In the past few days, as the company matters were mostly sorted out, Shen Muchuan had more time to spend with Chu Yan. However, he noticed that ever since the night he tied Chu Yan, he rarely slept with the lights off at night. There was always a small lamp on, seemingly haunted by that incident.
Next door, there were a few households, and during the day, children would often climb the trees to pick fruits. The palm trees were tall and green. Chu Yan was leaning on a hammock between two trees, dressed in a loose and comfortable white t-shirt. He held a small wooden bucket containing frozen ice cream in his arms, enjoying it while tilting his head to watch the kids picking fruits.
Those kids seemed to really like him. After picking the fruits, Chu Yan shared his ice cream with them, and they all sat under the tree together, enjoying the ice cream.
Shen Muchuan walked over, sat down next to him, and glanced at the ice cream bucket. He noticed that there was only half a box of mango-flavored ice cream left.
He picked up the spoon from Chu Yan’s side, scooped out a big spoonful, and took a bite under Chu Yan’s gaze. He asked, “It seems like you’re having a good time playing with them.”
Chu Yan saw his actions and hesitated for a moment, then simply handed the entire ice cream bucket to him. His tone was calm as he said, “Anyway, you’re not going to let me go, so isn’t this fine too?”
Shen Muchuan was taken aback for a moment, then slowly revealed a smile that was half-smile, half-not: “It’s good if Brother really thinks that way.”
Chu Yan gave a cold smile and didn’t say anything more, getting up and heading back to the villa.
Watching his departing figure, the expression in Shen Muchuan’s eyes gradually grew darker, and eventually he let out a sigh, tossing the ice cream he was holding into the nearby trash can.
—
In the afternoon, Shen Muchuan went out for a while. When he returned, it was around 6 in the evening. He rolled up his sleeves and glanced at Chu Yan, who was watching TV on the couch, then asked, “Brother, what would you like to eat tonight?”
“Eating crabs,” Chu Yan lounged on the couch, lazily looking at the TV and said, “Seafood porridge.”
Normally, he wouldn’t have said it like this; he usually just accepted whatever was offered. Shen Muchuan was a bit surprised by this change, but since Chu Yan rarely expressed his preferences, Shen Muchuan naturally couldn’t refuse.
“Other than crabs and seafood porridge, is there anything else?” Shen Muchuan walked over and smiled.
Chu Yan rested his chin on his hand, his gaze fixed on the TV program without moving. “Nothing else.”
Shen Muchuan responded in a good mood and then immediately made a phone call to have some fresh crabs delivered.
About an hour later, dinner was ready. Shen Muchuan roughly tidied up the kitchen and set the dishes on the table. Just as he was about to call Chu Yan to come over and eat, when he entered the living room, he noticed that only the TV was on, and he had no idea where Chu Yan had gone.
“Brother?”
“Brother?!”
Shen Muchuan searched the first floor but couldn’t find him. He turned and headed to the second floor, until he smelled a strong burning odor coming from one of the rooms.
He quickly identified where the smell was coming from, took three steps in one, and his heart skipped a beat. He rushed over and opened the door.
Without turning his head, Chu Yan threw everything he had in his hands into the brazier.
Seeing what he was holding, Shen Muchuan’s body tensed for a moment. After quickly reacting, he pushed Chu Yan aside without hesitation. He rushed over, kicked the still burning brazier away, and used his hands to extinguish the fire on the photographs.
The strong smell of burnt photographs hung heavy in the air, and Chu Yan just stood on the side watching him, not saying a word.
“What are you doing?!” Shen Muchuan’s voice came coldly, in the silence of the night, it sounded eerie and deep.
Chu Yan lowered his eyes and said softly, “Nothing much, just burning some useless stuff.”
Useless stuff?
Their previous photographs, were they really useless to him?
In almost an instant, Shen Muchuan’s anger ignited in response to that statement. He couldn’t contain himself as he yelled at Chu Yan, his eyes slightly reddened, “Qiao Yue!”
Nearly a dozen photographs were burned to pieces, and there were quite a few ashes under the fire pit. Shen Muchuan looked at these pictures and couldn’t help but tremble uncontrollably. Then he abruptly stood up, grabbed Chu Yan’s wrist, and forcefully dragged him to the adjacent master bedroom.
This time, he paid no heed to Chu Yan’s vigorous resistance. He found a rope and unhesitatingly tied one of Chu Yan’s hands tightly to the bedpost.
After Chu Yan was tied up, he struggled for a while but eventually realized he couldn’t break free. He gave up resisting altogether.
“Brother, you’ve really made me furious.” Shen Muchuan clenched his teeth tightly. He remained calm for a while before squeezing out a sentence from between his teeth.
“If you insist on doing things that anger me, then it’s better for you not to wander around recklessly. Stay here from now on.”
Chu Yan looked at him expressionlessly, his gaze cold and without a word.
Shen Muchuan went back and arranged the badly burned photographs in a new album, then he brought the prepared porridge from the kitchen downstairs. He pulled out a chair and sat in front of Chu Yan, asking, “Do you want to eat on your own or do you want me to feed you?”
Chu Yan refused to eat, and even knocked over his bowl with a direct motion. Seeing this, Shen Muchuan’s gloomy expression grew darker. He stared at him for quite some time before going downstairs to refill a bowl. He abruptly stood up, gripped Chu Yan’s chin, and forcibly poured the porridge down his throat.
This state of affairs continued for about a week. Every time Chu Yan refused to eat, Shen Muchuan would resort to this method to make him ingest food.
By the fourth day, when Shen Muchuan noticed signs of Chu Yan’s low blood sugar, he immediately arranged for nutrients to be administered through an IV drip.
However, the nutrients from the IV drip could only sustain the basic nutritional needs of the body. In just a few days, Shen Muchuan observed Chu Yan visibly growing thinner.
Though he had been somewhat lenient before, the thought of what Chu Yan had done, the memories of those photos, ignited an uncontrollable storm of anger within Shen Muchuan.
At noon, Shen Muchuan prepared a meal. When he entered the room, Chu Yan was half-leaning against the bed, covered by a thin blanket. His gaze was fixed quietly on the window, his expression cold and silent.
Shen Muchuan walked over and, as usual, touched Chu Yan’s forehead with the back of his hand. However, he felt that it was a bit too hot. Without hesitation, he called the island’s doctor to give Chu Yan a fever-reducing injection. During the process, Chu Yan complied without much resistance.
Shen Muchuan thought that maybe Chu Yan was just tired from all the commotion, and he even considered letting him go if he listened to him for a few more days.
This low-grade fever persisted for three days. On the third night, Shen Muchuan lay next to Chu Yan and was startled to find that his skin temperature was alarmingly high.
In the middle of the night, the doctor was summoned. After a brief examination, the conclusion was made: pneumonia. The doctor administered an anti-inflammatory injection to help reduce the fever.
Watching the almost delirious Chu Yan lying on the bed, Shen Muchuan nodded.
However, what Shen Muchuan didn’t anticipate was that in the latter half of the night after the doctor had left, Chu Yan, who had been administered fever-reducing medication, not only didn’t get better, but his condition worsened. His face turned crimson from the fever, and his whole body was trembling uncontrollably.
Shen Muchuan had no choice but to directly take Chu Yan to the nearest hospital on the island the next morning.
The doctor conducted a thorough examination and then asked Shen Muchuan if he could provide Chu Yan’s identification card so that they could check his medical history.
Shen Muchuan was taken aback for a moment, wondering why they needed to check Chu Yan’s medical history for a common case of pneumonia. Could there be some other underlying issues?
The doctor quickly shook his head to explain, “Oh, no, no… It’s just that the patient had a previous surgery, and we’d like to understand more about it and see if there are any precautions we need to take.”
Hearing this, Shen Muchuan’s mind seemed to be slow to catch up, and he asked, “…What surgery?”
Seeing his puzzled expression, the doctor also felt unsure, “You’re not aware? The patient clearly underwent surgery due to a car accident in the past. There are several surgical scars on his body that haven’t fully healed. It looks quite serious.”
Shen Muchuan’s eyebrows involuntarily furrowed, but he didn’t press further. Instead, he nodded at the doctor and said, “Alright, but it might take a while… I’ll send someone to get it.”
The doctor added, “There’s another thing, the patient has a severe case of anemia. His blood type is rare, and our hospital’s blood bank doesn’t have a matching supply…”
Shen Muchuan calmly interjected, “My blood type is the same as his. You can use mine.”
The doctor exclaimed in surprise, “Such a coincidence?! The probability of that is very low.”
Shen Muchuan only furrowed his brows at this, suddenly recalling his high school days when he was in a car accident due to speeding. The hospital couldn’t find a matching blood supply for him at the time, and it was actually Chu Yan who came to donate blood to him.
A whole 500 milliliters, and after the transfusion, Chu Yan ended up being sicker than he was, taking almost two months to fully recover. Back then, he even had suspicions that his adoptive parents might have adopted him because they knew about Chu Yan’s rare blood type.
After all, individuals with this blood type are extremely rare. Once an accident occurs and a matching blood supply can’t be found in time, it’s a very frightening situation to be in.
Thinking of this, a vague recollection of some forgotten memories seemed to emerge in Shen Muchuan’s mind, but they were mere fragments, impossible to grasp.
About ten minutes later, Shen Muchuan’s subordinate brought over Chu Yan’s identification card as instructed.
The doctor adjusted his position and paused his finger over the mouse for a moment before looking at Shen Muchuan, saying, “Indeed, there is such a record. It states that the kidney rupture was caused by a car accident…”
Shen Muchuan suddenly sat up straight, staring at the doctor and cutting in, “What did you say?”
Taken aback by his sudden intensity, the doctor hesitated and said, “The medical record does indeed indicate that. Is there something wrong?”
Shen Muchuan’s knuckles turned white as he clenched his hands into fists, gritting his teeth, “No, please continue.”
“The medical record only has this much information. It seems that a kidney source was found later, and an immediate kidney transplant was performed… Actually, that’s quite fortunate. In theory, people with special blood types face greater challenges in finding suitable organ donors.”
If the first statement had left him doubtful, this one immediately clicked with Shen Muchuan. He had always assumed that Chu Yan harbored hatred towards him, leading to his extreme ways of seeking revenge. Yet he had never quite understood the reason behind that hatred, nor had he wanted to.
Perhaps it was due to his childhood actions of bullying Chu Yan repeatedly, or perhaps Chu Yan had been suppressing something for far too long…
However, regardless of the reasons, he couldn’t fathom why Chu Yan could commit such harsh actions. It was as if, to Chu Yan, they weren’t family who had been together for over a decade, but rather some irreconcilable enemy.
Yet he had never considered that perhaps Chu Yan wasn’t seeking revenge, but had been compelled to make those decisions out of necessity?
Blood pulsed in his temples, each beat sending waves of sound through his ears, strong and urgent.
His mind blanked for an indeterminate period. Slowly, he stood up from the chair, in a daze, only able to hear the thumping of his heart within his chest.
So, had he been wrong in his hatred for the past five years?
He recalled the incident from two months ago when they were in the hotel elevator. Chu Yan had asked him how he had been these past five years. At the time, he had only thought Chu Yan was being insincere and hypocritical, but maybe it wasn’t the case…
Perhaps Chu Yan truly meant it. Perhaps he was genuinely worried about him and cared for him?
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