IAPVH Chapter 19.2

“Duan Min, what happened to you?”

You Xu noticed something wrong with him. He was drenched by the rain, and tiny water droplets hung on his fine eyelashes. However, she felt the overheated temperature coming through his body.

His body temperature was usually ten degrees lower than a normal person’s.

You Xu labored to drag him back to the room. Although Duan Min was not an ordinary person, it was uncomfortable to keep wearing cold and wet clothes.

She drew a basin of hot water and tried to change his clothes. It was only after taking off his black clothes did she realize that his body was flushed red. His veins bulged out prominently, and his muscles twitched and convulsed.

His palm was bright red with blood from wounds he scratched on himself, but he could not say a single word. He tried his best to suppress the screams in his throat.

“Stop, Duan Min. Stop scratching!” You Xu felt her eyes water and held his palm. Duan Min broke away and grabbed his neck with his other hand, tearing off a layer of skin.

In an instant, You Xu could not hold it in anymore. Her vision blurred as tears fell down her cheeks.

A crystalline tear dropped and slid past his eyebrow. Duan Min’s eyelids moved, and his lashes trembled like flapping butterfly wings. He opened his eyes which were bright red like blood.

“Don’t… be scared.” His voice was painfully horse and trembled from the pain he was enduring.

“Tell me what to do.” You Xu wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “How can I help you?”

“Go to the lab and get the medicine. It… It’s on the second or third layer of the medicine cabinet.” It took him several slow breaths to complete his sentence.

You Xu took the key and immediately ran to the laboratory. Following Duan Min’s instructions, she took three syringes and seven bottles of large and small medicine vials.

Duan Min took the medicine vials and downed them without even looking. When he reached for the syringe, You Xu grabbed it first and said, “I’ll do it.”

It was already very arduous for him to take medicine in his current state, let alone use injections.

However, You Xu had no experience in this sort of thing, nor had she ever given anyone a shot. After filling up the syringe, her hand shook slightly as she aimed the needle at his vein. She gritted her teeth and plunged the needle in but missed her mark.

Duan Min did not react. He looked at her quietly with dependence in his eyes.

You Xu’s chaotic heart suddenly calmed down. She took a deep breath, bit her lower lip, and tried again. Finally, she got the position right and slowly injected the medicine.

By the time all three injections were finished, You Xu was drenched in sweat and collapsed in exhaustion.

Duan Min closed his eyes. “Go out.”

“No.” You Xu’s voice was wet with tears. “I’m not afraid.”

She held his wrist.

That night was the longest and most difficult night of You Xu’s life. Duan Min would break out in cold sweat one moment and suddenly burn up and convulse in another. Many times, his breathing grew so weak that she thought he stopped completely.

At dawn, the wind died down, and the rain stopped.

Duan Min’s breathing finally began to calm, and his body temperature stabilized. The first thing he saw when he opened his eyes was You Xu’s red-rimmed eyes.

You Xu wanted to say something but could not find the words. The mess of emotions and her myriad questions turned into a sigh of relief. She did not know where to start and simply glared at him.

Duan Min laughed.

“You’re laughing? Are you seriously laughing? What are you laughing about, huh?” You Xu continued to glare at him.

She waited, thinking that Duan Min would explain what happened last night. Instead, he suddenly asked, “Have you watched the news?”

You Xu: “…”

She could not keep up with his thoughts at all. How would she have been in the mood to watch the news while he was in that state last night?

You Xu’s face was stern. “No, I didn’t. What news are you talking about? Is this the time to watch the news?”

Why aren’t you explaining what the hell happened last night? Did you charge into the gates of hell? You came back with one foot in the grave.

Duan Min did not have the strength to sit up, so he could only say, “Have a look.”

You Xu was speechless for a moment. In the end, she did as he said and picked up her phone to read the news. As soon as she opened up the front page, the astonishing and eye-catching headline jumped out at her.

[Xu Shaosi sleeps with a beauty and airs his father’s dirty laundry—

[Xu Shaosi and Lin Lanlan breaks up! Xu Shaosi caught spending the night with another woman—

[Xu Shaosi claimed that mansions and villas are all proceeds of Xu Tengwang’s bribery—

[Relevant departments have opened up an investigation regarding—

You Xu continued scrolling and found a series of censored photos of a man and woman in the act. The bodies were overlaid with mosaic, revealing just two faces. One was Xu Shaosi, and the other was a beautiful woman with wavy hair.

The videos were all deleted quickly, but there were still some audio clips. You Xu listened to one in which Xu Shaosi said, “Yeah, you’re still the best. Lin Lanlan is too arrogant to moan like you.”

“My father received 500,000 from someone the day before yesterday. I asked him for the money immediately.”

“Isn’t there a road construction project that’s still in the planning stage? We’ll rake in another fortune when my father wins the project.”

…

The newest video was of Xu Shaosi being blocked in front of the hotel. He said in anger and embarrassment, “I didn’t do it. It wasn’t me. I’ve never said those words before.”

A reporter asked him, “Then how do you explain the videos and photos that are currently going viral now? I’ve heard that the audio files have been checked by professionals, and the voice in the audio clip has a 98% similarity index as your voice.”

Xu Shaosi was struck speechless.

The reporter continued to press him. “Please answer the question.”

…

After reading the articles, You Xu turned off her phone and understood that Xu Shaosi was, for lack of a better word, fucked. The golden boy fell into the quagmire overnight.

Duan Min: “Are you happy?”

“Huh?”

He smiled gently and repeated, “Are you happier now?”

You Xu was stunned and opened her mouth. “You…”

“It wasn’t hard.” Duan Min said easily. “I just went to that hotel, manipulated him to be intimate with a woman, made him spill a few truths, and record the video and upload it.”

There were many people in the hotel and a lot of foot and road traffic on the way back and forth from the hotel. How long did he have to stay in that unfamiliar environment?

…That was how he got sick. He endured it to the point where he could not even open the door when he finished his goal and came home.

His voice was still weak, and his face was fragile and pale. The red veins in his eyes had not faded away yet.

However, he smiled at her and asked, “Are you happier now?”

At that moment, a ray of warm sunlight from the early morning streamed through and fell on his body, making his eyes seem to glow with light.

The sour and bloated emotions fermenting in You Xu’s heart caused her nose to sting. With burning eyes, she averted her gaze and asked in a low and soft voice, “How did you know?”

Duan Min: “Your unhappiness told me.”

If a person cared enough about another person, he would be able to keenly detect even the slightest change in her mood. Over time, it would become something as natural as breathing.

You Xu barely smiled anymore after what happened to You Qi. When she took the anatomy book and asked him how to prevent people from bleeding to death after the loss of an organ, he paid extra attention to her activities when she left the house. He sent puppets to secretly watch her and learned that besides going to the hospital to see You Qi, she also went to Hua’an Hotel to case the place.

He did not have to think to figure out that You Xu wanted to do something to Xu Shaosi. He did not know exactly what she wanted to do, but since she was unhappy, he had to find a way to help her vent her anger. Thus, he sent another puppet to stay with Xu Shaosi and confirmed that he would be spending the night at Hua’an Hotel last night.

Duan Min took his calming medicine before he went out and brought some more with him, but the hotel was too far away and unfamiliar, and he seldom went out. However, he had to go there personally to make sure that nothing went wrong. He did not want to appear too wretched in front of her, but coming home while barely holding on was his limit.

“I’m not happy,” You Xu suddenly said.

Duan Min froze.

“Because of the price you had to pay,” she said softly, “there’s no way I’d be happy.”

——

“Cousin, I want to go abroad.” You Qi lay on the hospital bed as she spoke to You Xu, who was packing a thermos bag.

You Xu: “Abroad?”

“Yes.” You Qi’s thin face revealed a smile. It was her first smile in many days. “I seem to have let it go after seeing him suffer retribution, so I want to go abroad for a change of pace. I want to do stuff that I like.”

Xu Shaosi’s final outcome was truly gratifying to them. His father was sentenced to life imprisonment, his fiancee fell out with him and broke off their engagement, his company went bankrupt, and he became laden with debt. He lived his life in the gutter to hide from debt collectors.

“Okay, then take care of yourself.” You Xu said, “Stay in touch.”

She had just picked up the thermos box and stood up when a sudden pain in her abdomen made her dizzy. Before she could register what was happening, her vision went black and she lost consciousness.

After an unknown amount of time, You Xu woke up again to a headache and a hurting stomach. She was dazed for a while.

“Cousin…”

You Xu came back to her senses. It took a while before her vision focused to see You Qi in front of her. You Qi had gotten out of her hospital bed and was sitting next to You Xu with red eyes, looking at her.

Something melodramatic must have happened again.

“What’s going on?” You Xu asked the system. “Don’t play dead. Come out and give me an explanation.”

System: “When the trust value of the mission target reaches 80, it marks the start of the elimination mission as well as the countdown stage. The energy that the system has to support the host in this world is only enough for three months. It is necessary to pave a path for the host to leave this world.”

You Xu asked expressionlessly, “So what kind of path am I on now?”

System: “Stomach cancer.”

You Xu: “…”

Well then. That was the biggest torture to a foodie.

The system added coldly and ruthlessly, “And a brain tumor.”

You Xu: “……”

Was the system afraid that cancer was not enough to kill her completely?

The system shrugged. “There’s no other choice. The medical treatment in this world is too advanced. Stomach cancer won’t be able to destroy you within three months.

You Xu: Do you hear the tragedy it’s saying? It’s enough to make listeners cry.

You Qi could not hold back her tears. “Cousin, do you want to tell—”

You Xu said decisively, “No. Don’t let him know.”

“But you…” You Qi could not finish her sentence.

“What about your treatment?” She asked instead. “He’ll find out one way or another. Don’t tell me you’ll refuse treatment because you’re afraid of him finding out.”

After Xu Shaosi’s incident, You Xu realized that Duan Min was too sharp. Even the slightest hint would be picked up by him. It was too difficult to hide something from him. This time, she had to prepare for everything.

“I’ll go abroad with you for a while,” said You Xu.

 

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