Chapter 16 Urgent Mission
No! We can't wait any longer!
Gu Qiuyue suddenly stood up, stepped barefoot on the cold ground, and rushed to the thin wooden door in a few steps, her heart pounding, "Xie Shiyu? Are you... okay?" Her voice trembled barely perceptibly.
There was dead silence inside the door. After a few seconds, a voice that was tried to be steady but hoarse and suppressed was heard: "...It's okay. Sorry for waking you up." Then there was the sound of cleaning up, which was deliberately lowered.
This "nothing" ignited Gu Qiuyue's anxiety, "I heard a sound." With a firm tone, she pushed open the door directly.
The cold moonlight outlined Xie Shiyu's stiff figure with his back to the door. He was quickly stuffing a small dark object into the inner pocket of his military uniform. His movements were hasty, one hand still pressing on his left rib, and his shoulders and back were as tense as iron.
Gu Qiuyue's eyes were sharp: the enamel cup was tilted, with a faint glint of water; the bed was messy, no longer the "tofu block" it was during the day.
Xie Shiyu turned around slowly. Under the moonlight, his face was pale, his forehead was covered with sweat, and his lips were bloodless. He tried to straighten his back, but there was silent accusation in his eyes.
"He's seriously injured, isn't he?" Gu Qiuyue took a step forward, her eyes fixed on him. "What's the injury? Should we go to the hospital?"
Xie Shiyu's eyes met hers briefly before he looked away, out the window. "It's just an old problem, a minor skin injury, nothing serious." His tone was firm, "Go back and rest."
"Just a superficial wound?" Gu Qiuyue almost sneered, her eyes sweeping over his hand pressing against his ribs and the cold sweat on his face. "Captain Xie, do you think I'm a three-year-old?"
Xie Shiyu was silent, building a high wall with silence, his eyes tired and stubborn.
Gu Qiuyue's heart sank, knowing that confrontation was futile. She took a deep breath, suppressed her emotions, and looked at him intently—heartache, anxiety, and a resolute determination that she wouldn't give up. Finally, she withdrew without a word, gently closing the door behind her.
Back in bed, Gu Qiuyue was no longer sleepy.
In the silence next door, the broken cough and his pale face were replayed repeatedly, and the small dark object hastily stuffed into the inner pocket, like a small medicine bottle, cast an even deeper shadow.
Just as dawn broke, there was a noise next door. A moment later, footsteps approached the kitchen.
She waited for a while and stood up. Xie Shiyu's door was open, and the military blanket was folded into angular "tofu blocks" again. Everything was restored to its strict and neat state. This deliberate "normality" was like a thin ice covering an undercurrent, which was even more frightening.
In the kitchen, Xie Shiyu was silently boiling water, while Gu Qiuyue was silently washing rice and making porridge. The atmosphere was stagnant.
He ate very little for breakfast, just a small bowl of porridge. He put down his bowl and chopsticks slowly, and sweat began to seep from his forehead.
"Today..." Gu Qiuyue couldn't help but speak, her voice dry, "Don't force it."
Xie Shiyu paused, without turning around, and only hummed a low "hmm". His straight back revealed loneliness and persistence. He picked up his military jacket, and the left side of his body seemed to stiffen for a moment during the movement, then he lowered it and strode away.
The door was closed, but it couldn't stop Gu Qiuyue's churning worries. She made up her mind and went straight to the camp clinic.
Amid the smell of disinfectant, she walked towards the gray-haired old military doctor sitting by the window, whose name badge read "Yang".
"Doctor Yang?"
Lao Yang looked up and pushed up his glasses: "Comrade, what's wrong with you?"
Gu Qiuyue considered and expressed her concern, "Doctor Yang, it's not me, it's my family member. He's had a left rib injury before. He's been in severe pain at night lately, and coughing so hard it feels like he can't breathe. He seems fine during the day, but he doesn't dare to move too hard, and cold sweat always appears on his forehead.
I'm... unsure, and I want to ask you, what could this... possibly be? Is it serious?" The details are precise.
Old Yang frowned, looked at her anxious expression, his eyes clear and solemn, pondered for a moment, sighed, leaned forward and lowered his voice: "Comrade,"
His tone was heavy. "It doesn't sound like a small matter! Night pain, severe coughing, afraid to exert force... It sounds very much like an old rib injury that hasn't healed, or even a fracture or dislocation, or..." He paused, and spoke even more quietly. "Or it could be an old internal injury that has caused inflammation. This kind of injury is most harmful to fatigue, exertion, and coughing, especially at night. The cough is so severe..."
He shook his head, extremely serious. "That's too dangerous! Violent coughing is a secondary injury. If the dislocation worsens or there's internal bleeding, it would be disastrous. We must go to a large hospital for an X-ray immediately. There's no delay!"
Every word hits my heart like a hammer, but luckily it is finally shattered. It is not just a "skin injury", but a fatal hidden danger!
"Alas," Old Yang sighed as he looked at her pale face, adding, "This kind of injury...is most likely caused by being hit by a heavy object or by an explosion on the battlefield. It's deep-seated and takes root, making it difficult to heal."
Gu Qiuyue's hands and feet were cold, and she didn't know how she left the clinic and went home.
Returning home, the empty courtyard felt even more lonely. She forced herself to remain calm, but persuasion was useless. She needed evidence, an irrefutable proof that he could not avoid!
Her eyes looked towards the tightly closed small door, she pushed it open and entered, the room was still tidy. She raised her eyes and scanned around, finally stopping at the military jacket on the back of the chair.
He carefully picked up the coat, put his fingers into the inner pocket, touched a cold, hard object, and quickly took it out. It was a small dark brown glass medicine bottle with most of the label torn off. The remaining paper had blurry but glaring words on it: "Tramadol Tablets", a powerful prescription painkiller.
The bottle burned like a branding iron, and my heart sank to the bottom. Had he become addicted to this medicine? The pain had already exceeded his endurance!
She suppressed her shock and was about to put the medicine bottle back carefully, thinking about how to get him to treat his injuries that night, when the courtyard door was pushed open with a clang.
Xie Shiyu strode in, his expression tense as a string. He didn't even look at Qiuyue, but rushed straight into his room, opened the drawer and quickly searched for some documents, his movements showing rare urgency.
Gu Qiuyue was stunned on the spot, barely able to hold the medicine bottle in her hand, and looked at his unusual behavior in astonishment.
"Thank you, Captain! Thank you, Captain!" A young messenger rushed into the yard, panting, and shouted at the door: "Commander Cheng asked you to take the documents and go to the operations room immediately. We are waiting for you to be deployed for an urgent mission. We will leave in half an hour."
Urgent mission? Leaving in half an hour?
Xie Shiyu rushed out of the room grabbing a brown paper document bag. His face looked even uglier than when he woke up in the morning. Beads of sweat on his forehead gleamed in the cold air. He said to the communicator in a deep voice, "I got it! I'll be there right away!" Then he was about to rush out.
Gu Qiuyue's whole body was shaken, and the medicine bottle in her hand fell to the ground with a "click". The small dark brown bottle rolled twice on the ground and stopped at the feet of Xie Shiyu and the communicator. The words "Tramadol Tablets" on the bottle were extremely dazzling in the cold morning light.
Time seemed to stand still.
The communicator looked at the medicine bottle on the ground, then at Gu Qiuyue whose face turned as pale as paper, and finally cast a look of surprise at Xie Shiyu who suddenly stopped and his body was as stiff as a stone.
Xie Shiyu stared at the exposed medicine bottle on the ground, his jawline was stretched almost to the point of breaking, and the hand pressing on his left rib trembled uncontrollably.
With his current health...what kind of emergency mission can he possibly carry out?!
A huge panic, like icy water, instantly gripped Gu Qiuyue. Her heart was tightly grasped by an invisible hand, and a thought burst out with a desperate determination:
He must be stopped!
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