The call was hung up abruptly.
The busy tone from the other end was like a heavy hammer, hitting the dead silent air.
The joy that Snowball felt the night before because the ring had helped him was instantly washed away and sank into a cold abyss.
Jiang Zhou didn't hesitate at all, and his body shot up from the bed like a taut bow.
“Wow—”
The cold tap water splashed on his face, and the coolness made him more clear-headed.
In the mirror, all emotions had faded from his face, leaving only coldness and solemnity.
While buttoning his shirt, he picked up another phone and dialed a number:
"Prepare the car. Also, fill a basket with the vegetables, fruits, and eggs I brought back yesterday and send it to the car immediately."
After saying that, he hung up.
Three minutes later, a black Bentley roared out of the basement like a beast and merged into the city's traffic that had not yet woken up.
Outside the car window, the faint light of dawn is trying to give this steel jungle a layer of false warmth.
But in Jiang Zhou's eyes, there was only an unbreakable cold winter.
Gangwon.
His cousin.
My uncle’s eldest son.
These two words were once the brightest stars among the younger generation of the Jiang family.
His talent, ability, and character are all top-notch, and he is the absolute core who is carefully cultivated as the next generation helmsman of the entire family.
Jiang Zhou even remembered that his grandfather had patted Jiang Yuan on the shoulder more than once and said with pride, "With Jiang Yuan here, the Jiang family has a promising future."
However, a sudden car accident crushed all of this.
Spinal cord injury.
These four words, like an insurmountable chasm, stood in the way of Jiang Yuan's life, which should have been full of light.
Even though the Jiang family mobilized the world's top medical resources, they could only watch his condition irreversibly sink into the abyss with repeated relapses.
Jiang Zhou gripped the steering wheel tightly, his knuckles turning a frightening blue-white from the force.
He had seen Jiang Yuan's strength.
I've seen him in the rehabilitation room, his clothes soaked with sweat, gritting his teeth to complete every movement with such stubbornness.
I've also seen him paralyzed in bed, his pride stripped away bit by bit. Those eyes that once lit up the entire Jiang family were extinguished bit by bit under the endless torture of illness, leaving only a dead silence.
That's his cousin...
Jiang Zhou's childhood was a gray island.
My mother was abandoned by my father and committed suicide in endless depression.
He became a child without parents.
Even though his grandparents held him in the palm of their hands and gave him the best material life, the psychological deficiency that was ingrained in his bones and the loneliness and gloom caused by being pointed at by his peers gnawed at his young heart day and night.
It's Gangwon.
It was this cousin, who was a few years older than him, who forcefully pulled him out of the corner for the first time, took him to play ball, took him to race cars, and used his dazzling sunshine to melt the ice in Jiang Zhou's heart bit by bit.
"Xiao Zhou, no one can bully you as long as I'm here."
These words were the warmest voice Jiang Zhou had ever heard throughout his childhood.
And at this moment, the man who once held up the sky for him is suffering in hell.
"A relapse"...
Scenes from the past emerged uncontrollably in Jiang Zhou's mind.
Jiang Yuan curled up on the bed, his body convulsing violently due to the uncontrollable pain, his muscles were knotted and veins were bulging, as if ten thousand ants were biting madly in his spinal cord.
He bit the towel tightly to prevent himself from uttering a cry of pain, but the muffled groan suppressed deep in his throat was more heartbreaking than any scream.
And every time, when the pain exceeds the limit of human will, the family can only do one thing -
Give him an injection of medical morphine to buy him a moment of peace.
That is drinking poison to quench thirst, helpless mercy, and the most cruel form of torture.
"squeak--!!!"
The tires made a sharp sound of friction with the ground, and the Bentley swung through the corner at a thrilling angle.
Jiang Zhou's eyes were already red.
Hurry up.
Faster!
The Bentley left a dark afterimage and stopped in front of the villa door with a harsh brake sound.
The car door opened and Jiang Zhou rushed out with a chill.
The key was thrown to the driver who came after hearing the sound, and he himself carried the basket filled with vitality and strode into the lifeless mansion.
The living room was filled with smoke.
Uncle Jiang Wenhai lowered his head and smoked one cigarette after another. The scarlet sparks flickered in the dim light, and the strong smell of smoke seemed to solidify the entire space into amber.
His hair had turned as white as frost and snow without him noticing.
The big hands that had easily carried Jiang Zhou on their shoulders and supported the entire family were now shaking uncontrollably, with even cigarette ash falling all over them.
It is a kind of old age and powerlessness that is left after all hopes are crushed by reality.
My aunt Zhou Min, who was sitting on the other side of the sofa, looked like a sculpture with its soul taken away.
Her face was completely numb, and her eyes were terribly empty. She just stared straight into a certain point in the void, as if everything in the world had nothing to do with her.
There wasn't even a tear on her face.
There is no greater sorrow than a dead heart.
“Ahhhh!! Morphine! Give me morphine!!!”
A roar that was not like a human voice, like a poisoned sharp blade, suddenly stabbed down from the second floor, tearing the suffocating silence in the living room!
Jiang Zhou couldn't bear it anymore.
He put down the basket, rushed to the second floor and pushed open the door!
A pungent stench instantly rushed into my nose.
It was a mixture of sweat, dirt, and drugs, the smell of despair.
On the bed, the man who was once as dazzling as the sun was now curled up, covered in filth and looking haggard.
Incontinence has taken away his last bit of dignity.
He didn't look like a human being at all, he looked like an animal struggling to death in the mud!
"elder brother……"
Jiang Zhou's heart felt like it was being gripped by an invisible hand, and it hurt so much that he couldn't breathe.
He no longer cared about anything else and rushed forward, hugging the body tightly as it convulsed violently in pain.
Then, he took off the ring on his finger and put it on Jiang Yuan's skinny and stained finger without any hesitation!
This is his last hope!
However, the moment the ring touched her skin—
“Ah ...
A scream a hundred times more shrill than any previous roar exploded from the depths of Jiang Yuan's throat!
That is not liberation, but a deeper hell!
He felt as if there was an invisible ice knife pressing against his spinal cord, splitting every nerve in his body inch by inch!
Immediately afterwards, a blazing fire like a sharp blade began to burn and lick the opened wound madly!
The extreme torture of ice and fire instantly burned away his sanity!
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