Chapter 83

"Don't look at me like that! What right do you have to look at me like that? What right do you have to look down on me?!" Helian Yong, who had been lying on the bed like a corpse, suddenly became agitated. He reached out to grab Xue Jin'an's collar, but Xue Jin'an nimbly dodged him. Instead, Helian Yong himself almost rolled off the bed because of his large movement.

"Yong'er!" Helian Cheng immediately strode forward and quickly helped him up, but his hand was pushed away.

With a crisp "snap," the two of them were startled at the same time.

Helian Yong looked flustered, forcing himself to calm down before cautiously looking up at Helian Cheng. His voice became weak and feeble again, showing none of the fierce anger he had shown towards Xue Jin'an earlier. He said, "Father, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it. I was delirious from my illness. I just... I was just too scared, so I couldn't control my emotions. I..."

Helian Yong explained incoherently, his eyes slowly reddening.

Helian Cheng remained silent, neither believing nor disbelieving, but simply helped him lie back down on the bed, tucked the blanket around him, and said, "Don't think too much about it."

"Godfather cough cough cough—" Helian Yong coughed violently, so violently that it seemed as if he was coughing up his heart.

Helian Cheng immediately got up to bring him water and patted his back to help him catch his breath, his eyes filled with undisguised worry.

Xue Jin'an had no interest in this one-sided display of filial piety, nor did he intend to judge Helian Yong's actions. His expression and eyes remained calm and unwavering. Helian Yong's perception of him as contempt was simply a result of his own guilty conscience.

In reality, Xue Jin'an saw through Helian Yong's disguise not because he suddenly understood the wickedness of people's hearts, but because Helian Yong's physical condition was too exaggerated. Xue Jin'an drew the conclusion entirely through logical deduction.

The parasitic worms in his heart will indeed consume his vital energy and life force, causing him to gradually become emaciated and die. However, this is not something that can be accomplished overnight. The worms are like cancer cells. Their cocooning and development is like the cancer worsening. Only when the worms emerge from the cocoon and mature will the host body die.

This is a relatively slow process, and how long has the Gu worm been parasitizing him? How weak must Helian Yong, a grown man, be to be drained into this ghastly state?

Furthermore, it is currently winter, and the Northwest is often covered in heavy snow. Gu worms are still worms, and they have similar habits to insects. Their activity level will decrease significantly in the cold, so Helian Yong's death will naturally be postponed.

It is then quite obvious that Helian Cheng's transformation into such a frail and emaciated state was a ruse.

The reason was exactly what Xue Jin'an had thought: Helian Yong had previously broken ties with Xue Jin'an and had rejected his anti-virus proposal in a very harsh manner. Helian Yong considered himself an adversary and harbored considerable hostility towards Xue Jin'an, so he was naturally too ashamed to ask for help.

Although Xue Jin'an could see the reason behind his actions, he couldn't understand the thought process behind them, nor did he want to. At most, he would just sigh and say: Helian Cheng misjudged him.

In the original text, Helian Cheng should have realized in the end that Helian Yong was not capable of leading the Northwest Army and had the idea of ​​choosing someone else. Unexpectedly, the successor he had painstakingly cultivated not only lacked ability but also had huge flaws in character, which led to his death.

Logically speaking, as a general who commanded the Northwest Army and fought against the Rong and Di tribes for many years without defeat, Helian Cheng should have had his own methods for commanding troops and training subordinates, and should also have keen insight into human nature. Helian Yong was able to hide his evil side in front of him for so long in the original text, which must have taken a lot of effort.

However, the current plot differs from the original story. Helian Yong has taken a liking to Long Aotian and is personally teaching him. But this Long Aotian is strong in everything and seems to have no weaknesses, which makes Helian Yong feel unprecedentedly threatened. In his impetuous state, he can no longer pretend and exposes all kinds of problems in advance.

Helian Cheng saw clearly that he had already given up on Helian Yong, but because of his loving father and teacher's heart, he did his best to save Helian Yong's life.

Xue Jin'an thought that humans were really strange, always doing contradictory things.

At this moment, he tilted his ear slightly and heard approaching footsteps outside. They were initially fast and urgent, but as they got closer, the footsteps slowed down and finally stopped at the tent entrance without entering.

The soldiers guarding the tent entrance were probably deliberately silenced, so they didn't make a sound, but Xue Jin'an knew after a moment's thought that the person who came was Doctor Chang.

Although Helian Yong was Helian Cheng's adopted apprentice and godson, Doctor Chang had a good relationship with Helian Cheng and had no children of his own. In addition, Helian Yong was in poor health when he first became his apprentice and was severely depleted. Doctor Chang personally treated him with herbal medicine and cured him. He regarded Helian Yong as his own nephew and cared for him no less than he cared for Helian Cheng.

Because she cared about him, she was very concerned about his situation. When she learned that Helian Cheng had brought Long Aotian to see Helian Yong, she rushed over immediately. However, she stopped at the tent entrance and did not go in because she was heartbroken.

It was one thing for Helian Yong to drug him and knock him out, but Doctor Chang knew that he had fallen into a trap and mistakenly believed that the Northwest Army would rebel, which was why he resorted to this drastic measure. Doctor Chang could simply assume that he was too concerned and lost his judgment.

However, the fact that he had used the Gu worms on his body without authorization, almost causing chaos in the entire Northwest Army and resulting in the deaths of innocent soldiers, was something that Doctor Chang could not pretend had not happened. He would often wake up in fear in the middle of the night and had to come out to confirm with the patrolling soldiers that the camp was safe and that nothing had happened before he could feel at ease.

Dr. Chang even couldn't help but ponder and question Helian Yong's character.

In the end, it still damaged the relationship.

Doctor Chang stood outside without making a sound, quietly listening to the sounds coming from inside the tent.

After "comforting" Helian Yong, Helian Cheng gave Xue Jin'an an apologetic look and asked him in a somewhat humble tone not to hold Helian Yong's behavior against him, and offered to treat his illness.

"I understand." Xue Jin'an frowned slightly.

Helian Cheng and Helian Yong's first reaction was that Xue Jin'an was displeased with Helian Yong's attitude. After getting up and making way, the former did not leave. He stood at the head of the bed and held Helian Yong's shoulder with one hand, preventing him from moving. This was obviously to prevent him from getting agitated and lashing out again. It wasn't that he was afraid he would do something irreversible, but that he was afraid he would anger Xue Jin'an and be beaten to death.

Helian Yong really wanted to live. He turned his head away from Xue Jin'an, but his hand honestly stretched out, revealing a section of his wrist.

Xue Jin'an glanced at his wrist and then looked away without touching it. He opened the health monitoring software and scanned Helian Yong's entire body.

As expected, in addition to a significant drop in battery health, Helian Yong also experienced various man-made health problems. For example, his stomach showed that he was not eating enough. In order to perform the act of being unable to eat and being emaciated, he really went all out.

In some ways, she was the most ruthless person Xue Jin'an had ever seen to harm herself—both Chu Wenwan and Xiao Shu followed the path of hurting their children to fulfill their own desires. If they were to truly harm themselves, Xiao Shu would absolutely not do it, and Chu Wenwan might be able to, but she would try her best to avoid it.

After all, it's not worth it to hurt the enemy a thousand while losing eight hundred of your own. No one would be so foolish as to really joke with their own life unless it's absolutely necessary.

"The Gu worm has already formed a cocoon inside. Your battery can only be scrapped. The battery is your heart. Are you sure you want to disinfect it?" From the state of his battery's decline, Xue Jin'an could deduce how far the cocoon of the parasitic Gu worm inside had grown. He concluded that the virus had invaded too deeply, and disinfection would inevitably damage the source files.

"Is there really no way?" Helian Cheng asked hurriedly.

Xue Jin'an looked at him, "What kind of solution do you want?"

Helian Cheng replied without the slightest hesitation, "I just want Yong'er to live."

“We can replace the battery,” Xue Jin’an offered without hesitation.

Knowing that the battery Long Aotian mentioned refers to the heart, then changing the battery means—a heart transplant?! Helian Cheng's eyes widened suddenly, but before he could say anything, a familiar voice interrupted him.

"This defies common sense, this is impossible!" Doctor Chang retorted urgently. Hearing this, he finally couldn't stand outside any longer and came in through the tent flap. "The method of heart transplantation is unheard of and unseen. Even the legendary Hua Tuo could only open the abdomen to treat the wound. If the heart is cut open, the person will die in no time. How can a person live after the heart is removed?"

Doctor Chang was quick to speak, and if it weren't for Long Aotian, he would have directly called it nonsense. However, considering that Long Aotian was not human and might have some unpredictable methods, he hesitated for a moment and missed the opportunity to say those words again.

"It's just a minor injury like having your heart ripped out." People in novel worlds are so hard to kill, haven't you noticed that the Third Prince is still alive?

— Xiao Jian risked his life to avenge the Third Prince. He didn't know how much poison he had ingested; an ordinary person would have died long ago. In order to live until the day he could successfully avenge the prince, he also raised worms in his body, and his blood contained countless worm eggs.

After the Imperial Medical Academy worked tirelessly day and night to investigate, they quickly discovered that the blood was indeed extremely poisonous. If a dog licked it, it would bleed from all seven orifices, vomit and have diarrhea, and eventually vomit out its internal organs. It couldn't even survive for three days.

However, Xue Jin'an only had someone haphazardly disinfect the person with that low-proof alcohol. When he got back, he only had a low-grade fever, but he woke up quickly and was as good as new.

Oh, it's not entirely nothing. The Third Prince's leg is completely ruined, and they are quite certain that there is no hope of it being cured.

It is said that after the Third Prince learned of this, he smashed everything in the room and beat up the imperial physician. If it weren't for Consort Xian's concern for her son and her constant presence at Mingde Courtyard, which allowed her to be restrained in time, there would have been another bloodshed.

Following in the footsteps of the eunuchs and palace maids, the imperial physicians became another group that trembled at the mere mention of Mingde Academy. However, they could only grit their teeth and continue to treat the Third Prince with bitter faces. Unfortunately, the latter was extremely uncooperative. Whenever he was awake and saw them, he would look violent and ready to beat them. He refused to drink medicine or apply any medicine to his wounds, leaving them to swell and fester.

Not only that, the Third Prince ignored his injuries and tried to walk on his right foot. When he found that his right foot was not obeying him, he would violently pound it, making his already injured leg even more miserable.

Finally, in order to ensure the treatment went smoothly, Consort Xian ordered the imperial physician to administer a sleeping potion to the Third Prince, putting him in a coma except for three meals a day. Oh, according to the news Fu Lu received, yesterday Consort Xian's personal maid went to the imperial kitchen to request that all meals at Mingde Courtyard be changed to soups, and also asked the Imperial Hospital to prescribe ginseng slices, a medicine to replenish qi and prolong life. It seems that the Third Prince doesn't even have time to eat three meals a day anymore.

"The eunuch who delivered the message to me was quite animated when he talked about it," Fu Lu said with a sigh.

The eunuchs and palace maids dared not show it too obviously, but the Third Prince's tyranny was deeply ingrained in their hearts. He usually beat and scolded them, and they didn't know how many people he had injured. Now that the Third Prince had finally gotten his comeuppance, how could they not be secretly pleased?

To others, the fact that the Third Prince was unharmed was simply because he was in good health and had good luck in surviving. But in Xue Jin'an's view, it was because the Third Prince, as a main character in the storyline and one of the "strong" contenders for the throne, had his life guaranteed.

Thinking about it this way, having one's heart ripped out is just a minor injury for a main character, but it might be a different story for a cannon fodder background character.

Helian Yong was just a minor cannon fodder character who only had a name.

Xue Jin paused for a moment and said, "One of them has to die, him or the Gu worm."

I had almost convinced myself that the methods of gods and ghosts were unpredictable, and that Dr. Chang was perfectly normal: "..."

So heart transplants are definitely unreliable after all!

Doctor Chang looked at Xue Jin'an, who had a calm and collected expression and was completely unaware of the terrifying things he had said, and sighed softly. He then looked at Helian Yong on the bed, whose face was ashen, with red circles and tears glistening in his eyes, as if he could not hold on any longer. He swallowed the words that were on the tip of his tongue.

Doctor Chang was a renowned physician and one of the best physicians in the Imperial Medical Academy. If he hadn't grown tired of the cutthroat, backstabbing life in the palace and been tempted by a friend he had just met from outside the palace to go out and see the world, he would have ended up resigning from his post and retiring to the Northwest Army.

In short, aside from not being able to cure the Gu worms, Doctor Chang is quite skilled in treating illnesses and judging people. He had never thought much of it before, but now that the filter of friendship has been shattered, it is easy to see the clues in his behavior.

Although he could see through it, he couldn't bear to expose it either time.

Doctor Chang gave Xue Jin'an a look that signaled them to go outside and talk.

Xue Jin'an, who hadn't mastered the skill of reading facial expressions, tilted his head and finally arrived at the correct conclusion by analyzing facial expressions. He was a step too slow, but still followed them out.

The two walked a few steps from the tent. Doctor Chang wrapped his clothes tighter in the biting wind, pulling his arms around his chest and neck closer to his scarf, as if this would block out the piercing cold.

"This winter is colder than usual." This seemed to explain why he felt a chill even in his heart.

After a moment of silence, Dr. Chang asked, "What will his life be like afterward?"

Both sides knew perfectly well that "he" was referring to Helian Yong.

“You know best. I’ve never seen this Gu worm before, so I don’t know anything about it,” Xue Jin’an answered truthfully.

Dr. Chang was taken aback. "I thought you picked up the bamboo tube and the broken jade."

After returning to the base camp after the exercise, Doctor Chang went back to look for the jade pendant that had fallen. The jade pendant was not made of particularly valuable material, but it was something he had worn on his waist for a long time, representing a certain stage in his life. Doctor Chang was a sentimental person, so it was understandable that he wanted to get it back.

However, when he went to check, he couldn't find it. The camp was dismantled by Long Aotian, and someone happened to see it. He thought that Long Aotian had deliberately taken those things away because he had discovered something. Moreover, he had spoken very fluently about Helian Yong's situation earlier... Surely he couldn't have just made it up?

Dr. Chang looked at Xue Jin'an with a complicated expression. The latter could not analyze his expression, but could only recall his question based on the points of change in his emotions. After thinking for a while, he replied: "After a period of time, he will be able to clearly feel his flesh and blood being completely drained, his life slipping away, and his death approaching."

“Watching yourself face death must be a very painful thing.” Doctor Chang remained silent for a long time before saying with a heavy heart, “No matter what, he is still just a young man who has not yet come of age.”

"The probability is fifty-fifty." There are only two outcomes to a heart transplant: either the transplanted person survives, or it fails. Xue Jin'an's dark, impenetrable eyes always seemed to see through everything. "You won't give him the transplant."

Xue Jin'an wanted to replace the battery because he thought its healing ability was too poor. Even if he successfully replaced it with the Fourth Prince, the Fourth Prince would only be weak for a period of time, and the battery could slowly recover. Helian Yong's situation was completely different. His battery was destined to be scrapped. No matter who replaced it with, it could not be recovered and would only lead to his death along with the host body.

Although Xue Jin'an always compares the human heart to a mobile phone battery, they are ultimately different. A mobile phone battery can exist independently, but the human heart cannot.

Helian Yong wanted to live, but someone had to die in his place. This crossed the line for Helian Cheng and Doctor Chang, and they would not allow such a thing to happen.

"Yes." Helian Cheng's reply came from behind. Xue Jin'an had already noticed his approach and was not surprised.

"In my final days, I will try my best to make Yong'er comfortable." His voice sounded calm and steady, as if he had not been affected much.

Xue Jin'an could tell from his heavier and more disordered footsteps that his emotions were fluctuating greatly, but he had restrained them all. At the same time, Xue Jin'an looked at the camp not far away and heard faint sounds coming from inside.

Helian Cheng should have noticed this long ago, but he was too emotionally agitated to notice it due to his lack of focus.

As the saying goes, when a person is about to die, neither Helian Cheng nor Doctor Chang wanted to pursue Helian Yong's mistakes any further. They discussed taking Helian Yong out for "fun" in the limited time they had left, such as "He said he likes excitement, and the Lantern Festival is coming soon, so let's take him out for a good time" and "He loves the food at Baihualou the most."

They reached an agreement, but Xue Jin'an knew that Helian Yong wouldn't be happy because these weren't what he wanted right now.

Clang! Bang! — Sure enough, a series of chaotic and crackling sounds came from the tent.

"Yong'er!" Helian Cheng reacted immediately and rushed in with Doctor Chang.

Xue Jin'an was a step behind. As soon as he stepped inside, he saw Helian Yong slumped down amidst the mess, his face contorted with despair. "I'm sorry," he said, "I just wanted a glass of water, Godfather. I'm so useless..."

His tears streamed down his face instantly.

"It's alright, it's alright," Helian Yong patted his back to comfort him.

Helian Yong clutched his clothes, breaking down in tears, "Father, I don't want to die. I still have so many things I haven't done. I don't want anything else, I just want to stay by your side and fulfill my filial duty to you... Is that not allowed? Father, is that not allowed?"

After all, he was a child he had raised himself. When Helian Cheng met his hopeful eyes, he couldn't help but tear up and said he could. In Helian Yong's suddenly bright eyes, he promised, "Yong'er, your godfather will search the world for the best doctors to treat you. I will definitely be able to cure you."

"...Okay, thank you, godfather." Under Helian Cheng's comforting words, Helian Yong's emotions gradually calmed down.

Xue Jin'an and Doctor Chang left the tent together. Xue Jin'an had been using the fitness app for too long, and a notification popped up in the notification bar indicating that the battery was running low. He was just about to log off when the notification appeared.

Before leaving, he added a final reminder, "He wants to live."

Dr. Chang understood his implication, but ultimately refused to imagine the child she had raised as so bad, and forced a smile as she said, "Nobody wants to die."

Xue Jin'an didn't say anything more.

Inside the tent, Helian Yong closed his eyes as if he had fallen asleep. Helian Cheng placed him on the bed, tucked him in, and then tiptoed out. He gestured to Doctor Chang at the door, and the two walked away to talk.

Although Dr. Chang was unwilling to believe it, he still told Helian Cheng about Xue Jin'an's warning. The latter rubbed his temples wearily, suppressing all his thoughts, and simply said, "I will be careful."

What they didn't know was that not long after Helian Cheng left the tent, the person sleeping on the bed opened his clear eyes, showing no signs of sleepiness. His clear eyes stared unblinkingly at the top of the tent, and an unyielding, gloomy feeling accumulated in his eyes, growing stronger and stronger.

Suddenly, he let out a soft laugh that sounded both self-deprecating and manic.

*

Xue Jin'an guessed that Helian Yong was unwilling to die like this, but he really didn't expect that this person would be so impatient and actually take action that very night.

The next day, Xue Jin'an turned on the channel as usual to follow the military training, but found that the atmosphere among the soldiers was extremely strange. After the training was over, he was stopped by Helian Cheng again. Only then did he learn that last night Helian Yong had tricked the soldier on night watch into having a midnight snack with him, and drugged the food. He drugged the soldier and planned to dissect him alive to take his heart.

If Helian Cheng hadn't been unable to sleep because of Xue Jin'an's reminder and hadn't decided to come and guard Helian Yong, that soldier would probably have died.

"Helian Yong knew that once I realized what was happening, I would personally come to keep a close watch on him, and he would have no chance to make a move, so he decided to strike first." Even Helian Cheng, who was usually very magnanimous, couldn't help but laugh at himself at this point. "I never thought that what I taught him would end up being used on myself."

"Luckily, you taught terribly, and he learned terribly too," Xue Jin'an comforted him.

Helian Cheng: "..." Thank you, but I wasn't comforted at all.