Chapter 6 – Ward

Luo Zhi had a long dream.

He was probably only five or six years old in the dream, or even a little younger.

The little girl in the swaddling clothes was cute and soft. Her hand was stretched out as she babbled and smiled at him with her eyebrows curled.

His parents were preparing a birthday present for him. When they were ready, they mysteriously hid it and smiled teasingly as they watched him go back and forth looking for it.

The eldest brother was sitting by the window reading a book. He was so noisy that he put down the book with a sigh and got up, carrying him on his shoulders.

As he sat on his eldest brother’s shoulders, he finally found his birthday present on the top of the bookcase. He was so elated and proud, and couldn’t wait to pull off the ribbon tied on the outside of the wrapping paper.

…

While the end of the ribbon was being pulled to untie it, a fiery pain suddenly swept across Luo Zhi’s back.

It was as if he got a cramp.

But Luo Zhi never had a cramp before.

He was not the pearl in the palm of Chen Tang’s hand that made the Dragon King of the East Sea furiously cover the sky and the sun with revenge, nor was he the third son of General Li who cut his flesh for his mother, eviscerated his bones for his father, and from then on had nothing to do with righteousness.

If a person was really forced to pull out his bones and pay off all his life’s blessings, there was no lotus incarnation that can be used for resurrection.

If there is no resurrection, then there can only be death.

From now on, they don’t know anything, and they don’t need to know anything. They don’t owe each other, plain and simple.

These are all myths, and myths are legends that are based on a strong belief and pursuit. They are not true.

Just like in this dream, Luo Zhi is not real.

He didn’t know when he was out of his original perspective and continued to watch the scene somewhere in the air.

It turned out that the severe pain was caused by the zipper on his back being unzipped, and Jian Huaiyi came out from the inside and took the carefully prepared gift. It turned out that the time was no longer when he was a child – Luo Jun’s brows were indifferent and sharp, and Luo Cheng was already slim, no longer the little girl who only followed behind him and cried.

Like a doll suit that was taken off, he laid down softly with an empty heart, calmly watching everything in front of him before he was kicked away in disgust by someone.

…

The image changed, and the person crouching in front of him turned into Ren Chenbai.

After all, it was just a dream. Everyone in the dream was strange, including Ren Chenbai.

Ren Chenbai just looked down at him.

Those eyes, which were gentle towards everyone, became very cold.

It’s not the indifference that naturally rejects people thousands of miles away, like Luo Jun’s, but the kind of chill “how can you still live your life in peace” that would be directed towards him alone.

The last time Luo Zhi saw this chill, it was in the eyes of Mrs. Luo.

Mrs. Luo fell ill and was confused and couldn’t recognize anyone. She stared at him as if she was looking at her most hated enemy, tore at Luo Zhi’s clothes, and demanded Luo Zhi to return her son back to her.

Mrs. Luo refused to recognize Luo Zhi as her son, and the sicker she got, the more and more obvious it became.

Mrs. Luo firmly believed that Luo Zhi was the devil who occupied her son’s identity. Because Luo Zhi couldn’t remember what he liked to eat when he was a child, or what hobbies he had when he was a child, Mrs. Luo always believed that he was fake.

Mrs. Luo would cut the fruit plate and serve it to him with a smile one second, and the next second she would be hysterical because Luo Yu had accidentally eaten a pineapple that he had never touched when he was a child. Her eyes were full of blood as she glared fiercely at him, eagerly wishing to bite his throat open, tear his flesh to pieces and swallow it whole.

…

Luo Zhi was used to these things.

What Mrs. Luo wanted was the exact same son that she remembered, so Jian Huaiyi, who was able to imitate how he used to be, would become Mrs. Luo’s spiritual support.

Mrs. Luo needed a stable environment, so he tried not to go back to Luo’s house. Even if he did, he would only live in the most remote guest room on the first floor.

But until now, Luo Zhi still didn’t know why Ren Chenbai looked at him with such eyes.

This has almost become Luo Zhi’s obsession.

It wasn’t because of how important Ren Chenbai was in his heart.

Of course, Ren Chenbai was indeed very important in Luo Zhi’s heart – but that was just a sentimental and wishful dependence on people whom it was impossible to become family with – moreover, Luo Yu had grown up long ago, and he had not been so ignorant of evil.

If he had to describe it, it was probably because he was confused that he was curious.

After following the drama to the most critical part, watching the victim only say “the murderer is” with his last breath, people would be confused by the sudden ending of the film.

After someone studies a question for the whole night, and used different methods to solve the question but ended up with 18 different answers, they’d want to know what the correct answer was. But when they flipped to the last page, they found that the standard answer was actually torn up.

Luo Zhi really couldn’t figure out why Ren Chenbai hated him.

Maybe this kind of confusion will haunt him all the time, making him become a ghost after death only to knock on Ren Chenbai’s window to ask about the matter clearly.

…why did he become a ghost?

Not only did he not go to the hospital because he had a high fever, but he also locked himself in the car.

Why did he lock himself in the car?

Because he really didn’t know where he was going, this was the only place he could go, the only place he could hide.

Why hide?

Because he was sad…

The word “sad” didn’t stay in his consciousness for more than a second.

Luo Zhi’s brain automatically helped him block this part of the conclusion. He knew very well from a long time ago that he must not let himself fall into it.

Otherwise, he will not have enough strength to climb out again and return to this broken place.

The instinctive excitement in the subconscious mind made Luo Yan suddenly break free from the endless deep dream.

…

He was not in his car.

At the same time that he came to this conclusion, Luo Zhi had already pulled out the needle on the back of his hand. He rolled off the bed in a fit, and slid underneath the bed, holding the needle tightly in his hand.

These movements had no thought to them and were purely instinctive. After a while, Luo Zhi recovered a little bit from the chaos and confusion.

He hid under the bed, with half of his face pressed against the cold hard tiles, and the back of his hand was dripping with red blood.

He was in a single ward, which was very clean. There were white walls, white tiles, blue curtains and blue screens, steel-framed beds, and a sink at the door.

Luo Zhi curled up to firmly protect his chest and abdomen, the needle was pointed sharply out between his fingers, and his arms were folded over his head.

After confirming his surroundings, he finally let out a low sigh of relief. The infinitely tense string in his mind trembled and loosened little by little in the few seconds from sleep to awakening.

Luo Zhi lowered his eyes and looked at the blue and white striped hospital gown on his body.

In a seemingly extraordinarily long ten seconds, Luo Zhi had some regrets that made him feel a little dazed.

He didn’t know where the regret came from, whether it was “surely good memories are just dreams and this is the reality”, or “why can I still wake up”.

The latter emotion is actually not right.

Luo Zhi knew this, so he never asked himself superfluous questions.

Compared with his own situation, Luo Zhi actually wanted to immediately know what happened to his car.

What did Ren Chenbai do to his car.

Why, after Luo Zhi hid in the car and locked it, could Ren Chenbai have a way to get him out and forcibly bring him to the hospital?

…

It’s not too difficult to find out the answer.

During the confrontation with Ren Chenbai, there were so many people who recognized him in the mall, and naturally, some people would follow him to the parking lot.

What happened later spread all over the internet. It didn’t take long for Luo Zhi to find the photos of the scene and several versions of the live retelling. The photos also have different distances and angles, and they recorded the scene at that time in all directions.

Ren Chenbai called the police.

Ren Chenbai told the police that his younger brother got angry and locked himself in the car. That he might think about doing something stupid.

The tone was very urgent, and someone’s life was at stake, so he finally decided to forcibly break into it.

Luo Zhi’s car was equipped with bulletproof glass, so it was too difficult to break the windows. Professionals brought an electric welding and cutting machine and had to try several different angles before they could break it. Finally, they were able to get Luo Zhi, who had already passed out, out of the car.

There are all kinds of things said in the comments. Some said that Luo Zhi was trying to sell himself as being miserable to gain sympathy, some said that seeking life and death was a waste of public resources, and some said that how old people still play this kind of ghost can’t believe it.

Of course, there are also many people who have planted grass because of this news. Ren Chenbai, the gentle and noble son of the Ren family, even if he is so filthy and despicable, he does not dislike such a dirty and despicable oil bottle. He personally carried Luo Zhi into the ambulance.

It might be some kind of conservation law. The more people praise Ren Chenbai as being gentle, handsome, and the ideal in the world, the more people are scolding Luo Zhi for being ignorant and biting Lu Dongbin.1

Luo Zhi didn’t care about that.

He clicked on the posts just to find the photos inside.

The rescue took so much effort that the car was naturally destroyed.

Luo Zhi clicked on each picture and saved them before zooming in to the limit to check the details of the picture little by little.

Not long after he woke up, he threw himself out from under the bed. At this moment, although he was able to support himself back on the bed, he was still dizzy and his vision was not clear at all.

But Luo Zhi still looked at it very seriously. He even opened the drawing editing software, and buried his head looking at the pictures from different angles. He mainly wanted to take pictures of how embarrassed and ugly he was, check up on his car, and mark every place that could be repaired with a dark blue circle.

This is a very tedious and laborious project. After Luo Zhi checked more than a dozen photos, he noticed that someone turned on the light, and raised his eyes to see the figure that pushed the door and entered.

It took Luo Zhi a while to recognize that the blurred color block in his field of vision was Ren Chenbai.

Ren Chenbai didn’t come alone. He also brought Luo Cheng, so there were two shadows standing at the edge of a large blob of light that was nearly white and bright.

Luo Cheng walked to Luo Zhi’s bedside.

The girl’s face was not very good, she bit her lip and looked at him silently.

Luo Zhi put down the phone and smiled. “Little sister…”

“What do you mean?” Luo Cheng spoke at the same moment, and hoarsely asked in a low voice, “I just wanted to do what I want. Do you have to use this method to punish me?”

Luo Zhi swallowed his words and lowered his eyes.

“You want to make me feel guilty for the rest of my life, right? Let me blame myself forever, thinking that you can’t think about it because of me.”

“You didn’t want to give the company to the second brother, so you self-directed and acted in this play.”

Luo Cheng’s voice seemed to be trembling a little. “You just made this idea, you hate me, you will never make me feel better…”

Luo Zhi’s pale fingers on the quilt twitched slightly, curled up a little, and tucked them into the palm of his hand.

“No, that’s not it.” Luo Zhi’s tone was very relaxed, “I fell asleep in the car.”

His body sank back into the pillow, raised his head and bent his eyebrows. “I was too tired and didn’t wake up. Brother Chenbai made a big fuss…”

“You are still wronging Brother Chenbai!”

Luo Cheng clenched her teeth tightly and glared at him with hatred. “Brother Chenbai saved you! You were almost–”

Luo Zhi looked at the needle on the back of his hand, and slowly said “Oh”.

…Luo Cheng is really easy to be tricked.

During the years that Jian Huaiyi was in charge of taking care of his little sister, he didn’t teach Luo Cheng how to be cautious in her words and deeds, nor how to respond to questions, so she never learned to be mindful of how she responds.2

Luo Cheng who suddenly seemed to have come to her senses, shut her mouth tightly as her face turned white uncontrollably.

…

When Ren Chenbai took him out of the car, Luo Zhi’s breath was already very weak.

If it was a normal person with a high fever, the danger is not too great. But Luo Zhi suffered from hypoglycemia3 at the same time and fell into a coma. No one knew what would happen if the time dragged on.

Luo Zhi himself didn’t know about his situation until now, but Luo Cheng clearly knew about it.

Therefore, when defending Ren Chenbai, she blurted out so without thinking.

“I almost died at that time.”

Luo Zhi softly helped her finish, and then raised his head curiously. “Little sister, you know I almost died, so the first reaction was to hate me, to question me about my ulterior motives and self-directing a play?”

—

t/n

Noooooo! Not the car! (ಥ﹏ಥ)

1

Lu Dongbin is the most widely known member of the Eight Daoist Immortals, depicted as a scholarly gentleman. He often holds a sword that dispels evil.

So basically they are scolding LZ for being mean to RC when he is trying to help him.

2

The last part of the sentence, 就把她推向了那个大染缸似的圈子, didn’t make sense so I wrote what I thought it was supposed to mean.

3

A condition in which your blood sugar (glucose) level is lower than the standard range.