Chapter 95 - 80: Longgu Culture

Chapter 95: Chapter 80: Longgu Culture"In that situation, all you cared about was whether you could save President Luan’s life; it didn’t matter if you had a license or not. Even if you knew about my situation at the time, you would still choose to let me help save him."

Xu Chunliang adjusted the seat to find a comfortable position and lazily said, "Su Yunquan simply doesn’t believe I saved your President Luan. At his core, he looks down on traditional Chinese medicine. Out of respect for President Luan, he restrained himself somewhat tonight. He thinks that saving President Luan was just a coincidence."

Mo Han couldn’t help but admire Xu Chunliang’s keen observation skills. Su Yunquan had masked it well enough tonight, yet he still couldn’t fool Xu Chunliang’s eyes.

Just as Xu Chunliang said, Su Yunquan believed that Luan Yuchuan’s rescue was entirely due to Xu Donglai and Li Jia Kuan’s timely CPR, not some traditional Chinese acupuncture. It’s highly likely that when Xu Chunliang applied the needles on Luan Yuchuan, it just coincided with the time he was supposed to wake up.

In other words, Su Yunquan thought that whether Xu Chunliang used acupuncture or not would not have had a major impact on Luan Yuchuan’s recovery. It might have played a supplementary role, but it was by no means decisive.

"President Luan is very grateful to you."

Xu Chunliang smiled and said, "The person he trusts the most should be Su Yunquan, so he is also wavering. I could sense that he reluctantly gave me this card. The more that’s the case, the more I should take it. His life is worth far more than fifty thousand, right?"

"You underestimate President Luan’s perspective."

Xu Chunliang asked in return, "Who do you think saved President Luan?"

Mo Han had no hesitation on this point: "You!" This was her true inner thought because she had witnessed the entire rescue process firsthand.

At the time, everyone revealed their true feelings; even Xu Donglai had subtly hinted to her that Luan Yuchuan couldn’t be saved.

The improvement in Luan Yuchuan’s condition began with Xu Chunliang’s acupuncture. If his awakening was coincidental to some degree, the pain he endured afterward was unbearable even for someone so strong. It was Xu Chunliang’s swift needlework that quickly relieved his pain at the time.

Mo Han believed she wouldn’t be mistaken. Xu Chunliang’s wisdom was far beyond her imagination. Thinking of Xu Chunliang repeatedly explaining that he wasn’t a doctor, naturally needing not adhere to any noble morals of the medical profession, Luan Yuchuan’s life was worth far more than fifty thousand.

"Why was President Luan unwilling to undergo bypass surgery?" Su Yunquan was not only Luan Yuchuan’s friend but also a top domestic expert in cardiology. Since he advocated for coronary artery bypass surgery, why hadn’t Luan Yuchuan undergone surgery after being admitted to the hospital and instead chose conservative treatment?

Mo Han said, "Everyone has their thoughts; others can’t control that."

"A shrewd person like him must have fully assessed the pros and cons."

Mo Han thought to herself, ’The word shrewd is more appropriate for you.’ However, she also didn’t know why Luan Yuchuan would refuse the bypass surgery. Agreeing with Xu Chunliang’s statement, Luan Yuchuan must have had his reasons.

The success rate of coronary bypass surgery is now very high, and with Su Yunquan personally handling it, it would almost certainly be foolproof. What was President Luan afraid of?

Arriving at the entrance of the Nanjiang City Party School, Xu Chunliang let Mo Han stop the car outside to save the hassle of registration.

Before getting off the car, Mo Han handed him an umbrella; it was still raining outside. Xu Chunliang took it and said thanks.

Mo Han asked, "Can you really cure coronary heart disease?"

Xu Chunliang smiled and said, "What’s your relationship with Luan Yuchuan?"

"What’s that got to do with you?" Mo Han was somewhat displeased.

Xu Chunliang said, "My answer is the same as yours."

He opened the car door, opened the umbrella, and strode into the night filled with autumn rain.

Mo Han sat inside the car, not leaving immediately. The two car lights illuminated Xu Chunliang’s figure. The shining autumn rain under the lights looked like flying insects all over the sky, blurring Xu Chunliang’s silhouette, yet it couldn’t blur his persistence in the storm.

On the fourth day of training, Xu Chunliang finally received a call from Bai Mushan. He had already been back for two days, but today he only received the letter Xu Chunliang had left for him.

Bai Mushan was very polite on the phone, proactively suggesting a meeting with Xu Chunliang at the Nanjiang Party School. Xu Chunliang said he would visit Bai Mushan instead.

Bai Mushan gave him an address, which wasn’t the Nanjiang Normal University where he taught but his studio located in the University City, only three kilometers from the Party School. He suggested Xu Chunliang come over at noon to have lunch together.

There were many shared bikes at the entrance of the Party School, and Xu Chunliang chose to ride to the Nanwan Lake Cultural and Creative Park where Bai Mushan was located. This was a newly built villa-style office area, just completed for half a year, with not many companies moved in.

Bai Mushan was located in Building 29. The buildings in the Cultural and Creative Park were characterized by white walls and gray tiles, full of Jiangnan charm, rich in greenery, and elegantly landscaped. A small stream was dug, bringing water from Nanwan Lake, running from south to north through the entire Cultural Park, using the terrain’s drop to create a beautiful scene of waterfalls and flowing springs.

After the routine registration, Xu Chunliang stepped inside, enjoying the view along the way, which was delightful.

Arriving at Villa 29, he saw a bronze plaque hanging beside the Chinese-style courtyard gate, with four characters carved in oracle bone script: "Longgu Culture."

Xu Chunliang speculated that Longgu probably took its name from a homophone for "dragon bone," and the fact that Bai Mushan could open a studio here proved that his financial condition was quite good.

Looking around, he found the doorbell and pressed it. After a short while, a young man dressed in a linen Tang suit came to open the door. He was Xue Anliang, a disciple of Bai Mushan, currently pursuing his doctoral studies.

Xu Chunliang identified himself, and Xue Anliang smiled and welcomed him in, telling him that the teacher had been waiting inside for quite some time.

The small courtyard inside Longgu Culture adopted a Japanese Zen rock garden design, intricately arranged and full of Zen ambiance.

He bypassed the screen wall with a Hongshan jade dragon pattern in front and entered the living room.

Xue Anliang asked him to wait in the living room while he went to invite his teacher down.

Xu Chunliang looked around. The interior was entirely decorated in a Chinese style. One glance was enough to know that the owner appreciated traditional Chinese culture and had extraordinary taste, with every arrangement reflecting the owner’s elegant and refined vision.

Xu Chunliang’s gaze fixated on a rubbing of an oracle bone inscription on the opposite wall. Almost instantly, he determined that the content was from the "Heavenly Nurturing" Chapter of the "Inner Canon of Huangdi," consisting of a total of thirty-three characters, which was just a small part of the Chapter. The complete content could not be inferred from this portion.

Xu Chunliang’s eyes did not linger long on the rubbing before he turned his attention to other furnishings.

Meticulous in thought, Xu Chunliang noted that the position of the rubbing was directly opposite where he sat, and from the moment he walked in, Xue Anliang had led him, even arranging his seating. If Bai Mushan had instructed this beforehand, then his intent might likely be to observe Xu Chunliang’s reaction to the rubbing.

Xu Chunliang made such a conjecture because, upon close inspection, the rubbing seemed to have been newly hung. Paintings that have been hung for a long time tend to leave marks one way or another. Though his inner strength had diminished, his vision had not weakened.

He took a sip of tea from his cup, pondering the significance of today’s meeting.

After a good ten minutes, Bai Mushan finally came down and apologized even before reaching the bottom of the stairs, "Mr. Xu, I’m sorry, I was just attending a video academic meeting and made you wait."

Xu Chunliang stood up and saw a man dressed in a gray Tang suit slowly walking down the stairs.

Bai Mushan, fifty-five years old, had a full head of white hair but not a single wrinkle on his face. He was of medium build, slender, with the elegant demeanor unique to high intellectuals in his gestures.

He came over to Xu Chunliang and shook his hand. The skin on Bai Mushan’s palm was soft and smooth, and slightly cool to the touch. If one hadn’t seen him in person, they might have thought it was the hand of a young girl.

Xu Chunliang looked down and saw that Bai Mushan’s fingers were long, his skin white and delicate. A person usually shows signs of aging through their hands, but from these hands, one couldn’t see many traces of time.

"Mr. Xu, please have a seat."

"Professor Bai, just call me Xiaoxu."

After they sat down, Xue Anliang came over to serve Bai Mushan a cup of tea.

Bai Mushan asked him to prepare lunch, picked up a teacup, took a sip, and focused his gaze back on Xu Chunliang’s face, "I never expected, Elder Xu’s grandson has grown so much. Xiaoxu, how old are you?"

Xu Chunliang gave his age.

Bai Mushan couldn’t help but feel sentimental; when he first met Elder Xu, Xu Chunliang hadn’t even been born.

Following the topic, Xu Chunliang inquired about how they met.

Bai Mushan put down the teacup thoughtfully, paused for a moment, and then told Xu Chunliang that he had known Xu Changshan for about twenty-three years. At that time, he was working at Dongzhou Normal University, which was then called Dongzhou Normal College.

Xu Chunliang told Bai Mushan that he recently visited the Dongzhou Museum and learned that the batch of oracle bones donated by his grandfather had been destroyed in a fire. He believed Bai Mushan had anticipated the purpose of his visit, so he got straight to the point without beating around the bush.

When this past event was mentioned, Bai Mushan was filled with grief, "Yes, shortly after Elder Xu donated that batch of oracle bones, the Dongzhou Museum caught fire. The new museum was still under preparation at the time, and conditions in all aspects were poor. When the fire broke out, the sprinkler system didn’t activate right away, and it was too late to save them when the fire was discovered, causing irreparable damage to the country."

After saying this, Bai Mushan picked up his teacup, drank a few sips, sighed deeply, and said, "I let Elder Xu down. Because of this incident, I broke off contact with Elder Xu over the years—not because I didn’t want to, but because I didn’t dare. I discussed with the Dongzhou Museum about keeping this matter a secret from Elder Xu to spare him any regrets."

His explanation was indeed reasonable.

Xu Chunliang said, "You’ve overthought it. Since our Xu Family donated those artifacts, we have no regrets. If there is any regret, it’s only that they were entrusted to the wrong place."

Bai Mushan picked up on the implication that Elder Xu had entrusted them to the wrong person. It was Bai Mushan who had facilitated the donation of that batch of dragon bones to the Dongzhou Museum. With the destruction of the artifacts, Bai Mushan, as the intermediary, certainly bore significant responsibility.

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