Chapter 323: Heart Knot

In the dim light, Li Zhiyuan stood at the end of the corridor, repeatedly trying to open the iron padlock on the door in front of him.

The door had three locks in total.

The outermost was a large iron padlock, followed by a combination lock, and finally a biometric lock.

He had already figured out how to bypass the two inner high-tech locks, but the outer iron padlock still eluded him.

Right now, he was testing a master key.

"Whoosh—"

Suddenly, a gust of wind blew past. Instantly alert, he looked up and checked his surroundings.

The far end of the dim corridor remained empty; it didn't look like anyone had come in.

"Don't scare yourself..." he muttered, preparing to resume picking the lock.

Just then, a piece of paper drifted down from above, landing directly at his feet. The sudden movement made him jump.

He hurriedly looked up, but aside from the dead fluorescent tubes, the ceiling was empty.

Baffled, he bent over and picked up the note.

A second later, his pupils contracted as he read the words on it.

"She is coming back..."

Li Zhiyuan swallowed hard.

Who?

Who dropped this...?

Though he didn't know if it was a prank or where it had come from, his guilty conscience spurred him to flee the corridor. He hurried back to his office.

Sitting at his desk, the panicked doctor repeatedly wiped his sweat with a tissue, thoroughly baffled.

What was that just now...?

Just then, a cold voice rang out.

"Doctor Li."

"I'm here."

His heart skipped a beat. She really had come back!

Without another thought, he pushed the door open and stepped out, looking at Chen Xiaojing across the hall.

"Director."

"Call the others out for a shift inspection. Turn the lights up. We have a guest coming,"

Chen Xiaojing ordered.

"Understood."

Li Zhiyuan nodded.

After Chen Xiaojing left, Li Zhiyuan's racing heart finally settled halfway...

It seemed Chen Xiaojing wasn't the one messing with him.

Then who was it?

Could it be...

After using his Information Component to relay Chen Xiaojing's orders to the work group chat, he returned to his office.

He pulled out a metal lighter and pried open the bottom to reveal a small hidden compartment. He took out the thumb-sized photograph tucked inside.

Staring at the girl in the picture with her gentle smile, he took a deep breath, hatred surging in his eyes.

That was his sister, who had vanished in this very hospital.

By the time he saw her again, they were separated by life and death.

Initially, he had assumed it was a normal medical incident, but...

Just as his thoughts churned, another knock sounded at the door. He opened it to find an unfamiliar man standing outside, with Chen Xiaojing right beside him.

"This is the best chief surgeon in our hospital, Doctor Li Zhiyuan,"

Chen Xiaojing introduced him to Yan Jing.

"Hello, Doctor Li. My surname is Luo, and I am Miss Chen's partner,"

Yan Jing reached out a hand.

"Hello, Mr. Luo."

Li Zhiyuan quickly reached out as well, and they shook hands.

"You look so young and promising, Doctor Li. How old are you?"

Yan Jing asked with a smile.

Li Zhiyuan's heart gave a sudden thump.

He did indeed look very young, but that was the result of altering his appearance.

In reality, he was thirty.

He had changed his face specifically to avoid arousing Chen Xiaojing's suspicion.

Why was he asking his age right off the bat...?

He chuckled.

"I might look like I've been in medicine for a long time, but I'm only twenty-three this year."

"I started interning when I was around ten."

This was the truth. In the Heavenly Kingdom, if you didn't start interning by the age of ten, virtually no one would hire you later.

"I see. Truly young,"

Yan Jing said, smiling.

"Well then, we won't disturb you any longer, Doctor Li."

Soon after, Yan Jing followed Chen Xiaojing to her office.

"I'm very sorry for calling you over so late..."

Chen Xiaojing began, pursing her lips.

"It's fine."

Yan Jing offered a faint smile.

"Didn't you say you had something to discuss with me? What is it...?"

"I... I feel like... you haven't been entirely honest with me," Chen Xiaojing said softly, before immediately waving her hands in a panic.

"Of course, I'm not blaming you. I just feel... you don't truly trust me."

"And?"

Yan Jing smiled. "Isn't that perfectly normal, Miss Chen? Trust is difficult to build, especially for people like us."

"But... but I want..."

Chen Xiaojing felt as if her heart was about to leap out of her chest. "I want to establish a more solid relationship with you."

"I heard from Zeng Qing that you want to create a celebrity. I think... your relationship with her seems much better than with me. Plus... you've been spending all your time with Zeng Qing lately."

Yan Jing shook his head.

"I don't understand, Miss Chen. I think you've misunderstood something."

"Our relationship is one of coercer and coerced. I have no obligation to be on good terms with you."

"I know, but..."

Chen Xiaojing took a deep breath. "But you definitely need someone with more value, right?"

"That's why you've been getting closer to Zeng Qing these past few days."

"..."

Yan Jing frowned.

Papa Rat was right. Many of these conglomerate heirs were closet lunatics.

He couldn't comprehend Chen Xiaojing's thought process at all.

"So what exactly do you want, Miss Chen?"

Yan Jing laughed.

"I want to show you my full value!"

Chen Xiaojing declared loudly.

"In the Four Masters Society, I might not be as rich as Song Haozhe, nor do I have Zhou Mo's solid connections with the Law Enforcement Agency. I don't have Zeng Qing's fusion of business and politics. But my information network is the fastest, and my contacts are the widest."

"None of the other three can ever compare to me."

"Please, come with me."

Saying this, Chen Xiaojing led Yan Jing down to the same corridor Li Zhiyuan had just been in. She pulled out a key and unlocked the door.

After entering the passcode and scanning her fingerprint, a scene from hell on earth revealed itself to Yan Jing.

Dozens of operating tables sat seemingly uncleaned. The blue surgical drapes were stained with blood and filth, while dark red, unidentifiable organs and chunks of flesh were scattered across the floor. In the dim light, shivering naked people were crammed into iron cages in the corners—men, women, and children alike.

Seeing Chen Xiaojing walk in, many of them trembled and muffled their sobs.

Chen Xiaojing spoke with smug pride.

"Look. This is my true enterprise."

"After I was kicked out of the Family, I relied on my own hard work, starting from a small hospital and building it up to what it is today. And it's all because of this."

"Those big shots don't lack money or people, but they lack health. They lack a trustworthy hospital that can reliably provide them with health. So, I took up this trade."

"The process was difficult, but I..."

"..."

"Those fools check into this hospital without ever stopping to think why a place with such great equipment and service charges so little. They don't even understand there's no such thing as a free lunch. Don't you think it's ridiculous?"

Chen Xiaojing talked at length, her tone carrying immense pride the entire time.

She completely failed to notice the shift in Yan Jing's expression beside her.

Yan Jing stared at the miserable scene, one he had already witnessed through Xiao Xin's camera.

Listening to Chen Xiaojing's bragging, his lowered gaze was freezing cold.

Even if he wasn't a Saint, seeing this sight in person still ignited his anger.

The hospital's business model was to lure in physically impaired people with a combination of cheap fees and high-end services. Then, after a period of time, they would harvest the flawless organs and prosthetics from their bodies.

These would then be transplanted into the big shots.

As for the people whose organs were harvested, they were locked up. If any relatives came to visit, the victims would be specially processed with drugs to make it look like an 'accidental death.'

Afterward, even if someone demanded an autopsy, they would just pull strings at the relevant hospitals to cover it up.

On top of all this, there was a final layer of insurance:

Zhou Mo, who handled the Law Enforcement Agency.

Under such layers of protection, no one could have ever guessed that this hospital... 'ate people.'

Just like that little girl had said.

And the original owner of this body, Mao Si, had lost his life precisely because he accidentally stumbled into this place and mentioned to 'Jiang Jiu' that he was investigating a secret. That made 'Jiang Jiu'—who was actually Chen Xiaojing—mistakenly believe he was investigating the hospital, leading to his murder.

"Do you remember what I told you before, about us making money off the public together?"

Chen Xiaojing slowly closed the distance between her and Yan Jing.

"You agreed with it back then, and I was so happy. That was my father's philosophy. But when I was caught taking Mental Potions, he abandoned me without hesitation."

"He didn't understand. The Mental Potions were meant to help me maintain my genius business acumen."

"For the sake of greater profits, what does a little sacrifice matter?"

"You're different, Mr. Luo. You're different from the others."

"You're like a Deity. If we join forces, we can absolutely become a new conglomerate unlike anything this era has seen..."

Chen Xiaojing reached out her fair hand, trying to touch Yan Jing's face.

But Yan Jing took a step back and smiled.

"I will consider your proposal. This place is very nice. I like it a lot."

"Really?!"

Chen Xiaojing cried out in pleasant surprise.

"Please, stay for a meal. I'll have someone make midnight snacks."

...

...

When Boss Rat returned home, he saw Mao Si sitting on the sofa in a daze.

"What are you doing, kid? Not watching TV, not even turning on the lights."

"I'm thinking."

Yan Jing lay spread-eagled on the sofa.

"Thinking about what?"

Boss Rat asked with a chuckle.

"Thinking about why I'm so weak."

Yan Jing answered.

"If I were really strong, I could just blow up all those eyesores one by one without having to care about anything else."

"Heh." Boss Rat didn't catch Yan Jing's true meaning; he merely thought the kid was acting out some teenage fantasy again.

"Even if your strength was immense, it'd still be hard for you to blow up every single person you find unpleasant."

"Even if you reached the Seventh Rank or Eighth Tier, there would always be someone stronger than you."

"Besides, it's impossible for you to quickly figure out who among so many people you hate and who you don't."

"Since you wouldn't be able to tell, your only choice would be to destroy them all."

"But wouldn't the people you actually don't hate end up suffering an undeserved catastrophe? Given your personality, once you realized that, you wouldn't be able to follow through with it, right?"

Yan Jing hadn't expected Boss Rat to take his question so seriously. He rolled over, sat up, and asked earnestly, "Then what should I do?"

"No matter what you do, it's hard to get a good outcome."

Boss Rat shook his head.

"As long as you care, you will always be in pain. And the more you see, the more painful it will get. Even if you become the president, even if you become an Eighth Tier or Ninth Tier powerhouse, as long as you care about others and possess an inner scale of justice, you will suffer."

"That's why scientific studies show that the more selfish a person is, the happier they live."

Hearing this, Yan Jing thought about it for a long while and concluded that Boss Rat was right.

If he only considered himself, he had been living quite comfortably lately. The reason he felt frustrated now was that he kept thinking about Mao Si's dying wish to change the conditions of the underclass—that was what made him miserable.

Mao Si's wish conflicted fiercely with his own values.

Compared to caring about everybody, he cared much more about the people around him.

Moreover, this damn Heavenly Kingdom was different from where he used to be. Whether among the lowest dregs or the high conglomerates, there were far more bastards than good people. No wonder Old Chen hated this place.

Disliking this place yet wanting to change it left him deeply conflicted, which had eventually evolved into pain.

Thinking up to this point, he decided there was something fundamentally wrong with Mao Si's dying wish.

You're a guy who collects protection fees every day, so just do your job and collect your damn fees! Why would you want to change the world, you bastard?!

Watching Yan Jing's conflicted and pained expression from the side, Boss Rat couldn't help but find it amusing.

"What triggered you this time?"

"I think our Heavenly Kingdom lacks truth, goodness, and beauty."

Yan Jing sighed. "I want to change that, but I don't want to suffer. That's why I'm so conflicted."

"There are two solutions."

Boss Rat held up a small paw.

"Tell me."

Yan Jing sat up straighter.

"First, stay true to yourself."

Boss Rat said softly, "At all times, you should put yourself first. That way, you can minimize the pain."

Hearing this, Yan Jing felt it made sense.

Change the world? Give me a break. He couldn't even manage to look after himself and the people around him.

Not to mention anything else, if Mao Si's dying wish hadn't been to uplift the underclass, he absolutely never would have entertained the idea.

All he had ever cared about was himself and those close to him.

And now, all he had to do was change the lives of the lower-class citizens and collect the reward for fulfilling the wish. That was it.

Anyone he found displeasing would just get the axe, while the ones he liked would stay.

Long live Minhu. The mental state of Minhu is a hundred years ahead of the Heavenly Kingdom.

"And the second solution?"

Yan Jing looked at Boss Rat.

"The second solution is..."

Boss Rat turned on the TV and spoke slowly, "...become the person who makes the rules."

Saying this, he gestured toward the man currently giving a speech on the television.

"Do you see him?"

"You mean becoming the president?"

Yan Jing asked.

"I'm talking about the guy next to him."

"That man is one of the rule-makers."

Boss Rat stared at the man in the sharp suit and tie. "The current de facto ruler of Nuochen Biotech."