Emergency Treatment - The Kitten is in Charge

The red light for "Surgery in Progress" lit up, like the eye of some monster hidden in a dark cave, spying on the human world.

The emergency floor of the International Department was very quiet. The furnishings and decor were quite modern, completely unlike the layout of a traditional hospital. The lighting was warm and bright, and even the smell of disinfectant was not very noticeable, but the atmosphere unique to a hospital still pricked at his nerves. The seats in the waiting area were soft, upholstered sofa chairs designed for comfort, but Zhuang Mingqi just stood ramrod straight, like a clay doll full of cracks, barely maintaining its human form by holding its breath. If he moved, he would collapse completely.

A figure rushed past from the end of the corridor, realized he had run too far, and quickly backed up, striding up to him. "How is he?!"

Zhuang Mingqi was completely motionless, only his cold, gleaming eyes shifted slightly. "The knife can only be removed in the operating room. He was just pushed in not long ago."

"I had someone send your dog back to the station. Forensics will try to extract physical evidence from its mouth, so don't worry." Yuan Hang looked him up and down and confirmed uneasily, "You're not hurt, are you? If you've been bumped or bruised anywhere, tell a doctor right away. Don't let Zhengning come out only for you to collapse. This blood is...?"

"It's not mine." Zhuang Mingqi's neck was stiff. He lowered his eyes to the bloodstain on his chest and closed them as if stung. "Nothing happened to me. He took the knife for me. The person lying in there should have been me..."

His soul had already left his body, and he was in a daze. Yuan Hang silently let out a breath of cold air that had been stuck in his throat and patted him comfortingly on the shoulder. "Don't say that. Neither of you should be lying in there. The culprit is the one at fault... The heavens watch over good people. Let's trust the doctors. He'll definitely be safe and sound."

He said this for Zhuang Mingqi's benefit, but also to comfort himself. Zhuang Mingqi's gaze flickered, his eyes glancing down, and he managed a difficult smile. Yuan Hang thought it was a sign of him softening, but in the next second, Zhuang Mingqi covered his mouth and staggered away from his shoulder, turning to rush into the restroom to throw up.

Yuan Hang: "..."

The last time Zhuang Mingqi was sick and had an IV drip at home, he had an extreme stress reaction. This time, with physical contact and environmental stimuli, all his triggers were hit at once. Yet, he had managed to follow the ambulance to the hospital like a normal person, watch Shen Zhengning get pushed through that door with his own eyes, and even continue to stand there in a daze after completing the admission procedures.

The intense panic of losing something had completely taken over his heart, so much so that he had temporarily overcome the curse that had accompanied him for years—'I can't let go, I can't let him go, even if I have to endure a severe backlash, the shadows in my memory, no matter how vast, are not as terrifying as Shen Zhengning being stabbed right in front of my eyes.'

In the past, he had taken advantage of Shen Zhengning's soft-hearted indulgence, excessively magnifying his own feelings, so fragile that he couldn't stand the slightest wind or rain. But now, the umbrella that sheltered him from the wind and rain was broken. He was being baptized by a torrential downpour, yet he didn't immediately die a delicate death.

It turned out that PTSD also bullied the weak and feared the strong. Or perhaps he had been too weak and hesitant, which was why he couldn't protect anything, couldn't even save himself, and had to drag others down with him.

The feeling of nausea surging up from the bottom of his stomach instantly broke through his throat. The familiar sensation even made a trace of hatred rise in Zhuang Mingqi—it was the midnight bell announcing the end of the magical moment; the short-term 'normal person experience card' had expired. That world had closed its gates just beyond his fingertips.

"Are you really okay?" Yuan Hang followed him in, producing a bottle of water from somewhere and handing it to him to rinse his mouth. "Were you scared?"

Zhuang Mingqi vomited until his stomach acid couldn't keep up. It took him a long while to sort out his breathing, which was about to become a tangled mess of yarn. He avoided Yuan Hang's supporting hand and stood hunched over the sink, scrubbing the miserable dejection from his face with ice-cold tap water and a force that could be described as brutal. Then he straightened his back, wiped off the water droplets, and propped himself up into a human shape again, his voice hoarse but calm. "I'm fine. I might be a little hemophobic."

Yuan Hang gave him a skeptical look, but he wasn't Shen Zhengning, after all, so he accepted this seemingly very normal reason.

The two returned to the corridor. Zhuang Mingqi remained standing. Unable to persuade him otherwise, Yuan Hang could only sit down himself and started making small talk. "I still don't quite understand how Zhengning was certain that person was the one who killed Ye Tongsheng." He glanced up at Zhuang Mingqi. "Do you have any idea?"

"No, it was too chaotic then. He couldn't explain in detail, and most people can't keep up with his line of thought," Zhuang Mingqi replied coldly. "As for me, I don't even know that person, let alone why he would want to stab me. It would be faster for Officer Yuan to ask the criminal directly about such matters."

"Although we've only met once, Zhengning often mentions you when we chat. I've always felt he has an excessive protective instinct towards you." As if he couldn't hear the undertone in his words, Yuan Hang said bluntly, "I don't think he would make an emotional mistake, so I trust his judgment."

"Since he believes the two cases were committed by the same culprit, then following a normal person's line of thought, we should first look for commonalities between the victims—"

"Mr. Zhuang, may I ask, what is your connection, contact, or common ground with Ye Tongsheng?"

It was unclear whether it was the effect of the incandescent lights or if he had truly stepped on the man's landmine, but Zhuang Mingqi's expression was pale and gloomy, and his condescending gaze held a chilling coldness. Yuan Hang suspected that if it weren't for Shen Zhengning, Zhuang Mingqi probably wouldn't even bother to give him that glance, and would just ignore him completely, treating all his probing as the noise of a passing tractor.

Yuan Hang was well aware that sometimes his job required him to play the villain who poked at people's sore spots and reopened their wounds. For this, he had to maintain an almost ruthless directness and the determination to get to the bottom of things, even if the other party was a completely innocent victim.

He met Zhuang Mingqi's gaze with an imperturbable expression, but he was actually scared to death inside, wanting to grab the hem of his overcoat and cry, 'Brother, if your boyfriend finds out I'm interrogating you like this, he won't yell at me, will he?'

"The fire at a medical institution in Sishan District, Xingcheng City in 2010. If you can access the case file, you can go and check it out."

Zhuang Mingqi turned his gaze away, staring at the fire cabinet on the opposite wall. His attitude was as cold as if he'd been killing fish at the wet market for ten years, but Yuan Hang could sense that this faint resistance was not directed at him, but stemmed from internal self-restraint. "I believe the police's investigative methods are sufficient to catch a criminal who commits assault in broad daylight. It won't be too late to ask me again after the culprit is caught—if his hatred is indeed directed at me and Ye Tongsheng."

Yuan Hang quickly took out his phone, opened the notes app, and jotted down a few keywords. "Do you have a suspect in mind?"

Zhuang Mingqi shook his head.

Yuan Hang: "Is that a 'no' or 'too many to count'?"

Zhuang Mingqi: ?

Yuan Hang raised a hand in a gesture of surrender. "Just kidding. I'll look into it when I get back. Thank you for your cooperation."

Zhuang Mingqi was clearly the type of clam that was particularly hard to pry open. Yuan Hang suspected that if he had been the one stabbed, he probably wouldn't have said anything easily. It was only because Shen Zhengning was the one lying in there now that he was willing to compromise on his principles. "Don't worry, we will arrest the culprit and bring him to justice as soon as possible. We can't let Shen Zhengning take that stab for nothing... Is your phone ringing?"

A buzzing vibration came from his overcoat pocket. Zhuang Mingqi took out his phone, saw the screen, and his expression visibly stiffened. He immediately threw it to Yuan Hang as if he'd been bitten. Yuan Hang fumbled to catch it. "What's wrong? What's so scary about a call from your mom?"

Those words were practically squeezed from between Zhuang Mingqi's teeth. "It's Zhengning's."

Yuan Hang: "Huh? ...Huh?!"

"You, you, you!" Officer Yuan seemed to be holding a bomb with only 10 seconds left on the countdown, his hand trembling as much as his voice. "How far have you two gone? Are you two public yet?!"

Zhuang Mingqi: "Huh?"

Yuan Hang was practically a grandmaster when it came to romance. One look at his bewildered expression and he understood instantly, thinking to himself, 'the tables have turned, now it's my time to repay the favor'. He quickly made a shushing gesture to Zhuang Mingqi and answered the call from "Mom"—

"Zhengning, are you off work?"

"Hello? Are you Shen Zhengning's mother? Auntie, it's like this, I'm a friend of Shen Zhengning's. We had dinner together and he left his phone with me. I was afraid you'd worry if you couldn't get through, so I answered. I'll give him back his phone tomorrow, you can call him then."

The woman's voice on the other end of the line was clearly startled. "Is that so... What's your name?"

"Auntie, my name is Yuan Hang. Zhengning and I were high school classmates."

"Oh, so you're Yuan Hang!" the other person said in a tone of sudden realization. "I know you—"

Before she could finish, a loud hospital-wide announcement suddenly came from outside. "Multi-trauma consultation. Neurosurgery, thoracic surgery, orthopedics to the emergency room for consultation. I repeat—"

Yuan Hang: "..."

"What's that sound? Are you in a hospital?" Shen Zhengning's mother's voice suddenly rose. "Did something happen to Zhengning? Don't hide it from me, tell me the truth!"

"Auntie! Auntie, don't worry first, Shen Zhengning, he—" Yuan Hang stuttered, exchanged a look with Zhuang Mingqi, and quickly made up a lie. "He has acute appendicitis and needs a small surgery, so I came to stay with him. Really, don't worry, we'll take good care of him. I'll have him call you back when he gets out, okay?"

"No need," Shen Zhengning's mom said flatly. "Which hospital are you at? I'm coming over right now."

Yuan Hang: "...Huh? Aren't you in De City?"

"My work sent a few people to Sheng'an for training. I arrived this afternoon. Tell me the address, which hospital are you at?"

The light in Yuan Hang's eyes gradually dimmed and disappeared. He steeled himself and gave the hospital's name. As a result, Shen Zhengning's mother let out a "huh?" on the phone. "Shengda Affiliated Hospital, International Department? Does an appendectomy require such a grand setup?"

"Cough, cough!" Yuan Hang choked in alarm. "It's because... the regular outpatient department is too crowded!"

"Fine," his mother said, half-convinced. "I've hailed a cab. I'll be there in half an hour."

Yuan Hang held the disconnected phone, turned his head mechanically like a robot, and looked at Zhuang Mingqi in terror. "Bro, do you think Sherlock Holmes's mom would also be a Sherlock Holmes?"

"Officer Yuan, Holmes is a surname. To be precise, the entire Holmes family are Holmeses," Zhuang Mingqi said, at a loss for words. "Besides, this doesn't require any deduction. When Zhengning comes out later, anyone with eyes can see this is definitely not an appendectomy, right?!"