Chapter 142: Believe
Emotionally, they all hoped everything would be in time, but reason clearly told her that even if they found someone to help right now, they might not arrive in time.
Now, all they could do was pray, to see if heaven would grant that slim chance of survival.
Stamina couldn’t compare to Yan Bei even at its best, so by the time the two of them arrived, the calls had already ended.
“Su Ning!”
The anxious and frantic Fu Jiaming ignored the bicycle that hadn’t stopped steadily and rushed straight to the front wheel, grabbing the wobbling handlebars, paying no heed to the crushed toes.
“Su Ning, is the news you get always reliable? Did my old man do this because of my older brother and sister? What exactly happened to them, and what will happen at the suburban land temple?”
“Sorry Jiaming, I can’t tell you that person’s information, but as for the news, if you trust me, just know it’s absolutely reliable.”
This was the future seen from his perspective; she naturally had no way of knowing about events that happened before.
She didn’t know how Fu Jiatan and Fu Qianqian fell into that person’s hands.
The Tong Family hiding in the shadows was truly ruthless, hiring desperate criminals who were utterly vicious.
The hand bones sent to threaten Fu Rong’s eldest son were real, and the chunk of thigh flesh cut from his daughter was real too.
It was all because these two places each had birthmarks representing their true identities.
If not for this bloody fact, how could Fu Rong make such a painful choice.
Brothers could still beg forgiveness with thorns and betray later to make amends, even if it meant sacrificing the Fu Family or his own life.
But at the same time, he was also a father, and that premise was after his children were safe.
But he didn’t know that after arriving at the meeting place, to break his psychological defenses, what awaited him was a hellish ordeal.
“Jiaming, trust Brother Wei and them!”
Yan Bei forcefully patted his back; after the intense emotional fluctuation, his forehead and temples throbbed with sharp pain.
The current situation was something no one wanted to see, and as for the worst outcome… it was equally unbearable for them.
“Yan Qi, you… don’t blame my old man…”
He tried hard to tug at the corners of his mouth, showing a bluish-purple expression on his face that was like crying and laughing, which looked unsettling no matter how you saw it.
“Sorry.”
Sorry, for not choosing to follow his heart first, for not firmly choosing to believe.
Yan Bei’s hand pressing on his was very forceful, and his eyes were bloodshot.
Fu Jiaming gripped back the hand on his shoulder and said the same words.
“Sorry.”
Whether or not it was because of his brother and sister, the old man had no choice but to do it, and he had indeed done something sorry to the Yan Family.
This apology was what the Fu Family owed to everyone in the Yan Family.
Luo Shuangshuang covered her mouth as tears streamed down; she didn’t know why, but seeing this scene, she couldn’t control herself.
Perhaps because of worry, or perhaps because of envy.
With teary eyes, she looked back at Su Ning whose eyes were also red-rimmed, silently hooking her fingers with her other hand: hoping they would never face such a choice in the future.
……
Time in waiting was torture, every minute and second.
The night deepened bit by bit, the wailing wind blew harder, making the big trees along Riverside Street rustle loudly.
The sky in the black curtain had no stars, the nearly full moon half-hidden, its soft silver light unable to dispel the thick clouds.
“Ring ring ring~”
“Ring ring~”
After two and a half hours, the telephone finally rang inside the house.
Fu Jiaming, reacting, leaped up from the ground, nearly falling from haste, but was timely supported by Yan Bei beside him.
After entering the house and picking up the phone, he listened to the news from the other end.
Fu Jiaming’s pent-up strength drained instantly, his legs giving way as he collapsed to the ground with a thud.
“Jiaming!” “Xi You!”
Luo Shuangshuang quickly reached out to support him, but with limited strength, she was pulled down too and became his cushion.
Yan Bei reached under his armpits, lifted him with one effort, and placed him on the nearby chair.
Seeing Su Ning already helping up Luo Shuangshuang whose features were scrunched together, he turned to pick up the hanging earpiece.
“Hello, Brother Wei, this is Yan Bei. How are Uncle Fu and the others?”
“Uncle Fu has a very severe head injury and is being resuscitated now. As for Jiatan and Qianqian… sorry, I arrived too late. They’re also in surgery now, and the doctor says the situation isn’t optimistic.”
“What about those people?”
“All dead.”
“Thanks, Brother Wei.”
Glancing at Fu Jiaming whose eyes were lifeless and empty, then turning to Yan Bei who had hung up and was suppressing his anger, Su Ning let go of Luo Shuangshuang’s hand and walked to him.
“Yan Bei?”
Slowly shaking his head, Yan Bei with an extremely grim face opened his mouth for a long time before spitting out that the situation wasn’t optimistic.
Situation not optimistic, meaning they were still alive, hadn’t lost their lives yet?
“All three are being resuscitated?”
“Mm.”
Thinking of the scene where, after being tortured to death, Fu Jiatan and Fu Qianqian had knife wounds on their bodies, and Fu Rong step by step compromising for his children’s lives, self-mutilating mercilessly, and finally the fatal blow to the head.
“Quick, give me the telephone!”
……
Shanghai City, Huaijiang Alley.
The Zhang Family, who had gone to bed early, were sleeping soundly.
Suddenly, banging sounds came from the front door; the first to hear were Zhang Fu and his wife, who slept lightly.
Hu Yingtao held Xiao Qiu beside her with one arm, gently patting and soothing with the other, whispering to her husband, “You go see who it is. This late at night, it’s probably something urgent.”
“Mm.”
Casually putting on a jacket, Zhang Fu nimbly got out of bed in the dark, left the room door, and outside found his son who had also been woken and come out.
The father and son said nothing and went straight to the front door to open it.
“Uncle Qu?”
“Hey, Xiao Qi, you have a telephone call. A comrade named Su Ning said to bring the glass gourd sent to Xiao Qiu and hurry to Second Hospital to save someone named Fu Rong. It’s extremely urgent.”
“Got it, thanks Uncle Qu!”
Hearing it was to save people and extremely urgent, the Zhang father and son felt their hearts pound fiercely.
“I’ll get the little gourd Xiao Qiu hid. You quickly change clothes and bring the bicycle out!”
“Mm!”
The separated father and son met at the fastest speed at the house entrance.
Carefully putting the gourd his father handed him into his jacket pocket, Zhang Qi lifted his long legs, mounted the bicycle, and rode swiftly out of the alley.
This gourd was the Mid-Autumn Festival gift Su Ning sent over, containing the Su Family’s ancestral secret medicine.
The letter said it was just in case; Xiao Qiu was still young, the parents were getting old, and if they got bumped or injured anywhere, using this would have excellent healing effects.
The Zhang Family was moved by her kindness upon receiving it, not particularly curious about the Su Family’s secret medicine.
Now it was fortunate they hadn’t been curious then; otherwise, if they’d studied the secret medicine in the gourd out of curiosity, at this life-saving moment today, they’d really be in trouble.
Arriving at the hospital like a flash of lightning, Zhang Qi immediately ran into Wei Jin, who had received the news and was waiting early at the entrance.
“You’re Zhang Qi, Comrade Zhang?”
After simply confirming each other’s information, they quickly sent the medicinal water from the gourd into the operating room.
Fortunately, the Su Family’s ancestral secret medicine truly had astonishing effects, and Zhang Qi had delivered it just in time, so the three Fu Rong’s lives were temporarily saved.
“Doctor, what do you mean by temporarily?”
Wei Jin hadn’t even had time to be happy before the attending doctor’s cliffhanger words left him unsettled, and he hurriedly asked, “Didn’t you say as long as the bleeding is stopped…”
“Comrade, don’t get agitated. Though the wounds have stopped bleeding, they’re all injured too severely and haven’t passed the dangerous period yet.”
“Now the patients are being sent to the intensive care unit. If they safely get through tonight without complications, they’ll be considered stable.”
“Thanks, doctor.”
……
After an incredibly long night, dawn finally broke.
Fu Jiaming and the others also received the final confirmed news: Fu Rong and his son had both been successfully saved.
But…
Fu Rong was injured too severely, lucid only briefly, mostly in a coma.
Fu Jiatan had lost several fingers, with the tendons of his hands and feet all severed, turned into a cripple.
As for Fu Qianqian, both body and mind had suffered immense torment, her will to live too weak, and in the end, she didn’t make it.
Watching Fu Jiaming cry like a child, pained to the point of unable to breathe, the three of them were equally heartbroken.
“Su Ning, I’ll go back to Shanghai City with him.”
Shaking her head, Su Ning wiped her eye corner, steadied her emotions with effort, “I’m afraid you can’t move right now even if you want to. I’ll go with you back to the mechanical factory to check the situation. As for Jiaming…”
Luo Shuangshuang sniffed hard, nodding to the two looking over, “I’m his partner. At a time like this, I’ll definitely stay with him. Rest assured, I’ll go back and tell my family in a bit, then go with him to Shanghai City.”
