Chapter 57 The Fifty-Seventh Day of the Beginning [First Update] 12:07
Day 57 of the story [First Update]
The plane landed on a vast, boundless ocean.
When Qian Yingduo and Kang Xin woke up, they thought they were still half asleep, rubbing their eyes and asking, "What the hell? How did we end up in the sea?"
"Didn't run out of fuel? Didn't the plane crash?" Kang Xin immediately sat up straight, asking almost like a professional reaction. "We weren't sleeping that soundly, were we?"
Fan Nan and Fan Bei chuckled upon hearing this, and Fan Bei said, "We've arrived at our destination."
"Guanshan?!" Kang Xin's eyes widened. "Even if it's not a real mountain, it can't be the sea, right? They're worlds apart!"
Fan Nan shrugged: "Then you'll have to ask the people who founded Guanshan about the name they chose."
As they spoke, the waves on the sea surged and crashed against the cabin, creating an indescribable pressure.
All around them were waves, and there wasn't a single piece of land or platform in sight.
Soon, the cabin shook slightly, as if it had landed somewhere. Kang Xin and the others looked out the window and saw huge steel and concrete panels slowly rising around them, like an iron box, taking their private plane inside.
He didn't know how much time had passed, but Cui Lu felt as if he was sinking. He felt an unbalanced pressure in his ears, which made him press his ears involuntarily.
The seawater was drained, and then the hatch was opened.
As Cui Lu and his group approached the cabin door, everyone subconsciously opened their mouths slightly.
It was as if they had landed in a city, except that there was no sunshine or blue sky, and apart from that, there was nothing related to the ocean.
“This is Guanshan,” Fan Nan said, looking at the slowly opening cabin door and turning to Engineer Du and Lawyer Cui. “We can disembark now.”
"Oh my god," Jiang Ping swallowed hard, nervously tugged at Du Gong's sleeve, and lowered his voice, "Do you think we'll be pulled in and have our memories erased or something?"
Du Gong: ""
What I initially thought was a far-fetched idea has now become clear after seeing the underwater base in front of me.
Fan Nan was amused: "Have you been watching too many movies? It would be great if there really was such a simple machine."
Upon hearing this, Jiang Ping muttered under his breath, puzzled, "If they can build a base of this scale underwater, why can't they make a machine?"
Du Gong twitched his lips, then slapped Jiang Ping on the forehead with his backhand. He was being cheeky.
Jiang Ping touched his nose, shrank his neck, and remained silent.
Military vehicles and supply trucks were busy moving along the road, and soon someone came forward to guide them: "Guanshan Seventh Team and five people from outside the mountain?"
“Yes,” Fan Bei replied.
"Okay, your wounded are at Guanyi Central Hospital. I'll take you there now."
"Thanks."
The group remained quietly in the car. After recovering from their brief surprise at the Guanshan Special Zone, Qian Yingduo and the others couldn't help but think about why they had come here—their captain and their teammates.
Their hearts felt like stones sinking into their bellies, making them feel nauseous even to swallow.
Upon entering the hospital, the smell of disinfectant was much stronger than in any other hospital, so much so that Qian Yingduo and Kang Xin immediately couldn't help but find a trash can and vomit.
"There are two concussion patients here who need brain CT scans!" Upon seeing this, Fan Bei immediately called over the emergency room medical staff.
"Wait, wait." Kang Xin raised her hand to stop her, stubbornly asking, "Let me know about Captain Yin's situation first! And where are Fang Zhinan and Sun Yang?"
Upon hearing this, the emergency room staff looked at Fan Bei: "Are you a survivor of the 307 Highway mission?"
"Yes." Fan Nan responded, limping quickly to the emergency room staff. "Three patients were brought in for surgery, one of whom suffered severe hypothermia and blood loss due to drowning. How is he?"
"They should all still be in surgery. I need to check." The other person responded, then looked at the group in front of him. Two had concussions, one was lame, and the others had quite a few injuries.
She frowned: "But all of you, including you and Fan Nan, come in first! The three people who are going to have the surgery won't run away. I remember they weren't in any danger when they came in!"
After she finished speaking, she changed the subject as if she remembered something: "But the other person who came with Captain Yin doesn't look very good."
"Zhou Zhou?" Fan Nan and Fan Bei became nervous.
“Of course it’s not him.” She rolled her eyes. “It’s someone else, a stranger, wearing a mask.”
"Oh, that's Captain Yin's boyfriend," Jiang Ping explained quickly. "He's probably terrified?"
He recalled the words spoken at the nurses' station in Yanjing Hospital and said them subconsciously.
Fan Nan and Fan Bei almost forgot about this relationship, while the head nurse of the emergency room gasped in surprise: "Captain Yin's boyfriend?! And a male friend??"
"It's the one you're thinking of." Jiang Ping coughed and guiltily looked away. He seemed to have answered a little too quickly and revealed everything about Captain Yin. Would Captain Yin punish him by making him wash fire trucks for two weeks when he woke up?
The head nurse gasped softly, "No wonder."
After their injuries were treated, the group was allowed to wait outside the operating room.
Cui and his colleagues found Zhou Zhou and He Lianzhou outside the operating room.
He Lianzhou almost collapsed outside the operating room door, pressed tightly against it, his face as white as a sheet, his forehead covered in cold sweat.
Qian Yingduo and the others initially thought that the head nurse's statement about "not being very good" simply meant that she wasn't feeling well, but now they were shocked to see what was going on.
The head nurse has clearly seen it all; even after all this, she still only says "not so good"?
He was practically a walking corpse!
When Cui Lu and Du Gong saw this, they were also stunned for a moment, and quickly stepped forward to help He Lianzhou up and take him to his seat.
Unexpectedly, just as the two reached his side and began to grab the weak and frail man, Zhou Zhou urgently warned, "Don't touch him!"
Before the two could react, He Lianzhou threw one of them away. Cui Lu was still a little dumbfounded when he hit the ground. How did he fly away?
Jiang Ping gasped and quickly pulled Cui Lu up with Zhou Zhou and Du Gong, shouting, "What's wrong with you?!"
"Ignore him." Zhou Zhou breathed a sigh of relief.
He glanced at Cui Lu and couldn't help but grimace, clearly having just experienced the same sensation.
He said, "As soon as Captain Yin was wheeled into the operating room, he collapsed here within seconds. No one could move him. Touching him would just make him like he did just now. They couldn't even give him a sedative. He has incredible strength."
He silently added in his mind, "No wonder she's the one Captain Yin found; she's extraordinary."
Seeing this, Cui Lu frowned, observing He Lianzhou's appearance, and whispered, "Perhaps he's caught in some kind of traumatic flashback? But he doesn't seem to be having a panic attack."
"He must have been terrified when Captain Yin wheeled him into the operating room, right?" Jiang Ping interjected, recounting everything he had seen and heard at the nurses' station.
"Back when we were at Yanjing Hospital, Yin's attending physician wanted to go to his office to talk about Yin's condition, but he refused, saying that he couldn't let Yin out of his sight for even half a minute. Not to mention now that Yin has been wheeled into the operating room."
A series of gasps filled the air.
Cui Lu's eyelids twitched violently, and he looked at He Lianzhou, who was hunched over at the door of the operating room.
No way, are you putting on a melodramatic romance with him here? Is this for real?
Zhou Zhou whispered, "No wonder when we were in the shaft, I saw that Captain Yin didn't come up. Before I could even react, he went straight down."
“When Captain Yin was fighting that giant grub one-on-one, he was providing support from a distance. I noticed that he was also moving with Captain Yin,” Fan Nan said.
Fan Bei nodded in affirmation and made accurate observations and predictions, ensuring with the keenness of a sniper that "he was almost never more than twenty meters away from Captain Yin."
The two brothers exchanged a glance, then took a breath in unison, realizing they had the same idea: "I knew something was off about this guy when he was squatting in front of Captain Yin doing his 'imitation show,' he had a smirk about him."
Noticing that Cui Lu and the others were looking over curiously, the Fan brothers, Fan Nan and Fan Bei, both fell silent.
"What?" Qian Yingduo asked curiously.
"It's nothing, don't listen to what's improper." Fan Nan coughed heavily, his ears and neck turning red.
Fan Bei also looked away.
"What about him? Just leave him curled up by the door?" Kang Xin pointed at He Lianzhou again and asked in a low voice, "He really doesn't look well, he looks like he's about to die."
“He should be fine. We checked his blood pressure, heart rate, and other things. Except for his heart rate being a little fast, everything else is normal,” Zhou Zhou interjected. “As long as we don’t try to pull him away from the operating room door, he’s not very aggressive.”
Cui Lu: ""
Even Cui Lu felt a little sorry for He Lianzhou, but when he thought that Yin Yu would be alright, he had an urge to be happy for He Lianzhou. Having a boyfriend who almost regarded Yin Yu's life as his own was something that anyone would envy.
He said to He Lianzhou, "Don't worry, he'll be fine."
He Lianzhou kept his eyes down and didn't say a word, but bit his lip hard, his fingers almost digging into the operating room door.
He knew that if Yin Yu didn't come out soon, something bad was going to happen to him.
This surgical corridor must be very long. Is Yin Yu possibly in the first or second operating room?
Not long after Yin Yu was pushed inside, he felt the connection between the two of them being stretched to its limit, and a familiar yet terrifying burning pain suddenly swept over the depths of his soul.
He immediately rushed towards the corridor, where the pain subsided, but unfortunately, he was stopped by a nurse the next second. If he hadn't been afraid of being forcibly taken away by security guards and separated even further, he would have rushed into the operating room without a second thought.
He Lianzhou could only gasp for breath, thankful that the distance between the two was probably within 25 meters, and the pain was still within his ability to suppress, but it was still precarious.
Du Gong seemed unable to bear it any longer and walked over to He Lianzhou, asking in a low voice, "Do you want water? Or something to eat? What do you need?"
He Lianzhou gritted his teeth, enduring the burning pain: "What do I need?"
Engineer Du nodded.
“I need Yin Yu,” He Lianzhou replied, taking a deep breath. If Yin Yu wasn’t brought out soon, he really wouldn’t be able to hold on.
Fan Nan and Fan Bei both took a deep breath.
Zhou Zhou sighed: "I asked him before, and that was the same answer he gave me."
Du Gong blushed slightly, feeling embarrassed to look at He Lianzhou any longer, and could only nod: "Let's wait here together for Captain Yin to come out."
Fortunately, we didn't have to wait too long. The lights at the operating room door went out, and the surgeon was the first to walk out of the operating room.
He Lianzhou practically crawled forward a few steps to get closer to the passage. The shortened distance gave him the illusion that he had finally come back to life.
Qian Yingduo noticed He Lianzhou's actions. She choked up with pity, and then saw Cui Zhi step forward and grab He Lianzhou. This time, He Lianzhou didn't throw him away.
He Lianzhou tried to take a few more steps into the passage, then asked in a hoarse voice, "Where is he?"
"He'll be out soon; we're doing the final stitches," the surgeon replied, then frowned upon seeing He Lianzhou's position and immediately ordered the man to step back, "You can't go in!"
He Lianzhou: ""
"The surgery was a success. He will be wheeled out of operating room number one in ten minutes. The anesthesia is expected to wear off in two hours. You can wait for him in the ward," the surgeon said. He then glanced warily at He Lianzhou and, after receiving assurances from Fan Nan and Fan Bei that they would keep an eye on him, turned and left.
He Lianzhou pressed his head against the operating room door, which had closed again, and let out a painful gasp.
Damn it. Ten more minutes?
Qian Yingduo and Kang Xin exchanged a glance. The man was in so much pain because it was a doctor who came out of the door, not Captain Yin.
Fifteen minutes later, Yin Yu was wheeled out of the operating room. He Lianzhou rushed over almost immediately, grabbed Yin Yu's arm, and took a deep breath, as if the pain had subsided.
Cui Lu patted He Lianzhou's arm and whispered, "Don't get excited, he's right here, you can see him."
Yin Yu was wheeled into the ward.
He was given a private VIP ward, and the attending physician in charge of Yin Yu's treatment went outside to explain the situation to Cui Lu and the others.
The hypothermia and blood loss were more serious than Cui Lu and his team had anticipated. Yin Yu's pre-existing local embolism and the use of anticoagulants made the surgery more complicated.
Fortunately, the attending physician said, "His condition is currently stable, but he needs time to recover. I would advise him to stop working for at least three to five months."
Cui Lu and Du Gong responded, clearly aware of how Yin Yu had survived the ordeal.
After they received enough information and rehabilitation advice from the attending physician, they returned to the ward and found that He Lianzhou had already fallen asleep while holding Yin Yu's arm.
“He was exhausted,” Zhou Zhou pointed out.
"To be honest, I think he needs some IV fluids or something; he looks like a mess." Fan Nan made a face.
Fan Bei clicked his tongue: "It's a bit ridiculous to hear someone who refuses an IV drip say that."
Fan Nan: ""
"Fine, let's get another bed. I don't think he wants to leave Yin Yu either," Cui Lu said, his gaze falling on He Lianzhou's hand tightly gripping Yin Yu's arm. Well, he couldn't bear to separate the two of them again.
Cui Lu's proposal was unanimously approved.
So when Yin Yu woke up a few hours later, the first thing he felt was the warm grip on his arm.
His gaze shifted downwards, and he noticed He Lianzhou lying on the bed next to his. The two beds were almost touching. He Lianzhou was holding his wrist, his eyes tightly closed, as if he were in a deep sleep.
When Yin Yu's gaze shifted again, he saw a group of people lying haphazardly in the ward: Zhou Zhou, Fan Nan, Fan Bei, Cui Lu, Jiang Ping, and Du Gong.
They were either huddled on the sofa or sprawled on top of someone else, snoring loudly.
Qian Yingduo and Kang Xin were forcibly taken by Nurse Guanshan to an empty ward next door to receive intravenous fluids and rest.
This is why, just a few minutes after Yin Yu woke up, he saw his door being furtively opened a crack, with a steel movable support appearing first, followed by two tiptoeing ladies.
"Shh! Keep your voice down! Don't slam the door!" Kang Xin commanded.
"Stop making noise!" Qian Yingduo said.
Yin Yu: "Come in."
"Holy crap!" Qian Yingduo slammed the door open with a loud "whoosh," not caring that she had been caught by the nurse for sneaking out. The noise was so loud that it woke up the "caregivers" in the ward.
"What!?" Fan Nan jumped up with a thud, then grimaced and fell back down, clutching his ankle.
"Captain Yin is awake!" Fan Bei supported his older brother with one hand and pointed at Yin Yu with the other in surprise.
"He Lianzhou, wake up! Captain Yin is awake!" Jiang Ping shouted excitedly.
Yin Yu realized what was happening and was about to pull his arm away when Kang Xin said, "Captain Yin, just let him hold you for a while. He was on the verge of a breakdown after you were wheeled into the surgery."
Qian Yingduo nodded in agreement.
Yin Yu: ?
He looked at He Lianzhou, on the verge of collapse? He could imagine why.
He frowned slightly, wondering how long it would take for He Lianzhou to recover from this depletion, and whether Guan Shan would notice the guy's abnormality.
Cui Lu watched as Yin Yu stared blankly at He Lianzhou. It was the first time he had seen such a quiet and profound side in his friend. He breathed a sigh of relief, genuinely happy that his friend had found his partner.
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