The incandescent lights in the ward hummed softly in the silence.
Outside the window, the figure of Gu Ping'an being taken into the police car gradually became blurred.
The smell of disinfectant mixed with oppressive silence filled the ward.
The fact that the Public Security Bureau came here to arrest people seems to indicate that they have obtained key evidence.
Fu Hanzhou was half lying on the hospital bed, staring at the mess on the floor, when he suddenly started coughing violently.
Qin Ying hurriedly stopped him from getting up, but felt his palm was burning hot.
The bandage wrapped around his abdomen began to ooze a glaring red again.
"Just lie down and stop thinking about it. Your wound will heal."
Fu Hanzhou lay down as he was told and stared at the ceiling in silence.
Qin Ying settled him down and picked up all the fruits that had fallen to the ground when Gu Ping'an resisted arrest.
There was also the silver lily brooch that had rolled to the side of the bed. It had a silver tassel hanging from the metal edge, and the color had begun to darken.
"Two years ago, I was on a secret mission, and she was clinging to the back of a military truck..."
Fu Hanzhou's voice was weak but clear, his bony hands clutched the corner of the quilt, his knuckles turning white.
"Gu Ping'an pressed this brooch into my hand. The convoy sounded the alarm and headed for the front line. She ran after the car for a long distance, shouting 'Come back alive!' Everyone around her laughed at her for being more nervous than the new recruits. Childhood sweethearts are just different."
His Adam's apple rolled violently, and the girl's pigtails blown by the wind in his memory overlapped with the messy hair in the ward just now.
He closed his eyes, and his eyelashes cast a shadow under his eyes, as if to block out all the images.
Qin Ying listened quietly and wiped the brooch with an alcohol cotton ball. The smell of disinfectant filled the air.
"And then?"
She asked softly.
Fu Hanzhou opened his eyes and his gaze fell on the brooch, but it seemed as if he was looking through it into a distant place.
"I wanted to return her brooch when I got back, and I also mentioned the engagement with your family."
He gave a bitter laugh, then groaned as he pulled at the wound:
"But she said with red eyes, 'Giving each other gifts is nothing. Do we have to draw a clear line between ourselves to be innocent?'"
His gaze turned to the flickering light and shadow on the ceiling:
"At that time, the army emphasized 'helping each other'. I thought she just valued friendship..."
Qin Ying looked at the lily brooch in her hand. She had seen it on Gu Ping'an's clothes more than once.
I thought it was a trivial thing, but it turns out it has a history.
However, Gu Ping'an had never shown off this thing in front of her.
The faint sound of the army's slogans could be heard in the distance. Fu Hanzhou suddenly clenched the bed sheet, and the blood vessels in his neck were clearly bulging due to the tense muscles:
"If I had known she would misinterpret the word 'friendship' like this, I should have..."
The words stopped abruptly before they were finished. The autumn wind blew past the window sill and into the house, causing the lily brooch on the enamel plate to tremble slightly.
"She should have had another path."
His voice seemed to be squeezed out from deep in his chest, carrying with it a kind of broken dull pain.
The metal texture of the brooch sways with a dazzling silver light under the autumn sun, just like Gu Ping'an's youthful eyes when he stood on the stage of the art troupe in those years.
Qin Ying gently placed the cleaned brooch on Fu Hanzhou's pillow:
"Keep it and wait for her..."
He swallowed the words back before he could finish them, feeling bitter in his throat.
Fu Hanzhou's fingertips unconsciously stroked the depressions in the petals, where the smell of gunpowder from the battlefield seemed to still linger.
He remembered the way Gu Ping'an's skirt fluttered as she rushed over to give him the brooch, and how she smiled and said, "I'm glad you're okay" when she was pinned down by the elevated platform in the fire scene...
His Adam's apple rolled violently as he grasped the brooch in his palm.
The metal edge stung my skin, but it was not as painful as the dull pain spreading across my heart.
"When you have a chance, return the things to her."
His voice was as hoarse as if it had been polished by sandpaper. He stuffed the brooch into the inner pocket of his military uniform, close to his heart.
Qin Ying listened silently, sat down beside the bed, lowered her eyes, tucked the quilt for him, and said lightly:
"Perhaps she has been playing the 'lifesaver' card very clearly since she saved you from the fire."
The pale light in the ward cast a sharp coldness in her eyes:
"You always thought she was a spoiled young lady, arrogant and reckless. But now, she doesn't want your gratitude. She wants to use this kindness to trap you in moral shackles."
She looked up at him, her tone helpless and tired:
"We are married, after all."
Fu Hanzhou held her hand:
"I understand that when two people who grew up together fall deeper and deeper into depravity, this is a result that no one wants to see. I hope she is fine."
His fingers stroked the brooch through his pocket. This silver lily, which carried twenty years of friendship, was now as cold as ice, as if it was going to burn a scar of the past on his heart through the fabric.
His voice was so low that it was almost inaudible:
"Everything must be returned to its original owner."
As soon as he finished speaking, the door of the ward was gently pushed open. In the air filled with the smell of disinfectant and blood, Xiaocheng walked in with a dressing tray, his forehead soaked with cold sweat exposed under his military cap.
He adjusted the brim of his hat out of habit, his voice tense:
"Captain, it's time to change the medicine."
Qin Ying stood up and took it. The coolness of the metal edge made her fingertips tremble.
I caught a glimpse of some reed debris stuck to the brim of his hat, which looked grayish-white under the light, and suddenly the words Xiaocheng hadn't finished saying an hour ago flashed through my mind.
"Xiaocheng, did you just say that you found something in the reed marsh?"
She unconsciously lowered her voice, and out of the corner of her eye she saw Fu Hanzhou's hand on the quilt suddenly clench.
The young guard subconsciously glanced at Fu Hanzhou, his Adam's apple rolling:
"The body was clutching a Propaganda Department badge. It belonged to Wei Zhuolan. When the Security Department took him away yesterday, the badge was indeed missing."
Deathly silence instantly enveloped the ward.
Qin Ying felt the cold sweat on the back of her neck sliding down her spine. The scrutinizing look Wei Zhuolan gave her when he came to the ward two days ago suddenly stung her temples.
At that time, he casually said, "Comrade Qin Ying always brings surprises." At this moment, this sentence was intertwined with the three words "Security Department", which made her stomach twitch.
"Wei Zhuolan?"
She murmured, her brows knitted into a knot.
“How could it be…”
Qin Ying's pupils suddenly contracted.
When he came to visit the patient, the badge on his chest was still shining coldly on his Zhongshan suit, but now it has become solid evidence in the evidence bag.
"He was wearing his badge that day, how could he..."
Fu Hanzhou stared at her suddenly pale face, and a rusty taste rose in his throat.
The image of Wei Zhuolan taking off her rubber band on a rainy night suddenly popped into his mind. The wound under the bandage suddenly jumped, and his fingertips curled up in pain.
He lowered his eyes and pulled the corners of his mouth, but it only produced an arc that was uglier than crying:
"It seems that your teacher Wei's arrest has concerned you a lot?"
Qin Ying looked up suddenly, and only then noticed the dark current surging in Fu Hanzhou's eyes, and realized that she had been absent-minded for too long.
She clutched the bed sheet and explained:
"I just can't figure it out! How could Qin Qinghua's death be related to him..."
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