“Whether this has anything to do with you or not, I’ll know once I investigate.”

Xiao Liu was furious. Seeing the suspicious look in Doctor Wang’s eyes made him feel even worse—as if he were the one responsible for Le Bao’s condition.

“Doctor Wang, please arrange for someone to take care of Le Bao. I’ll take the nanny downstairs for questioning and inform the regiment commander. I’ll be back soon.”

Lowering his head in embarrassment, Xiao Liu spoke quietly.

Doctor Wang waved his hand dismissively.

“To think that someone in the military district would dare bully the regiment commander’s child—what a joke. Go deal with it immediately.”

“Xiao Song, come look after Le Bao.”

The young nurse who had been called stepped forward sympathetically and stood beside the hospital bed.

“Yes, Director. I’ll take good care of the child.”

Xiao Liu felt even more ashamed. Under the disdainful gazes of the military doctors and nurses, he hurried away.

On the train, Lin Yao and Yuan Bao found their assigned seats.

There was only one seat available, fortunately next to the aisle. Lin Yao shoved their heavy luggage bag underneath the seat, and Yuan Bao sat on the exposed portion of the bag.

Lin Yao settled into the train seat.

The moment she sat down, an argument broke out across from her.

“Sir, you’re sitting in my seat.”

A young, attractive woman in a white dress with a fishtail braid stood before the middle-aged man occupying the seat opposite Lin Yao. Her delicate brows were slightly furrowed as she spoke.

The middle-aged man looked displeased and rolled his eyes.

“Miss, can’t you give your seat to me? Don’t you see that I have a bad leg? I can’t stand for long. You’re really cold-hearted.”

The young woman grumbled inwardly.

What happened to people being simple and honest in the seventies and eighties? This man is completely unreasonable.

“Sir, if your leg is injured, you can ask the conductor to help arrange a seat for you. This is my seat, and I have to sit here for two days and two nights. I can’t stand the entire trip. If you’d like, I can call a conductor right now.”

The man had only intended to steal the seat in the first place. Hearing that, he immediately became unhappy.

“Miss, you’re young. Either you’re a student or you work somewhere. Yet you have no respect for the elderly. Believe it or not, I’ll report you to your school or workplace. People without morals like you should be sent back to the countryside to farm. You don’t deserve a good job, and you certainly don’t deserve an education.”

His threatening words instantly ignited Su Ruanruan’s temper.

Her eyes flashed.

With a quick movement, she flicked out a silver needle and inserted it into one of the man’s acupuncture pain points.

“Ow! Oww! It hurts! It hurts!”

The man immediately howled in pain.

Su Ruanruan smiled smugly.

“Are you leaving or not? If you stay, it’ll keep hurting.”

Lin Yao’s eyes flashed with surprise. She hadn’t expected the young woman to know acupuncture.

After all, Lin Yao herself had studied medicine under a barefoot doctor in her village for over ten years and only barely felt confident enough to perform acupuncture.

“Help! Someone’s trying to kill me!”

The middle-aged man immediately started shouting.

Very quickly, a train attendant arrived.

“What’s going on? What’s all this commotion?”

“Officer, he took my seat and tried to force me to give it up. When I refused, he threatened to report me. I only used a silver needle to teach him a lesson.”

Su Ruanruan considered herself the victim and immediately explained.

The man shamelessly twisted the story.

“It was only a minor argument. How can she just stick needles into people? What if she injured me? I don’t care—she has to pay my medical expenses. I want a full examination at the provincial hospital. She can’t leave until they confirm I’m perfectly fine.”

Su Ruanruan hadn’t expected him to be so shameless and immediately try to extort compensation.

Anxiously, she said,

“Officer, I know medicine. I wasn’t stabbing him randomly. He’s perfectly fine—he’s just trying to scam me.”

“If you don’t believe me, ask the other passengers. Everyone saw him being unreasonable and bullying me first. I was only defending myself.”

As she looked around, her gaze suddenly landed on Lin Yao.

Pointing at her, she said,

“This lady was sitting closest to us. She definitely saw what happened. She can prove I’m innocent.”

Facing the attention of everyone present, including the conductor gathering testimony, Lin Yao had not yet spoken when the middle-aged man viciously interrupted.

“I don’t care about what happened before. The fact is she stabbed me with a needle. Anyone who testifies for her will have to come with me to the provincial hospital for examinations too. We won’t know if I’ve suffered lasting damage otherwise. If everyone leaves and I’m the only one left with lifelong injuries, how could I accept that?”

His words immediately caused the surrounding passengers to hesitate.

Everyone could tell the man was unreasonable, but it was also true that Su Ruanruan had used a needle on him.

After all, he had a point: who knew whether randomly sticking needles into someone could cause harm?

As a result, the passengers who had been ready to speak up all backed down.

They didn’t want to waste time making a trip to the provincial capital.

“I was putting away my luggage. I wasn’t paying attention.”

“Same here. It was noisy when I boarded. I only heard people arguing.”

“Why should your argument concern us? Don’t waste our time.”

One after another, the nearby passengers distanced themselves from the matter, wishing the conductor would simply take both parties away and stop delaying everyone else.

“You people…”

Su Ruanruan’s pretty face turned red with anger.

She seemed unable to understand why everyone was so unwilling to help and instead chose to stay out of it.

Lin Yao had already figured her out.

The young woman acted impulsively and had handed the shameless man a perfect excuse to exploit.

“Miss, you’re the closest one here. You definitely saw our argument. You know exactly what happened. I’ve been wronged—please speak up for me!”

Su Ruanruan urged Lin Yao impatiently, both angry and anxious.

Hearing her entitled tone, Lin Yao immediately frowned.

The middle-aged man had already made it clear that anyone who supported her might be dragged into unnecessary trouble.

Moreover, Lin Yao was traveling with a child. If the man decided to hold a grudge and seek revenge later, she would be the one suffering for it.

Su Ruanruan didn’t seem to care about any trouble Lin Yao might face. She only cared about proving her own innocence.

It was a deeply ingrained self-centeredness.

Of course, if she had asked politely, things might have been different.

But instead, she acted as though Lin Yao owed her support.

Lin Yao couldn’t be bothered with her.

Turning to the conductor, she said,

“Comrade, if they want to argue, please take them to another carriage and let them sort it out there. We’re ordinary passengers and don’t have time to waste on this.”

“As for the truth, I think you’ve already gathered the general situation from what both sides have said. The real issue now is the compensation dispute between them.”

“This is a private matter and should be resolved privately. People are still boarding the train, and we’re about to depart. Don’t block the carriage and prevent other passengers from getting to their seats.”

The conductor had handled countless disputes on trains and immediately understood what was happening.

Seeing that the entire carriage was becoming congested, he knew this was no time for endless arguments.

His attitude instantly hardened.

“You two, come with me.”