Chapter 61 — The Girl He Could Never Forget All His Life

"Holy shit!" Yang Huaijun slapped his thigh and stared at Wei Zhao in amazement. "You really know your stuff — worthy of the captain of the Hounds. After I was wounded back then, the unit brought in Elder Chen Xuezhi, the most renowned expert in traditional Chinese medicine in the country. He examined me, and those were his exact words too."

"Chen Xuezhi?" Wei Zhao seemed to have heard the name before, though he had forgotten where.

"That's the man. He's also the one who said I wouldn't last half a year." Yang Huaijun smiled. "He told me that if I wanted to die a little slower, I should stop treatment altogether and just hold out on painkillers — maybe I'd stretch out a few more days."

"What kind of damn advice is that?" Wei Zhao could not help but frown. "Your illness — let me think it over after I get back, and I'll come up with a plan for you as soon as I can. But first I can write you a prescription. It will work better than Western painkillers, with fewer side effects."

With that, Wei Zhao walked over to Yang Huaijun's desk, took paper and pen, swiftly wrote out a prescription, and handed it to him. "You'd best fill this yourself — don't let anyone else know about it. And about me: I don't want others to know. What's past is past; don't bring it up again."

"Does it really work? Eagle, the surprises you bring me are simply too great." Yang Huaijun took the prescription and stared blankly at the dense list of herbal names. There was no way this could have been written at random — an ordinary person probably could not even write out the names of these herbs.

"I told you, don't call me Eagle. My name is Wei Zhao." Wei Zhao corrected him.

"Fine, Wei Zhao." Yang Huaijun nodded and carefully tucked the prescription into his jacket. Since it had been written for him by his former captain and comrade-in-arms, he would trust it unconditionally, no matter what. Worst case, it kills me — and who knows how many days I have left anyway. "You really are something, kid. No wonder Xiao Ning is so taken with you."

At that name, the smile on Wei Zhao's face froze in an instant. A long while passed before he raised his head. "She... still remembers me?"

"The last time I saw her, she asked about you." Yang Huaijun nodded with absolute certainty.

"Maybe she was just asking casually..." Wei Zhao smiled bitterly. He and she belonged to two entirely different worlds; there was no chance their paths would ever entwine. And even if they did, they were destined to part.

There had never been equality between people — Wei Zhao understood this profoundly. At least for now, he did not have the means to give her a future...

"You're planning to shirk your responsibility?" Yang Huaijun's expression suddenly turned fierce as he glared savagely at Wei Zhao.

Yang Huaijun's strange reaction startled Wei Zhao for a moment, but in the next instant he seemed to understand something. "You... like her?"

"..." Under Wei Zhao's question, Yang Huaijun fell silent. Only after a long while did he say, "Back in the suicide squad, there wasn't a man among us who didn't feel something for Xiao Ning..."

That was, in a roundabout way, an admission of his feelings.

"You two are quite a good match." Wei Zhao knew of Yang Huaijun's background; he and she could be considered well-matched in social station.

"What exactly are you trying to say?" Yang Huaijun leaped to his feet as though a sore spot had been struck, his face purple with rage as he jabbed a finger at Wei Zhao. "What kind of man do you take me for? A friend's wife is not to be touched — even if the Hounds are a pack of bastards, we'd never do a thing like that!"

"She is not my wife." Wei Zhao shook his head and said calmly, "All right, I'm leaving. I'll leave the matter with Qiu Lingshan to you — I trust that won't be a problem."

With that, Wei Zhao rose and headed for the door.

"I really want to kill you." Yang Huaijun drove a fist at Wei Zhao's back.

Without even turning his head, Wei Zhao casually caught his arm. "If you can."

Yang Huaijun knew the gap between himself and Wei Zhao was no small thing. He let the strength drain from his arm in something like dejection, and at the same moment Wei Zhao released him, opened the door, and walked out of the office.

Though Wei Zhao's expression showed no change, his thoughts drifted involuntarily back to those years of raging war... to the girl who had crossed his fate, only to part from it.

Over these past two years, Wei Zhao had often woken with a start from his nighttime cultivation, drenched in sweat each time — something that had never happened to him since he began practicing the Xuanyuan Dragon-Taming Art. Yet those melancholy eyes lingered like a demon in his heart, repeating endlessly, filling his nights.

Every time that sorrowful, resentful look from their parting rose before him, Wei Zhao would start awake from his cultivation before he could stop himself. It was a nightmare that recurred without end...

Had he truly forgotten her? Clearly not. She was a girl whom any man could see once and never forget for the rest of his life... Yet Wei Zhao understood just as clearly that her dazzling radiance did not belong to him.

If the seventeen-year-old Wei Zhao had still possessed a trace of defiance, the Wei Zhao of the present understood the cruelty of reality far better. Going to find her would only bring trouble to her and to those around her. Their families were not of equal standing, their stations worlds apart; a nobody courting a princess—that was the stuff of novels, sheer nonsense.

From the moment Wei Zhao was led away by the police, Chief Chen's telephone at the station had not stopped ringing. The first call was from Ding Binggong, principal of No. 1 High School. Chief Chen still treated Ding Binggong's call with considerable caution, promising that he would definitely investigate the matter thoroughly.

But the people who called afterward were of ever greater consequence. First came Uncle Qing, who was at Gu Pengzhan's side; after that, Gu Pengzhan himself telephoned to inquire about the matter.

With no other recourse, Chief Chen could only dial Qiu Lingshan's number, hoping to urge her to handle the case as quickly as possible and to be absolutely fair and impartial, so that no one could find fault and make an issue of it.

But the word from Qiu Lingshan was that Wei Zhao had been taken away by Yang Huaijun, who had just returned. Chief Chen had no choice but to dial Yang Huaijun's number as well.

"What? He has already been released?" Chief Chen was somewhat taken aback. Wasn't Yang Huaijun handling this a little too fast?

"Yes. It was an underworld gang that came to the school to stir up trouble in the first place; Wei Zhao had nothing to do with it. After I looked into the situation, I told him to go back." Yang Huaijun had recovered his usual brisk, efficient tone as he made his report.

"As long as there's no trouble, that's what matters." Chief Chen let out a breath of relief. This time he would be able to answer to Ding Binggong and Gu Pengzhan.

When Qiu Lingshan learned that Yang Huaijun had released Wei Zhao, she too was stunned for a good while. But she knew in her heart that Wei Zhao bore no real responsibility, because she had just gotten the whole story out of two of Brother Black Panther's underlings: it had been Brother Black Panther who went looking for trouble first, and only then had Wei Zhao struck him.