Chapter 227: Whispers of Ancient Wisdom

The next morning arrived with bright, cheerful sunshine.

In the Jiang family, the three daughters stayed awake, while on the other side, Lin Zheng Ran had also spent the night scouring the internet for information and hadn’t slept a wink.

He discovered that this so-called Jixin Disease had so few cases that reliable data was scarce.

At least, the common medical books and reports online didn’t reveal much.

Luckily, his Level Two All-Encompassing Mastery helped with searching for books; it let him track down obscure texts and clues, then send the info to Pan Lin.

Even though the company had money, not every book was easy for Pan Lin to find.

Some of those odd, esoteric books were already on the brink of or fully lost to history.

Around nine in the morning, Pan Lin showed up at Lin Zheng Ran’s home with a group of people in suits, each carrying a large case in both hands.

There were about seven or eight of them.

At the time, Lin Xiao Li and Lin Ying Jun were at home watching TV. When they heard the knock, Lin Xiao Li went to answer the door.

“Who’s there?”

“Hello, is this Mr. Lin’s residence? I’m here to deliver some items to him,” Pan Lin said with a deep bow, full of respect.

Through the peephole, Lin Xiao Li saw a bunch of suited men with briefcases and felt confused and scared. What could this be about?

Salespeople? Insurance agents? Or something out of The Matrix?

She waved urgently to Lin Ying Jun, “Husband, husband! Come quick and check this out!” she whispered, adding that there was a crowd at the door. Lin Ying Jun got up nervously and headed over.

Peering through the peephole, they both tensed up at the unusual sight.

Lin Ying Jun swallowed hard, a bit frightened, and asked, “Mr. Lin? Which Mr. Lin? I think you’ve got the wrong door. What do you want?”

In the bedroom, Lin Zheng Ran heard the knocking and hurried out to the living room. “Mom, Dad, it’s okay. I asked them to come.”

“Huh?”

Lin Zheng Ran went over and opened the door.

Pan Lin bowed again.

Lin Zheng Ran pointed to his room. “Take the books to the bedroom.”

Pan Lin directed the group efficiently, and they carried the items into Lin Zheng Ran’s bedroom one by one, then took the empty cases away.

It took several trips, back and forth about a dozen times.

Pan Lin handed Lin Zheng Ran a thick list. “This is the list you gave me last night. I’ve only found about eighty percent of the books so far. I’m still sending people out for the rest, and I’ll deliver them as soon as we get them.”

Lin Zheng Ran nodded, skipping any polite chit-chat, and just said, “Hurry it up.”

The group came in a rush and left just as quickly, vanishing down the hallway in no time.

All that remained were Lin Ying Jun and Lin Xiao Li, completely baffled.

Lin Ying Jun slowly made his way to Lin Zheng Ran’s room doorway and saw that his son’s room was now packed with books!

Especially around the bed, they were stacked like towering mountains, with just a narrow path left.

He couldn’t count them exactly, but there had to be at least a few thousand.

“Son, what’s going on here?! Are you planning to open a bookstore?”

Lin Zheng Ran quickly flipped through the list and replied, “Well, I’m heading to university soon, so I’m working hard to study and research some things.”

Lin Xiao Li walked over and stared at the packed shelves in shock.

“Do you really need to go this all out, son? You weren’t this intense during the college exams, and you always read books anyway. Our warehouse is basically full of the ones you’ve already gone through.”

Lin Zheng Ran went back to his bedroom. “Mom, you can sell the ones I’ve read. I won’t look at them again.”

Lin Xiao Li marveled at how her son was anything but ordinary.

“I just didn’t want to throw them away in case you needed them later, so I never got rid of any.”

Lin Zheng Ran sat on the bed, eyeing the dense stacks of books, and picked one at random. “If I’ve read it, I won’t go looking for it again. Have you ever seen me head to the warehouse to dig through old books since I was a kid?”

Lin Xiao Li agreed. “That’s true.”

Lin Ying Jun added, “Don’t wear yourself out with all these books—it’s way too many. I wasn’t this extreme when I was in school.” He picked up a book himself.

“A lot of these are medical books, huh? Have you started diving into medicine now? And how much did all this cost? It can’t be cheap.”

“I pick up some side gigs now and then, and books don’t cost that much anyway.” He finished with, “Okay, Mom and Dad, go back to your TV. Don’t worry about me. Oh, and don’t call me for meals today—I’m focusing on reading. If I get hungry, I’ll grab something from the kitchen myself.”

Lin Xiao Li and Lin Ying Jun both nodded.

Lin Zheng Ran added, “And please close the door behind you.”

They shut the door for him.

The couple stood in the hallway, exchanging glances. To Lin Xiao Li and Lin Ying Jun, their son had always been a bit unconventional—geniuses and eccentrics were just a step apart, after all.

They both accepted that. With his drive for reading, he was clearly not your average person.

Lin Ying Jun sighed softly, “Honestly, it’s a good thing the world is at peace now. In any other era, who knows what great things our son could achieve—we wouldn’t even dare to imagine.”

Lin Xiao Li fully agreed.

For the next two days, Lin Zheng Ran stayed in his room, reading and thinking.

He occasionally checked how his experience bar was filling up.

Right now, there were two ways to treat Jiang Jingshi: either level up his All-Encompassing Mastery to the next stage and see what it does, or research a new treatment method through his reading.

There was another option, but… that one was more about extending life and wasn’t guaranteed to cure diseases, and it wasn’t from the same system anyway.

The reason Lin Zheng Ran had told Jiang Jingshi he’d have a solution in at most a month was because, at his current experience level, if he spent all his free time reading…

He calculated that he could break through and unlock Level Three in less than a month.

If he got lucky with some stroke of fortune, it could be even faster—maybe in just a day—but fortunate events were rare, and he’d tried chasing them before with little success.

Basically, those kinds of encounters only happened when they found you; you couldn’t force them. So, he couldn’t count on luck as a plan.

To find the fastest way to cure the disease, the best bet was using his Level Two All-Encompassing Mastery for learning, plus reading and thinking to crack the code himself.

After all, any illness was easier to treat in the early stages; the longer it dragged on, the harder it got.

Maybe it was just good luck, but after flipping through a massive amount of books in two days, Lin Zheng Ran actually found a theory in one that treated similar symptoms.

The only issue was, when he thought it through in his mind, it felt like it was missing a key piece, though the overall approach seemed solid.

That morning, Lin Zheng Ran was still in bed, reading and pondering solutions.

Suddenly, there was a knock at the bedroom door.

At first, he ignored it, but when it came again, he looked up. “Mom? Didn’t I say not to bother me unless it’s important?”

But the voice from the door wasn’t Lin Xiao Li’s. “It’s not Aunt, it’s me, Fang Meng. Can I come in?”

Lin Zheng Ran was surprised. Fang Meng? He’d been so absorbed in his reading that he hadn’t even noticed when she arrived at his house.

“Come in, the door’s unlocked.”

Fang Meng slowly opened the door. She always dressed stylishly, and today was no different— a red-and-white checkered short-sleeve top paired with a black-brown skirt.

Her long, fair legs ended in white sneakers, and her hair was in a side ponytail as usual.

She pushed the door open and was taken aback by the room full of books, but since Jiang Qian’s room sometimes looked like this, it wasn’t totally alien to her.

Geniuses were different, after all.

Fang Meng exclaimed, “So many books? Aunt wasn’t exaggerating—you’ve got them piled up so high there’s barely a path to the door.”

Lin Zheng Ran leaned against the headboard. “What brings you here?”

Fang Meng thought back to kissing him at the graduation ceremony, and her cheeks flushed slightly. “Just checking on you. Aunt said you’ve been obsessed with medical books lately and that you’ve never gone this all-out before. I got worried, so I came over.”

Lin Zheng Ran smiled. “No need to worry. I still go out sometimes—to grab a meal or use the restroom.”

Fang Meng figured that was better than Jiang Qian, who would hole up and not leave at all during her retreats.

She tiptoed to the bed and noticed many familiar titles. “Why the sudden interest in medical books? And these all seem to be on the same topic—heart and cardiovascular diseases?”

Lin Zheng Ran was surprised. “You know all that?”

“Well, I’ve studied medicine for years, so I figured I could help if you’re researching this. Has something happened?”

Lin Zheng Ran remembered that Fang Meng had always been into medicine, though he hadn’t paid much attention before.

“Nothing major, but you said you’ve studied it for years.” He pulled out the list that Pan Lin hadn’t fully found and handed it to her. “Any of these look familiar?”

Fang Meng took it and saw they were all about heart and cardiovascular diseases. “A few ring a bell, but lots of books have the same names. I think I have some, though they’re old ones.”

“You have them?!” Lin Zheng Ran thought, since even Pan Lin said many were lost.

Fang Meng nodded.

“It’s quite a coincidence—I have a huge personal collection from some old doctors in my village. It’s full of obscure ancient texts. If you’re interested, I can take you to see them, but we’d need to drive; it’s pretty far, out in my hometown village.”

【Encounter—Lost Medical Ancient Books and Elixir Secrets】

Lin Zheng Ran’s eyes widened slightly, a smile tugging at his lips, making Fang Meng blush as he stared.

“What? Why are you looking at me like that?”