Chapter 511: Matters of the Heart (Part 2)
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
This time around, Gu Nianzhi was unresponsive to Huo Shaoheng’s words. She was still lying in He Zhichu’s embrace, faced away from Huo Shaoheng. Of course, she couldn’t move even if she wanted to.
She had endured everything when she was underwater. Didn’t people always have such sudden outbursts of energy when they were faced with crises? However, after she’d managed to bring Huo Shaoheng and Zhao Liangze up, she couldn’t take it anymore. She felt like a deflated balloon, without an ounce of strength left.
However, from Huo Shaoheng’s angle, the position Gu Nianzhi was in felt wrong on so many levels. He felt that Gu Nianzhi was deliberately rejecting him, and he could not accept that at all.
“Nianzhi!” Huo Shaoheng raised his tone and took a step forward. He reached out to He Zhichu and attempted to pull Gu Nianzhi away from his embrace.
He Zhichu tightened his hold on Gu Nianzhi and refused to let go. He glared at Huo Shaoheng. “You try touching her again, and I’ll kick you off the boat this instant!”
The lifeboat wasn’t big, and He Zhichu had brought a good number of people. If He Zhichu seriously wanted to kick him off the boat, there was really nothing he could do to save himself.
Initially, Gu Nianzhi did not want to pay any mind to this. However, when she heard that a fight was about to break out between He Zhichu and Huo Shaoheng, she turned around and breathed, “No…” She sounded tremendously weak.
Huo Shaoheng finally saw her face. It was so pale that it looked like the first snow in winter. However, it was summer right now—how could there be snow? It gave people the chills. Her plump lips were all bruised, with two clear teeth impressions, which had obviously been bitten by herself.
Her lips were chapped and bleeding. Half of her face was swollen. She looked completely different compared to how he had seen her just 30 minutes ago. She looked like she’d just gotten slapped brutally.
Huo Shaoheng’s heart sank, and he understood immediately—Gu Nianzhi had been hurt, too. And judging by how pale she was and how weak she sounded, her organs must have been badly affected. Was she like that due to the electrical currents under the water?
So, her body wasn’t so strong that the high-voltage electrical fence hadn’t been able to affect her. Rather, she’d been worried that he wouldn’t allow her to save him, and that was why she’d forced herself to bear all the pain and pretend that nothing was wrong. Using the diving goggles, she had hidden it from him, as well.
Within a matter of minutes, Huo Shaoheng thought it through and understood what Gu Nianzhi was thinking. No matter what, he was the one who had brought her up. She understood him, but he knew her better.
However, his habit while being at war all these years was to ensure the safety of his comrades first. This had already ingrained in him for a long time. After making sure that Gu Nianzhi was fine, the main person of concern was Zhao Liangze.
Zhao Liangze blacked out because he refused to take in more oxygen for himself. As his superior and commander, Huo Shaoheng had to know his condition immediately. Only after knowing that he could recover, could Huo Shaoheng be calm, so he neglected Gu Nianzhi just now.
Gu Nianzhi looked at Huo Shaoheng, closed her eyes, and breathed weakly again. “…Tired.”
“Get lost!” He Zhichu yelled at Huo Shaoheng again. “I’m sending her to the s.h.i.+p to get treatment!”
Huo Shaoheng stopped insisting and allowed him to pa.s.s.
Carrying Gu Nianzhi, He Zhichu walked past him quickly. The lifeboat had arrived beside the cruise s.h.i.+p. Seats and ropes were put down for He Zhichu and Gu Nianzhi. They made their way up. After that, Zhao Liangze, the doctors, and the nurses went up. Huo Shaoheng and He Zhichu’s subordinates went last.
…
Gu Yanran watched, fixated on what was happening on He Zhichu’s end from her boat.
Even though she did not see He Zhichu and Huo Shaoheng argue, she had seen Gu Nianzhi save them on the other end of the boat, and she felt extremely confused.
The electric fence surrounding the blue hole was her father Gu Xiangwen’s proudest invention. It was a huge but extremely detailed project. The key factors in this project were unknown to everyone, even Gu Yanran. Therefore, the moment Gu Xiangwen and his wife had met with that fateful accident, this electric fence had practically become barren—because no one knew where its switch was, and how to activate it.
Gu Yanran was shocked to begin with that the electrical fence had been activated all of a sudden, but what shook her more was that someone had managed to survive it!
It was true that Gu Yanran did not know how to start the electrical fence, but she did know how powerful it was. That was due to Gu Xiangwen bringing it up during dinner multiple times after he’d invented it. He was extremely proud of it, and he’d told his family how powerful it was during dinner…
Moreover, before Gu Xiangwen had met with that fateful accident, Gu Yanran had seen Gu Xiangwen start the fence once, and she had witnessed its power. This was something that even she did not know about on a technical level. It was an obstacle that even she could not overcome. How could Gu Nianzhi, at her age, do it?
Gu Yanran thought long and hard about it. When she saw He Zhichu and everyone on his boat boarding back onto the s.h.i.+p, she told her subordinate, “Contact Mr. He. tell him that I’d like to visit Mr. Huo and Miss Gu to see if they’re okay.”
Her butler immediately got in contact with He Zhichu’s side.
…
The moment He Zhichu boarded back onto his s.h.i.+p, he carried Gu Nianzhi into the medical room with the best equipment on board. Giving an order to the doctor who was attending to Zhao Liangze just now, he informed him gravely, “Give her a detailed checkup quickly. See if she has to be sent to America for emergency treatment.”
The doctor, seeing He Zhichu’s expression, prepared the entire set of medical equipment and called his best a.s.sistant to conduct the checkup for Gu Nianzhi.
They checked everything from her breathing rate to her heartbeat and then her organ vitality. They’d have done a CT scan for her if they’d had the facilities on board.
Huo Shaoheng remained outside. Folding his arms, he observed the situation through the gla.s.s windows.
He Zhichu had on a disinfected white doctor’s robe and a mask. He was disinfected entirely before being allowed in the room. Standing beside the doctor, he oversaw the whole checkup procedure. The advanced equipment ensured the speed and accuracy of their checkups.
The results were ready in just 10 minutes. Holding the results, the doctor looked at He Zhichu with a strange expression.
“Mr. He, this lady is just suffering from fatigue… All she needs is a long night of sleep…”
The doctor almost rolled his eyes at He Zhichu. He thought back at how He Zhichu had looked at him and spoke to him just now—it had made him think that this lady had some internal injuries that were so severe that she was on the verge of dying or something…
Dissing He Zhichu for over-exaggerating things in his heart, the doctor said, “I’ll go and attend to the gentleman over there if there’s nothing else here. He is in a more critical condition than this lady; he needs to be conscious soon.”
He was referring to Zhao Liangze.
He Zhichu looked at him blankly. “Really? She’s fine? No internal injuries or illness?”
He emphasized “internal injuries,” sounding extremely worried.
“Yes, she’s fine. I can vouch for that. This lady’s health is at the optimum condition. She’s really just suffering from fatigue and needs to rest in bed for a couple of days.” The doctor answered He Zhichu in detail, with the perfect ethics of a doctor.
He Zhichu had no idea why, but after hearing that Gu Nianzhi was fine, he did not feel relieved. On the contrary, he felt even sadder than before. Waving his hand, he told the doctor, “Go and get your things done. I’d like to have a short rest.”
Gu Nianzhi had already fallen asleep. The bruises on her lips were still evident, but the teeth marks had faded slightly. Judging by the speed of her recovery, it was safe to predict that the injuries on her face would be gone by the next day.
He Zhichu sat by the side of Gu Nianzhi’s bed. He hugged his head and lay face down on the side of the s.h.i.+p. He felt horrible. It was his fault that she was like this…
Huo Shaoheng waited outside the room. The moment the doctor came out, he went to the doctor and said in extremely fluent English, “May I know how the lady in the room was?”
Hearing Huo Shaoheng’s perfect English, the doctor had a good first impression of him. Smiling, he told Huo Shaoheng, “Don’t worry. That lady inside was merely suffering from fatigue. All she needs is just to rest for a couple of days. We can give her a couple of injections of glucose if you’d like, but she’d really do fine even without them.” The doctor’s first language was English as well.
Huo Shaoheng confirmed carefully. “Really? She’s really fine? There aren’t any internal injuries or illness?”
The doctor laughed and shook his head. “You asked the exact same question as Mr. He. I’ll answer the same way. No, she does not have any health issues. It’s just that she is still young, yet she rescued two adult males from the bottom of the sea. It’d be a miracle if she wasn’t tired out.”
There was also that electrical current, which the doctor witnessed personally. The doctor felt that he would’ve been on his way to see G.o.d if he had been the one who’d had to go through such shocks. This lady was merely lucky and extremely blessed by G.o.d in order to be able to save both of the men just now.
“Amen. May the Lord continue to bless her. If we were to talk about severity, that man over there is really way more critical than this lady. I need to take a look at him right now.” This doctor traced a cross on his chest, nodded to Huo Shaoheng, and left to examine on Zhao Liangze.
Huo Shaoheng looked at the treatment room for a while before opening the door. However, he held back and did not go in. It was a fully disinfected room; he did not go through the process of disinfection, so he could not go in.
Folding his arms, he leaned against the door of the treatment room. His face looked calm as he thought about the possibilities of what had happened.
All of a sudden, his phone rang. The ringing of a phone always sounded a lot more prominent when the area around you was silent.
Putting on his Bluetooth earpiece, Huo Shaoheng picked up the call. He straightened his back when he realized that it was Yin s.h.i.+xiong.
“How is it?” he asked. “Is the chopper on the way?”
“Yes, it’s on the way, Mr. Huo. I’m on the chopper. Are you in the s.h.i.+p with four levels right in front?” Yin s.h.i.+xiong’s surroundings were noisy. It sounded like the chopper’s rotors.
“Yes. I told you just now that this was He Zhichu’s s.h.i.+p.”
Huo Shaoheng put away his phone and knocked on the door. He Zhichu raised his head and looked at him.
Huo Shaoheng pushed the door open and said calmly, “My chopper is here. I’ll be bringing Nianzhi with me.”
He Zhichu stood up and went to the door, blocking it. “You can leave, but Nianzhi stays,” he said just as calmly.