Chu Yunhan’s hands were trembling, and so were his lips. His mind felt like a beach battered and scattered by massive waves, leaving him incapable of coherent thought. He stared blankly at the scarred body before him, then stiffly raised his eyes to look at the face behind the oxygen mask.
Their gazes met.
Chu Yichen closed his eyes tiredly.
“Why… is he tied up?” Chu Yunhan’s voice was hoarse as if someone were strangling him, and every word was excruciating to utter.
Zhang Juan took a towel and wiped the sweat beading on Chu Yichen’s forehead, speaking calmly, “As you can see, I’ve stitched him up inside and out. His physical condition is decent, but he’s recovering quickly. These injuries, for him, aren’t too serious. However…” The doctor’s expression dimmed as he continued slowly, “They injected him with a central nervous system stimulant. The dosage was too high, leading to a certain degree of addiction. When the withdrawal symptoms hit, and his body doesn’t receive the drug, it causes excruciating pain. As for how intense the pain is…”
He paused, looked at Chu Yunhan and said, “I researched it. The data suggests that the withdrawal pain is akin to thousands of ants gnawing their way out of the body all at once. When it happened for the first time, he completely tore off the gauze from his wounds, flesh and all, injured Du Chuan, and ended up curling into a ball, begging me to shoot him.”
Tears welled up in Chu Yunhan’s eyes, blurring his vision as he stared unblinkingly at the man lying before him.
This was the man who had never bowed his head to anyone. This was the man who habitually endured in silence. This was the man who would swallow broken teeth along with his blood.
What kind of unbearable pain would it take for someone like him to beg his doctor for death?
“I originally planned to gradually reduce the drug dosage to ease the process. The pain would have been somewhat milder that way. But he didn’t want to touch the drug anymore, so now he can only rely on his willpower to endure it. All I can do is give him mild sedatives and painkillers, though the pain relief is far from effective. He’s afraid of hurting others or doing something irrational due to the pain, so he asked us to tie him up when he had an attack,” Zhang Juan sighed. “Although the frequency and intensity of his episodes have been decreasing, it will still take some time to fully recover. Judging by this situation, overexertion might have been the trigger.”
Chu Yunhan’s chest heaved as he breathed, and the scars on the man’s body rose and fell along with the motion. Beneath his touch, the bullet wound’s scar was clear and frightening. A thought was forming in his mind, growing sharper with every passing moment, awaiting final confirmation.
The Gray Wolf’s fierce eyes flashed through his mind.
—Everything is up to you, Young Master Yun.
—The person had been caught. Young Master Yun can rest assured that he will not be allowed to die so easily.
—Just leave it to me. You don’t have to worry, and you will be the head of the Chu family soon.
“Who…” Those two words seemed to drain all his strength, and he could no longer muster the courage to complete the question.
Zhang Juan was silent for a moment and said, “You should already have the answer in your heart, right? There are very few people in this world who can hurt him, very few people who can deceive him, who can make him put aside his responsibility as the head of the family and sacrifice his life to save regardless of the overall situation. He issued a ban prohibiting anyone from mentioning his injuries in front of you. He didn’t want you to feel guilty, yet he’s been carrying that guilt himself. On that day, to save him, Black Eagle lost 32 people. Gray Wolf’s men decapitated them and hung their heads on the flagpoles at the junkyard.”
So it was…really him…
He was the demon who pushed Chu Yichen into hell.
He was the culprit who ruined this body like this.
It’s him…
He had never thought about what happened in the three hours when Chu Yichen fell into the hands of Gray Wolf.
He had never thought about what methods Gray Wolf would use to deal with Chu Yichen.
He had never thought about how Chu Yichen escaped.
He just coveted that position on a whim, so he followed the enemy’s instigation and made a phone call pretending to be kidnapped, deceiving the people he was supposed to be closest to into an irreversible trap.
—I will do as you ask, provided you do not hurt him.
On the phone, Chu Yichen’s voice was steady, unwavering. Without hesitation, he came for him, walking step by step into the trap that had been meticulously laid by his own hands.
The thin line between life and death, covered with bruises. Unable to live, unable to die.
How much blood had that scarred body shed? What kind of torment and humiliation had he endured? How much pain had he suffered?
He didn’t know.
He knew nothing.
He had simply acted as though nothing had happened, calling out ‘Yichen’ as if everything were normal, selfishly placing himself in the role of the victim. Shamelessly, he had told that man, “Chu Yichen, we’re brothers.” He had even brazenly accused him, “Yes, I did set a trap to deceive you. But now you’ve gained everything you wanted, and I’ve been left with nothing. I didn’t stand in your way or cause you any real harm. Why are you treating me like this?”
How could he? How dare he say such a thing after torturing this man into such a broken state?
Now he understood why Chu Yichen would not take off his clothes in front of him even during sex; he understood why Chu Yichen had such a complicated expression when looking at him. He understood all the things he had never understood before. It was only when he saw it with his own eyes, when he touched it with his own hands, that he realised the magnitude of his mistake. Only then did he understand how thoroughly he had destroyed this man.
Layers of mist formed in his sour eyes, turning everything in front of him into blurry chaos. Many faces appeared in front of him; all of them were Chu Yichen. There was the way he smiled when he was a teenager, there was the way he was focused when playing ball, there was the way he played chess with himself, there was the way he looked lonely as he left, and there was the way he pressed himself on the bed coldly and ruthlessly.
Chu Yichen’s voice echoed softly in his ears.
—I have been wondering if it is because my tolerance and leniency towards you make you feel that no matter what you do to me, you can be forgiven?
He never understood how much pain and sorrow this question contained. This was the person who had been by his side since they were young, who had treated him with endless patience and tolerance, who had never once voiced any grievances. And yet this person had been hurt so deeply by his selfishness, jealousy, and reckless actions, left broken beyond repair—and still, he hadn’t killed him. Still, he had let him go. Still, he had kept it all a secret.
“If I’m willing to become a stranger?” the figure in the room on the East Shore softly said.
“I will take good care of him. Please rest assured.” said the man standing straight before the Chu family tombstone, his gaze lowered.
“Take him away and protect him. This is an order!” Amidst the gunshots one after another, the look that looked at him deeply was revealed.
In the end, that man still chose to protect him.
The pain in his heart was sharp, as though a blade had pierced through it, so intense that he couldn’t make a sound. His strength seemed to drain away, his chest tight with suffocation. His body swayed, and large tears spilt from Chu Yunhan’s eyes, scalding as they fell onto the scarred body of the man before him.
“I’m sorry… I don’t know… I don’t know anything… I’m sorry…” Chu Yunhan choked and spoke, trembling with every word. His hand, trembling as well, hesitated to touch the body before him, afraid of offending the man who lay there. In the end, he could only stand there, helpless and unsure of what to do.
Chu Yichen frowned deeply and never opened his eyes.
Seeing the two of them like this, Zhang Juan said helplessly, “Young Master Yun, you should return to your room first.”
Chu Yunhan shook his head persistently, “I want to stay here.”
“He needs a quiet rest.” Dr. Zhang had no choice but to persuade him again.
“I won’t talk. I’ll just stay here… I won’t make a sound…”
Zhang Juan sighed and hardened his heart, “Your presence here affects his mood and the treatment. I’m the doctor; you have to listen to me.”
Chu Yunhan looked at Zhang Juan with reddened eyes, then at the man lying on the bed. After a moment of silence, he softly said, “Then… I’ll wait outside…” Finally, he lowered his head and walked out.
Once the door closed, the doctor sat by the bed, his gaze falling on Chu Yichen’s arm, where the veins bulged as he gripped the edge of the bed tightly. With a hint of exasperation, Zhang Juan said, “I know you don’t want him to see you like this, but if he doesn’t know anything, the stalemate between you two will never end. Now that he’s gone, stop holding it in. If it hurts, just cry out.”
The man still remained silent, his eyes tightly shut, completely motionless.
Chu Yunhan didn’t return to his room, instead choosing to stay outside Chu Yichen’s door. No matter how Du Chuan tried to persuade him, he stubbornly refused to move. The butler, seeing that he wouldn’t budge, reluctantly had a single sofa brought in so he could sit for a while.
He just sat on the sofa and waited. Sometimes, he stared blankly at the door, other times he lowered his head, lost in thought, his eyes red. Occasionally, he wiped at the corners of his eyes with the back of his hand. The slightest movement of the door would make him lift his head like a rabbit, nervously glancing around.
More than two hours later, Zhang Juan and his assistants came out. Chu Yunhan immediately jumped up from the sofa and asked anxiously, “Is he feeling better?”
The doctor nodded. “The pain’s passed, but he’s too weak to get up for the time being. I think that when he fully recovers, he’ll be the first to kill me, so I’m making a quick exit now.” He smiled at him, adding, “You two… really…”
Before he finished speaking, Bai Xiao came out and said with a grin, “Doctor Zhang, the Young Master’s order has come. They want to arrest you and put you in solitary confinement. If you don’t run now, I’ll have to take action.”
“This guy…” Zhang Juan cursed, then quickly slipped downstairs.
Chu Yunhan was about to enter but was stopped by Bai Xiao.
“Young Master wants you to go back and rest.”
“I’ll just take a look at him.”
“He… doesn’t want to see you now.”
Hearing this sentence, the corners of his eyes turned red again. He stood dryly for a while and murmured, “I’ll stay here. Whenever he wants to see me, he can call me.”
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