Last Love chapter 123
At the moment the call was disconnected, Wen Ke felt like his heartbeat had almost stopped.
This wasn’t based on any rational thinking. From Han Jiangque’s tone and his peculiar words, Wen Ke sensed intense unease, driven by an instinctual shudder in the face of impending disaster.
He could hardly remember a time when he felt so panicked. Leaning against a utility pole, he frantically called Han Jiangque’s phone, but there was no answer.
Holding the phone tightly and listening to the busy tone, it seemed as if he could also hear the thunderous pounding in his chest.
Jiang Chao had just pulled the car out of the parking lot, and he was taken aback when he saw Wen Ke’s expression through the car window.
The Omega’s face was almost devoid of color, and despite the cold winter weather, sweat droplets hung on the tip of his nose.
“What’s wrong? What happened?” Jiang Chao asked in a low voice as he stepped out.
Wen Ke, supporting himself on the car door, stammered, “Han Jiangque, he,…”
As he spoke, Wen Ke realized how shaky his voice was, and his words were barely forming coherent sentences.
“You need to calm down.”
Seeing Wen Ke in a state of panic, Jiang Chao’s eyes showed a hint of seriousness, but he immediately said sternly, “Was it Mr. Han who called you just now? What happened to him?”
Perhaps these rapid-fire questions helped Wen Ke regain a bit of composure in the chaos. He spoke in a low voice, “He called, but it was strange.”
“What was strange?”
“His words… very strange, as if there’s something he can’t say, vague, and he seemed urgent. He told me—not to forget him.”
Wen Ke took a deep breath, knowing the situation was unprecedentedly critical. In times like these, he had to abandon all panic.
His thoughts almost forcefully rebooted, operating quickly, rethinking and organizing the recent phone call.
Even though he had asked many questions in rapid succession, the first thing Han Jiangque said was, “I have something to tell you.”
In what dire situation would there be such an urgent need for just one sentence?
And the next thing Han Jiangque said was, “Promise me, never forget the time in our love— all my love for you is in there, don’t forget me.”
It was such a strange sentence from beginning to end.
“The time in our love,” this phrase would never appear in Han Jiangque’s everyday expressions.
On the surface, it seemed like a farewell, but why would Han Jiangque say goodbye?
They were about to welcome their final happiness. Why would Han Jiangque choose to hurriedly bid farewell at this moment?
Hearing Wen Ke’s recount, Jiang Chao’s expression changed for a moment. “He hung up after saying only this sentence? Did he hang up himself?”
Wen Ke and Jiang Chao locked eyes. At that moment, their faces turned pale.
The answer—
It was on the tip of their tongues.
It was an answer that made Wen Ke’s whole body almost freeze.
Han Jiangque was being held hostage, facing a life-threatening situation!
He shook, holding onto the car, then suddenly opened the car door and got in, sternly saying, “Jiang Chao, call Han Zhan now, ask them if Han Jiangque hasn’t arrived in H City yet.”
Jiang Chao didn’t say a word, nodded, and sat in the driver’s seat, dialing the phone.
At the same time, Wen Ke repeatedly dialed the phone for Zhuo Yuan. On the other end, it was always an unanswered call. He was going crazy, wanting to throw the phone away, wanting to scream, as if a desperate wild beast was about to tear open his chest and rush out.
The repeated “beep” sounds of the phone seemed like stones falling into the ocean, causing his heart to sink.
Meanwhile, Jiang Chao turned his head. Facing Wen Ke, he shook his head, “Mr. Han didn’t return to H City today at all. They can’t reach him either.”
With a loud bang, Wen Ke, red-eyed, slammed his fist on the car window.
He had lost all leads and clues.
He couldn’t save Han Jiangque.
He widened his eyes, staring at the sky outside the car window—
Separated by Jincheng, the green hills in front were quietly covered in gleaming frost. Everything was stark white.
Inside the car, there was a silence so suffocating that even time seemed to stop due to despair. Every second was infinitely prolonged, like the prolonged sinking process in a swamp.
Holding the steering wheel, Jiang Chao’s eyes still carried a sense of unwilling confusion. He murmured, “Why did Mr. Han say that sentence? Is it really just a farewell?”
Suddenly, Wen Ke trembled—
No, Han Jiangque would never bid him farewell because farewell meant giving up.
He remembered Han Jiangque on the boxing ring, he remembered Han Jiangque’s dark and persistent eyes.
Without any reason, he just knew—
Han Jiangque wouldn’t give up like this.
Han Jiangque was fighting for survival!
If he had only a moment to say something, how would Han Jiangque hint at him?
Wen Ke was covered in sweat. He tightened his grip on the phone, repeatedly recalling that sentence. Those few seconds of electric brilliance in his mind were, in fact, a life-and-death struggle. Every passing second was the ebbing away of Han Jiangque’s vitality.
“Don’t forget the time in our love.”
Love, time…
What did it mean?
At this moment, the screen of Wen Ke’s phone suddenly lit up, a system prompt from the Last Love app.
Just as he was about to slide up the notification, he suddenly felt like an electric current rapidly surged through him. That sensation… that sensation was like a deep resonance of his and Han Jiangque’s souls, even though they were miles apart.
Their love referred to the Last Love app!
And time, time…
Time referred to the time capsule uploaded on Last Love today!
The answer was right here!
In that instant, it was the first time in Wen Ke’s life that he believed in a mystical force descending upon this world.
His entire face turned red, and he sat up abruptly, opening the phone and calling Wang Jinglin: “Jinglin, it’s me. You know Han Jiangque’s Last Love account, right? Go to the server now, check if he uploaded a time capsule.”
Jiang Chao also nervously stared at Wen Ke’s face. Those few seconds were incredibly long for both him and Wen Ke.
“Yes, that’s it—did he, did he really upload it? Is there an automatically uploaded time capsule inside?”
At the moment of hearing Wang Jinglin’s answer, Wen Ke’s vocal cords spasmed for a second due to excitement, and he tightened his grip on the phone, tremblingly saying, “Y-yes! I need it now, send it to me immediately.”
It took only a few seconds to access the time capsule.
That day was the official launch day of the Last Love time capsule activity, but before Wen Ke’s press conference in the evening, only a few limited beta accounts had the privilege to use this feature, and Han Jiangque’s account was one of them.
After receiving the audio file, Wen Ke switched to speaker mode and clicked play.
“Xiao Ke, good morning.”
Han Jiangque’s deep voice echoed from within.
Soon after, there was a very slight throat-clearing cough. The Alpha recording the audio seemed a bit shy, hesitating for a moment before continuing, “It’s 10 a.m. on the morning of February 13th. I’ve parked the car in an abandoned parking lot on the way to H City because I want to be the first to create a time capsule.”
Han Jiangque treated this small time capsule with such solemnity, infused with a lovely sense of ceremony.
And precisely because of his solemnity, he unintentionally revealed the most crucial information—
On the morning of February 13th at 10 a.m., he parked the car in an abandoned parking lot on the way to H City.
The current time was 10:29 a.m.
Han Jiangque parked the car at 10 a.m., and the time capsule recording lasted for 20 minutes, taking only six minutes to upload to the server.
This meant that whatever happened occurred within this half-hour, and the time capsule inevitably recorded all the sounds.
At this moment, there was no need for Wen Ke to say much. Jiang Chao stepped on the gas pedal, and the Audi sped away. He used voice navigation to quickly guide them to the abandoned parking lot on the way from Jincheng to H City.
Still playing in the background, Han Jiangque’s gentle voice echoed in the car, “Xiao Ke, I hope he can have the surname Wen, named Wen Nian. ‘Nian’ in ‘Wen Nian’ means that memories will always have echoes; it’s that character.”
Hearing this name in his heart, Wen Ke’s nose suddenly tingled. He almost needed to use all his strength to resist the urge to cry.
But at this moment, he couldn’t afford any hesitation. While concentrating on listening to the time capsule, he looked at the navigation. When he confirmed the location of the parking lot, he hoarsely said, “Jiang Chao, call Han Zhan, share the location with them, and ask them to send someone to rescue Han Jiangque immediately—
“No, ask the Han family to contact the police in Jincheng. It’s faster to come from Jincheng, just about ten minutes.”
It was at this moment that the audio playing on the phone faintly transmitted the roar of an engine, followed by a loud bang!
This commotion, heard even by Wen Ke and Jiang Chao in the recorded audio, shook their hearts—
What happened?
Wen Ke and Jiang Chao locked eyes for a second. After a while, they heard a voice in the audio saying, “Awake?”
The voice was somewhat distant, so it was unclear, but even so, Wen Ke instantly recognized that it was indeed Zhuo Yuan’s voice.
Wen Ke, pale-faced, stared at the phone screen. Although he didn’t see any visuals, in that moment, he distinctly felt his inner self slowly sinking.
…
When Wen Ke and Jiang Chao rushed to the parking lot at the fastest speed, several police cars and an ambulance were already parked there. The sirens outside were still urgently blaring, indicating that they had just arrived.
Several police officers in uniforms were solemnly heading inside.
The Han family also arrived in several cars, almost at the same time as Wen Ke’s car. The first to get out was Han Zhan, who had a bit of difficulty with his legs but walked briskly.
Turning around, Han Zhan saw Wen Ke, who got out of the car despite being heavily pregnant.
The Omega’s face was deathly pale, and his legs trembled like chaff.
Han Zhan’s heart skipped a beat.
Wen Ke saw Han Zhan, but he didn’t greet him. For some reason, he felt… as if he couldn’t feel the presence of anyone else.
During the journey here, he also listened to the audio in the time capsule. So, in a way, he felt like he had died completely.
His heart, at a certain moment, seemed to stop beating along with the quieted voice of Han Jiangque.
His heart was filled with timidity and fear. He rushed all the way here, but he was getting more and more afraid of seeing the situation inside. However, he mechanically took step by step towards the parking lot.
Inside, there were even more police officers, and a pungent smell of blood permeated the air.
The Land Rover was parked in a corner, the rear severely dented, and broken glass from the taillights scattered on the cement floor. The entire area was cordoned off by police with yellow caution tape.
In the midst of the crowd, Wen Ke trembled. However, he numbly moved forward, and then he finally saw it.
He saw Han Jiangque lying on a stretcher.
In that instant, Han Zhan and Jiang Chao heard a wild and desperate howl from this frail Omega—
That voice made Jiang Chao’s heart tremble suddenly. He recalled a time when he was a young soldier, hungry and training in the jungles of Southeast Asia. They had finally hunted down a pair of adult deer.
They decided to eat the stronger male first. When they slaughtered the deer that evening, the female deer, with wet eyes, emitted sharp and mournful screams, one after another.
Originally, they planned to leave the female for later consumption, but the next morning, they woke up to find the female deer silently lifeless.
Wen Ke reminded him of that female deer.
Han Zhan’s steps also involuntarily halted.
He had always been cold, tough, and rarely had moments of fear, but…
He really couldn’t believe that the person lying on the stretcher, covered in blood and unknown if alive or dead, was his son.
Many things happened after that, and it seemed like Wen Ke had lost the ability to remember. He only remembered mechanically following the ambulance.
Along the way, the urgent sound of the horn echoed on the quiet road. Even in the car, he clung to the stretcher, holding onto its edge as if his life depended on it.
Han Jiangque’s face and body were covered in blood. Wen Ke couldn’t distinguish how many injuries he had sustained. He only heard the faint sighs of medical staff during the rescue. Han Jiangque received several injections and began receiving blood transfusions on the way.
The Alpha closed his eyes, his handsome face now swollen, the surface of his skin congested and bruised from the blows. His eyes were blue, and through his short black hair, you could see blood clots inside his scalp.
Wen Ke kept staring at Han Jiangque’s face, but he didn’t dare touch him or hold his hand, afraid of causing him pain.
He just sat there, guarding him.
…
Unconscious Han Jiangque was directly rushed into the ICU. The medical staff looked solemn, and the police, Wen Ke, Jiang Chao, and a group of Han family members remained silent in the corridor.
It was a long and agonizing process. During this time, Han’s eldest brother, second brother, and third brother also arrived.
Fu Xiaoyu and Xu Jiale, who got the news, also rushed here by high-speed rail. The entire corridor was crowded.
But even so, the corridor remained solemnly quiet.
Han’s family surrounded the elderly Han Zhan, paying little attention to Wen Ke. Apparently, in their eyes, this Omega, with a big belly from the outside world, was just an insignificant passerby.
However, the usually strong and calm Fu Xiaoyu was on the verge of collapse. Upon his arrival, he could only barely greet the people from the Han family, then leaned against the wall, staring straight at the door of the ICU.
With a solemn expression, Xu Jiale stood between Fu Xiaoyu and Wen Ke. He was the only one who remembered to prepare hot tea and snacks for the two Omegas amid the chaos. However, neither Fu Xiaoyu nor Wen Ke ate anything.
Throughout the process, Fu Xiaoyu whispered a few words to him, but Wen Ke remained silent and motionless in his seat, causing Xu Jiale to be extremely worried.
The more it came to this kind of situation, the more he knew he had to remain calm. He cared about Han Jiangque, but among the people present, getting the other two Omegas to calm down had evidently become an impossible task.
He took a moment to call Xia Xingzhi’s side, briefly explaining the situation here, at least providing a report. The press conference might have to be hosted by someone else or postponed.
…
They sat in silence for quite a while before a doctor in a blood-stained white coat came out. She informed them very briefly about Han Jiangque’s injuries.
Han Jiangque was currently still in the process of rescue. As an S-class Alpha, his incredibly strong physique and cardiovascular function meant there was currently no risk of death. However, this didn’t mean he was out of danger.
Almost every inch of Han Jiangque’s body was covered in wounds.
His left arm was broken, the bones of the index and middle fingers of his right hand had been stomped on, and his entire body was covered in bruises from iron rods and fists. Two ribs were broken in the car accident.
The most shocking was the knife wound on his lower back muscles, where a short dagger was inserted. Perhaps due to both parties struggling too hard, the entire blade of the dagger broke inside his flesh. However, these were just external injuries.
The two real striking injuries were—
One was the damage to the brain cortex caused by repeated heavy blows. This was almost a fatal injury for ordinary people, but apparently, the assailant completely underestimated Han Jiangque’s ability to resist punches;
The other was the gland beneath the posterior neck, which was brutally smashed with an iron rod.
The doctor used the word “smashed,” and this word almost made everyone present lose their voices.
“Is the gland… lost?”
After a long time, Han Zhan, who was sitting on the bench surrounded by everyone, finally asked in a soft voice.
“The gland is still there, but it has suffered such severe damage that it has shattered into pieces, requiring surgery for repair. However, even if the gland is fully restored, the level will drop drastically, and Mr. Han will likely hover around D or even E for a long time, making it almost impossible to recover to S-level.”
Han Zhan fell silent for a moment, and Wen Ke, covering his prominent belly, squeezed from the back row to the front. He couldn’t speak, but everyone could see the question he wanted to ask from the redness of his eyes.
“But the situation we are currently facing is more troublesome than the gland itself.”
The doctor sighed and said in a low voice, “We all know that Omegas need to carefully protect their glands because they are more prominent and can be marked. But what few people know is that the gland of an Alpha, although smaller and more deeply hidden, is also one of the most vulnerable organs in the human body because the entire gland is densely covered with nerves. Just pinching it in the skin will cause intense pain, not to mention being repeatedly hit with an iron rod until the entire gland is smashed.”
“The damage Mr. Han’s gland has suffered is an extremely rare and extremely malignant trauma. I can even say that there are almost no people in this world who can imagine what it feels like to suffer this kind of injury. It’s like doing abdominal punctures without anesthesia. This is simply inhuman torture. The gland is connected to the brain nerves, and severe damage to the gland itself may bring life-threatening risks. Coupled with the enormous pain stress, Mr. Han instinctively shut down his consciousness. Therefore, Mr. Han is currently in a deep coma, and we…”
The doctor had to stop with difficulty at this point. She knew how much of a blow the following words would be to everyone here, but she had to truthfully state the worst possibility.
“If Mr. Han still cannot wake up in the next few days after the gland repair surgery, then we are afraid it will be difficult for us to estimate what will happen next…”
“You mean…”
Wen Ke’s lips trembled, and he couldn’t complete a full sentence.
“Yes, Mr. Han may remain in a deep coma for an extended period, and once this state lasts for more than six months… basically, we can consider that Mr. Han will never wake up again. From the current situation, we are not very optimistic about the future.”