Chapter 10

Chapter 10

When I arrived at Maternal and Child Hospital No. 3 again, Old Zhang still hadn’t shown up, and another young guy had called in sick too.

There had been six of us to begin with. After two days of work, only three were left.

Liu Wu was pretty relaxed about it. He grinned at us and said, “It’s fine. There isn’t much stuff today anyway. Tomorrow’s the last trip, and there’ll be even less.”

Wang Cheng looked utterly wilted. He tugged me aside and whispered, “Brother Long, how about we don’t come tomorrow either?”

“If none of us come, what’s your boss supposed to do?”

Peng You had already signed the contract with them.

Besides, I had a feeling that it didn’t matter whether anyone else came or not. I, at least, probably had no choice but to show up.

My original plan for today had been to use the loading as cover and sneak into what used to be the inpatient building of Maternal and Child Hospital No. 3 to take a look around. But Liu Wu’s people were watching the doors very closely.

I was also afraid that forcing my way in would drag Wang Cheng and the others into trouble, so I figured I would come back later tonight.

But today, we started loading much later than we had the previous two days.

I had no idea what Liu Wu and his people were busy with. They claimed there wasn’t much, but by the time we were ready to set off, it was already past noon.

The sky was a little gloomy that afternoon. Once we drove out of the city, there were far fewer cars on the road than usual.

For some reason, my left shoulder kept feeling uncomfortable today.

It was as if a draft from somewhere behind me was drilling straight into the joint of my shoulder.

At first, I didn’t pay much attention to it. But later, my left shoulder grew heavier and heavier, so heavy that half my body started going numb.

That was when I noticed Shi Kang, who had come along to oversee the load, glancing at me every now and then. One corner of his mouth was hooked up, like he was taking pleasure in my misfortune.

I was starting to get impatient. I immediately pulled out the Soul-Whip and lashed it hard behind my left shoulder. A crisp crack rang through the air.

That strike startled Shi Kang badly.

His eyes went wide as he stared at the whip in my hand. Then he looked at me, and all of a sudden, he sat up straight.

That arrogant, contemptuous look he had always worn vanished completely.

I noticed the change in Shi Kang. This Soul-Whip had been given to me when I was little by a mad Daoist priest.

He had told me, “You bear the face of an asura and the heart of a bodhisattva. In this life, you are destined to earn your living between yin and yang.”

Later, I learned that this Soul-Whip was one of the three great treasures of an evil organization called the Sky-Watching Sect.

I had already clashed with the Sky-Watching Sect several times. For money and profit, there was no wicked thing they wouldn’t do.

Last time, I got caught up in a bizarre ritual and ran into a member of the Sky-Watching Sect named Zuo Hao.

Although I smashed half the teeth out of his mouth, he also managed to slap a palm against my left shoulder.

He said he had snuffed out the yang fire in my left shoulder, and that the vigorous fire in my body had already been cut in half.

But I had never really felt anything off in my day-to-day life, so I hadn’t gone out of my way to find someone to check it. Judging from today, though, it seemed there really was some effect after all.