44: Rejuvenation Pill

At four in the morning, the hospital corridor was empty.

Gao Ningning returned on her sword, landing directly on the hospital rooftop, then quietly descended the stairs.

She was still wearing the uniform of Kunlun Academy, her backpack containing only a change of clothes and a wooden box holding a Medicinal Pill she had painstakingly refined.

The entire floor was so quiet you could hear your own heartbeat.

The smell of disinfectant pierced her nostrils, cold and despairing.

Gao Ningning pushed open the door to Room 307, her movements very light.

On the hospital bed, her father Gao Haoming’s eyes were tightly closed, his face sallow, his whole body emaciated beyond recognition, and an IV needle was inserted into the back of his hand.

The screens of various monitoring instruments flickered with faint green lights, emitting regular, monotonous beeping sounds.

Her mother, Wang Xiufang, was slumped beside the bed, sleeping in her clothes, her face full of unconcealable fatigue and pallor, her eyes etched with fine wrinkles.

In just one month, her mother seemed to have aged ten years.

Gao Ningning’s heart clenched painfully.

She walked over and gently patted her mother’s shoulder.

“Mom.”

Wang Xiufang jolted awake, suddenly lifting her head. Seeing her daughter, a flicker of confusion crossed her bloodshot eyes, followed by immense surprise.

“Ningning? You… why are you back? Aren’t you at school?”

“School’s on break, I came back to check in.” Gao Ningning tried to make her tone sound light.

She carefully took an ancient-looking wooden box from her backpack and opened it.

A Medicinal Pill the size of a longan, exuding a faint herbal fragrance, lay quietly inside.

This was the only “Rejuvenation Pill” she had refined over the past month, after spending day and night in the library, poring over every Pill Formula she could find, failing hundreds of times, and exhausting all her contribution points to exchange for medicinal ingredients.

“Mom, this can cure Dad’s illness.”

The surprise on Wang Xiufang’s face instantly froze.

She stared at the ordinary-looking pill, then at her daughter’s serious expression, and an uncontrollable surge of anger rushed from her heart to her head.

“Gao Ningning! Do you know what time it is? Your Dad… he’s already like this! You bring back some random thing and say it can cure him? Are you kidding me?!”

Her voice wasn't loud, but it trembled from extreme suppression.

“I’m not kidding.” Gao Ningning’s tone was calm, but her fingers clutching the wooden box were very tight. “Mom, you have to believe me.”

“Believe you? How can I believe you?!”

Wang Xiufang’s emotions completely spiraled out of control. She stood up, pointing at the Medicinal Pill, her voice rising.

“Tell me, what is this? An unregulated product? Or an Immortal Pill begged from some temple? What kind of school are you attending? Have they ruined your mind?! Your Dad doesn’t have much time left, stop messing around here, alright?!”

A month’s worth of pressure, fear, and despair erupted at this moment.

She didn’t believe in miracles.

She only believed in the cold diagnosis from the doctor.

Late-stage liver cancer, three months at most.

Now, her daughter, her only hope, was holding an unknown pill and telling her it could cure a terminal illness.

What was this if not messing around?

Was she trying to make her even more distraught?

“Mom, I’m not messing around.” Gao Ningning took a deep breath, looking directly into her mother’s distraught eyes. “The school I attend, the things they teach, you might not be able to understand. But this Medicinal Pill can really save Dad’s life.”

“I can’t understand? I really can’t understand!” Wang Xiufang waved her hand away, her movement so forceful that she almost knocked the wooden box to the ground.

“Explain it clearly to me! What kind of ghost school did you go to?! You couldn’t even make a proper phone call for a month, and you come back talking nonsense! Have you been deceived? Joined some pyramid scheme?!”

The sound of their argument woke Gao Haoming on the bed.

He slowly opened his eyes, looking at his arguing wife and daughter, and spoke weakly.

“Don’t… don’t argue…”

“Old Gao! You’re awake!” Wang Xiufang immediately turned around, tears streaming down her face. “Look at your daughter! She’s holding some pill from who knows where, saying it can cure your illness! She’s gone mad!”

Gao Haoming’s gaze passed over his wife and fell on his daughter.

He saw an unprecedented stubbornness and confidence on his daughter’s face.

That was not the fanaticism of someone deceived, nor the naivety of an ignorant young girl.

It was a kind of confident certainty.

“Ningning…” His voice was hoarse. “Bring it over, let me see.”

Gao Ningning immediately walked to the bedside and handed the wooden box to her father.

“Dad, do you believe me?”

Gao Haoming didn’t answer. He just looked into his daughter’s eyes for a long time.

Then, he spoke to Wang Xiufang.

“Help me up.”

“What are you going to do?” A premonition of dread rose in Wang Xiufang’s heart.

“Take the medicine.”

Gao Haoming’s voice was soft, yet it carried an undeniable resolve.

“You’re crazy! Gao Haoming, you’re going crazy with her too!” Wang Xiufang completely broke down. She grabbed her husband’s arm. “The doctor said you can’t eat random things! This will kill you!”

“Anyway… I won’t live much longer.” Gao Haoming forced a grim smile. “Just consider it, fulfilling my daughter’s last wish.”

He knew he was dying.

Instead of waiting for death in pain and despair, he might as well trust his daughter once.

Even if it was fake, if it made her feel better, it was worth it.

Wang Xiufang’s strength was instantly drained.

She let go, slumped into the chair, covered her face with her hands, and let out suppressed sobs.

She felt that her husband had given up.

He no longer believed in science, no longer believed in treatment, but chose to end his life in this absurd way.

Gao Ningning helped her father up and gently placed the Rejuvenation Pill into his cracked lips.

The Medicinal Pill melted instantly upon entering his mouth.

A warm, gentle current, slid down his throat into his abdomen, then rapidly spread throughout his limbs and body.

A flicker of surprise crossed Gao Haoming’s cloudy eyes.

That was not pain, nor an illusion.

It was a long-lost, extremely comfortable feeling.

Like a parched, withered field thoroughly soaked by spring rain.

His tense body slowly relaxed, a look of contentment appeared on his face, and then he fell into a deep sleep.

His breathing became steady and long.

Wang Xiufang looked at her husband’s “peaceful” sleeping face, and her despair reached its peak.

She felt that everything was over… Early the next morning.

The first ray of sunlight shone through the window into the hospital room.

Wang Xiufang, slumped by the bed, woke up groggily, and habitually looked at the heart rate monitor next to her.

Then, she froze completely.

On the screen, the curve representing the heartbeat was steady and strong.

The various data next to it—

Heart rate: 75.

Blood pressure: 120/80.

Blood oxygen saturation: 98%.

Every single number was incredibly normal!

“The… the machine is broken?”

This was Wang Xiufang’s first thought.

She tremblingly reached out, unplugged the instrument, and then plugged it back in.

Restarting.

The screen flickered a few times, and the data displayed was exactly the same as before.

How was that possible!

Last night, her husband’s heart rate had been hovering below fifty, and his blood pressure was terrifyingly low.

She stubbornly pulled off the pulse oximeter clip connected to her husband’s finger and clipped it onto her own hand.

The data immediately changed to hers.

She clipped it back.

The data reverted to the perfectly normal values, like something out of a textbook.

“Doctor! Doctor!”

Wang Xiufang rushed out of the room like a madwoman, yelling down the corridor.

Soon, the on-duty doctor and nurses rushed over at the sound.

“What’s wrong, family member? What happened to the patient?” the doctor asked sternly.

“Doctor, quickly look! This instrument! Is there something wrong with it?!” Wang Xiufang pointed at the monitor, incoherent.

The doctor walked over with a frown, glanced at the data on the screen, then at yesterday’s records in the medical chart, and his expression also became strange.

He put down the medical chart, took the stethoscope from his neck, and placed the cold probe on Gao Haoming’s chest.

The hospital room was eerily quiet.

Everyone held their breath, watching the doctor.

One second.

Two seconds.

Ten seconds.

The doctor’s expression changed from confusion to shock, and finally to utter disbelief.

He looked up at Wang Xiufang and Gao Ningning, his mouth opened and closed, and it took him a long time to squeeze out a sentence.

“The patient’s heartbeat…”

“Steady, strong… This, this is practically the heartbeat of a twenty-year-old young man!”