Chapter 48: Cowardly

"Look, Xiaotong, this is the little girl I was telling you about, the one who is the same age as your sister."

"She looks much cuter than my sister."

"Come on in, Ningning. You've met him before; just call him big brother too."

Ignoring whatever those two were talking about, Li Yancheng beckoned for little Ningning to come inside and introduced her.

"Hello, elder brothers."

"Hello to you too!"

"Ningning, did the test results come out?"

Going to the hospital for a urine test to check for pregnancy was a very quick process, and there was a hospital not far from their home.

"Mm-hmm."

Mentioning the test results, little Ningning nodded excitedly. "Big Brother Cheng, I'm really going to be an aunt!"

"Haha, where are your brother and sister-in-law?"

"They're walking slowly behind me. My brother said he's going to treat you to lunch at the restaurant at the mouth of the alley today."

"That's just great, saves me the trouble of cooking."

"Hehe, you guys chat first, Big Brother Cheng. Goodbye, elder brothers."

With strangers present, little Ningning didn't say much more. After explaining the matter, she darted back out like a gust of wind.

"Then we'll be leaving too."

"Eh... Luoyang, you aren't trying to tell me you came over today just to talk about her family matters, are you?" Seeing that Luoyang was about to leave, Li Yancheng was slightly stunned and asked in surprise.

"Pretty much. It's just that when Xiaotong mentioned it to me, I figured I should let you know. Since you're not interested, then never mind."

"Alright."

Li Yancheng nodded helplessly. "I know you're both busy men, so I won't keep you. I still want to thank you both for your concern."

"You're welcome, I didn't really help much. By the way, Yancheng..."

***

Luoyang, who was walking towards the door, suddenly remembered something, stopped in his tracks, turned around, and said, "Are those ancient texts on Traditional Chinese Medicine particularly precious to you TCM doctors?"

"Eh... Of course they are. All the herbal prescriptions written by TCM doctors nowadays are passed down from the past. The prescriptions we doctors write today are merely adding or subtracting various herbs in the formula based on each patient's different condition and physique. Why did you suddenly think of asking this out of the blue?"

Li Yancheng was somewhat curious as to why Luoyang had suddenly brought this up.

As far as he knew, many ancient texts in libraries—even unique extant copies, and not just limited to TCM—had been confiscated.

Some of these were properly preserved, while a large portion had been taken away by people from Luoyang's committee. Where exactly they were taken, he wasn't clear.

However, what he did know was that many books had simply vanished this way. The ones that reappeared years later were either transcribed copies or those that had been hidden away in advance, while many of the true original works were gone for good, which was quite a pity.

"I see."

Hearing Li Yancheng put it this way, Luoyang nodded thoughtfully, frowned and thought for a moment before saying, "Then I'll bring you a few books later. However..."

At this point, he took two quick steps, lifted the door curtain, and looked outside. Making sure there was no one around, he continued: "However, let's keep this strictly between us. Even if I bring them to you in the future, you must keep them properly stored. You mustn't let anyone else see them, and you certainly can't tell anyone, including that good friend of yours.

Those few books were ones I secretly hid away myself. You know, since I had this hard-to-cure illness, I originally poked around myself trying to see if I could find a cure from those ancient medical texts, which is why I..."

To be honest, Li Yancheng was really a bit bewildered at this moment. He simply couldn't fathom why Luoyang would suddenly offer to bring him a few ancient books on TCM.

He even suspected whether Luoyang was saying this to deliberately test him.

Yet, upon second thought, that seemed unlikely. No matter what, he was currently treating Luoyang himself. To slaughter the donkey the moment the millstone is put away before the illness was even cured—surely nobody could be that crazy.

Even so, this served as a reminder to him: to avoid being discarded after outliving his usefulness, no matter what he did, he had to leave himself a fallback option.

"Luoyang, I think books like that... you'd better keep them yourself. To be honest, I don't have a place to store those books, and they aren't easy to preserve. Just in case... haha, I'm afraid of bringing any trouble upon you."

Books, especially those ancient texts and unique copies—did Li Yancheng want them? Of course he did.

He didn't have any lofty ideals. Although he had once thought that with his storage space, he could quietly stash away some items that were disappearing during this period, thereby reducing the losses slightly.

Yet, after careful consideration, he had rejected the idea.

No other reason: the first priority in what he did must be ensuring his own safety.

Another crucial factor was that he had no idea where those confiscated items were ultimately stored.

Besides, even if he knew, would he dare to collect them casually? If discovered, he would truly plunge into an abyss of eternal damnation.

***

Li Yancheng's reaction made Luoyang pause slightly. Shortly after, realizing the situation, he shook his head and laughed bitterly, "Hehe... you, oh you... Very well, then consider me as having said nothing."

"I'm sorry, Luoyang. I'm someone who is rather afraid of trouble, and even more afraid of bringing trouble to others."

"It's fine, it's fine, I understand." Luoyang nodded with a smile. "Let's go, Xiaotong."

"Goodbye, Li Yancheng."

"Alright, I'll see you two out."

When Luoyang and Su Xiaotong had arrived, they drove a jeep, which was parked right at the entrance of the courtyard.

City kids had seen plenty and wouldn't be like villagers who marveled endlessly at the sight of a car.

There were quite a few children running wild and playing blindly in the alley, but none of them came over to gawk at the vehicle. They only stopped and looked towards it when the engine started, while the kids playing right in the middle of the road stepped aside to the edges, waiting for the car to drive past.

"I'm heading out, Yancheng. I'll come back over tonight."

"Alright, drive safe you two, thank you."

"Don't mention it, I didn't help much anyway."

Waving at the already starting car, Li Yancheng stood at the main gate and watched the vehicle slowly pull away.

"Dacheng, are those your friends?"

"Uncle Duan, uh... you could say they're friends."

Section Chief Duan Xinyuan of the neighborhood committee, who lived in the adjacent courtyard number twenty-one, happened to be coming out of their courtyard at that moment. He glanced at the departing jeep, walked with his hands behind his back leisurely towards courtyard number twenty, and asked with a smile, seemingly quite casually.

"Dacheng, that sign hanging by your door... hehe, it's hung quite well. It can block out quite a few ghosts and demons, and also block the prying eyes of many people."

"Sigh, I have no choice either."

"People, you see, are all selfish. Having some means of self-protection is a good thing. Alright, I'm off to buy soy sauce; your aunt is at home waiting to use it."

Old Duan shook the soy sauce bottle in his hand and walked cheerfully towards the entrance of the alley.