It's so noisy...
The roar of the explosion seemed to tear our eardrums apart.
At the last moment, Yu Yan lunged at the control panel, using his body to shield the figure who had collapsed from exhaustion after pressing the self-destruct sequence. A barrage of scorching air and shattered metal parts rained down on his back; he groaned, but held the person in his arms even tighter.
"Fan Jinci! Brother Fan!"
The world seemed to be spinning. Amidst the ringing in his ears, he could only hear the frantic pounding of his own heart and the faint breathing of the person in his arms. Wen Lin and Situ Jin struggled to their feet and rushed over to help, braving the ongoing sporadic explosions.
"Captain Yu! You're injured!"
"Never mind me! Look at him! Look at him!" Yu Yan's voice was hoarse and almost cracked as he carefully checked Fan Jinci's vital signs, his fingers trembling violently. His breathing was weak, his pulse was rapid and unsteady, and there was a bloody mark on his forehead from a bruise, but what was most terrifying was his completely unconscious state, unresponsive to the outside world.
"We must evacuate immediately!" Wen Lin lifted Yu Yan onto his back, while Situ Jin carried the unconscious Fan Jinci on his back. The group staggered outwards along the way they had come. Behind them, Ryan's "Hall of Eternal Memory" collapsed completely in the series of explosions, burning and turning to ashes.
...
Three months later. Special Criminal Investigation Department Medical Center, top-floor intensive care unit.
Outside the window, the sun shone brightly, but inside the ward, only the rhythmic beeping of medical equipment could be heard. Fan Jinci lay quietly on the hospital bed, his face still pale, his eyelashes casting faint shadows beneath his eyelids, as if he were merely asleep. He appeared perfectly fine; even the abrasion on his forehead had healed, yet he remained unawakened.
The energy backlash from the forced erasure of Ryan's consciousness backup had an impact on his brain that even the most advanced experts could not determine.
Yu Yan sat on the chair by the bed, his beard unkempt and his eyes sunken. The once arrogant and unruly captain now resembled a wounded wild beast trapped in a cage. He carefully moistened Fan Jinci's slightly chapped lips with a damp cotton swab, his movements as gentle as if handling a rare treasure.
"Brother Fan, the weather's nice today," he said softly, as he had done countless mornings before, though he received no response. "That kid Wen Lin's done it again, he's got his tail wagging like a ton of bricks. Li Weimian said if he keeps showing off, she'll make a PowerPoint presentation of his embarrassing past and play it on a loop... Jiang Zhaoyan got his hands on a new nerve stimulation program, and Situ Jin is doing a safety assessment..."
He talked on and on, about everything from work to life, even about a strange new flower that had bloomed in the flowerbed downstairs. He took Fan Jinci's slightly cool hand and pressed it against his cheek.
"I've fixed the butterfly you gave me." He took out the silver butterfly ornament, which had been slightly deformed in the explosion but had been carefully repaired, from his pocket, gently placed it in Fan Jinci's palm, and then closed his fingers. "Look, it's still there."
A drop of scalding liquid unexpectedly landed on the back of Fan Jinci's hand.
Yu Yan suddenly lowered his head, his shoulders trembling slightly uncontrollably. These three months of waiting were a thousand times more agonizing than facing any vicious criminal.
In this heartbreaking silence, the hand held by Yu Yan twitched almost imperceptibly at the fingertips.
Yu Yan froze, jerked his head up, and felt his heart almost stop beating. He stared intently at the hand, wondering if it was his imagination.
Then, he saw that Fan Jinci's thick eyelashes trembled slightly, like butterfly wings.
Once, twice.
Then, as his eyelids, which had been tightly closed for three months, slowly opened a crack, a single tear, a physiological tear, slid down from the corner of his eye and disappeared into his temple.
Those newly opened gray-blue pupils, filled with the confusion and vulnerability of someone just emerging from a long period of chaos, slowly shifted their focus, finally settling on Yu Yan's face, which was etched with shock, ecstasy, and disbelief.
His lips moved slightly, uttering a barely audible, faint syllable.
The shape of those lips was vaguely—
"...So noisy...it's killing me..."
Yu Yan's tears instantly overflowed. He leaned down, wanting to hug her, but dared not use force. In the end, he only gently pressed his forehead against Fan Jinci's forehead, his voice choked with sobs:
"Okay, I'll shut up... It's good that you're awake... It's good that you're awake..."
Outside the window, the sun was shining brightly, and a real butterfly fluttered by.
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