Zhou Jiuzhen unwrapped the candy and brought it to her lips, his voice hoarse, "You said I could only feed you candy. If you leave, no one will eat this candy..."
Hot tears streamed down her face, landing on Ling Huanwu's cheeks.
Ling Huanwu's eyelashes trembled, but she still didn't open them.
Zhou Jiuzhen suddenly pressed his forehead against the back of her hand, his shoulders began to tremble violently, like a wounded beast crying silently.
He had never cried when bullets grazed his ribs, nor when he watched his comrades being carried off the battlefield. But now, as he watched her grow colder and colder, he felt as if his internal organs were being squeezed and pulled out.
"I beg you..." he choked, his teeth grinding together, "Please wake up."
The wind outside suddenly picked up, making the window bang loudly.
Zhou Jiuzhen glanced at the dark night sky outside the ward, tucked the blanket around Ling Huanwu, clutched the military medals he always carried in his pocket, and turned to leave the hospital.
At five o'clock in the morning, just as dawn was breaking, Zhou Jiuzhen rushed back to the ward covered in mud, carrying three bags of saline solution in his arms.
The old doctor, who was examining Ling Huanwu and shaking his head, was shocked when he saw the three bags of saline solution in her arms.
There's a serious cholera outbreak in the city right now, and you can't buy saline solution even if you have the money. How did he manage to get his hands on it?
The old doctor didn't ask any more questions and quickly instructed the nurse to put the IV on.
As the saline solution slowly dripped into the woman's cold veins, Zhou Jiuzhen, holding her icy hands, watched her slowly open her eyes before collapsing unconscious beside her bed...
*
Kowloon Bay, Hong Kong.
Many political and business figures have purchased properties here.
In the garden villa filled with daffodils, Qin Jinshen and Qin Zhizhi sat facing each other.
Qin Jin cut the steak and placed it in front of Qin Zhizhi, his eyes full of guilt. "Zhizhi, I've wronged you. I won't be away from home for so long again."
Qin Zhizhi was still in a wheelchair. Her baby face was as delicate and cute as a porcelain doll. Her big eyes were blinking and her lips were pouting. Her eyes were filled with tears. "Brother, I thought you only wanted a sister-in-law and didn't want Zhizhi anymore."
Standing behind Qin Jinshen, the guard Ma felt heartbroken seeing the young lady crying. "Young lady, how could the master possibly abandon you? The master is not the kind of person who values women over sisters. Our business in the mainland has run into some problems, so we can't come back. We all miss you very much!"
Qin Zhizhi, who had been speaking to Qin Jinshen in a coquettish voice, immediately reverted to her usual spoiled manner after being interrupted by Guard Ma. She glared at him with displeasure and said, "The master here is speaking, who gives you the right to speak!"
After saying that, she immediately summoned a tall, handsome bodyguard and ordered him to push her away. Before leaving, she muttered curses such as "heartless brother, ungrateful guard," completely losing the obedient and cute demeanor she had shown at the beginning.
The bodyguard stared at the young lady being pushed away by the handsome young man with a pitiful expression, the hem of his suit jacket almost torn to shreds by him.
Qin Jinshen, however, was not surprised and rubbed his forehead, lost in thought.
He left in a hurry, originally intending to wait until he confirmed that Ling Huanwu was alright before returning to Hong Kong, but he had to leave first due to internal strife within the company.
He remembered that in her previous life, Ling Huanwu contracted severe cholera just a few days after arriving in Hong Kong while searching for her lost child.
She lay lifeless in the hospital and it took her almost three days of emergency treatment to bring her back to life.
Even now, recalling that scene still sends shivers down his spine.
So he had imported vaccines prepared in advance, hoping to keep her away from that brush with death.
"You think Huanwu will be fine since she got the cholera vaccine? I wonder what she's doing now."
"Yes, your sister-in-law should be alright."
Under the afterglow of the setting sun.
Two figures, one tall and one short, stood motionless, appearing particularly lonely in a garden full of daffodils.
*
In the hospital ward.
The two hospital beds were placed side by side, very close to each other.
Ling Huanwu turned her head and stared intently at Zhou Jiuzhen, who was lying on the next bed with a deathly pale face. Her eyes were slightly red, and she felt extremely uncomfortable, as if her chest was stuffed with cotton.
As soon as she woke up, she learned from Lin Xiaoqin that Zhou Jiuzhen had gone out in the middle of the night and gotten saline solution from somewhere. After he came back, he fainted.
She was annoyed that she had been so busy and confused that she had forgotten the life-or-death crisis she faced at this point in her previous life.
"Nine shocks..."
Ling Huanwu called his name softly, her voice choked in her throat.
She closed her eyes wearily, and when she opened them again, she was met with a magnified face that was right in front of her.
The big man who had been quietly lying on the next bed facing her suddenly moved to lie down beside her as silently as a cat.
Nose to nose, his jet-black pupils stared unblinkingly at her, reflecting her small, red-eyed face.
"Wife, are you calling me?"
The man's voice was hoarse, as if it had been rolled over by sand, but his fingertips gently tucked the stray hairs from her forehead behind her ear.
"You slept for a bit too long this time, so don't scare me like that again!"
His lips were curved in a smile, but his voice was tinged with sobs.
A tear slid down to the tip of their noses.
The cool touch gradually melted away where the two touched, leaving a wet and itchy sensation, as if it had transformed into countless feathers that seeped into their hearts.
"sorry……"
Ling Huanwu reached out and touched his tightly furrowed brows with her icy fingertips, finding it hard to imagine how this man had so quickly learned of the news and rushed to her side.
It is impossible to know how he obtained those three bags of saline solution and pulled her back from the brink of death.
She gently stroked his eyebrows and eyes again and again, wiping away the tears from the corners of his eyes, only to find that the tears in the man's eyes flowed even more fiercely, gathering drop by drop on her fingertips, and no matter how much she wiped, she couldn't stop them.
"Is 'sorry' all it takes? I want you to kiss me, kiss me hard!"
Zhou Jiuzhen's voice was muffled and he was sobbing uncontrollably.
Ling Huanwu's eyes were also red from crying. She laughed and teased him, "Why is our dignified and tough Commander Zhou crying like this? Has he lost his memory again...?"
Before she could finish speaking, a cool sensation touched her lips, and a salty-sweet tear robbed her of all consciousness.
The ward door was pushed open.
Qiao Hui and Lin Xiaoqin stood at the door with their thermos containers, staring in disbelief at the scene inside. They exchanged a glance and awkwardly closed the door behind them.
Outside the ward.
The morning sun dispelled the chill of the night and shone on the red-billed leiothrix feeding each other beak to beak in the tree.
Outside the corridor.
Lin Xiaoqin popped a candy into her mouth and rolled it around to cover up the embarrassment of walking side by side with Qiao Hui.
"Comrade Xiaozi and Commander Zhou are so loving, it's just a pity they can't get married."
Qiao Hui glanced furtively at Lin Xiaoqin's adorable, candy-sliding antics, then quickly looked away, coughing lightly. "Yeah, I heard they're cutting off the capitalist tail in the city lately. It'll probably be even harder for them to get a marriage certificate, unless Jiu Zhen..."
As the two were talking, Tie Dan and Gang Pao, who had been waiting at the city supply and marketing cooperative for the goods to be put on the shelves, rushed towards them in a hurry, shouting, "Something bad has happened, Engineer Qiao, go and call Captain Ling quickly, something terrible has happened!"
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