Even if Lin Zhiquin and Yang Jiandong are close privately, it’s been over half an hour. He should have left by now.
Lu Yuan waited for another five minutes in the eighth-floor stairwell before finally deciding to venture out and see what was going on.
The entrance to the eighth-floor ward was marked in bright red with the words "Orthopedic Ward."
With a flicker in his eyes, Lu Yuan calmly pushed the door open and entered the inpatient area.
Compared to his grandfather Lu Yueping’s ward, the eighth floor seemed much more chaotic.
Painful groans, loud and soft, emanated from the rooms. Some were even shouting hysterically, drawing rebukes from the nurses.
Now and then, you could bump into patients’ family members scurrying by with water bottles or bedpans.
No one noticed Lu Yuan.
Lu Yuan’s gaze swept over the bed numbers on the signs by each ward door.
He quickly found the ward for Bed Number 16.
Yes, this is the right place.
The patient name listed for Bed Number 16 was, indeed, Yang Jiandong.
Through the door’s glass window, Lu Yuan saw a figure lying on the hospital bed, head and body wrapped in bandages, one leg in a plaster cast.
Sitting by the bed was a girl in a yellow dress, looking to be in her early twenties, with a gentle demeanor.
Good grief, was he in a car accident?
Lu Yuan was secretly astounded but didn’t dare to look for long and walked straight ahead.
After passing some twenty-odd beds, he had an idea.
Lu Yuan turned and walked back. Once he reached Bed Number 16 again, he stood at the entrance and knocked lightly on the door.
He then stepped to the side of the door, out of sight from anyone inside the ward.
A few seconds later, the ward door opened, and a figure in a pale yellow dress emerged.
"Who are you?" the girl asked, looking at Lu Yuan with confusion.
Lu Yuan said hurriedly, "I’m one of Coach Lin’s students. Coach Lin seems to have left a spare phone here. Could you help me look for it?"
The girl nodded and turned back into the room.
Lu Yuan breathed a silent sigh of relief, confirming that Lin Zhiquin had indeed been here earlier.
After a moment, the girl reappeared.
"I didn’t see any phone..."
"Coach Lin just called me. He said he found it; he’d left it in his car."
Lu Yuan explained apologetically, "Sorry for bothering you."
"No problem, it’s good that he found it." ʀᴇᴀᴅ ʟᴀᴛᴇsᴛ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀᴛ novel{f}ire.net
Perhaps because of Lu Yuan’s polite demeanor, the girl even smiled at him. "If there’s nothing else, I’ll go back in then."
Just as Lu Yuan agreed, he glanced ’curiously’ towards the inside of the ward and casually asked, "What happened to this senior brother of ours? He looks pretty badly injured."
The girl bit her lip. Her eyes began to redden involuntarily, and her voice took on a tearful quality.
"That’s just his personality. He loved fighting even before he learned martial arts.
"After practicing combat for just a few days, he actually went to some fighting competition, saying that if he won, he’d have the money to buy me a house and propose...
"He’s lucky he didn’t die in the ring!"
Injured in a fighting competition?! Yang Jiandong actually participated in a fighting competition?
Lu Yuan was startled inwardly but maintained a sympathetic expression and offered a few gentle words of comfort.
After the girl went back into the room, Lu Yuan didn’t leave immediately.
Instead, he went to the nurse’s station to ask about Yang Jiandong’s specific condition.
Since the nurse had seen him chatting with the girl in the yellow dress—Yang Jiandong’s family member—by the ward door, she assumed he was Yang Jiandong’s friend and readily let him see the medical chart.
Multiple soft tissue contusions all over his body, fractures to the face, ribs, arm, and right leg...
In the inpatient department’s cafeteria, Lu Yuan mulled things over while eating.
For some time now, the group of students, including himself, who had joined the Origin Martial Arts Hall at the same time, had been seeing less and less of Yang Jiandong.
His training schedule seemed completely out of sync with everyone else’s. Some said Lin Zhiquin was tutoring him privately.
Because of this, a few people from the class had privately gone to the Origin Martial Arts Hall to complain about Lin Zhiquin, but it all came to nothing.
Their relationship with Lin Zhiquin soured as a result, and one by one, they dropped the course and left.
Lu Yuan, however, didn’t have such strong objections.
If a coach favored a particular student and gave them private instruction, wasn’t that the coach’s own business? What was there to say about fairness or unfairness?
He had been envious, but that feeling gradually faded as his own strength improved.
After what he discovered today, that envy was completely gone.
Although Yang Jiandong’s girlfriend hadn’t mentioned Lin Zhiquin.
Lu Yuan still felt that Lin Zhiquin was inextricably linked to Yang Jiandong’s injury from the competition.
Otherwise, he wouldn’t have specifically come to visit him... Could it be that Lin Zhiquin arranged Yang Jiandong’s match?
Lu Yuan quietly finished his dinner, temporarily pushing the secret he’d accidentally uncovered to the back of his mind. Then, he quickly went upstairs to Lu Yueping’s side.
In the evening, he watched the news with his grandfather, Lu Yueping, and then they watched an old spy thriller movie.
It wasn’t until past eight o’clock, almost nine, that Lu Xinghua finally showed up in the hospital room.
"You worked hard today."
Lu Xinghua’s face was etched with deep fatigue, and the reek of smoke clung to him, noticeable even from several meters away.
God only knew how many cigarettes he had smoked that afternoon and evening.
"Dad, why don’t you go home today? I’ll stay here and watch over Grandfather," Lu Yuan said, concerned about Lu Xinghua’s state.
But Lu Xinghua waved his hand and said directly, "I’ll take you home."
Seeing Lu Xinghua’s firm attitude left no room for discussion, Lu Yuan could only say, "Then I’ll go home by myself."
Lu Xinghua considered it and didn’t insist. "Then you... be careful on the way. Text me when you get home."
After leaving the hospital, it was just nine o’clock in the evening.
Lu Yuan called his mother, Zheng Qiuling. Instead of waiting for the last bus, he decided to walk home slowly.
First Hospital was near the center of Burnt Rock City. At nine in the evening, the streets were still bustling.
He often saw mobile fruit stands and various snack stalls at street corners.
Lu Yuan couldn’t resist. He ordered a portion of fried noodles and two barbecue skewers, then squatted by the roadside to eat them.
Since his physique improved, his appetite had also grown considerably.
He had to eat four or five meals a day to keep hunger at bay, sometimes even six.
Recently, he had started learning to plan his own diet, researching various high-calorie, nutritious meals.
However, being short on cash, he hadn’t been able to put much of it into practice.
Once the monthly exams are over and the school scholarship comes in, I’ll be able to afford better meals.
And then there’s the Origin Martial Arts Hall...
Lu Yuan casually kicked a discarded mineral water bottle in front of him. It arced perfectly, landing in a trash can not far away, causing two nearby stray dogs to glance over.
Cheng Peng mentioned that an official disciple of the Origin Martial Arts Hall must master basic combat skills and achieve a Fist Strength of over 100kg!
A Fist Strength of 100kg is equivalent to an amateur third-dan Martial Artist...
It’s quite difficult, but not unattainable for me.
Lu Yuan’s strength attribute had only recently increased to 9 points.
Compared to the strength of an average adult male in this world, his current Fist Strength was likely only around sixty or seventy kilograms.
Lu Yuan’s confidence stemmed mainly from the two attribute points he hadn’t yet used.
If I put all of them into strength, my Fist Strength will definitely reach 100kg. If I only add one point, I wonder if it’ll be enough...
Lu Yuan’s plan was to ideally allocate one point to agility.
Compared to his other three basic attributes, which were at 9 and 10 points, his 8 points in agility seemed a bit lacking.
As he pondered this, he unknowingly left the bustling area.
The west side of the city was the old district of Burnt Rock City, far less bustling than the downtown area.
Just past nine o’clock, there were already few people on the streets.
Only the streetlights were on, illuminating the trash that had accumulated and scattered on the road throughout the day.
Lu Yuan looked up at the sky but couldn’t find any sign of the moon.
He could only see a hazy glow shrouded by dark clouds.
Looks like it’s about to rain...
Lu Yuan thought to himself, quickening his pace.