"Injured? How did you get injured?"
Lin Yi asked.
"That time, after we returned from North Africa, I received a new mission to track an international drug kingpin. I didn't expect there to be experts among them. I was beaten and injured..."
At this point, Yang Huaijun gave a bitter smile. "I suppose I was lucky. When they saw me fall, they thought I was dead and didn't keep hitting me, but Pangolin, he..."
"Pangolin? What happened to him?"
Lin Yi's heart jolted, and he asked hurriedly.
"Pangolin... he was sacrificed..."
Yang Huaijun said somberly.
"What!"
Lin Yi's expression instantly turned grim. Pangolin—that short young man who always carried a bright smile on his face...
He never expected that the comrade he fought alongside two years ago would leave like this...
Seeing Lin Yi's expression, Yang Huaijun could deeply empathize with that feeling. Pangolin was Lin Yi's comrade, but he was also Yang Huaijun's comrade!
When he first learned of Pangolin's sacrifice, even a grown man like Yang Huaijun couldn't help but weep.
"Perhaps... he might not be dead after all..."
Fearing Lin Yi would be too heartbroken, Yang Huaijun tried to comfort him.
"His body wasn't found?"
A flicker of hope flashed in Lin Yi's eyes. Pangolin was a very shrewd young man; perhaps he really had managed to escape death.
"It is said that the drug lords threw the bodies into the drug refining furnaces... I only found out about that later."
Yang Huaijun sighed. "When I woke up, I was in such excruciating pain that I couldn't think straight. I first found a hidden place to hide, but eventually, I lost consciousness until I was rescued..."
"Fuck his ancestors!"
Lin Yi slammed his fist onto the coffee table in front of him. The exquisite solid wood table was instantly smashed into a pile of wood chips!
Yang Huaijun clicked his tongue inwardly. As expected of 'Eagle'—still so fierce. Yang Huaijun knew he certainly couldn't do such a thing.
"I'm sorry. My injuries were so severe at the time that I couldn't go check on my comrades..."
Every time Yang Huaijun thought of this, his heart was filled with guilt.
"It's not your fault!"
Lin Yi shook his head. Under those circumstances, he knew clearly that if Yang Huaijun had gone forward, it would have been suicide. In such a situation, preserving strength was the only way. "Are your injuries very serious?"
"My whole body was covered in wounds... After recovering for over half a year, I retired."
Yang Huaijun sighed. "Western medicine calls it 'sequelae,' and Traditional Chinese Medicine calls it 'severed meridians.' I can't get emotionally agitated, I can't engage in long-term high-intensity work, and I have to use medication to maintain my condition daily."
Lin Yi pushed the matter of Pangolin to the back of his mind and began to observe Yang Huaijun closely. "Give me your hand."
"What are you doing?"
Yang Huaijun found it strange, but he followed instructions and extended his hand.
"I'm going to take your pulse."
As Lin Yi spoke, he placed his fingers on Yang Huaijun's wrist, and his expression began to turn solemn.
"You know how to take a pulse? No way. Eagle, I thought you were good at killing, but you can save people too?"
Yang Huaijun looked at Lin Yi in surprise—this was the comrade who had faced life and death with him in the midst of gunfire and bullets.
"There is much you don't know."
Lin Yi smiled slightly. "What, you don't believe me?"
"Don't believe you?"
Yang Huaijun's eyes widened. "If I don't believe you, who would I believe? Back on the battlefield, I could trust you with my back!"
"Don't be so sentimental."
Though Lin Yi spoke jokingly, his heart grew increasingly heavy.
Yang Huaijun's pulse was very poor. He could feel that although his body had recovered, his internal injuries were severe. Several organs had not fully recovered and were even showing signs of continuous failure!
"How is it? My body is doing alright, right?"
Seeing that Lin Yi was actually performing a pulse reading, Yang Huaijun asked curiously.
"Do you only use painkillers to deal with your problems?"
Lin Yi's question was non-responsive.
"Yeah, is there something wrong with that?"
Yang Huaijun asked.
"Then how are you not dead yet?"
Lin Yi frowned.
"..."
Yang Huaijun was speechless. "Damn, are you cursing me to death?"
"I'm not cursing you, but your current situation is very bad. Your previous injuries never fully healed; instead, they are continuing to worsen. I don't know how you've managed to endure this long with painkillers, but generally speaking, anyone else would have died from the pain long ago."
Lin Yi spoke with a very grave expression. He wasn't being alarmist; he was stating a fact.
And for someone like Yang Huaijun, there was no need to lie. People who had been to the battlefield had long since placed life and death aside. Even if Lin Yi told him he would die tomorrow, Yang Huaijun wouldn't have much of a reaction.
"An old TCM practitioner said the same thing before, saying I wouldn't live past six months. Look, am I not living just fine?"
As expected, Yang Huaijun's emotions were not affected by Lin Yi's words; he casually stretched his arms and legs.
"He was right. Saying six months was being generous to you."
Lin Yi nodded.
"Eagle, can you stop insulting me? Do I look like a dying man to you?"
Yang Huaijun glared at Lin Yi with some dissatisfaction.
"My name is Lin Yi. Don't call me Eagle from now on."
Lin Yi glanced at Yang Huaijun and continued, "So, the fact that you've lived until now is a miracle, likely due to your tenacious willpower."
"And what's wrong with that?"
Yang Huaijun continued to ask.
"You can still use painkillers to alleviate the physical pain now, but in the future... this situation will only get more serious!"
Lin Yi said, "You might have already noticed that the frequency and dosage of your medication are both higher than before."
"You... really understand medicine?"
Having been hit right on the mark regarding his condition, Yang Huaijun was incredibly surprised!
"What do you think?"
Lin Yi released Yang Huaijun's hand. He already had a general understanding of his condition.
Yang Huaijun's situation was complicated. As the saying goes, "every medicine has three parts poison"; every herb, to varying degrees, causes damage to the organs in the body.
In other words, if Lin Yi prescribed a formula to treat the heart, it might affect Yang Huaijun's spleen or liver, etc. But if he treated the liver, it might affect the heart or kidneys.
In short, no matter which part was treated, it would cause side effects in other organs. In this way, treating him might be worse than not treating him at all, as it could only accelerate his death.
Seeing Lin Yi lost in thought, Yang Huaijun couldn't help but ask, "What's wrong? What are you thinking about?"
"Thinking about your condition."
Lin Yi sighed slightly. "It's very complicated. Using conventional Traditional Chinese Medicine therapy will inevitably affect your other organs. While it might be effective for one specific organ, it will accelerate the failure of others. If treated all at once, it would be equivalent to not treating it at all, or it could lead directly to death by poisoning."