Qiming Chapter 34

Chapter 34

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"Forgot you?" Gu Yunfeng was stunned. How did it suddenly turn into a dog-blood love story of amnesia and unrequited love?

She cautiously wiped away her tears and said softly, "I even wrote him a love poem, but he rejected me in public. After that, we became friends. I've always thought, because I was so humiliated in front of everyone because of him, he would at least think I'm someone different."

With a choked voice, she asked, "Do you know the helpless feeling of being forgotten? I need to re-establish a new relationship with this person. I treat him as a friend, but he only sees me as a stranger. I gave him my feelings, but..."

"Wait, wait, wait..." Gu Yunfeng hurriedly interrupted her tearful monologue. He realised this girl had quite a talent for acting, a born performer. As soon as she mentioned Xu Chengyue forgetting her, she cried uncontrollably, and even the wait staff passing by glanced at him with complex expressions.

The heavens owed her a boyfriend, but it had nothing to do with him!

"Did he lose his memory entirely, or just towards you?"

"Just towards me." She pulled out a dozen tissues to wipe her tears. "He remembers Lu Yong, Lu Yong's daughter, his students, and even those colleagues at the school whom he rarely sees. I don't understand, why me? Why only forget me?"

After her series of questions, both of them fell silent for a long time, with the tea house's music switching from classical to pop songs.

Gu Yunfeng cautiously leaned forward, but after thinking for a moment, he decided not to voice his thoughts, fearing it might upset this tearful girl even more.

Xu Chengyue remembered everyone except her. It was likely deliberate, wasn't it?

Perhaps Professor Xu had long been annoyed by her, so upon waking up from surgery, he decisively pretended not to know her, her mood swings were a bit scary. Or maybe this was Xu Chengyue's self-protection mechanism; this girl had given him psychological trauma, so he chose to selectively forget her.

Seeing no reaction from the man opposite, Ying Xizi sighed, gathered her courage, and repeated, "The reason I came to see you today is to ask you to re-investigate Xu Chengyue's fall."

"Please!" She stood up lightly and bowed slightly.

Previously, under his instruction, Wen Xin had inquired about some rumours regarding Xu Chengyue, which coincided with Ying Xizi's account. In his heart, he did believe it somewhat. However, in such a situation, with the case already closed, he couldn't mobilise resources or access permissions to uncover the truth Ying Xizi sought.

"Officer Gu, you are the closest person to him. He has no family and few friends. Besides you, no one else would know about these things."

Besides you, no one else would know.

Ying Xizi's words echoed in his ears, stirring his emotions. In a trance, he realised they were both keeping secrets for each other, a tacit understanding intertwined like vines.

Gu Yunfeng called the tea house owner, and as he was swiping his card to pay, his phone screen flashed with an incoming call from Xu Chengyue's number. He hurriedly entered his password and, without finishing the transaction, walked aside to answer the call. Under the dim light, his tall and sturdy figure looked poised and steady. After saying "hello" several times with no response, he frowned and glanced at the screen, then called back.

The first callback connected, but no one spoke.

He called back five or six more times, but Xu Chengyue's phone remained unanswered.

What's wrong with him?

What happened?

With a sudden premonition, Gu Yunfeng immediately recalled the last time he had to break into Professor Xu's home with a group of people.

The only difference was that last time, Xu Chengyue had at least managed to say, "help me."

Before Ying Xizi could react, he rushed out of the shop without looking back. After a few steps, he remembered that this girl was also a doctor and thought it might be better to bring her along.

He stopped and looked back, and saw Ying Xizi running towards him in high heels, looking flustered. Her small shoulder bag swung with her steps. When she reached him, she bent slightly and panted, "Officer Gu, why are you walking so fast?"

"Just now, Chengyue called me, but no one answered."

"I guess... that whatever's wrong with him is acting up again." He found his car keys in his pocket, held them tightly, and walked forward anxiously. "Miss Ying, I'll pull the car up to the curb, come with me."

"Again?" Ying Xizi immediately caught onto the key word. "What's wrong with him?"

Once in the car, he shifted gears and quickly turned the car around, heading towards Xu Chengyue's home in the city centre.

"He self-diagnosed it as... oh, Ménière's disease. About a month ago, he fainted at home, and I had to break down his door." Gu Yunfeng accelerated, "I later looked it up, it causes intermittent vertigo."

Saying this, he emphasised, "It was his own diagnosis."

Ying Xizi, sitting in the passenger seat, fastened her seatbelt and glanced at him incredulously through the rearview mirror. "He has that issue?"

"You're his personal doctor, how do you not know anything?" He thought to himself that although he was a direct supervisor without much authority, it was necessary to supervise and remind Professor Xu to continue maintaining his health. Since joining the criminal investigation team, the image of him carrying a thermos cup had become rarer. Was it because of his busy work schedule, or had their lifestyle habits influenced him?

Ying Xizi lowered her head and remained silent, feeling somewhat uncertain. Xu Chengyue had routine check-ups every week, and she regularly monitored his health. The check-ups were done at Ruihe Hospital, where her father, Ying Han, was the chief neurosurgeon. Ying Han had over twenty years of experience, with numerous successful cases of bringing patients back from the brink of death. He had also performed the surgery after Xu Chengyue's fall.

—————

Gu Yunfeng drove swiftly along the elevated road, reaching Nandao Jiayuan in twenty minutes. He retrieved a rescue rope and securing device from the trunk and headed straight for the twentieth floor once inside the elevator.

"Officer Gu, how are you planning to get in?" Ying Xizi pointed at the button for the twentieth floor, looking confused. "Chengyue lives on the nineteenth floor, doesn't he?"

"I'll jump down from the window above his apartment."

"Shouldn't we call the property management..." She widened her eyes, clutching her bag tightly as she looked at him.

"Too slow. Besides, he's set up an electronic lock that the property management can't open." He watched the numbers on the elevator display increase steadily. With a ding, they arrived at the twentieth floor.

Speaking of which, he was completely unable to comprehend this, wasn't Xu Chengyue digging a hole for himself? If something went wrong one day, who could open the door besides him?

After exiting the elevator, Gu Yunfeng secured the rescue rope around himself, tightened the buckle, and tugged on it a few times to ensure it was secure.

Gu Yunfeng: "I hope he hasn't locked the window."

Ying Xizi: "You're not breaking down the door?"

He nodded. "I didn't bring a breaching tool, so I can't break it down."

Last time he was here, he noticed a feature of the building, each living room window aligned with the fire escape window on the floor above, forming a right angle. If he went out from the fire escape window, he could land on the balcony of the apartment below with a light leap.

For him, this distance was manageable even without the rope. But if he miscalculated the force and missed, it would become a jump to his death.

Gu Yunfeng fixed one end of the rescue rope to the hollowed-out railing, jumped onto the windowsill, held onto the fire escape window with one hand, and used the force from his back foot to propel himself forward.

Three meters vertically, he leapt through the air and landed precisely on the windowsill of Xu Chengyue's living room.

Ying Xizi walked to the window and looked down; the sixty-metre drop was empty save for a few protruding cables. Feeling weak in the knees, she stepped back and watched as Gu Yunfeng half-kneeled on the windowsill, trying to open the living room window.

He tried pushing the window, but it didn't budge. The curtains were drawn, preventing him from seeing inside.

"Shit, it's really locked," he cursed and turned to wave at Ying Xizi.

"Can't open the window?"

"Mhmm." He nodded and knocked on the glass, thankful that it was just regular glass without any special features.

"I left a box in the corner behind you with a window breaker inside," he said, pointing to the corner of the fire escape. "Be careful, it's a small black object about the size of a key. Throw it over to me."

He felt slightly embarrassed. Last time he broke in through the door, and this time he broke through the window. Every visit to Xu Chengyue's place resulted in some damage, it seems that this place is really cursed.

He caught the window breaker Ying Xizi threw, gently placed it against the glass and pressed down. Cracks immediately spread across the window.

Shielding his face with his arms, he used his body weight to break through the window and jumped into the living room amidst a field of shattered glass.

Xu Chengyue lay on his side on the living room carpet, his eyes barely open. Seeing Gu Yunfeng, he tried to reach out but couldn't move. He still held his phone, his entire body trembling uncontrollably.

Gu Yunfeng hurriedly moved him onto the sofa, placing his hand on Xu Chengyue's forehead, only then noticing that his own hand had been cut by the glass, with blood dripping down his arm in a winding trail.

Xu Chengyue's forehead felt normal to the touch, but his lips were pale, and his complexion was so white it was almost transparent. His wristwatch was ticking intermittently. He wore a soft white T-shirt that exposed his fair collarbones.

Gu Yunfeng ignored his own bleeding hand and instinctively hugged Xu Chengyue's trembling upper body. After a few seconds, he stood up, picked up Xu Chengyue's glasses that had fallen to the floor, hooked them onto his collar, and opened the door for Ying Xizi.

She rushed in with an anxious expression on her face and quickly found the first aid kit from a drawer. She opened it and knelt beside Xu Chengyue, muttering anxiously, "What's going on with him?"

Gu Yunfeng shook his head, sitting on the carpet as he rummaged through the first aid kit for a band-aid to cover his wound, then wrapped it with a bandage. Compared to last time, this seemed worse. Previously, Xu Chengyue had recovered after a few hours, but now, it looked like a more serious problem.

"Then... should I call an ambulance?" he asked, taking out his phone.

"Let's drive him to the hospital directly, calling an ambulance will take too long." She performed a few basic tests to make sure there were no external injuries. Rapid heart rate, and elevated blood pressure, but his heart rate was rather normal.

Seeing that she had finished her examination, he prepared to lift Xu Chengyue. Just as he helped him to lean on his shoulder, Ying Xizi sternly stopped him.

"Try to keep him lying flat, he might have insufficient blood flow to his brain. He underwent a craniotomy last year and had some nerves operated on, this could be a postoperative complication," The girl was telling him the science in a serious, undeniable tone.

"What do you suggest?" he asked, sensing something bad.

"Carry him."

"What???"

"Come on, carry him."

"Oh..." Gritting his teeth, he carefully lifted Xu Chengyue. As he did, the wound on his hand reopened and blood seeped out, staining the bandage.

He couldn't help but glance at Xu Chengyue's waist under the T-shirt. Standing up with difficulty, he took a deep breath, "He looks thin... but he's heavier than I expected."

"You probably haven't carried a man before..."

"Not really..." He bit his tongue, wanting to say 'why would I carry a man? It's too unbearable'. But he kept his mouth shut to save energy as he made his way to the elevator, step by step.

—————

The night was cool.

Gu Yunfeng lay Xu Chengyue on the back seat, finally taking a breath. He opened the door for Ying Xizi, then reversed and drove out of the community.

His wound on his hand, stressed from carrying Xu Chengyue, kept bleeding, staining the bandage red. He frowned but didn't pay much attention.

"Can you check which is the nearest top-tier hospital?" he asked, looking up hospitals on the GPS, but there were too many recommendations, making it hard to decide.

Ying Xizi answered without hesitation, "Go to Ruihe Hospital, Chengyue had his craniotomy there."

The city's lights were bright at night, and the summer wind made the flowers on the roadside sway, squeezing through the window crack. The car was quiet, with only Xu Chengyue's uneven, rapid breathing audible.

Hearing his breathing eased Gu Yunfeng's anxiety a bit. He hoped it wasn't serious, after all, it had been fine before. Gu Yunfeng prayed that his pain was temporary.

Screech–

An ear-piercing sound of brakes and sudden honking.

A red light ahead, an emergency stop.

The car gradually came to a stop in the straight lane. Gu Yunfeng turned back to see Xu Chengyue still curled up in pain in the back seat. He reached out, wanting to hold him gently, but refrained when he glanced at the girl beside him.

In addition, there was a suspicious vehicle getting closer and closer.

It was a black SUV that had been following him since he got on the elevated road and had not been shaken off yet.

They waited at the intersection's red light, watching pedestrians cross the road one by one.

"There's a car following us," Gu Yunfeng said in a low voice. He had noticed it through the rearview mirror along the way. The sky was too dark to see the licence plate and model clearly, but he could barely make out the brand logo.

"Be careful."

"Hmm?" Ying Xizi instinctively turned her head.

Unexpectedly, the next second, the SUV crashed straight into them, ignoring the numerous surveillance cameras at the traffic light, violating traffic laws, and pushing them directly onto the pedestrian crossing.

This was something he had never expected.

The sudden impact made Gu Yunfeng's head hit the steering wheel, causing dizziness. He touched his forehead and found blood on his hand. He couldn't tell if the injury was from his forehead or his hand, he just felt pain in several places.

He turned to see Ying Xizi looking back in terror, clutching his arm and stammering, "I... I I I saw the driver..."

Before she could finish, another violent collision occurred. The tires screeched on the ground, and the rear window developed a large crack. Hearing the noise, surrounding vehicles stopped. He heard a dull thud from the back seat as the unconscious Xu Chengyue was thrown to the floor due to inertia, his rose-gold wristwatch ticking steadily as time passed second by second.

"Shit! This isn't just a rear-end collision... this is attempted murder!" he swore, angrily pressing the accelerator. The left turn light turned green just in time. Ignoring everything else, the car moved into the left lane. He glanced at the blood on his temple in the rearview mirror and saw that the SUV behind them was now following more leisurely.

Only then did he feel the pain from his wounds. Still shaken, he glanced at Xu Chengyue, who was lying on the floor of the back seat. Xu Chengyue moved his fingers slightly, and seemed to be fine.

Countless vehicles sped past the windows, and Ying Xizi sat stiffly in the passenger seat, dazed and almost gasping for breath.

"Are you okay?"

It took her a while to realise he was asking her. She quickly nodded, "I'm not hurt, but your forehead..."

"It's just a scratch." He gritted his teeth as he took the disinfectant-soaked cotton ball she handed him and wiped his wound.

"We'll pull the surveillance tomorrow to see what's up with that car. For now, we need to get to the hospital." He continued driving, realising they had deviated from the initial route and had to make a detour to the hospital.

The road ahead was a bit congested. He sighed as he looked at the pile of bloodstained cotton balls in the car, then noticed Ying Xizi's pale face and unfocused eyes. Her entire body was trembling slightly.

"You must be scared, our line of work can be quite dangerous sometimes." He forced a smile, trying not to look too pained. "Luckily, you're okay, and Chengyue seems to be holding on for now."

"I... I saw the person in that car." She gently raised her hand and moved her wrist. She turned, her face filled with terror and helplessness. Her beautiful, delicate face was now marked by fear and anxiety, her whole demeanour exuding a sense of danger. She clutched her seatbelt tightly and took deep breaths.

He turned off the engine, and the three of them waited on the congested highway. "What did the person in the car look like?"

"A pale-faced little girl with a round face." She covered her face in extreme anxiety, the other hand on her neck as she tried to vomit but couldn't.

"Blonde hair, sunken eyes. She kept smiling, the same creepy, disgusting smile." She gagged a few times, then looked up at Gu Yunfeng with red-rimmed eyes.

"Officer Gu, I'm sure, that wasn't a person, it was a doll."

A chilling sensation shot from his head straight to his heart, spreading rapidly to every corner of his body. He felt tiny electric currents stimulating each nerve cell, forcing him to hold his breath to alleviate the anxiety and tension.

"You mean, there was no one in the car that hit us?"

—————

The author has something to say:

Really, the princess hug [covers face]

The first volume has ended, starting the second volume tomorrow, 'Blood on the Bone'. I actually really like the story of the second volume... a story about blood secrets.

In the second volume, the main characters' emotions will also quickly heat up!

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

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Translator Notes

Please feel free to comment any mistakes I made so I can improve and do better as I go through the book.

Translated: July 9, 2024 by Angel

Edited: August 20, 2024 by Angel