Volume 1, Chapter 50: Utter Humiliation

This meal left Ye Tian feeling quite awkward.

He didn't get to eat much of the fine cuisine, but he certainly got his fill of accidental intimacy from the two women. As someone experienced in the ways of the world, how could Ye Tian fail to notice the subtle competition between them?

Although he rather enjoyed the game of two women fighting over a man, it would not be proper to let it continue unrestrained right in front of the Xu family. Halfway through the meal, Ye Tian hurriedly put down his chopsticks and excused himself on the pretext of refining pills for Xu Weiping.

"Thank you once again, Divine Doctor Ye," Xu Weiping said earnestly. "The matter of the pills will still require much of your effort. As for the consultation fee, how do you think we should settle it?"

A life-saving favor naturally required a fitting consultation fee. No matter the amount, rules had to be followed. Moreover, he felt that paying a consultation fee was certainly easier than carrying the weight of a personal favor.

"There is no need to speak of a consultation fee," Ye Tian waved his hand, looking somewhat embarrassed as he said, "General Xu, to be frank with you, I do have a favor to ask."

Being in high spirits, Xu Weiping immediately replied, "Divine Doctor Ye has saved my life. Whatever the Xu family can do, as long as it is not against the law, I will certainly do my utmost."

Seeing that Xu Weiping did not refuse, Ye Tian brought up the matter of transferring his master, Zheng Qiankun, to another prison.

After a brief moment of thought, Xu Weiping called his grandson, Xu Ziqiao, and asked a few questions before turning to Ye Tian:

"That is actually quite easy to arrange. The safest prison in the country is none other than our military prison. It mainly holds classified military personnel who have violated regulations, and ordinary people cannot get near it at all. If you are willing, I can make a call to have him transferred there, so you won't have to worry about anyone trying to harm him in secret."

Overjoyed, Ye Tian cupped his hands and said, "Then I must thank General Xu profusely. That man is like a second father to me. Knowing he can serve his sentence in a military prison gives me great peace of mind."

"You are too polite, Divine Doctor Ye. It is just a matter of a raised hand; I will have someone attend to it right away."

With a brief instruction from Xu Weiping, Xu Ziqiao immediately acknowledged the order and left. Before long, Xu Ziqiao returned to report that the arrangements had already been made, and a specialized transport vehicle had been dispatched to pick up the prisoner.

"It is getting late, so I shall take my leave now. I will come to pay my respects again once General Xu has some free time."

Anxious to see Zheng Qiankun and listen to his master's teachings, Ye Tian hurriedly took his leave from the Xu residence.

...

After the guest departed, Xu Weiping called Xu Ziyao into his study.

"Ziyao, what do you think of Ye Tian as a person?"

Xu Ziyao's heart skipped a beat, and a blush instantly spread across her face. Feigning composure, she brushed it off with, "Grandfather, I've only known him for a short while. How could I possibly judge his character so easily?"

Xu Ziyao's gaze drifted away, not daring to meet her grandfather's eyes.

With a profound look in his eyes, Xu Weiping said, "When Divine Doctor Ye treated my illness today, from beginning to end, he never showed the slightest sign of leveraging his kindness for personal gain. From this point alone, his character is quite remarkable..."

"Besides, he is young, possesses exceptional medical skills, and commands formidable martial arts prowess. He would be of immense help to you. You might as well be proactive; who knows, it could blossom into a wonderful union..."

Hearing these words, Xu Ziyao's heart fluttered wildly like a startled fawn. She never expected her usually stern grandfather to be so open-minded as to encourage her to pursue Ye Tian actively!

Out of maidenly shyness, she deliberately protested, "Grandfather, I am still young and have no desire to get married yet. Besides, I barely have enough time to practice my martial arts. Marriage can wait; please don't worry yourself over such matters."

With that, her face burning red, she turned and bolted from the study.

Deep within the garden, Xu Ziyao leaned against the trunk of a thick tree, her hands tightly covering her blushing cheeks as she felt her heartbeat thundering in her ears. For some reason, her thoughts drifted back to that shameful dream she had experienced that day on Dragon Head Mountain.

Perhaps becoming a wife to Ye Tian wouldn't be such a bad choice after all. At the very least, she didn't dislike his presence. Furthermore, lately, she kept having the exact same dream about Dragon Head Mountain over and over again.

In the dream, she seemed to have grown accustomed to Ye Tian's teasing and bullying, and she didn't mind him going even further. On a few occasions, far from resisting, she had even actively pleaded with him to increase his intensity.

At this thought, her face flushed crimson once more, and her legs felt somewhat weak.

...

Following the joint medical consultation, the Zhou family's reputation had been dragged through the mud. Zhou Xun had also become the laughingstock of high society.

"This is nothing short of an utter humiliation for the Zhou family!" Zhou Yun逸's face was livid inside the conference room of the Zhou Group.

His hands pressed firmly against the conference table, his knuckles slightly white from the force, while his eyes revealed a deep sense of frustration and authority.

What the Zhou family lost was far more than just their pride. It was far more than the glory and prestige of being renowned doctors like Zhou Xun.

The most crucial thing they had lost was the Xu family! They had lost the opportunity to forge a friendship with the Xu family and secure a powerful patron in Nanjiang City who could let them act as they pleased!

And the chief culprit behind all this disaster was undoubtedly Ye Tian.

If not for Ye Tian curing Xu Weiping, how could their Zhou family have fallen into such an embarrassing predicament, having wasted all their efforts for nothing?

"We planned for so long and invested so much effort and resources..."

"We thought we could successfully latch onto the Xu family tree through the opportunity of treating Xu Weiping, thereby elevating our Zhou family's status among all factions."

"Never did we expect that bastard Ye Tian to ruin it all!"

"That scoundrel Ye Tian..."

"He actually understands medicine, and his skills are so formidable..." Zhou Yun逸 was driven to the verge of madness by rage.

"It's all that bitch Shen Yuwei's fault!"

The person Zhou Chen hated the most right now was Shen Yuwei. He felt that if Shen Yuwei hadn't deceived him and provided him with false intelligence, he wouldn't have adopted such a flawed strategy to deal with Ye Tian. Perhaps he could have arranged for his second uncle, Zhou Xun, to step in ahead of time and cure Xu Weiping's strange ailment before Ye Tian ever arrived.

Therefore, the one who truly bore the responsibility for this was Shen Yuwei!

Flames of fury also burned in Zhou Xun's eyes as he gnashed his teeth and said, "This Ye Tian is simply a disaster star!"

"Who knows where he crawled out from? Despite having such a dismal background, he happens to possess such peerless medical skills..."

"With a mere act of playing the pig to eat the tiger, he destroyed our entire plan!"

"That Shen Yuwei must be his accomplice!"

"Didn't Shen Yuwei swear up and down that Ye Tian was nothing more than a useless good-for-nothing?"

"And what was the result? We were all deceived by her!"

"They colluded to trick us!"

"We just walked right up to them to make fools of ourselves for nothing!"

Zhou Xun slammed his fist violently onto the table, causing the teacups upon it to rattle. Some of the tea splashed out, forming a small puddle on the glossy tabletop that reflected his ferocious and distorted face.