Chapter 514 — Feng Xiaoxiao Falls Ill!

Feng Xiaoxiao gasped for breath, feeling as though she had been plunged into an ice cellar, yet she did not dare turn on the hot water. She was already struggling to breathe; add steam to that, and she would likely suffocate.

"Help... I feel awful, I'm dying..." Feng Xiaoxiao called out with all her might, but her body was so weak that her voice came out pitifully small.

Yet even though the sound was faint, Wei Zhao could hear it. In fact, he had heard Feng Xiaoxiao from her very first moan. A late-stage Yellow-rank expert was no joke — and Wei Zhao was a cut above even that.

But Wei Zhao had paid it no mind, assuming Feng Xiaoxiao was deliberately clowning around to seduce him. Though he did not think she was the sort of girl who gave herself away lightly, with her personality, once she got carried away there was no absurdity she would not attempt, so Wei Zhao had not taken it seriously.

Feng Xiaoxiao's cries for help reached Wei Zhao's ears too, but he did not believe them either. This girl was full of tricks — who knew whether it was real or fake? If he went into the bathroom and she started screaming that he had molested her and snapped photos, he would never be able to clear his name.

"Wei Zhao... I'm dying... help..." Seeing that Wei Zhao had not come, Feng Xiaoxiao sank into despair. If she fell ill here in the bathroom and no one knew, she would die without anyone even knowing how — how pitiful!

Though Feng Xiaoxiao knew her days were numbered, she still did not want to die. Every extra day of life was a day gained — who would want to die so young? She struggled toward the bathroom door, trying to crawl out.

"Hah..." Feng Xiaoxiao tried to push the bathroom door open with her hand, but though the door was not locked, without pressing down the handle, how could it possibly open so easily?

Ah — this time Feng Xiaoxiao truly despaired! She did not want to die, she had not lived enough! There were still so many things she had never done — how could she die just like this? She had even planned to travel the world before her time came, and she had never even had a boyfriend, never known what love felt like... Ahhh, she did not want to die...

That was Feng Xiaoxiao's last thought before she collapsed unconscious beside the bathroom door.

At first Wei Zhao had dismissed Feng Xiaoxiao's cries for help, but after a while, not a sound came from the bathroom, and he could not help growing puzzled.

Logically, having failed to trick him, Feng Xiaoxiao should have come out of the bathroom by now. The sound of running water had stopped, which proved she had finished her shower — so why was she still not out? Could it be...

Wei Zhao frowned. Had something really happened to Feng Xiaoxiao? Wei Zhao was not the sort to meddle in others' business, but at this moment he could not simply ignore it. For one, Feng Xiaoxiao was fairly close to him — at the very least, she was his deskmate. For another, she was Feng Tianlong's daughter; if something happened to her while she was with him, would Feng Tianlong not curse him to death?

With a wry smile, Wei Zhao rose to his feet and tiptoed to the bathroom door, tilting his ear to listen for movement inside. Though he could hear from outside well enough, he wanted to catch even the faintest sounds more clearly.

Feng Xiaoxiao was no expert, nor had she received any special training, so even if she tried to stay silent, she could never manage the utter stillness of those who had been trained.

And now Wei Zhao heard truly nothing, which made him feel something was off. After a moment's hesitation, he reached out and grasped the bathroom door handle — but to his surprise, the bathroom was not locked at all!

Wei Zhao pushed the bathroom door open with ease, and the sight that followed startled him. Feng Xiaoxiao lay naked on the bathroom floor, face down, utterly motionless!

"Feng Xiaoxiao?" Wei Zhao called out tentatively.

No response whatsoever. By now Wei Zhao was completely certain something had happened to Feng Xiaoxiao, for in her present state she could hardly be taking photos or trying to blackmail him.

Once he was sure Feng Xiaoxiao really was in trouble, Wei Zhao hastily bent down, his eyes carefully averted, and pressed his fingers to her wrist, whereupon he fell into a brooding silence.

There was nothing abnormal about Feng Xiaoxiao's body at all! Every bodily function was perfectly normal — and yet it lacked a trace of vitality! This astonished Wei Zhao.

Vitality was a strange thing. Examined according to modern medicine, no such thing as vitality existed; as long as the internal organs showed no problem, that meant the person was fine.

But Wei Zhao could sense the vitality of every person. The vitality of one who had never cultivated was weaker than that of one who had. For instance, a Yellow-rank expert's vitality was stronger than an ordinary person's; a Mystic-rank expert's stronger still than a Yellow-rank's.

And this vitality, in Jiao Yazi's words, was a kind of energy! It was precisely by the abundance or scarcity of this energy that Wei Zhao judged a person's level of strength.

"Elder Jiao, what is going on here?" Under Old Man Wei's tutelage, Wei Zhao counted as a miraculous physician — yet never had he seen such a bizarre condition as Feng Xiaoxiao's!

"I don't know." It was the first time Jiao Yazi had been unable to answer one of Wei Zhao's questions. "But a weak body means weak energy as well."

"..." Wei Zhao was getting anxious. Feng Xiaoxiao could not just lie there on the floor forever. He scooped her up in his arms, but his mind was elsewhere, and he paid no attention to where his hand landed. His right hand closed around something soft...

"Gah?" Wei Zhao froze, then realized what he had just grabbed... that was a girl's breast.

Wei Zhao's heart lurched, and he nearly flung Feng Xiaoxiao out of his arms. He had touched Shen Yushu there before, but always through her clothes — that did not really count as direct contact.

All this time, Wei Zhao had assumed the first girl he would ever touch like that would be Tang Zhi. Never in his wildest dreams had he imagined it would be Feng Xiaoxiao.

Wei Zhao was usually a picture of composure, but right now he could not compose himself at all; his heart was pounding out of his chest. He did not like Feng Xiaoxiao, not romantically, but his reaction in this moment had nothing to do with romance.

He wanted to let go, and yet he could not quite bring himself to... The arms holding Feng Xiaoxiao were trembling. In his agitation he turned, and his arm scraped against the strike plate of the bathroom door, gashing it open. Blood welled and ran down...

The sting of pain snapped Wei Zhao back to his senses! Feng Xiaoxiao's life hung in the balance, and here he was woolgathering?