~~~

The house had seen better days.

The front was dirty. Tiles were missing from the roof. The floor was full of holes, and the stairs were in dire need of repair.

The first level was all one large room, although that description required a very liberal use of the word large. The second floor had more rooms, but the house had such little floor space that each room ended up being pathetically small.

Liu Jianguo wouldn’t let a dog sleep in this house.

The baby on his back began to stir. Not wanting Liu Jin to wake up just yet, Liu Jianguo gently swayed in place, rocking him back to the land of dreams. Over ten minutes in which the man did not dare to make a sound passed like that.

He sighed.

What was he doing?

The house was a mess, but he had known it was going to be a mess. It wouldn’t have been so cheap otherwise. At the very least, the house was located inside the walls. He wouldn’t need to worry about roaming bandits this way, and it wasn’t like making enough money to pay taxes was going to be a problem. Liu Jianguo already had more than enough money at his disposal.

Enough money to buy a much better house than this.

Liu Jianguo’s lips thinned. The temptation to buy a fancier house was strong. He was far from poor, and Eastern Port City was not an expensive place to live in. If he really wanted it, Liu Jianguo could buy a good house in the wealthiest sector of the city and even hire a few servants to take care of his son.

Certainly, his son, Liu Jin, deserved nothing but the best.

As his father, was it not his duty to provide such things? To make sure hardship didn’t fall on him?

However, Liu Jianguo had no power.

The man stared at his hands, not for the first time feeling the weight of his own inadequacy. Once upon a time, he had been mighty. People in the Emperor Realm had bowed before him. An entire nation had been within his grasp.

He could have been a tyrant without equal.

Now, Liu Jianguo was nothing. Just a doctor who could not defend himself.

He had money, but what use was it? Suppose Liu Jianguo used his money to buy a good house. What then?

In the entirety of Eastern Port City, only newborn babes were weaker than Liu Jianguo. If someone were to break into his house and take his belongings, what could he do to stop them? Nothing. Nothing at all. They’d beat him and take what they wanted.

At worst, he and his son might die.

It was laughable. To think someone like him now had to worry about common thieves. Oh, how far he had fallen!

No. The doctor shook his head. He had been falling for a long time. This was only what he deserved.

Regardless, the problem remained. He had money, but showing it off would do no good. It would just make him a target to the greedy and morally challenged. If it were only him who was put at risk, that’d be one thing, but his son was another matter. Liu Jianguo would not allow any harm to befall Liu Jin. Heaven and Earth would have to switch places before that happened.

The doctor looked at the small, ugly house around him. Like it or not, this was for the best.

If it was for his son, he’d bear any and all indignities a thousand times over.

Liu Jianguo nodded to himself and rolled up his sleeves. This was to be the house in which his son grew up.

There was a lot of work to be done.

~~~

Liu Jianguo woke up to the smell of rotting fruit. By now, it had become a familiar scent.

The man, who looked to be in his thirties, rose and stretched. To the side of his bed, there was a small crib which he had built with his own hands. Liu Jin rested peacefully there.

He was wide awake.

His child’s red eyes were fully open, taking in every sight his limited mobility allowed him. Unlike most babies, Liu Jin rarely cried. It was almost like he had been taught how to behave in the womb.

Once, his child’s quiet ways had worried Liu Jianguo. His master had made him help a lot of women through childbirth back when he was young. It builds character, Old Jiang had said. From those experiences, Liu Jianguo had learned babies were crying, drooling, poop and puke factories.

His son was not.

Liu Jianguo had run multiple tests on Liu Jin to confirm there was nothing wrong with him. He was just a naturally quiet baby, a blessing considering their circumstances.

Liu Jin’s soft giggles reached his ears. Like always, just seeing his father’s face was enough to brighten the child’s day. Small, stubby arms were raised in Liu Jianguo’s direction. The message was clear.

Smiling, Liu Jianguo took his son into his arms, causing more giggles to leave the infant’s lips.

“You like that, don’t you?” Liu Jianguo asked as he lifted his son high above his head. The smile on his face grew. “How long have you been awake?”

His finger lightly tickled Liu Jin’s belly prompting a new round of giggles from the child.

“Wait here, okay?” Liu Jianguo said, placing Liu Jin on his crib once more. Even though he was young, Liu Jin could already sit on his own. It was such a simple thing, yet Liu Jianguo could not help but feel immensely proud of him for it.

The house had changed much since they first moved in a month ago. Liu Jianguo had worked night and day on it, and the results showed. The floor was completely repaired. Buying enough wood for the job had not been hard, but having to carry it all the way here had most certainly been.

Liu Jianguo had also bought beds and blankets for himself and his patients as well as room dividers to better use the space on the first floor. He was toying with the idea of building a storage, but that would have to wait until he repaired the stairs and fixed the second floor.

For now, Liu Jianguo went to the counter (which he had also built) and prepared his son’s meal.

He wasn’t a woman, and there were none he trusted to feed his son. However, that was barely a problem for someone like Liu Jianguo. Even without Qi, he was more than capable of making a drink that would give his son all the nutrients he needed to grow up healthy and strong.

With mortar and pestle, he mixed the ingredients in silence.

It only took him five minutes to have it done, yet for Liu Jianguo, that was maddeningly slow.

Once upon a time, a task like that would have been done in the blink of an eye. Still, the doctor found it in himself to smile as he fed his son. For Liu Jin, it was all worth it.

The mixture he was giving Liu Jin was only a temporary measure. Liu Jianguo’s eyes drifted towards the corner of the room where a potted plant grew away from the windows. The Fruit of Never Ending Vigor required minimal sunlight.

Out of all of Liu Jianguo’s possessions, that one was undeniably the most expensive. Even if one were to gather all the money in Eastern Port City, it wouldn’t be enough to pay for it. It was one of the few treasures from his former life Liu Jianguo had allowed himself to keep.

He had done so because he knew his son would find a use for it.

Once the plant had grown more, Liu Jianguo would be able to use its leaves to prepare a potion that would greatly enhance his son’s growth. Once it had borne fruit…

With the Fruit of Never Ending Vigor, his son would never have to worry about others stepping on him. Liu Jin will become the strongest of his generation in Eastern Port City.

For now, however, all Liu Jianguo could do was wait.

Wait and be a good doctor.

Liu Jianguo frowned. The last part was proving to be particularly hard. Leaving Liu Jin in his crib, Liu Jianguo stepped outside the house. Sure enough, someone had thrown rotten fruit at his door last night. The words ‘Fake Doctor’ had been written on his wall.

He sighed before going in and coming out with a wet rag. By now, cleaning this mess had become routine.

A cripple like him was an existence to be mocked. That he proclaimed himself to be a doctor was nothing but a joke for many. After all, who would trust the directions of a blind man? Such a thing would be the mark of a fool.

As far as Eastern Port City was concerned, he was nothing but a charlatan.

“I see you’re not having a good morning, my friend.”

Liu Jianguo turned around and found a rotund old man with a balding head and a big mouth. He smiled. “It’s just the usual. Nothing you should trouble yourself with.”

Old Man Gao was one of the few people in Eastern Port City Liu Jianguo could call a friend. He met the man when he went to his shop to buy furniture. The old man was eager to have someone to talk with, not caring one bit about his disability.

Since then, Old Man Gao made sure to drop by every now and then.

“Of course I’m going to concern myself with this,” Old Man Gao said, coughing a little. “It’s disgraceful people are using their time to do such rude things. Shameful, I say. If they were here, I’d give them a piece of my mind!”

“Your thoughts are enough to ease my mind,” Liu Jianguo said. It was no lie. Having someone getting angry on his behalf made the insult easier to bear. “However, I don’t believe you came all the way here just to be angry, my friend. Is there anything this one can help you with?”

“Oh, yes.” Old Man Gao coughed again. There was a package in his hand. “You know how my wife is. Always cooking too much. If not for her, I’d be a thin man.” He patted his large belly to emphasize the point. “We had a party the other day. My youngest married, you see. We have way too much food left over. My wife wanted me to bring some to you. Please, my friend. You’ll be doing me a favor by taking it off my hands. In our house, it would surely go to waste or worse, I’d have to eat it all, and my belly is big enough as it is.”

He was lying.

It wasn’t that his wife had made too much food. Rather, she had made the food knowing some would go to him. It was hardly the first time Old Man Gao and his wife did something like this. Sometimes it was food his wife made too much of. Sometimes it was old rice that was actually not old at all. Most times, it was milk for his son.

They didn’t want them to go hungry.

It was kindness that guided them, yet Liu Jianguo’s pride could not help but be hurt by their actions. To think there would come a day when he would have to receive charity like a beggar. He didn’t even lack the money to buy food, but he couldn’t blame the old couple for thinking so.

He made sure to not show off his wealth, and his clinic had no patients. The two probably thought he was starving himself.

While cultivators required less and less food as they became stronger, Liu Jianguo was a cripple. He needed to eat and drink regularly. In that light, the actions of the married couple were completely understandable. Liu Jianguo would do the same thing in their position.

Still, it hurt.

Yet he couldn’t reject their kindness without offending them.

“Thank you, my friend,” he said, accepting the package. It was heavy. There was probably enough food for a couple of days.

“There is no need to thank me. You’re the one doing me a favor by taking that off my hands.” Old Man Gao laughed before coughing once more. Liu Jianguo narrowed his eyes.

“That’s a worrying cough.”

It was not the first time Liu Jianguo heard it, yet it seemed to be getting worse.

“Oh, this? It’s nothing. It’s just been bothering me for a couple of days.” The old man coughed again, and Liu Jianguo strained his ears to pick up any abnormalities in his coughs.

“Would you wait for a second, friend?”

Not giving Old Man Gao a chance to reply, Liu Jianguo went into the clinic and came back with a packet of pills. “Please, take this medicine. I fear your cough will get worse if left unattended.”

Much worse.

“Oh no,” Old Man Gao said, waving his arms in front of him. “I could not possibly take these off your hands.”

There was hesitation in his voice, hesitation Liu Jianguo knew the source of.

Old Man Gao doubted his skills as a doctor.

He was kind to him and didn’t mistreat him due to being unable to use Qi. However, Old Man Gao had no reason to think he was a good doctor. Though they had known each other for a while, Old Man Gao had never once come to his clinic as a patient.

Truth be told, Liu Jianguo couldn’t blame him for that. His actions were born out of common sense.

“Please, my friend, take it.” Liu Jianguo pushed the medicine into his hands. “Consider it a thank you for the food. You have already done much for me.”

Old Man Gao faltered, and Liu Jianguo knew he had him. By framing things as him paying a debt for all the things he had done, Old Man Gao would have to accept the medicine, if only to give him some face. He was considerate like that.

“Very well,” Old Man Gao said. “Thank you for worrying about my health.”

“It is my job. Make sure to take only one pill per day. You will notice the difference right away.”

At most, he would have to use two pills. Such was the effect of the medicine he made. However, whether Old Man Gao ate the pills or not would be up to him. Liu Jianguo hoped he took the drug before his condition worsened.

At that moment, Liu Jianguo had no idea how big an effect those pills would have on his life.

~~~