Chapter 168: Shatter The Devil’s Shackles
The door was broken, the gurney clattered, white coats came and went, and the shadows outside the door were grotesque.
Then it disappeared.
Bai Ying rushed in from the outer door and hugged her. Lian Cheng still felt the texture of the knife handle in her hand, and another sticky, warm fluid flowing sensation.
Her soul solidified, and she mechanically asked Bai Ying, “He didn’t dodge. I stabbed him in the heart, it should be the heart, he will die, right?”
Bai Ying’s arms were wrapped tightly around her, her whole body’s muscles taut and trembling.
She didn’t know how to answer this question. Logically, a stab to the heart leaves no room for survival, but medical matters are not absolute. There have been several cases of people surviving with steel bars penetrating their entire bodies from head to toe.
And she had just seen two of the world’s top cardiac surgeons in the corridor. If the knife had penetrated the pericardium and he was immediately rescued, with minimal bleeding, his life could have been saved, but it would still be a gamble with fate, and the chances were not high.
“It’s okay, it’s okay… you should stab him, he’s a… lunatic…”
He is a lunatic.
Who would gamble with their life? Who, when they are successful and famous, would not cherish their life and go to the King of Yama to show off their longevity and good fortune.
A nurse asked them to switch to another hospital room. This room was on the west side of the corridor, and the new room was on the far east.
The arrangement of the furniture inside was also different.
Lian Cheng’s gaze was unfocused, her vision covered by a bloody haze, a sense of death and ill omen, making it difficult to see specific objects clearly.
She had almost forgotten what Liang Chaosu looked like before, but he was never like this, and neither was she.
From the moment Liang Chaosu pursued her relentlessly to Iceland, and when the child became public, her mentality was already unstable. In a fit of haste and confusion, she wanted to feign death to completely escape the Liang family, but she was pushed along and manipulated, and the child was lost.
She collapsed, her state of mind crumbling.
She hated Liang Chaosu, and she hated herself. She couldn’t help but think that perhaps, as Liang Chaosu had said, if she had been more well-behaved and obedient, whether it was leaving the Liang family at Jade Mansion or every time Liang Chaosu inquired in Iceland.
If she had chosen a different answer, the child could have been saved, and others would not have been implicated.
But she didn’t want to yield. In the end, all she wanted was to perish together with the devil.
Now that Liang Chaosu was stabbed in the heart by her, should she also go to atone for her sins?
Lian Cheng asked, “Did they call the police?”
Bai Ying pushed her down, and the dry, soft fabric enveloped her up to her chin.
Bai Ying brushed her hair strands away and touched her face, “Xiao Da didn’t report it, and my dad hasn’t acted either. The doctors and nurses are in controlled chaos. That lunatic was prepared long ago. Lian Cheng, you don’t need to feel guilty, just consider it revenge, venting your anger.”
As she spoke more fluently, she glimpsed Bai Yixian, who had arrived late, and a spark of inspiration flashed in her mind.
“Even if he doesn’t die from this stab, he’ll lose half his life. He won’t be released by the doctors without spending half a month to a month in the ICU. Lian Cheng, the revenge is done, the hospital is in chaos, let me take you and go. We won’t go back home, we’ll go to New Zealand, to Sweden, I’ll wander with you to the moon.”
Lian Cheng was dazed. Prepared in advance, lose half his life.
“Scheming…” she finally reacted. “It’s still scheming.”
Lian Cheng’s heart skipped a beat, a chill that solidified to the bone marrow, as if in the depths of winter.
Every time she thought she understood the horror of Liang Chaosu, he would break that perception. He would do anything, even in a life-or-death situation. Lian Cheng couldn’t imagine what else he wouldn’t do.
At this moment, she suddenly recalled that phone call after being captured upon arriving in Iceland.
“I’ll see you off every year, until you are struck by lightning, until you return to the earth.”
“I will fully accompany you.”
A gust of wind blew in from the corridor, but it didn’t reach the bedside. Lian Cheng, however, felt so cold that tears welled up in her eyes. She completely understood that escaping Liang Chaosu was a false proposition; there would be no outcome.
If he didn’t die from this stab, there would only be one answer in the future: being captured and trapped by him.
Bai Ying saw her face, hopeless, sorrowful, ashen. Unable to contain her anxiety, she roared at Bai Yixian, “How is Dad leaving? When is he leaving? You, right now, immediately, give me a plan!”
Bai Yixian wanted to leave the room, regretting it so much his guts were turning green. At fifty or sixty years old, half in the grave, he had traveled thousands of miles, only to still have to play a supporting role in a real-life, non-normal emotional cage.
“Actually, I don’t recommend—”
“Uncle Bai, I’m not running,” Lian Cheng struggled to sit up, her eyes lowered, her expression silent. “Running around is useless, except for implicating others.”
Liang Chaosu was right. He could have built a gilded cage, and she was now an undocumented immigrant, which made it even more convenient.
He went to such great lengths to arrange this stab because he was confident that she would inevitably be dispirited in the future. Before, it was a cat-and-mouse game; now, it was a hunt for her unremarkable heart.
But her heart, along with her bones and flesh, had been gouged out dripping with blood. Would a few good words later, a few so-called truths from four years of forced interpretations, bring the dead back to life, regrow a heart, and make her lick his hand like a dog?
Lian Cheng felt she couldn’t, yet she no longer had the desire to take his life. His words about the Liang family’s revenge, in retrospect, had served as a reminder.
If she killed him, she would willingly go to prison. Someone like Father Liang, however, would definitely take his anger out on Bai Ying, Shen Lichuan, and everyone involved in this matter.
If she wanted liberation, if she wanted to shatter the devil’s chains, she should be like the devil, possess capital, or grasp the devil’s lifeline, rendering him completely incapable of harming others.
Bai Ying’s heart ached with a pulling pain. He lifted the quilt and got into bed, hugging her tightly. “Don’t be afraid of implicating people. This isn’t implicating them. Shen Lichuan, that big fool, wouldn’t think so either.”
“I don’t believe Liang Chaosu can really destroy both our Bai family and the Shen family. At most, there will be some losses, big or small.”
“I won’t be a doctor. I’ll go back and help my dad. Shen Lichuan suffering some losses is just right for him to break off his engagement with that troublesome Liang Wenfei. Everyone gains and loses, how fair.”
Bai Yixian hesitated to speak. Gains and losses were true, but if the house collapsed, and a chicken flew into the yard, the disparity in gain and loss would be so great it would make one ‘wish they were dead’.
Lian Cheng wasn’t sitting very steadily. She was pressed into Bai Ying’s embrace, becoming half-lying and half-sitting. Her tears were all wiped on Bai Ying’s collar. After a long while, she finally raised her head. Bai Ying’s eye sockets were even redder than hers, and Lian Cheng wiped them with her sleeve.
“Now my tears are on your clothes, and your tears are on my clothes. This is also fair. You can’t cry anymore.”
Bai Ying pursed her lips and looked at her, sobbing. “Lian Cheng, have you already decided not to leave? Now I realize that I, like Shen Lichuan, am also a big fool, busy with things that are of no help, all of which are giving you leverage.”
Lian Cheng tugged her collar. It was damp with her tears. “Yes. After I discovered I was pregnant, I was always very scared. After being captured in Iceland, I was even more scared. I was afraid I wouldn’t have the strength to run when my belly got bigger, afraid that when the child was born, I still wouldn’t be able to take her away, afraid that in the end, I would harm her.”
“Bai Ying, if I hadn’t heard your voice, I wouldn’t have wanted to open my eyes. As a result, Bai Shu covered your mouth, and I was afraid something would happen to you.”
Lian Cheng said, “Then I realized I wasn’t completely unburdened and had given up all hope. Thank you for pulling me back, and for helping me hide the glass shards and accompanying me to stab him. This stab made me realize that perishing together with him still involved the same mistake of neglecting one thing while attending to another. I won’t make that mistake again.”
She turned and looked at Bai Yixian again. “Right? Uncle Bai.”
Bai Yixian was slow to react. His usual smooth, non-committal demeanor was gone, and his gaze was gentle. “Very right. But I had originally planned to fool you. The principles I intended to present were also morally questionable and very worldly—”
Bai Ying stared, utterly incredulous that her own father was preparing to betray her.
Bai Yixian’s heartfelt words got stuck. He coughed twice. “After you return home, if you temporarily have nowhere to live, my house is large. There’s a spare guest room next to Bai Ying’s room. If you like a certain decoration style, tell the butler to arrange it for you.”
Before he finished speaking, he dragged Bai Ying out of the room.
Bai Ying was furious. “Bai Yixian, you old fox, how can you be my father? Who cares about a shabby apartment? Lian Cheng is falling apart, I’m not leaving, I want to stay with—”
“She doesn’t need company now, she needs quiet,” Bai Yixian sighed, lecturing his foolish daughter.
“She is clever and perceptive, so as soon as there’s a hint, she’ll quickly figure out the path ahead. But figuring it out is one thing; understanding it and convincing herself to walk it takes time. If you’re inside, all the spirit that she just managed to muster up will be used to comfort you, which is too exhausting.”
