Chapter 56: The Gates of Hell

The first ray of morning sunlight, like a sharp and icy scalpel, slit open the gray clouds on the horizon, pierced through the speeding window of the high-speed train, and landed on Xu Yuan’s pale face.

She woke up.

Or rather, she had never fallen asleep to begin with.

The hearty and unrestrained crying in Jiang Yi’s arms had exhausted every ounce of her strength, yet failed to take away a single fraction of the agony and self-blame trapped in her heart. She had simply closed her eyes, allowing herself to linger on the brink of survival within that brief, warm darkness.

Now, dawn had broken.

And the dream, too, was bound to end.

"Drink this."

A hand with distinct knuckles extended a cup of steaming soybean milk right before her.

It was Jiang Yi.

He had somehow seated himself across from her. His complexion looked equally terrible; his eyes were shot through with a dense web of bloodshot veins, and a layer of dark stubble shadowed his jaw. The entire person emanated a sharp, unapproachable, and desolate decadence far beyond his usual demeanor.

Yet, within the eyes that looked down at her, there brimmed an unquestionable, forceful gentleness.

Silently, Xu Yuan took the cup of soybean milk.

The warm tactile sensation traveled from her fingertips like a faint electric current, injecting a trace of feeling into her already numbed body.

She drank in small, hesitant sips. The scalding liquid slid down her throat, scorching her icy, hollow stomach while coaxing her frozen heart toward the first signs of thaw.

Lin Feifei, sitting right beside them, watched the silent yet profoundly synchronized atmosphere between the two—an air impenetrable to any outsider—and felt a complex ache of tenderness and sorrow in her chest.

She picked up her phone and quietly sent a message to Lu Xingyu.

[Queen Feifei: I feel like a one-thousand-watt light bulb right now.]

[Coder Lu: ?]

[Queen Feifei: Neither of them is saying a word, but I feel like they’ve already exchanged a thousand, ten thousand words between them.]

[Queen Feifei: Xingyu, do you think we can really help Yuanyuan? For the first time, I feel so utterly useless.]

After the message went through, silence stretched from Lu Xingyu’s end for a long while.

Just when Lin Feifei thought he wouldn't reply, her phone vibrated.

[Coder Lu: Yes.]

A single word.

Yet it acted like a settling pill, instantly smoothing out all the restlessness and anxiety churning inside Lin Feifei's heart.

Indeed.

They could.

They were the "Deep Sea Echo" team.

They were each other's most solid backing.

They were invincible.

Right at that moment, Xu Yuan, who had remained silent all this time, suddenly spoke up.

"Jiang Yi," she raised her head, her red and swollen eyes looking straight into the young man across from her, "are you alright?"

The steamed bun in Jiang Yi’s grasp abruptly froze.

He hadn't expected that the first words out of her mouth wouldn't concern her mother's condition, nor the upcoming plan, but rather herself.

Asking him if he was alright.

A scorching, unfamiliar emotion surged wildly within the ocean of his heart, which had remained frozen for years, crashing and roaring until it almost shattered his chest.

He looked at her, gazing into those clear eyes brimming with worry, his Adam's apple bobbing with difficulty as not a single word escaped his lips.

He was not alright.

He was not alright at all.

Upon seeing the message sent by Lu Xingyu, only one thought had dominated his mind—to kill Wen Ran.

To erase him and the filthy family behind him completely from this world, using the most cruel and agonizing methods.

The demon filled with hatred and violence, which he had forcefully suppressed for a decade, was screaming frantically inside his body, on the verge of breaking free from its cage.

However, he could not.

Because of her.

Because of this foolish, heartbreaking girl sitting before him who, despite already standing in the depths of hell, was still worrying whether he might be consumed by his inner demons.

"I'm fine."

Jiang Yi heard his own voice, hoarse beyond recognition.

He forced himself to look away, gazing at the rapidly retreating scenery outside the window, his tone stiff and mechanical like a student reciting a text.

"I'm very well."

Xu Yuan did not pursue the matter further.

She only watched him quietly, then reached out, gently placing her hand over the back of his—his knuckles white from excessive tension.

Her hand remained icy cold.

Yet it acted like the most potent tranquilizer, instantly pacifying the violent, untamed beast on the verge of losing control inside him.

"Jiang Yi," she looked at him, her gaze holding an unprecedented, sober determination, "I will be fine, and you cannot afford to go wrong either."

"Neither of us can afford to fall."

"Because this battle has only just begun."

...

At nine in the morning, the high-speed train arrived in Ningshi precisely on schedule.

Stepping out of the station, a wave of humid, warm air—completely different from the coastal city—washed over them.

Xu Yuan took a deep breath, then slowly exhaled.

When she opened her eyes again, all the fragility and sorrow in her pretty apricot-shaped eyes had vanished.

In their place was a cold, knife-like sharpness.

"We split up."

She turned around to look at her two companions, her tone as calm as that of a seasoned general.

"Feifei, I need you to do something for me."

She cast her gaze toward Lin Feifei, her eyes filled with absolute trust.

"The First People's Hospital of Ningshi, Director of the Nephrology Department, Li Jianguo."

"I need to know everything about him. His family, his children, his hobbies, all his social connections, and what he fears the most."

Lin Feifei's eyes instantly lit up.

She knew it; her Yuanyuan wouldn't be defeated so easily.

The brilliant, striking Xu Yuan who could leave Wen Ran speechless in a courtroom had returned!

"No problem!" She patted her chest, agreeing immediately. "My older brother happens to have a branch office here in Ningshi. Never mind a mere head of a department; if you wanted to investigate the hospital director himself, I could dig up three generations of his ancestors for you!"

"Stay safe," Xu Yuan cautioned. "Don't alert the enemy."

"Rest assured!" Lin Feifei flashed an "OK" sign, then glanced somewhat worriedly at Jiang Yi.

"Then you and Jiang Yi..."

"We," Xu Yuan’s gaze fell upon the towering white building in the distance, a flicker of icy hatred flashing through the depths of her eyes, "are going to meet that Director Li who accepted the fifty-thousand 'token of appreciation'."

...

The First People's Hospital of Ningshi.

The inpatient building was saturated with a thick, unshakeable scent of disinfectant.

Xu Yuan stood before the nurse station of the nephrology department, her heart gripped tightly by an invisible hand, aching so intensely she could barely breathe.

She had finally come to this place—the symbol of despair and death that had appeared countless times in her "prophetic dream."

Only this time, she was not alone.

Jiang Yi stood right behind her like a silent mountain, shielding her from all the sympathetic, pitiful, or curious gazes around them, constructing an absolute sanctuary of safety where she could safely lean on him.

Through the massive glass window of the intensive care unit, she caught sight of her mother lying upon the hospital bed.

Tubes of various kinds ran all over her body, a ventilator covered her face, and her frame had wasted away to mere bones.

If not for the faint, fluctuating curve still pulsing on the heart-rate monitor, Xu Yuan would have almost mistaken her for a cold shell devoid of a soul.

The string labeled "collapse," which she had forcefully suppressed, once again tested the very brink of fracture.

Jiang Yi sensed her trembling.

He reached out, not to steady her, but to lightly brush the back of his hand against hers.

Once, and then again.

As if utilizing a silent, clumsy method to remind her.

Don't be afraid.

I am still here.

Xu Yuan took a deep breath, forcing back the warmth welling up in her eyes.

She turned to face Jiang Yi, forcing an agonizing smile upon her pale face that was harder to bear than tears.

"Let's go."

"Let's go meet this 'benevolent physician' Director Li."

Director Li Jianguo's office was situated at the end of the corridor.

Xu Yuan raised her hand and knocked on the door.

"Come in," a middle-aged man's weary voice called from within.

Xu Yuan pushed the door open and stepped inside.

Inside the office, a man wearing a white lab coat and gold-rimmed glasses sat behind a desk, head lowered as he wrote something.

He was Li Jianguo.

"You are?" He looked up. Upon seeing Xu Yuan and Jiang Yi, he froze for a split second before hastily adopting a formulaic, kindly smile.

However, when his gaze swept across Xu Yuan's face—which bore a striking seven-part resemblance to the person in the hospital bed—the smile on his face instantly stiffened.

A trace of imperceptible, guilty panic flashed across his eyes.

"You must be Professor Xu's daughter?"

Xu Yuan did not answer his question.

She merely looked at him quietly, then gently placed the envelope she had brought from the club—containing the payment receipts—right onto his desk.

"Director Li," she began, her voice as calm as a bottomless, icy pool of water, "I'm here to talk business with you."

Li Jianguo's pupils violently contracted.

Subconsciously, he reached out to push the envelope back, but his hand was forcefully pinned down mid-air by another, much firmer and more powerful grip.

It was Jiang Yi.

He had somehow stepped up to the desk, towering over the panicked man with a downward gaze, his unfathomable eyes radiating an icy intent to kill capable of freezing a soul.

Right as the atmosphere inside the office threatened to freeze into absolute stillness, a sudden, urgent, and ear-piercing alarm bell shrilled from the ward!

The complexions of both Xu Yuan and Jiang Yi shifted simultaneously.

Without a second thought, the two whirled around and sprinted frantically toward the intensive care unit!

When they shoved open the heavy doors that separated life and death, they froze in utter astonishment at the sight before them.

Inside the ward, everything was normal.

Her mother still lay quietly upon the bed, the curve on the heart-rate monitor steady and strong.

And the alarm that should have been blaring across the entire floor was currently being gently suppressed by a slender, fair hand.

The owner of that hand sat beside the bed, her back turned toward them, holding an apple as she leisurely pared away its skin.

Hearing the commotion at the doorway, she slowly turned her head.

A face adorned with exquisite makeup—one all too familiar to Xu Yuan—entered her field of vision.

That face wore a composed yet provocative smile.

"Long time no see, Xu Yuan."

Song Shiya looked at her, gently tracing a deep, ferocious gouge into the apple with the fruit knife in her hand.

"It seems I've come at a rather... untimely moment."