Chapter 46: The General's Guard

"Snap."

The sound of a mobile phone slipping from a hand and hitting the floor should have been barely audible amidst the din of loud music and crashing waves.

Yet at this moment, it struck Lin Feifei and Lu Xingyu like a sudden crash of thunder right beside their ears.

The dining table, which just a second ago was brimming with the flames of gossip, instantly plunged into a dead silence.

"Yuanyuan? What's wrong?!"

The smile on Lin Feifei's face froze instantly. Watching the color drain entirely from Xu Yuan's face in a fraction of a second, her heart plummeted.

Xu Yuan did not answer.

She merely stared, dazed and unblinking, at the phone lying abandoned on the ground.

The call had not yet ended. The anxious voice of the middle-aged woman was still transmitting from the earpiece in fragmented, broken murmurs.

"Hello? Hello? Young lady? Are you still listening? Your father... he is right now in the emergency room of the City's First People's Hospital! You guys should get over there quickly!"

The City's First People's Hospital...

Emergency room...

Those words struck Xu Yuan's eardrums like red-hot branding irons, burning deep and harsh.

Her mind was completely blank.

That wave of icy, paralyzing fear—something she had not even experienced earlier in the courtroom when facing Wen Ran's blatant provocations—gripped her heart tightly at this very moment like an invisible, giant hand, leaving her almost unable to breathe.

How could this be... How could he suddenly suffer a heart attack?

Just last week when she went to visit him in prison, her father's health had clearly been fine. He had even smiled and told her to eat well at school and not to mistreat herself just to save money.

How could this be...

"Xu Yuan! What on earth is wrong with you? Don't scare me!" Lin Feifei was on the verge of tears, violently shaking Xu Yuan's shoulders.

Lu Xingyu had also panicked completely. Standing awkwardly to the side, he wanted to help, yet had no idea what to do.

Right at that moment, a tall figure strode quickly out from the interior of the restaurant.

It was Jiang Yi.

He spotted the commotion here with a single glance.

He saw Xu Yuan's paper-white face and her eyes, which had lost all focus and depth.

His gaze, usually covered in a perpetual layer of frost, abruptly contracted.

Covering the distance in two or three rapid strides, he rushed over.

"What's going on?" he demanded, his voice carrying an unprecedented calmness and sharpness.

"I... I don't know!" Lin Feifei said, her voice laced with tears. "She answered a phone call, and then she became like this!"

Jiang Yi's gaze dropped to the phone lying on the floor.

Without a moment of hesitation, he bent down and picked it up.

"Hello," he placed the phone to his ear, his voice as steady as a boulder. "I'm her friend. May I ask what has happened?"

He listened for only a few seconds before the expression on his face instantly turned grave beyond measure.

He hung up the phone, and then crouched halfway down in front of Xu Yuan, speaking to her in a tone that brooks no argument yet carried an exceptional gentleness:

"Xu Yuan, look at me."

Xu Yuan's unfocused eyes slowly shifted toward him.

"Listen to me," he looked straight into her eyes, enunciating every single word with absolute clarity. "Your father is at the City's First People's Hospital right now. We are going over there immediately."

"He will be fine."

"I promise you."

He delivered those final three words with ironclad certainty.

It sounded like the heaviest pledge a general might make to the soldier he cherishes above all others.

Xu Yuan's mind, which had long since been tangled into a chaotic mess by fear, finally seemed to find a pillar of strength she could lean upon after hearing those words.

Her tears gushed forth in an instant.

"Jiang Yi..." She reached out, grabbing his arm with a desperate grip, her voice trembling beyond recognition. "My dad... will he..."

"No."

Jiang Yi cut her off.

He reached out his other hand, placing it over the back of her cold, trembling hand, and gently patted it.

"I am here," he said.

Then, he stood up and issued the most concise commands to Lin Feifei and Lu Xingyu, who were still standing there dumbfounded.

"Lu Xingyu, pay the bill."

"Lin Feifei, go get the car."

"See you at the hospital."

Without another word, he half-supported and half-carried the completely limp Xu Yuan, striding rapidly toward the exit of the restaurant.

...

The red sports car cut through the night like an anxious flash of lightning.

Lin Feifei pressed the accelerator all the way to the floor.

In the backseat, Xu Yuan was still trembling uncontrollably.

As for Jiang Yi, he silently guarded her in his own quiet way.

He did not utter any hollow words of comfort.

Instead, he took off his own jacket and draped it over her shoulders.

Then, with his warm, dry hand, he once again grasped her icy, shivering fingers.

From beginning to end, he never let go.

Ten minutes later, the City's First People's Hospital.

The entrance to the emergency room was thronged with people.

A heavy, pungent smell of disinfectant rushed toward them.

"Who are the family members of Xu Jianguo?" a nurse holding a medical chart called out loudly.

"I am! I'm his daughter!" Xu Yuan rushed forward like a madwoman.

"The patient has just finished his examinations, and the preliminary diagnosis is acute myocardial infarction," the nurse glanced at her and said in a matter-of-fact tone. "He has now been transferred to the coronary care unit in the cardiology department. Follow me."

Coronary care unit.

Those five words pressed down upon Xu Yuan's heart like five massive mountains.

Following the nurse through the long, freezing corridor, she finally arrived in front of a pair of massive glass doors.

Through that glass, she saw her father lying on the hospital bed.

His body was hooked up to all sorts of tubes she could not understand. A massive oxygen mask was strapped to his face. Various electrode pads were attached to his chest.

That face, which had always worn a loving and affectionate smile for her, now bore a gray, lifeless complexion.

Xu Yuan's legs turned to jelly, and she nearly collapsed to the floor.

Fortunately, Jiang Yi caught her from behind in the nick of time.

"Doctor! How is my dad... how is he actually doing?" She grabbed a passing doctor, her voice hoarse and raw.

"The patient's condition has temporarily stabilized." The doctor glanced at the medical chart and frowned. "However, something is a bit strange."

"Strange?" Xu Yuan's heart leaped back into her throat.

"Logically speaking, at his age, and given that the prison conducts annual physical examinations, his health has always been good. He shouldn't have suffered such a severe heart attack out of nowhere."

The doctor adjusted his glasses, a trace of perplexity appearing on his face.

"Moreover, when we ran tests on him, we discovered a very unusual drug component in his blood."

"This medication is normally used to treat cardiac arrhythmias. But if it is taken together with a certain specific type of blood pressure medication..."

The doctor paused, delivering the conclusion that plunged Xu Yuan into an abyss of freezing despair.

"It will induce an acute myocardial infarction."