Yuan Xi did not plan on going home over the weekend, but Mrs. Yuan called her on the phone and insisted that she come home.
When she got home, she did not see her parents in the living room or even the maid, so she went straight upstairs.
The moment she got upstairs, she saw Yuan Huan’s bedroom door ajar and voices coming from inside.
Yuan Xi paused briefly before she headed to the room. When she got to the door, she noticed an unfamiliar face in the room.
It was a man in his fifties and he was dressed in a traditional Chinese suit. He looked like he was straight out of the republican era. The man was talking to her father.
Yuan Xi looked at the unknown man curiously before she noticed Yuan Huan sitting on the bed as he leaned against the headboard. She instantly froze out of instinct and automatically got scared.
Mrs. Yuan walked out of the room when she saw her daughter standing outside. She failed to detect anything amiss with her expression and simply said, “Your older brother was released, but he was found in this state when your father picked him up. No one knows what happened to him while he was detained by the ministry.”
Yuan Xi looked at Yuan Huan from a distance. Even though she did not take a good hard look at his face, she could tell that something was different about him.
She thought about the things Huo Yao mentioned a couple of days ago.
After the man took Yuan Huan’s pulse, he retrieved a long box and placed it on the bedside table, and took out some things from it.”
Yuan Xi asked Mrs. Yuan softly as she looked at the man. “Mom, who’s this?”
“He’s a Chinese physician who was recommended by your father’s friend. We heard that he’s a very good physician, so we invited him to examine your older brother,” answered Mrs. Yuan.
Yuan Xi squeezed her hands slightly as her hands hung from the sides of her body. “Can he be cured?”
Mrs. Yuan shook her head and replied. ‘I don’t know either, but we have to try.”
Yuan Xi did not continue asking more questions. She simply looked at the Chinese physician with silver needles in his hands.
She did not know how Yuan Huan had ended up in this state, but she felt this outcome was for the best.
After 20 minutes, the man removed the acupuncture needles applied on the top of Yuan Huan’s head. Mr. Yuan came over and asked worriedly. “Mr. Hou, how is he?”
Shangguan Hou said nothing as he frowned and looked at the patient. Yuan Huan’s eyes remained glazed. He reached his hand out and took Yuan Huan’s pulse again.
Nothing had changed in Yuan Huan’s pulse and it seemed completely normal.
Even though the pulse seemed completely normal, it was terribly odd.
Shangguan Hou let go of Yuan Huan’s wrist. In theory, his acupuncture technique ought to have cured Yuan Huan, but it was surprisingly useless.
If Yuan Huan was suffering from this condition due to some kind of illness, acupuncture treatment might be useless. However, the patient clearly was not ill.
From the looks of it, someone had shut down his nervous system.
Someone had unknowingly made Yuan Huan lose his mind. The perpetrator was clearly a master of using acupuncture techniques and must have something to do with the Shangguan clan.
He wondered if it was her.
Shangguan Hou narrowed his eyes as he pondered over the matter and disinfected his needles. He looked at Yuan Huan and told Mr. Yuan, “His condition is quite complicated.”
Mr. Yuan’s eyes were promptly filled with joy. “Do you mean there’s hope for my son to recover?”
Yuan Xi tightened her fists as she looked at Shangguan Hou nervously.
