Li Tianming looked at his daughter.
"What haven't you told me?"
Li Min lowered her eyes towards the blanket.
"I didn't think it mattered at the time. There wasn't much pain, and nothing happened immediately afterwards."
Xu Hao remained seated beside her bed.
He'd noticed how her expression changed when he mentioned an injury to her abdomen. Whatever she was remembering, he suspected it was connected to the strange energy he'd detected.
Li Min looked towards her father.
"Do you remember Su Jang?"
Li Tianming's expression darkened.
"Of course. That arrogant boy has been pestering you for years."
Another Su. Apparently, Xu Hao couldn't escape that family even inside the Li residence.
"Who is Su Jang?" he asked.
"Su Jin's elder cousin," Li Tianming answered. "He's the principal heir of the Su family's main branch."
Xu Hao nodded.
"Please continue, Miss Li."
Li Min shifted against her pillows.
"Su Jang has been trying to persuade me to marry him. He thinks a marriage between our families would make us the strongest power in Hibiscus Town."
She gave a faint, humourless smile.
"He talks about it as though he's arranging a business agreement."
"I've already told his father you aren't interested," Li Tianming said.
"And I've told Su Jang himself. Several times."
Li Min looked towards the window.
"A few months ago, I went to the market to look at some fabrics. I didn't take my usual escort because I wasn't planning to stay long."
Her father opened his mouth.
"Before you say anything, I know. You've already told me I shouldn't leave the residence alone."
Li Tianming closed his mouth again.
Xu Hao almost smiled.
Even in her weakened condition, Li Min appeared quite capable of managing her father.
"Su Jang found me near the fabric shops," she continued. "He said he'd been hoping to speak with me privately."
"What did he want?" Xu Hao asked.
"The same thing he always wants. He spent nearly half an hour explaining how influential our families could become if I agreed to marry him."
"Did you refuse?"
"Of course."
She sounded offended by the possibility that she might have done otherwise.
"I told him I had no interest in marrying him, and I asked him to stop approaching me."
Li Tianming's jaw tightened.
"How did he respond?"
"He kept smiling. But one of the women accompanying him became angry. She said I was humiliating her young master and ought to be grateful that someone of his position wanted to marry me."
Li Min glanced towards Xu Hao.
"Apparently, being born into the Li family means I should spend my life being grateful to the Su family."
"That must have been pleasant," Xu Hao remarked.
"Very."
She settled back against her pillows.
"I ignored them and walked away. I was almost back at our gate when the woman caught up with me."
Li Min's hand moved towards her abdomen.
"She stepped in front of me and struck me here."
Li Tianming rose so abruptly that his chair scraped against the floor.
"She did what?"
"Father, please let me finish."
"Someone struck you outside our own gate?"
"Yes. Once, with her palm."
Li Min drew a slow breath.
"She told me that if her young master couldn't have me, nobody would."
For a moment, Li Tianming simply stared at her.
Then his face turned pale with anger.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because I didn't think it was serious. It barely hurt, and there wasn't even a bruise."
"A cultivator struck you, and you thought nothing of it?"
"I was angry, Father. But I didn't want you marching into the Su residence over something that seemed so minor."
Li Min continued before he could speak.
"You'd already argued with his family about Su Jang's behaviour. I didn't want to make things worse."
Xu Hao considered what she'd told him.
The location of the strike matched the injury he'd detected.
So did the timing.
A cultivator capable of directing energy through a palm strike might cause damage without leaving much evidence on the skin.
But he couldn't yet establish exactly what technique had been used, or whether the foreign energy had been introduced deliberately.
"How long after that did you begin feeling unwell?" he asked.
"A few days. I woke with a dull pain in my stomach. At first, I thought I'd eaten something that disagreed with me."
"And the weakness?"
"That came later. I became tired more easily, then the pain grew worse."
She looked at her father.
"I truly didn't connect it with what happened at the market."
Li Tianming's hands were clenched.
"Su Jang."
He spoke the name through his teeth.
"I knew that boy was trouble."
He turned towards the door.
"I'm going to the Su residence."
Li Min struggled to sit upright.
"Father!"
"I'll drag that little bastard out myself and make him tell me who the woman was. Then I'll find out whether he ordered her to strike you."
"Uncle Li."
Xu Hao rose from his stool.
Li Tianming didn't seem to hear him.
"If his family thinks they can attack my daughter and hide behind their position—"
"Uncle Li."
This time Xu Hao spoke more firmly.
The older man stopped.
For a moment, the fury in his eyes was frightening.
Xu Hao held his ground.
"I understand why you're angry. But your daughter is still very ill, and I haven't finished explaining what I found."
Li Tianming stared at him.
Xu Hao continued.
"If someone deliberately injured her, that person should be held accountable. But going to the Su residence right now won't stop the bleeding inside her body."
The words had an immediate effect.
Li Tianming looked towards the bed.
Li Min was watching him, her expression tired and worried.
Xu Hao lowered his voice.
"She needs you here at the moment. There will be time to investigate what happened after we understand how to treat her."
For several seconds, Li Tianming didn't move.
Then his fists slowly opened.
He returned to the bedside.
"I'm sorry, Min'er."
She reached for his hand.
"Just stay here for a while, Father."
He sat down and took it.
Xu Hao waited until the older man had recovered some composure.
Then he drew his stool closer.
"There's something important I need to explain to both of you."
Li Min looked towards him.
"Have you found what's wrong?"
"I believe so, although there are details I still need to confirm."
He considered how best to explain.
"The examination suggests there's a small injury in the wall of your stomach. It appears to have been there for quite some time."
Li Min lowered her eyes towards her abdomen.
"From the blow?"
"Possibly. The timing and location fit, but I can't confirm the exact cause yet."
Xu Hao continued.
"There's also a thread of foreign energy near the damaged tissue. It doesn't behave like the energy naturally circulating through your body."
Li Tianming frowned.
"Foreign energy?"
"Yes. It's very faint, but it seems to interfere whenever the damaged area begins to recover."
Xu Hao glanced towards Li Min.
"That may explain why the medicines you've taken haven't worked. Some might have strengthened your body temporarily, but they wouldn't necessarily remove whatever is preventing the wound from healing."
Li Min was quiet for a moment.
"So I've been bleeding all this time?"
"That's what I suspect. Even a small amount of continued bleeding can leave someone dangerously weak over several months."
She looked down at her pale hands.
Li Tianming leaned forward.
"Can you treat it?"
"I believe there's a way to address the underlying problem."
"Then tell me what you need. Whatever medicine, pill or treasure is required, I'll arrange it."
Xu Hao shook his head.
"I don't think another ordinary medicine will be enough. The foreign energy needs to be removed, and the damaged tissue may need to be repaired."
"Then remove it."
Xu Hao looked towards Li Min.
He wanted her to understand the proposal as clearly as her father did.
"That would require an operation."
Li Tianming frowned.
"What kind of operation?"
"Surgery. I would need to reach the injured area inside her abdomen, deal with the foreign energy and repair the damaged tissue."
The older man stared at him.
"Reach it how?"
Xu Hao hesitated.
"By making an incision."
Li Tianming slowly stood.
"You mean cutting into her body?"
"Yes."
"Absolutely not!"
Li Min closed her eyes briefly.
"Father..."
"She's barely strong enough to sit up, and you're suggesting we cut open her stomach?"
Xu Hao remained seated.
From what he'd learned, healers in this world relied heavily on medicines, acupuncture and elemental techniques. Some injuries could be treated through methods unavailable to doctors on Earth.
But surgery introduced dangers of its own.
He couldn't promise that an operation would be safe.
"Uncle Li, I'm not suggesting we do anything immediately."
"Then why suggest it at all?"
"Because I believe the injury has a physical cause that may need to be repaired directly."
Li Tianming shook his head.
"Use your Water element. You said there's foreign energy inside her. Can't you draw it out?"
Xu Hao considered the question.
"Perhaps a sufficiently skilled healer could. But I don't possess that level of control, and I won't risk worsening the injury by trying something I haven't mastered."
"Then I'll find someone who does."
"I'd welcome their advice," Xu Hao replied. "But removing the foreign energy may not be enough. If the stomach wall is still damaged, we'd also need to address that."
Li Tianming began pacing.
Xu Hao watched him walk towards the window and turn back again.
He could understand the man's fear.
After months of failed treatments, an unfamiliar young healer had arrived and suggested something that sounded more dangerous than the illness itself.
And Li Tianming had no reason to trust Xu Hao's judgment yet.