Chapter 32.1

Under the moonlit mountain path, Guan Yue descended, only to encounter Deng Baishu carrying medicine uphill. 

Guan Yue’s voice was sharp as she halted him: “Stop! What was that gunshot about earlier? I remember Li Dingbang mentioning there shouldn’t be any guns in the sanatorium.”

Deng Baishu hesitated, seeing the stern expression on Guan Yue’s face. She didn’t look like someone to be easily fooled. With a resigned stamp of his foot, he decided to come clean. “I don’t know exactly what happened. We were inside when we suddenly heard a gunshot coming from the valley entrance. Minister Li and the others rushed out immediately. Later, Minister Li came back and told me to head up the mountain to inform you. He said it was an accidental discharge.”

Guan Yue gave him a sidelong glance. “Judging by how nervous you looked just now, I almost thought you were hiding something serious.”

Deng Baishu lowered his head in silence, feeling dismissed once again.

Guan Yue waved him off. “Go deliver the medicine. I’ll find Li Dingbang myself.”

In the sanatorium, everyone knew the authority Guan Yue commanded. It was because of her that they were allowed to be there. As she made her way to Li Dingbang, no one dared to stop her.

She passed through three checkpoints and found Li Dingbang outside the interrogation room.

Li Dingbang stood there with a grim expression, staring through the glass at the scene inside. Guan Yue approached and glanced in as well.

Inside the room was Xiao Ma, who usually greeted Guan Yue with a bright smile. Now, his gaze was sharp, his face dark as thunder, exuding an air of menace that could terrify children into tears. 

In his hand was a knife, its tip stained with blood. It wasn’t just children who would be scared; the group inside was already wailing, on their knees, begging for mercy.

Li Dingbang turned to Guan Yue. “Come with me.”

She followed him into a tightly secured office. The iron door shut with a heavy clang behind her.

Li Dingbang studied her closely. “Aren’t you afraid?”

Guan Yue chuckled lightly. “What’s there to be afraid of?”

This small spectacle wasn’t enough to make her even bat an eyelid.

Li Dingbang continued: “You saw it just now. That group came here looking for trouble. But you don’t need to worry about this. We’ll take care of it.”

“Who are they?” Guan Yue’s tone was calm, but her gaze was unwavering. “They even have guns. They’re not just ordinary troublemakers, are they?”

Li Dingbang cast a deep, probing look at her. “It’s related to your master and his people.”

Guan Yue met his gaze head-on without flinching. “My master and his people came here because of the connections you facilitated. Now that something has happened, it’s surely an issue within your organization. Am I right?”

“You’re absolutely right.” Li Dingbang admitted.

Guan Yue nodded calmly. “I look forward to seeing how you handle it.”

With that, she stood up and walked out. Matters that didn’t concern her held no interest for her.

After leaving the interrogation room, Guan Yue resumed her usual routine. She went about her day as if nothing had happened. 

Later, Deng Baishu came down the mountain and saw Guan Yue checking a patient’s pulse. He waited silently on the side.

Once the patient left, Guan Yue glanced at him. “Why are you just standing there? Call in the next patient.”

“Oh.” Deng Baishu mumbled, quickly stepping aside.

---

After finishing her day’s work, Guan Yue returned to her wooden cabin. By 11:30, Gu Sui came back from his shift to prepare lunch.

As Gu Sui cooked, he casually struck up a conversation. “You went to see Minister Li this morning?”

Guan Yue reached out to ruffle the soft fur of a small kitten lounging nearby. “Mm.”

Gu Sui continued: “Before I got back, I saw Minister Li driving off. According to Xiao Ma, it seems he’s heading to the Southwest Military District.”

“Looks like this matter isn’t so simple. Li Dingbang can’t handle it alone.” Guan Yue remarked.

Gu Sui raised an eyebrow. “What do you know?”

“They’re having internal conflicts. My master is just their excuse.” she replied nonchalantly.

Gu Sui, sharp as ever, instantly connected the dots between her words, the morning gunshot, and the unfolding events. Guan Yue was right; the situation they uncovered was beyond what Li Dingbang could manage on his own.

---

Taking a shortcut, Gu Sui sped through the night, arriving back at his destination by early morning the next day. 

He went straight to the commander and reported everything face-to-face. The commander listened carefully and said: “No need to rush. After you called yesterday, we’ve already discussed our next steps. Since they’ve decided to play dirty, we won’t hold back either.”

Li Dingbang asked directly: “How will we proceed?”

“In the future, the sanatorium will not only take in wounded soldiers from our military district but also from the other major military districts. You’ll be responsible for coordinating this.” the commander said.

Li Dingbang frowned. “I’m afraid the sanatorium can’t accommodate that many patients.”

“Don’t worry. Given the distance, they won’t send just any patient. They’re all coming because of Guan Yue.”

Guan Yue had once been an unknown figure. But ever since the effort to build the sanatorium, during which she handled the Da Qingshan incident with remarkable skill, word about her had spread far and wide.  

When the sanatorium officially opened, those who were paying attention kept their eyes on it. The first batch of wounded soldiers recovered and returned, and Guan Yue’s capabilities could no longer remain hidden.

Just yesterday afternoon, the commander had called his old colleagues in the other major military districts. When they heard about a potential alliance, they all, without hesitation, made the same demand: their injured soldiers must also be sent to the Qingxi Village Sanatorium.

Li Dingbang, a sharp man, immediately understood the commander’s intent. He asked: “What about the supplies we get in return?”

“We’ll handle that ourselves. It has nothing to do with them.”

With this clarification, Li Dingbang had a clear grasp of the situation. 

With the support of these powerful allies, even if more political clowns who relied on petty tricks showed up, they wouldn’t stand a chance. They could handle them all without breaking a sweat.

Still, the frustration lingered in Li Dingbang’s chest. “What about the people we’ve detained?”

“The frontier reclamation farms are short on workers, aren’t they? Send them all there.”

“Yes, sir.”

---

Three days later, Guan Yue saw Li Dingbang again at the sanatorium.

Li Dingbang approached her with a grin so wide it nearly split his face. In an overly cheerful tone, he said: “Dr. Guan, the organization thinks you’re doing an excellent job and has decided to give you a raise!”

Guan Yue remained indifferent. “Alright.”

“It’s just that…” Li Dingbang rubbed his hands together and exaggeratedly made a tiny gesture with his thumb and forefinger. “Would you consider extending your working hours just a little bit?”

Nearby doctors and nurses couldn’t help but burst into laughter.

Guan Yue’s face darkened. “No need to increase my salary. I think things are fine the way they are now. Goodbye.”

She turned and walked away. Li Dingbang trotted after her. “Dr. Guan, let’s discuss this, shall we? Look, you’re working one or two hours a day—if you increase it to three or four hours, it wouldn’t be much for you. You’d still finish everything in one morning. Dr. Guan, please reconsider. The raise is negotiable…”

Li Dingbang was so persistent that Guan Yue quickened her pace, almost wishing she could climb a tree and fly away to escape him.

In the Level One ward, a patient quietly remarked: “Dr. Guan really does have a pretty short work schedule, doesn’t she?”

Deng Baishu shot him a glare. “What do you know? Dr. Guan has other important work besides treating you.”

“What work? She gets the highest salary in the sanatorium and does the least amount of work. That hardly seems fair.”

Deng Baishu retorted: “Have you used the Divine Powder? That’s Dr. Guan’s creation.”

The soldiers in the ward let out a stream of expletives. “What the—are you serious?”

Deng Baishu lifted his chin proudly. “Dr. Guan is an extraordinary traditional Chinese medicine practitioner. You’re lucky to even be treated by her.”

“Exactly. Dr. Guan’s time is incredibly valuable. If she stayed here all day, who’d handle her other responsibilities?”

In the Level One ward, all the doctors and nurses who worked closely with Guan Yue were her devoted supporters.

They couldn’t stand hearing any criticism of her.

By the time Li Dingbang chased her up the mountain, Guan Yue had already vanished, and her house was empty.

After waiting at the door for a while without any sign of her, Li Dingbang decided to seek out Gu Sui instead.

“Gu Sui, you’ve got to help me persuade her.” Li Dingbang pleaded.

Gu Sui responded calmly: “I think you’re looking at this wrong. Even if patients from other military districts come, if Guan Yue can still resolve everything in one or two hours, why insist she extend her work hours?”

Li Dingbang clapped his hands in sudden realization. “Why didn’t I think of that? If the patients aren’t all seen, she definitely won’t leave. This way, I can avoid giving her a raise.”

Gu Sui gave a faint smile. “Minister Li, that’s not very fair, is it? If the workload increases, she deserves a raise.”

While Guan Yue might not care, Gu Sui certainly did. He wasn’t willing to let her be short-changed by even a single cent.

Li Dingbang sighed. “Dr. Gu, you two aren’t exactly short on money. This little bit of extra cash shouldn’t matter to you, right?”

Gu Sui said with a straight face: “Who said that? We’re in great need of money.”

No matter how much Li Dingbang tried to plead poverty, Gu Sui wouldn’t budge. Eventually, the penny-pinching Li Dingbang had to agree that if more soldiers from other districts came, Guan Yue’s salary would indeed be increased.

Satisfied, Gu Sui said: “Minister Li, you carry on. I’ll take my leave now.”

As Gu Sui walked off, Li Dingbang grumbled, realizing he should never have approached Gu Sui in the first place.

---

When Gu Sui arrived home, Guan Yue was nestled in her chair playing with the little wolf cub. She lifted the cub up and showed it to Gu Sui. “Look at his leg. Do you think it’s fully healed?”

Gu Sui crouched in front of Guan Yue and carefully inspected the cub’s leg. “It does seem healed. Are you sure it’s completely better?”

Guan Yue nodded.

Although it had only been a few days since the bone was set, she had been using her abilities to nurture the cub’s leg whenever she had the chance. Naturally, it healed much faster than a regular fracture.

As Gu Sui began removing the wooden splint from the cub’s leg, he asked: “If a person had a bone fracture, and you went all out treating it, could it heal in a day?”

“That depends on the severity of the fracture.” Guan Yue replied. “If it’s not too serious, with acupuncture, traditional medicine, and some help from my abilities, it could heal in a few days.”

After treating so many patients, Guan Yue had developed a sense of how her abilities worked. They weren’t omnipotent. Due to the nature of her abilities, they were incredibly effective when combined with acupuncture for internal medicine issues. If she wanted to, she could resolve many conditions immediately, as if by miracle.

However, for external injuries or structural damage, such as fractures or organ-related conditions, the effects were less pronounced. Her abilities served as an aid, but the patient’s body still needed time to recover naturally.

Gu Sui laughed. “I thought you were so amazing you could make bones grow like tree branches.”

Guan Yue snorted lightly. “If I could do that, I wouldn’t be human. I’d be a deity.”

Gu Sui touched her cheek gently. “You are. To me, you’re my little goddess.”

Guan Yue chuckled and kicked him lightly. “Enough talk. Your little goddess is hungry now. Go make food.”

“At your service!”

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