Chapter Ninety-Four: Uremia

Xiao Li seemed almost hysterical. “I know that’s exactly what you mean! It’s all because I ignored you back then, and now you’ve come to get your revenge. Are you satisfied today? Happy now? Proud of yourself, are you?”

Zhang Can had been about to say something, but when he saw Xiao Li speaking with such force while tears streamed down her face, his heart suddenly softened, and he simply fell silent.

With tears in her eyes, Xiao Li was truly heartbroken. The contrast was too cruel to bear. The man who had once pursued her had never once caught her eye, while the man she had pursued had become so wretched and disheveled. And yet Zhang Can himself was absurdly, almost offensively good now, making her heart ache all the more.

What cut deepest of all was that this very man had become her own younger sister’s husband. Of course she was happy for her sister’s happiness, but she could not deny the jealousy choking her heart. Her already shattered feelings seemed to have been lit by a firecracker and blown to pieces.

Seeing that Zhang Can said nothing at all only made Xiao Li more furious. Thinking of her sister’s blissful expression, and then of her own present situation, she felt as though a knife were twisting in her chest. Li Yong was utterly useless, too; if it had only been a matter of money, that would still have been bearable, but the problem was that Li Yong had no dignity at all. Six hundred thousand in broad daylight, and he had actually skimmed off four hundred thousand. Even in front of Zhang Can he had been unwilling to part with the money. How utterly humiliating, to have made a fool of himself like that.

At that moment, Xiao Li felt that losing face before anyone would have been bad enough, but she absolutely could not bear to lose face before Zhang Can. And Zhang Can’s girlfriend, his fiancée, was not merely her sister’s acquaintance, but her own flesh-and-blood sister. The more she thought about it, the more vexed she became. The man she had looked down on and rejected had become her sister’s husband, and in every respect he far outclassed her current boyfriend. If that was not humiliation, what was it?

Ever since Zhang Can had appeared today, Xiao Li had felt uneasy, as though nothing was going right. And then there was Li Yong, who had never once taken his eyes off that six hundred thousand.

Zhang Can felt somewhat helpless, but truthfully, he no longer harbored even the slightest attachment to Xiao Li. Thinking back on the past only made him feel how childish and laughable he had once been. If he were the man he was now, even if he had never known Xiao Li before, even if he were to meet her all over again, he was certain he would not fall for her. He no longer judged people by their appearance.

Because Xiao Li had followed him in, Zhang Can, not wanting to arouse Li Yong’s suspicion or invite unnecessary trouble, pretended not to care and said, “Mm, my sister should be getting off work soon. Let her and Xiao Qin get the cooking ready. I’ll ask them whether we should stay in and cook at home or go out to a restaurant.”

Using that as an excuse, he stepped outside. When Xiao Li heard him say Xiao Qin’s name in such an affectionate tone, she could not help but feel a flood of mixed emotions. She did not know whether to hate her own younger sister or to envy her happiness.

As for Zhang Can, she did not really understand him now. But the Zhang Can of the past left a deep impression on her: ordinary, unremarkable, quiet, the very picture of a boy who never made a stir in school. Yet now he seemed to have lost that reserve, and the greatest change of all was his temperament. For that, Xiao Li could only attribute everything to money.

There was no doubt about it: Zhang Can’s current fortune must be at least in the millions. The fact that he had so readily spent half a million on his father’s treatment without so much as blinking, and that he still had plenty of other expenses after coming here, only meant his costs would keep mounting. Then there was the six hundred thousand he had casually tossed to her and Li Yong to save face. All of this proved that Zhang Can’s net worth was no less than a million.

If any ordinary person had only a million to his name, he would never throw money around so carelessly.

Watching Zhang Can slip away by taking advantage of the moment, Xiao Li’s heart turned bitter. What sort of fate was hers, exactly? In a burst of sorrow, she pressed herself against the glass and looked out, feeling utterly hollow, as though there were nowhere in the world to rest her heart.

After Zhang Can made his way into the living room, Chen Huiyu, Xiao Qin’s mother, was chatting idly with Li Yong about the situation on his side. Li Yong, of course, lied as best he could to save face. Though he was inwardly miserable and furious, he still forced a fake smile and talked nonsense with Chen Huiyu, saying that he was doing quite well, had saved up some money, and that she should feel free to spend it because he still had money and his job was not bad either.

Chen Huiyu was genuinely reassured. Only Old Man Liu Dongsheng looked exhausted from illness and fatigue, slumped half-asleep against the sofa.

The moment Zhang Can came out and saw Dongsheng like that, he quickly went over to support him and said, “You shouldn’t be lying on the sofa. Go lie down on the bed instead. Be careful not to catch a cold. The flu’s been pretty bad lately.”

Xiao Qin was startled, and then realized she had been careless too. Blushing, she said to Zhang Can, “I... I forgot...”

Zhang Can knew she was excited from seeing her sister Xiao Li, but he did not know whether this girl had sensed that her sister was unhappy with him.

Together, Xiao Qin and Zhang Can helped her father into Zhang Can’s room to rest. Dongsheng was indeed exhausted, unable even to keep his eyes open, only wanting to lie down and sleep at once, so he did not refuse. In a haze between wakefulness and sleep, he was helped into the bedroom.

After he had lain down, Xiao Qin covered him with a thin blanket and carefully checked everything over. Only when she was satisfied that nothing was amiss did she say to Zhang Can, “You stay home and keep them company. I’m going out to buy groceries. When my sister gets back, she can help me too, and we can cook here at home.”

Zhang Can hesitated, then said, “Why don’t we just eat out? It would save you the trouble.”

But Xiao Qin firmly rejected the idea in a single breath. “No. My parents and my sister are not outsiders. They’re used to life back home, and having a decent place to stay already makes them feel content. They won’t stand on ceremony. Your place is already very nice, there’s nothing uncomfortable or troublesome about it. Besides, you saw my father’s condition; he’s not fit to be walking around at all. Only at home can he feel at ease.”

Zhang Can nodded. Xiao Qin had a point; there was no need to argue against her.

After Xiao Qin left, Zhang Can reached for the door to close it behind him. At that moment, he caught sight of Dongsheng’s ashen face, and his heart suddenly stirred. He thought of the spiritual energy within him, which had an extraordinary effect on fatigue and injury. Could it perhaps help Dongsheng’s kidney failure even a little?

Once that thought arose, it would not be suppressed. Quietly, he locked the door from the inside, then sat down by the bedside and called softly, “Uncle Liu? Uncle Liu?”

Dongsheng did not even murmur in response. He was sleeping very deeply, worn down by illness and exhaustion, his body also extremely weakened. He had drifted off into a daze, and when Zhang Can called him, there was not the slightest reaction.

No reaction was even better. That was precisely what Zhang Can wanted. After thinking for a moment, he pressed his hand against Dongsheng’s forehead and forced his spiritual energy outward. It entered through the center of his brow. The instant it went into Dongsheng’s body, the condition of every part of that body appeared clearly in his mind. The penetrating vision of the spiritual energy was displayed in crisp detail.

Zhang Can was not surprised by this. Before, whenever spiritual energy penetrated any object, it had produced the same effect. Only then he had used his eyes: when he saw through things, the world appeared to him in black and white.

This time, however, it seemed slightly different. When he used his eyes to see through objects, he could clearly sense that his ability was limited to penetrating and analyzing the age of things and the structure of their tiniest particles; he could not alter their composition.

Now, when he drove the spiritual energy into the body through his hand, that energy was unmistakably like a stream of white paint. Wherever it rolled, the cells of whatever it touched were dyed white.

And there was another clear sensation: the spiritual energy was devouring the diseased particles in Dongsheng’s body with a faint hissing sound.

Dongsheng’s body was far too weak. As soon as the spiritual energy entered him, its progress slowed even before reaching the kidneys where the uremia lay, because every inch of its advance was consuming his own energy. Naturally this was because Dongsheng’s body was riddled with illness. Under Zhang Can’s deliberate urging, the spiritual energy went about changing the diseased areas and regulating the body.

Still, most of Dongsheng’s ailments stemmed from long-term neglect and the resulting physical weakness. Aside from the uremia, which was the fatal condition, the other illnesses were not especially severe. Yet once all those diseases were gathered together, they became a problem that could not be ignored.

Zhang Can panted heavily. The drain on his spiritual energy made him feel quite tired, but he could still endure it. It was not like before, when simply using his sight to peer through things made him feel as though he might collapse and sleep for a whole day.

Sweat and fatigue weighed on him, and he felt limp all over, wanting only to collapse and sleep. But the spiritual energy had nearly forced its way into the kidneys, and Zhang Can felt a sudden surge of excitement. He wanted to see what would happen when the energy invaded the kidney tissue. Could it suppress the uremia?

With that thought, Zhang Can drew himself up and gathered the spiritual energy, doing his utmost to drive it toward the kidneys.

Because he had fused in the spiritual energy from the Buddhist beads in Su Xue’s bracelet, his energy reserves were now far stronger than before, and he could still hold on. If he had been using his earlier level of spiritual energy, he would likely have passed out long ago.

As his spiritual energy crashed into the kidneys, it was like a raging inferno meeting a pool of gasoline. It burst into fierce flames with crackling force, burning hotter and hotter, until even Zhang Can was thrown into confusion and could not tell what was causing it.

Because the energy loss was so enormous, the spiritual force was being consumed at a terrifying rate. Zhang Can’s hands trembled, and sweat poured down his arm where it was pressed to Dongsheng’s forehead, dripping in drop after drop onto Dongsheng’s face and neck.

Dongsheng himself was flushed and breathing heavily, as though he had a fever. Yet he remained in deep sleep, without the slightest awareness.

Zhang Can could no longer control it, nor could he even feel his own spiritual energy clearly. All he could sense was that it was locked in struggle with the diseased cells in the kidneys. After forcing himself for another dozen seconds or so, he could not hold on any longer. His head tilted, and he fainted.