After The Honest Person Was Discovered For Simultaneously Pursuing Three People - Chapter 99

Chapter 99: One Thousand Five Hundred and Ten Steps…

Just as everyone was stunned by the sudden turn of events, the flowing dark clouds, the rustling leaves, the surprised expressions of the people, and the raindrops on their cheeks suddenly froze in this remote suburb.

The world seemed to have pressed a pause button for an instant. A moment later, the space around the ground seemed to twist. A black vortex slowly appeared, like a massive spacetime portal. Then, a pale, gaunt man walked out of the vortex. The violent wind still had an effect on him, lifting the hem of his coat, which looked like it was woven from crow feathers.

Alpha slowly approached the young man who was about to fall to the ground. His long, slender fingers gently wiped away the frozen tears from the corner of his eye, sighing softly, “510, I have given you a second life.”

If someone were to break free from this eerie, mysterious force and see this scene, they would be utterly dumbfounded, because the man was actually suspended in mid-air!

Alpha raised an eyebrow, lifted his gaze, and looked at Zhao Jingqun, who was also frozen in mid-air, as if looking at a common wildflower or weed on the roadside.

He sighed softly, “You would be very sad if he died, wouldn’t you? After all, you have become a true human…”

Following this barely audible sigh, Alpha picked up Tao Ning in a bridal carry, kissed his seemingly sleeping eyes and eyebrows, and then placed him on the rescue cushion. Turning around, he tapped his finger in Zhao Jingqun’s direction.

The next second, with a thud, Zhao Jingqun fell onto the ground from a height of about two to three meters.

Alpha’s voice gradually faded, and the black vortex behind him also disappeared. Gradually, the wind and rain in the area resumed their sway, the leaves rustled again, and countless raindrops once again traced people’s faces, reawakening the shocked expressions of everyone present.

“See you in the future, my Muse.”

People looked at each other.

“…What just happened?”

“I remember all three of them jumped off the building.”

“Quick! Go save them!”

“Where’s the ambulance! The suspect is beyond help, but the other two are still breathing!”

Three days later, the streets and alleys were abuzz with explosive news. People discussed with their neighbors and relatives, “Did you hear? There was a kidnapping and murder at that unfinished building outside the North City. So many police officers and firefighters went there. The excitement was comparable to a TV drama. The trashy tabloids will be getting their material from there.”

“I’m a little scared. Will the kidnapper come after me next?”

“Heh, you’re a poor nobody. They kidnapped the richest man in Xing City, X Province. Who would want you, a factory worker? You could beg the kidnapper to kill you, and they wouldn’t even bother with you…”

“The richest man? Do you have proof, or are you just talking nonsense?”

“…Are you two even normal people? If compulsory education was a thing, you two would be stuck in kindergarten forever. Is the focus on the kidnapping? The focus is that this case is extremely bizarre—”

On the television news, the anchor was reporting the latest news: “First, let’s focus on a case update from the police. According to the police, five days ago, a major kidnapping occurred in the suburbs of the North City District of Haizhou City. The suspect is surnamed Zhao from X Province. The kidnapped victim is an 18-year-old male. The police have currently established a special task force and are carrying out investigations with full effort…”

With a “click,” the television screen went dark. Sun Lao Er tossed the remote control aside, then used a wet cotton swab to moisten the dried lips of the man in the hospital bed. He shook his head and sighed, “Brother Zhao, you truly survived a disaster and are destined for future blessings this time. Falling from a fifteen-story building and only sustaining a minor fracture…”

Five days ago, after settling He Niannian, Sun Lao Er received the news that Zhao Jingqun had jumped from the fifteenth floor. He was completely dumbfounded, because his absurd thought that “if Tao Ning died, Zhao Jingqun would definitely not live on” had actually come true. He truly had a jinx mouth!

Sun Lao Er slapped himself a few times on the spot, then rushed to the hospital in desperation, expecting to see a corpse. But to his and everyone else’s astonishment, after the diagnosis results came out, Zhao Jingqun not only hadn’t died but had only sustained minor injuries!

What did that mean? It was equivalent to being run over by a large truck and emerging unscathed, and then turning around and winning five million dollars on a lottery ticket! He was so lucky that some people even thought it was a supernatural event…

Mr. and Mrs. Zhao, far away in X Province, rushed over by plane upon receiving the news, crying and wailing over Zhao Jingqun. After all, no matter how much resentment they had towards this son, he was still the son they had searched for for many years and finally found.

Sun Lao Er didn’t see Zhao Jingsui. Finally, he managed to persuade Mr. and Mrs. Zhao to go back to the hotel to rest. Now, only a nurse and he were taking care of Zhao Jingqun. Hearing the news on TV, Sun Lao Er simply turned it off to avoid annoyance.

Looking at the bloodless man in the hospital bed, Sun Lao Er forced a smile: “Brother Zhao, if you don’t wake up soon, someone is going to snatch you away for some twisted human experiment. And Sister-in-law…” As if he truly heard his words, the man, who had been completely unresponsive, moved his eyes slightly.

“…Brother Zhao?!”

In just a few seconds, the man suddenly opened his eyes. His emotion quickly shifted from confusion to clarity. Ignoring the pain of his broken bones, he abruptly sat up from the hospital bed, gasping intensely. He desperately grabbed Sun Lao Er and asked in a hoarse, terrified voice, “Where’s Tao Ning? Where’s Tao Ning?! Where did Tao Ning go?!”

The man’s grip was incredibly strong. Even though he had just woken up, Sun Lao Er felt his arm was about to be twisted off. He quickly cried out, “Sister-in-law is still here! Sister-in-law is still here! Brother Zhao, let go quickly—”

This sentence was like a tranquilizer. The man, who had been tormented by nightmares, let go in a daze. A moment later, two streams of clear tears fell from his hollow eyes. Zhao Jingqun murmured to himself, “Why did you save me… Why… did you save me…”

If Tao Ning died, what was the meaning of his life?

In the nightmare, no matter how many times Zhao Jingqun repeated it, no matter how many times he desperately ran to the rooftop—he could never grasp Tao Ning’s hand.

In heartbreaking agony, Zhao Jingqun watched helplessly as Tao Ning turned into a bloody mess of a corpse, dying right in front of him. He instantly felt such pain that he vomited his heart out, but he still couldn’t change the fact that Tao Ning was dead.

…It hurts… it hurts so much.

Tao Ning, you are too cruel. Why didn’t you take me with you? Do you know how much pain I am in?

Zhao Jingqun’s heart was completely dead.

And when he watched Tao Ning’s soul float out of the corpse, covered in fresh red blood, his beautiful eyes soaked with blood, yet repeating: “Zhao Jingqun, I hurt, I hurt.”

His darling, in a childlike, pleading tone, but covered in blood, said:

Zhao Jingqun, I hurt.

Zhao Jingqun stumbled up, hugged him tightly, his eyes vacant, forcing a distorted, miserable smile, comforting him over and over: “Darling, don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid. I’ll be with you. I’ll be down with you right away.”

But as he was about to use the dagger to slit his own throat, a white light suddenly appeared. Everything vanished, leaving only the cold white fluorescent light of the hospital room.

Zhao Jingqun thought distractedly. His darling must blame him. How could he bear to let his darling wait for him alone for so long in such a terrifying and cold place as the underworld?

Don’t be afraid.

“…I’ll be with you…”

While rubbing his arm, Sun Lao Er suddenly saw Zhao Jingqun reaching for the dagger on the table. Terrified, he pushed him back onto the bed. Ignoring the issue of status, he pointed at him and yelled, “Zhao Jingqun, are you even a man anymore! What are you trying to do?! If you die just like this, what about Madam Zhao and the others who traveled thousands of miles to take care of you?”

“Do you want them to suffer the loss of a child in their middle age?! And what about the brothers who risked their lives for you? Are you trying to discourage us?!”

The hospital room instantly fell silent, with only the rustling of the leaves outside the window remaining. Sun Lao Er was breathing heavily from anger, but it was followed by a deep sense of helplessness. After a while, when he calmed down and was about to speak kindly, he saw the man slumped on the hospital bed ask softly:

“…Then what about me?”

Sensing the man’s extremely poor condition, Sun Lao Er dared not say more. He asked carefully, “Wh-What?”

Tears fell silently, one after another. Zhao Jingqun asked, “They rely on me to live… Then what about me…”

The person he relied on was gone, so what about him?

At that moment, Sun Lao Er suddenly understood and slapped his thigh. “Brother Zhao! Oh, look at you making a fuss. Sister-in-law is still alive!”

Song Yucong was preparing for a singing variety show in another province when he received the news that Tao Ning was critically ill. Because the show was confidential, his phone had been confiscated. By the time he received the news, ditched the show, and rushed back to Haizhou overnight, Tao Ning had already been sent to the operating room, and the result of the surgery was that he immediately needed a bone marrow transplant.

Song Yucong’s bone marrow was currently the only match for Tao Ning.

Due to his lifelong memory of being treated as a genuine blood bag, Song Yucong suffered from severe symptoms of fear of blood and anemia, and he was extremely resistant to needles, with a tendency toward PTSD regarding these things.

Furthermore, his unexcused absence from the variety show—which was the most popular singing variety show at the moment, where participating singers, if not becoming huge stars, all gained minor fame—would greatly damage his career.

Song Yucong’s secretary and manager knew his lifelong dream and felt that delaying the schedule for a sponsor’s bone marrow transplant surgery was not worth it from a cost-benefit perspective.

When the manager advised him to reconsider, Song Yucong just rolled his eyes and said, “Cut the nonsense. Do I need that variety show of his? And who told you Tao Ning is just someone I sponsor?”

“???”

The manager was confused. The next second, he saw the difficult second-generation rich man’s face flush red. He said awkwardly and quietly, “He… is my lover.”

Song Yucong put on the blue and white surgical gown that he had previously despised. The largest size was still a bit small for him. The glittering gold necklace around his neck was exposed. The moment his sharp, beautiful phoenix eyes saw Tao Ning lying on the hospital bed, they softened instantly.

Then, he turned around and walked into the examination room without hesitation.

From now on, our blood is mingled, never to be separated.

A few days later.

Tao Ning was moved into a sterile laminar flow ward for the preparatory stage of the bone marrow transplant. This stage required large amounts of chemotherapy to clear the abnormal cells in his body, while also using medication to suppress his immune system to prevent his body from later rejecting Song Yucong’s donor cells.

This entire process was extremely painful, so Tao Ning’s hair was shaved off, but it did not affect his beauty at all. However, because he was still unconscious, he looked like the Sleeping Beauty from a fairy tale.

The medical staff sighed, “It’s good that he hasn’t woken up. He won’t have to suffer that pain for the time being.”

Two weeks later, it would be the stem cell transplantation stage. Tao Ning was transferred to the Intensive Care Unit.

Zhao Jingqun stood outside, staring intently at the person inside. He had been standing there for several days, for fear that if he blinked, Tao Ning would vanish, just like in his dream.

During this time, Mr. and Mrs. Zhao came to cause a scene. They knew everything now, scolding him for being worthless, for associating with a man, and for behaving inhumanly for this man. But from beginning to end, Zhao Jingqun was indifferent, only staring intently into the ICU.

Later, Mr. and Mrs. Zhao left disappointed. Initially, Sun Lao Er also came to persuade him, but gradually he stopped coming too. Until the transplant surgery was about to begin, Sun Lao Er came to deliver a meal, but after searching the entire hospital, he couldn’t find any trace of Zhao Jingqun.

“That’s strange. Where did Brother Zhao go? He’s been standing guard outside like a ghost every day for the past few days. Could it be that he finally understood today, is willing to eat a proper meal, and is afraid of starving to death and not seeing Sister-in-law?…”

“Benefactor, from the foot of the mountain to the Buddha at Changming Temple, there are a total of one thousand five hundred and ten steps. For twenty years, this poor monk has seen many devotees come to pray for the health of their loved ones, but only one-tenth of them achieve peace by kneeling and prostrating at every step. This is because people believe that God is three feet above their head, and sincerity of the heart, or money, can dispel disaster.”

“Those who kneel through one thousand steps for one person, disregarding worldly opinion, are few and far between.”

Zhao Jingqun said, “I am willing.”

The old monk at the foot of the mountain looked at the man before him, who looked like he was just recovering from a serious illness. He pointed to the sky and smiled, “With every prostration, silently recite what is in your heart. However, a heavy rain is coming. May the benefactor’s wishes come true.”

The wind picked up. Early spring in Haizhou was always rainy. Passersby encountering such weather would run home to avoid the rain. But Changming Temple, a quiet haven amidst the noise, still had a steady stream of incense burners, as it was one of the Four Great Divine Temples in China. It was rumored that if one sincerely made a wish to this temple, whether for wealth, marriage, or health… all wishes would come true.

A couple brought their child to Changming Temple to fulfill a vow. At the foot of the mountain, the child pointed at a person and asked, “Dad, Mom, what is that person doing?”

The couple looked over and saw a very tall man kneeling on the steps. His hands were clasped together, his index fingers resting against the tip of his nose, and he was continuously murmuring. The next second, he devoutly prostrated.

The second next second, he got up and knelt on the next step, clasping his hands together and reciting silently again.

Because this scene was so rare, the crowd around this strange man gradually grew larger, but no one went up to disturb him. Perhaps it was the devotion surrounding him and the tears on his face that looked too startling.

Someone moved closer and clearly heard the man’s recitation.