Ye Xiao walked through the bustling streets of Central District, Chu City, carrying the Ancient Sword, now sheathed. The sheer delight in his heart was immeasurable; he truly adored the sword and had always dreamed of the day when a treasure messenger would find him. To his amazement, that dream had come true today, as someone had indeed delivered a treasure to him, and such a precious one at that.

Quickly, Ye Xiao reached the urban area of Central District, which could truly be described as brightly lit up, despite the night. The area was bustling, rivaling the daytime, but Ye Xiao carrying a sword was attracting more attention than he wanted. What should he do? His gaze swept the street and noticed a sports equipment store across the way. He couldn't help but chuckle to himself as he walked in.

It was just past six o'clock, and the sports equipment store was quite crowded. However, when Ye Xiao entered, he drew quite a few curious glances. A man in formal attire carrying an out-of-place ancient blade naturally piqued people's interest. The store owner immediately approached him, and even though the sword was sheathed, a single glance at the sword gave the owner a chill up his spine—a sensation he couldn't quite understand himself.

"What can I do for you, sir?" the owner asked, perplexed as to why he felt compelled to serve a customer personally. Ordinarily, as the owner, he had no need to speak to customers himself—that was what sales associates were for.

Ye Xiao smiled slightly and said, "Do you have any cue cases? Um, for billiards."

"Billiards cue cases?" the owner thought for a moment before asking, "Are you looking for a cue or just the case?"

"Just the case," Ye Xiao replied.

The owner looked at Ye Xiao and said, "Our cue cases aren't for sale separately, but if you purchase a cue, you get the case as well. Would you like to take a look at the cues?"

"Then do you have any cues around one meter long?" Ye Xiao inquired.

"Yes!" The owner immediately retrieved a long wooden box from a shelf. The box was about 1.1 meters long. Upon opening, it revealed two cue sections—one long, one short—that fit together to form a perfect cue. Although Ye Xiao wasn't very familiar with cues, he could tell from its straightness that it wasn't a bad piece.

"How much?" Ye Xiao asked.

The owner hadn't expected Ye Xiao to inquire about the price after just one glance, without even touching the cue.

"998," the owner said with a smile.

That number immediately reminded Ye Xiao of TV infomercials—just 998, only 998!

Ye Xiao chuckled and said, "Alright, I'll take it. By the way, do you buy back cues here?"

"As long as there's not a single scratch and they're perfectly maintained, we take them back at four-fifths the purchase price, minimum. Naturally, the longer you've had it, the lower the price," the owner explained.

Hearing this, Ye Xiao chuckled again and said, "So, I buy your cue now and bring it back after a roundabout—you'd give me a maximum of eight hundred yuan?"

"Heh, if you genuinely bought and returned it the same day, and it wasn't due to a product fault, I'd give you nine hundred yuan max. Deductions of fifty to a hundred yuan without the original packaging, of course—we're running a business after all." The owner was straightforward and honest.

Ye Xiao said, "Since that's the case, let's settle the bill. Oh, and one of those shoulder carry cases." Ye Xiao added.

"Of course, I can't let you leave holding it with both hands—that would be too inconvenient," the owner responded with a smile, directing an employee to fetch the case.

The owner couldn't believe it; with just a few words, he had sold a cue without any haggling. Any business person would be quietly overjoyed to encounter such a customer.

"Sir, will you be paying with card or cash?" the employee, holding the case, asked Ye Xiao with a smile.

"Cash. Give me the case and then connect the cue, let's see how it looks," Ye Xiao told the store clerk.

The employee immediately handed the case to Ye Xiao and then reached into the box to assemble the cue, screwing the two sections together with care. However, in that moment, Ye Xiao quickly closed the cue box, with the Ancient Sword concealed inside it. The sponge-like material originally in the box was tossed aside by Ye Xiao.

The store owner, clerk, and other customers were left in shock, not understanding what Ye Xiao was up to. Then, Ye Xiao placed a hundred yuan bill on the shelf, smiling as he said, "This now perfectly complies with your return policy."

Ye Xiao left.

The store owner was rooted to the spot, still not quite comprehending what had just happened. After all, he had been calculating the profit from selling one cue, which was at least five hundred yuan.

But now, the customer had only left him a hundred yuan. The cue was still there, sure, but the box and the case were gone. When Ye Xiao walked out, he had made a very truthful statement—it really did comply with the return process.

"Boss, should... should we chase after him?" the clerk came to his senses and looked toward the shop owner.

The shop owner was clearly no ordinary person, and having mingled in the marketplace for so long, selling golf clubs meant he had some understanding of wood. That's why he had immediately recognized that the sheath of the knife in Ye Xiao's hands was made of golden phoebe nanmu wood, a material so precious that ordinarily, only the royal family could make use of it, if this were ancient times.

"Forget it, no need to chase him," the shop owner casually tucked a hundred yuan into his pocket.

Of course, there was no need to chase after him. The shop owner was definitely not about to lose money. How much could a wooden box and a golf club case possibly be worth?

He did wonder, though, why Ye Xiao did what he did.

At this moment, a young man in formal attire was standing at the taxi stand with a billiards cue case on his back.

Although his clothes and the item he was carrying seemed somewhat mismatched, it was certainly better than walking down the street holding a knife. Had he been walking around like that, taxi drivers might not even have let him get in the cab.

"Young man, where to?" a taxi driver stopped in front of Ye Xiao.

"State Hospital!" Ye Xiao said with a cheerful grin.

"Get in, State Hospital is very close from here!"

Then, Ye Xiao got into the registered cab and swiftly took off towards the provincial hospital.

State Hospital in Chu City was undeniably top-notch; the doctors here were all extremely skilled, and the elites of various major hospitals were clambering to get in here.

Meanwhile, on the sixth floor of one of the hospital buildings.

Only two individuals were in the hallway, a man and a woman.

"Don't worry, your mother should be fine. After all, this is State Hospital and they are very professional in performing cerebral blood vessel stenting and bypass surgery," said a female doctor in a white coat, her lips red and teeth gleaming, as she stood in the hallway looking toward the man with a stern face and an anxious expression.

"Doctor Han, whether my mother makes it through this ordeal or not, I, Yan Luo, am very grateful to you and Brother Xiao." Yan Luo was deeply concerned at this moment; after all, it was his mother in the emergency room. Of course, he knew the surgeons here in State Hospital were very skilled. At the same time, he also knew that his mother's presence here was entirely due to this female doctor and Ye Xiao.

In fact, the person he wanted to thank the most was Ye Xiao. He knew if it wasn't for Ye Xiao, why would someone like Doctor Han even bother speaking to someone 'low-grade' like himself?

Han Ruoxi, of course, had no idea what was going through Yan Luo's mind, but since he had repeatedly expressed his gratitude for 'Brother Xiao,' this Brother Xiao must be the Ye Xiao mentioned over the phone. Although Han Ruoxi was a calm person, at this moment, she really wanted to meet this so-called 'Brother Xiao.'

Han Ruoxi looked at Yan Luo and said, "I'm a doctor, and it's my duty to save lives and help the injured. You should indeed thank your friend. But I'm curious, who exactly is Ye Xiao? And what's his relationship with Jiang Miaoke?"

"Jiang Miaoke?" Yan Luo looked puzzled when he heard Han Ruoxi's question and said, "Who's Jiang Miaoke?"

"You don't know Jiang Miaoke?" Han Ruoxi found it very strange upon hearing Yan Luo's reply. If he didn't know Jiang Miaoke, why would Jiang Miaoke want to help him?

"I do!" Just then, a voice carried over from the stairwell of the hallway, prompting both Han Ruoxi and Yan Luo to turn their attention to the person speaking.

Upon hearing the voice, Yan Luo's face immediately lit up with surprise and he quickly stood up to look at the speaker.

"Brother Xiao!" Yan Luo walked briskly towards Ye Xiao.

Hearing Yan Luo call this person Brother Xiao, Han Ruoxi couldn't help but scrutinize Ye Xiao carefully.

He was young, almost looking like a student, and obviously younger than Yan Luo. Yet, Yan Luo kept eagerly calling him Brother Xiao.

"What do you want?" Ye Xiao looked at Yan Luo approaching him as if aiming for an embrace. Ye Xiao immediately grabbed his cue case with one hand and used the other end to keep Yan Luo at bay and said, "If you want to say thanks, I'm listening right here. No need to come over and hug me. Besides, I only reserve my hugs for women. Hey, the pretty doctor, you must be Han Ruoxi, right? If you'd come over on behalf of Yan Luo, I promise I'd give you a chance. You're beautiful, and I'm handsome, we'd make a good match."

Han Ruoxi could have never imagined that her first meeting with Ye Xiao would be under such circumstances and with such language. Hearing Yan Luo's comments just about made her crumble; this guy was so cheeky, clearly nothing but a punk.

"Not interested. So you're Ye Xiao?" Han Ruoxi looked at Ye Xiao with a touch of disgust.

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