Huo Shaoheng finished speaking. He quietly sat beside Song Jinning and crossed his arms, his eyes looking straight ahead. His mind was going through the measures he he would need to take in order to protect Song Jinning and prevent Bai Jinyi from sinking her teeth into her. He needed to remove Bai Jinyi’s name from the authorization in the classified military document.
Song Jinning had just awoken. Time seemed to have cast a spell on her—she was the unfortunate Sleeping Beauty who had woken up to find neither a beloved prince nor the world she had known; she was part of a twisted nightmare. Song Jinning’s eyes were dim as she sluggishly raised her hand to rub at her temples, then slowly closed her eyes again. She didn’t say anything either. The room was so quiet that one could have heard a pin drop: the air seemed to grow heavy.
Chen Lie and Gu Nianzhi were collecting the data in the small study on the other side of the suite. Suddenly, a small program on Chen Lie’s computer began sounding its alarms. Gu Nianzhi, who had been sorting the data on his computer, was shocked.
“Brother Chen, hurry over here! What’s going on?”
Chen Lie looked up from a pile of books as thick as bricks. His blurred eyes remain on Gu Nianzhi before he finally registered the alarms from the computer. He frantically pushed the books aside and rushed over to the computer Gu Nianzhi was at and peered at it. “Oh no! There’s been a change in Mrs. Song’s condition in the other room!” Chen Lie’s heart plummeted as he turned to run towards the operating room.
Gu Nianzhi hastily glanced at the blaring computer program: it had been set up so that when the data change on the other side exceeded a certain warning threshold, it would sound the alarm to alert Chen Lie. She threw down the data she had been sorting out and ran out after him.
…
“Boss! Boss! Open the door! Has something happened?” Chen Lie pounded on the door as he tried to get in.
Gu Nianzhi stood anxiously beside him and couldn’t help shouting as well, “Huo Shao? Huo Shao? Is Mrs. Song ok?”
The door quietly opened to reveal Huo Shaoheng standing impassively behind it. He asked, “What are you all doing?”
“I just heard my alarm program sound! There must be something wrong with Mrs. Song’s condition! Otherwise the alarm wouldn’t go off!” Chen Lie desperately tried to squeeze inside to take a look.
Huo Shaoheng glanced at Gu Nianzhi and she nodded. “Yes, it’s an alarm program connected to the instruments in here. The certain data from Mrs. Song must have exceeded the body’s capacity to handle, so that’s why the alarm went off to alert the doctor about the patient’s condition.”
“Yes, that’s right!” Chen Lie nodded furiously in agreement, then seemed to think of something else and turned to look at Gu Nianzhiz “How did you know that? You peeked at my program?”
“When did I ever peek? Your program jumped up and I saw it clearly, that’s all.” Gu Nianzhi stabbed her finger at Chen Lie’s shoulder with dissatisfaction. “Brother Chen, all that data was very clear. It was all common sense, alright?”
Chen Lie pouted. After his blow from Song Jinning today, he was now shocked by Gu Nianzhi. This family, how could they all be geniuses? Give me a break, he thought forlornly. Chen Lie just wanted to stoop in a corner and wallow in his humiliation.
Huo Shaoheng shot him a glance and opened the door. “Go in and look.”
Chen Lie rushed inside and ran straight to the medical instruments besides Song Jinning’s operating chair.
Gu Nianzhi wanted to follow him in too, but was blocked by Huo Shaoheng. She walked left and he went the same way. She then walked right and he followed as well. He kept blocking her. Gu Nianzhi grew annoyed. “Huo Shao, what are you doing? Let me go in and see Mrs. Song! I did donate all that blood marrow, so I have a right to see the results of my medical contribution.”
“Your medical contribution? Did Chen Lie allow you to put it that way?” Huo Shaoheng scoffed before making his towards the long sofa by the door and taking a seat. He crossed one leg and looked up at her. “Come sit here, ” he ordered.
Gu Nianzhi turned instead to look inside the operating room, and then back at Huo Shaoheng. Although his face remained the same as usual, she somehow sensed that something was not right. It was so well hidden that the average person would never notice. However, Gu Nianzhi knew better from spending all her time with him over the last six years. She walked over to sit beside him and asked in a quiet voice, “Huo Shao, what was that earlier?”
“I told my mother all the major events that happened in the past 16 years, and I think she maybe she didn’t take it that well.” Huo Shaoheng sighed. Was he being too unreasonable? Or was his mother weaker than before? Huo Shaoheng wondered.
Gu Nianzhi intuited what he was really thinking and said, “It’s not because you were being too unreasonable, nor is Mrs. Song weaker than before. I think you need to be more patient. Mrs. Song’s body hasn’t stabilized yet, so your words were likely too much of an emotional shock to her. That’s why there is a change in her condition.”
Huo Shaoheng crossed his arms. His face was stern as he stayed silent for a while. He then shook his head and said, “There’s not much time left. It’s better to know earlier than later, so as long as she survives this, she can finally think about the future. Otherwise, there is no hope for her.”
Gu Nianzhi rarely saw Huo Shaoheng so grim. He was always serious, but still had considerable energy and optimism. But now, he seemed to have lost his confidence in the face of the situation at hand.
“Don’t worry, it’ll be ok.” Gu Nianzhi racked her brain to think of a way to console him. She raised her arms and clenched her fists in a cheering stance and then asked him, “You can doubt others, but you can believe in me right? And in Brother Chen! With my great bone marrow and Brother Chen’s amazing medical skills, Mrs. Song will be ok for sure!”
“Is that so?” Huo Shaoheng revealed a trace of a smile. “But, what if something were to happen?”
“So what if something happens? Then we’ll extract more bone marrow! I’m not afraid! I have plenty of it.” Gu Nianzhi boldly patted her chest and joked in front of Huo Shaoheng in the hope he would feel less worried.
Huo Shaoheng patted her head, “Good girl. Does it still hurt?”
“Nope, I’m all better.” Gu Nianzhi could feel her scalp tingle from where Huo Shaoheng had touched her. She couldn’t help glancing at him from the side to sneak a look, then stealthily reached out to grab his hand.
However, Huo Shaoheng quietly raised his hand to take out a pack of cigarettes from his trouser pockets. He stood up and spoke before getting up to leave, “I’m going to have a smoke.” He quickly walked away.
Gu Nianzhi face fell. She looked at her hands and clenched them together. She sat on the sofa alone and waited for Chen Lie.
Chen Lie worked in the operating room for 15 minutes before confirming that all of Song Jinning’s vitals were ok. Although it had exceeded normal values by quite a margin, there had actually been no major effect on Song Jinning’s basic health. In other words, her body had been able to handle the emotional turmoil. If it had been any other person who had been subjected to such a huge shock just after regaining consciousness, they probably would have gone crazy. However, Song Jinning was completely fine. Chen Lie finished checking her and stared at the data silently for a long time. In the end, he could only conclude that Gu Nianzhi’s bone marrow had integrated extremely well into Song Jinning’s body. The integration had not only repaired her damaged genes, but had also strengthened her original genes and improved her overall health. This result was incredible. Chen Lie decided once again that all data related to Gu Nianzhi’s body had to be completely destroyed. It wasn’t enough to seal them—as long as the data existed, there was the possibility that someone would discover it. Destruction was the only option. No wonder Huo Shaoheng always did this before and forbade Chen Lie from retaining any data related to Gu Nianzhi’s health, the doctor realized. When Song Jinning finally left Operating Room B, she was at her limit and slept in exhaustion. Huo Shaoheng went out for a smoke and didn’t come back.
Chen Lie shut off the lights in Operating Room B and walked out only to see Gu Nianzhi sitting alone by the door. “Stay here, I’ll go run the program with the data myself. You’ve already written the program, right?”
“Yep, it’s done. You just have to feed in the data.” Gu Nianzhi propped her chin in both hands and sat on the couch, staring blankly at the coffee table in front of her.
Chen Lie waved behind him before returning to his small study.
Soon after Chen Lie left, Song Jinning opened her eyes in Operating Room B. She lay alone in the pitch black room, but Huo Shaoheng’s words echoed in her head.
“Mother, He…Father…had divorced you over ten years ago.”