Chapter 72
“Are you okay? Can you hear me?”
“There shouldn’t be any fractures, but it’s better to be careful. Don’t shake his head.”
“Mm… he seems to only have minor external injuries. Maybe a slight concussion. We’ll take a scan when we get back…”
Shen Wu heard some rustling voices around him. Some he could hear clearly, some he couldn’t, but his mind couldn’t turn at all. He couldn’t think for a while, and his eyelids were too heavy to open.
“Doctor! His heart has stopped!”
The exclamation from not far away finally woke Shen Wu completely.
He frowned and tremblingly opened his eyelids a crack. A white corner of clothing was shaking in his field of vision, and he heard the sharp buzzing sound of some instrument.
He held his head and sat up straight.
A hand immediately reached out from his side to support him. He turned his head and saw a concerned woman’s face, who asked him gently, “How do you feel? Are you uncomfortable anywhere?”
Seeing her dress, Shen Wu thought she might be a nurse at the hospital. He often got injured and went to the hospital because of extreme sports, so he was very familiar with medical staff and his own condition. He shook his head lightly and said, “A slight concussion… hiss.”
He then looked down at his thigh, the source of the sharp pain, and continued, “A scrape on my thigh, and my arm also hurts a little. No fractures.”
“That’s good. We’ll give you a detailed check-up when we get to the hospital. Don’t move,” the nurse spoke very quickly. After showing her concern, she immediately changed the subject, “The man with you is your older brother, the president of Star Entertainment, Shen Ping, right?”
Shen Wu was a big celebrity now, which had reduced the workload for the medical staff. There was no need to check their personal belongings. His identity could be determined just from his face.
This young nurse actually knew Shen Ping.
Shen Wu’s thoughts were turning very slowly. It took him a long while to digest her words. “Shen Ping… right, my brother, how is he…”
Before Shen Wu could finish, his gaze shifted and landed on the stretcher a step away.
It was Shen Ping.
His head was wrapped in a pale bandage, and the lower half of his face was tightly covered by an oxygen mask. The mist on the inner wall of the mask blurred his face. Shen Wu looked for a few seconds before he could barely recognize this unfamiliar-looking person.
The silver-framed glasses he had been wearing for more than ten years were gone, probably shattered in the high-speed collision. Shen Wu saw small cuts on his forehead, the corner of his eye, and the bridge of his nose, bright red, like they had been carved on his bloodless face with a small knife.
The doctor was giving him CPR.
The short few minutes were incredibly long. Shen Wu felt that he had lost his breath several times.
The ECG monitor showed low-frequency waves. Shen Wu and the two doctors and two nurses were all staring at it.
For a moment, it was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. The regular beeping sound was like a fishing line, tightly strangling everyone’s heart.
After a long while, a doctor finally let out a long sigh of relief and raised his hand to wipe his sweat. The other doctor still did not dare to relax and urged the driver through the partition, “Faster. This patient can’t wait any longer…”
The young nurse who was guarding Shen Wu also had a worried look on her face.
“My phone…” Shen Wu said very lightly.
“I have it,” the nurse turned her head, took the phone out of her pocket, and handed it to him. The screen was covered with spiderweb-like cracks. “It still works. Please unlock it. I’ll call your parents.”
Shen Wu’s head was still a little dizzy. He leaned tiredly against the iron wall of the car behind him, looked at Shen Ping’s oxygen mask, and said in a weak voice, “Mm, thank you. Call gege again…”
“Gege?” The nurse looked at the unconscious Shen Ping with a suspicious look, but she still did as Shen Wu had requested.
The ambulance ran green lights all the way, racing against time, and arrived at the hospital in less than five minutes.
The medical staff still did not dare to delay and quickly moved Shen Ping to a gurney and rushed to the operating room.
Shen Wu looked at the empty stretcher, which was covered in blood.
“Let’s go,” the young nurse called out to him. “You also need to get a check-up right away.”
“…Mm.”
After Shen Wu’s check-up confirmed that there was nothing serious, he did not rest but waited quietly outside the operating room.
Shen Tianheng was the first to arrive, striding towards him like the wind. Shen Wu slowly stood up. He had just steadied himself when he was forcefully pulled into Shen Tianheng’s arms.
Shen Wu’s hands and feet instantly stiffened.
For all these years, he and Shen Tianheng would argue as soon as they met. Although it had gotten a little better after they had signed the share transfer contract, such an intimate touch had not happened between them for more than ten years.
Shen Wu was a little unaccustomed to it and was also afraid that Shen Tianheng would get angry. He really had no strength to argue with Shen Tianheng now, and Shen Ping was still in the operating room, his life and death unknown. This was not the time to argue.
But Shen Tianheng just held him, repeatedly stroking his back, his low and deep voice trembling.
It was the first time he had felt such vulnerability from Shen Tianheng.
“Thank god… you’re okay… it’s great that you’re okay.”
Shen Wu did not move and was checked over and over by him in a daze. He suddenly let out a “hiss.”
Shen Tianheng’s movements paused, and his deeply furrowed brow was intimidating, “What’s wrong?”
Shen Wu pointed to his arm, “You touched my wound.”
Hearing this, Shen Tianheng lifted his sleeve and saw a large bruise. The little bit of concern instantly dissipated and was replaced by that common reprimand, “Just this little injury… making a fuss.”
Shen Wu’s expression was strange, and he did not speak.
Shen Tianheng recovered and no longer paid attention to him. He stared at the direction of the operating room and murmured a prayer for Shen Ping, “…If something happens to Xiao Ping, when I go to the underworld, how can I face Aman?”
Shen Wu was taken aback by his words.
“Dad,” he called out from the side. Shen Tianheng did not hear him, and he continued to call, “Dad… Dad, Ge is not just Auntie’s son, he’s also your son.”
Shen Tianheng’s back suddenly stiffened, as if he were bound by an invisible force.
A moment ago, Shen Wu had been terrified that he would scold him, or be suspicious and accusatory, for example: Your brother is in the operating room for emergency surgery, how come you’re standing here perfectly fine?
But Shen Tianheng’s reaction was completely different from his guess.
No wonder, no wonder Shen Ping was jealous of him.
Shen Wu’s heart was quite uncomfortable, and the corners of his eyes turned red, “For all these years, have you always been like this? Being good to him, or worrying about him, is it all because… he’s the child Auntie left behind, and you feel guilty towards Auntie?”
Shen Tianheng’s brow was tightly furrowed, as if his secret had been exposed. He asked sternly, “What are you talking about?”
Shen Wu continued fearlessly, “So you’re polite to him, careful, all because you feel sorry for his mother? But you, have you considered his feelings?”
“Shen Wu!” Shen Tianheng lowered his voice and directly interrupted, “Your brother is still in emergency surgery, and you’re talking to me about this…”
Shen Wu just stood there, looking at him silently.
Just then, Xu Qiongya arrived and broke into the stagnant air between the father and son. She threw her arms around Shen Wu, and before she could say a word, she was sobbing in his ear, unable to speak.
Shen Tianheng had no choice but to take a few breaths to suppress his anger and went over to comfort the on-the-verge-of-collapse Xu Qiongya.
Shen Wu was held by his crying mother and remembered that he had once asked Shen Ping in his heart: Will you be sad and cry because of my death?
He didn’t dare to ask, afraid of getting a negative answer from Shen Ping.
Today in the car, Shen Ping had also avoided this question, only saying that he would live longer than him.
Actually, this question, all those who loved him would avoid it, right? They didn’t even dare to imagine the possibility that he would leave early.
They had all said it with their actions.
They would.
They would be sad.
Shen Wu patted Xu Qiongya’s back and said, “I’m fine,” but Xu Qiongya turned a deaf ear and just held him stubbornly, sobbing, and the hot tears wet his back.
Meng Huaizhi was the farthest from the hospital and was the last to arrive. He could only stand not far away and watch them quietly.
Shen Wu had no choice but to cry out in alarm, “Ah, it hurts!”
The three people present all looked at him nervously.
Xu Qiongya finally let go of him, her face full of worry, and quickly asked, “Where does it hurt?”
“A contusion on my arm,” Shen Wu said. “It’s nothing, I just can’t touch it. It doesn’t hurt if I don’t touch it.”
Xu Qiongya reluctantly took two steps back, “Then what are you still doing here? Tianheng, go and call a doctor and take him to a ward…”
Shen Wu shook his head and sat back down on the chair, “It’s fine. I’ll just sit here. I’ll stay here with Ge for now.”
Only then did Meng Huaizhi walk up to him.
With his words just now, Meng Huaizhi couldn’t hug him and could only sit down next to him, his eyes scanning him up and down.
The restrained worry in his gaze was almost tangible.
He had come too late, and he couldn’t even hug him.
So Shen Wu took the initiative to pull on Meng Huaizhi’s sleeve, “Huaizhi-ge, I’m fine. Don’t worry.”
Shen Wu kept saying that he was fine, and with the doctor’s assurance, he could comfort his parents, but he could not comfort Meng Huaizhi, who knew his fate.
Shen Wu had to go through the trouble of getting a full-body CT scan and had finished this year’s full-body check-up in advance. He was busy until the evening, and the doctors in the outpatient department had already gotten off work. He went back to the inpatient department and waited for a while before he saw Shen Ping, who was being pushed on a gurney to the intensive care unit.
The unconscious Shen Ping needed to rest quietly. Shen Wu insisted on staying to accompany Shen Ping, so Shen Tianheng and Xu Qiongya went out to wait, letting Shen Wu and Meng Huaizhi accompany him in the ward.
Shen Ping was lying flat on the hospital bed, his arms and legs wrapped in bandages. The blood-stained shirt had been removed by the doctor and replaced with white bandages, wrapped around and around.
The previously glaring dark red had been replaced with an equally glaring pale white.
His face was still covered with an oxygen mask, and the hot breath he exhaled condensed into a white mist on the mask, which dissipated in an instant, then condensed again, and then dissipated again.
Shen Wu quietly looked at the only changing mask on his body.
Meng Huaizhi gently hooked Shen Wu’s hand, and the two of them sat down on the small sofa in the reception area together.
Meng Huaizhi looked at the large bruise on his arm, his heart aching. He wanted to touch it but didn’t dare to, and was silent for a long time.
“Huaizhi-ge,” Shen Wu spoke first. “I’ll have to apply medicine every day when I get back. It hurts a little to lift my arm, so you’ll have to help me.”
Meng Huaizhi’s lips moved with difficulty, “Okay.”
Seeing his hand on his leg open and then clench, Shen Wu simply reached out and rested his hand on it.
Only then did Meng Huaizhi carefully hold his hand, avoiding the red scrapes on his knuckles, and gently rubbed it with his fingertips.
Shen Wu’s eyelids were lowered, and he slowly spoke, “In the novel, my brother didn’t have a car accident. He was still alive and well after I was gone…”
Of course, Shen Ping also existed as a cannon fodder control group. The artists and the boss of Star Entertainment would be pulled out by the author from time to time for the two main characters to step on.
In any case, even if Shen Ping was repeatedly slapped in the face and humiliated in the novel, his life was always safe.
The only one who would be in danger was Shen Wu.
Hearing this, Meng Huaizhi’s movements paused slightly, and he said noncommittally, “I’ve already said, that’s just a fan fiction.”
But Shen Wu shook his head, his eyes instantly turning red, “It might be because of me that he had a car accident…”
After a long while, he dared to say what had happened in the car, which only he and Shen Ping knew, “If he hadn’t unbuckled his seatbelt to protect me, he wouldn’t be unconscious now.”
The moment he had seen Shen Tianheng, he had been terrified that Shen Tianheng would question him, why was it that when the two brothers had a car accident at the same time, one was seriously injured and unconscious, while the other was safe and sound.
However, Shen Tianheng had not asked anything, but had just hugged him with relief.
But this matter was still like a thorn stuck in his throat, and he had to spit it out to feel better.
Hearing this, Meng Huaizhi did not speak for a long time.
Shen Wu lifted his eyelids, and his moist and red peach blossom eyes trembled slightly.
Meng Huaizhi looked at him calmly, suddenly raised his hand, and gently stroked the back of his head.
Shen Wu’s eyes suddenly turned sour.
“It’s not because of you,” Meng Huaizhi gently pulled him into his arms and said in his ear, “You won’t be in trouble either. Nothing will happen.”
Shen Wu buried most of his face in the hollow of Meng Huaizhi’s neck, and soon, a warm liquid wet his shoulder.
“It’s okay, it’s okay,” Meng Huaizhi forced himself to calm down, and lightly patted Shen Wu’s back again and again, his faint voice had an inexplicable comforting power. “Your fate has already been changed…”
Most of the time, he did not believe in the fate Shen Wu had talked about, but at this moment, he selectively believed a part of it and was deeply convinced.
He believed that Shen Wu was indeed destined to have this calamity.
But Shen Wu had dodged it, because Shen Ping had protected him.
So, Shen Wu could live a safe and sound life.
They were hugging each other, not just now, but also for many moments in the future.
Until their hair turned white.
