After sending Zhu Jinming and Luo Xintao back, even though both looked unwilling and sent pleading looks like children the whole way, Bai Fanxian didn't soften.
"Grandmaster Bai, tomorrow I'll bring my wife. Do I need another appointment?"
Before leaving, the middle-aged man suddenly remembered the original reason he'd traveled here. So he changed topics and asked Bai Fanxian seriously. Thinking it over, he felt lucky to have met Bai Fanxian from yesterday. If he'd hesitated and missed it, even wanting to meet her might not be possible later.
"No need... just bring her in the evening."
Bai Fanxian thought briefly before answering. She sent both people out. The moment they stepped outside the Border, both the atmosphere and comfortable feeling changed completely.
They looked at each other. One thought popped into their heads.
No matter what, they had to get her permission.
It might take some time, but if they showed sincerity, maybe someday she'd let them come walk around sometimes.
Both returned. But Bai Fanxian still looked out the window. Huang Zihuan's phone rang. The elderly butler excused himself to answer. Less than two minutes later he returned to his lady.
"...Does this concern me?"
Bai Fanxian didn't need to look to guess. It wasn't often the old man made this expression. Huang Zihuan laughed lightly.
"Yes... my lady. The Marshal called - Barbatos woke up."
"..."
Bai Fanxian went quiet. She looked at the sky gradually darkening. The last light of day had just disappeared from her sight. She was thinking whether she should go right now.
"...But the Marshal said there's a small problem. So tomorrow he'd like you to check."
Since he said that, then she'd go tomorrow.
Bai Fanxian understood well that Zhang Xianyuan himself had matters to handle. The military Marshal position definitely received pressure from many sides. So she didn't think to act selfishly without reason.
"Then let's close for a day tomorrow..."
Bai Fanxian's words were like a proclamation. The elderly butler bowed to receive the order. He excused himself to prepare for tomorrow's trip. Leaving only Bai Fanxian who was closing her eyes thinking about something.
.
.
.
The new morning arrived quickly. Because there was an example yesterday, those wanting to be one of Bai Fanxian's patients gathered at the clinic front even before dawn.
Some stood calmly. While others who arrived and found the crowd exceeded ten already sighed and returned disappointed.
Suddenly a car drove up. It didn't come close to the clinic but chose to park far away instead. The car window rolled down revealing the extremely ugly face of a man so fat that even the back seat was taken up by him alone in two seats.
"Hmph!... Did yesterday work?"
This man was the fat man who got blasted by Hui'er and lost his butler that day.
Because he couldn't do anything at the time, he held a grudge. When he got home, he contacted one of his father's contacts at the Ministry of Public Health for help.
Of course his father didn't know about this.
That was why the next day three officials traveled far just to inspect Bai Fanxian's clinic.
"...The vice minister hasn't called back at all, sir."
On his driver's side, a new butler had replaced the old one. He was a large man with a mustache and beard who looked scary. His answer made the fat man start feeling restless.
"Or did it fail?"
But that wasn't what he feared most. What he really dreaded was his father finding out about this.
"..."
Waiting for something with a heart worrying made him feel time passed extremely slowly. When he looked toward the beach, he saw the sun shining. He quickly wiped sweat that broke out even though the car's AC was cold, then asked his new butler:
"It's morning! If they still don't open, that means it worked, right?"
He looked happy and satisfied. But his butler corrected him.
"...Doesn't this clinic open at nine, sir?"
The truth from the butler's mouth made him freeze. He yelled several more words irritably. The butler had to quickly close the window fearing people in the distance would hear. Finally, when things started moving, it was actually almost nine AM.
Patients waiting looked hopefully at the elderly butler walking over. But when Huang Zihuan reached the door, they felt something strange.
Because instead of opening the clinic door or handing out queue tickets, he took out a paper sheet and stuck it on the door. He swept his eyes reading the sentences on that paper once to make sure nothing was missing. Huang Zihuan sighed one last time before stepping back.
The old man walked back toward the beach house without caring about interested people's gazes at all.
Seeing Huang Zihuan leave, patients waiting today rushed to crowd the door where that paper was. They all wondered what caused the elderly butler to have that attitude. Even the fat man who didn't care about anything rushed opening the door, dragging that bulky body squeezing in to read that paper too.
He swept his eyes up. There was only one sentence written there:
'Due to troublemakers causing disruption yesterday, closed today to rest and recover.'
...Did this mean it worked or not?
The fat man was about to celebrate. But he heard people around cursing angrily.
"What!? Someone messed with the Empress!?"
"Don't let me find out who did this!"
"...Poor Empress."
"Quick, contact Brother Yang! We need to gather!"
"Hunt them down! Whoever messes with the Empress goes through us first!"
Besides violent cursing, the fat man could sense intense power surging because of their rising and falling emotions. The large butler who'd just caught up even gulped loudly when sensing that power.
"Cultivators?"
"...I was gonna have the Empress treat this knife cut on my finger."
"Damn... it'll probably heal by tomorrow."
The fat man and butler heard sentences they were talking about and felt like they heard wrong. They didn't expect people would really pay tens of millions yuan to treat knife wounds at this clinic.
Especially cultivators. Those external wounds - just leaving them with their body nourished by the world's life force, they'd probably heal in less than a day without realizing.
"Even if I'm not Grandmaster Bai's fan, people making trouble till she closed affects us too!"
One man spoke irritably. Today he'd come early enough to definitely be in the top ten. But if the clinic didn't open, wouldn't this be a wasted trip?
"...Brother Yang contacted back. He said it's probably some ministry people."
While they were angry, a man picked up his phone and announced news to everyone.
The fat man hearing this flinched. How were their sources this fast? He quickly wiped sweat flowing like a waterfall then waddled back to the car. But before reaching it, a thick hand grabbed him.
"Where you going, little brother?"
The person asking was the same one who showed the finger wound earlier. But just his light grip easily prevented ordinary people from moving.
"Saw you waiting since early morning. Must've been rough."
That man chatted without noticing the fat man's breaking sweat. The large butler seeing his master's distress signal could only shake his head rapidly. While his eyes secretly glanced at the man who kept talking.
Peak Martial Master!
One more step and this man would be Grandmaster level. Even with two more lives, he still wouldn't match this man.
"So then, you'll help find whoever made trouble here too, right?"
"Uh... well..."
Whatever the fat man stammered, the cultivator took it as agreement, not giving him a chance to refuse. The large butler could only watch helplessly as his master squirmed in that man's grip, being dragged back to join the group...
"Will writing it like that be okay?"
While people were focused on the clinic door announcement, no one noticed a black car had quietly driven out from Bai Fanxian's residence.
"...I just wrote the truth?"
Bai Fanxian sitting cross-legged on the back seat sipped tea once. She still wouldn't admit what she did was just teasing those people for fun.
"Then why drag me along?"
Wu Jia sitting in the front seat asked irritably. At first hearing today he'd get a day off because Bai Fanxian was going out, he almost wanted to bury himself in her workshop all day.
Didn't expect her to come stand staring at him in the morning like wondering why he hadn't come out yet.
For Wu Jia, he couldn't withstand her pressuring gaze. Finally he had to reluctantly come along.
...Or was he really one of her people now?
The more he thought, the more tired he felt. Wu Jia decided to nap a while with Lin Xiaoting sitting laughing cheerfully beside him.
"In case of emergencies. That's why we're here too."
Liu Yianfei smiled widely. Besides Wu Jia, both him and Zheng Renyi came too. As for Xie Suyao, because she had business with the Xie Clan, she had to travel north from yesterday unfortunately.
The black car drove through cutting into the mountain. Both sides were lush green forest that ordinary people would never think could have an official military base.
High walls gradually appeared filling both eyes. Three children sitting together got up clinging to the window to watch with excitement as the large gate was opening from inside.
Because they'd already received reports, military officials seeing Liu Yianfei get out quickly came to greet him warmly.
"General, welcome back!"
"I'm still on vacation... this is just a special case." Liu Yianfei waved his hand refusing. He walked to the car's other side and opened the door like serving someone - an image many officials didn't think they'd see.
"My lady's probably coming here for the first time... welcome to my workplace."
Who stepped down from the car could be none other than Bai Fanxian.
She was now at the Eastern Regional Command Center — the place where the entire Black Hawk special unit was stationed!