The news that Lei Ting had been admitted to the hospital twice within a month, both due to being struck by lightning, spread quickly. That afternoon, more than a dozen of his classmates, with whom he had a good relationship at university, spontaneously organized a visiting group. Each of them carried consolation gifts and came to the First Municipal Hospital mentioned in the news to visit him.
Lei Ting was completely unprepared for the sudden arrival of his classmates and was greatly startled. But after all, they meant well, and he felt embarrassed to drive them away on the spot. So, he had no choice but to awkwardly chat with his classmates about his "second hospitalization due to being struck by lightning".
However, after a while, either someone sensed the awkwardness in Lei Ting's words or someone was just being mischievous. One of his "good" roommates suddenly changed the topic and gave him a new nickname on the spot —— "The King of IP"! The King of Being Struck by Lightning!
This sudden action had a remarkable effect. In an instant, it caused the classmates to burst into laughter, and it also made Lei Ting heave a sigh of relief. He gave his "good roommate" a grateful look. But in order to completely divert the topic, he still pretended to be angry and cursed back. He even deliberately exposed some embarrassing past of his "good roommate", dragging him into the "mire" as well. However, that roommate was not willing to be the only one "in trouble", so he also revealed some embarrassing past events of two other roommates that they were reluctant to mention. Finally, with the efforts of these classmates, some of whom had already officially entered society and become glorious office workers, and some of whom were preparing to start their postgraduate studies, they successfully turned the original hospital visit into a mutual teasing session.
In the ward, the laughter lasted for a long time. It was not until the sun set and the last classmate left that Qi Cheng, who was Lei Ting's best friend and "hostage friend", arrived late.
The first thing he did when he came in was to apologize, and he bowed at a ninety-degree angle right away. Because he thought that it was his insistence on climbing this kind of wild mountain that led them to encounter such danger and be taken as hostages. But Lei Ting shook his head repeatedly, indicating that it wasn't his fault. After all, who could have expected that there would still be armed terrorists in the country, and so close to Shanghai, a super first-tier city and an international metropolis.
After apologizing, Qi Cheng also told Lei Ting about the things he had encountered after waking up.
According to Qi Cheng's description, he woke up on the way to the hospital and also came to the First Municipal Hospital. However, he only suffered a minor injury, with a hole knocked on the back of his head. After a simple suture, he could be discharged.
Because the incident happened suddenly and his mobile phone was also broken by those terrorists, Qi Cheng was afraid that his parents would worry, so he planned to go home first to report his safety. As a result, as soon as he walked out of the hospital, a person claiming to be an undercover policeman came up to him and asked him not to tell anyone about the terrorists. He was also asked to inform Lei Ting of this after Lei Ting woke up. To this end, they were willing to transfer one million yuan respectively to his and Lei Ting's private accounts as hush money and mental damage compensation. Then, before Qi Cheng could reply, the person directly trotted into the crowd and disappeared.
Qi Cheng, like Lei Ting, understood the reason for the military and police's action after some simple thinking. Although they were very unhappy about the fact that they were not given the right to refuse, there was nothing they could do, considering that they had no power or influence.
Moreover, "He who eats the food of others is bound to do as they wish; he who takes gifts from others will have to do as they ask." Since there was one million yuan as hush money and they didn't suffer too much harm, they thought it was okay to keep this matter a secret for the official side.
"Then, Qi Cheng, has the money arrived?" As soon as Qi Cheng finished speaking, Lei Ting asked eagerly.
His mobile phone, like Qi Cheng's, was also broken by that group of terrorists.
"Check it yourself." Qi Cheng magically took out a brand new, unopened latest model of the iO mobile phone from the fruit basket he brought. It was the very model that Lei Ting had been saying he wanted to save money to buy recently.
"Is this for me?" Lei Ting took the phone and asked uncertainly.
After getting an affirmative answer from Qi Cheng, Lei Ting became excited immediately and started unpacking it quickly and carefully.
In fact, at the moment when Qi Cheng nodded, he had already guessed whether the one million yuan was real or not. Based on his knowledge of Qi Cheng's financial situation, treating him to a meal was okay, but giving him a mobile phone was absolutely impossible. But this time, he could give away a mobile phone worth more than five thousand yuan without even blinking an eye. It was obvious that Qi Cheng thought he had gotten a windfall.
Unpacking, turning on the phone, registering, entering the "mobile banking" app, and entering the card number of the only savings card he held, he did all these steps in one go.
When he clearly saw the dazzling seven-digit number on the screen, Lei Ting's breath stopped at that moment. If it weren't for the average sound insulation effect of the ward, he would have wanted to shout out —— "I'm rich now!!!"
...
It was not until the orange light shone into the ward and the two of them had almost finished chatting that Qi Cheng got up and prepared to go home.
Before leaving, he specifically sighed and said:
"If it weren't for the timely arrival of the military police and the divine thunder that knocked out the last terrorist at the end, we might both be dead by now."
Seeing that Qi Cheng naturally regarded the last bolt of lightning as their good luck, Lei Ting went along with it. After all, he didn't want the people around him to know that he had superpowers so soon. Firstly, he was worried that they would talk about it everywhere, thus exposing himself prematurely to some potentially ill-intentioned organizations. Secondly, it gave him a sense of pleasure, as if he were the protagonist of a novel, being the only one who knew the truth while others were in the dark.
Three days later, in the evening, after completing the discharge procedures, Lei Ting walked out of the hospital gate accompanied by his parents. He took a deep breath of the not-so-fresh air in the urban jungle. However, for him, it smelled better than the air filled with disinfectant in the hospital. Later, after having a sumptuous discharge dinner with his parents in a fairly high-end Western restaurant, Lei Ting finally returned home after being away for three days.
After lying on his beloved big bed for a while, Lei Ting finally remembered the most crucial thing.
He turned over, facing the ceiling, and then took out his mobile phone from his pocket to check the weather conditions of the past few days.
After verifying from multiple sources, Lei Ting finally confirmed that, barring any accidents, at the earliest, from 0:00 to 3:00 a.m. on July 19th, that is, the day after tomorrow, there is an 80% probability of a thunderstorm in Shanghai. And that would be the crucial moment for him to prove whether his idea was correct or not!
Before that, he still had one thing to do, which was to test how far his superpower could go now.
When Lei Ting first discovered that he had awakened his superpower, he secretly tested his ability for several days during the daytime when no one was at home. Finally, he concluded that —— when directly grabbing something with his hands, in zero-distance contact and exerting all his strength, it was absolutely no problem to electrocute a fish! However, it seemed that he could only electrocute a fish, and it was at the level where even a little less voltage couldn't kill it... Hmm... Maybe chickens and ducks were also possible...
As for whether he could cause harm to people, such as stunning them with electricity, he wasn't sure. After all, he couldn't just go to the street and grab a passerby to test it.
However, since he could electrocute chickens, ducks, and fish, stunning a person should not be a big problem. This was Lei Ting's thought when he was held hostage by terrorists and decided to save himself. In the end, he did stun someone, but he also electrocuted himself...
And now, after confirming that he had indeed become stronger, Lei Ting needed to figure out how strong the electric current he could release in an all-out state was and whether it could directly harm people.
As a genuine superpowered person, especially one with the superpower of "releasing electric current" which had a remarkable performance in various films, TV shows, and literary works, if he could only kill chickens and fish and couldn't even stun a person, that would be really embarrassing.
Quietly waiting until midnight, when his parents had fallen asleep, Lei Ting jumped out of bed.
After confirming several times that his parents were indeed asleep, he took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and began to try to condense all the electric current in his body onto his right palm, guided by his consciousness.
In fact, if he wanted to ensure that he wouldn't be discovered for sure, he could have waited until the next day when his parents went to work to test his ability. But he was just too curious and couldn't even wait for such a short time. Plus, he believed that as long as he paid close attention to the outside situation, he wouldn't be discovered. So, in the end, he decided to conduct the test after his parents fell asleep at midnight.
With a slight numbing sensation spreading throughout his body, Lei Ting could clearly feel the flow of the electric current in his body. The temperature of his right palm also began to gradually rise, and as time went by, it became hotter and hotter.
It was not until the electric current flowing in his body gradually decreased and disappeared, and the temperature of his right palm became almost unbearable that Lei Ting finally opened his eyes.
What came into view was a huge light ball the size of a muskmelon, shining with an extremely bright and dazzling white light. On its surface, tiny electric arcs were constantly jumping and dancing; and inside it, there seemed to be an ocean purely composed of electrons, which was creating ripples as his palm trembled slightly.
"Pop." A spark came out from the fluorescent lamp on the ceiling.
"Ding～" Lei Ting's computer started up for no reason, and the screen lit up.
"Beep beep beep beep——" The mobile phone alarm, which was far from the ringing time, rang in advance.
No... I can't hold on anymore... Lei Ting didn't notice these abnormalities. He even wanted to continue admiring the scene, but he could only think about it. His body had already protested, and before he could "give an order" through his brain, it directly stopped the operation, making that huge electric ball dissipate into the air in an instant.
At this moment, the fluorescent lamp stopped sparking, the computer screen went off, and the mobile phone ringtone also stopped.
"Thump."
Lei Ting lost his strength and fell to the ground. A strong sense of fatigue surged up, and his brain began to feel bursts of stabbing pain.
No... I'm about to collapse... Lei Ting struggled to climb back onto the bed with his last bit of strength and consciousness and fell into a deep sleep.