38. Escape
◎His so-called predetermined◎
"You knowingly break the law, what exactly are you trying to do?"
She gripped the iron bars tightly, barely suppressing her unease and fear, and questioned him sharply.
However, she lacked firsthand experience with such matters and was not particularly adept at handling them; even her bluffing was easily seen through.
“You’ll find out.” Ling Zhou grabbed her hand. “I can open this iron gate too, but if you take a step, I’ll break a bone in your little boyfriend’s head. The human body has 206 bones, where should we start? I heard he’s an artist? Let’s start with his finger bones…”
"Shut up! Shut up!" Xu Huaihuai abruptly pulled her hand away from his, her expression a mixture of shock and anger. "What did you do?"
"Don't be so angry, it's not good for your wound to heal." Ling Zhou reached out and tapped his forehead, reminding her that she had just had stitches there. "He really cares about you. He rushed over as soon as he saw your message about being in the hospital in the middle of the night. Unfortunately, he was too worried and it took several injections of anesthesia to calm him down."
“I didn’t text him, you, you…” Xu Huaihuai’s chest heaved, her heartstrings were taut, and her mind was buzzing.
"Of course I sent it using your phone. But please don't misunderstand the driver. He's a good person and did his best to get you to the hospital. It's just that this hospital is our family's property. Look, we've met again after all this time. What a coincidence!" Ling Zhou stated with a smile.
"You're simply..." Xu Huaihuai felt increasingly dizzy as she listened, her stereotypes about private hospitals becoming more solidified and deepened than ever before.
She leaned against the wall, feeling extremely dizzy. She hadn't completely lost consciousness, but she was also very weak.
Ling Zhou noticed her discomfort and reacted quickly, opening the iron gate and scooping up the limp woman in his arms. He carried her back to the bed, this time being careful not to bump her forehead again.
She sank softly into the bed, her half-closed eyes and drooping eyelashes, not moving at all, looking obedient enough.
But Ling Zhou knew this was just a temporary moment of vulnerability on her part. Once it ended, she would leave his sight and disappear from his world. He had already made concessions twice; there was no way he would back down this time.
He opened the briefcase, which had a refrigeration function and contained four vials of medicine and syringes.
He secured her calves with straps, rolled up her nightgown, put on gloves, and moved methodically. The cool iodine swabs brushed against her fair legs, leaving brown marks.
Click. The sound of a medicine bottle being unscrewed.
The medicine was absorbed by the syringe, and the long, thin needle pierced her side of the leg, pushing the cool liquid into her body.
Her body twitched instinctively; if he hadn't restrained her beforehand, the injection would probably have had to be repeated.
A blur of white light flashed before Xu Huaihuai's eyes, obscuring everything. She couldn't tell if she was awake or asleep, until a sharp, pricking sensation forced cold liquid into her body. Tears streamed from her unfocused eyes. She felt like someone who had finally escaped a nightmare only to find reality even crueler, utterly exhausted and weak. "Ling Zhou... what are you doing..."
She tried to reach down her rolled-up skirt, but she didn't have the strength; her hand could only weakly hold down the hem.
Ling Zhou easily removed her hand; he had only injected one side. He moved to the other side, wiping her fair and delicate skin with an iodine-soaked cotton ball. Ignoring her slight struggles, he quickly and steadily pushed the other vial of medicine in.
Ling Zhou discarded the empty syringe in the medical waste bin. He took off his gloves and untied the restraints on her calves, which had been a bit too tight. He gently massaged her reddened calves and soothed her softly, "Don't be afraid, it's not a banned substance."
Noticing that her body was trembling, he kindly helped her lower her rolled-up nightgown and covered her with a blanket.
"You might feel cold, or you might feel nauseous, but you'll get used to it." Ling Zhou carefully wiped away the tears from the corners of her eyes. "I have things to do. If you need anything, just press the bell. You can press it if you're thirsty or hungry. I'll take good care of you, just like before."
She dodged his hand, curled up in the blanket, and her gaze changed from initial anger to fear and disgust.
He smiled, acting as if nothing had happened. When he left, he took Xu Huaihuai's cell phone, which had no signal, and closed the two doors, the iron gate and the isolation door.
Xu Huaihuai felt like she had been lying in bed for a long time before her body regained some strength. She didn't know if her fever had completely subsided, and she always felt weak and dizzy after walking a few steps.
The room is very spacious, but there are no windows, and even the bathroom has no windows.
Was he afraid she'd jump out the window and escape? Xu Huaihuai truly hadn't expected Ling Zhou to be this twisted. Kidnapping, confinement, injections…
She lifted her nightgown in the bathroom and saw bluish needle marks on the side of her leg.
What exactly was injected into her? Some terrifying speculations were hard to suppress, sending chills down her spine.
No, I can't scare myself, I can't let him throw me off balance.
She wanted to leave this place, find Lin Xu, and then send Ling Zhou, this lawless outlaw who knowingly broke the law, to prison.
If Ling Zhou not only controls her, but also Lin Xu, then she needs to confirm Lin Xu's safety first.
But how to get out of here was the problem. She began to ponder Ling Zhou's motives—why did he kidnap her? Last time, during what was supposedly a "farewell dinner," she almost became his legal wife thanks to Ling Zhou's meticulous planning. What was Ling Zhou planning this time?
Is it all for the sake of marriage? This is outrageous. Since the female lead chose divorce in the first place, and Ling Zhou agreed to it peacefully, why make it so ugly now?
She thought of a series of questions: the disappearing comments, the inexplicable divorce, the memory she inexplicably lost when she almost got a marriage certificate with Ling Zhou last time, and some of the things Ling Zhou had said.
"You can't see now, can you?"
At first, she thought Ling Zhou was cursing her to be blind, but now that she thinks about it, it seems to have a deeper meaning. Could it be that the "female lead" should be able to see something?
A blurry memory flashed through her mind: that day, she sat quietly like a puppet on strings, and Ling Zhou approached and said something; his lips moved as if he were saying something…
She tried hard to recall and find a way out of the predicament, but suddenly a sharp pain shot through her head.
She covered her head, knelt by the bed, her back covered in cold sweat, and finally glimpsed the words he had said in her memory.
"If you know the inevitable outcome, why run away from it? Running away is not a good way to solve problems."
A predetermined ending, a predetermined ending, a predetermined ending.
She repeated those five words three times in her mind, and suddenly a chill ran down her spine. As someone who had entered the world of the novel from another world, she knew that this book had an ending.
In the ending of "The Light That Fell From the Sky," the female protagonist marries the male protagonist, and they live happily ever after. However, she arrives in this world five years after the novel's ending, by which time the male and female protagonists have already divorced.
What if the characters in the novel's world also knew this "ending"? For example, if the male protagonist, Ling Zhou, knew the "predetermined ending" in the novel, would his actions be to bring the deviated plot back on track?
But she is Xu Huaihuai from another world. How could she go against her own heart to fulfill that "predetermined ending"?
That unreliable commenter has vanished somewhere. They said they'd let her fully experience the life of a novel's female protagonist, but now she's trapped here by the novel's male protagonist. It's truly a cruel twist of fate for someone who transmigrates into a book.
She leaned against the headboard, drenched in cold sweat, her head throbbing, her hands and feet icy cold, her entire body feeling as if it were submerged in ice water. Before the headache subsided, a wave of nausea washed over her, and she stumbled into the bathroom to vomit.
The surveillance footage clearly captured her pain.
Ling Zhou watched the surveillance footage for a while, then glanced at the electroshock chamber inside the glass enclosure. A sophisticated electroshock device was connected to a person whose head was drooping; the person appeared to be unconscious. If she were still there, she would definitely recognize who it was.
"Still not going to tell me?" Ling Zhou asked expressionlessly.
The doctor standing behind him, responsible for supervising the administration of the electric shocks, sensed his low spirits and became somewhat nervous. "He said it."
"What did you say?"
"He answered all the questions you asked, and we recorded them accurately." The doctor respectfully presented the records with both hands, his face covered in sweat beneath his mask.
Ling Zhou looked at the record.
The experimenter's name is Lin Xu, male, age 23. The interview record is as follows.
Question: Who is Xu Huaihuai? What is your relationship with her?
My girlfriend. (Note: The subject showed high cooperation under continuous electrical stimulation.)
Question: Where is she from?
The home is in the new city. (Note: The experimenter did not show any hesitation or doubt.)
Inquiry: What is her relationship with Ling Zhou?
His ex-wife. (Note: The experimenter glanced up in the direction of the door.)
Question: Isn't she the previous Xu Huaihuai?
Yes. She is a free, unmarried woman.
(Note: The experimenter initially remained silent and did not answer immediately. When the intensity of the electric current stimulation was adjusted and the questioning was repeated, the experimenter showed significant pain and obvious confusion, seemingly not understanding the question. However, in order to avoid increasing the intensity of the electric shock again, the experimenter also showed an active side in answering, and finally gave the above answer.)
Question: Who is she?
Who? (Note: The experimenter asked rhetorically.)
Question: Who is Xu Huaihuai?
Girlfriend. I already answered. (Note: The experimenter remains relatively conscious, or a higher intensity electrical stimulation can be applied.)
Ling Zhou tossed the interrogation record back to the doctor, saying, "You only managed to get this useless stuff out of half a day."
"His cooperation was quite high, and what he said should be true..." The doctor hurriedly took the interview record.
“Impossible, he’s lying, he must know something. Wake him up and show him the footage from the monitor.”
“Okay, Mr. Ling.” The doctor nodded repeatedly. He was about to go into the defibrillation room when Ling Zhou called him back.
"etc."
The doctor listened respectfully.
"We won't need to save electricity later, understand?"
"Understood, understood!" The doctor was drenched in sweat.
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