Han Qingyu's hospital room... was bustling like a marketplace.
What if he had taken a slash to the butt too?!
Wen Jifei thought to himself as he stood in the doorway of another room down the same corridor, watching for a while. Turning his head, he said, "This is the kind of treatment an Azure hero gets."
"Oh," He Tangtang replied numbly from his bed inside the room.
He was a hero too, of course, and was being well taken care of, but the disparity in enthusiasm was glaring. Besides, one of the young nurses had just called him "Uncle" again.
Which was why Qingzi was, at times, a creature far more infuriating and exasperating than any Great Spike.
"And guess what Han Qingyu did next?" Wen Jifei asked with a silent chuckle.
He Tangtang asked weakly, "What?"
"He locked the door from the inside."
"What a piece of dead iron! Who said there's no dead iron in Azure?!" He Tangtang thought about it and added, "Still, the doctors and nurses should have keys, right?"
"Yeah, but they still can't get in—they're just standing stuck outside the door," Wen Jifei said, caught between tears and laughter. "So I'm guessing he probably barred it from the inside with a blade so he could get some sleep."
He Tangtang: "..."
*Unfair! Totally unfair! Why did I get a male doctor? I clearly like those doctor aunties around thirty years old!*
With He Tangtang thoroughly defeated, Wen Jifei turned to look at Wu Xu, who sat silently to the side holding the Binggu spear. "Wu Xu, do you know what everything I just said means?"
Wu Xu looked up at him and shook his head blankly.
"It means that guy is completely hopeless."
"Oh." Wu Xu nodded, though his eyes remained utterly blank.
*Seeing that look, could he be another one?!* Wen Jifei picked up on it and asked worriedly, "Wu Xu, do you plan on getting married?"
"I don't know."
"..." Wen Jifei paused, then said kindly, "You have to. Everyone should get married. Even a creature like that dead-iron straight man actually plans on marrying—he just probably won't be able to find anyone. You hang in there."
Wu Xu nodded blankly.
On the other side, Han Qingyu was actually worrying about this exact issue himself. Having locked his door, he was currently shut inside the bathroom, peeling dead skin off his body... piece by piece.
He had just slept for a bit, felt an itch all over, and woke up to this.
It wasn't disgusting; it looked much like peeling after a severe sunburn. But the sheer surface area and spread of the peeling skin were a bit too much—enough to make one's heart race.
He flushed the toilet, the swirling water washing away the dead skin. Amidst the rush of water, bracing himself with the grim dread of *growing old before ever finding a wife*, Han Qingyu crept up to the mirror and snapped his eyes open...
"A bit paler... Not bad, tolerable... Scared the hell out of me."
Earlier, he had worried that he might end up like the Legion Commander back in the day, aging overnight from drawing on his life source energy. Thankfully, it was only shedding some skin. Once shed, his complexion was only slightly paler, something a few days of training in the sun could easily tan back.
Coming out of the bathroom, he put on his clothes, glanced at the blade wedged against the door, walked over to pull it free, and opened the door...
"H-hello." The female doctor was standing right outside, followed by three young nurses.
"Hello. Sorry, I was just..."
"It's all right, I understand." The doctor's eyes and voice were gentle and warm. "Are you feeling down? Don't worry, many people suffer from psychological aftereffects following such brutal battles. Would you like me to..."
"I don't."
"...I see."
"There is something I wanted to ask about, though," Han Qingyu said. "One of my teammates was also injured and is being treated by you all. He's still wearing a Third-Generation device, an internal one. I'd like to ask: can the medical station perform surgery to remove that internal gear?"
Han Qingyu didn't know just how secluded and archaic the Yu family's young mistress and her clique were, but the fact that Wu Xu was still saddled with a Third-Generation device was like a knot that bothered him.
No one could ever feel comfortable with equipment and metal bands surgically grafted into their body, and it kept Wu Xu from unleashing his true potential.
As for a Ninth-Generation device, Han Qingyu—worried that going through the military would require applications and long waits—had already stripped one directly from a captive at the trial grounds. All that was needed now was the surgery to remove the old one and time for the wounds to heal.
"About that..." Seeming very reluctant to disappoint Han Qingyu, the female doctor nevertheless shook her head helplessly. "Even though it's called surgery, that procedure doesn't actually fall under the medical branch. It belongs to the research division."
"Understood," Han Qingyu nodded. "Thank you. I'll reach out to them."
"Yes, you'll need to apply through your unit. But it's been several decades since the last batch of veterans using internal devices were refitted, so I'm not sure if the relevant department is still around..." the doctor continued.
"Yeah." Preoccupied with his thoughts, Han Qingyu merely nodded this time. Still lost in thought, he turned back and walked inside.
And casually pulled the door shut behind him.
Leaving the doctor and the young nurses standing blankly outside, staring at one another in utter bewilderment.
Down the hall, Wen Jifei tugged at Wu Xu, whom he had dragged along to witness the daily antics of a prime negative example. While they hadn't heard the conversation, they had seen Han Qingyu talking with the medical staff at the door and his parting gesture of shutting it in their faces.
"See that? When it comes to infuriating women, he never disappoints."
"Even if you occasionally think you see a glimmer of hope, by the end, he'll snuff it right out."
***
In Switzerland, the plane carrying Yin Caixin finally arrived. It landed at the Swiss Field Army base to disembark passengers, preparing to take off toward the next small nation afterward. Switzerland actually counted among the more populous ones.
In any case, it operated much like a public bus.
The moment the cabin door opened, Yin Caixin—no, Miss Adjani now—was slightly startled, for a welcome ceremony was waiting on the base's tarmac.
After all, for a small nation within the Azure system like Switzerland, claiming the sole final victory in a global coalition trial was extraordinarily difficult.
This was their very first time. Even though the team members had been from Huaxia, the entry quota and the team captain belonged to them.
Just like a football club using foreign players, a win was a win. The Swiss didn't care about the details.
*Good thing that guy insisted on letting me bring back a metal block, or this would've been really awkward.* Wearing a somewhat stiff smile while waving, Yin Caixin glanced around. "Wait, what's that?"
"'King is a friend'... Who is King?"
"Good heavens, there are paintings too!"
Female soldiers on the tarmac held banners, and some held paintings.
Seeing the painting, Yin Caixin roughly understood who "King" was. Sketched from imagination, it depicted a deep, secluded canyon closed off at one end. In the canyon stood a lone figure holding dual blades, facing a densely packed crowd, standing resolutely.
It was him! That stinky guy already had a code name in Switzerland? "King"—it really did sound a bit like the pronunciation of his name.
Before long, her best friend in the military sprinted over to greet her, handed her flowers, and pulled Yin Caixin into a hug, jumping and squealing with excitement. "Adjani, you're amazing! Simply amazing!"
"I... I just did okay," Yin Caixin replied with a happy laugh.
"It was truly incredible!" After heaping praise, her friend immediately asked, "King—where's King?! When is he coming to Switzerland? So many of us are dying to meet him!"
"Huh? Why would he come to Switzerland?" Yin Caixin asked blankly.
"He'll definitely come! Stop hiding it, my dear Adjani. Didn't you two hug and kiss at your farewell, and even after you got in the vehicle, he chased after you, reluctant to let you go? He fought for you, didn't he? Adjani... we all know about it. What a beautiful story!"
How on earth did the rumor turn into this?! *Good grief, this damn country with its huge French-speaking region!* Yin Caixin was filled with sorrowful exasperation. He would only ever fight for source energy blocks!
Just as she was wondering how to explain, her grandparents walked over as well.
"A wise choice. Huaxia men are the best," her grandmother said earnestly and solemnly, speaking as a Huaxia woman who had married into the West.
Yin Caixin looked at her grandmother helplessly, thinking, *He's an exception, Grandma. He's something else entirely.*
"Haha, I don't mind your grandmother saying that at all." Standing nearby, her grandfather laughed heartily, stepping close to give his granddaughter a warm hug. Then he said, "You should invite him, my little Adjani. It would be even better if he's willing to stay for good. Huaxia isn't lacking in geniuses, but Switzerland sorely lacks them. We desperately need a future super combat power... After all, Great Spikes like the Red Shoulders won't think, *Hmm, this is a small country, so I won't land here.*"
Chapter 150