The air in the ICU ward was like frozen glass shards, and every breath was filled with a sharp mixture of disinfectant and blood.
Li Zhou leaned against the metal bench under the observation window, his cervical spine against the cold wall, but he did not feel the slightest bit of coldness.
All his senses were welded to the thick glass. His eyes penetrated the lines of the privacy film and were fixed on the figure wrapped in white bedding on the hospital bed.
The green light of the monitor was particularly dazzling in the darkness at three o'clock in the morning, and the regular "beeping" sound was like a blunt knife cutting his nerves.
He had been sitting here for seventeen hours. The fingertips of his right hand still felt the burning pain from the explosion scene. The gauze on his palm was stained dark brown by the repeated blood stains, and the screen of the mobile phone in his left hand had long gone dark.
The wallpaper was a photo of him and Gu Yuxiao taken at the dock when they were in high school. The boy in the photo was wearing a white linen shirt, smiling so hard that wrinkles appeared at the corners of his eyes. Behind him was a cargo ship that had just docked, and seagulls were flying across his hair.
"Mr. Li, you need to drink water." The nurse stopped as she pushed the treatment cart past and handed over a cup of warm water.
Li Zhou took the cup and felt the coolness of the glass with his fingertips, but he found that his hands were shaking uncontrollably. Water droplets slid down the wall of the cup and fell onto his jeans, leaving dark marks.
Suddenly, the monitor's beeping frequency changed drastically!
The sharp alarm was like a sledgehammer hitting Li Zhou's head. He almost fell to the ground with his chair. His knees hit the metal chair legs and caused a sharp pain, but he rushed towards the observation window without realizing it.
The glass instantly became foggy. He wiped it frantically with his sleeve, his eyes passing through the blurry water marks.
The person on the hospital bed moved his fingers.
It was not an unconscious spasm, but the middle finger and ring finger curled slowly and clearly under the sheet, as if grasping something.
Li Zhou's heart suddenly stopped for half a second, then began beating wildly at the speed of a drum. Blood rushed to his head, and the only sounds in his ears were his own heavy breathing and the increasingly rapid beeping of the monitor.
"Heart rate 120! Blood pressure has returned to 90/60!" The nurse's exclamation exploded from the intercom. A blue and white figure shuttled quickly in the ward, and the rollers of the stretcher made a harsh sound when rubbing against the ground.
Li Zhou saw a doctor leaning over to examine Gu Yuxiao's pupils. The flashlight beam cast flickering spots of light in his eyes, and his eyelids were slowly opening at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Time seemed to stretch out at this moment. Li Zhou saw that the whites of Gu Yuxiao's eyes were covered with spiderwebs of bloodshot, and his pupils contracted with difficulty under the strong light, forming tiny ripples.
The pair of eyes that always had a smile on their faces were now cloudy and tired, but after scanning the medical staff surrounding the bed, they accurately locked onto him outside the glass window.
The moment their eyes met, Li Zhou felt something hot flowing out of his eye sockets.
He wanted to speak, but his throat was as dry as if it had been rubbed by sandpaper. He could only raise his hand in vain, put his fingertips on the cold glass, and made a trembling "OK" gesture.
Inside the ward, Gu Yuxiao's lips moved, and tiny bloody cuts appeared on his dry, cracked skin. He made no sound, but Li Zhou understood the faint movement of his lips—"It's okay."
Then, those eyes blinked gently, and the long eyelashes cast a brief shadow under the pale eyelids, as if comforting a frightened cub.
"Boss!" Ah Cheng's voice suddenly sounded behind him, trembling with uncontrollable force.
Li Zhou then realized that this always silent man had been standing beside him without him noticing. The shoulder line of his black windbreaker was soaked with sweat, and his right hand was tightly gripping the holster at his waist, his knuckles turning white.
Medical staff were connecting Gu Yuxiao to a ventilator, and the transparent oxygen tube was passing around his earlobe and sticking to his pale cheek.
Li Zhou saw his chest rising and falling slightly with the help of the instrument. Although the green waveform on the ECG monitor was still weak, it was much more stable than before, like a small boat gradually stabilizing in the wind and waves.
"The patient's vital signs are temporarily stable, but he's still in the recovery phase of a deep coma," the attending physician said, removing his mask, beads of sweat covering his forehead. "The limb reflexes and eye movements just now are positive, but the next 72 hours will remain a critical period."
He paused, his gaze falling on Li Zhou's red and swollen eyes. "You... better be mentally prepared."
Mentally prepare yourself. Li Zhou chewed on these four words, feeling them scrape across his throat like ice.
He remembered the warmth of the Night Owl badge when Gu Yuxiao stuffed it into his palm before the explosion, the man's last hoarse words, "I smell his scent...", and the blood-stained hand under the rubble, with unknown waxy residue embedded in the nails.
"Mr. Li," Ah Cheng's voice was low and steady, carrying a strange soothing power. "The boss has a strong will. Three years ago, he had three ribs broken by an enemy, and he also spent five days and five nights in the ICU."
He handed over a pack of wet wipes and said, "Wipe your face. Don't let your boss wake up and see you like this."
The cool touch of the wipes sobered Li Zhou up a bit. He squatted on the ground, staring at his disheveled reflection in the mirror—his hair was tangled and stuck to his sweaty forehead, his eyes were a dark blue, and his cheeks still bore the scars of the explosion's splatter.
He took a deep breath and carefully wiped the stains on his face with a wet wipe, but he couldn't wipe away the bloodshot under his eyes.
The lights in the ward suddenly dimmed as a nurse adjusted Gu Yuxiao's infusion rate. Through the glass, Li Zhou saw the man's brow furrowed slightly, as if he were having an uneasy dream.
"Mr. Gu's reflex test results are in," a nurse said, walking out of the ward with a clipboard. "His limbs are responsive to pain, his corneal reflex is present, and his pupillary reflex to light is sluggish but present."
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
