Chapter Twenty-Six (Part 1): A Brief Calm
His forehead was faintly itchy. Lu Qiang reached up and scratched it, then changed positions, resting one cheek on his arm.
This time, Lu Yin could see his face. There was a pulse oximeter on her index finger, so she could only use the remaining three fingers to touch his eyes and cheeks. She had only just awakened. Her eyes were half-lowered, her whole body weak and powerless, her head heavy and foggy. Only her fingers could still move.
Lu Yin was somewhat bewildered. She did not even understand why she was lying here.
Her fingers covered his sunken cheek, and she said again, “How did you get so thin?”
Her voice was muffled by the ventilator, thick and indistinct. Just finishing a single sentence took a great deal of effort, and her breathing became slightly labored.
The body beneath her hand trembled. Lu Qiang abruptly opened his eyes, but that was all he did. He did not dare move. Still half-leaning over, he lifted his eyelids to look at her, two faint lines appearing on his forehead, his eyes filled with disbelief.
Lu Yin struggled to give him a smile.
Lu Qiang caught the hand on his face. After a long moment, he suddenly sat up.
He opened his mouth, not knowing what to say, and asked stiffly, “You’re awake?”
Lu Yin closed her eyes once. “…Mm.”
His face remained calm. “When did you wake up?”
“…Just now.”
Lu Qiang stood up, wiped his palms twice on his thighs, looked around, carefully placed her right hand beside her, dragged the chair over to the wall where it would not be in the way, then walked over and slapped the call button at the head of the bed.
Lu Yin followed him with her eyes, watching him carry out each thing in an orderly fashion. She asked, “This is a hospital?”
Lu Qiang stared blankly. “You don’t remember?”
Lu Yin frowned. “My head feels a little dizzy.”
The air instantly grew heavy. Lu Qiang bent down, staring intently into her eyes. “Then who am I?”
She found it funny and answered softly, “…Lu Qiang.”
The tension in Lu Qiang’s lips eased. He lowered his head. “Is it very dizzy?”
Lu Yin tried to raise her head, but before she could move, he immediately supported her. “Don’t move around yet. You’ve got tubes all over you.”
They had barely exchanged two sentences when the young nurse outside ran in. “What happened?” The moment she saw the two people on the bed, she exclaimed, “Oh, she’s awake? I’ll go get Director Chen.”
Then she ran back out with quick little footsteps.
Within a few minutes, Director Chen hurried in with several doctors. The young nurse tried to push Lu Qiang outside but could not move him, so she rose onto her toes and waved her hand in front of his eyes. His gaze flickered, and he looked at her.
The young nurse said, “The family member needs to wait outside for now.”
“Can I stand here?”
She shook her head. “You’ll interfere with the doctors’ treatment.”
“I won’t make a sound.”
“No.” The young nurse refused him without mercy and ushered him outside again.
Lu Qiang was pushed backward several steps. Through the crowd, two pairs of eyes quietly met in midair. Lu Qiang stared without blinking. She was alive, truly alive, her eyes open and smiling at him.
The nurse slapped the door shut. Through the small window, Lu Qiang could only see the foot of the bed. He swallowed, braced both hands against the wall beside him, and only then felt the muscles in his calves cramping.
Lu Qiang turned around, his body sliding down inch by inch until he crouched with his lower back against the wall. With his elbows braced on his knees, it took him a long time before he finally pulled a pack of cigarettes from his pocket.
There was a no-smoking sign posted above the corridor. Lu Qiang could not care less. He pulled out a cigarette and bit it between his teeth. As he reached for his lighter, his lips trembled, and the cigarette fell to the floor. Lu Qiang stared at it for a long while before picking it up, blowing on it, and putting it back between his lips.
A wisp of blue smoke rose, drifting and curling through the air. With the back of his head resting against the wall, Lu Qiang finally felt a little of what was real.
The doctors stayed inside for more than ten minutes before coming out. Director Chen took the initiative to speak to Lu Qiang. “The patient is basically conscious now. Congratulations.”
Lu Qiang curved his lips. “I should be thanking you, Director Chen.”
The other man waved his hand. “It’s entirely because you took such good care of her. I just examined the wounds on her body. They’re healing well. Pay attention to her nutrition from here on out, and have her come back for regular checkups. You’re young, after all. She’ll recover soon.” He pointed inside. “Go in and take a look.”
He was about to leave when Lu Qiang stopped him. “She didn’t know where she was just now.”
Director Chen stopped and turned sideways toward him. “That can be considered normal. The anesthetic dosage during surgery was relatively high, and on top of that, her brainstem was subjected to compression and impact. For the time being, that may affect her memory. For quite some time to come, the patient may suddenly feel dizzy or nauseated at any moment. Don’t panic. Keep a relaxed state of mind.”
Director Chen smiled. “Give her some time.”
When Lu Qiang returned to the hospital room, Lu Yin had fallen asleep again.
The young nurse was adjusting the IV drip rate. Lu Qiang’s heart sank. “What’s going on?”
She glanced at him and explained, “The patient is weak. Director Chen finished examining her, and she fell asleep.”
“Then when will she wake up?”
The young nurse laughed at the question and could not help taking another look at him. His features were handsome and striking, his build sturdy. Beneath his tightly furrowed brows, his expression was hard and serious. Most unusual of all was his attitude toward the patient. Half a month ago, when the patient had just been brought in, he had practically stayed by her side every day. At night, he only curled up on a bench in the corridor, hardly leaving her side at all.
She had tried persuading him several times. The man had actually said, with complete seriousness, that he would pay her. Besides being surprised, she was even more moved by their relationship.
The young nurse reassured him, “Don’t worry. Once she gets enough sleep, she’ll wake up naturally.”
Lu Qiang had truly been frightened into panic. After taking a breath, he also realized that his question just now had been pretty stupid.
For several days, Lu Yin drifted in and out of consciousness. The periods when she was awake were short. She could not manage more than a few words before becoming exhausted and falling asleep again. Later, she no longer went so far as to doubt her situation. It was just that before she had time to think it through, the dizziness would become severe again.
She truly regained consciousness three days later. The instruments attached to her had finally been removed, she no longer needed to rely on an oxygen mask and could breathe on her own, and her skin was also much rosier than it had been in the previous few days.
She woke in the evening. Lu Qiang was lying diagonally on the sofa watching TV, one hand pillowing the back of his head and the other holding the remote. The television was on mute.
He was not really paying attention either. It was the time for the news broadcast, and every channel was showing the same thing. He flipped through them all, then placed the remote on his stomach. A sniffle came from the direction of the hospital bed.
Lu Qiang turned his head and looked over. Lu Yin was awake, staring straight at the ceiling, biting her lower lip, with something glistening at the corners of her eyes.
His heart lurched. He crossed the room in a few strides and asked gently, “What’s wrong? Yinyin, did you have a nightmare?”
He wiped away the tears at the corners of her eyes. Lu Yin shifted her gaze to his face. “…No.”
“Then is your head hurting? I’ll call the doctor.” He reached for the call button above the bed.
Lu Yin tightened her grip on his hand and cried out softly, “Lu Qiang, I’m so scared.”
She was awake now. At last, she remembered what had happened that night. The headlights suddenly blazing bright, followed by the earth-shattering impact. She spun wildly, all her internal organs seemingly knocked out of place, every movement no longer under her control as she was tossed and rolled along with the car. Everything had happened in the blink of an eye. Terror and horror had swallowed everything, and in that instant, she had almost thought she was going to die.
Having escaped death, when she recalled that scene, fear seeped out through every pore, and she could not help trembling.
Lu Yin looked at him. “I thought then, this time it’s really over. I’ll never see you again.”
Lu Qiang pressed his leg down as he sat on the edge of the bed, completely sheltering her from above. “Don’t be scared. I’m here.” How could he not have been afraid that it might be a final farewell? He kissed away the tears at the corners of her eyes, his lips almost touching the corner of hers as he spoke.
Lu Yin sniffed. “It was a red light. That truck ran the red light.”
Lu Qiang gently patted and comforted her. “I know.” He paused, then lifted his eyes to look at her. “The driver knew it was a red light.”
“What?”
Lu Qiang propped himself up on one arm and worked his jaw. “I’m sorry.” He paused and swallowed. “Those people were after me. We had a grudge from before. They couldn’t get even with me, so they deliberately went after the people I cared about most. I’m sorry, Lu Yin. I dragged you into this again.”
Lu Yin blinked, her palm unconsciously gripping his forearm. “They…” She held back her tears. “What did they come after you for?”
“Wu Qiong and Qiu Zhen.”
She froze for a moment, as if she understood.
The two of them fell silent for a while, neither saying a word. A few seconds later, they spoke almost in unison.
“What if they come after you again?”
“Do you regret it?”
After a slight pause, Lu Qiang lowered his head first and gave a bitter smile. “He knows my temper. For now, he doesn’t dare come looking for trouble again.” He rubbed her cheek with the back of his hand, then asked again, “Do you regret it?”
“Regret what?”
Lu Qiang said, “Meeting me.”
She pursed her lips, her eyes brightening a little, and answered honestly, “It wasn’t really my choice at the beginning. You were like chewing gum, no matter how I tried, I couldn’t shake you off. Back then, I was practically scared to death of you.”
Lu Qiang’s face darkened a little. He gritted his teeth and ignored her comparison. “Just scared?”
Lu Yin lowered her eyes and pressed her lips together without answering. Lu Qiang bit the tip of her finger and deliberately put on a nasty tone. “I’m asking you. Just scared?”
She changed the subject. “If you had known this would happen today, would you still have gotten together with me?”
“Why wouldn’t I?”
Lu Yin remembered a scene from a movie and deliberately said, “Shouldn’t you have been afraid that someone would hurt me, and even if you really liked me, watched me from far away?”
Lu Qiang got goosebumps from what she said and pinched the flesh of her cheek. “You’re still confused, aren’t you? ‘Really liked you’? Who ever said that?”
Lu Yin curved her eyes and smiled.
Lu Qiang answered seriously, “If I’d known this day was coming, I would’ve taken him out beforehand.”
He adjusted his position, turned over, and half-lay against the edge of the bed. The lights in the hospital room were off. Only the pale glow of the television flickered endlessly, and the curtains were half open, the sky not yet completely dark.
Lu Qiang said quietly, “These past two weeks have felt like a nightmare. Seeing you lying there half-dead, I really wanted to drag you back up. I could lie there myself and let you taste what this feels like.” His voice carried a trace of melancholy and a trace of grievance. After a few seconds, he continued, “Those days when you wouldn’t wake up, I regretted it. My past is too dark. No matter how much I try to wash it clean, in the end, I’m still a pile of rotten mud. You’re so clean. Maybe I was wrong.”
Lu Yin held back a laugh. “We can still get divorced.”
He had finally managed to get sentimental, only to have her shut him down with those few words.
Lu Qiang’s breathing caught. His hand unconsciously tightened, and when he lowered his head, he saw the sly smile on her face.
He ground his teeth. “You haven’t even recovered properly, and you’re getting cheeky again?”
Lu Qiang made quite a show of it, then bent down and bit her lip. Supporting himself with his elbow, he carefully avoided her wounds, not daring to touch her body carelessly. Only her hands and feet were free to move, and Lu Yin pressed her palm against his chest.
At first, the touches were light and brief. Lu Qiang took small, gentle sips of her lips. He lifted his head a fraction, his fingers caressing her cheek and the tip of her nose. He looked at her carefully, then lowered his head again. This time, his nimble tongue probed inside, sliding over her teeth before unexpectedly brushing against the soft, tender flesh that met it. Lu Qiang’s mind went blank. Almost instinctively, he sucked it in, drawing it out, then tilted his head, searching for a comfortable angle, swallowing deeply.
After an unknown amount of time, Lu Qiang’s breathing gradually grew heavier, but he understood where to draw the line. He restrained himself and pinched her cheeks apart.
Lu Yin was briefly short of breath, and her head felt a little dizzy. She closed her eyes and took a moment to calm herself.
When she opened them again, Lu Qiang was looking at her with a smile.
He took hold of her hand and squeezed it lewdly, slowly sliding it downward from his side. Lu Yin did not understand what he was doing. He subtly turned his palm, covered the back of her hand with his own, then took it and pressed it down together toward his lower body.
…Hard beyond belief, thick and solid as a pillar.
Lu Yin was somewhat speechless. Every time they were intimate, their thoughts were completely different. He could always turn complicated emotions into desire, releasing them through taking. As for her, it was simply the overwhelming emotion of waking up to find that she could still see him. She was more emotional than rational, which was why she would take the initiative to respond to him, take the initiative to kiss him.
Lu Yin was a little annoyed. “Do you have any humanity? I’m sick.”
Lu Qiang had only been teasing her in the first place. He raised an eyebrow. “Your hands work.”
“You…” She tried to pull her hand away.
Afraid she would pull at her wounds, Lu Qiang did not dare hold too tightly. He simply looked straight at her face, flushed red with anger. The room suddenly fell silent. Lu Qiang just stared at her blankly, and Lu Yin noticed. She turned her head slightly and met his gaze.
Lu Qiang swallowed, then caught the hand beside him again, lifting it and tucking it beneath his cheek.
He closed his eyes. After a long while, he said, “This fucking feels good.” For the first time, Lu Qiang felt that this cold, pale place had gained a trace of warmth.
Lu Yin’s gaze softened as it fell on his slightly sunken cheek. She did not need to think about it to know what these past few days had been like for him. Her eyes grew hot, and she quickly blinked, turned her head back, and closed her eyes as well.
Just as the two of them were nearly falling asleep, Lu Qiang’s phone began vibrating.
He raised his head to check it, paused, then looked at Lu Yin. “It’s Genzi.”
Lu Yin nodded.
Lu Qiang pressed the green button and asked first, “How’s it going, Genzi?”
The person on the other end spoke for a long time. Lu Qiang listened intently. The two of them were close enough that Lu Yin could vaguely make out some of what was being said, but she could not understand it.
Genzi finally finished explaining everything. Lu Qiang looked at Lu Yin and said, “You decide on the other things, but the neighborhood’s security has to be guaranteed. There needs to be a yard, somewhere quieter. Find out a little about the neighbors around there.”
He thought for a moment. “And don’t forget to hire a nurse and a nutritionist. Chinese would be best.”
The person on the other end agreed.
Lu Qiang paused for a moment. “When are you coming back?”
“Next week.”
“Take care of yourself out there.”
Genzi said, “Don’t worry. I eat and drink well every day. I’m practically reluctant to leave.”
Lu Qiang smiled faintly. He did not hang up. After a long silence, he said, “Genzi, thanks for this, brother.”
The call ended, and Lu Yin looked at him in confusion.
Lu Qiang got up from the bed, raised the head of the hospital bed a little higher, moved a stool over, and sat beside the bed.
Lu Yin waited for him to speak.
He toyed with his phone for a while, then raised his head. “We might have to go live somewhere else for two years.”
“Go somewhere else?” She did not understand. “Where?”
“Italy.”
***
Genzi returned a week later. The arrangements on the other side had been completed. The house had been chosen according to Lu Qiang’s requirements, and it happened to cost exactly three hundred thousand US dollars, meeting the local requirements for temporary residence.
Lu Yin’s condition improved day by day. She was already able to sit up in bed, and with Lu Qiang supporting her, she could also walk around the hospital room for a few minutes without a problem.
The first time she went to the bathroom, she was frightened by the person in the mirror. She had undergone surgery on her head, so all her hair had been shaved off. Her head was wrapped in ghastly white gauze, and on top of that, she had lost a great deal of weight, her cheeks sunken. She barely looked human, more like a ghost than a person.
Lu Yin cried several times over it. At first, Lu Qiang patiently coaxed her, saying, “I don’t even dislike you, so what are you afraid of?” Later, when he saw that it was not working and grew annoyed by all the fuss, he tried frightening her with a harsh voice, threatening to leave her behind and go by himself. Lu Yin only cried harder, and in the end, he still had to swallow his temper and coax her.
With a few stumbles along the way, life seemed to return to how it had been before.
Seeing her body recover, Lu Qiang finally felt reassured enough to go take care of what needed to be done. These past few nights, whenever Genzi came over, he would go out, often not returning until the middle of the night.
It was not only that. Lu Yin could always catch his unabashed gaze following her figure. When their eyes met, he would simply look away as if it meant nothing.
There was something complicated in that gaze, something she could not understand.
She tried asking him, but Lu Qiang said nothing. He and Genzi seemed to have coordinated it too. When he came home late, Genzi would sit out in the corridor playing games. Whenever she asked, he would just laugh it off and say he did not know.
After several days, Lu Qiang had learned Chen Sheng’s whereabouts inside and out. Genzi was rubbing his fists, waiting for the right time to call Kun Dong and Da Long over so they could settle both the old and new scores together.
Lu Qiang smiled, but had no intention of bringing them in.
Before long, a month and a half had passed. One day, Lu Qiang received a call from an unfamiliar number.
There was a great deal of noise on the other end. After the call connected, no one spoke.
Lu Qiang said, “Hello?”
There was only the crackling hiss of static in his ear. After a while, a strong, full voice said, “I’m at the train station. Come pick me up.”
Lu Qiang recognized the voice, but did not quite dare believe it. “Who are you?”
“Your mother.”
Lu Qiang froze slightly. Bitterness rose in his heart, and his throat tightened.
A thousand kilometers. She had come out in a villager’s donkey cart, then transferred from a long-distance bus to a train. She had not taken a plane.
She had not called ahead, asking here and there for directions. And she had still come.
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