Four days later, a big truck was parked on the side of the road in front of Suns.h.i.+ne Orphanage.

Temporary porters hired from the downtown brought the truck's contents to the orphanage, including children's clothing, shoes, furniture, supplies and books. Ning Tao bought the truckload of things for the children in the orphanage with money he earned.

He also bought presents for Su Ya and Ge Ming.

Su Ya's gift was a red, compact electric vehicle.

Ge Ming was given a Chang'an which cost more than 50,000 yuan. His Wuling Suns.h.i.+ne, which he had bought for 5,000 yuan, could really be torn down and sold for sc.r.a.p metal. This new car was a good subst.i.tute for that one.

After subtracting the money for medicine, Ning Tao still had more than 3,000,000 yuan left from his practice in Beidu. He had thought about buying Ge Ming a nice car worth ten or two hundred thousand yuan, but he gave up the idea because he didn't have much money to give "fair compensation" to patients like Liu Shufen in the future. Finally he bought a cheap domestic Chang'an instead.

Of course Ge Ming was both happy and excited, holding Ning Tao and yelling, "Ning Tao, you're like my brother. I'll follow you for the rest of my life."

Su Ya was very unhappy, complaining, "You're partial towards him. You give him a car, but give me an electric vehicle!"

Ge Ming chuckled and said, "What's my relations.h.i.+p with Tao? We have been close since childhood. We even slept together."

Su Ya put on a disgusted expression and mocked, "Are you two gay friends?"

Ge Ming dodged, smiled and said, "What if we're gay friends? What is your relations.h.i.+p? The one that starts with 'F'?"

Su Ya blushed and spat, "Gross! If you continue, I'll beat you!"

Ning Tao also glared at Ge Ming and snapped, "Don't talk nonsense."

Ge Ming had an innocent look on his face and explained, "I mean 'friends'. Friends start with F! You both have wronged me."

Ning Tao ignored him and said to Su Ya, "Su Ya, when you get a driver license, I'll give you a car, too."

Su Ya was overjoyed by the news. "Really?" She shouted.

"When have I ever broken my word?" Ning Tao replied.

"Let's make a pinky swear." Su Ya held out her hand to Ning Tao and pointed out a white little finger in front of Ning Tao.

Ning Tao felt somewhat embarra.s.sed and didn't want to do such a childish thing. Since Su Ya stubbornly waited for him to make a promise, he had to put out his hand to hook Su Ya's little finger with his.

Su Ya did not feel this was very naive, excitedly shook their hands and said, "Pinkie, shake. Our promise remains unchanged for 100 years. He who breaks his word is a dog!"

Ning Tao gave a wry smile and reluctantly read after her, "Pinkie, shake. Our promise remains unchanged for 100 years. He who breaks his word is a dog!"

At this moment, Li Xiaoyu ran over, her face full of disdain, sniffed, "You are such a baby!"

Su Ya glared at Li Xiaoyu and threatened fiercely, "Li Xiaoyu, are you looking for trouble?"

Li Xiaoyu rolled her eyes at Su Ya, then came to Ning Tao, looked up at him, and said, "Uncle Ning, let's also make a pinky swear, and you'll give me a present when I grow up. All right?"

"Sure." Ning Tao squatted down and made swear with Li Xiaoyu.

After Li Xiaoyu finished the line, she said excitedly, "Uncle Ning, when I grow up, I want to take the pilot license test. If I pa.s.s the test, you should buy me a plane. We've made the pinky swear. If you don't buy me, you are a dog!"

Ning Tao was struck dumb at what she said.

Su Ya and Ge Ming both laughed.

After lunch, Ning Tao called Su Ya and Ge Ming together and told them what was on his mind. "Ge Ming, director Zhou is gone, and we don't know when she will be back. The orphanage needs a director. Why don't you be the director?"

"Me?" Ge Ming looked surprised.

"Will you?" Ning Tao asked.

Ge Ming shook his head repeatedly and refused, "No, no, how can I be the director? I'm not qualified enough to care about those naughty kids."

Ning Tao added, "10,000 yuan a month. I'll pay for it."

Ge Ming immediately changed his mind and cried, "That's a deal. I'm going to work today!"

Su Ya pouted, disapproving. "I object! I grew up in this orphanage. In terms of qualifications, I should be the director, shouldn't I? He can only be a cook."

"Keep calm. I've got a job for you," Ning Tao said.

"I don't need." Su Ya's mouth pouted even more.

"I want to build a clinic here. You can be a nurse and help me manage the clinic. This clinic is not open to the public, only to kind people who don't have the money to treat their illnesses, like director Zhou," Ning Tao stated with a smile. "Your job is to keep an eye out for patients who meet my criteria and bring them to the clinic. Well, it's also 10,000 a month. Will you take this job?"

Su Ya's face suddenly lit up. "I also start to work today!"

"I'll give you some money to buy some commonly used drugs from a drug dealer. For some patients with minor illnesses, we give them medicine for free. If someone comes to buy my special delicate perfumed cream, I take the money and you deliver the drug. That's what you need to do, all right?" Ning Tao uttered.

Su Ya happily replied, "No problem!"

This was Ning Tao's plan that he had been thinking about for four days.

He would open a clinic in Suns.h.i.+ne Orphanage, and Su Ya brought back patients with merits of good intention. Then he used the blood lock to take the patients to the Sky Clinic and wrote the prescription pacts to cure them. The coming Qing Zhui was the nurse of the Sky Clinic, the base camp, and she would look for patients with sins of evil intention for him.

One of them looked for the good in the light, the other for the bad in the dark. In this way, the good-evil rent would roll in!

As night came, an off-road vehicle drove down a winding mountain road.

The driver was Lin Qinghua and Ning Tao was in the front pa.s.senger seat.

"Boss, this place is out of the way. I haven't seen a car since we went into the mountains. No one is in sight, either. Will there be..." Lin Qinghua paused.

"Will there be what?" Ning Tao asked.

"Ghost," Lin Qinghua said.

Ning Tao felt speechless and said, "Are you afraid of ghosts? You're a demon, and a new one. What kind of demon are you when you're so timid?"

Lin Qinghua smiled awkwardly. "Yeah, yeah, you're right. I am a demon. Ghosts should be afraid of me."

"The woman in front with her tongue out is waving at you."

"Ah! Where?" Lin Qinghua was shocked.

Ning Tao laughed and said, "You're probably the most cowardly demon I've ever seen." After a few laughs, he remembered something. "By the way, Qinghua, I have seen your changing face. How did those faces come from? Is it a reference to other people's faces? I mean, you see someone and remember his looks, and you become them. Is that right?"

"They're all my own face, of course, but it's all in my gene-line," Lin Qinghua replied. "My ability is limited, so I can only change into a few faces."

Ning Tao felt enlightened. The project was called ancestor seeking, and Lin Qinghua's case was a search for ancestors. And the search was not from somewhere, but from one's own gene-line!

Lin Qinghua went on, "I told you that the human gene-line contains information about the evolution of the human race from the beginning to the present. If my research is successful, I may be able to solve the mystery of the true origin of mankind, and even the ultimate mystery of life."

Ning Tao thought for a moment and inquired, "According to what you said, every man in the street has innumerable ancestors. Is that right?"

Lin Qinghua nodded. "Let me give you an example. Even if the ancestor of a street sweeper who you come across may be Li Bai, or even Emperor Qin or Emperor Wu of Han. The goal of my research is to use drugs to release information hidden in the gene-line, and then to pa.r.s.e that information and find the answers I want."

"What have you found so far?"

Lin Qinghua didn't immediately answer Ning Tao's question, but his eyes suddenly turned green, and then his face became blurry. His eyes, nose and mouth were all gone.

Ning Tao was startled and nervous. "My G.o.d, where are your eyes? Watch the road! You're driving!"

Lin Qinghua's face suddenly slid up, just like the picture inside the fruit machine was sliding, one second papaya, and then lychee or other fruit, only that what he slid was faces, including woman's face, man's face, handsome face, ugly face. Besides, the speed of change was dizzying.

Suddenly, he stopped at a face. It was a handsome face with impeccable lines of the face, and the pair of eyes were deep and mysterious as stars in the deep s.p.a.ce.

"Who is this?" Asked Ning Tao, amazed.

"Guess." Lin Qinghua's voice changed, too, sounding quite mysterious.

Ning Tao rolled his eyes at him. How could anyone dare to ask his boss to guess?

Lin Qinghua shrugged and said, "Well, I'll tell you, this is the one— 'Amid talking and laughing he put his enemy's s.h.i.+ps to ashes and smoke'— Zhou Yu!"

Ning Tao was stunned. Everyone Han people, even everyone of Hua Country, knew Zhou Yu. Zhou Yu married younger Qiao and defeated Cao Cao in Chi Bi. However, he was a man who had been dead for 1,800 years. Who knew what he looked like? However, Lin Qinghua changed his own face into the appearance of Zhou Yu, as if Zhou Yu came to Ning Tao through time and s.p.a.ce!

Then Lin Qinghua's face changed back to his own. What had just happened felt like an illusion, making Ning Tao completely unreal.

Ning Tao came to his senses and asked, "Did you get anything when you became like the ancients?"

"Some memories," Lin Qinghua replied. "I can dig up some very deep memories of ancient people. For example, I can dig out a little bit of memory of Zhou Yu of younger Qiao, and a little bit of memory of being vomited blood with anger due to Kongming, but those memories are very vague. However, the strongest genetic information in my gene-line is about Emperor Xuanzong of Tang. You know, when I fell ill I thought I was Emperor Xuanzong of Tang. I can clearly recall his relations.h.i.+p with Lady Yang, but until now I have not found out from which branch the genetic information on Emperor Xuanzong of Tang comes."

Ning Tao was filled with curiosity. "Go on," he urged.

"As for the genetic information on Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, I will tell you when I have the results. Let me tell you what I get now. Through these memories, I can obtain very valuable information to study the mystery of human origin. Unfortunately, I can't trace it back to more distant times because I didn't develop the medicine of ancestor seeking. I can only dig out the genetic information of some people with strong souls from the gene-line. I can't dig out the genetic information from ordinary people with weak souls."

Ning Tao was silent for a moment and said, "Officer Jiang said that Liang Keming, an academician from the academy of sciences, has restarted the project of ancestor seeking and wants to employ you as a special expert. Have you agreed?"

"No, I promised you I would never touch the project again. Liang Keming kept putting pressure on me to help him research the medicine of ancestor seeking. I said yes under pressure, but I won't really help him." Lin Qinghua was actually taking a stand with Ning Tao.

Ning Tao didn't say anything. To him, curing Lin Qinghua was just a no-fee business. Whether Lin Qinghua went on with his research made no difference to Ning Tao since he wouldn't get the treatment fee anyway. From the perspective of the law of the Sky Clinic, he should stop Lin Qinghua. But on a personal level, he was curious about Lin Qinghua's project of ancestor seeking. He wanted to know the result. The situation put him in a dilemma and he didn't know what to do with it for a moment.

Just then Lin Qinghua slammed on the brake and brought the off-road vehicle to a stop.

There was no further road for cars, just a narrow trail leading up the mountain.

They arrived at Black Dragon Mountain.