45: Li Youtiao's Downfall and the "Miracle Doctor's" Wealth

The scorching steam had already hit Wang Fugui's back with a "sizzle," causing his work uniform to curl up instantly. Chen Yun, in his arms, could clearly feel the man's grip tighten around her.

"The valve! The manual valve!"

The Master Craftsman, hiding behind a pillar, was still screaming in despair.

Wang Fugui's head buzzed. He didn't understand valves, but he knew if this thing kept spraying, the entire workshop would be finished. If the workshop was finished, there would be no work, and if there was no work, he wouldn't earn any money.

He carefully placed Chen Yun behind a sturdy concrete pillar, which was temporarily shielded from the steam.

"Stay here. Don't move."

His voice sounded a bit muffled as he endured the searing pain on his back.

Chen Yun had sprained her ankle and couldn't stand up at all. She could only watch Wang Fugui's mountain-like back as he plunged into the thick white mist of high-temperature steam—steam hot enough to soften steel—without the slightest hesitation.

"Wang Fugui!"

Her scream was drowned out by the terrifying "hissing" sound.

All the workers who hadn't escaped the workshop yet stopped in their tracks, watching the scene in horror.

"Is he crazy? He'll be scalded to death in there!"

"My god, this man has a death wish!"

In everyone's eyes, Wang Fugui's figure was swallowed by the dense steam almost instantly, vanishing from sight.

Wang Fugui couldn't see or hear anything. Relying only on the direction the Master Craftsman had pointed, he strode forward against the heatwave that was enough to melt skin. The fabric on his body had completely carbonized, emitting a burnt smell and sticking tightly to his skin. Yet he felt no pain, only heat—intense heat that reminded him of the stove at home during a summer noon.

Finally, he felt something cold and massive with a wheel. This was it!

He reached out and grabbed the giant red wheel.

"Sizzle~"

The sound of roasting meat rose, accompanied by the smell of charred protein. A puff of white smoke erupted between his palms and the scalding valve.

Wang Fugui had no time for that. He only felt that the heat made his strength surge. With a roar, his muscles tensed, and the veins on his arms bulged like knotted ropes as he poured all his strength into his arms.

"Move... for... me!"

The massive valve, which hadn't been turned for years and was rusted shut, let out a tooth-gritting "creak." Under his brute force, it actually began to turn inch by inch.

As the valve closed, the gushing steam weakened at a visible rate until it eventually turned into a faint, powerless wisp of white smoke.

The workshop fell into a deathly silence.

As the steam gradually dissipated, Wang Fugui's figure reappeared before everyone.

He was soaked through, his clothes in tatters. His back, in particular, was unrecognizable, looking like burnt rags. He stood there stiffly, looking around as if wondering why everyone had stopped working.

The piercing siren of an ambulance approached from afar, breaking the eerie silence.

Several medical staff in white coats rushed in, shouting, "Where is the injured person?"

Everyone's fingers pointed tremblingly at the man who was still standing there in a daze.

"I'm fine," Wang Fugui waved his hand, wanting to tell them not to bother.

Just as he was about to take a step, his arm was gripped tightly by a soft but firm hand. It was Chen Yun. She hopped over on one foot, her face covered in tears and terror.

"Don't move! You must go to the hospital!"

On the other side, Lin Xiaocao also rushed over, clutching his other arm. She was crying so hard she couldn't speak, only shaking her head repeatedly.

"Brother, please, go to the hospital and get checked out."

Wang Fugui's head was spinning. He felt perfectly fine, just hungry. But being held by these two women on either side, he didn't know how to use his strength. Ultimately, under everyone's complex gazes, he was semi-forcibly lifted onto a stretcher.

Just then, the factory director rushed in with several security guards, his combover hair in disarray.

"Lock down the workshop! No one is allowed to touch anything!" the factory director roared. His small eyes scanned the room, finally landing on the pale-faced Li Fried Dough Stick.

"I'm going to check the surveillance footage right now to see which bastard did this!"

Hearing about the surveillance, Li Fried Dough Stick's legs went weak. He knew those cameras were just empty shells, but the factory director's intensity was clearly meant to bluff him. He quickly made an excuse: "Director, it must be the aging machinery! That German model has been around for so many years..."

"Bullshit!" An old fitter who usually kept quiet suddenly stood up, pointing at Li Fried Dough Stick's nose and cursing, "I saw you sneakily messing with the control panel with my own eyes! I thought you were inspecting it!"

"Yes! I saw it too!" another young worker gathered the courage to chime in.

With both witnesses and evidence present, Li Fried Dough Stick's defense seemed weak and hollow.

The factory director's face turned the color of pig liver. He pointed at Li Fried Dough Stick, his finger trembling: "Fired! Fired immediately! Security, drag him out! The factory reserves the right to pursue legal action and financial compensation!"

Two security guards stepped forward and, like dragging a dead dog, hauled the limp Li Fried Dough Stick outside.

As he was being dragged out of the workshop door, Li Fried Dough Stick turned back and glared at Wang Fugui, who had already been loaded into the ambulance. The malice in his eyes was almost tangible.

City Hospital, Emergency Room.

A doctor wearing a mask solemnly cut away the clothes and pant legs on Wang Fugui's back. The fabric had fused with the flesh. The doctor prepared saline, ready to treat what he expected to be a gruesome, severe burn.

"Bear with it," the doctor warned.

Using tweezers, he carefully peeled back a small piece of charred fabric.

Then, he froze.

The expected bloody and oozing wound didn't appear. Beneath the fabric was perfectly intact, healthy bronze skin, with only a faint, even redness and not a single blister.

The doctor couldn't believe it and peeled back a larger piece. The result was the same.

He took off his mask, leaned in for a closer look, and poked the red skin. It felt firm and elastic.

"Does this... not hurt?"

Wang Fugui shook his head. "It's a bit itchy."

The doctor fell into deep thought. He looked at Wang Fugui's body, which was as sturdy as a young bull, then at the tweezers in his hand, and muttered to himself, "Is your skin made of rhino hide?"

The Emergency Room door burst open with a "bang."

Chen Yun and Lin Xiaocao limped in.

They immediately saw Wang Fugui sitting on the hospital bed, crunching on a large apple. A young nurse had given it to him after he kept complaining about being hungry and she had no other choice.

Both sighed in relief simultaneously, but then the extreme fear they had suppressed surged back like a tide.

Chen Yun was the first to approach the bed, her voice still trembling slightly: "The wound... let me see."

Ignoring the doctor's presence, she reached out her slender, cold fingers and gently brushed them across Wang Fugui's hard pectoral muscles. That area had also been singed by the edge of the steam, showing a faint redness.

The coolness of her fingertips made Wang Fugui shiver, and that familiar, numbing orchid fragrance wafted into his nose again.

He looked up, meeting Chen Yun's misty eyes. In them was a mix of heartache, fear, and something hot and indefinable.

"Don't risk your life like that next time," Chen Yun said in a low, seductive voice. "You're a deputy supervisor now, not a suicide squad member."

These words were both a show of concern and a declaration.

Watching Chen Yun's hand wandering over Wang Fugui's chest, Lin Xiaocao's face flushed red, and a surge of jealousy hit her.

She stomped her foot and intentionally shouted loud enough for the entire clinic to hear:

"Brother! I need to pee!"

That earth-shattering shout successfully broke the damn ambiguous atmosphere. Chen Yun's hand retracted as if she'd been electrocuted. Wang Fugui also snapped out of it, scratched his head, and asked honestly, "Huh? Oh, where's the bathroom?"

Ultimately, with the doctor's conclusion of "incredible constitution, a medical miracle," Wang Fugui was asked to stay overnight for observation.

The factory director arrived at the ward in person and tightly grasped Wang Fugui's unharmed hand.

"Fugui! On behalf of the entire factory, I thank you! From today on, you are the official deputy supervisor of the Forging Workshop!"

He excitedly patted Wang Fugui's shoulder: "The factory has decided to assign you Unit 301 in the staff dormitory building! The kind with a private bathroom!"

Great! Now Little Grass wouldn't have to hold her pee in the middle of the night and run all the way to that dark, smelly public toilet!

...The night was deep, and the ambiguous pink lights of a hair salon illuminated the filthy back alley.

The fired Li Fried Dough Stick, reeking of alcohol, leaned wobbling against a wall. He stuffed a stack of crumpled bills into the hand of a hoodlum who was as thin as a bamboo pole.

The hoodlum chuckled and took an inconspicuous small glass bottle from his pocket, handing it over.

"Brother Stick, this is good stuff. It's colorless and tasteless; just one drop does the trick."

Li Fried Dough Stick snatched the bottle, unscrewed the cap, and sniffed it. Indeed, there was no smell.

He grinned malevolently, tightened the cap, and put it in his inner pocket. He muttered incoherently:

"Hehe... Chen Yun... you slut..."

He stared at the bottle in his hand as if he could already see a certain sordid scene, a morbid and crazed smile appearing on his face.