Chapter 366 Fever
At the entrance of the camp, comrades had already prepared dry and thick towels, which they quickly draped over Xia Lili and Li Qihan's cold and trembling shoulders.
The rough towel rubbed against the wet clothes, bringing a long-lost warmth.
Without stopping, they were escorted directly onto a military helicopter parked nearby.
Inside the cabin, the lights were soft. Qingsheng had been secured on a stretcher and was being given emergency treatment by the accompanying military doctor.
Li Qihan and Xia Lili slumped in their chairs, wrapped in towels, but could still feel their bodies trembling slightly uncontrollably.
They looked at each other, and saw in each other's eyes, which were in a state of disarray but shining with the light of surviving a disaster, unspeakable relief, exhaustion, and an extremely solid trust forged in sharing life and death.
The helicopter engine roared loudly as it slowly took off, carrying them to the nearest hospital with complete medical facilities to the border outpost.
They will receive comprehensive examination and treatment there along with Qingsheng.
Outside the cabin, there was endless darkness and rain, but inside the cabin, peace finally arrived.
Xia Lili's memory of what happened next became vague and fragmentary.
She only vaguely remembered being held steady by a pair of strong arms, someone shouting something urgently in her ear, the lights in her vision flickering, and then the sight of the hospital corridor ceiling light rapidly passing by...
Later, she completely lost consciousness and fell into endless darkness.
When I opened my eyes again, what caught my eye was the white ceiling and the faint smell of disinfectant in the air.
The light coming through the window showed that it was already afternoon.
She moved slightly, and a feeling of extreme fatigue, as if she had been skinned and drained dry, instantly swept through every cell in her body.
All the muscles in my body were protesting with pain, especially my legs, which felt heavy as if they were filled with lead.
Xia Lili found herself lying on a hospital bed with an IV in her hand, and the cold medicine was being injected into her blood vessels bit by bit.
When he regained consciousness, the last scene in the rainforest of him supporting Qingsheng and trudging desperately through the darkness and mud emerged clearly in his mind.
At that moment, she was relying entirely on her remaining willpower to mechanically move her legs, and her body had already exceeded its limit.
As expected, actual combat with real guns and bullets, and a life-and-death situation, is five or ten times more mentally and physically exhausting than the usual highest-intensity training.
Xia Lili subconsciously curled up and buried herself deeper in the quilt that smelled of disinfectant, as if this could give her a tiny sense of security.
However, waves of hot and cold sensations began to come over me.
I have a fever... Is it the inevitable result of being completely soaked in the rainforest and physically exhausted?
This is the second time I have had a fever since my eyesight recovered from a high fever.
Will her ability to predict future misfortunes disappear?
Xia Lili was thinking drowsily, and her eyelids began to feel heavy again.
Before falling into sleep again, the last vague thought was: I wonder how Captain Li and Qingsheng... are they doing?
The incandescent light in the ward looked particularly dim in the twilight. Xia Lili curled up on the hospital bed. The dizziness caused by the high fever made her eyes misty.
Suddenly, a bony hand reached out to her forehead. The back of the hand felt as cool as a mountain spring, and it withdrew after a brief touch.
It’s Li Qihan.
When he lowered his eyes, his eyelashes cast a shadow under his eyes, his brows were like blades, and the taut curve of his jawline revealed tension.
Li Qihan swiftly tore open the package of the fever-reducing patch and applied the cool gel to her burning skin.
"Thirty-nine degrees two."
Li Qihan's voice was low, like the snow falling from the branches of a cedar tree.
The dinner plate made a slight knocking sound when it was placed on the bedside table, and the hot steam from the porridge meandered upwards, blurring his cold outline.
Seeing Xia Lili trying to prop herself up, he had already put his right hand through the gap between her back and the pillow, and his left hand firmly supported her trembling elbow.
This half-hugging posture allowed Xia Lili to smell the lingering medicinal fragrance on his body.
When the thin calluses on the other person's fingertips brushed against her skin, it caused a slight tremor.
The sound of the porcelain spoon knocking against the edge of the bowl was crisp. Li Qihan scooped up a spoonful of porridge and gently scraped off the excess rice soup on the edge of the bowl.
He twisted his wrist slightly, suspending the full spoon two inches from her lips, just enough distance to allow the heat to dissipate without cooling her completely.
"Luckily, nothing serious happened. I just caught a cold and had a high fever."
Li Qihan's Adam's apple rolled as he spoke, and he looked at Xia Lili with a dark look in his eyes. "You're exhausted and need to rest."
Xia Lili swallowed obediently, her gaze glued to the new scar on his brow. The blood had long since congealed into a dark red, like a plum branch broken in the snow.
"So how are you and the other team members doing?"
After asking, Xia Lili coughed violently a few times, her fingertips clutching the sheets tightly. Li Qihan subconsciously wiped the rice grains from the corners of her mouth with his fingertips.
This inappropriate action made him pause, and he took out a tissue: "Everyone is back safely."
Li Qihan lowered his eyes as he straightened the wrinkles of his napkin. His voice suddenly dropped a few notches. "Qingsheng has been rescued and is recuperating. The second team was ambushed on the way back, and Qingyan suffered a penetrating wound to his right shoulder."
"But everyone survived."
These words made Xia Lili cry with joy and she was very excited.
Great, everyone is back!
When Xia Lili's tears rolled down, Li Qihan wiped them away with his fingertips.
He wiped the tears as if he was wiping a fragile ice sculpture, but the more he wiped, the more tears flowed, eventually forming a warm stream in the lines of his palms.
The news that everyone survived made Xia Lili feel relieved and she could relax and breathe a sigh of relief.
When Xia Lili held his hand and cried, the muscles in Li Qihan's entire arm tensed instantly, but he restrained himself from pulling away.
Li Qihan balled up the tissue in his palm and finally sighed, stroking her hair with his other hand: "Lili, don't cry."
These four words have been rolling between my teeth for too long, and have taken on a rare warmth.
"I'm here."
Amid the beeping sound of the monitor, Li Qihan let her tears rub on the front of his uniform.
The drizzle outside the window stopped, and the brighter sunlight filtered through the blinds, cutting out alternating lines of light and dark on his profile. The care and concern that he couldn't express in words turned into the rhythm of patting her back.
Each breath was slower and slower, as if he was counting her gradually steady breathing.
After a while, there was a knock on the ward door.
Li Qihan paused, but did not pull his hand away immediately.
The door of the ward was gently pushed open, and several familiar figures walked in one after another.
Bat, an information technology worker wearing black-framed glasses, had a few small scratches on his young face and a bandage on his arm, which was obviously caused by the explosion of communication equipment.
He pushed up his glasses and approached the bed with a smile: "Advisor Xia, you're finally awake! We almost thought you'd sleep until next year."
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