Chen Hongyu

Chapter 705: Chen Hongyu

Li Huowang tilted his head back, looking up at the massive main building of the hospital before him, and the large red characters on its facade: Sixth People’s Hospital.

This was the address Qian Fu had given him. The friend he claimed could help lived here.

It was ten in the morning. They had agreed to meet at this time.

Li Huowang scanned his surroundings and spotted Qian Fu standing nervously in the sunlight, looking around. He had clearly arrived early, carrying something in a black plastic bag.

Li Huowang walked over with Yang Na. He didn’t say a word, merely paused in front of Qian Fu for a moment, then walked straight into the hospital.

Qian Fu understood the meaning immediately and followed.

Once they had regrouped inside the hospital lobby, Li Huowang spoke. “Go ahead with the visit. Go find the helper you mentioned.”

Qian Fu nodded calmly. “Don’t worry, I know this place better than you. Lend me your ID card—I didn’t bring mine.”

After going through the standard visitation procedures, Li Huowang learned the name of Qian Fu’s so-called helper: Chen Hongyu.

“Sounds like a girl’s name,” Yang Na said, her voice tinged with curiosity. “Hey, Huowang, you think she’s this uncle’s girlfriend?”

“If there’s any relationship, it’s more likely a wife,” Li Huowang replied. “At his age, it’s not a girlfriend.”

Despite his words, a faint worry was creeping into Li Huowang’s mind. It wasn’t that he feared this helper was mentally ill—it was more that he doubted whether a friend of Qian Fu’s could actually be of any use.

Given how addled Qian Fu was, even believing half of what he said would probably be optimistic.

As they were speaking, the door opened, and a tall, heavy woman stepped out.

She was very fat, appearing to be in her forties or fifties. Her vacant eyes drooped lazily, giving her a listless appearance. Her forehead and cheeks were covered in red pimples. Her cuffs and collar were grimy, and through her thinning hair, her scalp was clearly visible.

All in all, she looked profoundly shabby.

“Hongyu! Hongyu! It’s been years, hasn’t it!” Seeing the woman, Qian Fu immediately rushed up to her, his face alight with excitement. “Look what I brought you!”

With that, he opened the black plastic bag and proudly displayed its contents: half a green apple with yellowing flesh, roasted eggplant skin wrapped in tin foil, and two half-empty bottles of drink.

“Did you dig that out of a trash can?” Hongyu asked, her face full of disgust. “You think I’m someone who eats garbage?”

“Don’t be ungrateful. Back when we were on the streets, finding stuff like this would’ve been like New Year’s!”

Glancing at the surveillance camera, Li Huowang quickly snatched the bag from Qian Fu’s hands and threw it into a nearby trash can.

He leaned close to Qian Fu’s ear, his voice harsh. “Do you want to get arrested?! Get a grip!”

Meeting Li Huowang’s gaze, Qian Fu reluctantly stopped his hand from reaching for the trash.

Li Huowang pushed Qian Fu aside, took the visiting seat himself, and looked up at the woman across from him. “Hello. My name is Li Huowang. Your parents asked me to check on you. How have you been in the hospital? How’s your condition?”

Chen Hongyu, her eyes half-lidded, curled her lips into a smile that didn’t reach her eyes. “Just say what you want. Stop pretending. They can’t hear us.”

Hearing this, Li Huowang felt a wave of relief. At any rate, this old woman seemed far more reliable than Qian Fu.

He decided to drop the act entirely and quickly recounted everything he had been through.

But the moment he finished, she sneered at him. “Heh. Qian Fu’s a nutcase. And you actually believed him?”

“Hey, uh… Hongyu,” Qian Fu said, his face full of desperate pleading as he looked up at the fat woman. “Come on. You must have felt it too, right? They’re really here. It’s not just Li Huowang they’re after. Once he’s gone, it’ll be us next. The Leo aliens are insatiable.”

Hongyu ignored Qian Fu and turned back to Li Huowang. Her voice was lazy. “He’s crazy. The people you ran into weren’t aliens at all. They’re just ordinary people who have some kind of agenda against you. It’s a highly organized group that operates in the shadows.”

“Oh?” Li Huowang’s heart lifted. Finally, someone in the know who wasn’t insane. “Go on. How much do you know about them?”

Just as Hongyu hesitated, Qian Fu cut in from the side. “It’s okay, Hongyu. Tell him. He’s one of us. He got me out.”

At that, Hongyu finally spoke. “They didn’t just go after you. They’ve gone after others, too. I was caught by them once, but I managed to escape.”

“Why? Why are they doing this? Who are they?”

“They’re doing it because they want to take my special powers! As the saying goes, ‘an innocent man carrying jade is guilty.’ They’re basically an underground syndicate trying to steal superpowers!”

“…” Li Huowang was momentarily at a loss for words.

He turned his head and looked at Qian Fu again, suddenly feeling incredibly stupid for trusting anything the man had said.

“…” Li Huowang’s expression was incredibly complicated as he looked at Chen Hongyu. “Schizophrenia?”

“What? You don’t believe me? You mean you don’t think you have special powers? Don’t tell me you don’t know. If you hadn’t shown them your special powers, why would they have come after you?”

“Special powers? How could I—” Li Huowang stopped mid-sentence, suddenly remembering something. He shook his head violently. “No. That’s not it. That’s definitely not it.”

Just then, Qian Fu chimed in again. “Hongyu, look, I’m out now. You should get out too. Let’s work together! Let’s take these bastards down once and for all.”

“No way. Too much work. I can’t be bothered,” Chen Hongyu said, turning to leave. “You guys fight your battles outside. I’m fine right here. They can’t touch me in here, anyway.”

Hearing this, Qian Fu panicked. He looked around frantically, then suddenly snatched Bai Lingmiao’s bag and started rummaging through it. “I’ll give you money! See this? Red bills! If you help, all of this is yours! And besides—how can you be so sure that just because they can’t get in here, you’re really safe?”

Seeing the cash in Qian Fu’s hands, Chen Hongyu, who had been about to leave, suddenly stopped. When she turned around, a flash of greed appeared on her fat face.

She looked at Li Huowang and the others and directly raised five fingers—nails caked with black dirt. “Fifty thousand! When it’s all done, you give me fifty thousand—fifty thousand per person—and I’ll come out and deal with them for you.”