His Zhaozhao... His Zhaozhao...
She had lost so much blood... How much pain must she have endured?
Was she terribly scared?
Was she calling out his name?
Why... Why hadn't he protected her well?
Why wasn't he by her side?
The overwhelming self - blame, the raging anger, and the crushing fear intertwined into a huge net, ensnaring him tightly and dragging him into the boundless darkness.
His breathing became extremely difficult. His chest heaved violently, but he couldn't feel a trace of oxygen.
Like a drowning man, he opened his mouth futilely, and his vision went black.
He didn't even dare to ask Qi Yu about her condition.
Or rather, he couldn't even utter a single syllable.
Qi Yu didn't even dare to breathe loudly.
The cabin was deathly silent, save for the roar of the plane's engine and Pei Jiangmu's heavy and on - the - verge - of - breaking breathing.
Looking at Pei Jiangmu's state, Qi Yu felt a chill run up his spine.
It was the instinctive fear when facing a force on the verge of losing control and causing destruction.
However, the expected roaring and smashing didn't happen.
Pei Jiangmu stared fixedly at the photo for a full minute.
Then, he suddenly closed his eyes. When he opened them again, the scarlet storm in his eyes had miraculously... subsided?
No, it wasn't subsiding. It was solidifying.
All his emotions had been forcibly compressed and frozen, transforming into a deeper and more terrifying stillness.
The trembling of his arm gradually stopped, but the veins on the back of his hand still bulged, testifying to the terrifying power suppressed beneath.
Slowly, extremely slowly, he handed the phone back to Qi Yu, his movements even eerily steady.
Qi Yu took the phone nervously, as if taking a red - hot coal.
Pei Jiangmu turned his head and looked out of the plane window at the pitch - black night sky. His side profile was as cold and hard as an ice sculpture.
In a voice so calm it was creepy, he said three words to the pilot's communication officer in the front.
"Go faster."
The voice was not loud, and even a bit hoarse.
But these simple three words made Qi Yu feel an unprecedented chill and panic from the bottom of his heart.
It was the kind of overwhelming pressure before a storm, the stillness to the extreme.
He knew Pei Jiangmu too well. This kind of extreme calm often meant... he had crossed a certain critical point.
What would follow would be a madness that ignored all consequences and destroyed everything.
The pilot didn't dare to be the least bit negligent and pushed the plane's speed to the limit.
The rest of the flight passed in an oppressive silence.
Pei Jiangmu didn't say a single word anymore, nor did he make any movements. He just quietly stared out of the window, as if he had turned into a lifeless statue.
Only the increasingly intense and cold killing aura emanating from him reminded others that there was a terrifying power hidden inside this statue.
The plane finally landed at Haicheng Airport in the darkest hour before dawn.
A black sedan was already waiting on the tarmac. It picked up Pei Jiangmu and Qi Yu and sped towards the hospital.
In the corridor outside the operating room, the lights were pale, and the air was filled with the smell of disinfectant.
Xu Lin and Ai Gao had also rushed over. Their eyes were red and swollen, obviously having cried. Now they were nervously leaning against the wall.
When they saw Pei Jiangmu approaching, they wanted to step forward and say something, but the moment they met his eyes, they were so scared that they fell silent and took a step back subconsciously.
This didn't seem to be the Pei Jiangmu they knew.
At this moment, Pei Jiangmu was dressed in an expensive custom - made suit, exuding an air of extreme nobility.
But his face was a nearly transparent white, his lips were tightly pursed, and there were unremovable ink - like darkness and bloodshot eyes under his eyes.
He didn't look at anyone and walked straight to the operating room door.
He stood there like a guarding stone statue, motionless, his eyes fixed on the closed door that symbolized life and death.
Time ticked by, and every second felt like torture.
I don't know how long it had passed. The light above the operating room suddenly went out with a "snap".
The door was pushed open from the inside. The chief surgeon, wearing a green surgical gown and a mask, walked out with a tired and solemn look on his face.
Pei Jiangmu almost instantly flashed in front of the doctor, moving so fast that he created a gust of wind.
He wanted to ask, but his throat seemed to be blocked by something.
It was so dry and tight that he lost his voice for a moment. He could only squeeze out two words with an extremely hoarse and broken breath: "... How?"
The doctor looked into his blood - shot eyes, full of terrifying hope and fear, and sighed heavily. He took off his mask.
"Mr. Pei, the severe blow to Miss Meng's back of the head was in a... very bad position, close to the brainstem area."
"Although we've done our best to remove the blood clots and repair the damage... But..."
The doctor paused, somewhat reluctant and a bit nervous, but still had to state the worst - case scenario.
"Due to the severe damage to the brainstem, she has fallen into a deep coma."
"Whether she can wake up depends on her own recovery ability and willpower..."
"To put it simply, she... may become a... vegetative."
"... Vegetative?"
Pei Jiangmu seemed not to understand these three words. He murmured them again, his eyes empty.
The next second -
"Whirr -!"
A sharp ringing in his ears like a shrill whistle suddenly pierced through his skull. Everything in front of his eyes began to spin and distort.
The doctor's words, the lights in the corridor, Xu Lin's suppressed sobbing in the distance...
All of it became distant and unreal.
His body suddenly swayed, and he staggered. He uncontrollably fell backward.
"Mr. Pei!"
Qi Yu was quick - witted and caught him in time, preventing him from falling directly to the ground.
Pei Jiangmu leaned on Qi Yu. All the strength in his body seemed to have been drained away, and his whole body was icy cold.
He opened his mouth, wanting to say something, to roar, to question, but found that he couldn't even utter a single syllable.
He had completely lost his voice.
The extreme grief and fear, like the most ferocious tsunami, had completely broken through all his defenses and even taken away his voice.
He could only stare blankly as the doctor's mouth opened and closed, seemingly saying words like "We'll do our best" and "Observation period".
The hospital dean and others had also rushed over. They were wiping the cold sweat from their foreheads and constantly explaining something.
He couldn't listen to a single word. Even his gaze became scattered.
Until he saw Meng Ruozhao being wheeled out.
She was lying on the hospital bed, her face pale, her head wrapped in thick gauze, and a ventilator attached to her...
His world brightened for a moment, but in the next second, it completely collapsed.
Colors, sounds, hope... Everything was crushed to pieces by those three words - "vegetative".
He watched blankly as Meng Ruozhao was pushed towards the intensive care unit. His body was as stiff as a stone, and he was half - supported and half - carried by Qi Yu as he followed behind.
It wasn't until the door of the intensive care unit blocked his view that he finally seemed to regain a bit of strength.
He extremely slowly pushed away Qi Yu's hand and stood up straight.
There was no expression on his face, just a deathly blankness.
Especially his eyes.
The scarlet had faded, leaving only boundless, cold darkness, like two black holes that could devour everything.