Chapter 121 A Ten-Year Nightmare, Iron Fist and Tender Heart
That one glance.
Just that one glance.
"Crack".
Something broke.
The calm smile that Bai Shu had been wearing on his face just a second ago froze instantly.
Zheng Kai was still respectfully reporting something beside her, Zheng Xiaorou's cheerful laughter still echoed in her ears, and the suppressed sobs of the family member in the next bed...
But all of this seemed to have been muted, quickly fading, peeling away, and sinking into endless darkness.
The world is spinning.
Only two colors remained in my field of vision.
Pale white.
The hospital walls were deathly white, the bed sheets were deathly white, the doctors' white coats were deathly white, and her own face was deathly pale, devoid of any color.
Dead silence.
The deathly silence of the night, the deathly silence after the vital signs monitor returned to a flat line, and the deathly silence of utter despair in people's hearts.
"Drip...drip...drip..."
The faint sound of the medical equipment from the bed next to hers was amplified to an infinite degree, becoming the only sound in her ears.
One beat after another, like a death knell, pounded on her fragile nerves.
The strong smell of disinfectant in her nasal cavity instantly turned sharp and pungent, forcefully penetrating her lungs and evoking the nauseating metallic odor of chemotherapy drugs from her past life.
My stomach churned violently.
She felt nauseous.
Ten years in my previous life.
More than 3,600 days and nights.
She lay on this bed, with countless tubes inserted into her, like a withered blade of grass clinging to life by nutrient solution.
She remembers the burning sensation after each chemotherapy session, when she would vomit bile into the toilet.
She remembers the deep, aching pain that penetrated to the bone marrow every time she had a bone marrow aspiration, when the thick, long needle pierced through the bone marrow.
She remembers how her hair fell out in clumps, and when she finally became bald, she saw an ugly and unfamiliar version of herself in the mirror.
She felt her muscles gradually atrophy, her skin lose its luster, and eventually she didn't even have the strength to get out of bed.
She remembers the pain inside her body, as if countless ants were gnawing at her, a pain that lasted day and night.
And fear.
An endless fear of death.
She was afraid of falling asleep, because she was afraid she would never wake up again.
She feared waking up, because waking up meant enduring endless pain and torment.
She was like a prisoner trapped in a time cage, repeating the same hopeless struggle day after day.
Those memories that she had buried deep in her heart for two lifetimes, like an impenetrable fortress.
At this moment, like an erupting volcano, it instantly shattered all her reason and pretense with a destructive force.
Bai Shu's composure and Su Wantang's scheming shattered completely at this moment.
"Sister Baishu? What's wrong?"
Zheng Xiaorou noticed that something was wrong with her and called out cautiously.
Atractylodes macrocephala did not respond.
The color drained from her face at a visible speed, leaving only a horrifying pale white.
She began to tremble, first her fingers, then her arms, and finally her whole body.
It wasn't because of the cold, but a shiver that came from the depths of my soul and was uncontrollable.
Her breathing became rapid and difficult; she gasped for air like a fish thrown ashore, her chest feeling as if a huge rock was pressing down on it, each rise and fall bringing excruciating pain.
"Boss?" Zheng Kai noticed it too, and stepped forward with a worried look on his face.
Bai Shu's vision had become blurred; she could see nothing and hear nothing.
Reason, her most prized and vital weapon for survival, crumbled at this moment.
She suddenly clutched her chest, her body swayed, and she could no longer hold on, slowly squatting down along the wall.
She curled up into a ball, as if that would help her resist the onslaught of pain.
"Wantang!"
A deep, furious shout, tinged with shock and rage, rang out like a thunderclap.
Lu Jingyan's reaction was incredibly fast.
The moment Bai Shu crouched down, he had already rushed over in a flash. He knelt on one knee and reached out to help her up.
He saw her eyes.
Those peach blossom eyes, which always held cunning, coldness, or allure, were now empty.
Without the power of "Atractylodes macrocephala", there is also the vividness of "Su Wantang".
All that remained was an extreme vulnerability he had never seen before, and a terror of being abandoned by the entire world.
It was an expression he had only ever seen in the eyes of soldiers whose will had been utterly destroyed by war.
His heart felt as if it were being gripped tightly by an invisible hand, the pain making it almost impossible for him to breathe.
"Don't touch me!"
Just as his fingertips were about to touch her shoulder, she screamed like a wildcat whose tail had been stepped on, and used all her strength to shake off his hand.
The force was so great that several red marks instantly appeared on the back of his hand.
She hugged her knees, buried her head deeper, her body trembled more violently, and began to mutter incoherently to herself.
The sound was faint, broken, and desperate.
"...I don't want to...I don't want to go back to the hospital..."
"It hurts...it hurts so much..."
"I don't want to die... I don't want to die..."
"Ten years...that's too long...it's really too long..."
Zheng Kai and Zheng Xiaorou were both stunned, standing there dumbfounded, not knowing what had happened.
ten years?
These two words, like a thunderclap, exploded in Lu Jingyan's mind.
What ten years?
She's only twenty years old, where did she get ten years from?
He didn't have time to think it through, nor did he care about her previous resistance.
This woman, whom he cherished and protected like a precious gem, was now being tormented to the brink of collapse by a force he could not see.
Ignoring everything else, he stretched out his long arm and, with an irresistible force, pulled that petite, curled-up body into his embrace.
"Ah! Let me go! Let me go!"
Su Wantang struggled frantically in his arms, pounding her fists against his chest and back.
It lacked any method or strength; it was merely a pure, instinctive resistance born of fear.
Lu Jingyan gritted his teeth and remained unmoved as she pounded on him.
He simply held her even tighter, as if he wanted to meld her into his very bones.
He lowered his head, his burning lips pressed against her earlobe, and in a hoarse voice, filled with endless tenderness and domineering tenderness, he repeated it over and over again:
"Don't be afraid."
"I'm here."
"I'm here, you don't need to go anywhere."
"Don't be afraid, Wan Tang, I'm here..."
Lu Jingyan's heartbeat was strong and powerful.
"Thump, thump, thump"
Through the thin fabric, the sound clearly reached her ears, gradually merging with her own chaotic heartbeat.
The body in his arms, which had been as tense as a stone, gradually, gradually relaxed.
The pounding fist stopped.
The sharp struggle vanished.
Instead, there were suppressed, fragmented sobs.
Finally, the nerve that had been taut for two lifetimes snapped completely at this moment.
"Wow--"
A piercing cry, as if it were about to vomit out one's heart and lungs, burst forth without warning.
Su Wantang stopped struggling. Like a child who had been lost for too long and finally found her way home, she tightly clutched his military uniform on his chest, buried her face deeply in his firm and warm chest, and cried loudly.
That was the first time in her two lives that she had so thoroughly vented her pain and fear.
The cries contained fear of death, hatred of illness, loneliness in the face of despair, and also the relief and grievance of surviving a catastrophe.
She cried her heart out, sobbing uncontrollably, as if she wanted to shed all the tears of two lifetimes in that one moment.
Lu Jingyan's heart was torn apart by her cries, aching beyond measure.
He didn't say anything, he just held her and clumsily patted her back again and again.
With all his strength and tenderness, he protected his true wife in his arms, who had shed all pretense and armor.
The commotion here is quite significant.
The crying attracted the doctors and nurses, who rushed over.
"Sir, this comrade is..."
"Shut up!"
Lu Jingyan suddenly raised his head.
Those deep black eyes were now filled with terrifying red blood vessels, and their gaze held a chilling, unyielding murderous intent.
He stared intently at the people who had gathered around him with a gaze that could chill anyone to the bone.
Those eyes seemed to say: Anyone who dares to take another step forward will die.
The doctors and nurses were so frightened by the murderous aura emanating from him, as if he had crawled out of a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood, that their legs went weak and they instinctively took a step back, no longer daring to go forward.
The entire room and corridor fell silent instantly.
All that remained were the man's heavy breathing and the woman's suppressed, desperate cries.
Lu Jingyan lowered his head again, looking at the person in his arms who was crying and convulsing. The murderous intent in his eyes instantly turned into endless tenderness and heartache.
He gently patted the woman's back in his arms, letting her tears fall onto his chest.
This is his woman.
The woman he would risk his life to protect.
No one is allowed to disturb her today.
No one will do.
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