Fight, Flight, or Freeze: The Healer's Story
Chapter 224: Huang Xiao Wen

Chapter 224: Huang Xiao Wen

"Want to hear a story?" asked Huang Xiao Wen as he sat back on his couch and looked at me.

I wanted to say no. I just wanted to know the bare minimum about what I needed to do to get out of Camp Hell 2.0, but I also knew I couldn’t say that.

He did technically save me from being raped by the swamp creature.

I nodded my head and got comfortable. Something told me that this would take a while.

"I won’t bore you with the details, but let’s say that there was a little boy who was trying very hard to get killed by the time he turned seven. He had a big mouth and absolutely nothing to back it up with," he chuckled lightly, and even I had to smile as I thought about him as a kid.

"I—he got into a fight with some adults over something so stupid that I can’t even remember it now. Just as his little life flashed before his eyes, a man came out of the shadows and saved me." He looked off in the distance as if reliving that moment.

"He took me in and trained me. He only had two daughters, and his wife had died giving birth to the second one. He wasn’t willing to touch another woman, but he didn’t have anyone to take over the family business when he died. So, he took me in and adopted me. Raised me to be his heir."

I nodded my head like I understood, but I really didn’t have a clue where this was all going.

"He sent me off to the military for a few years, thinking that they could train me in ways that he couldn’t, and I became the perfect weapon for the Black Mountains. Wu Bai Hee, his oldest daughter, was supposed to marry into the Red Dragon Syndicate in order to bring the two organizations together. The youngest..." He paused, and I could feel the pain radiating from him.

"The youngest is sick. And no matter what I do, I can’t heal her." Taking in a deep breath, he continued. "I was looking for an old-school doctor when I was taken and brought to Camp Hell. After we were released, I came back here and took back control. Lai Jie was the interim leader for those years I was in Camp Hell, and he isn’t overly happy that I am back."

"Okay," I said, nodding my head. "You want me to heal the younger daughter."

"Technically, she is my younger sister." He swallowed loudly as he took a deep breath. She might be technically his younger sister, but I was willing to bet that she was a lot more to him than just that.

"And you want me to heal her," I stressed again.

"Did you know that you are the only person I have ever come across that my void powers don’t work on?" he asked, once again changing the subject. "You healed me time and time again. You healed everyone around me. You—" he stopped, not sure where to go from there.

"I am the one killing her. And she doesn’t blame me at all."

"Woah..." I said, holding up my hand. "You are going to have to back up on that statement and try it again."

"Healers have been able to use their power to heal anything and everyone. The only time that a healer has failed is if the patient was too close to death. But not even that managed to stump you."

Once again, he paused and just looked at me.

"I even block people from healing. I managed to bring her to a healer before I was captured, but nothing happened. I voided her power, and my sister has been left to suffer ever since."

"And you want me to heal her," I said for a third time. Why wouldn’t this guy just come out and say it?

"But I don’t have the right to ask you to do that," murmured Huang Xiao Wen. "You healed me over and over again so I could come back here... to my sister. I can’t ask you to keep healing people for me."

"Then let’s make a deal," I said, coming up with an idea. "I’ll heal your sister. And when I do, you let us all go."

Before he could reply, there was a commotion at the door to his house.

"Head!" shouted a man, banging on the door as if he was trying to break it down. "Head!"

"What?!?" growled Huang Xiao Wen, coming up from the couch in an absolute rage as he unlocked the front door and glared down at the man on the other side. "Ying Tai is trying to sleep! Why are you bothering her?!?"

Nice to know that his immediate concern was for his sister. But where the hell had I heard the name Wu Bai Hee before?

That one was bothering me the most. Huang Xiao Wen had spoken about her as if she wasn’t around anymore. Did she die? What happened to her? He clearly wasn’t as worried about her as he was with the youngest sibling.

Sorry, step-sibling.

"The guys we had moved to the kitchen have managed to escape. Almost 60 of them," gasped the man at the door. "I think Lai Jie had something to do with it."

Huang Xiao Wen let out a low growl as he started putting his shoes on.

"Wait," I said, holding up my hand. Both men turned to look at me; the second one’s face flashed with anger as if I dared to order around his Head. "Just the ones going to the kitchen?" I asked; for some reason, my brain was telling me that this was important.

I knew from experience that 60-some-odd-men couldn’t just slip out of a compound. Maybe one or two, but not that number.

So, what was my brain trying to figure out?

"Yes, only the ones from the kitchen," grunted Huang Xiao Wen as he walked toward me.

So, only the Princess Teams managed to escape an organized crime syndicate. I mean, it probably wasn’t anywhere as powerful as it was before the fall, but that didn’t mean that these hundreds of men couldn’t take out 60.

Unless.

"What did you say the oldest sister was called?" I asked, cocking my head to the side.

"Wu Bai Hee," replied Huang Xiao Wen. "But what does she have to do with this? She died when the zombies came. She was with the Red Dragon Syndicate in City B right before it was taken over."

"No," I disagreed. "She is very much alive, and if I am not mistaken, the figurehead of those teams that managed to ’escape’."