What Are Your Tastes? chapter 75
Awakening
As darkness engulfed him, Lu Yunchu had only one thought—he hadn’t had time to get the ring. What a pity, he had wanted to personally place the ring on Zhou Yanchuan’s finger.
In the darkness, there was no fear or pain; it was as if he had fallen asleep in another time and space.
Until an external force intervened, seemingly trying to piece together his remaining consciousness. He felt himself being embraced warmly, with someone calling his name.
“Yunchu, it’s okay. I’ll take you away.”
Despite regaining some awareness, he felt he could completely relax and once again fell into the abyss.
There seemed to be the sound of birds chirping outside.
Lu Yunchu’s eyelids were heavy, but with great effort, he managed to open them a crack, seeing a large expanse of pure white. He was lying on a bed, staring at the ceiling.
“Yunchu, are you awake?” Ning Ruowei immediately held down his arm as he tried to lift it. “Don’t move, you’re still on an IV drip.”
“This is a hospital…” Besides the pure white, his vision gradually included other objects, like the furnishings of the ward. But he couldn’t remember how he got here, leaving him feeling bewildered and unable to appreciate the joy of surviving a disaster.
“Yes, don’t worry, you’re all safe now.”
Yes, they had originally planned to escape. An Yuan had jumped out of the window, but it seemed he had encountered an accident.
“Where is Dr. An?”
“She’s slightly injured and is in another room getting an IV drip. She asked me to come check on you.” Lu Yunchu had been dragged into this; if anything happened to him, both she and An Yuan would never have peace of mind.
“What exactly happened to me…” Lu Yunchu was still a bit puzzled. He thought of the fire, the desolate little building, and the beam that knocked him out, yet here he was lying in a hospital bed with only his head bandaged and seemingly no other injuries.
“Can’t you remember anything?” Ning Ruowei leaned over the bed and said, “Mr. Zhou saved you.”
He had felt someone holding him in the darkness—it was Zhou Yanchuan. But waking up without seeing him made Lu Yunchu anxious; had he been injured?
Ning Ruowei seemed to know what he was worried about and quickly explained, “Mr. Zhou went to ask the doctors about your condition since you weren’t waking up.” Seeing his disbelief, she added, “I’ll go get him now.”
She left the ward, and Lu Yunchu turned his head slightly. On a small cabinet beside the bed was a box of tissues and a paper cup with what looked like a cotton swab sticking out. His throat felt very dry, but his lips were moist, probably from someone repeatedly wetting them with the cotton swab.
In less than two minutes, Ning Ruowei returned with Zhou Yanchuan. The tired look on Zhou Yanchuan’s face lit up upon meeting Lu Yunchu’s gaze.
Immediately, Lu Yunchu noticed the bandages on Zhou Yanchuan’s left hand and elbow.
Last night, Lu Yunchu had not only inhaled carbon monoxide but also suffered a concussion from the impact. Fortunately, there was no bleeding in his skull.
The doctor performed a brief examination after hearing he had woken up. Ning Ruowei, sensing they needed some privacy, left the room first.
The attending doctor gave a few more instructions and then also left, leaving Zhou Yanchuan to sit beside him.
“Do you still feel uncomfortable?”
Lu Yunchu shook his head, his unbandaged hand brushing over his shorn scalp. Zhou Yanchuan thought he was concerned about his shaved hair and said, “They had to cut your hair because of the stitches, but it’ll grow back.”
“I don’t care about my hair,” Lu Yunchu stared straight at him. “You’re injured.”
“This?” Zhou Yanchuan raised his left hand. “It’s nothing, just a scratch. A little ointment and it’s fine.”
He had carried Lu Yunchu out of the burning house, focusing entirely on protecting him and not realizing his hand had been burned until the nurses pointed it out at the hospital.
Seeing Zhou Yanchuan’s eyes bloodshot from exhaustion, Lu Yunchu urged him to go home and rest but Zhou Yanchuan refused, “It’s fine, if I get tired, I’ll just nap here.”
Surviving the ordeal had left Lu Yunchu shaken, and Zhou Yanchuan, too, hadn’t fully recovered from the fright, still nervous after a sleepless night. Afraid of adding to Lu Yunchu’s burden, he tried not to show his anxiety.
The night before, after Yunchu’s surgery, the doctors advised him to get a good night’s sleep. Yet, as soon as he closed his eyes, nightmarish scenes would surface in his mind: if Zheng Xun had started the fire on the second floor, if he had arrived a few minutes later, or if he hadn’t managed to break the door open in time… it would have meant a permanent separation between him and Yunchu. At thirty years old, he had never been so terrified.
Lu Yunchu lightly touched the gauze on the back of his hand with his pinky. “Were you scared?”
“Yes,” Zhou Yanchuan answered honestly, “so I don’t want to leave the hospital even for a moment; I need to keep an eye on you to feel at ease. But it’s all over now. We can rest easy and not think about it anymore, okay?”
“Okay.”
“Here, drink some water.” Zhou Yanchuan took another thermos from under the cabinet, put in a long straw, and brought it to his lips.
Lu Yunchu wasn’t too weak to sit up, but he complied and gently bit the straw. The water flowing into his throat was at just the right temperature—neither cold nor hot.
According to the police, Zheng Xun and two accomplices had fled along the provincial highway the previous night, and during their attempt to evade capture, they collided with a large truck. Zheng Xun and one of his accomplices died on the spot. The surviving seriously injured individual was found guilty of the serious crime of killing his wife, which meant that even if he recovered, he would not escape severe legal punishment.
Upon hearing about Zheng Xun’s fate, Zhou Yanchuan felt no sorrow for the fickleness of fate; he even thought Zheng Xun’s death was too clean-cut, insufficient to atone for the crimes he had committed.
Lu Yunchu’s condition was still not good. He ate some plain porridge from the hospital at noon and spent most of the time sleeping. Even when he slept, he couldn’t rest well, often furrowing his brows and waking up every so often. Each time he woke and saw Zhou Yanchuan beside him, he would feel reassured and close his eyes again.
Only around dusk did he notice that the chair by the bed was empty. He guessed that Zhou Yanchuan might have gone out to buy something, but less than a minute later, Zhou Yanchuan returned.
“Yunchu,” he said with a beaming smile as he walked to the bedside, “Guess who’s here to see you?”
“Who?”
Zhou Yanchuan called softly towards the door, “Auntie, he’s awake. You can come in.”
Lu Yunchu’s eyes widened in disbelief as he fixed his gaze on the approaching figure and moved his lips, “Mom.”