Chapter 437: Chapter 379: Blood Dispersion Syndrome? Not an Incurable Disease
BUBBLE BUBBLE BUBBLE...
Bubbles rose in the copper hot pot.
Lin Yi continuously added slices of meat, green vegetables, and fish balls.
He looked up from time to time and said, "Go on, eat. It’s all cooked!"
This was a hot pot restaurant they used to frequent.
And today, Lin Yi had brought Li Xuewen here once again.
The same storefront, just as bustling as ever.
But the people were no longer the same.
Zhou Qi, Sun Tao, Hu Quan, and Shen Mengyi from the old days—not a single one of them was here.
Wei Nan was laid up in a medical hall.
Now, it was just Lin Yi and Li Xuewen sitting here.
Staring at the hot pot before him, Li Xuewen had already taken off his mask and sunglasses.
He chuckled softly, nodded, and picked up a slice of mutton with his chopsticks.
Seeing this, Lin Yi smiled too. Before Li Xuewen could say anything, he placed a full helping of mutton into his friend’s bowl.
"Eat up. I remember you love the mutton slices here!"
Hearing this, Li Xuewen looked up at Lin Yi.
He put down his chopsticks and said, "Lin Yi, aren’t you going to ask me anything?"
Lin Yi smiled. "What’s the point in asking?"
"If you want to tell me, you’ll tell me."
"You’re still the same as ever. You haven’t changed a bit!"
"So many things have happened to me since you all left."
"I broke my leg, joined the Public Security Bureau, resigned, and then joined the Blood Handprint... I know the Blood Handprint is an evil organization. They burn, kill, rob, and plunder—there’s no evil they won’t do."
"They raise demonic beasts, using human flesh and blood as feed for them!"
Lin Yi nodded as he listened to Li Xuewen.
He picked up a slice of mutton and ate it, but the scalding meat made him immediately fan his mouth with his hand.
After a moment, once he had swallowed, he said with a smile, "So it seems you haven’t been completely corrupted yet?"
"Corrupted? I’m not like those other guys. They’ve been completely brainwashed!"
"They’re even willing to give their lives for the Blood Handprint without a second thought. I’m not... I’m purely in it for the money!"
"For money? Does the Blood Handprint pay that well?" Lin Yi asked with a smile.
Li Xuewen gave Lin Yi a deep look.
After a long pause, he finally said, "Very well. You can make tens of thousands a month. If your performance is good, hitting one hundred thousand isn’t a problem."
"Do you have any idea what it means to make tens of thousands, or even a hundred thousand, a month in the Old District?"
"In an environment where the average salary is less than three thousand, that’s a huge sum of money!"
"I need money. I need it to pay for my sister’s treatment!"
"She has Scattered Blood Syndrome. You’ve probably never heard of it, right? It’s a rare disease. The number of people worldwide who get it doesn’t even reach five percent, and the probability of contracting it is extremely low."
"Her Qi and Blood have completely dispersed. There’s no known cause; it just inexplicably dissipated. Her Martial Arts foundation is shattered too!"
"In other words, she’ll never have the chance to practice Martial Arts again in this lifetime!"
"And every day, she has to endure agonizing pain!"
"There’s only one medicine that can alleviate her suffering!"
"But this medicine is outrageously expensive. A single dose costs five thousand!"
"And she needs it every day. That means the daily cost is at least five thousand!"
"Our families are all the same—not well-off. My parents spent everything they had just to send me to a Martial Arts Hall. They even spent their retirement savings on me!"
"But I was a disappointment. I couldn’t fulfill their dream of having me take them to the New District to live a good life!"
"So, I had no choice. I had to take this path!"
"I have to make money. I have to make a lot of money..."
With that, Lin Yi finally understood Li Xuewen’s predicament.
He never imagined that so much had happened to his friend in just over a year.
Lin Yi didn’t say anything, and he certainly didn’t say something like, "Why didn’t you come to us if you needed money?"
Because he knew very well that if he were in the same situation,
he would probably just bear it all silently and alone.
He would never go to his friends and burden them with his troubles.
"Tell me about the Blood Handprint. Consider it a chance to atone for your crimes."
"You might not know about other cities, so let’s just talk about this one."
"How many Blood Handprint members are still in Xinghai City? Who is the highest-ranking member here?"
"Tell the truth. I can help you atone for your crimes. You don’t want to just die like this, do you?
Think about your sister, and your parents!"
"If you stubbornly refuse to talk, who’s going to take care of them?"
"You don’t want to just stand by and watch your sister be tortured by her illness, do you?"
"And your parents. You said it yourself, you let them down after all they invested in you. They spent half their lives on you. Do you really want them to spend the rest of their lives in sorrow and pain?"
Lin Yi’s few simple sentences struck Li Xuewen right where it hurt.
The fact that he was willing to join an evil organization like the Blood Handprint for his family’s sake was proof enough that he still had a conscience.
And his family was everything to him.
Seeing Li Xuewen still sitting there, hesitating, Lin Yi smiled and continued, "Scattered Blood Syndrome isn’t a terminal illness!"
"I read a medical book once in the university library."
"It had a section on Scattered Blood Syndrome. It’s a genetic disease!"
"Or rather, it’s caused by long-term malnutrition combined with forced Martial Arts training, which leads to a genetic mutation that develops into what’s now called Scattered Blood Syndrome!"
"The Qi and Blood disperses because the body no longer has any place to store it!"