Chapter 147: Meeting Bai Shenxian Again

Bai Shenxian was not as disheveled as when we first met. He was wearing a white short-sleeved shirt, his hair had been cut much shorter, and his stubble was shaved clean. He looked like a completely different person—or at least like an intellectual—appearing young and clean-cut.

But even if his face, once cleaned up, was enough to charm thousands, I didn’t actually want to deal with him, much less see him here. A swirl of complex emotions rushed over me all at once, and I couldn’t quite control my expression. Fourth Brother glanced at me, and by the time I pulled myself together, it was already too late.

“You two have met?” Fourth Brother turned back, looking at Bai Shenxian with an inquiring gaze. He didn’t ask me, likely feeling my reaction was far too sluggish compared to Bai Shenxian’s.

Bai Shenxian chuckled. “We’ve met. Back when I was still in Luoyang, Young Master Gan came looking for me, though back then it was to treat Ayao’s injuries. Master Si, you might hear rumors from the outside, but you probably couldn’t have dug up the specific details of that treacherous tomb in Yunnan, could you?”

I listened to him rambling to Fourth Brother, my gaze growing increasingly unfriendly. I didn’t want to tell Fourth Brother about the current issues with my body just yet.

Setting aside the fact that the changes in my blood felt negligible to me, Fourth Brother was already carrying so much on his shoulders. As one of the main pillars of this ship, he had to lead the research vessel out to sea tomorrow morning, and I didn’t want him to worry about my trivial matters.

“The tomb was certainly dangerous, but we all made it out alive. There’s no need to bring up Yunnan here,” I said, my tone sharp. Fourth Brother surely picked up on it.

Bai Shenxian wasn’t afraid of my temper. If anything, I felt like he was deliberately saying things to goad me into getting angry. He wanted to say more, but Lu Ayao, who had just emerged from the inner cabin, suddenly held him back. Lu Ayao appeared out of nowhere like a ghost, startling Bai Shenxian so much that he forgot what he was about to say.

A crewman came in to call Fourth Brother. Fourth Brother greeted Bai Shenxian, then walked over to my side and cautioned me in a low voice, “He’s the only doctor on our ship. Be tactful and get along with him. Don’t go looking for trouble, do you hear me?”

His words made me feel as if I had swallowed a fly, and I nodded like a deflated balloon.

So before the fire could even start, Fourth Brother had doused it with a bucket of water. We would likely be at sea for more than a week. Even though Fourth Brother was paying Bai Shenxian, given his background, I still had to tread carefully around him.

Once Fourth Brother left the cabin, I ignored the smug Bai Shenxian in front of me and picked a bed off to the far side. I tossed my backpack onto the bed, sat down, and silently began unpacking my things.

“What’s wrong? I only said two sentences and you’re already angry?” Bai Shenxian sat on the table, drinking water from a cup. I didn’t look up at his face, but I could easily picture the punchable, smirking expression he was making.

I took a deep breath and refused to take the bait, continuing to pull items out of my bag one by one.

“Tsk, your mindset isn’t cutting it; you need to work on that,” Bai Shenxian said, poking Lu Ayao with his elbow. “Is he really Gan Rong’s biological son? I remember Gan Rong was a master of psychological warfare in the antique trade back in the day. How is her son so short-fused?”

I squeezed my eyes shut, my hands coming to a stop. My fists clenched tighter and tighter as I felt my patience reaching its limit.

Then I heard Lu Ayao say, “If you really have no one to talk to and are just making idle small talk, I don’t mind throwing you into the water to chat with the fish.”

Bai Shenxian flashed a toothy grin at Lu Ayao and quickly begged for mercy. The cabin immediately fell quiet, leaving only the sound of waves slapping against the hull. Not long after, Fourth Brother came to call for Lu Ayao, and Lu Ayao followed him outside.

Seeing them both leave, I immediately scrambled up from the bed. I didn’t want to stay alone with a lunatic like him for another second. But before I could even get up, Bai Shenxian darted out and blocked my path.

“What do you want?” Just looking at him gave me a headache.

Bai Shenxian produced two red persimmons out of nowhere. “It’s all a misunderstanding! Consider these my apology. I was just pulling your leg earlier, don’t take it to heart. We’re going to be colleagues from now on, so we should try to get along, right?”

He sounded very sincere as he stuffed the two persimmons into my hands. But given the terrible impression he’d made so far, I genuinely wondered if there were worms inside and he’d passed them to me just to give me a scare.

Bai Shenxian cleared his throat and put his hands behind his back, posing like some big-shot expert. “Let me reintroduce myself,” he said to me. “My family has practiced medicine for generations. I am well-versed in treating all manner of rare and intractable ailments. My remedies work wonders, and I guarantee ten years free of disease.”

I peeled a persimmon, sat on the bed to eat it, and watched his performance. “Are you Lu Ayao’s childhood friend?” I asked. “How could you be his childhood friend? Isn’t the Lu Clan full of old-fashioned types?”

Bai Shenxian seemed dissatisfied with my question. He leaned in and asked, “Wait, I just said all that, and all you care about is whether I’m childhood friends with that guy named Lu?”

“What else?” I countered, then went back to eating the persimmon. “These persimmons are pretty good. Where did you buy them? They’re quite sweet.”

I didn’t see anything wrong with what I said, but Bai Shenxian looked like he was about to spit blood from sheer frustration. He probably hadn’t been dismissed like this in his entire life. He had to lean against the wall to catch his breath for a moment.

“Fine. Since you’re only interested in that, I might as well tell you a shocking secret,” Bai Shenxian said with a sly smile.

I tossed the skin of the first persimmon into the trash and started on the second one. “What kind of secret is it this time? I’ve been hearing way too many secrets lately, so yours might not even grab my attention.”

Bai Shenxian circled around me and plopped down right next to me. “This one, I guarantee you’ll care about. Haven’t you always wanted to know about the porcelain shards on Lu Ayao’s face?”

Sometimes, a single sentence really does have that much power. His words froze me right in the middle of eating my persimmon. I looked up and stared at Bai Shenxian. “Explain yourself. What do you mean?”

Bai Shenxian gave me a meaningful look. I couldn’t quite decipher the intent behind it, but I was certain it wasn’t anything good.

He chuckled and glanced into the distance. Only after confirming that Lu Ayao hadn’t come down from the deck did he speak. “In the beginning, when he was a child, those stitched porcelain shards weren’t on his face. When Lu Xiaosu first picked him up, she hadn’t even intended for him to take her surname. It was all a matter of chance, really. Without those porcelain shards, he never would have become the Lu Ayao he is today.”

I didn’t hear anything useful in that. Of course I knew people weren’t born with porcelain shards on their faces. I looked at Bai Shenxian impatiently. “You’ve been talking for ages, but you haven’t actually said anything.”

“Now, that’s not true,” Bai Shenxian said, giving me a mysterious smile. “Those porcelain shards on his face? I’m the one who stitched them on. And his life? I’m the one who saved it.”