Lotus Head

Chapter 584: Li Huowang

On the second floor of the Baita Supervision Zone, the morning sunlight slanted through the window into the hospital room, adding a trace of warmth to the cold, sterile space.

“Son, go slow. Be careful not to burn yourself. Burns hurt a lot.”

Under Sun Xiaoqin’s encouraging gaze, Li Huowang lifted a short spoon holding half a scoop of porridge. His hand trembled as he brought it, unsteadily, toward his own mouth.

What should have been the simplest of actions had become torturously difficult for him now.

His muscles had atrophied from the long period of bed rest. Although he had started rehabilitation exercises, the results were not yet visible.

“Son, maybe I should just feed you.”

Li Huowang shook his head slightly in refusal. “No. I need to move more right now. Any kind of movement is good for me.”

Hearing this, Bai Lingmiao, who was standing nearby, relented and withdrew her hand.

Li Huowang slowly ate a few more mouthfuls, then suddenly his face twisted in pain. He reached up and pressed his hand against his head.

But he did not touch his own scalp or hair. Instead, his fingers met a hard, slightly smooth shell.

“What is this?” As the headache subsided slightly, he scraped at it with his fingernail, dislodging some brittle, dark-yellow fragments.

“Senior Brother Li, don’t pick at it. It’s very fragile.” Bai Lingmiao quickly reached out to stop him.

“What is this?” Li Huowang asked again, his reaction a bit slow.

“The doctor said this third-phase medication has side effects,” Sun Xiaoqin explained hurriedly. “But the effects are good. Huowang, just bear with it a little. Once your condition stabilizes, we’ll switch to something with milder side effects.”

After the stabbing pain had passed, Li Huowang knocked on his own head with his finger. It made a hollow sound. “Is it lotus root? Is this a White Lotus technique?”

Bai Lingmiao carefully reached out and touched Li Huowang’s brittle lotus-root head. The white lock of hair at her temple swayed lightly as she shook her head.

“No. It’s the work of the Chief Astrologer of Siqi. The techniques of the Fangxian Sect are strange. They say the Fangxian Sect can use anything as medicine to heal people.”

Earlier, when she had seen that Li Huowang didn’t even have a head, her heart had leapt into her throat. She had truly feared that someone would tell him he had no head, and he would just die on the spot.

But fortunately, they were now on the same side as the court. When Li Huowang was injured, the Chief Astrologer of Siqi had stepped in to help him.

“How long will it take to recover? I can’t go through life with this thing on my head.” Li Huowang asked again as he drank his porridge.

“That Daoist said your fate is different from ordinary people’s, but it will still take forty-nine days to regain your physical body.”

Li Huowang nodded slowly. “It’s fine. We’ve been at this for so long. We can wait.”

“That’s right, that’s right. We’ve been at it so long, and now there’s finally hope for your illness. You know, public hospitals are just better than private ones. The private doctors we had before were nowhere near as responsible as our Dr. Yi.”

Just then, Sun Xiaoqin heard the door to the ward open. She quickly grabbed her small handbag and hurried over to greet Yi Donglai.

“Aiyo, aiyo, Dr. Yi! Thank you so much! You really are a divine physician, a reincarnation of Hua Tuo!”

As she spoke the pleasantries, Sun Xiaoqin pulled a thick red envelope from her bag and started to stuff it into the pocket of Yi Donglai’s white coat.

“Sister Sun, what is this? Please don’t. The hospital has rules.”

“Hehehe, it’s nothing. Just a little gesture of appreciation. Please take it. You’ve worked so hard for my son. Oh, Dr. Yi, how old are you? Are you married? How about I introduce you to a nice girl?”

Sun Xiaoqin’s barrage of questions caught Yi Donglai, who was unflappable even in front of Li Huowang, completely off guard.

“Mom.” Li Huowang couldn’t bear to watch anymore.

“I know, I know. I’m leaving.”

After Sun Xiaoqin had left the room, Yi Donglai gave Li Huowang a wry smile.

He sat down on the stool Sun Xiaoqin had just vacated, took the red envelope from his pocket, held it up toward the camera in the corner of the room, and then placed it in the pocket of Li Huowang’s hospital gown on his chest.

“When you’re discharged, remember to give it back to your mother. I trust, given your character, you wouldn’t do something like use this money to buy skins in a game, would you?”

Li Huowang opened the red envelope and looked inside. It was a stack of red hundred-yuan notes. Roughly counting, it must have been three or four thousand.

“Hard to say. I was a slacker in the back row at school. I was one of the bad kids.”

Yi Donglai adjusted the rimless glasses on his nose, observing Li Huowang’s demeanor. “Actually, if you did use that money to buy skins in a game, I’d be happier. It would mean you have normal human desires. If that day ever comes, your illness will truly be cured.”

Li Huowang put the red envelope away. His expression turned serious as he said to Yi Donglai, “Your method does work. But can it truly, completely cure everything about me?”

“Of course. You need to have faith in me. Don’t think your condition is unique. I’ve used this method on others before, and the results were excellent.”

“Once, I had a patient who was convinced he was a wooden stake. He wouldn’t eat, wouldn’t sleep, wouldn’t cooperate with treatment. But I told him that even wood needs to sleep and take medicine. To prove it, I even showed him a cartoon about trees.”

“After he watched it, he truly believed that trees ate medicine and slept. So he started taking his medicine and cooperating with treatment on his own. In just three months, he was discharged.”

“A follow-up visit found that after leaving the hospital, he never relapsed. He can only deliver packages now, so his income isn’t high, but he can support himself. He’s returned to society.”

Li Huowang nodded slowly. But his face still held a trace of confusion. He raised his right hand and clenched it into a fist before his eyes, then opened it again.

“Even though all the memories of Hong Zhong that Doumu bestowed upon me have disappeared, and I have become the real Li Huowang again…”

“But the Thousand Greats Record in my memory hasn’t disappeared. The scars on my body haven’t disappeared either. And there’s still that hyper-perception Bashe gave me.”

“Do you understand what I mean? Even if I became my own Heart-Pan, the real Li Huowang is still entangled in the karmic threads of Bashe.”

Hearing this, the Chief Astrologer before him fell silent. After a long moment, he spoke, his voice layered and echoing: “Bewilderment itself is a form of suffering. There are things in the present that you cannot yet understand too deeply.”

Hearing this, a look of confusion spread across Li Huowang’s face. He couldn’t quite grasp what this creature was trying to say.

“Good. Keep that look.”

Just then, the door was pushed open, and the Chief Astrologer walked in. The Chief Astrologer who had been sitting in front of Li Huowang dissolved like yellow sand, vanishing in an instant.