Chapter 11: As Expected, Men Understand Men Best
Opening his eyes, a strange ceiling, and a somewhat hard bed unlike what he remembered.
“Ah, this…”
Li Wei stared at the ceiling above, feeling that this scene was somewhat familiar.
······
The pungent smell of disinfectant, and the ‘drip, drip, drip’ sounds of instruments. His gaze followed the IV tube overhead, where transparent liquid slowly dripped down. His face felt a bit itchy, but helplessly, he couldn’t lift his right hand.
Li Wei stayed dazed for a moment longer.
As time passed, his blank mind gradually filled with memory, his thoughts tracing back to the doctor’s anxious “Li Wei!” and “Bu Yi!”.
What he could confirm now was that he was alive.
He was in the hospital, just had plaster cast applied and was on an IV drip.
Turning his head, he happened to see the transparent glass nearby.
Inside the glass, there was a small figure very familiar to him—an Eevee that was basically bald everywhere except the head.
Her appearance was quite funny; it seemed for applying medicine, bandaging, and such, she was forced to have most of her fur shaved off.
Now, she was covered in various tubes and monitoring devices.
In a small sterile chamber, colorful tubes, an oxygen mask, and a large needle still on her foreleg for easy IV access.
Seeing the doctors inside still wearing masks and protective suits, Li Wei roughly understood that the Eevee was still under observation.
Slightly tilting his head, he squinted at the various readings on the instruments not far away.
Hmm… they all seemed pretty stable.
And the nurse nearby wasn’t anxiously standing by the doctor handing over scalpels or blood orbs or anything; she was leisurely sitting with Mime Jr., staring blankly at the clock on the wall.
‘She’s safe.’
Li Wei made the judgment.
He instantly let out a sigh of relief, and the last trace of panic after waking up vanished completely.
He turned his head back, continuing to look at this strange ceiling as he began contemplation.
Where am I? Why did things turn out like this?
The place where Eevee was looked no matter how he saw it like the ICU.
What about him then?
Why was he lying here next to this glass?
His body was fixed to the bed, left hand on IV, right hand in plaster, and his waist seemed strapped down by some safety belt; he couldn’t even do a sit-up to get up.
Now, besides turning his head, it seemed he could only kick his legs.
But what use was kicking his legs?
······
Another moment of silence, and Li Wei staring at the ceiling didn’t see any medical staff or his parents arrive.
‘Home can’t afford to keep me anymore, so they let me sleep in the hallway?’
Li Wei couldn’t help but think.
‘Hey! Your precious son has collapsed, why isn’t anyone watching over me!’
Even if they were busy with work and no time, couldn’t they send Indeedee or the likes to feed him medicine and wipe his back?
Being all alone like this was really lonely, okay!!!
The first thing Li Wei did after waking from coma was to think nonsense.
Had to say, his mentality was pretty good.
He definitely had psychological trauma from the previous encounter.
But this trauma was currently overshadowed by the aftermath of a disaster and the good news that Eevee was still alive; overall, he wasn’t scared into mental breakdown or developing any Pokémon phobia, so his mentality was quite good.
At this moment, the carefree Li Wei’s mind was full of thoughts about what cute Pokémon would come to serve him tea, water, and care for him later.
But…… he was soon disappointed.
The door not far away was pushed open, and walking in was a Machamp.
After glancing at Eevee’s situation, this Machamp shifted his gaze downward to him.
Upon seeing Li Wei awake, Machamp was overjoyed and immediately rushed over to give him a hug.
Yes.
Four hands, hugging his weak, fragile hospital bed.
Li Wei’s mood was complicated, but Machamp’s joy was genuine, and Li Wei had no means to push him away, so he was forcibly hugged by Machamp for nearly a minute.
After releasing Li Wei, his two hands took an apple from the nearby shelf.
Peeling it while spinning it around, finally like performing acrobatics, he tossed the apple into the air and then swung the knife—with afterimage-like swings, taking advantage of having many hands, the apple was cut into small pieces and collected into a disposable small bowl, while the core and peel fell into the prepared trash bag.
Machamp’s large hand pinched a thin toothpick and brought the cut apple pieces to his face.
The action of feeding him apple was hilariously comical, and the experience of being hand-fed by Machamp was unimaginable to others.
Hmm…
The apple was very sweet, cut to just the right size, and the toothpick-holding motion was very careful, not poking him at all.
······
As expected, men understand men the best.
For a moment, the slightly thirsty Li Wei looked at this Machamp and found him very pleasing.
So what if it’s muscle, so what if the appearance is rough.
Machamp was a good guy.
—A line from cheap goodwill earned from a peeled and diced apple.
Then, under Machamp’s conscience kicking in, he finally sat up.
Had to say, even Pokémon like Machamp with so much muscle could understand things through simple eye contact, head movements, and simple words.
After being unbound, Li Wei could sit up.
Though his right arm felt a bit uncomfortable and heavy, there was no way around it; he smashed the wall himself, so he had to bear the consequences even if crying.
In any case, in this state, he should still be salvageable.
After all, no amputation, no missing limbs.
If it were some major illness, he might be lying side by side with Eevee now, or be a temporary neighbor.
The IV bag on the stand was almost empty, and after Machamp pressed the call bell, the nurse miss followed by pushing the door open along with his father.
Oh ho.
‘I’ll remember this grudge.’
His precious son lying in the hospital and he didn’t care, instead chatting and laughing with the nurse sister?
If he couldn’t extort some allowance out of this, he’d go tell his mother right away!!
Looking at the nurse’s badge, surname He, Nurse He.
OK, starting to hold a grudge.
Li Wei petty-thought.
“Awake?”
Li Yuan Sheng dragged a chair from nearby and sat down, looked Li Wei up and down, then comfortably leaned back on the chair looking very suave.
“Yeah, awake.”
······
After that, the two ended communication.
The silence lasted until Li Wei finally couldn’t hold back his inner melancholy and took the lead in starting the topic.
“Hey, Dad, don’t you have anything to say to me?” Li Wei asked.
“Hm?”
Li Yuan Sheng clearly paused, then said, “Oh, congrats.”
?????
Li Wei looked at the plaster on his hand, then at the new large bag of IV drip, this… and he gets a ‘congrats’???
“Congrats on what?”
Li Wei twitched his mouth and asked Li Yuan Sheng.
“Congrats on awakening Aura?”
Li Yuan Sheng was also baffled.
Son just woke up, what was he supposed to say?
The two stared wide-eyed at each other, falling into an impasse of failed communication.
“Uh… don’t you think you should explain to me why I’m here?”
Li Wei extremely speechless pointed at his hospital bed.
His position was very strange; clearly this was the ICU hallway, but he was lying right here.
Could it be that home was so poor they couldn’t afford a bed?
“Oh, this. It was a decision the doctor discussed with me.”
“Why?”
Li Wei was very puzzled.
The doctor doesn’t love me, and now Dad doesn’t either?
“Because your Eevee goes crazy without seeing you.”
After saying that, Li Yuan Sheng roughly described the situation at the time to Li Wei.
About how when Li Wei was in Eevee’s line of sight, she cooperated with treatment and IV, but once Li Wei was surrounded by doctors or his view blocked so she couldn’t see, how Eevee struggled and threw tantrums.
Li Yuan Sheng nearly peaked his literary talent, describing it to Li Wei vividly, like a stage play reenactment.
At this moment, Li Wei roughly understood where his Mime Jr.’s exceptional talent as a pantomime master came from.
But after understanding the situation, Li Wei’s resentment lessened a lot; he decided to silently cross off that Nurse He from his little notebook.
Today’s portion of tattling to pit Dad’s allowance was called off; after all, he wasn’t some demon, there’d be next time.
After understanding his own situation, Li Wei immediately started acting like “Mr. Why” nonstop asking questions.
“Dad, what exactly happened with today’s incident?”
“Today? Oh, you mean the thing we encountered on the way home yesterday, right.”
“Yesterday????” Li Wei was somewhat shocked.
“Yeah, you’ve been lying in the hospital for a night already.”
······
A bit shocked.
As a good shut-in who had strictly followed Mom’s teachings from childhood, Li Wei only had experience with hospital IV drips.
Plaster casts, hospitalization, he had never experienced.
After all, shut-ins have no little sister, no chance to enter orthopedics; shut-ins have no nightlife, no chance to be beaten into orthopedics by a goddess’s fans; shut-ins have no exercise, no chance to show heroic injury on the sports field and enter orthopedics.
“It’s already April 2nd today?” After some emotion, Li Wei confirmed with his father,
“Yeah.”
“Alright then, Dad, do you know what exactly happened yesterday?”
“I know, just found out. Your mom is still busy; I only learned the full story when the director came to visit.”
“Visit?”
“Yeah, you got gloriously injured, so the director came to see you.”
“Hm?”
He felt like his dad’s adjective was off somewhere.
“Hm what? The apple you just ate was from the fruit basket the director brought you.”
Had to say Li Wei was shocked, “Ah this…… am I some big shot?”
“You’re not, but I am.”
First time hearing someone so shamelessly boast, honestly Li Wei was a tiny bit unaccustomed.
“So, what does the director want with a big shot like you.”
“The big shot’s son fell into crisis due to poor police security, so he came to visit.”
“But I went in myself.”
“But normally, that should be something adults handle.”
And so, under Li Wei’s complete inability to comprehend, father and son fell into rapid-fire Q&A.
“But…… that was you who took me in.”
“But if their security was sufficient, I wouldn’t need to take you in; they should’ve spotted the clues and wiped out the hideout.”
“But……”
“No buts, that’s politics.”
“Ha? I only see shamelessness.”
“Right. Indeed. But I and your mom assisted in the on-site rescue; my son discovered the evil organization’s hideout and bravely participated in the action, gloriously rescued an Eevee being abused by the villain organization, and successfully saved a total of 230 Pokémon Eggs from the laboratory.”
“Ah this……”
Silently swallowing after hearing the praise, as the praised party, Li Wei even blushed a bit.
Seen shameless, but never this shameless!
Even running for class cadre wasn’t this gold-sticking to the face!!
But clearly, to his dad, this matter was just that simple and dull.
“What this what, that’s the whole thing.”
······
Li Wei was very helpless.
He really hadn’t been at a loss for words like this in a long time.
He remembered the last time was his math teacher knocking the blackboard repeatedly asking him ‘Why can’t you do such a simple problem!’
Now he discovered a species more terrifying than the math teacher: his dad.
“What’s wrong?”
Seeing Li Wei with mouth open but not speaking, Li Yuan Sheng asked.
“Uh… then… why did that organization bomb the highway.”
Selectively giving up on roasting, Li Wei started caring about the truth of the matter.
“After police and League’s final judgment, they believe it was a premeditated robbery case.”
“Robbery???”
Robberies this terrifying these days???
“Yes. This organization’s style matches a notorious evil organization called ‘Anti-Matter’ in recent years, and in that Pokémon Day Care hideout, they found documents with the ‘Anti-Matter’ organization logo that hadn’t been destroyed in time.”
Li Yuan Sheng said to Li Wei.
After all, Li Wei was already a participant; telling him wasn’t bad, and could let him more deeply understand the true face of this world.
After all, in high school classes, the teacher wouldn’t tell you that part of trainers in this world specialize in abusing and killing Pokémon for fun, and in some lawless places there are even Pokémon underground fight clubs, or even human-Pokémon killing gambling activities, etc.
But these were social responsibilities he needed to bear after becoming a capable trainer.
Not asking to punish evil and promote good, just that in key moments he wouldn’t flee or drag legs.
Giving more defensive shots when young was beneficial.
So, seeing his son who just went through a big event, woke from coma with decent mental state, Li Yuan Sheng decided to intensify cultivating this high-potential son.
Son’s receptivity was very good, clearly inherited his excellent genes; future was promising.
So, he started explaining to Li Wei the dark side of evil organizations in this world, and how trainers should survive in the wild, protect themselves, etc…….
Finally, Li Wei couldn’t take it; he decided to change the topic.
“Dad wait first before telling your youthful adventure stories; I want to know what exactly they were so desperate to rob?!”
The explosive smoke, the crowd’s shouts, even now it was impressive; what priceless thing was worth them doing such terrifying things.
“After tallying, they stole a set of gems. Fortunately, police recovered nine gems in the end, and also seized a large number of high-grade Life Orbs, so not really a loss.”
“Ha??”
Gems?
Honestly, Li Wei’s focus was all on the first half, and his mentality was starting to crack.
This organization doesn’t have brain issues, right?? Rob gems, and bomb the highway like this? For a few gems, expose that underground laboratory hideout?
Li Wei felt this wasn’t right……
“What gems?”
Pink diamonds or blue diamonds? Or member yellow diamonds worth robbing so desperately.
“Eighteen-type amplification gems, son you don’t even know this? Don’t fail the written exam on me!”
Li Yuan Sheng frowned a bit, looked at Li Wei with slight worry, then added.
“This batch of gems are top resources; the energy contained inside is said to give an obvious strength boost to an Elite Four level Pokémon.”
???
There’s such a thing?
Because he really didn’t understand, Li Wei opened the browser and searched for so-called ‘amplification gems’.
After comparing appearances, Li Wei realized these were actually the ‘Attribute Gems’ from the game.
If he remembered right, this thing was pretty useless in the game.
Generally, only boosts power of corresponding attribute moves when held, and single-use.
But according to this world’s encyclopedia, these gems were highly valuable, mostly used to enhance corresponding attribute Pokémon’s attribute abilities, and through long-term energy absorption could boost strength, improve Pokémon’s aptitude, comprehend deeper powers, etc.
Pretty powerful, precious resource.
Made sense logically to rob them with such fanfare.
But though logic checked out, sorting through the info from his dad, wasn’t this incident pretty dumb?
Some evil organization premeditated a robbery, succeeded but got tracked during retreat, and ended up having an important hideout wiped out.
This…?
Something wrong somewhere?
After telling this question to his dad, Li Yuan Sheng’s reply made some sense.
“As far as I know, I’ve never heard of anyone using Aura in this way.” Saying that, Li Yuan Sheng extended his right hand again in a very embarrassing pose.
“Isn’t it usually like this? Then an Aura Sphere?”
······
Li Yuan Sheng’s rhetorical question left Li Wei really with nothing to say.
Seemed like yeah, it was.
Aura could understand emotions, but mostly simple like ‘happy’ ‘unhappy’; telepathy was just communication, not mind-reading.
On the browser, official didn’t give detailed explanations on more Aura usage directions.
Whether because few Aura users or info concealed, Li Wei wasn’t clear.
“Then… any other discoveries? Really just them stupidly using a lab with important supplies as hideout, and I accidentally found it? No way……”
Li Wei went full detective mode.
Putting himself in the villain boss’s shoes, if he had a stocked lab, and his underlings wanted to cause trouble nearby, he definitely wouldn’t allow it!!
Even if no ‘hideout’, wouldn’t use that important lab as hideout.
If discovered, wouldn’t all the research inside be gone?
Opponent’s actions seemed reasonable, but Li Wei always felt this ‘official answer’ was off somewhere.
Slightly ridiculous, but didn’t know where.
Huge sense of dissonance, felt like he overlooked something.
“Regrettably, after investigation, it was just a coincidence.”
Seeing his son still frowning, Li Yuan Sheng spread his hands.
“I suspected some conspiracy too, but actually after final inspection, the truth is just this simple and dull.”
“The only weird thing in that lab was the large number of dead Eevee.
Though cause of death was suffocation or excessive blood loss, actually they were injected with a strange cell that seemed to have its own consciousness, very aggressive; as long as host alive, it would ravage the host’s body.”
????
Hearing Li Yuan Sheng, Li Wei’s mind blanked.
“What about that Eevee! That Eevee!”
“Your Eevee is fine.
Blood tested when first arriving at ER, very healthy. Vitality very strong; rationally with that much blood loss survival rate was low, didn’t expect recovery already; basically can move out of ICU tomorrow.”
“Phew.”
Long sigh of relief, Li Wei finally relaxed.
Official logic, Li Wei roughly got.
Because this ‘Anti-Matter’ organization was already notorious for years, and from browser info, they did have many experiments purely for abuse, and the creepy doctors he saw, calling them mentally ill wasn’t wrong.
Official police questioning hostages probably had similar thoughts.
But……
Li Wei was there on site.
That experimenter clearly said ‘experiment completed’……
So if nothing done, why put Eevee on the lab table to cut and inject?
Just for fun??
Stolen Attribute Gems, nine recovered; large high-grade Life Orbs found in lab; destructive cells injected in bodies……
Wait.
!!!!!!
Li Wei felt he got the truth.
Hehe, guess what, folks~
Really can’t write more, already 6k, can’t write further.
Everyone’s at 4k, if I keep going I’ll get forced on sale wuwuwuwu.
（ps, damn just lay down and realized I forgot to replace my typo ‘Wei’, too late, saw someone comment ‘back to daily life’ I’m done）
