Chapter 197
Chapter 197
Zhao Hui froze.
“Pay you for what?”
“The slap.”
“You hit me, and I still have to pay you?” Zhao Hui asked incredulously.
“You’re the one who said you didn’t care about that little bit of money. Besides, are you calm now or not?”
“I am.”
“Then pay me.”
Zhao Hui and the Driver stared at him.
The kid learned frighteningly fast!
Left with no choice, Zhao Hui transferred three thousand yuan to Liu Ye. He consoled himself by deciding this proved the master possessed genuine skill.
The Driver was overjoyed when he saw the three thousand yuan. Wasn’t this money already rolling in? He gave Liu Ye a thumbs-up. The kid had performed exceptionally well this time!
Liu Ye smiled at his big brother’s praise, but inwardly, he felt extremely uneasy. He had only meant to ask for three hundred!
Now even he thought he had gone too far. He had slapped a man once, and the man had paid him three thousand yuan.
“In any case, that is what happened. Master, can you help me solve it? I haven’t slept properly in a very long time,” Zhao Hui said wearily.
“Hmm. It will be easy to solve. I can treat the symptoms or cure the root cause. Which would you like?” Liu Ye asked.
“What does treating the symptoms involve? And what about curing the root cause?” Zhao Hui hurriedly asked.
“Treating the symptoms works immediately. Curing the root cause takes longer, but it removes the problem permanently.”
“I want both! Treat the symptoms first and let me sleep,” Zhao Hui said. He had been tormented for so long that he would go mad if it continued.
“Uh, all right. Since we all know one another, I can give you a discount. It’ll be nine hund-”
“More than nine million! But considering our friendship, we’ll charge you only ninety-eight thousand,” the Driver hurriedly cut in.
The kid still hadn’t seen enough of the world. If he didn’t squeeze a sucker like this for all he was worth, how could he possibly repay the suffering the Driver had endured these past few days?
Zhao Hui readily agreed. As long as they cured him, he would have paid even nine million.
“Master, please begin at once!” he said impatiently.
“All right!”
The moment the words left Liu Ye’s mouth, he backhanded Zhao Hui across the face. Zhao Hui instantly lost consciousness.
The Driver stared.
“That’s what you meant by treating the symptoms?”
“Of course. Look how quickly it worked. He fell asleep immediately,” Liu Ye said as if it were obvious.
The Driver had no words.
“But now that you knocked him out, who are we supposed to ask for the money?” the Driver demanded furiously.
“Oh, shoot! I forgot about that.” Liu Ye scratched his head.
“It’s all right, though. I can wake him back up.”
Liu Ye went over and slapped Zhao Hui several more times, but the man didn’t wake.
“Huh? That’s strange. Why won’t he wake up? Why won’t he… Why won’t he…”
The Driver watched in silence.
“Big Brother, I might have hit him a little too hard just now, but don’t worry. I have experience with this.”
He had once cured that woman who wouldn’t wake from a coma.
Liu Ye pulled a stun baton from his bundle…
“Stop!”
The Driver hurriedly shouted.
“Little Brother, we’re fortune-tellers. We’re not here to rob and murder him. Put that stun baton away. And from now on, stop pulling things out of your pockets so casually.”
Liu Ye pouted and put the baton away.
Seeing his expression, the Driver knew he couldn’t constantly discourage the kid. He needed some encouragement too.
“Ahem. There were a few minor flaws today, but overall, you did well! You deserve praise.”
Liu Ye immediately brightened at those words.
“By the way, how did you intend to cure the root cause?” the Driver asked curiously. He hadn’t expected Liu Ye to have such a polished set of phrases ready.
“That’s even easier. He clearly has weak kidneys. Buy some Liuwei Dihuang Pills and stuff him with as many as he can take.”
The Driver stared at him.
“Forget it. I’ll handle this myself.”
The Driver walked over to Zhao Hui, pulled out the small knife he carried, and opened Zhao Hui’s clothes.
The instant the clothing parted, a wave of yin energy struck him. The Driver greedily inhaled, then looked at Zhao Hui’s body. Horrifying heads had grown across his chest and stomach, each one wailing without end.
“Wow, Big Brother, what are those?” Liu Ye asked in shock.
“They’re called human-face sores.”
The Driver sneered inwardly. These things did not form easily. The resentment of people who died unjustly had to linger in a place dense with yin energy, then attach itself to someone and form human-face sores.
The requirements were exceedingly strict. The location had to possess enough yin energy to rival a mass grave containing ten thousand corpses. Judging by Zhao Hui’s symptoms, it would have to be at the level of a Fiend Domain.
But if he had gone to a place like that, how had he returned alive?
As the Driver pondered, Liu Ye spoke again.
“Big Brother, how do these things form?”
“Well, in a yin-”
The Driver stopped, then swiftly changed his answer.
“…in a dark and damp place. Poor hygiene causes a fungal infection, much like athlete’s foot.”
Enlightenment dawned on Liu Ye. His big brother truly was knowledgeable. Liu Ye immediately committed the explanation to memory so he would know what to do if he ever encountered a similar case.
The Driver lowered his head guiltily. There was nothing else he could do. Whenever possible, they had to keep Liu Ye from learning about Fiends. As for any consequences caused by this explanation… well, he had plenty of friends.
He bent down and continued examining the human-face sores. This man had clearly lied to them.
The sores had grown to this extent, which meant the victims’ resentment ran extraordinarily deep. Their deaths probably had not occurred during an attack as Zhao Hui claimed. More likely, Zhao Hui had killed them to keep the secret.
But that had nothing to do with them. They were simply being paid to solve a problem. Now that they knew these were human-face sores, the matter would be easy.
“Little Liu, I’ll leave these to you.”
Liu Ye froze, then understood. He pulled a tube of ointment from his bundle.
The Driver stared.
“What’s that?”
“Medicine for athlete’s foot. Didn’t you say the principle was the same?”
The Driver had no answer.
“The principle is the same, but you can’t actually treat them that way… Why are you carrying this around in the first place?”
“It’s a herbal remedy that works on everything-athlete’s foot, hemorrhoids, hair loss. I originally bought it for Director Jia…”
The thought of his nursing career filled Liu Ye with sorrow again. He had hoped this ointment might help him become head nurse.
The Driver fell silent.
“I meant for you to take a knife and cut those things out,” he said helplessly.
That method wouldn’t work for an ordinary person, of course, but Liu Ye would have no problem. The white light in his body exerted an extraordinarily powerful restraint on Fiends. Treating these things would be effortless for him.