The second and third moves, he still doesn't dare to try yet. He's afraid that if he slips up, he'll end up giving himself osteoporosis.

Of course, there's another, even more important reason.

These past few days, he's been feeling full of energy. After taking a sip of the chicken soup from Eighth Uncle-Master Ancestor—which should be seriously harmful to the living, packed with powerful yin, cold, and corpse qi—he still felt especially comfortable.

This Strengthening Bone Pill, although its main function is to strengthen bones, anything brewed up by Medicine King Mountain has never just had one effect. What they're about is unblocking the whole body, balancing inside and out. Getting stronger also has to happen under balanced conditions.

The medicine travels through the Liver and Kidney Meridians, using wood and water as its base, mobilizing the whole body, so naturally, some side effects come out here and there.

Wen Yan took too many, so his internal heat got a bit too strong. When he takes things with heavy yin and cold, he actually feels clear and refreshed.

So, Wen Yan decided to take two fewer pills, and bring the last one over to Zhang Xuewen.

He'd already checked—Strengthening Bone Pills work great for people with bone injuries, as long as they're getting enough nutrition, it'll speed up recovery.

But for regular martial artists, you can only take at most a fifth of a pill at a time. For ordinary people, you'll need a different formula.

At the hospital, Zhang Xuewen is lying in bed, gnawing on an apple, looking downright rosy.

His wife Lu Lu is sitting next to him, engrossed in a book.

As soon as she sees Wen Yan, she stands up at once, gives a proper greeting, and then goes off to wash an apple for Wen Yan.

Wen Yan grabs a square stool, sits next to the bed, and gives Zhang Xuewen a good once-over.

"How is it? Living the life, huh?"

"Oh yeah, this is great. Way more comfortable than being home. This bed is just the right toughness... very nice..."

Zhang Xuewen grins from ear to ear, but halfway through, suddenly chokes up and glances at Wen Yan's hand.

"Your phone's in your pocket, right?"

"Yeah, why? You don't seriously think I'm bored enough to record you every day, do you?"

Zhang Xuewen nods, falls silent.

These days he's been bored out of his mind, so he snuck over to the internal forum of Nanwu County Scorching Sun Department to poke around.

And then, he noticed that Minister Cai's ghostly remix recordings are an absolute sensation.

Technically, stuff like that should totally be deleted.

But every single time, the posts come out after work in the evenings, which happens to be when everyone's free. The forum admin's a part-timer, too—a typical "off work? Not my problem. On the clock? I come down hard."

Every day, as soon as office hours start, the social channel is squeaky clean. But once it hits ten at night, the party gets going.

Then, Zhang Xuewen notices these folks have strikingly consistent stories: ask them, and they'll say it's the original recording from Wen Yan, and everyone just edits their own remixes. If something breaks the forum rules, "I'll just delete it later."

Wen Yan has a history of recording people—he even dared to record Minister Cai, and turned it into a ghostly ringtone.

So, if Wen Yan's recording in front of him, he'd definitely have no problem selling it straight to his wife.

Zhang Xuewen weighs his words carefully, staying wary of sensitive topics. For anything else, he'll chat casually, but bring up anything touchy, and his guard shoots up at once.

After a while, Wen Yan just sighs helplessly.

"Talk about wasted good intentions. I even brought you medicine! Would I really be so bored as to record you? My phone's almost out of space as it is."

Right then, Lu Lu comes walking in with a washed apple, and some other fruit too.

"Brother Wen, have some fruit."

Wen Yan pulls out a small porcelain bottle, thinks for a second, and hands it directly to Lu Lu.

"Strengthening Bone Pills, made by Senior Sun from Medicine King Mountain. The medicinal power is way too strong, he might not be able to handle it. This one pill—divide it into at least ten doses, best to take it once every three days."

"Ah, thank you, Brother Wen." Lu Lu beams in surprise. She doesn't even ask which Senior Sun—half the direct line at Medicine King Mountain has the surname Sun anyway. Since he's called senior, he must be a big shot you can hardly ever meet.

Zhang Xuewen gets the sneaking feeling there's something fishy here, but now he can only dryly say thanks.

Wen Yan leans in close and whispers in his ear.

"This medicine works especially well for strengthening bones when combined with Tiger's Tremor. Without it, for most people, it's a ferocious tonic—more for supplementing kidney water and nourishing the liver meridian. Don't thank me."

With that, Wen Yan takes off.

Once Wen Yan leaves, Lu Lu sits at the bedside, face full of concern.

"What did Brother Wen say? He was being all mysterious."

"Brother Wen said, I have to take the pill along with Tiger's Tremor, otherwise it's too strong and I should be careful not to hurt myself."

"Your injuries are that bad? You need medicine too?" Lu Lu looks worried.

"Not that kind of ferocious medicine!"

"You know Tiger's Tremor? I remember that's an advanced technique in Tiger Style."

"Nope, I didn't even major in the Five Animal Forms..."

At that, the two suddenly fall silent. Lu Lu looks worried, thinks for a moment, then suddenly puts a hand on Zhang Xuewen's chest—with a muffled thud, the steel hospital bed gives a loud creak, like it's about to fall apart. With her other hand, she does the "Monkey Steals the Peach" move.

"Looks like you really have been behaving. No sneaking food or handling things yourself."

The sneak attack scares Zhang Xuewen so badly his face goes pale and every muscle tenses up, cold sweat breaking out on the back of his head.

When Lu Lu sees Zhang Xuewen's face turn white, she hurriedly pulls her hand back.

"Ah, sorry, honey, I forgot you're still injured."

"It's... it's fine. Since when did you learn that move?"

"Huh? Didn't you know I've always been able to do that?"

"..."

This time, Zhang Xuewen is sweating so hard his whole back feels cold.

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