The Living Buddha of Ten Thousand Homes

"Xu Bo's ruthlessness surprised even me," Huo Xuan admitted. "Without your intervention, I'd be corpse-chilled. Name the debt."

Zhang Wu's gaze dissected Huo's resolve. "Drop the formalities. Hua Buyi owns my pulse. His apprenticeship offer? A millennium's fortune condensed into this moment."

"His mastery's evident," Huo Xuan conceded. "The decision brews."

"Medical skills are but Hua's surface layer," Zhang Wu leaned closer. "The Chen Fushens of this world won't qualify to polish your shoes post-apprenticeship."

Huo Xuan's carotid throbbed. Outranking a district chief's son through medical training?

The elevator chimed its arrival. Zhang Wu pressed a blackened steel card into Huo's palm. "Burn this number into memory."

The card vanished into Huo's wallet as he exited.

The reunion's remnants clustered in gossiping pods—Zhou Hong and Liu Ting conspicuously absent.

Lin Yue detached from Ma Baorui's conversation, her smile tightening at Huo's approach. "All stabilized?"

"Met an... old acquaintance." Huo Xuan's evasion slithered through clenched teeth.

Feline curiosity won. "Since when does Zhang Wu count among your social circle?"

"Hua Buyi. Physician." Huo Xuan's clipped response hung like surgical gauze.

Lin Yue's hand flew to her mouth. "Hua the Divine Physician? The Living Buddha who saved entire villages?"

Huo Xuan's brow furrowed at Lin Yue's reverence. "Living Buddha of Ten Thousand Homes?"

"The mysterious healer you mentioned—it's him, isn't it?" Lin Yue exhaled slowly.

Huo Xuan's silence became tacit confirmation.

"Beijing's elite whisper his miracles," Lin Yue leaned closer. "No ailment defies him. Ten thousand lives saved across provinces—medical sects crown him Living Buddha."

Across the room, Chen Fusheen's narrowed eyes tracked their whispers. What unholy alliance binds this pauper to Hua Buyi?

Chen's district chief father owed his position to a provincial father-in-law. Childhood nights at his grandparents' knee were filled with Hua Buyi's legends.

Not medical prowess, but the nuclear-grade influence behind Hua Buyi's name chilled Chen's spine.

Grandfather's story echoed: A national leader's grandson fell ill. When Western medicine failed, they summoned Hua Buyi.

But Hua was treating a peasant's gangrene. Impatient, the leader dispatched armed guards to abduct him.

Outcome is guards lost their badges. The leader received Politburo-level reprimands. Hua finished the peasant's treatment first.

Beijing's elite gasped as the leader kowtowed at Hua's clinic. The grandson's cure birthed an unlikely alliance.

Thus Chen knew: Hua Buyi's threadbare coat concealed power to topple dynasties.

How does gutter trash like Huo Xuan merit Hua Buyi's courtesy? Chen's mind reeled. Elder Li's audience? Impossible calculus.

Huo Xuan's connection to Zhang Wu had barely registered—a local gangster's influence paled against bureaucratic armor.

Outlaws remain outlaws—in this land, no gangster outmuscles bureaucracy.

But Hua Buyi's shadow transformed Huo into an equation requiring urgent solving.

Chen's political instincts, honed through years of navigating his father's career minefields, had revitalized his mother's textile firm into profitability within eighteen months.

"Huo Xuan!" Chen's smile oozed camellia oil smoothness. "Your radiance illuminates us all. A reciprocal banquet awaits—and congratulations on securing Lin Yue's peerless beauty."

Their rivalry had been aesthetic distaste, not blood feud—Chen's olive branch was strategically prudent.

"Your words suffice." Huo Xuan's frost-kissed tone preserved Ye Qian's memory like formaldehyde.

Crystal glasses chimed a ceasefire. The truce would birth no camaraderie.

Ma Baorui's meaty palm thumped Huo's shoulder. "Zhang Wu's patronage? The flock now cowers before the risen lamb!"

"Zhang Wu and I are passing acquaintances," Huo Xuan stated dispassionately.

Ma Baorui's chuckle rumbled. "You've slapped Hu Xiaohui's bitch-face into next week. Liu Ting and Zhou Hong slunk off like whipped curs—poetic justice!"

Huo Xuan kept silent, refusing to feed the gossip mill.

In their fleeing sedan, Zhou Hong hummed showtunes while Liu Ting sighed. "Your theatrics today baffle me."

"Impress Chen Fusheng—mission accomplished." Zhou Hong's smirk widened. "Huo Xuan? Small fry clinging to gangster coattails. Crushing ants requires no remorse."

"Must success come through trampling others?" Liu Ting's nails dug crescent moons into her palms.

"Cars? Villas? Pocket change!" Zhou Hong's eyes glinted obsidian. "I'll build empires that make Chen Fusheng grovel."

Liu Ting's docile nature sealed her lips. Another compromise added to the ledger of their relationship.

The reunion's second act unfolded predictably—bourbon-fueled salary comparisons, misty-eyed nostalgia for stolen classroom kisses.

Lin Yue's strategic proximity to Huo Xuan spawned envious whispers across the banquet hall.

Arm in arm, they entered Li Hu's waiting Mercedes.

Engine purring, Huo Xuan broke the silence: "Tonight's performance—thank you."

"Gratitude requires tangible expression." Lin Yue's eyelashes fluttered with calculated mischief.

"Name your price." Huo Xuan's jaw tightened. "Even if it means offering myself."

Lin Yue's laughter sparkled as she thumped his shoulder. "Keep your virtue intact, little brother."

Mirth fading, she straightened. "There is... a request."

Huo Xuan's posture mirrored her sudden solemnity. "Consider it done."

"My Father's old comrade in Jiucheng—shrapnel from '79. Rainy days torture him." Her fingers brushed Huo's sleeve. "Hua Buyi's grace..."

"I'll arrange it." The promise left his lips before rationale intervened.

Lin Yue's embrace carried jasmine and calculated affection.

"This UNCLE holds special significance?"

"He carried me piggyback through military compounds while Father served." Her smile turned wistful.

Huo Xuan nodded, mentally dissecting the general's ties to the Lin family—bound by more than ancestral alliance.

As the Mercedes halted at 5:00 PM sharp, Huo Xuan gripped the door handle. "Sister, let's visit Zhuang Wen's sister. Perhaps Master Hua can diagnose her condition."

Lin Yue's eyes gleamed. "Secure Zhuang's favor, and Jiangzhou's gates swing wide for us."

"What's the connection?" Huo Xuan's eyebrow arched.

"His father governs Jiangzhou." Her smile turned sardonic. "The city's golden boy, wouldn't you say?"

"That explains the political calculus," Huo Xuan murmured.