Li Zhonglou and Lin Ying turned around at the same time, looking at the group of thugs who had barged into the ward.
Leading them was a tall, slender man with an阴冷 (yīnlěng - cold and gloomy) face, shaped like a horse.
He wore a pair of brown tinted glasses, exuding a sinister aura.
Facing such a situation, an ordinary person would have been scared out of their wits. However, Li Zhonglou and Lin Ying had seen far greater storms.
A few petty thugs were not enough to make them bat an eyelid.
"Who are you looking for?" Li Zhonglou asked.
"We're looking for you, you little bastard! You have quite the nerve to still be in Xihai!" the horse-faced, slender man leading them narrowed his eyes, pointing at Li Zhonglou and shouting, "Kid, you're the one who beat up our boss Zhao, aren't you?"
"Do you know who Zhao's backer, Gao Shan, is? You must have eaten bear bile and leopard guts to dare provoke him. I think you're tired of living."
"Noisy. If you don't want to end up like Zhao Nianbin, get out of the ward." Upon hearing this, Li Zhonglou immediately understood why these people had come.
In Xihai, the only person named Zhao he had encountered was Zhao Nianbin from the Ghost Market.
That guy should be lying in the hospital right now. A fractured spine wasn't something easily healed; he might end up in a wheelchair for the rest of his life.
He hadn't expected Zhao Nianbin's subordinates to track him down to the ward.
Truly a persistent nuisance.
"You dare threaten me? Zhao didn't intend to fall into your trap, so what do you think you are? Seize him!" The horse-faced man's expression turned grim as he shouted.
Having been in Xihai for so many years, he had never suffered such a great loss.
Boss Zhao was still unconscious, and if they, his subordinates, didn't avenge him, they wouldn't be able to get by in Xihai anymore.
"Who dares to try?" Lin Ying gently tugged on Li Zhonglou's arm, subtly shielding him behind her.
Her beautiful eyes turned cold, flashing with a rare chill.
Her father was still lying in bed. Although he had taken the Qingyan Shi, he hadn't woken up yet, and his life hung in the balance.
These hooligans had the audacity to storm the ward and cause trouble.
Under the current laws, self-defense was permissible, and killing them would incur no punishment.
To deter these scumbags and vent her own anger, she decided not a single one of them would leave this room standing.
"What's going on? Who are you people, and why are you in our hospital? Get out immediately!" Just then, Qiu Bowen, along with several doctors, rushed in from the corridor, sternly reprimanding them.
He had intended to observe Lin Zhendong's condition.
However, he stumbled upon these hooligans causing trouble.
Whether out of duty or to protect Lin Zhendong, a valuable patient, he couldn't back down.
Qiu Bowen's voice immediately alerted the thugs.
They all turned their menacing gazes towards him.
Wang Dehong, standing behind him, however, flashed a hint of smugness in his eyes.
These people weren't his doing, but he had provided the lead.
His cousin was involved in the underworld, following the boss of the Cultural Park area, Zhao Nianbin.
But just yesterday, Zhao Nianbin's spine was broken, and he was admitted to the municipal hospital. The attending physician had a good relationship with him.
His cousin's subordinates were everywhere, looking for revenge against the attacker, and they had a photo of the person.
He immediately recognized Li Zhonglou, who had clashed with him earlier.
He then guided these people to the location.
Li Zhonglou, that bastard, had caused him to be scolded by the director. He was sure he wouldn't be taken seriously in the hospital anymore.
His bright future had been ruined by Li Zhonglou, and this grudge could never go unavenged.
Now, by using others as a weapon, he achieved his goal effortlessly, killing two birds with one stone.
"Who the hell are you? Meddling in other people's business and even daring to call the police? You're asking for death." The horse-faced man turned his head, casting a stern look at Qiu Bowen.
With that, he landed a kick directly to Qiu Bowen's stomach.
Qiu Bowen was just a doctor and had barely gotten into a fight. He couldn't withstand such force.
He immediately fell to the ground, a pained expression on his face.
The other doctors turned pale with fright and took a few steps back.
Not a single one dared to help him.
The horse-faced man, still not satisfied, raised his leg again and stomped towards Qiu Bowen's head.
He was intentionally making an example of Qiu Bowen. Qiu Bowen's sudden appearance made him a perfect target to intimidate Li Zhonglou.
"Enough," Li Zhonglou said coldly.
*Shua!*
Almost simultaneously, a medical record book transformed into a white light and flew from Lin Ying's hand, spinning and hitting the horse-faced man's heel.
Although the soft medical record book couldn't injure anyone, in Lin Ying's hands, it was as hard as brick or wood.
The horse-faced man howled in pain and quickly lifted his injured leg, clutching it.
Seeing their boss injured, his subordinates bared their fierce expressions and glared at Lin Ying.
Qiu Bowen, shaken, struggled to get up and move away.
The horse-faced man turned his gaze between Li Zhonglou and Lin Ying, his expression ferocious. "Who did that?"
"I'll give you three seconds to apologize to Director Qiu and leave with your men, or I'll make you disappear from this world," Lin Ying's pretty face turned icy, her beautiful eyes emanating a killing intent.
In an instant, the temperature in the entire ward seemed to drop by three to four degrees.
Even Li Zhonglou felt goosebumps and was secretly shocked.
He had rarely seen his senior sister enraged; this was truly the first time, and it was terrifying.
It seemed that due to his master's injury in the past few days, she had accumulated immense anger.
These blind hooligans had just run into her fury.
Her restraint until now was only out of consideration for Qiu Bowen and to avoid scaring them.
"You bitch, who the hell do you think you are?" The horse-faced man was astonished that a woman dared to order him around. He pointed at Li Zhonglou and cursed, "This little bastard hurt our boss. If you want to die with him, I'll grant you that."
Saying that, he waved his hand, and his subordinates drew daggers from their waists.
Qiu Bowen had never seen such a scene. His face turned deathly pale, and he kept signaling the other doctors to call the police.
Unfortunately, at this critical moment, none of them showed any courage.
Enraged, he had no choice but to risk being targeted by the thugs again and reached for his phone.
Fortunately, at this moment, everyone's attention was focused on the horse-faced man and Lin Ying.
Just as he was about to dial, Lin Ying suddenly lunged forward, covering three to four meters in an instant, appearing before the horse-faced man.
Her jade-like hand flicked upwards, striking the horse-faced man's chin from below.
*Crack!*
A bone-cracking sound that made one's scalp tingle echoed. Before the horse-faced man could even react, his entire body was sent flying into the air.
He arced through the air and crashed to the ground by the doorway with a thud.
Immediately, before his subordinates could even wake up, Lin Ying moved like a sudden gust of wind, her long legs delivering rapid kicks in the air.
*Pa pa pa...*
With muffled thuds, almost in unison, the daggers in their hands were all kicked away, embedding themselves in the reinforced concrete wall.
Each of their faces bore the imprint of a sole.
Simultaneously, they fell to the ground.
In an instant, wails filled the air, turning the ward into a scene from hell.
All of the men brought by the horse-faced man lay sprawled on the ground, spitting blood and teeth, weeping in agony.
The horse-faced man himself was in a worse state, his mouth filled with blood, his eyes wide with terror.
He couldn't even speak, his soul seemingly scattered.
He had no idea what had happened to Zhao Nianbin yesterday. All he knew was that his boss had been crippled, and driven by the desire for revenge, he had rushed over with his men as soon as he learned Li Zhonglou's whereabouts, without a second thought.
Who could have imagined that a woman could be so terrifying?
If he had known she possessed such skills, even with a hundred times more courage, he wouldn't have dared to storm the ward.
He had truly kicked an iron plate this time.
Standing in the corridor, Wang Dehong's eyes bulged, his shock profound.
His entire body trembled.
He had intended to use these hooligans to exact revenge on Li Zhonglou.
Who would have thought they would all be annihilated?
Throughout the entire ordeal, Li Zhonglou hadn't moved, coldly watching the howling scumbags.
He coldly uttered, "If you don't get out now, you'll be lying in the hospital for the rest of your lives, from the waist down."
Hearing this, the horse-faced man dared not linger for another second. Kicking with his legs and enduring the pain, he scrambled out of the ward, using his hands and feet.
The other subordinates, trembling with fear and shame, followed closely behind.
Qiu Bowen stared at the scene with his mouth agape, his scalp tingling with shock.
Only after everyone had fled did he look at Lin Ying as if she were a monster.
After a long pause, he gave a thumbs-up, but intimidated by the aura Lin Ying exuded, he dared not say anything further.
Clutching his stomach, he returned to the office with the still-shaken doctors.
After everyone had left, Lin Ying's imposing aura gradually subsided.
Her expression turned somber, and she sighed, "When we came to Xihai this time, my father used the Plum Blossom divination on the plane, predicting dire circumstances."
"I never expected so many things would happen..."
"He told me not to contact you, saying it wasn't advisable for you to come here, but I couldn't help myself..."
Before departing from Zhonghai, she had watched her father cast a divination. That divination was for Li Zhonglou.
It predicted he would face danger but emerge unscathed, like a perfect circle with a slight imperfection.
Even if he were imprisoned, he would escape safely, which was why they had come to Xihai with peace of mind.
On the plane, he cast another divination, this time for her.
It predicted that this journey would be fraught with peril, with an unpredictable future, but regrettably, he couldn't divine his own fate.
He had ended up severely injured.
Before he lost consciousness, he had instructed her not to contact Li Zhonglou.
However, the situation was critical at the time, and her father's words hadn't been detailed enough. She still couldn't help herself, and now, only two days later, so much had happened.
She was now beginning to feel a sense of dread, fearing that her father's warning about it being inadvisable to come here might not have been so simple.
"Senior Sister, don't worry too much. What's fated to happen will happen; what's fated to be avoided cannot be avoided," Li Zhonglou said with a smile to comfort her. "According to Director Qiu, Master should wake up tomorrow."
"Although I can't use my true qi right now, with Brother Xu here, no one can harm me under normal circumstances."
"I'm very lucky."
Despite his words, Li Zhonglou felt a significant unease in his heart.
Today's trajectory had already deviated from his past life, entering a completely different existence.
It was bizarre, dangerous, and thrilling.
Many times, events had unfolded beyond his control. The last time in Zhonghai, he had almost been beaten to death because of Qi Yu, which made him realize the impermanence of fate.
Often, beneath the calm surface lay hidden turbulent waves.
Of course, these were things he couldn't tell his senior sister.
After all, she was a woman, and even the strongest among them had moments of vulnerability.
With his master still unconscious, he had to bear everything and could not retreat even an inch.
Lin Ying nodded and fell into silence.
It wasn't until evening that Xu Lie returned to the hospital and informed Li Zhonglou that all the necessary equipment had been procured, and he had even acquired a defensive item.
Li Zhonglou understood and chose to keep the events of the day a secret.
The past was past; dwelling on it was pointless.
One night passed, and finally, before they were to depart for the former site of Xihai County, Lin Zhendong slowly awoke.
Upon seeing Li Zhonglou, his bloodshot eyes suddenly widened, veins throbbing on his forehead, and a sharp glint appeared as he roared, "Who told you to come to Xihai?"