Gu Xun looked at Qi Cong’s red eyes and suddenly bent over to hold his face. He leaned over and looked Qi Cong in the eyes. In a heavy and ruthless tone he said, “I won’t let go, Qi Cong. Even if you’re really crazy, I won’t let you go. You can’t drive me away.” With that, he straightened up and grasped Qi Cong’s hand, which was trying to abuse himself, then made way for the doctor to examine him.

Qi Cong was forced to look at Gu Xun, and in a twisted and chaotic world, only Gu Xun’s dark eyes were extremely clear.

His heart tightened and his consciousness, which was about to collapse, became a little clearer. Qi Cong stared into his dark eyes full of ruthlessness that were incomparably clear.

His heart clenched and his consciousness, that was about to collapse again, cleared up a little. As he stared into Gu Xun’s dark eyes he struggled even more fiercely.

No, don’t show such a look again.

Obviously everything was already better.

He has begun to earn money, people no longer scold him, and “Chivalrous Bones” has earned a lot of encouragement and support. He even planned to go to the movies with Gu Xun. Clearly he has already taken the first step so why, why him? Why him…. Why him!

Why was it him!

He struggled like crazy as his hands were restrained, he hit his head against the bed rail, biting his tongue with his teeth and pinching his palm with his nails. He tried to do all the things that would make him feel pain, trying to stay awake by torturing his body in this way.

Someone around him was saying something to him, but he was unable to distinguish what he heard. Panic, anger and pain took over his mind, and he just knew he couldn’t fall asleep, he absolutely couldn’t. If he slept, his life may no longer be his life, his family, friends and loved ones would also be in endless pain.

Can’t sleep…can not sleep!

His wide open eyes were suddenly covered as darkness descended, and then an urgent and deep voice rang in his ears. “Find a way to calm him, quick! He’s bleeding!”

No it was dark, he didn’t want it to be so dark.

Fear swelled infinitely, and Qi Cong frantically struggled, trying to get rid of the darkness. In a panic, his lips met the culprit that kept him immobile, and he couldn’t resist opening his mouth and biting down hard.

A muffled grunt sounded in his ears, and then his head was gently touched.

“Cong.” Someone’s voice drifted from far away, hazy and not very clear. “It’s really okay, don’t be afraid, it’s okay.”

It was really okay?

He really didn’t have to be afraid?

The tip of his tongue tasted blood, and he felt pain in his arms, then a cold liquid entered his body.

He continued to hear a soothing voice coaxing him, as his head was tenderly stroked. Qi Cong was unsure of how long later it was when he slowly loosened his teeth. He was horrified to find that his control over his limbs was weakening. He felt a ferocious sleepiness overwhelming the pain in his brain and coming towards his consciousness, which was holding on to its clarity.

No.

The hand covering his eyes has long been removed so his world was no longer distorted and chaotic making everything clear and stable again. But Qi Cong knew that it was over. He looked at Gu Xun, who had been appeasing him and tried to hold on to his clothes, before being completely captured by sleep and said with difficulty, “Quickly…run…don’t let “that” have the opportunity to hurt you…run.”

 

…….

 

The darkness fell completely.

 

…….

 

On the hospital bed, Gu Xun laid at the head of the bed, holding Qi Cong firmly in his arms. He slowly loosened his arms and looked at the man who was sleeping peacefully. He reached out and touched the red and swollen bumps on the side of Qi Cong’s head beside the bed rail, opened his fingers and looked at his bleeding palm, then touched the bruise marks on his arm caused by the previous struggle.  Lowering his eyes for a few quiet seconds, Gu Xun looked at the doctor packing up the syringe that was used to sedate Qi Cong and asked, “How long will this injection put him to sleep?”

“Three to four hours. To ask a more presumptuous question, has the patient ever had a history of mental illness?” The doctor looked at Gu Xun and Shen Jia and frowned. “His condition doesn’t seem to be just caused by almost drowning.”

As soon as these words came out, Gu Xun and Shen Jia, who was standing in front of Qi Cong, looked at the situation helplessly, all changing their expressions. Shen Jia hesitated, wanted to speak but finally closed his mouth as he just looked at Gu Xun.

Gu Xun tightened his arms holding Qi Cong and didn’t answer the doctor’s question. Instead, he got up and gently put Qi Cong on the hospital bed, covered him with a quilt, and said to the doctor, “Please come with me.” 

With that, he got up and walked out.

Seeing this, Shen Jia took a step forward and asked, “Where are you going?”

Gu Xun paused, looked back at the hospital bed, then reached out and put on the cap left on the chair by the door. “I will go and deal with the media, and take care of the hospital admission. Qi Cong’s current situation can’t be discovered. Take good care of Qi Cong. I’ll be back soon. “

 

……

 

Qi Cong found himself waking up to a consciousness that couldn’t sense his own body and he found himself trapped in a round spherical container.

Surrounded by an unsettling darkness, he instinctively rushed forward. After an unknown amount of time, he suddenly noticed a bright light coming through from where he had just hit.

He got excited and rushed toward the bright light.

Wow.

It was like a curtain being lifted, the darkness was instantly replaced by whiteness and then a blurry image wavered into existence.

“Zhaoyan, do you plan to return to your hometown or stay in Haicheng?”

The layout was of a very cozy coffee shop. Two men sat opposite each other by the window.  Among them, the man with glasses stirred his coffee and looked at the unhappy man opposite him as he advised, “The world is like this. It doesn’t matter, if you have no capital, you’re an easy target for bullying. Say…. Yeah? Zhaoyan? Zhaoyan, are you listening to me? What are you looking at?”

He spoke while following the other party’s line of sight. Seeing the situation outside the coffee shop,  he gave a strange, “Ho -ho” and said strangely, “So young but driving such a car, he’s a rich second generation for sure. The coffee shop waiter here is also snobbish; when we came in he didn’t even lift his eyes. Yet when this person driving a luxury car came, he went out to greet him with a smile on his face, like a dog seeing shit.”

This image wasn’t from the perspective of God, but from a head on view. Qi Cong found that he had a body and was translucent, with a ball of light in his hand.

What was even more frightening was that this coffee shop in front of him was extremely familiar – this setup and decoration was clearly of the coffee shop where Gu Xun worked from before!

He realized something, but before he could react, he found that “he” also looked out the window along with the man with glasses.

Qi Cong saw himself. To be exact, he saw himself from three years ago as well as Gu Xun, who was in a coffee shop waiter’s uniform.

He saw himself standing by a dark blue car, handing a bag that he was carrying to Gu Xun who greeted him. Gu Xun’s expression was full of joyful surprise as he took the bag, after which he gestured to the side of the coffee shop, as if inviting him.

Qi Cong saw himself shaking his head and saying something. Then he turned to pull the car door open, and Gu Xun’s smile crumbled. Just seconds later he smiled again and thoughtfully helped him close the door. Gu Xun then backed up and watched the car drive away without withdrawing his sight for a long time.

Qi Cong looked at the Gu Xun from three years ago and didn’t withdraw his eyes for a long time as well.

He remembered this scene.

Three years ago, just before he “fell asleep” in the past, in order to help Gu Xun better adapt to university courses, he specially sought out a suitable set of teaching aids and a study syllabus to give Gu Xun. He handed them over to Gu Xun before returning to school to attend a speech.

At that time, because he was in a hurry, he left after delivering them and said less than 10 words to Gu Xun.

He didn’t know that after he had left, Gu Xun stood in place and looked in the direction he drove away for a long time. He also didn’t know that this would actually be the last time the two of them would meet in that coffee shop.

A guess gradually became clear, and Qi Cong withdrew “his” line of sight and looked at Jiang Zhaoyan, who hadn’t spoken during this time.

It turned out that he and Jiang Zhaoyan met that way.

The man with glasses had also withdrawn his sight, and once again looked at Jiang Zhaoyan, who still looked very youthful and simple. “Did you hear what I just said? Did you know that person just now?”

“I don’t know him.” Jiang Zhaoyan retracted his eyes. His expression held a strong sense of arrogance and resignation, as well as a hint of contempt. He asked the man wearing glasses, “Do you think that man’s car was bought with his own strength?”

The man with glasses snorted. “How is that possible?! What exactly are you trying to say?”

“What I want to say is that in the future, I will buy a better car than that with my own strength and trample that kind of rich second generation who relies on their family to flaunt their power.” Jiang Zhaoyan threw the coffee spoon into the cup and spat word by word, “I will never go back to my hometown, I want to stay here.”

Qi Cong found “himself” listening to these words, then moved his gaze to look outside the coffee shop again, gently flicking the “ball of light” in his hand.

The powerless panic and cold hatred intertwined together and steamed up, burning Qi Cong’s sense of reason. It also burned away the smooth image in front of him.

So… this was the beginning of everything?

His world reverted to all white, and then another image appeared.

Qi Cong once again saw himself, lying peacefully in a dormitory bed, and found the translucent “person” standing next to his bed. Then, he watched as the translucent “being” approached him while he slept peacefully. After some careful observation, the being threw the ball of light.

No!

Qi Cong with red eyes tried to rush forward to stop the release of the “ball of light”, but to no avail. His restlessness once again made the picture distorted and dissipate, then another image gradually became clear.

Qi Cong found that “he” really became himself. He was standing in the bathroom with the sink and mirror in front of him, looking at his own face and body.

Then he heard himself say to the mirror with an unfamiliar expression and an unfamiliar tone. “Qi Cong… such a strange name. He looked at you for so long so he should like this appearance.” He then saw himself move closer to the mirror and moved back and forth, as if to observe his facial features, vaguely disgusted. “Tch, his sense of aesthetic really hasn’t changed even after several worlds. It’s always this kind of girlish little thing.”

Qi Cong clenched his teeth and looked at his strange self in the mirror as if it was an enemy. He felt so angry, but he was extremely calm at the same time.

So that’s the reason?

Just because Jiang Zhaoyan looked at him through the window of the coffee shop for a while, this strange man decided to take away his body and life.

Over his dead body.

Don’t even think about it!

The image was shattered by his fiercely turbulent emotions, and the world returned to an ominous blackness. Qi Cong looked at the only light in the darkness in front of him, gathered all his will and with the resolute idea of burning the stone jumped over there.

Buzz…

A sense of pain and dizziness attacked the depth of his soul as the light expanded, there were countless images flashing in front of his eyes, trying to involve Qi Cong.

Qi Cong gritted his teeth as he tried to endure it, then he once again hit it with full force.

Restless, powerful souls have the potential to counterbalance the taskmaster; he may not be strong enough, but he was restless. He can persevere forever and never die.

 

…..

 

Sickbay.

Originally, a peacefully sleeping Qi Cong suddenly opened his eyes. He looked straight at the ceiling for a few seconds, then twisted his head to look at Shen Jia and Zhao Zhenxun, who were standing outside the half-opened ward talking. Then he lifted his hand and turned them in front of his eyes.

“I can’t believe it took so long.” He spoke in a low voice, then withdrew his hand and sat up, adjusted his expression for a moment before he finally settled on weakness and called out toward the hospital room door, “Jia Jia, Brother Zhao.”

Hearing the sound, Shen Jia and Zhao Zhenxun stopped talking, pushed past the door and walked in quickly.

 

Edited by: Antiope1

 

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