Money, Money, Money

Boss Dao himself actually liked the name Azure Dragon Gang quite a lot. Very few teams, factions, or codenames in the City of Iniquity were named as gangs; having the word "gang" on their sign made him feel a much stronger sense of brotherhood and loyalty. "Over thirty years..." Standing with his hands clasped behind his back on the stone steps before the entrance, officially announcing the establishment of the City of Iniquity's thirteenth major faction, he would be lying if he said he felt no emotion. "How hard we worked just to reach this point. *Cough*..." His gaze reached past his cheering battle formation, the long street, the crowds flanking both sides of the road, and the retreating battle formations of the five major factions in the distance. Boss Dao's eyes could not help but redden... It had not been easy. Seeing the look on his face, the formation gradually quieted down. People looked up at him, waiting for Boss Dao to say a few words. By all rights, in a situation like this, he was supposed to make a speech. "I... all of you," Dao Dali's gaze locked, seemingly gathering his thoughts, before he finally said, "Your future is bright." It was still his usual line for hoodwinking his lackeys, and his tone still sounded full of certainty, but instead of roaring it out like he usually did, he spoke with deep feeling. Having said that, Dao Dali turned around, went into the building, and headed upstairs. "Maybe he's afraid of crying in front of everyone," the onlookers thought as they watched him. In truth, recalling the days spent fleeing through the valley, many of them felt like crying as well at this moment. "Hurry, hurry, wrap me up." Up in a third-floor room, Boss Dao pulled up his clothes to reveal the ruptured wound on his abdomen, anxiously urging them on. "We're not really good at this either." He Tangtang made a troubled face. Naturally, they all knew basic emergency battlefield dressing, but in that kind of situation, you still had to let a doctor tend to it properly once you got back. Right now, this was no longer a battlefield, and the hospital was not far away. "Why don't you just go to the hospital to get bandaged up?" He Tangtang suggested. "No need. It's just a minor scratch..." Boss Dao said. "You call that a minor scratch?!" Wen Jifei pointed a finger. "It's split open like a clam! You'd better hurry back to Doctor Zhe, Boss." "No, no, no... look, I can't afford it. Her fees are way too steep," Boss Dao said with reddened eyes. Leaning against the wall, Han Qingyu shook his head. His injuries were worsening—incomprehensibly, worsening even further after the battle had ended than during the fight itself. Searing agony racked every bone in his body... Yet hearing that money was involved, he still could not resist showing concern: "What? Aside from the surgery fee, she charges for follow-up treatment too?" Boss Dao looked up at him, wore an aggrieved expression for two seconds, and nodded. "Yeah. She charges every single time, and it's crazy expensive. Absurdly expensive." Everyone in the room: "..." "Is it because your wound is especially tricky to treat?" Wen Jifei tried his best to smooth over the awkwardness. "No, Doctor Zhe said... she said it's because I should still have money left," Boss Dao replied. ... "What?! Even—even I have to pay?!" In the operating room on the hospital's classified floor, Han Qingyu struggled on the operating table. He had suddenly collapsed in his room and been rushed here. Waking up after arrival, he found blood oozing constantly from multiple patches of his skin, and treatment was just about to begin. "Yes. Sixty metal blocks. This injury is very troublesome, and you're very rich right now." Zhe Qiuhong stood beside the operating table in a white coat. Wearing a surgical mask that left only her pair of direct, piercing eyes visible, she gave a slight nod. "Do you want anesthesia? Five more blocks for anesthesia," she asked. "But I... Didn't we agree that we own shares in the hospital?" Han Qingyu tried to shift slightly, but agony flared through his entire body, leaving blood smeared across the spot beneath him. "Yes, but profit-sharing is profit-sharing, and fees are fees." Zhe Qiuhong snickered beneath her mask and continued, "During that time I had nothing to do, I washed clothes and cooked for everyone, and I'm still doing it now. We have a partnership, don't we?" His body hurt so much... Han Qingyu's gaze weakened, but he persisted, "Still, we've spent so much time together. Can't we show a little sentiment between us?" "We can, but not when talking about money," Zhe Qiuhong said. "Remember when I tried to borrow money from you before to buy two pieces of medical instruments? You said, 'What kind of international joke are you making, Doctor Zhe? We're not even close, plus I have a feud with your brother. Even if we were close, I wouldn't lend it to you.'" At the end, she imitated the matter-of-fact tone Han Qingyu had used back then. Han Qingyu: "..." "Thank you and the City of Iniquity for making me realize that money really is very important. I was wrong in the past. Back then, I never charged when treating your Azure wounded, but now I plan to change... I've made up my mind: I want to be the richest person in the City of Iniquity." As she said that last line, Zhe Qiuhong's eyes lit up. Without a doubt, the current pricing of surgery had nothing to do with the procedure's difficulty. Doctor Zhe's billing standard was based entirely on the patient's net worth, and Han Qingyu was now a very fat sheep ripe for shearing. Zhe Qiuhong had just heard that he demanded compensation from the five major factions, asking for two hundred metal blocks from each. Tallying it up like that, how much would he get to pocket?! Sixty blocks! Sixty whole blocks! Han Qingyu thought it over, then said with the resolve of facing death, "Then I'm not doing it. I don't need your saving." She couldn't truly stand by and watch him die, Han Qingyu thought, as wave upon wave of excruciating pain washed through him. "Fine." Zhe Qiuhong gave a brief response, stepped aside, turned her back to remove her gloves, and said leisurely, "Actually, it's not like there isn't a way to get it for free. Do you want to hear it?" "...Mm," Han Qingyu answered, because it really hurt. "Give me some of your germ cells for research," Zhe Qiuhong said, turning back around. "What? What are germ cells?! Why do you want to study that? Why..." Han Qingyu asked, and asked, and asked... until it suddenly dawned on him what Zhe Qiuhong meant. Lying on the operating table, he stared at her in utter horror and bewilderment. "Looks like you figured it out?" Zhe Qiuhong concluded from his expression, then stated calmly, "Our current research conclusion is that a human's degree of source energy fusion has nothing to do with genetics. However, this study never actually included anomalies like you guys. You might be different, so I'd like some to test and study..." "Then go find Wu Xu!" Han Qingyu cut her off. "Go ask Wu Xu for it. Wu Xu is very easy to fool... and then treat me for free," Han Qingyu offered as a sincere suggestion. "...I've been waiting for him to get injured, but he might not bend to threats anyway. That man has no weaknesses," Zhe Qiuhong said, staring straight at Han Qingyu. Han Qingyu: "..." Thinking about it, that seemed to be true. "Well? Will you consider it? It's completely harmless to your body, but it's worth sixty source energy blocks." "...Get lost." "Fine, then I'll step out first. By the way, the rental rate for this operating room is three metal blocks per hour." Saying this, she reached out, took out a small notebook, scribbled down the rental rules, tore out the page, and slapped it onto the wall. Then she walked out. ... Ten minutes later, in the hallway outside the operating room, a long trail of blood stretched westward along the floor. Han Qingyu had crawled all the way back to his room. He told Rusty Sister to give him all five Bones of Eternal Life, then told her to step outside and lock the door. *Thump-thump, thump-thump...* Violent pulses surged throughout his entire body. With agony that felt like his very bones were being replaced, Han Qingyu curled up on the hospital bed, gritting his teeth fiercely. One of the Bones of Eternal Life slowly shrank by a fraction. Around the same time, Zhe Qiuhong returned to the operating room... She looked at the empty operating table, then glanced at the streak of blood on the floor. "I'm truly impressed... Could he really be a dragon? Legend has it that dragons love hoarding treasure and are incorrigible misers!"