the same time, in another place, Nian Qi suddenly jolted awake after leaping from the high cliff! A masked figure was leaning in close to him! Instinctively, Nian Qi reached for a thin stick nearby and pressed it against the person’s throat. Any sudden movement from them, and with just a bit of force, he could pierce their throat and end their life!

“What are you doing?! Put it down! Lay back down! We’re examining you!” a woman’s voice shouted in an irritated tone, though it was somewhat difficult to understand due to her strange accent. The key, though, was the undeniable authority in her voice.

Immediately after, someone restrained his hand and snatched the thin stick from his grip. Their movements were quick, and they weren’t weak—but still, it was the strength of an ordinary person. In fact, from the moment they moved, Nian Qi had known they posed no real threat to him. Without protest, he allowed them to take the stick and push him back down.

Everything felt strange. The room, the ceiling lit as brightly as daylight—upon first waking, he had thought it was daytime, but he quickly realized something was off.

Even during the brightest daylight, even if the doors and windows were fully opened, it would never be this bright. The light came from the ceiling, a cold, bright white that illuminated every corner of the room. Was it a lamp? If it was, just one of these would be worth a fortune. How could there be several embedded in the ceiling? Such luxury!

The people around him were strange, too—their clothing, accents, and hair. There was a man and a woman. The man wore a long white coat, and the woman was dressed in a pink top and long pants. To his surprise, the woman had her arms completely bare, showing them off without any hint of embarrassment. Though immodest, Nian Qi didn’t find it shocking. He had traveled far and wide, seen southern barbarian women wearing skirts that revealed even their calves. The woman who had scolded him and snatched the wooden stick from his hand earlier was this one.

She casually tossed the wooden stick into a round container on the floor and then threw another stick from the bedside cabinet into the same bin. She turned to the person on the other side of the adjacent bed and called out, “Hey, family members, pay attention! Throw away your trash! Don’t leave these meal boxes piled up.”

Another person lay on the bed next to him, with someone sitting on a round stool beside them. After being called out, the seated person immediately stood up, sheepishly responded, and hurried around to clear the two flat, strange boxes from the bedside cabinet, also throwing them into the bin.

Though Nian Qi was lying down, his eyes quickly scanned the room, taking everything in. The man in the white coat leaned over him and pressed his head down, saying, “Don’t move.” The man’s body language was relaxed, without any hint of threat. So, Nian Qi remained still. The man in white reached into a pocket near his chest and pulled out a small object. With a press of his fingers, it emitted a bright light. Nian Qi was startled again. What kind of treasure was this, something that could emit light?

The man in white used the glowing object to examine his eyes, then turned it off and released him, straightening up to ask, “Do you feel anything? Headache? Dizziness? Nausea?”

Hearing the question, Nian Qi immediately realized the man’s role—he was a doctor. The surroundings were shocking, but he relaxed. In this world, there was only one type of person he would never lie to: a doctor. Lying to a doctor was only hurting yourself. Sitting up, he honestly replied, “I’m fine, no nausea. Just some pain.”

However, his accent was so different from the doctor’s that the doctor didn’t understand him the first time. Nian Qi had to slow down and repeat himself before the doctor caught on. Then he asked, “Where are my clothes?” He was shirtless, obviously because the staff had undressed him to treat and bandage his wounds while he was unconscious. The white bandages looked very clean, and the wrapping was done expertly—clearly, this was a medical establishment with good skills. But where exactly was this place? He had jumped off a cliff in the wild mountains outside Jiang City, in the heart of the Central Plains. How could there be a medical facility here with such strange accents and clothing? He’d never heard of such a thing.

The woman in the pink top, the one who had her arms exposed, bent down and pulled out a strange, transparent bag from under the bed. It was made of some unknown material, allowing him to see its contents. She handed the bag to him. “Everything’s in here. Check to see if anything’s missing. When we treated your wounds, we took off your clothes and put them all in this bag.”

It was becoming clear to him that this woman, dressed in pink, was likely a servant helping the white-robed doctor.

This room had over ten beds, and several women in pink uniforms moved briskly between them, talking to people, clearly experienced in their duties. Nian Qi took all of this in within just a few breaths—he was trained to quickly assess his environment and blend in as a matter of survival.

He thanked the woman and took the bag from her, pulling out his clothes and putting them on. As he dressed, he continued observing, but for some reason, when he said “Thank you, miss,” the expressions on both the white-robed doctor and the woman in pink became somewhat strange. Had he said something wrong?

The doctor, watching him dress, slowed his speech and explained, “So far, it looks like you don’t have any symptoms of a concussion, but we’ll need to keep monitoring you. If you feel nauseous, dizzy, or start vomiting, come back to the hospital immediately.”

Nian Qi nodded. “Understood.”

The doctor added, “We’ve treated your wounds and will prescribe some oral antibiotics. Once you pay, you can pick up the medication, and you’ll be fine.”

By now, Nian Qi had secured his belt and pulled out his pouch from the strange bag, tying it around his waist. Hearing the mention of payment, he took out a small silver ingot from his pouch and handed it over, saying, “Thank you, no need to give me change.” The medical facility was clean and well-organized, and the bandaging had been expertly done. He wasn’t short on silver, so he considered the extra a tip.

However, the usual polite refusal or gratitude for a tip never came. Instead, both the doctor and the woman in pink stared intently at the silver in his hand, their expressions bewildered.

Could it be that they had never seen silver ingots before? That didn’t make sense. Just looking at the luxurious, daylight-bright lamps embedded in the ceiling, this place couldn’t be some remote, impoverished area. Or perhaps… they thought the amount was too little? He thought again about the extravagant ceiling lamps and the odd, glowing tool the doctor had used earlier.

To be safe, Nian Qi pulled out another silver ingot from his pouch and apologized, “I’m unsure of your clinic’s fees. Would this be enough?” Treating external wounds shouldn’t cost more than two ingots at most, and each ingot he handed over was worth half a tael—enough to feed a family of five for a month.

The two of them grew even quieter. The woman in pink was the first to speak, hesitantly asking, “Is this… silver?”

The doctor let out an awkward chuckle. “Are you filming for an X-app video or something? Your props look pretty realistic.”

Nian Qi had no idea what he was talking about. He knew some border regions didn’t use gold or silver as currency, but this doctor was speaking the Central Plains language. It didn’t make sense.

Perplexed, he said, “Is this not enough? How much do I owe? Please let me know.”

Though his accent sounded odd, the sincerity in his confused expression and tone was unmistakable. The doctor and the woman in pink exchanged glances, looking at each other in silence for a moment. Then, the doctor pulled out that glowing tool from his pocket again.

“Let me check you one more time. Maybe your head injury is worse than we thought.”