The car was wedged between rocks and trees, still more or less intact.
The bodyguards in the other vehicles did not panic too badly. They had all received relevant training, and scenarios like this had been rehearsed before.
Those responsible for calling the police did so. Those responsible for catching the attacker grabbed weapons and gave chase. The rest took out rescue equipment and climbed down the cliff toward the car.
They drove rock bolts into place and built a support structure. Only after finishing all of that did they carefully open the car door.
“Sir?”
Fu Hui’s eyes were closed. He did not respond.
They carefully supported Fu Hui’s back and moved him out. Only then were they able to see Lan Xi, who had been shielded beneath him.
Lan Xi, who had been curled up tightly, unfolded his limbs again with a cold expression.
He was completely uninjured.
The bodyguards froze for a moment, but they were not especially shocked.
Just to be safe, they still asked, “Mr. Lan Xi, are you hurt anywhere?”
Lan Xi stiffly shook his head.
He must have been frightened.
That was what they thought.
“We need to take Sir up first. You’ll have to wait here for a little while. Don’t be afraid. We’ll come back for you very soon.”
Lan Xi lowered his head without speaking, completely hiding his expression.
The bodyguards had no time to wait for a reply. They moved efficiently, and within less than ten minutes, they had transferred everyone out one after another.
That included the two bodyguards inside the car who had also been knocked unconscious by the impact.
The police cars and ambulances arrived quickly, and the scene was rapidly sealed off.
Lan Xi sat inside an ambulance and saw the captured driver through the clear window.
The middle-aged man had been pinned to the ground. Bones in both his hands and legs were broken, and his head was covered in blood too.
Lan Xi suddenly opened the ambulance door and jumped out.
Everyone was startled.
“Mr. Lan Xi!” One of the bodyguards hurried after him.
Lan Xi had already walked slowly toward the attacker.
He stretched out one leg, hooked the tip of his shoe beneath the man’s chin, and forced his face upward.
It was the face of a completely unfamiliar middle-aged man.
Lan Xi did not understand. Why had this person attacked them?
“Are you all right?” The bodyguard caught up and anxiously checked his hands and feet.
He had just gone flying off a cliff in a car, and now he was jumping out of an ambulance too. Even the lead in a Hollywood action movie was not this durable!
The bodyguard pulled Lan Xi two steps back. Lan Xi gave the man on the ground another deep look.
The man could not help shuddering.
He had not been this frightened even when he was caught.
He did not know why that excessively beautiful person frightened him so much…
Lan Xi was taken back into the ambulance and went all the way to the hospital with them.
Two or three members of the Song family who happened to be nearby had already arrived.
Song Qingming was still at the research institute, while Zhou Lin had coincidentally gone to another city for work. None of the Song family members who came knew Lan Xi well.
They paused at first, dazzled by him, but soon began sizing Lan Xi up with distant looks that made him deeply uncomfortable.
Before long, members of the Fu family arrived too.
Their expressions were even uglier. They barely had time to look at Lan Xi. The moment they met the Song family, both sides first had to clarify, “We had nothing to do with this.”
In enormous families like these, where power and interests were tangled together, it did not matter how they normally treated Fu Hui. At a time like this, every one of them was a possible suspect.
Only after both sides cleared themselves did they surround the doctors and demand updates.
The medical team did not dare be careless and held an impromptu briefing on the spot.
A bodyguard noticed Lan Xi still standing blankly against the wall and could not help walking over. “Mr. Lan Xi, don’t you want to listen too?”
Lan Xi felt awkward.
He did not belong here in the first place. He had not even married Fu Hui yet. It felt as though none of this had anything to do with him.
He still felt stifled and furious.
His mind was full of thoughts about quietly leaving. And what would he do after leaving? Go peel the attacker’s skin off and dig out his bones…
So annoying!
He did not want Fu Hui to die right now at all!
He was furious.
“Mr. Lan Xi?” The bodyguard looked at him worriedly.
He really did seem badly frightened.
Lan Xi came back to himself and looked toward the doctors speaking inside the room.
The door was open, so Lan Xi could hear their voices.
Lan Xi said a little sadly, “I don’t understand.”
The bodyguard immediately said, “Anything you don’t understand, I’ll explain.”
Lan Xi said, “Oh.”
The bodyguard pushed the door open forcefully.
It banged hard against the wall, instantly drawing everyone’s attention.
The bodyguard stayed protectively beside Lan Xi, walked directly through the crowd, and brought him to the very front.
Then the bodyguard told the doctor, “Continue.”
The doctor froze at the sight of Lan Xi’s face, recovered, and hurriedly continued the explanation.
The others did not interrupt.
Fu Hui trusted the bodyguards around him deeply. Most of them had gone through life-and-death situations with him. Because of that, the others usually did not want to clash with Fu Hui’s bodyguards either.
Fu Hui’s marriage did not actually require him to notify anyone. But one reason he had wanted to bring Lan Xi to meet the family was precisely to prevent Lan Xi from being shut out at a moment like this.
Whether Lan Xi wanted to involve himself in Fu Hui’s affairs or not, at least he would not be made to suffer a grievance here.
Unfortunately, no one had expected that both times Fu Hui tried taking Lan Xi to meet family elders would go so badly.
“…That’s more or less the situation.” The doctor gestured at several scans and gave his final summary.
Lan Xi did not understand it. He turned to the bodyguard and asked, “Will Fu Hui die?”
“No.”
Lan Xi let out a breath of relief. “Oh.”
A member of the Fu family paced anxiously. “But he might not wake up!”
Lan Xi frowned. “What does that mean?”
If he would not die, why wouldn’t he wake up?
The bodyguard immediately explained in a calm and steady voice, “Sir has a little blood pooled inside his skull right now. It may be reabsorbed on its own. If it is, he’ll be fine.”
He had clearly inherited Fu Hui’s composure in full.
Lan Xi said, “Oh.”
But someone immediately added, “If it doesn’t absorb, they’ll have to open his skull. Brain surgery carries a risk of leaving him in a vegetative state. That’s not something we can gamble on.”
Lan Xi’s brows knitted again.
Even the bodyguard could not resist turning around. “Could you stop frightening him?”
The person shut up, but the anxiety was impossible to hide. In the end, he muttered unwillingly, “I’m only stating the objective risks.”
The doctor wanted to say the outlook was not actually that pessimistic, but faced with a room full of powerful people, he did not dare. People like them were all the more wary of matters of life and death and unwilling to accept even the slightest risk.
Zhou Lin finally arrived at that moment too.
Her heart was still pounding wildly when she came through the door. She immediately put an arm around Lan Xi’s shoulders in the comforting manner of an elder.
Fu Hui’s life and death were for the doctors to handle. Right now, Zhou Lin only wanted to make sure nobody bullied Lan Xi…
But Zhou Lin looked around.
Uh. It did not seem like anyone had actually come out to make things difficult for him…
Right. Fu Hui had probably prepared for this long ago.
Zhou Lin steadied herself and coaxed Lan Xi softly. “Why don’t we go rest for a while and eat something?”
Lan Xi had absolutely no interest in food.
He only wanted to find somewhere quiet and cramped and stay there for a while.
He took two steps after Zhou Lin, then heard the people behind them begin discussing how the other vehicle had lain in wait and charged at them.
Lan Xi stopped and sat back down.
Zhou Lin thought he was forcing himself to stay strong. She sighed inwardly and sat beside him to keep him company.
Fu Hui’s bodyguards were reviewing the incident as well.
They explained that when they drove through that section of road, maintenance barriers had been set up in the opposing lane. The attacking vehicle had suddenly burst out from behind those barriers.
Then the Fu and Song families began supplying the names of various possible suspects.
As Lan Xi listened, he discovered Fu Hui had an astonishing number of enemies…
He kicked the leg of a bodyguard’s chair.
The bodyguard immediately turned toward him.
Lan Xi said, “Write them down. Every name.”
He could not remember them all.
The bodyguard looked a little confused and did not understand why Lan Xi wanted that. But they were making a record anyway, so he nodded. “All right. We’ll send you a copy too.”
“Mm.”
Lan Xi had never realized humans were so fragile.
Apparently even living peacefully for a few decades was this difficult… For Fu Hui to keep his promise and live for several more decades before dying, Lan Xi decided he would kill every one of those people.
He lowered his head, making him look especially pitiful.
Not one person knew what he was thinking.
＊
From the moment Fu Hui lost control of his limbs and became unable even to close his eyes, his consciousness had remained awake.
He knew clearly that the bodyguards had taken him out of the car. He knew clearly that he was sent to the hospital’s emergency room and then transferred into the ICU.
He had even heard everything before and after Lan Xi jumped out of the ambulance.
Fu Hui was not especially angry.
Kidnappings, attacks, and assassination attempts happened often enough to people in families like the Fu and Song families. He was used to them.
But he was anxious.
This world was still far too unfamiliar and dangerous for Lan Xi.
Even though he knew… Lan Xi had survived perfectly well before meeting him.
Fu Hui was unbearably anxious.
He wanted to open his eyes and give the people around him a few more instructions. He exhausted every bit of strength he had, trying to mobilize the muscles throughout his body.
Desperately, desperately…
He opened his eyes.
What he saw was not a white ceiling, nor were doctors and nurses in white coats crowding around him.
A dark cloud fell from the sky and crashed into the ground with a muffled explosion.
Then another dark cloud fell, and another.
But when he looked more carefully, he realized those were not “clouds” at all. They were people… people with black wings.
Whether this was a dream or not, Fu Hui could only react instinctively. He rolled across the ground and hid behind cover.
After half an hour of observation,
Fu Hui confirmed that he had not gone mad. He was witnessing a war between demons and angels.
Fortunately, the battlefield was in the sky rather than on the ground, so he had not been caught in it.
Then where was this… Hell? Or Heaven?
“#￥%#￥%#…” A strange voice suddenly sounded.
Fu Hui turned around.
At some point, a demon with only half a wing left had fallen behind him.
Fu Hui did not panic very much.
Instead, he immediately thought of Lan Xi when Lan Xi had first arrived in the human world.
Everyone around him had spoken words he could not understand… What had Lan Xi felt back then?
＊
After Fu Hui’s accident, the investigation into the attacker produced results very quickly.
Lan Xi asked the bodyguard, “You figured it out?”
The bodyguard nodded. “Yes. It’s clear now. The family will handle everything else. You don’t need to worry.”
Lan Xi asked again, “Where is that person?”
“You mean the driver? He should be preparing for a prison transfer.”
“When?”
The bodyguard answered honestly, “I heard tomorrow at three in the afternoon.”
“What route?”
The bodyguard recited a long string of roads.
Lan Xi barely memorized the route, though he did not actually know which roads any of them were. He immediately turned around and called Fang Nianqing, using him as a living map.
Fang Nianqing directly downloaded an electronic map of the capital and marked the route for Lan Xi in red.
Fang Nianqing asked, “Why?”
Lan Xi discarded him the moment he was useful no longer and heartlessly hung up.
After the call, Lan Xi went to visit Fu Hui in the ICU.
He stood there blankly, looking at all the strange wires connected to Fu Hui. It looked as though a spider demon had built a nest around him…
So scary.
Lan Xi did not dare look a second longer and hurried away.
Zhou Lin thought he was overwhelmed with grief and chased after him to offer comfort, but Lan Xi ran so quickly that he disappeared in the blink of an eye.
When she asked the bodyguards, it turned out none of them had seen where he went.
Zhou Lin nearly stopped breathing.
“How are you going to explain this when Fu Hui wakes up?” Zhou Lin was on the verge of crying aloud.
Even the bodyguards had trouble keeping their expressions steady.
Had Mr. Lan Xi run away again?
Surely not…
He could not be that heartless, right?
＊
At that moment, Fu Hui, covered in blood, crawled into a cave.
Night had fallen.
He leaned against the cave wall, panting. There was no fire to warm him, and his hand tightly gripped a section of sharpened bone. It had belonged to a demon and was the only weapon he had managed to obtain since arriving here.
Lan Xi did not know how to return to Hell.
Yet Fu Hui had ended up here by accident…
And now it was Fu Hui who did not know how to return to the human world.
His expression was ice cold. His hand was cut by the bone blade he clutched, but he did not care.
…If he and Lan Xi ended up separated across two different worlds like this, it would be far too ironic.
An even stronger anxiety swept over him.
Fu Hui slowly closed his eyes.
Go back. Go back. The desire was so intense that he finally understood exactly how Lan Xi had felt.
But he did not even have much time to suffer over it. The war between demons and angels was still ongoing. The next day, he would face even more threats to his life.
He needed to preserve his strength.
He needed to sleep, but not so deeply that he could not wake at once.
Lan Xi… Lan Xi…
Do you miss me the way I miss you?
＊
Lan Xi told no one anything. He simply followed the route Fang Nianqing had drawn for him and walked the entire thing alone.
Back at the hospital, everyone was nearly going insane with worry.
They searched from top to bottom and still could not find Lan Xi anywhere.
A bodyguard hurried out of the hospital and, after walking only a short distance, saw Lan Xi sitting on the steps in a daze.
“What are you doing here?” The bodyguard breathed a sigh of relief and rushed over to surround him with the others, terrified that one moment of inattention would make him disappear again.
Lan Xi lifted his head and sighed. “I don’t want to go see Fu Hui.”
The bodyguard’s heart dropped. He forced a smile. “Th-then you don’t have to…”
Lan Xi looked listless. “I hate seeing him lying there without moving.”
The bodyguard froze for a moment. His eyes could not help reddening. “Then I’ll take you back to rest. We don’t have to stay at the hospital.”
Lan Xi pinched his fingers together, a little lost.
He thought about when he had been unable to return to Hell or go to Heaven… Back then, he had spent every day too lazy to move and had ignored Fu Hui too. What had Fu Hui done then?
He tried hard to remember.
He remembered Fu Hui force-feeding him.
But he could not feed Fu Hui now.
Right. Fu Hui had also carried him around everywhere.
But now Fu Hui was connected to so many wires. Lan Xi could not carry him away. If he did, Fu Hui would die.
Fu Hui had personally dressed him, put on his socks, and put on his shoes too.
But Fu Hui did not need any of those things now either.
Fu Hui had also found people to cheer him up, even though Wen Yue and the others were all annoying.
Who could possibly cheer Fu Hui up?
Lan Xi thought about it very seriously for a long time.
Finally, he patted his butt and stood up. “I’m going to see Fu Hui.”
The bodyguard did not know why this little ancestor had suddenly changed his mind, but it was a good thing anyway. When Sir woke up, hearing about this would probably make him very happy.
The group returned to the hospital.
Lan Xi put on full protective gear and entered the ICU.
He leaned over Fu Hui’s bedside and forced himself to keep his eyes on Fu Hui. He carefully examined the scrapes and bruises on his face… even the marks Lan Xi had caused had not completely disappeared yet.
Lan Xi sighed.
Lan Xi was sad.
“Fu Hui, I won’t hit you anymore.” Lan Xi made him a promise.
But Fu Hui lay quietly without the slightest response.
He looked dead.
That frightened Lan Xi.
“I won’t go around giving people business cards anymore.”
“…”
“Fine. At least until you die, I won’t sleep with anyone else either. Did you hear me?”
“…”
Lan Xi snapped angrily, “I’ve already said all that. Why are you still not waking up?”
Fu Hui heard Lan Xi’s voice.
He forced his eyes open, but all he saw was the cold, dark cave.
He suppressed his exhaustion and stood.
He needed to go look for food.
＊
The third day of Fu Hui’s coma.
The Wen brothers arrived at the hospital.
As suspects, they had also been investigated, so naturally they knew what had happened to Fu Hui. The moment the investigation ended, they came straight to the hospital.
This was no time to talk about morality or propriety.
Fu Hui was unconscious. How would Fu Hui’s family treat Lan Xi, who had been in the accident with him?
“We want to take Lan Xi somewhere safe for a while,” Wen Yue said calmly to the bodyguard.
The bodyguard nearly laughed in their faces. “You two really aren’t afraid of dying, are you? Are you certain our Sir won’t wake up?”
“We don’t mean that. But Lan Xi went through such a frightening incident. Wouldn’t it be better for him to go somewhere quiet and isolated and rest properly?”
When an opportunity appeared, you had to seize it. You could not let go easily.
Wen Yue thought this was an important lesson Fu Hui had taught them.
The bodyguard showed no intention of giving way. “Please leave.”
Wen Ming cut in. “Then can we at least see Lan Xi and ask what he wants? With Mr. Fu unconscious, isn’t staying here putting too much pressure on him?”
The bodyguard remembered that Lan Xi had stopped eating properly again these past two days. Only then did he hesitate and step aside.
If they could coax him into eating… fine.
It would be terrible if Sir woke up only to find Lan Xi had made himself sick from not eating.
The group arrived outside the room.
The bodyguard raised a hand and knocked, but nobody answered for a long time.
They were badly frightened and immediately raised their voices. “Mr. Lan Xi, are you in there? We’re worried. If you don’t answer, we’re going to break the door down!”
There was still no response from inside.
After hesitating again and again, the bodyguards rammed the door open.
They entered to find the window wide open, the curtains flying wildly in the wind. They searched everywhere inside and discovered Lan Xi was gone again.
This time, both Wen brothers were so frightened that they rushed to the window and instinctively leaned out to look down.
There was nothing below.
Good. Good. At least Lan Xi had not become overwhelmed and jumped.
Then where had he gone?
The bodyguard turned around and went to check the surveillance footage.
Wen Yue turned away and called Lan Xi, while Wen Ming refused to give up and continued searching the room.
After they had finished making a huge commotion,
the bathroom door creaked open.
Lan Xi slowly walked out, wiping water from his hair with one hand. He asked coldly, “What are you doing?”
Wen Yue put away his phone, unable to hide his shock. “You were inside the room?”
Lan Xi’s gaze shifted slightly. “Mm.”
Wen Ming had just come out of the bedroom too.
The hospital’s deluxe rooms came standard with two bedrooms and a living room, so Wen Ming’s search had taken some time.
Seeing Lan Xi now, he froze too. “We knocked and called for you just now. You didn’t hear us?”
Lan Xi was silent for a moment. “I heard. I didn’t want to answer. What?”
Wen Ming had nothing to say.
If Lan Xi did not want to answer them, what could they possibly do?
Not long afterward, the bodyguard strode back too. “We couldn’t find any sign of Mr. Lan Xi on the surveillance footage… You’re here?!”
Lan Xi answered, “Mm,” casually threw away the towel, and went to sit by the window. “I want to eat something.”
The bodyguard immediately brightened. He had no attention left to spare for anything else and hurried off again to arrange food for Lan Xi.
They needed both Chinese and Western dishes, anything that might get him to eat a few extra bites.
Wen Yue, however, looked at Lan Xi’s hair with some surprise.
It was slightly damp.
Had Lan Xi been showering just now? But nobody had heard running water. His hair was only faintly wet too, almost as though he had simply splashed a little water on it to make it look convincing.
Still, that did not seem important enough to dwell on.
Wen Yue sat down across from him.
Lan Xi lowered his eyes and picked at his fingers, still ignoring them.
Helpless, Wen Yue lowered his gaze to Lan Xi’s hands too and noticed mottled red marks on his fingers. He was just about to look more closely when the bodyguard came back in.
“That man died,” the bodyguard said.
Wen Ming cut in. “Who?”
The bodyguard glanced at him. “The driver.” After a pause, he added, “He died horribly.”
The bodyguard seemed to be trying to comfort Lan Xi so he would not keep feeling upset.
So he explained in detail. “His skin was torn apart. His nasal bones and wrist bones were crushed. Even his eyeballs were dug out.”
Wen Ming sucked in a breath.
Wen Yue thought this kind of bloody detail should never have been said in front of Lan Xi, so he immediately turned to check Lan Xi’s expression.
Lan Xi licked his lips and only urged, “I want to eat quickly, then go see Fu Hui.”
Wen Yue froze.
…
Lan Xi ate a very quick, extremely perfunctory meal. But as long as he ate anything, the bodyguard was happy.
Then Lan Xi put on the protective clothing as usual and entered the ICU.
It was so quiet around them, so quiet that only the cold sounds of the machines could be heard.
The longer Lan Xi listened, the more it felt as though those machine noises were pressing down on his chest until he could not breathe.
He leaned over beside Fu Hui and complained angrily, “My wings hurt. My hand hurts.”
Fu Hui did not respond.
Lan Xi was disappointed.
Fu Hui did not even climb up and kiss his fingers.
Lan Xi was very angry.
＊
Fu Hui heard Lan Xi’s voice once again.
He opened his eyes and found himself looking into the face of a demon.
Fu Hui sighed softly.
Fortunately, he had already picked up the basics of the demon language and could manage an extremely simple conversation.
He asked the demon opposite him, “Do you know a succubus called Lan Xi?”
The demon babbled a long answer, indicating that it did.
Fu Hui still did not know how to return to his original world, but there was no reason to waste the time he had here.
He needed to learn more about Hell.
And he also needed…
“I want to go to Lan Xi’s home. Can you take me there?” Fu Hui paused. “Of course, I’ll teach you how to kill angels stronger than you.”