The Domineering Cultivator Farmer

Chapter 24: My Disabled Cousin Li Huilin

“Hui Lin, I’ve come to see you.” As soon as Fang Yun entered the room, he saw a young man in his twenties sitting on the edge of the bed eating—it was his cousin, Li Hui Lin. “Niuniu, say hello to your Uncle.” “Hello, Uncle.” Li Huilin, who had been eating, jolted and turned his head, looking at Fang Yun in disbelief. His voice choked up as he said, “Brother, when did you get here? This must be your daughter. Mom told me about her—she’s really cute.” Niuniu grinned from ear to ear—the little girl loved nothing more than being praised. Li Huilin had been disabled since birth and couldn’t walk; the other children in the neighborhood didn’t want to play with him. Only Fang Yun, when he was a child, would often visit his aunt’s house to keep him company, and the two were very close. Whenever Fang Yun was about to go home as a child, Li Huilin would cry and hold onto his hand, begging him not to leave. “Let me take a look at your feet.” Fang Yun had come this time specifically to cure Li Huilin’s condition. “There’s nothing to see. It’s been like this for over twenty years.” Li Huilin was a bit reluctant, but he rolled up his pant leg anyway. Fang Yun crouched down, took hold of Li Huilin’s foot, and examined it with his Yuan Qi. He discovered that the tendon at the heel had atrophied and shriveled into a tight knot—it looked as if the tendons in his foot had been severed. No wonder he couldn’t stand up. But now Fang Yun could use his Yuan Qi to restore the tendons in his foot to a normal state. “I can heal your foot right now. In a moment, you’ll be able to stand up just like everyone else.” “Is that really true? That’s wonderful! I’ll be able to stand up! I’ll be able to walk!” Li Huilin wept like a child. He had unconditional trust in Fang Yun; if Fang Yun said he could stand up and walk on his own, he believed he would definitely be able to do so. That’s why Li Huilin was crying so freely—no one could know how much pain and frustration a man who’d been confined to a chair for over twenty years, watching others play, had endured. “What’s wrong?” Fang Xiangmei, hearing her son’s cries, rushed in and asked anxiously. “It’s nothing. I just told Hui Lin that I could cure his legs so he could stand up and walk,” Fang Yun hurriedly explained. “Oh. I’m glad it’s nothing. What!!! You can make Hui-lin stand up and walk? You’re not lying to us???” Fang Xiangmei had initially responded casually and was about to leave when it suddenly dawned on her—Fang Yun was saying he could cure her son’s legs. Overcome with emotion, Fang Xiangmei grabbed Fang Yun’s hand and shouted. Hearing his wife’s cry, Li Xigen also rushed into the room. The three of them stared at Fang Yun, their eyes filled with disbelief, excitement, hope, and pleading. Over the past twenty-odd years, Li Xigen and Fang Xiangmei had taken Li Hui Lin to countless hospitals and consulted countless so-called experts and professors. Each time, they went with hope but returned filled with disappointment. Even now, whenever they heard of a place or a person said to be skilled in treating leg and foot conditions, the couple would immediately take Hui Lin to see them. They wouldn’t let a single glimmer of hope slip by, yet to this day, Hui Lin’s legs had shown no signs of improvement. The couple has lost count of how many times they’ve cried secretly under the covers at night. Over the years, the couple has been unable to go out to work and earn money because they have to stay home to care for Hui Lin. Yet they still need to make money to take Hui Lin to seek treatment all over the place, so they’ve had no choice but to rent all the fields in the neighborhood—fields that the neighbors, busy working away from home, don’t have time to tend—and farm them themselves. Working day and night, the couple—in their forties—looked older than people in their fifties. Although Fang Yun’s appearance made it hard to believe he was a highly skilled doctor, the couple was like a drowning person—they would cling desperately to even a single straw. “Yes, I can guarantee that I’ll cure Hui Lin’s foot—and I’ll do it right away,” Fang Yun told his uncle and the other two with absolute certainty. As soon as he finished speaking, he grasped Hui Lin’s foot and used his spiritual energy to stimulate the tendons, gradually straightening it. Hui Lin was sweating profusely from the pain, but he gritted his teeth, didn’t utter a sound, and just stared intently at Fang Yun’s hand gripping his foot. He could feel a warm current flowing from Fang Yun’s hand into his foot—it was truly神奇. This made him even more confident in Fang Yun’s words. “All right, drink this water, rest a bit, and then try standing up again.” After a long while, Fang Yun—his head drenched in sweat—finally let go of Li Huilin’s foot with a weary sigh and pulled a bottle of spring water he’d prepared earlier from his pocket, handing it to him to drink. “Fang Yun, are you okay? Do you want to rest a bit?” Although she was anxious to know if her son’s leg had healed, seeing Fang Yun drenched in sweat, Fang Xiangmei hurriedly urged him to take a break. “I’m fine. Huilin’s foot is healed; just let him get used to it slowly, and he’ll be able to start walking again.” Fang Yun knew that his aunt and her family were anxious to know if Huilin’s foot had healed. Li Xigen quickly brought over a chair and urged Fang Yun to sit down and drink some water. The couple gathered around Li Huilin, nervously staring at his foot. When Li Huilin slowly stood up, holding onto the bed, and cautiously let go to find that he could indeed stand on his own, the whole family embraced each other and wept bitterly, as if trying to vent all the grievances they’d endured over the years. “Auntie, take Hui Lin out to the courtyard so he can practice walking,” Fang Yun reminded the family of three, who were so overcome with joy that they were weeping uncontrollably. “Right, right, right. Huilin, come on—let’s walk out slowly and practice walking a bit,” Fang Xiangmei said hurriedly as she and her husband helped Huilin out of the room to practice. Relatives and friends who had just left after dinner all returned upon hearing the news. One by one, they watched Li Huilin stumbling and learning to walk in the courtyard, unable to believe their eyes. Everyone had witnessed this family’s more than twenty-year journey seeking medical treatment far and wide, and they felt deep sympathy for them. Now, seeing that Fang Yun had cured Li Huilin’s foot, they were overjoyed for the family. “Brother Xigen, this is a cause for great celebration. We should throw a proper party to let everyone share in the joy,” everyone said to Li Xigen. “Right, right, right—we definitely need to throw a proper celebration,” Li Xigen said, so overjoyed he didn’t know what to do with his hands. Throughout the banquet, the guests kept toasting Fang Yun, and words of praise filled the air. Since Fang Yun had cured an illness that major hospitals had been unable to treat for over twenty years, he was undoubtedly a remarkable miracle doctor in their eyes. By building a good relationship with him now, they might find themselves in need of his help in the future. By the time Fang Yun left, Li Huilin was already able to walk slowly and insisted on accompanying Fang Yun back to his home. When the villagers saw Li Huilin walking into the village, they were all so shocked they thought they were seeing a ghost. Everyone in the neighboring villages knew he was disabled—he’d been to countless hospitals over the past twenty-plus years without finding a cure. They hadn’t heard of him going to that hospital for treatment recently, so how was it possible that he could walk now? One by one, they gathered around, asking which hospital had such excellent medical skills. When everyone learned that it was actually Fang Yun who had cured Li Huilin, the whole village was in an uproar. They never imagined a miracle healer would appear right in their own village, and instantly, the respect in their eyes toward Fang Yun grew. In fact, this was exactly what Fang Yun had intended. He planned to gradually reveal his miraculous abilities over time, allowing the villagers to slowly get used to, adapt to, and accept them. Fang Yun intended to teach them all to practice cultivation together once they had adjusted.