Chapter 153: Your Father and Your Dad, Soul Devourer (5k)

A large part of the child’s treatment expenses still hadn’t been settled.

The doctor had also told them that after the child was registered and medical insurance was obtained, according to current policies, a large part of the expenses for treatments within the past three months could still be reimbursed.

Wen Yan looked at the cautionary notes clipped inside the medical record booklet, several of which had been emphasized by the doctors here for fear that Pei Tugou would forget them.

Looking further at the various forms in the medical record booklet, he noticed the dates on them.

When Pei Tugou went to Virtue City to claim his unpaid wages, his child fell into a coma. The child’s condition was critical, and all test indicators were poor.

Moreover, Wen Yan remembered that at that time, Pei Tugou had said his mother was also sick and hospitalized.

Now he completely understood why an honest man, when pushed to the brink, could be driven to extremes; the contractor who refused to pay the wages truly deserved to be hanged from a streetlight.

He had only glanced at the medical records and gained a rough understanding of the situation. Even so, he felt like hanging that guy all over again.

Luckily, he had encountered Pei Tugou back then. Wen Yan had been startled by him and subsequently lent Pei Tugou five thousand yuan from the few thousand he had in his bank card. Otherwise, if things had truly become unmanageable, no one knew what might have happened.

At that time, the Soul Devouring Beast must have already started to continuously dismantle traits from its main body, and it was probably in the initial stage of this disassembly.

It was precisely because the Soul Devouring Beast was dismantling its traits that its main body was no longer invincible, which gave Fake Mo Zhicheng an opportunity to stir up trouble.

Fake Mo Zhicheng caused chaos over there, leading the Soul Devouring Beast’s main body, which was in the process of dismantling its traits, to also start experiencing problems.

Wen Yan, worried that the Soul Devouring Beast would eat something randomly and cause another poisoning incident, intentionally or unintentionally interrupted the eating process.

With multiple factors compounding, the Soul Devouring Beast’s transformation process nearly ground to a halt. The half-transformed human child’s body remained in a critically low-health state, manifesting as being weak and sickly.

It was precisely three days ago that the little guy began to vomit uncontrollably and various test data started to plummet. This was exactly when Wen Yan was expelling toxins from the Soul Devouring Beast’s main body and ridding it of the brainwashing effects.

Later, Wen Yan finally understood what "I am Your Father" meant. He acknowledged this son, who was over ten kilometers in size, and even fed him his true ability.

Then, at the same time, the little guy in the hospital, who had nearly been issued a critical illness notice, stabilized. He began to gradually improve and, over three days, recovered at an astonishing rate.

By today, he was already doing a bit better than three days ago, and only then was he able to return to a regular ward.

Before Wen Yan arrived, Pei Tugou had always been worrying about this.

Pei Tugou, not quite understanding the medical jargon in the records, could still see that this unnamed child might not be easy to raise.

What lay ahead seemed to be a bottomless pit, and with his current income, he might really struggle to cope.

He couldn’t bear to neglect the child, yet the burden was becoming almost too much to carry, which naturally led to great stress and worry.

"Bro, let’s find a place to sit and talk," Wen Yan said.

Pei Tugou looked towards the ward. Wen Yan immediately reassured him, "Don’t worry, I’ve checked him over, and I’ve looked at the medical records too. There are no serious issues now; he just needs to be taken care of slowly. I’ll send these to my friend in a bit to have someone look over them."

As he spoke, Wen Yan pulled out his phone and took a photo of each medical record.

He led Pei Tugou to a smoking area in the courtyard of the inpatient department, lit a cigarette with a sense of melancholy, and after much thought, decided not to beat around the bush with Pei Tugou.

"Bro, I’ll tell you the truth. You were wondering how I recognized him at a glance, right?"

"You must know him..." Pei Tugou said. He was simple but not stupid and had naturally guessed something.

"That’s my son. My own flesh and blood, you could say."

Pei Tugou was somewhat surprised. After hesitating a moment, he spoke,

"Even if the child’s constitution is weak, you can’t just abandon him."

"What if I told you that I had no idea I had a child until today, would you believe me?"

"I believe you," Pei Tugou said, suddenly realizing the truth.

He had never really believed Wen Yan would abandon his child.

Wen Yan might be young, but from their very first meeting, he had been willing to help and even dared to lend five thousand yuan. Pei Tugou simply couldn’t believe Wen Yan was the type to abandon his child.

After a bit more thought, he recalled some soap opera plots his wife used to watch, which he’d inadvertently seen bits of. He quickly conjured up a whole scenario in his head.

It must have been an ex-girlfriend who got pregnant and then never told Wen Yan. After giving birth and finding the child was weak and often ill, unable to afford his medical needs or care for him, she must have abandoned the child in that roadside grove frequented by passersby.

Thinking it over, when the child was abandoned there, he didn’t even have a blanket wrapped around him. Wen Yan’s ex-girlfriend must not be a very good person to be so heartless.

Pei Tugou concocted his own melodramatic story, not concerning himself too much with the other details.

How could Wen Yan, who didn’t even know he had a son, recognize him at first sight?

That was simple: the bond of blood. One glance was all it took to be sure.

When his own daughter was born, he hadn’t witnessed the birth. But when the nurse brought the baby out after her bath, he knew from the very first look that she was definitely his child, no doubt about it.