Chapter 754 --754

Chapter 754: Chapter-754

Ren’s mind flashed back to the horrifying pool of dark blood in the mud and the way Heena’s pulse had practically vanished on the examination table.

"...No," Ren whispered honestly. "She didn’t even have the strength left to lift that iron hook a second time. Another thirty seconds on her feet and her lung would have collapsed."

"Yes," his mother smiled sharply. "That is exactly what I am telling you. In the middle of bleeding to death, that girl calculated down to the exact second how long her legs could hold her up. She knew she couldn’t fight eight women, so she used the most brutal, terrifying methods possible—blinding eyes with chili salt and shattering bone with rusted nails—to inflict maximum psychological horror using the least amount of energy. Then she stood there soaking in her own blood and smiled like a demon until a guild boss twice her age wet her pants and ran away. Putting that kind of fear into hardened killers when you are one breath away from the grave... Ren, you don’t learn that in a sewing room. That is not easy."

Ren let out a long, heavy sigh, looking toward the flicker of the candle flame as the weight of the situation pressed down on him. "I understand why she is formidable, Mother. And I am grateful she saved us. Truly. But... using that rumor to tie our names together... Mother, I don’t want to marry yet."

Old Lady Lin’s fierce expression softened instantly. She reached out across the small table, her rough, calloused hand resting gently over her son’s clenched fist.

"I know you don’t want to, child. And I am not going to force you into a bridal bed with her or anyone else," she said quietly. "That fifty-tael contract is business, not a marriage deed. But, Ren... I need you to look at reality. I am getting old. My knees ache when it rains, and my lungs aren’t what they used to be. If I were to close my eyes and die tomorrow, who in this city is going to stand in front of this clinic and support you? Your father has been dead and buried for a long time—"

The exact instant the word father left her lips, the gentle warmth in Ren’s eyes vanished, plunging into a terrifying, pitch-black frost.

"Don’t mention that bastard," Ren cut in, his voice dropping so low and cold it barely sounded like him.

Old Lady Lin paused, wincing slightly at the old, festering scar she had accidentally touched. She let out a heavy, tired sigh, pulling her hand back.

"Fine. We won’t speak of him," she conceded softly. "And I know that because of the past, you despise noble bloodlines and all their scheming nonsense more than poison itself. Believe me, I hate them too. But you also know the truth of our lives, Ren. I have no sisters, no brothers, and no maternal clan left to shelter you if I drop dead today. Even while I am still breathing, my two old fists aren’t enough anymore to hold back the vultures circling this street."

She gestured toward the front of the clinic, where the splintered wood of their broken front gate had been hastily nailed back together.

"Yes, the Imperial Law says an unmarried man is allowed to inherit his mother’s property," Old Lady Lin said bitterly, speaking the harsh, unspoken truth of their matriarchal world. "On paper, I can leave this clinic to you. But in practice? In these slums, a handsome, skilled young physician sitting alone on a valuable piece of property with no matriarch backing him isn’t an heir—he is a piece of prime meat waiting to be swallowed alive! I can never safely make you my successor on your own, because the moment my coffin goes into the ground, the bastards of this district will tear down the doors to drag you into their courtyards and seize the deed!"

Ren bit the inside of his lip, unable to refute a single word. He had seen it happen to two other orphaned sons in the lower ring over the past five years.

"Just think about it clearly," his mother pressed, leaning forward so her eyes locked onto his. "Was Mrs. Lynn the only greedy shark in this city? Now that she backed off, do you truly believe no one else will come sniffing around in the future? And the next time eight thugs show up at our gate with a sedan chair... if a ruthless lunatic like Lu Heena isn’t standing in our doorway claiming you belong to her, will the two of us ever be able to fight them off?"

Old Lady Lin tapped the red thumbprint on the contract once more, her weathered eyes gleaming in the candlelight. "If you stand beside her right now while she is in the mud, when her power returns, you won’t just be safe—you will be untouchable."

Ren blinked, staring at his mother in disbelief. "Mother, I am just a normal back-alley physician. How in the heavens would standing next to me make her noble power return?"

His mother let out a low, knowing chuckle, shaking her head at his naivety. "I didn’t say you would give her power, boy. Look at her mind. Even with a raging fever and a torn back, her brain works like a steel trap. In the upper rings, noble families like the Lu clan cast out their disobedient children to save face all the time, only to send a carriage back to fetch them a few months later once the scandal dies down—especially when they realize that child is actually useful. If she ever steps foot back inside that estate, she will be a high noblewoman again. And even if they never take her back, a viper that sharp will carve out a fortune of her own before the year is out."

Ren frowned, glancing toward the closed door leading to the treatment room. "But Mother... she is practically penniless right now. You said it yourself five minutes ago—she barely had enough copper to buy a sack of rice."

Old Lady Lin let out a long, exasperated sigh, looking at her son as if he had left his brains in the herb mortar.

"Son, ’penniless’ to a noble and ’penniless’ to us are two entirely different worlds," she explained patiently. "When I unbound her tunic yesterday to wrap her ribs, I felt the hidden pouch sewn into her inner lining. That girl is carrying at least five taels of pure silver and strings of copper on her body. More than that, she holds the clean property deed to a two-story building right in the most prominent commercial sector of the East Market! Add in a mind sharp enough to turn kitchen scraps into palace treasures, and a ferocious reputation so terrifying that not a single thug in this district will ever dare look her in the eye again."

She leaned forward, resting her elbows on the scarred table. "Even if the Lu Matriarch never accepts her back, just by borrowing her name and her shadow, you could live the rest of your life in complete comfort without ever worrying about who is knocking at the front gate."