After leaving the hospital, Qin Yongping went to the police station with Zhou Qingqing to handle the paperwork. Once he successfully received the compensation he was due, he headed back to school.
Inside the dormitory, the usual quiet atmosphere was suddenly broken by a gasp of astonishment from Fourth Brother out on the balcony.
"Oh my god! You guys, come look right now. Am I losing my mind? Third Brother is actually walking side by side with a total babe!" Fourth Brother yelled, his eyes wide with utter disbelief.
Hearing the shout, Li Jianfeng, who had been burying his head in a video game, instantly dropped his mouse and bolted toward the balcony like an arrow released from a bow, stretching his neck to peer outside. When he saw the scene unfold before him, his jaw dropped so wide he could have stuffed an egg in it: "Is... is this really our good old Third Brother? Didn't he swear up and down that he had zero interest in dating? Who would've thought he'd be the very first guy in our dorm to break the ice! No wonder he didn't come back to sleep in the dorm last night."
Nearby, Liu Chunyang wailed in bitter indignation: "Oh mama, this world is just too unfair! Take a look at how drop-dead gorgeous, suave, and dashing I am—how come not a single pretty girl ever bothers to give me the time of day? Where is the justice in this world? Why on earth is this happening to me?" He wore an expression of grievance as if he had suffered the greatest injustice in the universe.
Meanwhile, downstairs by the dormitory building, Zhou Qingqing smiled as she exchanged phone numbers with Qin Yongping, gently urging him: "Remember to take good care of yourself and rest up. Make sure your wound doesn't get wet, and apply the medicine on schedule, understand?"
Qin Yongping nodded repeatedly. "Got it, I'll remember all of that! Thank you so much!" With that, he turned and walked toward the dorm building.
The moment Qin Yongping stepped through the dormitory door, he was intercepted by Li Jianfeng, who had been waiting for him. Li Jianfeng crossed his arms, looked at Qin Yongping with a mischievous grin, and said, "Hehehe, Third Brother, time to come clean! Confession brings leniency, resistance brings severity!"
"What are you talking about? You're completely out of your mind!" Qin Yongping muttered, a look of dissatisfaction and puzzlement crossing his face as he walked straight into the room without looking back.
The dorm was buzzing with lively energy. Fourth Brother's sharp eyes spotted the newcomer instantly, and he rushed right up to tease him: "Well, well, look who's back! Who would've thought, my boy—you've really gone and done it! You managed to hook a total goddess without saying a peep, and now you're standing here playing dumb! Out with it now, who exactly is that beauty? And where on earth did the two of you spend such a romantic night together last night? Hehehe..."
Hearing this, the others crowded around as well, all chiming in and making a racket at once.
Hearing all this chatter, Qin Yongping finally dawned on what these guys were going on about. He shook his head helplessly and gave a wry smile. "Oh come on, you guys have got your imaginations running wild! It's nothing like that at all. She's just a girl I happened to run into yesterday. I just happened to cross paths with her when she was in a bit of a jam, so I casually lent a hand. There was an accident, and I ended up spending the night in the hospital. It really isn't as complicated as you're making it out to be."
"No way, that's awesome! You're practically my hero! You manage to get yourself hospitalized within a single day, and then you two even went to the police station to handle the aftermath—how on earth did you manage to be so careless?" Fourth Brother looked at him with endless, roaring rivers of admiration. Hearing this, the rest of the guys swarmed around like a tidal wave to join in the teasing.
Qin Yongping rubbed his temples in exasperation and sighed, "Why are your minds in the gutter?"
With that, Qin Yongping gave everyone a brief account of how he had gotten injured yesterday, omitting, of course, any mention of the jade pendant pendant.
"Just like that? Nothing else? For real?" Fourth Brother stared at him with suspicion, as if looking at a creature from another planet.
"You call that simple? To me, that's a classic case of a hero saving the damsel in distress! Zhou Qingqing must be so completely infatuated with Third Brother that she's dying to offer herself to him in return," Li Jianfeng mused thoughtfully, looking as though he were savoring a fine, aged wine.
"Fourth Brother, we've got to step up our game... By the way, is Third Brother completely okay? It was a knife wound, after all."
"I'm totally fine. I'll make a full recovery after resting for a few days. The freshmen orientation gala is tomorrow—what are you guys aiming for?" Qin Yongping asked calmly.
"No targets yet, but we should have some after the gala. After all, the gala's bound to be crawling with beauties," Fourth Brother said, his face full of eager anticipation.
Late into the night, after everyone had fallen asleep, Qin Yongping focused his mind, and his consciousness slipped into the jade pendant space. "Elder Guo, is there any difference between cultivating inside the jade pendant space and cultivating in the outside world?"
"There isn't any real difference. This space is also a miniature world of its own, except that for now, the only area you can move around in is a ten-meter radius," the artifact spirit replied.
"That's good enough. I might as well cultivate right in here from now on; it's not very convenient out there," Qin Yongping said, and immediately began his cultivation. After completing ten circulation cycles, Qin Yongping sensed a bottleneck approaching, so he stopped and returned to the outside world, thinking to himself: "I'll be reaching Foundation Establishment soon, so I need to gather the medicinal ingredients as quickly as possible. Raw rehmannia root, cooked rehmannia, oxachee, and Chinese yam shouldn't be too hard to find, but in this day and age, a century-old wild polygonum multiflorum isn't easy to come by! Looks like I'll have to ask Master..."
He checked his phone—it was already past seven. After a quick wash, he headed to the cafeteria for breakfast with his three roommates before walking to classes. Once the new textbooks were distributed today, the rest of the time was free. Qin Yongping took a ride straight to the Medical Hall.
"Master, there's something I'd like to ask you. Do you happen to know how much a century-old polygonum multiflorum costs?" Qin Yongping asked after greeting Elder Guo with a bow.
"A century-old polygonum multiflorum is priceless, and since demand far exceeds supply, the markup is huge. What do you need it for?" Elder Guo asked kindly.
"I need it for myself. My cultivation requires it," Qin Yongping answered respectfully.
Hearing this, Elder Guo fixed his eyes on Qin Yongping, looking him up and down carefully. Then he burst into a happy laugh.
"Hahaha! Not bad, not bad at all—you absolute monster! I haven't seen you in a few days, and you've already reached Peak Qi Refining Level 9, just a single step away from Foundation Establishment! Given that you'd already passed the optimal age for cultivation, I only intended to teach you medicine, but I never expected this—truly, I never expected this. You must have encountered some incredible stroke of fortune. Everyone has their own secrets, so I won't press you on the specifics. As for the century-old polygonum multiflorum, our Medical Hall happens to have one in stock, and as your master, I'll gift it to you."
"Master, thank you so much! So you are a cultivator as well—you're also at Peak Qi Refining Level 9," Qin Yongping said in astonishment as he sensed Elder Guo's cultivation level.
"That's right. Cultivation is meant to help one practice medicine more effectively; many of the treatment methods in our school rely on true qi to be performed. As for Fuer... well, that's a long story! Now that you've reached Peak Qi Refining Level 9, you're qualified to know certain things. It all started eighteen years ago..."