Chapter 773: Car Accident

Early morning. The sun shone brightly, and the breeze was mild.

Just as Li Xu finished breakfast, a white SUV pulled smoothly to a stop in front of the clinic. Li Lin hopped out of the driver’s seat and ran inside, looking full of energy.

“Morning, Senior!” Li Lin greeted him with an excited grin.

“What brings you here? Don’t you have your internship at the Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine today?” Li Xu asked, a bit surprised.

“Hehe, the school gave me special clearance for the next few days. They assigned me to be your driver and personal assistant, taking care of you around the clock,” Li Lin said, patting his chest proudly. “That is, until you finish your public lecture at the university next Wednesday. For the next few days, whatever you need—whether it’s fetching coffee, grabbing medicine, or running errands—just give the word.”

Li Lin was thrilled. Although it sounded like he was just here to do grunt work, being able to officially shadow a master like Li Xu twenty-four hours a day was a golden opportunity. Even just watching him write prescriptions would teach him more than years of university classes ever could. This was a dream gig that people would kill for.

“Alright.” Li Xu didn’t refuse. It would be a waste not to use free labor. “Then drive Sisi and me to the Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine first. I have a few follow-up appointments there this morning.”

“Right away! Mrs. Li, please get in,” Li Lin said, attentively pulling the car door open.

Song Sisi’s face turned beet red at being called “Mrs. Li.” She shot him a playful glare before following Li Xu into the backseat.

The car merged smoothly into the morning rush-hour traffic. Sitting in the back, Li Xu rested with his eyes closed, mentally refining the manuscript for the *Outer Scripture* he had written the night before. Song Sisi leaned against his shoulder, softly discussing interior decor styles for their new house.

Just as they were sharing a rather intimate moment…

SCREECH!!!

An ear-piercing sound of slamming brakes tore through the air. Caught off guard, Li Xu and Song Sisi were violently jerked forward by the massive inertia, nearly smashing their heads against the front seats. Fortunately, they were both wearing seatbelts, which yanked them harshly back into place.

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, Senior! Is Sisi alright?” Li Lin turned around, his face flushed and his voice shaking as he apologized profusely.

“We’re fine, we didn’t hit anything.” Li Xu rubbed his shoulder where the seatbelt had dug in, frowning slightly. He wondered if their little display of public affection had somehow provoked the hot-blooded youngster, who had just gotten a girlfriend himself, causing him to lose focus.

However, as Li Xu looked out the windshield, he immediately realized he had wronged Li Lin.

“It looks like there’s a car crash ahead,” Song Sisi said.

Indeed, Li Lin hadn’t slammed the brakes out of distraction or jealousy over their romance; there was an emergency up ahead. More accurately, the car directly in front of them had slammed on its brakes without any warning. Li Lin’s reaction time had been incredibly sharp; had he been even half a second slower, they would have certainly rear-ended the vehicle. Because of the viewing angle and the fact that his eyes had been closed, Li Xu hadn’t noticed the situation immediately. Song Sisi, sitting on the other side with a better vantage point, had seen it much more clearly. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

Li Xu and Song Sisi pushed open their doors and stepped out of the SUV, getting a clear view of the scene.

It was a traffic accident. The private car ahead of them had collided with an electric scooter crossing the road. The scooter had been smashed to pieces, its wreckage lying several meters away. The rider, an elderly man in his fifties or sixties, lay in agony in front of the car’s bumper.

His face was deathly pale, his features contorted in pain, and his forehead was covered in cold sweat. Clutching his right chest tightly with one hand, he curled up on the ground, twitching slightly.

Before Li Xu and Song Sisi could walk over, the driver of the car ahead and the female passenger in the front seat had already scrambled out in a panic. They were a fashionable young couple in their late twenties. Both were impeccably dressed; the man wore a tailored custom suit, while the woman carried a limited-edition designer handbag. Naturally, their car was just as luxurious.

Li Xu didn’t know much about cars, nor did he care much for material things. He only recognized it as a Mercedes-Benz from the logo. As for whether it was a Maybach or an AMG, how much it cost, or what year it was released, he hadn’t the faintest idea.

“Hello? Police? We’ve had a car accident at the intersection of Renmin Road… Yes, someone is injured…”

As Li Xu and Song Sisi approached, the young woman was standing to the side, anxiously reporting the accident on her phone and likely contacting her insurance company. Meanwhile, the young man walked over to the fallen elder. Instead of reaching out to help him up, he kept his distance, looking down from above as he asked, “Sir, are you alright? Where does it hurt?”

The elderly man, however, kept his mouth shut. He only clutched his chest in agony, letting out faint groans.

Seeing this, the young man frowned and instinctively took a half-step back. To him, the fact that the old man was staying silent and just clutching his chest suggested he might be a crash-for-cash scammer looking for an easy payout. He figured it was best to just wait for the traffic police to determine liability. There was no need to get too close and risk getting extorted.

Judging from the scattered debris and the skid marks, it seemed the scooter had tried to beat a yellow light, darting diagonally out of the bike lane so suddenly that the car couldn’t dodge in time. It looked like the older man was mostly at fault. Of course, since Li Xu hadn’t seen the whole thing unfold from inside his SUV, he couldn’t jump to conclusions.

In today’s society, when something like this happened and an elderly scooter rider stayed down, there was a fair chance they were playing dead or acting shamelessly to avoid paying hefty car repair fees—or to squeeze out a larger settlement. Whenever scooter riders collided with expensive luxury cars, faking an injury to instinctively play the victim was a common self-preservation tactic, especially before liability was clearly divided.

The young man clearly thought the same. He watched coldly, asking no further questions.

However, it only took Li Xu one glance for his professional intuition to kick in. The man definitely wasn’t faking it. Something was seriously wrong.

“Sir, don’t move. I’m a doctor. Let me take a look at you.”

Li Xu didn’t hesitate. He hurried forward and dropped to one knee beside the elderly man.

The man still didn’t speak. He just gave Li Xu a somewhat unfocused look and nodded weakly in consent.

Instead of rushing to move his body, Li Xu extended three fingers and pressed them against the man’s wrist to check his pulse, simultaneously observing his complexion. His other hand gently palpated along the man’s ribcage to perform a basic examination.