Chapter 38
Before he fell sideways to the ground, a strong hand held his arm and lifted him up steadily.
Pei Huai glanced at the direction the boy fled. The corridor was filled with a layer of mist, so thick that he couldn't see the way ahead.
Without giving it much thought, he squatted down to examine his junior's injuries. He wasn't sure how deep the knife had penetrated, but judging by its location, it was probably around the liver and diaphragm.
And any damage to this organ is no joke.
Within fifteen minutes, the pain would be transmitted by nerves to all parts of the body. It was the most painful, a sharp pain that could be felt even while one was conscious. If the gallbladder was compromised, other organs would also be at high risk of being corroded by bile. [1] The dangers posed by these injuries are simply unbearable to estimate.
"Brother, aren't you going to chase him?" Xiang Mingqi covered his wound and curled up, breathing out like a cough.
"No need, we've found the cat." He used a knife to tear open the clothing to prevent the blood from sticking to the wool. He examined the wound and applied pressure to stop the bleeding. "Talk less and breathe slower. I need to determine the location and depth of the injury."
Pei Huai supported the back of his neck with one hand to keep his body horizontal.
"Brother, we..." He breathed in and out slowly as he was told, his eyes dazed for a moment, "Are we not going to be the hottest couple anymore?"
...It's already this time and he's still thinking about this.
Pei Huai concentrated on applying pressure to the wound. The dagger's blade was limited, so it likely penetrated seven or eight centimeters, perhaps less. Judging by the blood flow, it didn't look like it had hit the hepatic artery; the bleeding was only slightly brown. There was some liver damage, but fortunately, no gallbladder rupture.
"Aren't you in pain?" He breathed a sigh of relief and looked down at the time on his watch.
"pain."
"Then just shut up and focus on breathing."
"But I want you to touch my face," he said. "Just touch me. It won't hurt me." Pain traveled along his nerves, squeezing his eye sockets until they swelled, and a few natural tears flowed out. "Really."
Pei Huai originally wanted to refuse. This was not an appropriate act of coquettishness. Xiang Mingqi had to hold his breath and stay calm until the company and medical department arrived.
But before that, the pain in his liver area would slowly spread, strangling all his rationality. Just like now, he was in so much pain that he couldn't open one eye.
If Yan Xu had been more decisively restrained at the time, things wouldn't have turned out this way. Thinking of this, Pei Huai felt a tightness in his left chest.
None of this should have happened.
It was a mistake within his duties, it was his negligence and carelessness.
He felt that he could not escape the blame.
He reached out hesitantly and touched the cheek, which was drenched in cold sweat. It felt a little cold, from the blood loss.
Pei Huai wasn't sure what else he could do. He followed the procedures and implemented some emergency measures, but Xiang Mingqi was still visibly weakening, his breathing intermittent. He had no choice but to stay where he was, abandoning the commission and awaiting rescue.
The thumb goes behind the other person's ear, hesitant.
After a slight frown, he rubbed the skin with his fingertips, his movements extremely gentle.
Pei Huai felt his trembling, and his paleness and weakness from blood loss, and the wrinkles between his eyebrows deepened.
"Brother, are you even a little worried about me?" Xiang Mingqi looked at his unfamiliar and nervous expression and took the initiative to rub his palm. "From the first day I met you until now, you always acted like you didn't care about me, hated me, and found me annoying. I thought you were going to chase me just now."
"It's nice that my brother actually cares about me a little bit."
Xiang Mingqi didn't get a response, and before he could smooth his senior's brows with his hands, his head tilted and he fainted.
-
Yan Xu didn't count how many miles he had run.
He only knew that he had to run for his life, until his throat felt fishy and sweet, and his chest felt a burning pain.
Only in this way could he get rid of the white-haired young man.
He never imagined that the first time he was stabbed, he would be grabbed by the wrist and stabbed directly into the vitals. He didn't care about the motive. He found it absurd and incomprehensible.
He was a complete lunatic, his actions solely to attract the attention of his crush, even affectionately calling him "brother." The most terrifying thing was that each of those calls wasn't just a simple noun.
It's a feeling.
A sticky, surging feeling with sexual desire flowing in it. It is a real sexual impulse.
He was calling "brother", but it seemed more like he was invading "brother".
Because every time she shouted, her voice was so gentle that it seemed like she was about to reach orgasm.
After that, Yan Xu didn't get very far. He was intercepted halfway by a Latin man in a black suit. The man was a muscular man with exceptional athleticism. He put his hand on the back of Yan Xu's head and threw him to the ground without a word, kneeling on him.
Yan Xu was tortured almost three times in one day, and of course he begged for mercy: "I escaped! I, I stabbed that brown-haired madman and escaped. I didn't betray the Dexing family and I didn't say anything, so please, please don't..."
"The brown-haired madman?" All that was before him was a pair of leather shoes, shining like new. "Is there a young man with silver-white hair, about shoulder-length, beside him?"
"Yes, that's right, I got rid of him too. I really didn't reveal any information to them!"
"Is that so?" He lifted his expensive leather shoe onto the half-burnt cigarette butt and roughly crushed it. It was a strange, arrogant voice. "Do they seem to have a good relationship?"
Yan Xu didn't know why he asked that, so he swallowed and answered, "I'm not sure... but when he was cutting, the madman seemed to laugh, as if, as if he wanted to show it to the white-haired guy. And they didn't catch up, I think..."
A sigh.
"It seems my princess is really good at provoking men."
Princess? What princess? Yan Xu began to feel confused.
"I really overlooked a possibility—that stray dog has been coveting my people for a long time." The man in front of him turned around and said to everyone, "What a pity! I never like to share with others. Even my blood relatives."
-
The rescue team from the Bangkok hotel and the multi-seater car carrying the client arrived at the same time. Wang Qi rushed out of the car immediately, broke into the factory, and searched for his cat room by room.
But the sad thing is, when he walked out the door, he only brought back a bloody collar. The blood had dried on the inside of the leather.
He clutched it, stroking the name tag, then squatted in a corner, burying his head in his arms and sobbing. The cat cafe clerk, nicknamed Xiao Tao by the operator, picked up Zhuangzhuang and returned to the car, giving the part-time student a worried look before leaving.
The company couldn't take all the cats, so it contacted the nearest veterinary hospital to take in the most seriously injured and ill cats. Some were sent to testing centers for residual drug content.
Pei Huai watched silently as the stretcher was carried onto the ambulance and Xiang Mingqi was connected to the ventilator and monitor.
After examination, the doctor said that thanks to proper emergency treatment and the fact that we are still within the golden rescue time, the situation is not too bad and they will do their best.
After finishing the trivial matters, Pei Huai leaned against the wall with his elbows, feeling a little tired. He stretched his neck back and tilted it upwards, slowly stretching his overly stiff shoulder and neck muscles.
He didn't want Xiang Mingqi to have any accidents, and he didn't want him to die.
This is a responsibility that a senior cannot shirk, and it is also a condemnation of conscience.
Things weren't supposed to turn out this way.
"...Have you ever had a cat?" Wang Qi was still looking at the old crack on the collar in the corner, and asked casually.
"No."
"I didn't have one before I got Coconut. I didn't even think I could own a cat." He was still stroking the name tag, smiling awkwardly. "Coconut is the cat living downstairs in my college dormitory. Normally, someone feeds him. But during the winter and summer vacations, these stray cats have no choice but to run away from campus hungry, and some may never come back."
"My home is far away and I don't go back often during the holidays, so I often come downstairs to feed them. After a while, they are cooked. Coconut is the bravest and most greedy among them, and they often ask me for food when I go to the cafeteria."
"Coconut... she's beautiful." Sobs escaped from his arms. He was trembling, his fingertips trembling as he dug into the flesh. "I love white cats the most. She's the first cat I ever had. I want my cat back."
"I don't want a collar, I don't want a dead experiment. I want my cat back, my living cat."
Amidst the uncontrollable cries, the first rays of dawn appeared between the elevated tracks and the tall buildings and chimneys reaching towards the sky.
The city is waking up, but something is still sleeping in a dream.
-
Xiang Mingqi opened his eyes several hours after the rescue, just as Pei Huai arrived at his bedside. As if by telepathy, the boy opened his eyes.
"Brother." Perhaps the anesthesia hadn't worn off yet, so his reaction was a little slow. "It's nice of you to come see me. I had a friend who stayed with his dog during sterilization surgery. Bro, I forgot what surgery it was, and I feel dizzy... Was I also sterilized..."
Pei Huai looked down at him and said, "I have something for you."
"Wow, is this a gift to celebrate my successful surgery?" He shook his head dizzily, still unable to figure out what was going on. "But what kind of surgery did I have?"
He was racking his brains but still couldn't recall the term. At this moment, Pei Huai hooked a golden-bronze keychain on his finger, and it jingled and hung in front of him.
There is a pink pig wearing a god of wealth hat hanging on the buckle.
"Wow, there's a pig." Xiang Mingqi took it with both hands. Under the influence of anesthesia, he was as happy as a child who had just entered a children's playground. "Brother gave me a pig... great."
"You said you wanted to win the game." His eyelashes were half-closed, and there was no emotion in his tone. "It's a pity that we missed playing time. This is my personal compensation."
"So this is... my personal piggy? A piggy that I use to comfort myself because I'm injured and can't go to the competition? Bro, you're the best!"
"what ever."
"Oh yeah, this is my special little piggy my brother gave me. It's so pink and tender. I love it." He couldn't let go of the little keychain, grinning like a squinting seal. If he weren't so exhausted, he'd probably be twisting his body without caring about his appearance. "By the way, didn't you say before that I need to think things through before I speak? I've almost figured it out now."
Pei Huai's wrist twitched.
"Brother, I like you." A thin layer of mist floated on the ventilator. He murmured, his eyes slowly dissipating from his senior. "You don't have to answer me now. I like you, I like you. I like you. I want to hug you with open arms, I want to shout your name with all my strength and confess my love to you, the sound must be louder than the resonance of my chest. Brother, I want to pursue you, to pursue you with everything I have. And then, uh, I want to... uh, I want to sleep. I'm so tired after the sterilization..."
As he spoke, his heavy eyelids glued together again.
The author has something to say:
[1] I can’t remember where I read this, but I remember that it was extremely painful when the liver was pierced. It hurt for fifteen minutes. Then the person died.
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