Doctor Lu Always Wants To Steal My Baby! Chapter 43
byChapter 43 Treating Dependence
“Dad!” Sent back to Lu Changqing’s office by Wen Yi, He Leyan ran toward He Chen and hugged his leg. “Are you done with your work?”
“Mm.” Still not fully awake, He Chen opened his eyes as he rested on the sofa.
“Are you tired again?” He Leyan asked in a childish voice, climbing onto the sofa and touching He Chen’s forehead.
“Dad is fine.” He Chen caught his small hand. “What did you play with Uncle Wen? Did you listen to Uncle Wen?”
He Leyan nodded. “I listened. I trained with Uncle Wen.”
“Trained?”
“Training to use my mental power. I’ll be able to treat Dad very soon!” the child said with a determined tone.
“Thank you.” He Chen smiled, his eyes brightening.
Lu Changqing, sitting behind his desk, glanced at that smile from afar.
“Dad, what is this?” He Leyan noticed a box in He Chen’s hand. He was gripping it tightly and hadn’t let go even when he was asleep, which made the child curious.
“This is a gift,” He Chen said.
He looked down at the box for a moment, opened the lid, and took out the lighter and thinner of the two longevity locks inside. He put it on He Leyan. “This is a gift from Dad’s dad to Leyan, to bless Leyan with good health and a long life.”
Dad’s dad? That means… Grandpa? “Thank you, Grandpa,” the child said politely, then asked, “Where is Grandpa?”
“A very distant place.” He Chen rubbed He Leyan’s head.
He Leyan nodded, curiously glancing at the photo in the box and the two remaining items. “Is this lock for Gege, and what about this?”
He Leyan stared fondly at the small square plaque in the box: the little wolf cub on it was so cute!
“That one is for Dad,” Lu Changqing spoke from behind them.
“Daddy!” He Leyan only noticed his Daddy’s presence now.
Lu Changqing acknowledged him and reached out to lift He Leyan, who was sitting on He Chen’s lap and almost pressing against He Chen’s abdominal wound. “Have you finished the homework Daddy assigned?”
He Chen looked up. “Homework at three years old?”
“I’ll be four soon!” He Leyan said, pulling out an oddly shaped Rubik’s Cube slightly larger than his hand from his pocket. “I finished it. Daddy, time me!”
The child spoke seriously, and his hands began twisting the cube blocks. With a series of rapid, dazzling movements that made He Chen dizzy, the object was quickly solved, every side perfectly flawless.
“Not bad,” Lu Changqing praised.
“…That’s more than just ‘not bad,’ that’s amazing!” He Chen looked at Lu Changqing, his tone slightly serious. “Shixiong, don’t set the standard too high for Leyan.”
“It’s not too high,” Lu Changqing glanced at him, put He Leyan down, opened the desk drawer, and took out a new cube.
It was transparent, smaller, and lighter. Lu Changqing placed the cube on a floating base and looked at He Leyan. “Leyan, show Dad your real skill.”
Can I? He Leyan’s eyes lit up. He glanced at He Chen, then focused his gaze on the floating cube, gripping the edge of the desk with both hands.
Click, a colored block flipped without warning, followed by another… It was as if an invisible hand was turning them.
“This is… mental object control?” He Chen opened his mouth in surprise, taking a moment before speaking.
“It’s made of special material, sensitive to mental power,” Lu Changqing explained. “But Leyan truly has a lot of talent in this area.”
“He needs training, and he enjoys training,” Lu Changqing further explained.
“I see…” What else could He Chen say but offer an honest thank you? “Thank you for your effort, Shixiong.”
“No need,” Lu Changqing said. “However, it’s best not to let outsiders know about this. Object control can be a means of self-protection for Leyan.”
“Understood.” He Chen solemnly agreed, then looked at He Leyan. “Good boy, you’re amazing!”
“Dad is amazing too!” He Leyan said.
He Chen smiled again, rubbing his head. “Who taught you to be so sweet-mouthed?”
He said this while looking at Lu Changqing.
“Dad is just amazing. Dad is the smartest Warrior, that’s why he could get into the Command Department!” He Leyan said earnestly.
…Why did he bring that up now? It was too late to cover his mouth. He Chen guiltily glanced at Lu Changqing.
“So, only the smartest Warriors can get into the Command Department,” Lu Changqing looked back at him leisurely.
“Cough!” He Chen coughed heavily, taking He Leyan’s hand. “Well, it’s time for us to go home.”
“Can’t I say this either?” As the father and son walked toward the door, He Leyan sensed something and asked He Chen in a low voice.
“Not exactly. It’s just that, the fact that Dad is very smart, we can keep it to ourselves. No need to announce it to the world…”
Lu Changqing curved his lips, and it took a moment for the expression to fade.
Once it did, a cold glint flashed in Lu Changqing’s eyes. He summoned his low-profile subordinate. “Arrange a few more teams to protect the father and son. Keep a close watch on the He family’s movements.”
“Yes.” The subordinate accepted the order and left.
Lu Changqing methodically treated several waiting patients. At dusk, he walked into a critical care ward.
“What brings you to grace my humble presence today?”
Seeing him, the disheveled middle-aged man in the ward greeted him irreverently.
“Shen Xian is back in Star Capital. He applied to visit you—”
“No.” The middle-aged man—former Imperial Marshal Shen Xingzhou—shook his messy hair nervously. “I won’t see anyone. I—won’t—see—anyone!”
Lu Changqing was silent for a moment. “I told him your condition is still unstable.”
“Tell him I’m dead, that I don’t exist in this world,” Shen Xingzhou said.
“That’s a serious matter. He’d have to verify the body,” Lu Changqing replied calmly.
Shen Xingzhou paused, pushing aside the hair obscuring his vision, and looked at Lu Changqing. “Your tone has killing intent. Who provoked you, making you want to kill someone?”
As deep treatments increased, not only did the Therapist become more familiar with the patient, but occasionally, the patient would glimpse the Therapist’s inner world.
Shen Xingzhou had an understanding of Lu Changqing that others lacked.
But Lu Changqing ignored his comment. “Recently, a secret underground laboratory built by Chu Jianhua was discovered. They were experimenting on Warriors who had undergone Rampage. Marshal Shen, did you hear any related rumors back then?”
“No,” Shen Xingzhou denied immediately. “What old, rotten news. Even if I heard it, how could I remember with this brain now?”
“When the lab was seized, we also took in a few test subjects—Warriors who had fully undergone Beast Transformation. We don’t know if they can be saved. If Marshal Shen remembers anything—”
“I don’t remember anything!” Shen Xingzhou suddenly became agitated. “If they can’t be saved, don’t save them! Go die, let them die! Things that undergo Rampage shouldn’t be alive. Why don’t they just die?”
“Go die!” “Go die!”
He repeated the words, and his body suddenly began to tremble. The room’s alarm system started buzzing. Lu Changqing quickly acted, his mental power like an invisible spiderweb extending along the connected device, enveloping Shen Xingzhou’s monstrously expanding and twisting mental energy, gently yet absolutely forcefully compressing it back.
After doing this, he laid the unconscious Shen Xingzhou down, sat cross-legged in place to recuperate for a moment, then stood up and walked out of Shen Xingzhou’s ward toward a newly established “ward” at the other end of the corridor.
This ward was large, containing three circular transparent isolation zones. Inside were three “Beast-Transformed Humans” with grotesque bodies and vacant eyes. There were beds in the isolation zones, but they neither sat nor lay down, preferring to crouch on the ground in the posture of wild beasts.
“Changqing.” Elder Fang was also in the ward. Seeing him, he greeted him and spoke first. “I did a simple cognitive assessment. The first two are not optimistic; they showed no reaction to our tests. I wonder about this one.”
He said this while looking at the figure in the isolation zone who was turning in circles, seemingly aimlessly, with their back to them. “Judging by the degree of physical Beast Transformation, this one might have a better chance.”
Elder Fang finished and looked at Lu Changqing. “What did Marshal Shen say? Does he know anything?”
“He said he doesn’t know.”
Elder Fang frowned. “His partner, Fu Chen, was a top expert in Beast Transformation research, and the suspects confessed that the establishment of this lab originated from one of Fu Chen’s projects. If Shen Xingzhou doesn’t remember, can we get Fu Chen’s research materials from him?”
“Elder Fang,” Lu Changqing began. “This needs to be taken slowly.”
Elder Fang paused, then understood. “We still can’t mention Fu Chen in front of him?”
He sighed and shook his head when Lu Changqing nodded.
Shen Xingzhou was truly regrettable. A once influential figure, he accidentally killed his partner during a Rampage, and since then, he had been utterly devastated, living a life neither human nor ghost.
“Forget it. We’ll do our best and leave the rest to fate. Don’t overwork yourself,” Elder Fang looked at Lu Changqing with concern, then asked, “How is Little He? I heard there was a fight at the He family residence. Was he injured?”
“Minor injuries, nothing serious. Thank you, Elder Fang.” Lu Changqing nodded, his expression—if Elder Fang wasn’t mistaken—clearly showing a hint of warmth.
“Your relationship with that child—” Elder Fang suddenly began.
“There is nothing,” Lu Changqing stated frankly. “He doesn’t have those kinds of feelings yet.”
But you do. Elder Fang understood—Lu Changqing’s words were practically an admission.
“He’s a good child. You have excellent taste,” Elder Fang smiled, then asked, “The relics, Wen Song said they were found?”
“Yes,” Lu Changqing replied.
“That’s good. I thought He Siyuan wouldn’t keep those things.”
“Perhaps he was confident no one would discover them,” Lu Changqing answered coldly.
“Mm,” Elder Fang nodded. “Or perhaps, he still held a sliver of hope, hoping his father wasn’t Jing Wendí, but He Xiangye.”
Elder Fang said this meaningfully, then shifted his gaze and froze: inside the isolation zone, the Beast-Transformed Human who had been pacing stopped at some point and was staring directly at him.
But when their eyes met, the unrecognizable monster suddenly twisted its head away with a whoosh, pacing even more restlessly in the small isolation zone, like a trapped beast.
Elder Fang and Lu Changqing exchanged a look: although they were equally unresponsive and uncommunicative, those eyes just now were clearly still human eyes.
*
Speaking of a trapped beast, the description perfectly fit He Siyuan in the dungeon.
“Aunt, Aunt, save me!” Seeing He Fei appear in the dungeon, he crawled toward her, weeping and wailing.
He Fei didn’t approach, standing in front of He Yayun’s cell. She sighed. “Sister, it’s truly difficult for you, raising a monster like this as a treasure.”
“Oh, wait, this monster is precisely the one you raised.”
“Thinking about it, it might have been a blessing for Chen’er not to have grown up with you.”
“Why are you here?” He Yayun opened her eyes and glanced at her coldly.
“Nothing much. Just to tell Sister that the Patrol Bureau was highly efficient. Siyuan’s case has concluded and has been sent to His Majesty’s desk.”
“Sister, guess what favor His Majesty will grant him for committing such a grave offense against the Emperor?”
He Yayun closed her eyes.
“No, no! Mother, save me! Aunt, save me! I’m innocent! I’m innocent! It was her, it was all her! She ordered me!”
He Siyuan alternately pleaded with He Yayun and then bitterly accused her, trying to shift the blame onto her.
“You are indeed innocent. The guilty one is right here.”
He Fei looked at He Yayun, finding it ridiculous that her demeanor was still so proud even now.
It was ridiculous that for so many years, she had been so provoked by He Yayun’s arrogance, always feeling a thorn in her side.
“Sister, you are the one living in your own delusion.”
“It has been like this for all these years.”
“What have you ever accomplished? What great feat have you achieved? Who in this world genuinely cared about you? He Xiangye didn’t love you, and Jing Wendí probably just used you…”
He Fei enjoyed He Yayun’s increasingly ugly expression, then paused. “Ah, there was someone who genuinely loved you. When that child first returned to Star Capital, the look in his eyes when he saw you, that kind of devotion, was truly pitiful.”
“Yet I never saw you truly pity him,” He Yayun said coldly, her face pale. “Why pretend?”
“I am indeed pretending.” He Fei was silent for a moment.
“I’m not a good person, but unlike Sister, your malice is beyond my imagination as a petty person.”
“Sister, look at him. Doesn’t he look like you’re looking in a mirror?” He Fei looked at He Siyuan. “You mother and son are exactly alike. You never look down at yourselves. Every fault is always someone else’s fault. Like two… self-important monkeys.”
She chuckled twice, then stopped. “Sister, if you can’t see it, take your time. His Majesty, in his pity for your deep mother-son bond, has specially granted permission for you to stay with your treasure until the execution.”
“Dear Sister, enjoy it slowly.”
He Fei said this, gave He Yayun one last look, and turned to leave.
“Pah!” Perhaps seeing her about to leave, He Yayun finally couldn’t hold back. She grabbed the cell bars and spat hatefully at her. “What are you, anyway? Your mother was just a—”
She couldn’t finish her sentence because He Fei turned back and slapped her across the face. “At least my mother didn’t give birth to trash like you.”
“Dear Sister, when will you understand that no matter how noble your birth, trash is still trash.” He Fei grabbed He Yayun’s hair and slammed her to the ground. “Goodbye, trash.”
She turned and climbed the steps, heading upward.
*
“Shixiong.” Lu Changqing was startled when He Chen, who was lurking nearby, suddenly spoke when he arrived home that evening.
“What are you doing crouching here?” Lu Changqing looked at the father and son.
“We were running, and now we’re watching ants move house,” He Leyan reported, then asked, “Why did Daddy take so long to come back? We’ve watched the ants move several times.”
“Cough!” He Chen stood up, pulling He Leyan with him, his face slightly flushed—fortunately, it was dark, so it probably wasn’t visible.
He Moyan, wearing weights, ran past them without looking. He Chen stuck out his leg to stop him. “That’s enough. Come home for dinner.”
He said this, then looked at Lu Changqing. “Have you eaten, Shixiong? Want to join us?”
*
He Chen’s own cooking wasn’t up to par, so the meal was prepared by someone else—the aunt Lu Changqing had hired last time.
Inviting Lu Changqing into the house, He Chen ordered the two cubs to wash their hands and went into the kitchen to bring out the dishes.
Lu Changqing came in to help him, looking at his waist. “You just got injured. Doesn’t running hurt?”
“No, it doesn’t hurt.” He Chen didn’t even consider this a serious injury.
“Even if it doesn’t hurt, you should rest more. Your drug reaction period isn’t over yet—”
“Shh!” He Chen suddenly signaled him to be quiet. He Moyan had entered the kitchen to get bowls and chopsticks.
But He Chen’s tension seemed unnecessary. He Moyan walked past without looking, completely uninterested in listening to the two adults talk.
“Brat,” He Chen muttered behind him without much menace. But watching him walk to the dining room, pick up He Leyan who was holding up his hands asking to be carried, and tuck the little guy into the dining chair, He Chen smiled again.
“Moyan’s application for a leave of absence has been processed,” Lu Changqing mentioned.
On the day of the Blood God Festival, He Moyan had shown a strong desire to drop out, almost running away from home with his suitcase. Lu Changqing proposed a compromise: arranging a temporary leave of absence.
“Thank you.” He Chen inwardly grumbled “Brat” again. Then, remembering something, he said, “Oh, right, that Zhuang-something-Yu knocked on your door several times this afternoon, then left with a suitcase.”
“Mm,” Lu Changqing responded indifferently.
Leaving was inevitable. He had placed the person in a closed special training program at the Medical Academy. As long as the person was willing to endure hardship, they would learn real skills, and he felt he had done right by his teacher.
Looking at his expression, he really must be a block of wood! He Chen observed Lu Changqing, thinking with an old-fashioned air.
“Next time you want to invite me for dinner, just say so directly. I’ll come back earlier,” Lu Changqing added.
The problem was that He Chen only remembered Lu Changqing might not have eaten after the food was ready…
He Chen wasn’t foolish enough to explain this. He turned his head and said, “Okay.” Unexpectedly, Lu Changqing was standing right behind him, reaching for a plate.
Involuntarily, He Chen almost bumped into Lu Changqing. His nose caught a faint scent of ice and snow, and he twitched slightly.
“What’s wrong?” Lu Changqing narrowed his eyes for a moment, asking in a low, husky voice.
“Nothing!” He Chen answered calmly, taking a half-step back, pressing against the cupboard.
He didn’t know what was wrong with him!
Fortunately, Lu Changqing provided the answer. “Is your sense of smell too sensitive during the Rampage period?”
Yes. He Chen nodded, quite convinced.
“Let’s do a treatment after dinner,” Lu Changqing said again.
He Chen tapped his fingers.
Frankly, he really wanted this treatment. It felt very comfortable, like soaking in a hot spring.
It was just too addictive—his treatment dependence was probably acting up again, and he had developed a new symptom: constantly wanting to sniff his Therapist.
This was bad. Very bad.
But life was more important than the illness.
Lu Changqing reached past him to grab a plate. He Chen secretly took another deep breath, bowing to fate. “Okay.”