Drake burst out laughing the moment Alexander finished speaking.
Zhou Fen shook his head slowly, the way a man does when he has decided he is done being patient. "Kid." His voice was quiet but had an edge to it. "Who exactly do you think you are? I have been practising medicine since I was eight years old. I am an old man now, and I could not save him." He gestured at Robert's still form on the bed. "But you — born yesterday — want to stand here and play the hero?"
Drake laughed again, longer this time.
Zhou Fen wasn't finished. "I'll tell you what. If you somehow wake this man up, I will get on my knees and call you Grandpa. I will count it out a hundred times. Then I will become your disciple." He folded his arms, satisfied with himself.
Another laugh from Drake, loud and easy.
Elena looked up at Alexander and gave a small, quiet shake of her head. Don't. You'll only embarrass yourself.
Alexander's hand found her arm again. "I told you to trust me."
The relatives watched in silence. Why did this man sound so impulsive? And why was he so certain?
Alexander turned back to Zhou Fen. "The counting — fine. Calling me Grandpa — acceptable. But become my disciple?" He paused. "You are not worthy of that."
Zhou Fen's finger shot out. "You — are you mocking me? I was playing with you just now and this is how you respond?"
Clara leaned close to her husband and whispered behind her hand. "Is he normal?"
"Same question I had," Mark said under his breath. "And I have no one to ask who would know the answer."
Alexander stepped forward and then stopped. He looked down at his hands. No needles. He had come with nothing.
Drake caught it immediately. "Kid. Are you some kind of god? Planning to treat a man with no equipment at all?"
The whole room grew quiet and tense around Alexander, but no one acted. They held themselves back, waiting for the right moment.
Alexander turned and walked back to Elena. He stopped in front of her. "I'm sorry. I need to borrow something from you."
"Borrow what? What do you—"
Before the words had fully left her mouth, he had already done it. A single hair, pulled clean from her head, so quick and light she hadn't felt it. He held it up between two fingers.
"Thank you."
Elena's hand flew to her head. Her eyes went wide. "You—"
But Alexander had already turned toward Robert's bed. Drake let out another laugh. The relatives stirred.
Margaret's voice cut through the room. "Elena." Her walking stick hit the floor once, sharp as a gavel. "What is happening in my house? Did you bring a madman here?" Her voice climbed. "When did your bodyguard become your doctor? Are you mocking all of us? Have you lost your mind?"
Elena's anger had pulled tight across her chest — but she had already made her choice. She had agreed to trust him. She held it in and kept her eyes on Alexander, who was bent over Robert, doing something with her hair that no one in the room could follow. His hands moved in a pattern too precise and too fast to read. The hair between his fingers had become something else entirely.
"Kid." Zhou Fen's voice had gone strange. "Are you — are you using hair as needles? Is this your idea of a joke? Are you trying to make a fool of my profession?"
Margaret had seen enough. She picked up her phone."over here," she said to the person on the other end, and within ten seconds the door swung open and four security men walked in. Everyone turned.
Everyone except Zhou Fen, who had gone completely still. His eyes were fixed on Robert. On Elena's hair, standing upright across the old man's body, straight and evenly placed, like needles driven by a steady and practiced hand. What he saw shocked him so much that he couldn't even speak.
"Throw that madman out," Margaret said, pointing at Alexander. "I don't want to see him again."
"Yes, ma'am."
Elena stood frozen, caught between two things she couldn't reconcile.
The men moved toward Alexander.
"Stop."
Zhou Fen's voice broke across the room like a hand slamming down on a table. Everyone froze.
"What do you mean, stop?" Drake asked.
Zhou Fen's arm rose slowly. His hand was shaking. He was still pointing at Robert. At the hair. "This boy—" His voice failed him.
Every eye in the room turned to Robert, to the hair standing upright along his body, placed with impossible precision. Shock rippled through them all, though for a moment some thought it wasn't serious.
"What kind of magic is this?" William asked. "Using magic to save someone, haven't you done enough?" Harlan broke the silence.
"Is that not—" Zhou Fen's voice came back, low and unsteady. "Is that not the Eighteen-Needle Technique? The one that has been lost for over two thousand years?"
The room gasped.
Drake stood up. Then sat back down. Then stood again. He looked at Zhou Fen, and something ugly moved across his face. He grabbed the old doctor and shoved him, Zhou Fen fell to the ground. "You're getting old, aren't you?" Drake sneered. "Your eyes are failing you, and your brain has finally gone crazy. How could a woman's hair be the lost needles? And you said that technique has been gone for two thousand years? Rubbish."
"Exactly," Veronica said, pulling herself together. "He almost had me fooled for a second. What a joke."
But Zhou Fen was still pointing from the floor. His hand would not stop shaking.
Elena watched him. Something about his reaction, the way it had broken him open rather than sharpened him into anger, made her trust in Alexander move, just slightly, in a direction she hadn't expected.
"What are you all standing there for?" Drake's voice cracked like a whip. "Take him out. Beat him half-dead and throw him in the street."
The guards hesitated, their eyes darting toward Margaret, waiting for her silent approval.
"Are you doing it or not?" Margaret snapped. "Get him out of here!"
Urged by her command, the men rushed forward. But before they could reach Alexander, Elena lunged into their path, her arms spread wide to block them.
"Everyone who said they could save Grandpa already had their turn." Her voice was steady. "Letting him try costs nothing."
No one could question that.
Drake pointed and nodded three times, fine, let's see it, and walked back to his seat. He crossed his legs and waited.
Alexander straightened after he was done.
He let out a slow breath letting the energy in his body settle into complete calm. His hands dropped to his sides. His shoulders settled.
Yet nothing seemed to change.
Everyone was silent.
He turned and his eyes found Elena's. He looked at her the way a man looks when something is already done and there is nothing left to worry about.
"It's finished."
Elena said nothing. She walked past him and sat on the edge of Robert's bed. She took his hand.
"Grandpa."
Nothing.
"Young man," Mark said quietly. "I think you've gone too far."
"Yes," Clara said. "This is beyond embarrassing."
Drake didn't look at any of them. He stared at the far wall, arms crossed. He had said it before. No one ever listened. He'd stopped being surprised.
Zhou Fen had pulled himself up from the floor. He dusted his jacket, looked at Alexander."I thought you had something, kid. I really did. But I was wrong." He turned to Drake and let out a small, apologetic laugh. "Young Master Drake, I misjudged the situation. This boy is nothing but a trick."
"Get out of my sight," Drake said flatly.
"Yes, yes." Zhou Fen stepped aside.
The anger in Elena's chest had come back, thick and humiliating. All that certainty he has put on. All that display of his. And still nothing has changed.
Margaret's voice came back, cold and final. "You brought him here, you made us all watch this man mock our situation. If I don't make him regret today, my name isn't Margaret." She turned to the security men. "Throw him out. Don't make me say it again."
"Throw him out," Margaret said again. "Now."
The men moved.
"Five."
Alexander's voice came out quiet and even. He's back towards Robert.
The men stopped, Everyone watched him.
Elena's eyes snapped to him.
"Four."
Her eyes went back to Robert.
"Three."
The room held its breath. Every eye moved between Robert and Alexander like a pendulum that couldn't decide where to land.
"Two."
"One."
Silence.
Then — a cough.
Small. Dry. Real.
Elena was on her feet before she knew she had moved. "Grandpa—" she called in disbelief.
Others surged forward. The room broke open with voices.
Drake rose from his chair. He couldn't help it. He stood there with his body shaking and his eyes moving between Robert and Alexander, and for the first time in the room, he had nothing to say.
Robert coughed again. And again. The fifth time, Elena's tears came without warning, pulled straight out of her by something she hadn't been bracing for.
Robert's eyes opened.
The first thing he saw was his family pressing close, every face lit with something between disbelief and joy.
"You're awake!"
"Thank heaven!"
"Grandpa—"
Everyone called out in their own way.
Harlan and Veronica stood back slightly. Relieved —especially Harlan, who still silently wrestled with the guilt of what he thought he had done to Robert.
Alexander turned to them, feeling a quiet satisfaction at seeing the family happy once more, especially Elena.
"Grandpa, you scared us to death," Elena said, pressing his hand. "Grandpa, I'm so sorry for putting you through all of this—"
"Sorry?" Roberts said. He pushed himself upright, and then stopped, surprised by his own body. "I feel — I feel young." He looked down at his hands. "I feel like I could run fifty miles."
The relatives stared, then laughed with uncertain joy at what they thought was a joke.
And then Robert swung his legs off the bed and stood, and the laughter stopped, because he wasn't joking. He was moving like a man half his age, rolling his shoulders, pressing his feet into the floor like he was testing something he hadn't trusted in years.
"I feel like a new man. Completely whole."
Robert turned to Alexander. He stepped toward him. He bowed, his palms together "Thank you for saving my life."
Alexander moved quickly to make him stand straight.
"You saved my life." His voice was low and certain. "I know it was you. You were there. At the gate. I saw you."
The room went quiet in a different way.
"The gate opened on its own the moment I arrived, I had one foot inside already. I was entering. And then a hand caught me. I turned, and it was you. You said you came to bring me back. That it wasn't my time. Then I saw them coming, all of them, rushing toward you. I closed my eyes. I screamed. And when I opened them again, it was just the two of us standing. Everything else was already on the ground. How you did it — I don't know. But there is something about you, young man." His gaze moved from him to Elena, and back at him. "Please do this old man a favor."