Are You Addicted?

Zhou Ling Yun’s demonic eyes swept across the field of soldiers before automatically fixing on that ill.u.s.trious position, but to his surprise, it was vacant. He stood silently on the platform for about a minute, waiting for Bai Luo Yin to report in late. But in the end, his ears remained very peaceful the entire time.

“Where is the Battalion Commander, Bai Luo Yin?” Zhou Ling Yun’s astute voice sounded.

No one below uttered a word as a strong sense of oppression spread throughout the training field.

Zhou Ling Yun asked again, “Does anyone know his situation? Who did he ask for a leave of absence?”

Still no one answered.

Seeing that, Zhou Ling Yun’s brows drew into a frown before he waved for the Chief of Staff to approach him. Then in a low voice, he said, “I am leaving these soldiers for you to train. I have to go check on Xiao Bai.”

The Chief of Staff also had a look of anxiety, “Hurry and go check, hopefully nothing happened.”

In the minds of all those officers, Bai Luo Yin has never once been late for any reason; don’t even mention brazenly evading training sessions.

Zhou Ling Yun quickly walked to Bai Luo Yin’s dorm, and once he arrived, he saw that the lights inside were still on. As he pushed the door open, he was greeted with a deep sense of warmth circulating in the room. It did not seem the least like no one was there. However, when Zhou Ling Yun went to Bai Luo Yin’s bedside and lifted the blanket for a look, it was empty, and there was no one in the other rooms either.

Still feeling a bit confused, he made his way out of the room only to see a clear row of tire tracks leading away as far as his eyes can distinguish.

He didn’t request a leave of absence? Or write a report? And secretly left?…While Zhou Ling Yun was busy contemplating, his cell phone suddenly went off.

“Wing Commander, please come quick. There has been an accident,” an anxious and frantic voice came from the other side.

Zhou Ling Yun’s voice sank, “What happened?”

“The person you…you brought for us to keep an eye on, he…he committed suicide…”

“What?!” Zhou Ling Yun was utterly shocked, “What is the situation now?”

“We are not sure since we are not able to open the cabin door. But what we can only make out is a mist of blood pervading the inside, making it impossible to see the person’s shadow.”

Zhou Ling Yun hung up and immediately rushed away from Bai Luo Yin’s dorm, taking rather larges strides as he ran toward the experimental base.

Gu Yang had use a blunt instrument he found in the micro-g environment to make a cut on his skin. However, with the absence of gravity (little to none), the blood quickly pervaded the entire cabin. He had taken such a drastic step just for the purpose of catching the attention of the guarding soldiers. But—since he took off his aviation outfit in the process which inadvertently expose his body to a vacuumed environment—it did not take long for his blood to boil, causing him to instantly lose consciousness and putting his life in imminent peril.

The situation was extremely dangerous. If rescue did not come on time, it is possible that his internal organs would be forced out of his body.

Once Zhou Ling Yun arrived at the experimental base, he immediately opened the micro-g cabin. As air poured inside, Gu Yang’s body quickly dropped to the floor with a thud.

“Hurry and contact emergency personnel!”

Soon, more than a dozen military doctors rushed to rescue Gu Yang, using an hour of time before they were finally able to put the situation under control. Then, the medical staff had transferred Gu Yang to the Air Force General Hospital intensive care unit—with Zhou Ling Yun accompanying him.

At a little over seven o’clock in the morning, Bai Luo Yin’s cellphone sounded.

Gu Hai was in the kitchen, preparing breakfast when he heard the cellphone. He quickly rushed into the bedroom to grab the noisy cellphone before carefully closing the door, afraid that the noise would disturb Bai Luo Yin’s much needed rest.

Just one glance at the number, he immediately knew that it was Zhou Ling Yun.

Then without thinking, he connected the call.

“An unexpected situation happened to your little brother yesterday. He’s at the Air Force General Hospital right now.” peep, beep, beep……

Gu Hai’s complexion immediately changed. There was no need to mention that Zhou Ling Yun’s so-called, ‘your little brother’, was definitely referring to Gu Yang. Even though Gu Yang was deceitfully sent to Zhou Ling Yun as per the two’s mischievous scheme, he was still Gu Hai’s brother! Hence—the moment Gu Hai heard that something bad happened to Gu Yang—his heart stopped for a second. That old scoundrel! He has the b.a.l.l.s to f.u.c.king treat us Gu family members as newbies!

Once Gu Hai took the breakfast out of the pan, he placed it into the oven to keep it warm. Then he quickly tidied up some things and prepared to leave to the hospital.

Seeing that Bai Luo Yin was sleeping soundly, Gu Hai did not plan on telling him the truth, afraid that it would upset him. He simply leaned over the bed and told him he was heading out to work before walking out of the door as if nothing happened.

In actuality, he rushed to the hospital and inquired about Gu Yang’s sickroom. Then after acting as Gu Yang’s guardian, he was permitted to enter the room only to see that the person on the bed was still unconscious.

When Gu Hai sat on the chair beside the bed and looked at Gu Yang’s completely colorless face, he couldn’t help but to feel troubled. Although Gu Yang had caused the huge accident eight years ago—but for the half a year that he was hospitalized—it was also he that had constantly stayed by his side the entire time, watching over him. That was also the reason why Gu Hai, after such a traumatic occurrence, never investigated the reasons that led to the accident.

Before long, a doctor accompanied with a nurse, entered the room to examine Gu Yang’s situation. However, upon seeing Gu Hai’s face, they couldn’t help but to be taken aback.

“You two really look alike. Are you twins?”

Gu Hai’s cold eyes swept toward them. “We don’t have the same mother.”

Hearing that, the doctor could only smile with embarra.s.sment. “I really thought you two were actually brothers.”

After saying that, the doctor walked out and Gu Hai followed after to further ask about Gu Yang’s situation.

At that moment, Zhou Ling Yun’s domineering figure suddenly emerged out the elevator. While talking to the doctor, Gu Hai casually turned his head to the side only to inadvertently spot, ‘the scoundrel’. He was about to leap forward and violently beat the living h.e.l.l out of him but suddenly a divine light flashed before him and Zhou Ling Yun disappeared.

When Zhou Ling Yun calmly walked into the sickroom, he was met with a still unconscious Gu Yang and a nurse—checking some data on a medical instrument—beside him. “How is his situation?” he couldn’t help but to ask.

“Quite stable.”

“How long will it take before he wakes up?” That was what Zhou Ling Yun was most concerned about.

“It all depends.” The nurse smiled softly, “It might be in a bit or in a day or two.”

Zhou Ling Yun sternly nodded.

After the nurse walked out and Zhou Ling Yun let his eyes focus on Gu Yang’s face, he noticed there was a slight difference in the face before him now and the one he saw the first time. But as for specifically where the difference lied, Zhou Ling Yun could not describe it. That was because it has been more than two weeks since Gu Hai fooled him—then with Gu Yang having been badly battered—by the time he properly heals, it was inevitable Zhou Ling Yun would implant the facial structure of the person before him now in his brain.

As for how Gu Hai looked before, Zhou Ling Yun could no longer recall it. What he only remembered was that familiar smile that floated in his mind from time to time.

Gu Hai sneaked into the medical staff’s supply room and borrowed a set of patient’s clothes, went to change in the bathroom then plainly looked into the mirror to fix his hair. When he thought of Gu Yang hooked up to all those medical instruments and wrapped in white gauze, he grabbed went back to the supply room again for some gauze and placed it on a few rather obvious parts of his body. That way, he looked even more like a patient walking in and out of the sickroom.

Once done, he quietly hid behind the bathroom door and waited.

Twenty minutes later, Zhou Ling Yun walked out of Gu Yang’s room and made his way to the bathroom.

When Zhou Ling Yun was done using the toilet, he pushed the door to the stall open only to be shocked by the person standing outside before him.

“You…how did you wake up so fast?”

Without wasting anytime, Gu Hai quickly drew out his tightened fist and punched Zhou Ling Yun twice in the eyes while he was still in his stupor. Then he pushed him back into the stall, pressed him against the toilet bowl and violently beat him.

It wasn’t that Zhou Ling Yun was not a match for Gu Hai—but thinking the person was severely injured—he did not dare to rashly fight back.

“You were pretending to be unconscious?” Zhou Ling Yun couldn’t help but to ask when they were stuck in a deadlock. He simply couldn’t believe Gu Hai could regain that kind of strength in such a short amount of time after just having woken up.

Not one to be deterred, Gu Hai maintained his façade, “Who’s pretending to be unconscious? I’ve recovered to enact my revenge before death!”

After enduring a few more punches, Zhou Ling Yun could no longer remain unresponsive in the face of such adversary. He once again saw the familiar, unyielding and threatening demeanor, in Gu Hai that provoked his excitement. At that moment, he decided to properly test him. Let’s see how much talent this little baby eagle actually has, Zhou Ling Yun thought to himself seeing that Gu Hai had been able to repeatedly rouse him.

However, in the instant that awareness struck Zhou Ling Yin, Gu Hai was not playing with him anymore.

When Gu Hai found an opportunity to, he grabbed hold of the top edge of the door and immediately turn to the side, and leap out of the stall—landing with a thud on the other side.

At first, Zhou Ling Yun wanted to chase after but quickly realized his pants was somehow pulled down during the fight. And by the time he buckled his belt, Gu Hai was already nowhere to be seen.

After walking a full circle around the corridors and stairway, and not finding even a hint of Gu Hai’s shadow, Zhou Ling Yun returned to the room. Upon opening the door, he was stupefied to see Gu Yang, by some means, still lying on the bed. With a raised brow, he couldn’t help but to stare on, frozen at the door.

How good is he at pretending?

With that in mind, he walked in and stopped in front of Gu Yang’s bed before clutching his collar with the intention of pulling him up.

The nurse was immediately taken aback at the suddenness, “Mister! What are you doing? He is still unconscious!!”

“Unconscious my a.s.s. He was having fun just a moment ago!”

In the end, that military commander simply shook Gu Yang until he regained consciousness. His brain had yet to concentration or recovers its thinking process when he immediately saw a sinister looking face.

Zhou Ling Yun held back a smile at the corner of his mouth and scrutinized Gu Yang before he faintly said, “How entertaining! It seems you’re rather skilled in feigning madness! Don’t tell me that fit of insanity earlier was nothing more than just a simple case of sleepwalking…”

Gu Yang glanced at Zhou Ling Yun with suspicion, “Where is this place?”

“Yes, pretend…keep on pretending. You are truly an exotic flower.”[1] Zhou Ling Yun said, wearing down his teeth.

Collectively, Gu Yang and Zhou Ling Yun had only met each other twice. Now that Zhou Ling Yun had once more suffered a beat down by Gu Hai until one of his eyes had gone greenish blue, Gu Yang could not react for the time being. He simply looked at him with a cold-piercing gaze and spat a few words, “Who are you, huh?”

Since Gu Yang asked such a question, Zhou Ling Yun was even more convinced Gu Yang was pretending.

“Ah……do you always have to ask that same question every single time you have done something deceitful and immoral?”

At that moment, Gu Yang finally became aware of who Zhou Ling Yun was and immediately retorted back. “Leave this room right now and I’ll let your family live but if you keep on beleaguering and provoking me without end, I will bury all your families beside your dead corpse!”

Outside the room, Gu Hai was listening the entire. When he saw that the situation was getting somewhat out of hand, he quickly removed the patient clothing and rush to the doctor’s office. “Doctor, the patient in room no. four at the intensive unit is in danger!”

With that said, he speedily lied in wait at the head of a flight of stairs.

Soon after, under the doctor and nurse all-out effort to persuade him, Zhou Ling Yun restrained his temperament and quietly waited outside of the room for the time being.

It did not take long for Gu Hai to once again spot the familiar figure as it flashed by him. He made haste and followed after.

Zhou Ling Yun stopped in front of a window and took a drag of his cigarette while wearing a rather curious expression—still puzzled even after pondering over everything a hundred times.

Quietly walking up from behind Zhou Ling Yun, Gu Hai was able to successfully launch another surprise attack. However, Zhou Ling Yun reacted on time and quickly turned around only to see that same face again. As expected, he was shocked yet again.

“What you said was correct. I do have a bad habit of sleepwalking!” Gu Hai let out a sinister laughter.

Zhou Ling Yun took a steadily step forward with every intention to engage in a hand to hand combat with Gu Hai. But having already been fully prepared, Gu Hai quickly tossed something at Zhou Ling Yun’s face. The substance left his eyes dry, itchy and in pain. Even worse, his senses also plummeted, causing him to once again suffered an unpropitious situation.

By the time Zhou Ling Yun recovered, Gu Hai had already made his escape. This time, Zhou Ling Yun did not chase after him. Instead, he wanted to see how Gu Hai could mysteriously retreat back to his sick room in such short span of time?

In the end, when he pushed the door to room number four open—and saw the expressionless face of the person sitting on the bed—Zhou Ling Yun was completely floored.

“Why did you come back?” Gu Yang said with an intense coldness in his eyes.

Without saying anything, Zhou Ling Yun suddenly closed the door and went straight to the doctor’s office.

“I believe the patient in room no. four at the intensive care unit requires a specialist in schizophrenia.”

Translator’s Note:

[1] 奇葩 (qípā) - exotic flower/ (figuratively) marvel/prodigy but is (slang) for weirdo and or outlandish. Let’s face it, to Zhou Ling Yun, Gu Hai is definitely an exotic flower…