Rebirth of an Idle Noblewoman

Gu Xiqiao spun around and entered the ward.

Everyone in the room was taken aback when they saw her walk into the room. Ying Xu fumbled around in his pocket. He wanted to light up a cigarette but after remembering that this was a hospital, he put down his hands.

“May I have the documents?” said Gu Xiqiao as she reached out towards a nurse standing next to the bed.

The nurse did as asked, passing the dossier over to Gu Xiqiao.

“I haven’t seen you for a couple of days and there you are, running around in N City!” Zhu Yuan started blabbering unendingly over the line. “Professor Jiang will chew you out, you hear me?! Why do you have to trigger him like this? Slacker! I won’t even give time off for weekends from now on!”

Gu Xiqiao was flipping through the medical report when she glanced up at him. “Go ahead, if you have the balls, that is. I’ll give Professor Jiang a call later. Gonna tell him I’m transferring over to the Department of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering tomorrow.”

Zhu Yuan was startled by her words. “Awww, I was just pulling your leg, you know? How could Professor Jiang not cut you some slack, right?”

Gu Xiqiao walked over to another spot, all while staying away from the camera’s field of view. Her delicate fingers flipped through the pages so quickly that the sound could be heard over the call.

Zhu Yuan almost pushed his face against the screen of his phone. Loudly, he yelled, “Uncle! That girl has walked away! Hurry up and turn the damn device around!”

Emery spun the webcam around and once again, Gu Xiqiao’s figure entered his screen. Zhu Yuan continued yapping away, which made Emery stare at the screen. The Zhu Yuan he knew, who wouldn’t even speak one word for an entire day seemed so different from this Zhu Yuan right now!

Gu Xiqiao glanced at the screen and snapped her fingers. Jiji, who was standing next to her feet understood instantly what that meant. The video call was immediately cut off, removing Zhu Yuan’s annoying chatter from the room once and for all.

After she had completed reading these papers, Gu Xiqiao now had a rough idea of what was happening to the patient lying there motionlessly on the bed. She then turned around to face the nurse standing next to her. “I want you to prepare an empty operation room for me.”

“I’m sorry but that’s not something within my authority.” The young nurse snapped out of her daydream and apologized.

Understood.

Gu Xiqiao returned the document to her before whipping out her phone and calling someone on it. She hung up only after speaking briefly with the other person.

“What’s happening now?” Ying Qi realized the oddity of the situation when he saw Gu Xiqiao sketching or scribbling something down on a piece of paper.

“I have no idea.” responded the comrade next to him.

Wang Jun watched Gu Xiqiao work intently when he told the men around him, “Just watch the magic unfold boys!”

Ying Xu recalled what the mayor had said this afternoon when he heard Wang Jun’s words. He peered up at Gu Xiqiao with a perplexed expression. Opening his mouth, he was about to utter something when the door of the ward burst open.

A succession of men in white lab coats walked in, the first one being the director of the hospital. Despite it being in the middle of winter, on their foreheads were large beads of sweat. They were still panting heavily, indicating that they ran across the hospital to see Gu Xiqiao.

“Miss Gu!” The director walked over to the side of the bed with a shine in his eyes.

Gu Xiqiao finished writing her final line right at that moment. She tucked away her pen and passed the paper over to the director. “We meet again, Director Zhao. I need a laboratory.”

“It’s already been prepared for you. What else might you need, Miss Gu?” the director asked.

“Has anyone been to the laboratory at the capital?” Gu Xiqiao wanted to say no but upon second thought, she did have something to ask.

“Yes, we have two professors who have participated in cell fusion research.” Director Zhao nodded his head. “They aren’t on shift today but they live close by. They’ll be here within ten minutes.” Even in the circumstance that they cannot make it here on time, he was prepared to make sure that they could!

“Good.” Gu Xiqiao took off her coat. She walked out the door while barking out orders. “Prep for a surgery.”

Director Zhao ordered a middle-aged doctor to let Gu Xiqiao change her clothes before bringing her to the operation theatre. He remained in the ward, directing his employees like a commander with his army. “Call Doctor Wang and Doctor Gu over! Head to the operating room on the fourth floor immediately! Get the young half-assed doctors over! Make sure that they get a good look at the operation! Also! Get me some cameras! The video we made previously was laughed at by the international community! I don’t want that to happen again! Hurry up and get this patient into the operation room. Miss Gu’s waiting!”

A couple of male nurses pushed a bed over and shifted the patient onto it.

A white-haired doctor standing next to Director Zhao looked down at the piece of paper with predatory eyes. “Director, if you’re not looking at it, why don’t you let me take a quick peek?”

“No, I fear that once I read it, I’ll forget about everything else.” The director shoved the paper into his pocket. “Head on over to the operating room first.”

A group of medical personnel moved in unison to the operation room.

Only an aged nurse was left in the ward to clean up the equipment.

The young nurse who was initially standing next to the bed was stupefied. She couldn’t believe what was unfolding before her eyes. Did she just meet the director of the hospital himself? Him, and the specialists, whom she had never seen in the years she had worked here? These elusive figures all showed up with just a single phone call by Miss Gu? Just who was this person?

“Miss Gu is the founder of the Chinese Medical Research Laboratory.” The older nurse pushed the cart out of the room. When she heard the younger nurse’s doubts, she responded. “Save that for later. I’m gonna go watch the livestream right now!”

She left right after saying that.

The men left in the empty ward were in a dazed state.

“Sh*t, I don’t really understand what’s going on right now.” The young man standing next to Ying Qi wiped his face. “So Miss Gu’s gonna do an operation on him?” Emery and Zhu Yuan had spent so much time looking for the source of his ailment only for her to come up with a solution after a simple glance at the medical report? And they were heading into operation right now? Just what the hell is that Chinese Medical Research Laboratory thing?!

Why did every doctor here, including the director, seem to worship her?

Ying Xu silently marched out of the room.

Ying Qi and his men looked at each other before catching up with him.

Wang Jun stuck both his hands into his pockets and trailed behind the group lazily. On his face was an…incredibly punchable smug grin.

Emery looked at the tablet whose screen had once again lit up. It was as if Zhu Yuan’s video call reconnected right at the moment Gu Xiqiao left the ward.

“That girl left? And I managed to just reconnect the line.” Zhu Yuan could see even from his narrow webcam perspective that the room was empty. His entire demeanor was messy. After rambling on endlessly, he told Emery, “Uncle, you should go to the operation room too. She should be there by now. Remember to send me updates!”

“You have so much trust in her?” Finally, Emery said this.

Zhu Yuan paused for a moment. A somber expression returned to his face when he panned the camera around his laboratory. “Uncle, take a good look at this lab. She’s the one who’s responsible for its development. Every single item it holds can send shockwaves across the medical world. It’s been a long time since you’ve last been exposed to the topic of medicine and you might not know this but spend a little more time reading and you’ll understand why I have so much faith in her.”

Emery went silent upon hearing that. He walked straight to the elevator and pressed on the ‘4’ button.

Outside the operation room stood a sizable group of people. Emery walked up to Ying Xu, who lit up a cigarette while staring through the glass door of the room. His facial expression was largely shrouded behind the gray cigarette smoke. Despite his phone ringing for a good few seconds now, he still did not pick up the call.

The operation room must remain as sterile as possible; non-operating personnel were prohibited from entering. A large portion of the doctors stood outside the room, staring intently at the surgery process.

Two hours later, the light above the door of the operation room went out. In synchrony, everyone looked over at the door.

The first to exit the room was Gu Xiqiao. Her surgical mask was still on, meaning all they could see was her shining bright eyes. It was only after walking out of the room did she remove her mask with delicate fingers that seemed to glow underneath the fluorescent lighting.

Gu Xiqiao took off her surgical gown and passed it over to a nurse that quickly caught up to her. Right after that, she picked up the coat that Jiji had offered to her.

The director and his men slowly came out of the room. Hurriedly, he announced to Ying Xu, “The operation is a success.” Upon saying so, he and his team flocked to Gu Xiqiao, bombarding her relentlessly with questions.

There were too many questions and Gu Xiqiao could not answer them in time. She pinched the bridge of her nose and calmly spat out a line of numbers. “You know, I have already handed essential information on the surgery over to the director. You should have also recorded it down, right? If anyone’s still clueless, you are more than welcome to ask Zhu Yuan about it.”

“Alright, no more issues?” Gu Xiqiao nodded her head with a satisfactory grin when she saw that none of them had any extra-bothersome questions.

Slowly, she made her way out of the hospital.

The crowd parted like the Red Sea for Moses, allowing Gu Xiqiao to navigate her way out.

Finally, it was after the elevator doors closed shut did these doctors start chattering amongst themselves.

“Greedy director! How dare you keep that thing to yourself!” One of the doctors glared angrily at the director.

The director laughed it off smugly. “You bunch of wolves. I feared that if I gave you all this precious piece of paper, you’d rip it to shreds!”

“Say, when Gu Xiqiao was calculating the molecular formula of the virus, did she use a computer?” another doctor asked quietly.

His colleague nodded. “Yeah, her robot helped her with the calculations.”

The director was perplexed. “So the alleged robot that Gu Xiqiao constructed, was that thing?”

“So… we no longer have to torture ourselves with calculations? And perhaps it’s time to learn how to create our own robots?” A younger doctor chuckled self-deprecatingly. After he said that, an indescribable sense of shock swelled up in his heart.

He took in a deep breath. This gap between them really was impossible to bridge.

Every other doctor went off on their own, trying to decipher the footage and the piece of paper which Gu Xiqiao left with them. Just wait till they finish editing the footage and the voice recordings. The medical world was probably heading towards another roller coaster ride.

Thinking about it made them feel… excited?

The only ones left in the corridor were Ying Xu and his men.

“S-She really pulled it off?” No one in this group knew about the patient’s condition better than Emery. Being in a vegetative state was no laughing matter; it was an indicator that the patient was in an extremely grave situation.

It would probably take Zhu Yuan a certain amount of time before he comes up with a solution. Never in a million years could he expect a young lady to waltz right in and resolve the problem as if it wasn’t one in the first place.

He finally understood why Zhu Yuan was so confident prior to the operation.

Ying Qi and his men nodded in unison. “It certainly seems so.” It felt as if they were in a dream, but how was that even possible?

“Stop thinking about it.” Wang Jun was not surprised in the slightest. He patted Ying Qi on the shoulder. “Both of my uncle’s legs almost got amputated at the hospital. It was Miss Gu who treated him. Lo and behold, he can even run now!”

“Thank you.” Ying Xu stubbed his cigarette. It was quite apparent that Gu Xiqiao was brought in by Wang Jun.

However, Wang Jun didn’t dare to take credit for it. “Don’t thank me. If she’s not willing, I can’t do anything about it.”

Ying Xu nodded. He looked down at his subordinate lying on the bed. There were so many signs that he was starting to recover. After lingering there for a short while, he decided to leave the hospital. Finally, he answered the call which had been bugging him up until this point. “Mr. Yi Tong, good…”

***

With Ying Xu’s help, Yi Tong managed to locate the little village where the problem was supposedly reported.

A squad walking in a single-file stood atop the hill. They looked down at the village that was in the middle of constructing a massive theme park. They were stunned. “Why on Earth is there such a professional-looking theme park in this place?!” Not only that, there were concrete and asphalt roads leading into the village from every direction! Hell, the roads even appear to be in better shape than in N City!

On paper, this was a village. But how the hell was this not a bloody resort town?!

Yi Tong set down his compass. For the past three days, the needle had been spinning around turbulently in every direction. The solemn expression on his face turned into one of amazement and bafflement. “No way, have we arrived late?”

His men had accepted this mission via the Ancient Martial Arts World Forum. After spending three days and three nights searching, they had finally gotten their much-needed information. They had not even started their operation when the problem was already solved by some mysterious individual. Just who was this person? How rare it must be for someone to be able to clean up the mission so effortlessly.

Was his speed fast enough? Should he attack in this manner?

Jiu Tong had no answers. He squinted his eyes, which picked up a familiar figure in the distance.

A moment later, Jiu Tong tapped on Yi Tong’s shoulder. Pointing towards a seemingly random direction, he said, “Yi Tong, take a look at that.”

***

At the bottom of a mountain located at the southern end of China.

Jiang Shuxuan was looking down at the Bagua diagram intently.

“Big Boss! Yi Tong’s here to meet you!” Yi Bing suppressed his smile as he passed the phone over to Jiang Shuxuan.

Junyi’s eyebrows were slightly raised. Jiang Shuxuan reached out and took the phone. The first thing he saw was Yi Tong’s face with tears rolling down his cheeks. “Big Boss! You knew that Gu Xiqiao was here and yet you sent me here to get humiliated! Do you think this is funny or something?!”