Ruan Chen did not answer. Her eyes, which she suddenly opened, were empty, as if she had lost her soul.
Long after Lin Fengzi asked that question, it seemed as if her brain finally received the information from the outside world. Lying flat on the bed, she turned her head little by little, finally taking in the eyes of the few people anxiously waiting by her side.
“…Mom.” Her lips, which still looked somewhat pale, moved slightly as she called out to Ye Huanhuan first.
Ye Huanhuan rushed to her side, gripped her hand tightly, and comforted her with red eyes, "It's okay, Ruan Chen, it's okay. Mom is here with you. Look, your brother and your friends are here too."
"What happened?" Ruan Chen's eyes were full of confusion as she struggled to sit up.
She had barely moved her body when a piercing headache began to throb and she felt dizzy again.
But she didn't show any signs of distress. She sat up wearily against the bed, and Ye Huanhuan placed a cushion behind her. Ruan Luo handed her a glass of warm water with a cup of Vitamin C effervescent tablets in it.
Lin Fengzi took out a voice recorder, placed it in front of Ruan Chen, and turned it on.
"How much do you remember about that day?" Lin Fengzi asked, then added, "Try to think about it. If you really can't remember or it makes you feel uncomfortable, then don't think about it. The doctor said you may have been greatly traumatized, which caused you to sleep for five days straight. It's understandable that you have amnesia symptoms."
“I remember telling you to leave,” Ruan Chen said, his eyes lowered in thought, his gaze fixed on the effervescent tablets floating in the water. “Later, there seemed to be a chaotic gunfight, but I don’t know the reason for it. I only remember that there was a strong smell of blood.”
Lin Fengzi asked again, "Anything else? Do you remember seeing people from China, or warships, or speedboats that weren't on the sea before?"
Ruan Luo frowned and interrupted him, "Lin Fengzi, my sister just woke up, what do you mean by forcing her to recall what happened that day? Can't you see that she looks terrible right now?"
Lin Fengzi knew that forcing Ruan Chen to recall the scene from that day could cause her further harm, but this was a death order from her grandfather.
He managed to glean a few words from the old man through subtle inquiries, and it seemed that something extremely cruel had happened at sea that day.
At the time, only Ruan Chen and Zhanlu's owner were present.
The leaders of China must find out who the instigator is.
“Ruan Luo, I have my reasons,” Lin Fengzi said gently but firmly. “If I hadn’t asked, the way others would have asked the questions would have only made it harder for your sister to accept.”
Knowing the priorities, Ye Huanhuan pulled Ruan Luo outside.
Ruan Chen pondered for a long time, her already unhealthy face growing even paler. She shook her head, her voice tinged with pain, "I really don't remember how I got back. Why did those people let me go?"
"They let you go because they're all dead." Lin Fengzi sighed, ruffled Ruan Chen's slightly messy hair, and took away the recording pen. "It's alright now, get some rest."
"Hmm." Ruan Chen nodded obediently. "Where are we now? How's the situation in the US?"
Lin Fengzi carefully replied, "If you want to know about the competition, the organizing committee has officially apologized to us and disqualified Ruan Yunhan from the competition. As far as I know, she is no longer enrolled at the First Military Academy."
"You know that's not what I'm asking."
What she wanted to know was what happened at Haitang Port that night, and how both sides planned to handle it and how it would end.
“Then don’t ask anymore. Your position is very sensitive in this matter,” Lin Fengzi said cryptically. “After we left that night, some things happened on the cruise ship. Both sides’ senior management are taking it very seriously, and it’s still under investigation.”
"What's going on?" Ruan Chen's fingers unconsciously tightened around the glass as she subconsciously asked.
Lin Fengzi shook her head. "I already told you not to ask anymore. Just rest. Oh, by the way, this is the First Affiliated Hospital of Jinghua University of Technology."
Upon hearing the name, Ruan Chen's pupils constricted slightly. He reached for the stack of reports on his left and quickly reviewed them.
"What are you looking for?" Lin Fengzi asked.
Ruan Chen quickly reviewed the reports. After confirming that she hadn't undergone any tests related to her mental abilities, she breathed a sigh of relief and tossed the stack of reports back. "What, can't I even take a quick look?"
“It’s nothing serious,” Lin Fengzi said, seemingly unconcerned. “If there were any problems, I certainly wouldn’t have kept them from you—you’re such a thoughtful person. Alright, I have things to take care of. I’ll come see you again when I’m done.”
Lin Fengzi got the recording pen, but instead of taking it back to the Lin family home to give to her grandfather right away, she went back to her apartment first.
He pressed play, took an ice glass from the refrigerator, poured a full glass of whiskey, and gulped down most of it in one go.
Lin Fengzi appears somewhat cynical, but he is actually an extremely self-disciplined person, especially his hands, which are destined to hold scalpels in the future, so he rarely drinks alcohol.
But he thought it would be more appropriate for him to listen to what the recorder was going to play next while he was half-drunk and half-awake.
The voice recorder had been on Ruan Chen's bedside table for five days. Lin Fengzi didn't put it there to eavesdrop on anything; he was just worried that he would forget his grandfather's orders and not be able to question Ruan Chen the moment she woke up, so he put the recorder there as a reminder.
But someone accidentally pressed the power button, and the recorder ran for four whole days before Lin Fengzi noticed it when the low battery light started flashing.
He took the voice recorder back to charge it, and out of boredom, he removed the built-in memory card from the recorder and randomly dragged the progress bar in the computer.
All of this was just an unintentional act on his part.
He hadn't expected to hear Ruan Chen's dreamlike voice coming from inside.
The voice was hers; Lin Fengzi was very familiar with Ruan Chen's voice, but the voice coming from the recorder at this moment sounded more like the whispers of a demon.
"Those who betray me deserve to die. Death... is a gift I give you."
"Come on, raise your gun. Don't be afraid. Your hand wasn't shaking when you pointed it at me."
"Yes, that's right, tear his arm off."
"Press harder, be more ruthless, that way the blood splattering will look more beautiful."
This is the second time Lin Fengzi has listened to these recordings.
This must have been something Ruan Chen said unconsciously while she was in a coma.
It sounded as if she was luring those people to kill each other, leading them little by little into the abyss of death, and Ruan Chen herself sounded as if she was enjoying it.
No, perhaps it wasn't that she enjoyed it, but rather that she was simply used to it, or even relished, this kind of killing.
Could it be that Ruan Chen was actually the one who started everything that happened on the cruise ship that night?
But how did she do it?
Was it through her extraordinary mental strength?
If she gave this recording to her grandfather, how would they treat her?
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