Urban Martial Saint

Seeing Yuan Xiaozheng like this, everyone couldn’t help but laugh.

Zhou Hongxia laughed and said, ”You can come back once a week, but Qingzi only comes back every few months. Of course, we have to take care of Qingzi first. Besides, haven’t you always wanted your brother to come back and teach you some martial arts? Well, your brother is back today, so why aren’t you happy?”

Yuan Xiaozheng also laughed, ”Of course I’m happy, but if you didn’t come to pick me up, how could I be happy? I’m very clear-cut about things; what’s to be happy about is happy, what’s not to be happy about is obviously not happy.”

”You’re turning against us, talking about what’s what.” Yuan Xiaoyu laughed and kicked Yuan Xiaozheng, saying, ”Enough, don’t waste time on a child. Brother has been busy since he got back, he must be hungry, let’s start eating.”

”Right, right, I almost forgot.” Zhou Hongxia hurriedly invited Ye Qing to sit at the table, acting like she was the host here.

Ye Qing invited his father, Ye Changwen, to the main seat. Since Zhou Hongxia was a bit older, she naturally sat next to Ye Changwen. As for him and Old Fifth Yang, they sat on either side, while Yuan Xiaozheng and Yuan Xiaoyu sat at the lower seats.

Just as everyone sat down, Old Fifth Yang called for the food to be served. Ye Qing and Old Fifth Yang hadn’t seen each other for quite a while, and after two bottles of wine, Old Fifth Yang was a bit tipsy, but Ye Qing still felt nothing.

Ye Qing could tell that Old Fifth Yang had something he wanted to say. But since Ye Changwen was here, he couldn’t speak up. So after dinner, Ye Qing asked Yuan Xiaoyu to take the family members home first, while he stayed to sit with Old Fifth Yang for a while.

They sat in Old Fifth Yang’s office on the third floor, with two cups of tea. Old Fifth Yang didn’t speak, he lit a cigarette and smoked slowly, his expression showing that he had something on his mind.

”Fifth Brother, did something happen?” Ye Qing looked at Old Fifth Yang and asked, ”Is it the new district construction? What were those people doing this morning? It seemed like they wanted to obstruct your project.”

”It’s not a big deal.” Old Fifth Yang shook his head and said, ”It’s a construction company from the city. They were competing with me for the new district construction project, but when they didn’t win the bid, they’ve held a grudge ever since. All this time, they’ve been causing trouble on my end, but it hasn’t really affected anything. Like last time you came back, that He Biao was hired by those people to go against me, trying to hinder the new district construction. Luckily, last time you came back and dealt with He Biao and his lot. But the construction company still won’t give up; they paid to hire people from the neighboring village to try and block my construction.”

”This is a county project, how can they obstruct it?” Ye Qing asked curiously.

”Ah, doing construction now isn’t that easy. Although it’s a county project, working on someone else’s turf, how can you not bow down?” Old Fifth Yang said, ”Not to mention anything else, just the matter of construction, large trucks come in and out daily to transport cement and steel bars, inevitably passing through their village. But you know, if large trucks are overweight, they can easily damage the road surface. They’re using that point to say we damaged their road, and they’ve detained several of our vehicles, not allowing us to pass through their village. I’ve talked to them several times, but there was no way around it. After a few incidents, this matter was somewhat resolved. However, I had to sign an agreement with them, stating our trucks would no longer pass through their village. Because of this, I even built a new road specially for transporting goods.”

Ye Qing sighed too, he didn’t expect that doing a construction project would be so difficult, with obstacles everywhere. No wonder Old Fifth Yang seemed to have aged a lot over the past six months; he really worried himself sick over the new district construction.

”Today, in that place, about fifty meters east is the boundary line we set. The people in that village seem to go crazy, not allowing my trucks to cross the line, nor any other vehicles, not even taxis. This morning, they even came over the line to make trouble.” Old Fifth Yang said, ”Later, I thought about it and guessed they found out about my cooperation with the Lin Corporation from Shenchuan City, so they wanted to obstruct our cooperation. You know, the Lin Corporation’s inspection team is about to come over. These people started acting up even more fiercely, wanting to hinder this cooperation.”

”What are you planning to do?” Ye Qing asked, ”This isn’t a good situation. When the Lin Corporation inspection team arrives, the investment environment might affect their evaluation results.”

”I’ve already thought it through; before handing over this project, I need to resolve this matter completely.” Old Fifth Yang took a deep breath of his cigarette and said, ”The construction of the new district is my biggest project. No matter what, I must complete this project!”

Ye Qing stared at Old Fifth Yang for a moment. When Old Fifth Yang said these words, his tone and demeanor had a sense of determination that was indescribable, completely unlike his previous confidence. What on earth happened to make him like this?

”Fifth Brother, you just said this matter is not a big deal, so is there something else going on?” Ye Qing asked.

Old Fifth Yang glanced at Ye Qing, then bowed his head to smoke another cigarette without a word. After smoking two cigarettes in a row, he finally sighed and said in a low voice, ”Ye Zi, I’m afraid I don’t have much time left.”

”Huh?” Ye Qing was taken aback, looking at Old Fifth Yang in astonishment and said, ”Fifth Brother, what are you talking about? What do you mean by not having much time left? What’s happened?”

”Last month, I went to the hospital for a check-up.” Old Fifth Yang took a deep breath, his lips clearly trembling: ”It’s advanced lung cancer.”

”What!?” Ye Qing suddenly stood up, looking at Old Fifth Yang in shock and urgency, ”How... how is that possible? Could the test be wrong? The results from our local hospitals aren’t reliable. You should go to the provincial hospitals for further examination...”

”I know.” Old Fifth Yang said softly, ”After I received this news, I immediately went to several hospitals in the province for a thorough examination. I even went to the Capital to check with a specialized hospital, and all the results were the same.”

Ye Qing was stunned, after so many hospital examinations, it was already a confirmed fact. In other words, Old Fifth Yang truly has lung cancer. No wonder this time back, he looks so much older and worn-out. It’s mostly the physical stress.

”What did the doctors say?” After a long silence, Ye Qing asked softly, his voice tinged with sadness. Although he didn’t have a great impression of Old Fifth Yang before, he had to admit that Old Fifth Yang was very loyal to his friends. Among Ye Qing’s family, Old Fifth Yang took great care of them. When Ye Qing was in trouble in Shenchuan City, Old Fifth Yang even sent his best men to aid him, so Ye Qing also thought of him as a friend. Hearing now about his advanced lung cancer, it really hurt Ye Qing too.

”Advanced lung cancer, what more could the doctors say?” Old Fifth Yang smiled wryly and said, ”With good control, I could live for two years. If not controlled well, maybe not even a year.”

Ye Qing’s expression grew darker. Listening to these words made his heart very heavy because this was his friend after all.

”Haha, I suddenly remembered what that monk said last time.” Old Fifth Yang laughed and said, ”Do you remember? Last time you came back, when we were having dinner together, a crazy monk suddenly showed up and ruined our meal. At that time, the monk said I wouldn’t live for more than three years. Ah, that monk was quite accurate. Looking at this lung cancer situation, I might really not live for more than three years!”

Ye Qing certainly remembered that monk because that monk was Shijia. Although Shijia had tricked Ye Qing several times, he admittedly had real skills. Now thinking back carefully, the things Shijia said might have been prophecies. Could it be that Old Fifth Yang really wouldn’t live for three years?

The Acupoint Seeking Technique didn’t have any record of cancer treatment methods. It wasn’t clear whether An Shiping hadn’t found it or whether the Acupoint Seeking Technique was incomplete. Anyway, when Ye Qing read the Acupoint Seeking Technique, it always felt like something was missing. Although Ye Qing fully understood the content of the Acupoint Seeking Technique, he couldn’t cure cancer either.

The second thing Ye Qing thought of was the Ziyu Chenxiang Pill, but its greatest effect was in healing wounds and detoxifying. As for cancer, Ye Qing had also asked Shen Tianjun before, who said it couldn’t be treated. This meant it was impossible to save Old Fifth Yang with the Ziyu Chenxiang Pill.

Seeing Ye Qing not speaking, Old Fifth Yang chuckled lightly and said, ”Alright, you don’t have to be like this. As the saying goes, people are destined to die. In my lifetime, I’ve experienced great ups and downs, seen all kinds of things. Even if I die, it won’t be a life wasted, so there’s no need to be sad.”

Ye Qing looked at Old Fifth Yang and said, ”You’ve got lung cancer and you’re still smoking?”

”I’ve got lung cancer, why not smoke?” Old Fifth Yang laughed, ”Quitting smoking is to avoid this disease, but look at me now, already having lung cancer, should I quit now? Ah, I’ve thought it over. In the last period of my life, I might as well not make myself suffer too much, eat what I want, drink what I want, and smoke what I want. Otherwise, if I die later, wouldn’t that be a big loss?”

”You really do take things lightly.” Ye Qing smiled bitterly and said, ”Since you’re so open-minded, why are you still so concerned about the new district construction? Making so much money, you can’t take it with you. Why worry so much about it?”

”I just wanted to tell you about this!” Old Fifth Yang put out his cigarette and looked at Ye Qing seriously, saying, ”Ye Zi, do you know that I have a daughter?”