Chapter 86: Torn Muscles

“Where is he?”

In the darkness of night, at a street corner near the Chaiyuanba Dock, Chen Wenqi questioned the dark-skinned man in his twenties named Li Guangyi.

“Section Chief, Li Wensheng never showed up,” the man replied respectfully.

He had not appeared. That surprised Chen Wenqi a little.

Li Wensheng would surely set fire to the Kong family’s cargo at Chaiyuanba Dock before he left; otherwise, he would not have come to a nearby restaurant for lunch during the day.

After thinking for a moment, Chen Wenqi concluded that she had not been mistaken. Li Wensheng would definitely come to burn the Kong family’s goods. If he had not come, then either something had delayed him, or he was making some preparation.

She instructed Li Guangyi to keep a close watch and, if Li Wensheng appeared, to come to the inn across the street and find her. Then Chen Wenqi took her people and settled into the inn diagonally opposite.

Chen Wenqi’s room was on the third floor. When she led her people along the third-floor corridor, the crack of Room 305 slowly closed.

In the dim room 305, Li Wensheng frowned and murmured, “How can this be such a coincidence?”

Chen Wenqi bringing people to the Chaiyuanba Dock did not surprise Li Wensheng. After all, during the day Chen Wenqi had told him, “I guess that before you leave, you’ll burn the Kong family’s goods.”

But Chen Wenqi staying in this inn, and on the same floor at that, made Li Wensheng feel it was a bit too much of a coincidence.

During the day, after finding out that the Kong family frequently shipped goods in and out through Chaiyuanba Dock, he had booked a room in this inn. At the time, he had noticed that there were plenty of inns nearby—just on this street alone, there were four or five.

“Ah!”

As Li Wensheng walked to the bed and lay down, he suddenly drew in a sharp breath.

Lying there, he gently massaged the intense soreness in his left biceps and muttered under his breath, “That jumping method from Li Lianjie’s movies is not something to imitate.”

Earlier, after thinking for a long time, he still could not figure out how to slip out of the house under Chen Wenqi’s surveillance.

Around seven in the evening, when he saw the balcony outside the living room, he suddenly remembered the way Li Lianjie had jumped from a building in a film.

Thinking that, with his physical condition, he ought to be able to manage it, and that this way of getting down would take him from the fourth floor to the first in the blink of an eye so the watchers would surely not react in time, he decided to descend that way.

The descent went smoothly; the watchers indeed failed to react at once.

But he had overestimated his own physical condition. When he used the second- and third-floor balconies to absorb the impact, he strained his muscles, especially the biceps in his left arm. It was probably a muscle injury.

If his left arm had not been hurt, he would have gone to take revenge on the Kong family tonight instead of staying at the inn.

After rubbing it for a while and still feeling the pain in his arm was very severe, Li Wensheng frowned slightly.

“This injury looks like it won’t heal in just a few days. I’ll have to find a place to stay quietly for a few days first.”

The next day, Li Wensheng rose very early and stepped out of the room before six.

With Chen Wenqi and her people staying in this inn, Li Wensheng could only get up early and, before they were awake, quickly check out and leave.

He did not dare try to play the trick of hiding in plain sight here. Since Chen Wenqi had settled in, it meant she was convinced he would come to Chaiyuanba Dock. If he did not appear, she would not leave this inn.

If he stayed in the room without going out, given Chen Wenqi’s alertness, she would discover within two days that something was wrong with the occupant of Room 305.

After checking out, Li Wensheng had just reached the entrance when he suddenly saw several men walking toward the inn from across the street.

So early in the morning, several men coming to the inn together—there was no need to think about it; they must be Chen Wenqi’s people. Fortunately, the men were chatting and laughing among themselves, so absorbed that they did not look up and see Li Wensheng. He hurriedly turned and slipped out through the back door.

After slipping out the back, Li Wensheng wound his way left and right through the streets. By a little after seven in the morning, nearly out of Yuzhong, he finally stopped.

After finishing breakfast by the roadside, Li Wensheng was about to look for another inn, but after taking only a few steps, his eyes suddenly lit up and he walked toward the drugstore in the front-left, which had just opened its door.

As soon as the shop opened, a customer came in, and the assistant at Rejuvenation Hall was startled.

“Um, sir, are you here for a consultation or to have a prescription filled?”

“For a consultation.”

The assistant suddenly understood. “No wonder you came so early. Our Dr. Lu at Rejuvenation Hall has unrivaled medical skill throughout the mountain city. Any difficult illness, and Dr. Lu can prescribe a few doses and cure it. Every day here there’s a long line of people waiting to see him; many wait the whole day and still never get their turn. You, sir, are wise to come early—you don’t even need to queue.”

The assistant lavished endless praise on this Dr. Lu, but Li Wensheng’s pupils contracted slightly.

Dr. Lu, famous for his medical skill—wasn’t that Zheng Yaoxian’s contact? Could things really be this coincidental? He had simply picked a random pharmacy and ended up here.

“I’ve also long heard of Dr. Lu’s superb medical skill, but I was afraid the wait would be too long and delay work, so I came first thing in the morning.”

Even if this Dr. Lu was Zheng Yaoxian’s contact, Li Wensheng had no intention of leaving. He was not planning to do anything, and besides, Dr. Lu really was a fine doctor.

“Sir, you still have to go to work? Then I’ll go upstairs at once and inform Dr. Lu so he can see you.”

“Thank you for the trouble.”

The assistant hurried upstairs, and not long after, he came back down and led Li Wensheng to a private room on the second floor.

When Dr. Lu Hanqing saw Li Wensheng, panic instantly surged in his heart.

The assistant downstairs had never met Li Wensheng, but he had. Two days earlier, when he had gone out to buy something, he had happened to pass by the entrance of Sun Sun Company and seen Zheng Yaoxian and Li Wensheng across from it.

Yesterday, when he met Zheng Yaoxian, he had casually asked who that young man was. Zheng Yaoxian immediately became very grave and said that man was named Li Wensheng, had only recently been transferred back to the mountain city, and had an extremely mysterious background. He had a close relationship with the Secretariat, and though he was in the military intelligence bureau, even Old Dai did not seem to have the authority to order him around; even the central intelligence service had to treat him politely. What was more, this man was highly capable and possessed extraordinary instincts—an enemy Japanese agent recruited into their ranks had merely kept staring at him twice and was exposed by him. Under no circumstances should anyone be sent to keep watch on him.

He had only just met with Zheng Yaoxian yesterday, and today this Li Wensheng, whose instincts were supposedly so keen, appeared before him early in the morning. How could he possibly not panic?

“Dr. Lu, please take a look at this arm for me.” After sitting down, Li Wensheng placed his right arm on the table.

After a night, the arm had not improved; if anything, it had worsened a little. His left biceps had swollen, which was why he had suddenly decided to come into the pharmacy just now to have it checked.

Lu Hanqing suppressed the unrest in his heart. “All right, all right. Let me take your pulse first.”

After taking his pulse, Lu Hanqing asked a few questions, then stood and felt Li Wensheng’s right biceps.

“Sir, what did this to your arm? If it were any worse, this arm of yours might be ruined.”

Li Wensheng rolled his eyes inwardly. Doctors of any era liked to make illnesses sound more serious than they were. At most, this was just a minor muscle tear.

“I had never done heavy labor before. Yesterday I did some and strained it. Dr. Lu, can this arm be treated?”

“Of course it can. I’ll give you acupuncture first, then prepare a few plasters for you to apply to your arm. Come back in two days and let me examine it again. As long as you don’t exert yourself during this period, it will heal in a month.”

“Then I’ll have to trouble you, Dr. Lu.”

Lu Hanqing’s medical skill really was exceptional. After the acupuncture, Li Wensheng felt the soreness in his left arm ease considerably.

After applying the medicinal plaster, his left arm had a cool, soothing sensation that felt very comfortable.

After paying and taking a few plasters with him, Li Wensheng left.

At the second-floor window, watching Li Wensheng vanish into the crowd, Lu Hanqing hurried downstairs.

“I’m leaving the shop to you for a while; I have something to do.”

He gave the assistant a quick instruction, then left in a hurry.