CH 196

The stubborn figure stood still at the door, hesitant to take a step over the threshold.

Xing Conglian moved his gaze upward. The young man at the door had a numb, shocked expression on his face, and time seemed as if it were frozen with his speechless movements.

It wasn’t until his arm was heavy that Xing Conglian recovered from an unspeakable emotion. He looked down and saw that Lin Chen had fallen into his arms and lost consciousness.

“Come in,” he said coldly to the person at the door while standing with Lin Chen in his arms. He made room and gave him the chair.

However, to his surprise, the young man who walked in slowly wasn’t as upset as he expected. Although the young man kept staring at the middle-aged doctor on the bed, he gradually recovered from the shock. As if guessing something, the young man’s face showed a bitter smile at what was going on.

Xing Conglian wanted to explain; at least he felt that if Lin Chen was sober, he would try to say something to this young man, but at this moment, any words seemed superfluous.

The young man named Duan Yang knelt down in front of the hospital bed and took his teacher’s thin hand. Although Xing Conglian obviously saw the frightening redness in Duan Yang’s eyes, he was surprised not to see a single tear fall.

Duan Yang first subconsciously and procedurally checked Duan Wanshan’s heartbeat and pulse, and then he gently closed his eyes.

He lowered his head and kissed Duan Wanshan’s fingertips carefully and cautiously, as if any more little movement would cause the dream in front of him to shatter.

Xing Conglian felt unbearable watching this scene. He hugged Lin Chen and turned around, trying to give space to the two in front of him. However, at this moment, he suddenly heard a very calm voice from behind him. “Please wait a minute.”

Xing Conglian turned his head and saw Duan Yang standing up with difficulty but decisively. Duan Yang couldn’t even bear to look away from Duan Wanshan as he said calmly, “Is there a medical room on board? Consultant Lin must receive treatment immediately.”

Xing Conglian was taken aback and saw Duan Yang leaned down. Like a dragonfly, he kissed the forehead of the middle-aged man on the bed, then resolutely got up and walked towards him.

At that moment, Xing Conglian only felt that this was truly a fucking student of Duan Wanshan.

Duan Yang didn’t even look at him. Xing Conglian obviously saw him holding back his grief as his lips pursed into a line like he didn’t want to leave if he looked back again, but even so, Duan Yang still checked Lin Chen’s heartbeat with calm and stable hands.

It was only then that Xing Conglian realized that the person in front of him was a doctor; the only person on this ship who could save Lin Chen. In fact, before Duan Yang told him about Lin Chen’s condition, Xing Conglian had no idea that his condition was not much better than the Duan Wanshan he saw 24 hours ago. He thought it was just a lack of nutrition or some random illness that made him weak, and not sepsis. In the rainforest, where medical conditions were lacking, severe sepsis undoubtedly meant death. He suddenly looked at Lin Chen’s swollen hand. He remembered very clearly that when he first met Huang Ze, the latter clearly told him that Lin Chen was allergic to antibiotics.

Now, when Duan Yang explained everything, Xing Conglian could obviously feel Lin Chen’s life gradually passing in his hands; something that even he couldn’t save.

Wang Chao, who was standing at the door, was already flustered and at a loss. Xing Conglian kicked the teenager. “Where’s the medical room? Lead the way.”

Wang Chao bit the back of his hand hard and then desperately ran to the other side of the cabin.

“Tell me what you need,” Xing Conglian said to the young doctor who hurried out of the cabin beside him.

Duan Yang’s face was frozen, trying to keep himself from being affected by the pain. “I need a hospital with complete facilities and medicines. Do you have one?”

As he looked at the person in his arms who had completely lost consciousness, Xing Conglian thought to himself that it was fucking ironic that he had the best hospitals at his disposal, but now he had nothing! What was even more ironic was that just because he had recently blown up Zaratul’s territory, he now knew without any detection tools that the air defense level of the Dana Rainforest must have been raised to the highest level. Any helicopter that dared to take off would be seen as a provocation by Zaratul and had a high probability of being shot down. Therefore, he had no way to send Lin Chen to a hospital in such a short time. He suddenly realized that he had nothing and could only ask the doctor, like all powerless relatives of patients, “How much time does he have left?”

As he spoke, Wang Chao, who was running in front, had already pushed open the door of the medical room. It was a relief that this light-duty ferry was equipped with a medical room, but there was no need to expect any remarkable medical conditions.

Xing Conglian put Lin Chen down on the hospital bed, only to hear Duan Yang say to him, “Get out of the way.”

The next moment, Duan Yang began to examine Lin Chen’s hand wounds, eyelids, and the ends of his limbs. He looked at the rash and bleeding spots on Lin Chen’s hands and told him, “It doesn’t make sense for you to ask me how much time he has. If he doesn’t receive treatment now, he will die.”

This was really a cruel diagnosis.

While speaking, Duan Yang had already regained his senses and began searching through the entire medical room. The doctor opened a cabinet and dug through a large pile of medicines used for preventing and treating snake and insect bites. From there, he found a large number of antibiotics. Xing Conglian took a quick glance and saw that almost all of them were penicillin, with a small amount of azithromycin and some other medication that he couldn’t even name.

“He’s allergic to many antibiotics.”

“I know,” Duan Yang said coldly. “I also want to avoid broad-spectrum antibiotics and give him other medicines if that damn bridge hadn’t collapsed!” Duan Yang checked all the medicines, stood up quickly, and asked him solemnly, “Are you a family member of the patient?”

Xing Conglian was once again stumped by the question. He couldn’t even spare a thought about the issue of the bridge because he never imagined that he would not only experience the most brutal thing in just one day but also be asked the world’s cruelest question.

“I am,” he replied.

There was obviously an incredulous look on the doctor’s face.

“If you insist on complying with some damn medical regulations, I can tell you that we are now in the Dana Region, which means that there’s no marriage law here. I can unilaterally declare my marriage with Lin Chen is established. Do you have any more questions?” Xing Conglian retorted.

Duan Yang’s calming emotions flared up again. Xing Conglian saw the doctor rubbing his eyes, then forcefully held back his grief and said, “Family, do you have the case of Consultant Lin?”

“Wang Chao!” Xing Conglian shouted.

Before his voice fell, the young man seemed to have checked everything and had already pushed the laptop over in advance. “Here it is.”

Xing Conglian felt that this quiet moment was simply maddening.

Finally, Duan Yang looked up and asked him calmly, “I have two questions. First, how soon can you get a large dose of other types of antibiotics?”

“And the second?” Xing Conglian asked.

“Answer the first question first.”

“Wang Chao!” Xing Conglian shouted again.

The teenager was already crying, but he still took out his laptop and retrieved the large medical sites before telling him. “Boss, we are now heading towards the most deserted part of the rainforest. Through the rainforest and then to the port, counting the speed of the boat trip, unless there’s a helicopter to deliver medicine…”

“No helicopters,” Xing Conglian said coldly.

Wang Chao choked back a sob, unable to answer the question at all.

“Speak!” Xing Conglian looked at the teenager.

“It will take more than six hours to mobilize manpower as soon as possible.”

“Did you hear that?” Xing Conglian looked at Duan Yang.

“That’ll be too late. His condition is deteriorating too quickly. So here’s the second question. Right now, there’s enough penicillin to meet the therapeutic dose, and the remaining drug therapeutic dose isn’t enough. The only treatment plan I can give is to take a risk and perform a 3-hour penicillin desensitization treatment on Consultant Lin, gradually increasing the penicillin dose every half hour, starting from the smallest dose of penicillin until the therapeutic dose is used. If successful, it may save his life, but it may also cause acute shock followed by the patient’s death.”

Duan Yang’s tone made Xing Conglian unable to even say “Are you kidding me”. This kind of plot only happened in the bloodiest movies. He was forced to face the moment of deciding the life of his lover, but unlike a movie plot where one knew the result by dragging the progress bar, no one could give him the correct answer. He suddenly felt that no matter how many things he had done and how many things he possessed in life; he couldn’t match this moment when he had no choice. He really failed to the extreme.

Xing Conglian looked at the person on the hospital bed who had been hugging him just a few minutes ago and telling him how he missed him. He bent down and took off the black ring on Lin Chen’s hand, then turned around and said to the doctor, “Let’s get started.”

“Have you considered it clearly?” Duan Yang asked him.

“With me around, he’s not willing to die,” Xing Conglian said lightly.

There was no sterile operating room, no large number of medical staff, no oxygen machine, no monitor, and no reliable technological means. The detection of Lin Chen’s life could only be relied on the most primitive stethoscope.

After almost all preparations were made, Duan Yang’s movements stopped.

“What’s the matter?”

“Without epinephrine*, if there’s an allergic reaction, he’ll have to tough it out with his willpower, but there’s almost no chance he can endure it.”

*Also known as Adrenaline, it is a hormone and medication. It plays an essential role in the fight-or-flight response by increasing blood flow to muscles, heart output by acting on the SA node, pupil dilation response, and blood sugar level. As a medication, it is used to treat several conditions, including allergic reaction anaphylaxis.

The doctor’s mind turned. He looked at the camouflage uniforms on them and said, “If you’re on a mission, you should carry an emergency medical kit with you. Take a look.”

Soon, all his life-saving kits were unfolded in front of the doctor. Xing Conglian knew exactly what was inside. After Duan Yang checked carefully, he took out some of the medicines and nodded at him.

Afterwards, Duan Yang opened the penicillin, and Xing Conglian watched as Duan Yang sucked up the medicine that might take Lin Chen’s life into the needle tube. “If he has an allergic reaction, it may be serious and painful. You have to be mentally prepared.”

Xing Conglian nodded and watched as Duan Yang sterilized Lin Chen’s skin with iodine and then plunged the needle in extremely cruelly.

The liquid was quickly injected into Lin Chen’s body.

Living a day like a year* probably felt like this. Lin Chen lay there calmly for a minute, five minutes, ten minutes… He wasn’t awake, but he didn’t have any adverse reactions. Xing Conglian felt a little happy.

*(度日如年) Idiom referring to a long, tedious, and agonizing wait.

Nearly half an hour later, Duan Yang began to prepare the second penicillin dose, then the third and fourth…

For the first two hours of the three hours, Lin Chen was just lying there quietly, but probably all bad things would only come suddenly. When the fifth injection was injected into Lin Chen’s body, Xing Conglian soon witnessed for himself how serious the so-called allergic reaction really was.

First, a large bright red rash spread over Lin Chen’s white limbs like paper. It seemed like some kind of monstrous creature was gnawing away at his life, and the itching sensation even caused Lin Chen, who had already fallen into a coma, to suddenly open his eyes.

Xing Conglian’s heart suddenly sank. Duan Yang immediately injected the epinephrine used for first aid into Lin Chen’s body.

Lin Chen’s eyes were full of confusion and pain. He opened his mouth wide to yell, but only some slight whimpers came out.

Xing Conglian could only hold Lin Chen’s limbs down to prevent him from scratching his skin. Lin Chen had really lost too much weight, as if there were only bones under his skin.

However, as time slowly moved forward, Lin Chen’s reaction became more serious. He opened his eyes wide, and the skin reaction caused by the suffocation and allergies made him want to scratch every inch of his body.

Xing Conglian pressed him tightly on the bed. He stared at Lin Chen’s dark eyes and saw his cold face.

“Do you love me?” He leaned into Lin Chen’s ear and asked word by word.

“I love you.” Lin Chen turned his head with great difficulty. His lips moved, insistently trying to answer this question with all his strength, as if it were something extremely important.

“Then hang in there.”

At that moment, some tears overflowed in Lin Chen’s calm and dark eyes, as if accusing him of cruelty but also more like helpless tolerance. It was only now that Xing Conglian knew that there was really a gentle and affectionate gaze that could pierce a person’s heart like a sharp blade.

As time passed, Lin Chen’s body trembled violently due to the pain and allergic reaction. Gradually, Lin Chen even lost his last bit of strength and stopped shaking. Xing Cong watched as Lin Chen’s eyes were about to gently close, as if in the next second that faint spark of life would truly slip away from his hands.

“Do you want to hear me say I love you?” Xing Conglian leaned close to Lin Chen’s ear and shouted, waking him up once again.

Lin Chen opened his eyes slightly with a smile at the corner of his mouth and then blinked slowly.

Xing Conglian’s heart was filled with extreme bitterness. It was the first time he knew what it meant to be unable to return someone’s deep love and affection. But the only thing he could do now to repay Lin Chen was to use his extremely crude means.

“Hang on. If you die, you’ll never hear it.”

He pressed against Lin Chen’s nose as he said it blankly.