When Xu Hang woke up, he found himself sleeping on the floor, but he was covered with a quilt and had a soft pillow under his head.
He only remembers that after his drug addiction came back, he hit his head against a pillar and passed out. He guessed Chan Yi couldn’t help him to the bed by herself, so she just had to make do with it.
Looking around, it seemed that he had been cleaned up. Xu Hang moved his limbs and then slowly got up from the ground.
He’s a little dizzy.
He walked to the table with great difficulty, holding his head, picked up the kettle, shook it, and found that there was no water. He put the kettle down reluctantly, opened the door, and walked out.
The flowers and plants in the garden were unattended and looked wilted. He stumbled out, walked slowly to the kitchen, opened the water tank, and scooped a mouthful with a gourd ladle.
“Cough, cough… cough, cough, cough!” The water had been stored for two days and was a bit unclean. Xu Hang drank it in a hurry and choked.
It was not until then that he remembered that Chan Yi seemed to have disappeared.
“Chan Yi… Chan Yi?”
He walked out of the kitchen, leaning against the wall while calling out in a low voice. Logically, Chan Yi wouldn’t be too far away from him, but no one responded even when he called out like that.
The clothes-drying yard, the side hall, the main hall, the servants’ room… there was no one there except the little monk who was soundly sleeping.
Thinking that Chan Yi could not leave Jinyan Tang anyway and perhaps went to the side courtyard, Xu Hang’s physical strength had reached its limit, his limbs were slightly numb, and he could not look for her anymore.
He walked back to the main hall and opened the drawer in the corner. That was where he had kept the morphine. Now it was empty. Chan Yi had not lied to him. She had really destroyed all the morphine.
Xu Hang really overestimated himself, he thought some things can always be quit. He didn’t expect that drug addiction would be so difficult to overcome. Even if it is love, Xu Hang can use reason to restrain it, but drug addiction eats through his reason and makes him a captive.
His knees weakened, and he fell to the ground, gasping for breath.
He didn’t even know whether he was in so much pain and was careless or longing for death when he hit the pillar yesterday.
Who could have imagined that Physician Xu, who was as clear as the breeze and bright as the moon, is now no different from those people who walked out of an opium den with a dazed look in their eyes and trembling hands and feet, and he can’t even straighten his back. He is hunched over, with a gray face, a white tongue coating, and heavy dark circles under his eyes.
Xu Hang tilted his head and saw himself in the mirror embedded in the surface of the cabinet. He almost didn’t recognize himself.
His lips trembled, and he smashed the mirror with one punch!
Blood dripped from between his fingers, and large and small pieces of mirror fragments fell to the ground, like a ruined life.
“Hahaha… haha…” He couldn’t help but laugh out loud.
This is karma. He killed, exploited, betrayed, and finally ended up like this.
As he was laughing, he suddenly hugged his arms and curled up.
Here it comes again, that devilish pain comes again.
His body tilted, and he fell to the ground, his injured forehead hitting the ground again.
The sunlight from outside shone in, fell on the mirror, and reflected into Xu Hang’s eyes, making him squint uncomfortably.
Then, as if he had received some revelation, he grabbed a piece of debris and slashed his arm hard!
With a “swish”, the clothes were torn and blood spurted out. The feeling at that moment was like a vent, releasing some of the long-accumulated pain through this small wound.
But after a moment, it didn’t work anymore.
Without hesitation, Xu Hang slashed the wound a second time!
A third time!
A fourth time!
……
He repeated the action thirteen times, and finally there was no more room for the hand to move. He also lost the strength to continue. His hand loosened, and he lay in a pool of his own blood with a half-smile on his face, looking dejected and listless.
If he died in Jinyan Tang, it would be a good fate.
Thinking of this, he slowly closed his eyes.
But God always likes stories with twists and turns, so at this moment, the door of Jinyan Tang was kicked open fiercely, and a burst of rapid and powerful footsteps was heard, and then the door of the main hall was also kicked open. In a daze, a figure approached.
A pair of strong hands lifted him up, one on the back of his head, the other across his knees. After the sudden feeling of weightlessness, there was a hurried command: “What are you standing there for like a fool?! Call the doctor over! Now! Immediately!”
Then he started to bounce up and down, as if someone was holding him and running. After a while, it stopped and he was placed in a soft place.
“Where’s the medicine box? Go get it!”
“Go boil some water for me!”
“Find some clean clothes!”
“Damn it, what do you mean by the doctor is treating the foreigners? You guys stand there and watch, Laozi is going to catch him myself!”
The furious voice kept lingering in Xu Hang’s ears, like a lion that had swallowed gunpowder and was spewing fire everywhere. It took a long time before it gradually quieted down. It was not until a warm handkerchief wiped Xu Hang’s forehead and cheeks that he had a little strength to open his eyes.
In front of him was Chan Yi with tears in her eyes: “Head of the Household…”
“You…” Xu Hang’s voice was almost gone. “Who allowed you to… go find him…”
Even though he was unconscious, Xu Hang recognized Duan Yelin’s voice.
Chan Yi bit her lip and said, “I know you’re upset. But I also know you’re torn, aren’t you? As a special commissioner, you stopped this batch of medicine, not just to vent your anger at the Commander… but because you know he’s surrounded by spies, and you’re trying to protect him, aren’t you?”
“It has nothing to do with him… I just don’t want the Japanese to succeed.”
For the first time, he realized that Chan Yi could cry so much. Her tears were like pearls falling from a string, and she never stopped crying. She sobbed, “Head of the Household, I can’t watch you die. You can not take care of yourself, but I can’t!”
Xu Hang was in a sickly state now. He had neither the energy nor the mind to argue with Chan Yi. He just turned his face away.
At this moment, Duan Yelin had already grabbed a frightened military doctor from outside and threw him in front of Xu Hang’s bed: “Heal him for me!”
Without saying a word, the doctor took out alcohol and anti-inflammatory injections from the medicine box and prepared to give Xu Hang first aid. Duan Yelin walked forward and gently helped Xu Hang up. Only then did he realize that Xu Hang had opened his blurry eyes and looked at him intently.
He said, “… You don’t need to save me… You said that if you step in here… you will lose…”
Duan Yelin really wanted to strangle Xu Hang for being so stubborn at this critical moment.
With a dark face, he snatched the syringe from the doctor’s hand, pulled Xu Hang up, ignored his weak struggle, leaned him against his arms, picked up his other uninjured arm, and injected him with the medicine skillfully.
After throwing the syringe away, he pinched Xu Hang’s jaw and viciously whispered in his ear, “If I lose, then so be it, but isn’t it embarrassing for you to lean on my arms like this, waiting for me to rescue you? Xu Shaotang, I, Duan Yelin, will not fall for your provocation. I never did before, and I certainly won’t do it now nor in the future.”
After leaving behind these harsh words, it was unknown whether Xu Hang listened to them or not. Anyway, the medicine took effect, and Xu Hang fell asleep.
