Chapter Thirteen: The Rescue

Yang Feng lay on the operating table.

He had already been injected with anesthesia and was unable to move. His consciousness drifted between existence and oblivion, blurred and hazy. He could see the doctor, Dr. Gao, holding a scalpel, preparing to cut into him, yet he could not feel the blade at all. In that hazy state, he felt a sense of despair.

Suddenly, Dr. Gao and his cohorts fled the room. Then, with a deafening bang, a young man carrying a long black blade appeared in his line of sight. It seemed that this young man spoke a few words toward the doorway before shattering the ropes that bound him with a swift movement. After that, Yang Feng drifted into unconsciousness.

When he woke up again, he found himself in a white environment. It was no longer the crude operating room, but appeared to be a standard hospital ward. He immediately touched his chest and looked down, seeing not a single trace of surgery. What was going on? Hadn't he been about to have his kidney harvested?

Just then, a delicate and sweet-looking nurse in white, about twenty-five or twenty-six years old, walked over holding a clipboard. "You're awake. You were brought here by Officer Lu. They say you were rescued from a kidney-harvesting ring. You’re truly lucky; any later, and you would have lost your kidney."

"Officer Lu?" Yang Feng was startled. He couldn't help but think of the young man with the long black blade he had seen in his delirium. Could that officer be surnamed Lu?

"What does Officer Lu look like?"

"He's in his thirties, about 1.75 meters tall," the nurse replied.

Yang Feng was stunned. That did not match the image of the young man with the black blade he had seen. At that moment, an elderly couple and another couple, who appeared to be in their thirties, burst into the room.

The elderly woman hugged Yang Feng, her tears flowing uncontrollably. She sobbed for several minutes before choking out, "Thank you to the person who saved you. Thank you, thank you."

Although the old man didn't cry, his expression was deeply emotional. "It’s just a pity we don't know who saved you. Such a great kindness, and we don't even know who to thank."

As Yang Feng was embraced by his parents, seeing their tearful faces, he felt a lingering fear—he had come so close to never returning. After a long moment, he asked, "How did you find out?"

The woman from the couple in their thirties, Yang Feng's sister, Yang Ling, replied, "I received a call from Officer Lu saying you had been rescued from the kidney-harvesting ring and placed in this hospital. By the way, who exactly saved you? I thanked Officer Lu for saving you, but he said he wasn't the one who did it. When I asked who it was, he only said the savior's surname is Shen, but he couldn't reveal his specific identity and told me not to ask."

"It wasn't Officer Lu? I only vaguely remember that the doctor who was going to cut me suddenly fled. A moment later, I saw a young man carrying a long black blade burst in. I feel like that young man with the black blade was my savior. Perhaps he is the one surnamed Shen," Yang Feng recalled.

"How are we supposed to thank him?" Yang Feng frowned.

"Since he didn't even leave a name, he’s probably a hero-type figure who doesn't care about rewards," said Yang Ling's husband.

"Regardless of what our savior thinks, he is the savior of our family. When I get home, I will make a longevity tablet and offer sacrifices daily. If it weren't for him, I wouldn't have my son anymore," the old woman declared.

"Mom, you're doing it again," Yang Ling frowned. Her mother was fond of worshipping gods and Buddhas.

"Your mother is happy, and this time, I support it," the old man said. He usually disliked his wife’s superstitions, but this time, he did not object.

Yang Feng sighed, "To be honest, the doctor who was going to take my kidney had already placed the blade on my stomach. I was terrified; I thought I would never see you again. Thank you to the hero with the black blade. Mom, I agree with you this time—let's make a longevity tablet for this Hero Shen."

After saying this, he looked at his elderly father, his weeping mother, his overjoyed sister, and his brother-in-law. Then, he looked out the window.

The sun was dazzling. A butterfly was fluttering in the air.

It is good to be alive!

...

On the official Chopstick Hero forum, Yang Ling posted: "My younger brother, who was captured by a kidney-harvesting ring and almost lost his kidney, has been saved. However, it wasn't the Chopstick Hero who saved him. My brother says that while he was under anesthesia, he vaguely remembers being saved by a young man carrying a long, pitch-black blade. Later, the police said the man's surname is Shen, but they wouldn't reveal anything else."

"Huh, it wasn't the Chopstick Hero?" The fans of the Chopstick Hero were a little disappointed.

"There are so many bad people in the world; the Chopstick Hero can't be killing them every single second."

"But haven't you noticed the point? In this day and age, who carries a pitch-black blade? Could it be another hero like the Chopstick Hero?"

"Indeed. Ever since the Chopstick Hero started posting death notices, it feels like there are martial arts masters hidden beneath the surface of our normal world. It seems another one has emerged."

"How about we call this one with the black blade the 'Long Blade Hero'?"

"He's only done one good deed. Let's not rush to label him the Long Blade Hero. Let's wait until he does a few more."

The administrator of the Chopstick Hero fan forum, a hacker named Du Li, was one of China's top hackers. He immediately began searching for relevant information.

However, this time, he found nothing.

What was going on? He did not know that all the data for the Special Operations Group was offline. Even when it needed to be transmitted, it wasn't sent over public networks, but via specialized military satellites. No matter how skilled a hacker was, they were helpless against a system that was completely offline. In comparison, the municipal police database was far too easy to breach.

Helpless, the hacker Du Li posted: "It's strange. With my skills, I couldn't find any information on this case. Interesting. Oh well, let's see if this man with the black blade appears again to do good deeds. If he does, I'll open a sub-forum for the Long Blade Hero."

"I hope there are more and more various heroes in this world. Only then will the world become clearer," a user named 'Waiting for Apricot Blossoms on the Wall' commented.

"By then, the American movies will have Spider-Man, Iron Man, The Flash, Batman, and so on."

"And we will have the Chopstick Hero, the Long Blade Hero, and a whole bunch of other heroes."