Open a Clinic to Cultivate Myself Chapter 272 Spouse of the Deceased

Although he lamented this in his heart, Ning Tao said nothing. He went to the entrance from where he had entered. Soon, he could see Joanna among the guests. She was chatting with Bai Jing, looking very amiable.

Bai Sheng obviously did not send Bai Jing an invitation. But given her abilities, Bai Jing could easily sneak in without anyone being able to stop her—unless it was Bai Sheng himself.

Ning Tao wanted to go over, but the voice of a woman speaking in English suddenly rang out from behind him. “Excuse me… are you Doctor Ning?”

Ning Tao turned around and found a middle-aged white woman entering his sight. She was slightly plump and had some freckles on her nose bridge and her forehead. Her clothes were a little muddy, and she seemed very flustered and somewhat frightened.

Ning Tao probed her in English. “I am Doctor Ning. May I know who you are?”

The woman looked somewhat tensely to her left and right. She said in a whisper, “It's not convenient to talk here. Please come with me.”

Ning Tao said, “We don't even know each other, and you haven't said what the matter was. Why should I go with you?”

“It's… ” The woman hesitated for a moment before saying, “I am Hanks's wife, Maria. I can't speak to you here. Please come with me.”

Ning Tao felt a tremor in his heart and he nodded. “Alright.”

Maria walked towards an emergency exit. Her pace was very quick.

Ning Tao followed behind her, but not too closely. He kept a distance from her. He was also feeling somewhat curious. “Hanks was hit by my Sacred Needle to Nasty Diseases. Bai Sheng may have a way to save him, but he needs to use the Soul-devouring Urn. And he needs a few dozen girls' lives as sacrifice. It won't be easy for even Bai Sheng to save Hanks. This woman claimed that she is Hanks's wife and came looking for me. Did Bai Sheng refuse to save Hanks? Is that why she is here?”

Maria entered the emergency passage. She did not stop but continued ahead.

Ning Tao turned back his head and glanced. No one had followed them. He stopped walking and said, “Madam Maria, there's no one else here. Let's talk.”

Maria finally halted her footsteps. She spun around to face Ning Tao and suddenly plonked down on her knees before him. “Doctor Ning, please save me!”

Ning Tao was immediately startled. Just when they had entered the emergency passage, he had used his states of looking and smelling to give Maria a “body check-up”. She was quite ordinary and very healthy. Why would she kneel down before him and beg for help?

“Madam Maria, did someone threaten you?” Ning Tao asked in a probing way.

Maria's expression was frantic. “My husband left the hotel yesterday. I asked him where he was going and he said, 'To the exhibition hall.' I asked him why and he did not answer. But I could tell that his condition was terrible. I wanted to go with him but he refused. After his departure, he soon gave me a call and an email. He said that if he did not return, I must pass you this email. He wanted me to look for you and told me your name, also sending me your photo.”

Ning Tao was quite curious what email Hanks could have sent his wife. But he was not anxious to ask.

Maria continued, “I did not read the email. I was very worried for my husband. This morning, I went out early to search for him. There was someone in the elevator of the hotel. I remembered my husband's words the night before and felt quite frightened. So I went down the stairs instead. The moment I came to the stairway, I saw two men walk out of the elevator. They were armed with guns. They opened my room door. I ran out of the hotel, and came to look for my husband. In the end, I saw… ”

“What did you see?” Ning Tao asked.

Maria said, “I saw two men carrying the body of my husband, feeding it… ” She covered her mouth. Tears gushed out from her eyes. “They were feeding my husband's body into a meat grinder, bit by bit… I was terrified. I hid myself in a plastic bin. I only crept out when there were many people around… ”

Trusted aides will be eliminated when they have outlived their usefulness.

From the look of things, that revolting Hanks last night must be another tool. Someone had come up with a scheme and he was merely a pawn. Since the pawn had run into some trouble, threatening the progress of the scheme, the mastermind had decided to abandon it. Hanks seemed to have guessed his own end and what would happen shortly after. That was why he had called up his wife on the way to the exhibition hall and sent her an email.

But Ning Tao could not understand. Why was Hanks confident enough to let his wife beg him for help?

“Madam Maria, please get up and talk.” Ning Tao stretched out his arms to help Maria up.

Maria was weeping and very grief-stricken, but she dared not sob openly. Ning Tao stretched out his hands and helped her up. She too got up very obediently. There was some dust on her kneecaps, but she did not brush it off with her hands.

Ning Tao said, “Madam Maria, can you let me see that email?”

Maria watched Ning Tao with tear-stained eyes. She hesitated for a moment before saying, “Get me out of here first. I will only give it to you when we reach a safe place.”

Ning Tao asked, “Are you asking me to take you to the American consulate or embassy?”

Maria rejected this offer at once. “No, I won't go to the consulate or embassy. I don't trust them.”

Ning Tao furrowed his brows a little. “So where do you think is the safest place? You wouldn't make me take you to your home in the U.S. before letting me see the email, would you?”

Maria was silent. She seemed completely flustered. If she knew what place was safe, she would have said it. But she did not. For her, the world was so large and yet there seemed no place that could hide her.

From the entrance of the emergency passage came a flurry of footsteps.

Maria immediately became tense. “They… they are here… ”

Ning Tao took her by her arm and walked to the other end of the emergency exit. As they walked, he said, “Don't be anxious. Your husband did the right thing to let you find me. I can protect you and no one will be able to harm you.”

But his words did not seem to reassure Maria. She still kept turning back her head to look.

The footsteps behind them had quickened.

There was an exit door in front of them. A U-shaped lock as large as a thumb was bolting the door.

Such a lock would be very hard to break even with a wire cutter.

“What can we do? What… ” Maria seemed to be getting hysterical.

The footsteps behind them quickened. Whoever was following them was running.

Ning Tao drew out the Blade of the Solar Eclipse from his waist sheath. He stretched out his hand and hacked down.

Snap!

The sound of a sharp blade severing sugarcane. The U-shaped lock as thick as a thumb was instantly severed.

Ning Tao pushed open the door, pulling Maria and dashing out. At the exit, he turned back to glance. Two gunmen with pistols mounted with silencers were sprinting here.

At this moment, Ning Tao slowed down instead.

Two gunmen dashed out of the emergency exit. But before their pistol muzzles could aim at Ning Tao and Maria, a human figure had dropped from above.

Pow! Pow!

The two gunmen collapsed to the ground.

The person who had struck was the artist, Yin Molan. There was an SLR camera slung on his back. The weapon he had used were his fists.

Yin Molan glanced at Ning Tao and asked, “Do you prefer treatment fees or their heads?”

If he said the latter, Ning Tao was worried that Yin Molan would behead the two gunmen with his Blade of Brotherhood. There was no problem in doing that elsewhere, but not here. So he said, “Treatment fees.”

Yin Molan said no more. He picked up the pistols dropped by the two men and grabbed the men by their ankles. He leaped into the air and disappeared in a whizz.

Maria had not yet come to herself. Her eyes were staring straight at the complexly structured, open-air rooftop where Yin Molan had disappeared.

Ning Tao silently inserted a needle into the back of Maria's head. A whiff of spiritual power quivered, and she soon passed out without knowing anything. Ning Tao stretched out his arm and supported her waist. Then he carried her up by her waist to a deserted corner.

A few seconds later, he had carried Maria and appeared under a cliff by the entrance to Cloud-lying Village. After closing the convenient door, he woke her.

Maria opened her eyes and saw a precipitous cliff before her. There were also dense forests and Ning Tao's face. She was instantly shocked, unable to speak with her mouth agape.

Ning Tao said, “Madam Maria, this is the safe place I have found for you. Continue ahead and you will come to a village. I have friends in that village. I will write you a slip to find someone and he will take good care of you. When I have finished my business at hand, I will come back and find you. By then, it will be possible for you to go anywhere.”

“Where… ” Maria finally spoke. “Where is this place?”

Ning Tao said, “Shennongjia in Hua Country. A primeval forest sparsely inhabited. It will be safe for you to stay in that village right in front.”

“How did we come here? Why did I suddenly pass out? And how long was I unconscious?” A whole string of unanswered questions started to crowd Maria's mind.

But Ning Tao only said, “Now let me see that email of your husband.”

Maria looked around her, seemingly trying to ascertain something.

Ning Tao said, “I have no time. Don't you want to leave Hua Country safely? And your husband's death. Would you let him die just like that?”

Maria retracted her eyes and took out her cell phone. “I send it to you via Bluetooth.”

Ning Tao also took out his cell phone. After receiving the email Maria had sent him, he took out an ordinary prescription from his little medicine chest. Then he wrote a letter to Jian Mi, tore out the prescription, and handed them to Maria. “Take this letter and look for a young man called Jian Mi. He will help you.”

“But I don't know this Jian Mi.”

“It doesn't matter. The moment you meet someone, pass him this letter to read. That person will take you to Jian Mi. If I had the time, I would have taken you to him myself. But I don't,” Ning Tao said.

“Alright then, I will go to the village and search for that man called Jian Mi. I hope you will fulfill your promise to me,” Maria said. Then she went in the direction of Cloud-lying Village.

After Maria departed, Ning Tao reopened the convenient door, striding in…

Chapter end