"I'm the landlord!"
Fueled by alcohol, the man grumbled,
"Who the hell are you? Why are you in my house? Get out immediately! I need to have a serious talk with that slut Xu. She promised not to bring other men into my rental property and mess around, or she'd have to pay me three months' rent and pack her bags!"
Chen Xiao had been curious about why the main door to the rental unit had six locks from the outside. Now he finally realized that Xu Jingyin was likely guarding against this drunken landlord. Without further ado, he grabbed the man by the neck and easily lifted him off the ground,
"We can talk tomorrow. What's there to talk about at this hour? Get lost!"
"You..."
With his feet dangling in the air, the man's drunken state evaporated significantly. He finally realized Chen Xiao was not someone he could push around and stumbled away in retreat.
Closing the door again, Chen Xiao was about to tell Xu Jingyin about the landlord's visit when a loud thud came from the inner room, followed by Xu Jingyin's scream:
"Ah—"
Chen Xiao quickly called out through the door, "Nurse Xu, are you alright?"
"I... I'm fine. Please... please don't come in."
Xu Jingyin's voice was panicked and laced with pain, but less than half a minute later, she softly said,
"Dr. Chen, could you trouble yourself to come in and help? I... I fell and my whole body is numb. I can't move."
"This..."
Chen Xiao found himself in a difficult position, his voice involuntarily lowering,
"Are... are you dressed?"
Receiving no immediate reply from Xu Jingyin, Chen Xiao, worried something had happened, braced himself and pushed the door open.
The door wasn't locked but was blocked from the inside by a stool. Chen Xiao opened it with ease.
In a room even more cramped than Xu Jingwen's, Xu Jingyin lay on the wet floor, covered only by a white bath towel, in agony. Her dark hair was pulled up high, her delicate shoulders and fair arms exposed to the air, and her two flawless, long legs were strikingly prominent under the light.
She tried desperately to shrink her entire body into the towel, but it was in vain. The air was thick with the scent of shampoo and body wash.
"Please... please don't look. Hurry... hurry and help me to the bed, sob..."
Xu Jingyin, noticing Chen Xiao just standing there stunned at the doorway, felt utterly mortified. Her voice was thick with tears, and her large, watery eyes were brimming with glistening tears.
"Okay! Okay..."
Chen Xiao deliberately kept his head down, fumbling as he bent over to lift Xu Jingyin onto the bed, keeping the towel in place.
"Nurse Xu, you have temporary paralysis of your entire body due to a sciatic nerve injury. If you don't get a massage and manipulation soon, you'll likely be in too much pain to get out of bed tomorrow!"
Xu Jingyin was immediately frightened. Forgetting the boundaries between men and women, she choked back a sob and pleaded with Chen Xiao,
"Dr. Chen, please help me with the massage."
Saying this, she struggled to turn over, presenting her alluring back and waist to Chen Xiao, partially to hide her shyness and partially to facilitate Chen Xiao's massage. She silently reassured herself,
"Grandmother, please don't blame your granddaughter for showing her body to a man without your permission. It's because Dr. Chen is helping me heal."
"Hoo—"
Chen Xiao took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down. He then began to massage Xu Jingyin's smooth lower back using the Wugou Bone Setting technique. To mask his own awkwardness, he deliberately focused on the tattoo on Xu Jingyin's back and asked,
"Nurse Xu, what is that tattoo on your back? It looks rather strange."
Chen Xiao's words were casual, but to Xu Jingyin, they were like thunder. Her delicate body trembled violently, and she blurted out in disbelief,
"You... you can see the Gu Queen tattoo on my back? How... how is this possible? Grandmother said only my future husband could see it. In other words, anyone who can see the Gu Queen tattoo is my destined other half!"
"Gu Queen tattoo? Old folks really do fool children."
Chen Xiao didn't think much of it, shaking his head with a wry smile.
"I can see it because I'm massaging you right now. If you meet a man you like and are willing to undress for him, he'll naturally be your husband..."
Before Chen Xiao could finish speaking, Xu Jingyin shyly said,
"Dr. Chen, please be... gentle. I... I'm afraid of pain."
But as soon as she spoke, she gradually adapted to the discomfort of Chen Xiao's massage. The indescribable comfort from the injured area made her repeatedly change her tune,
"Harder... harder!"
Chen Xiao focused his gaze, his mind on his nose, his nose on his mouth, and his mouth on his heart. His masterful Wugou Bone Setting technique remained undisturbed by Xu Jingyin's alluring words. He gradually increased and then decreased the pressure, progressing step by step, combining gentleness with firmness.
In less than ten minutes, after completing the Wugou Bone Setting technique, he found Xu Jingyin fast asleep. The bath towel that had been covering her had completely slipped off, leaving him feeling parched.