The System Forces Me to Be a Scumbag Male Lead [Quick Transmigration] - Chapter 9

Sang Xiaoshi took the phone and dialed the number quickly and methodically.

While waiting for the call to connect, he questioned Ge Jiabao: “Your mom’s age.”

Ge Jiabao blinked, dazed. “3-32.”

“The number of this PHS phone.”

“182.”

The call connected just then. Speedily recalling the information requested the last time he had dialed 120, Sang Xiaoshi gritted his teeth, forcing every single word out as clearly as possible.

“Hello, someone f-fainted. Gender, f-female. A-Age, 32. The a-address is No. 28, Lane 10, D-Donghua Road, X-Xianxi Town. Contact number, 182.”

A gentle female voice promptly responded from the phone: “Little boy, slow down a bit and repeat the address, then describe the symptoms of the person who fainted.”

Following her instructions, Sang Xiaoshi slowed his speech to repeat the address. He then looked down at Chen Huiju lying on the floor, describing her state as clearly as he could: “Eyes rolled back, showing mostly whites. Lips v-very pale. Breathing, a-almost can’t hear it anymore.”

“Has the patient ever fainted like this before?”

The phone was on speaker. The moment the question came through, Sang Xiaoshi snapped his head toward Ge Jiabao.

Ge Jiabao shook his head furiously. “No, hic. My mom has never fainted before.”

Sang Xiaoshi lowered his head to the phone to repeat, “No.”

“Little boy, are there any adults at home right now?”

“No.”

“Alright, it’s okay that there are no adults. Don’t be nervous. Just do exactly as I say: open all the windows nearby to keep the air flowing, make sure the patient is lying flat, and ensure there are no hard or sharp objects around her. The ambulance will arrive in about ten minutes. If there’s anyone else with you, it would be best if one of you could go out to a recognizable landmark to guide our crew.”

The two had just finished opening all the windows. Hearing this, Ge Jiabao spoke up immediately: “I know the spot! I’ll go. Two intersections ahead of my house is the junction every car must take to enter the town. I’ll go wait for them.”

Sang Xiaoshi nodded.

With bloodshot eyes, Ge Jiabao cast a final glance at Chen Huiju on the floor, then looked back at Sang Xiaoshi right before running out. Meeting his gaze, Sang Xiaoshi spoke with utmost seriousness: “I will t-take good care of Auntie.”

Tears instantly spilled from Ge Jiabao’s eyes. He wiped them away roughly and shouted at Sang Xiaoshi, “Thank you!” With that, he bolted down the stairs.

With Ge Jiabao gone, Sang Xiaoshi returned to Chen Huiju’s side and sat down.

The female voice on the phone continued: “Little boy, don’t hang up before the ambulance arrives. Keep observing the patient in real time to monitor her consciousness, and let us know immediately if anything unusual happens.”

Looking at Chen Huiju and listening to the familiar voice and phrases from the phone, Sang Xiaoshi’s mind drifted into a trance for a split second.

The brightly lit living room suddenly transformed into a cramped, blood-scented car cabin. Outside the shattered windows lay a dense, deserted forest. Sang Xiaoshi had been shielded tightly in his mother’s embrace, escaping injury but left completely pinned down.

The woman’s blood fell drop by drop onto his face. Trembling in terror, his tears flowing non-stop, he had struggled desperately to reach the tip of the cell phone poking out of the woman’s pocket.

In the brightly lit living room, Chen Huiju’s hand suddenly clawed weakly at the air.

Sang Xiaoshi quickly leaned closer, discovering that her pupils had rolled back down slightly toward their normal position. She seemed to have regained a sliver of consciousness, her lips parting and closing subtly.

Leaning in, Sang Xiaoshi caught her whispering, “Jiabao.”

The woman’s hand weakly clawed at the air again. Without hesitation, Sang Xiaoshi stepped forward and grasped her hand. Looking at her slightly calloused palm, which bore the marks of a life with little self-care, Sang Xiaoshi buried his head, his tears spilling instantly.

“I’m here, Mommy. I’m right here. Don’t sleep.”

—Mommy, Daddy, wake up. Xiaoshi is scared. Xiaoshi has already, already done what the teacher taught us, I dialed 120 to save us. Don’t sleep anymore, talk to Xiaoshi, okay?

“The ambulance w-will be here s-soon. Once the ambulance is, is here, everything will be fine.”

—The lady on the phone said the ambulance is coming right away. The teacher said ambulances can save people, everything will be fine once it gets here. Daddy, Mommy, wake up and talk to Xiaoshi, okay? Why is there so much blood? Can it please stop flowing? Xiaoshi is really, really scared.

“It’s going to be okay. You will definitely, safely survive.”

—It’s going to be okay, none of us will be in trouble. Xiaoshi knows Daddy and Mommy always keep their word. Xiaoshi ranked first in the entire grade for the exams this term, and the reward you promised me hasn’t been given yet. Hurry up and wake up so we can discuss it, otherwise Xiaoshi will be angry.

The wail of the ambulance siren drew closer. Hearing footsteps pounding up the stairs, Sang Xiaoshi swiftly wiped away his uncontrollable tears and stepped back a few paces, clearing a path for the medical staff entering the living room.

Amid the bustling movement of the crowd, he watched the woman being lifted onto a stretcher. Sang Xiaoshi instinctively followed them out. Following them down to the courtyard, he caught a clear view of the woman’s face on the stretcher, and his steps ground to a dazed halt.

He stood rooted to the spot, watching the woman being loaded into the ambulance, his gaze gradually turning hollow. He knew he would never have the chance to catch up to the people he truly wanted to pursue anymore.

The arrival of the ambulance had awakened many of the surrounding households. The neighborhood began to grow loud and chaotic.

Just as Sang Xiaoshi turned his legs to leave the Ge family courtyard, a figure suddenly blocked his path. Ge Jiabao bowed ninety degrees right in front of him, shouting at the top of his lungs: “Sang Xiaoshi, thank you!”

Sang Xiaoshi noticed two puddles of water on the ground.

Ge Jiabao spoke again, his voice carrying an even greater weight of solemnity: “Sang Xiaoshi, I’m sorry!”

Sang Xiaoshi stared quietly at the boy before him, offering no response of forgiveness, nor any rejection. He simply looked at Ge Jiabao in quiet, heavy silence.

Just then, a call drifted over from outside the gate: “Jiabao, hurry up and get in the vehicle! It’s leaving!”

Only then did Ge Jiabao straighten his back. He cast a glance at Sang Xiaoshi, looking as though he still had words to say but didn’t know how to phrase them. Ultimately, he left everything unsaid and hurriedly scrambled into the ambulance.

Sang Xiaoshi watched the ambulance drive into the distance. Turning to leave once more, he suddenly caught sight of a figure across the street. His eyes, which had remained somber all night, instantly lit up. Forgetting the pain across his back, he dashed across the road.

The person opposite was also walking quickly toward him, and the two met right in the middle of the street.

Shen Siyang pulled Sang Xiaoshi two steps closer to the curb, ensuring they were out of harm’s way before asking, “Why were you in Ge Jiabao’s yard?”

Sang Xiaoshi panted lightly. “Heard Ge Jiabao, shouting, shouting for help. Brother Siyang, w-what about you? Why d-did you come here?”

Hearing the question, Shen Siyang’s face was filled with lingering dread. “I heard the ambulance siren in the dead of night. I looked out the window and saw it heading toward your neighborhood. I thought something happened to you and it scared me to death! I forgot to even put on shoes before running downstairs. Once I got out to the yard and the gravel poked my feet, I turned back and grabbed my dad’s slippers that were drying by the door.”

Sang Xiaoshi listened blankly to Shen Siyang’s words. He lowered his head, glancing down at the dark blue flip-flops on Shen Siyang’s feet that were easily two sizes too big. He couldn’t restrain a soft laugh.

Shen Siyang amused himself too, raising a hand to lightly tap the boy’s forehead. “You’re still laughing? Do you know how hard these things are to walk in? I tripped no less than five times running over here. Halfway through, I was so ticked off I wanted to just hurl them away.”

As Sang Xiaoshi laughed, his eyes grew warm. Taking advantage of the dim streetlights and the dark night, knowing Shen Siyang wouldn’t see clearly, he tilted his head back to gaze at him unblinkingly.

Having been stared at like this several times over the past week, Shen Siyang was well-accustomed to it. He chuckled softly. “Why are you looking at me like that again?”

Sang Xiaoshi slowly let out a smile. “Brother Siyang, can I, can I go to your house and, and stay with you for a bit?”

“Of course you can,” Shen Siyang replied without a second thought. “Don’t just say stay for a bit—you can sleep over at my place tonight.”

Sang Xiaoshi’s eyes sparkled. “C-can I sleep over?”

Shen Siyang nodded. “Can you sneak away?”

Sang Xiaoshi nodded his head rapidly like a little chick pecking grain.

Amused by his enthusiasm, Shen Siyang stepped forward, slung an arm around Sang Xiaoshi, and guided him toward his house.

“Well, that works out beautifully. Just tonight, your brother relied on his supreme personal charm to trade two weeks of family laundry with Mrs. Yuan Linfei for a brand-new, high-powered electric fan. I was just thinking of finding an opportunity to invite you over to sleep. Now that it’s barely been set up, you’re here to sleep over—looks like you and this fan were meant to be.”

Shen Siyang finished speaking but received no response for a long while. Turning his head, he saw the child staring straight at him again. He couldn’t help but laugh. “Do you like looking at me that much?”

Sang Xiaoshi nodded earnestly. “Like it. Very, very good-looking.”

Shen Siyang’s smile deepened, a shallow dimple appearing at the corner of his mouth. “Look all you want then, feast your eyes. Good children who know how to compliment people get to look at this handsome face for free.”

Sang Xiaoshi laughed along, nodding in agreement to add another compliment: “H-Handsome.”

At this hour, the rest of his family had long since fallen asleep. He had only been jarred awake by the ambulance siren, leaving the house in a rush out of worry for Sang Xiaoshi.

The house was pitch black. Shen Siyang led Sang Xiaoshi upstairs on tiptoe. Entering his bedroom, he closed the door behind them. Letting Sang Xiaoshi stand near the entrance, he began to grope around in the dark to turn on the light.

After taking a few steps, he suddenly ground to a halt, sniffing the air.

“Xiaoshi, why did Ge Jiabao’s mom go to the hospital? Was she bleeding when she left?”

Sang Xiaoshi navigated toward Shen Siyang’s direction in the darkness. “Fainted. No, no bleeding.”

In the dark, Shen Siyang’s brow knit closer together. “Then why do I smell blood on you?”

To ensure he hadn’t mistaken it, he inhaled deeply again to check. Out in the open air, with the cross-breeze and the scents of trees and flowers from the various yards masking it, he hadn’t noticed. But now that they were inside a confined bedroom with the windows shut tight, the metallic scent of blood was unmistakable without even trying to look for it.

The room plunged into a brief, heavy silence. Sang Xiaoshi didn’t utter a sound for a long time.

Sensing something was wrong, Shen Siyang quickly groped for the switch and flicked on the bedroom light. The moment the room lit up, he strode over to Sang Xiaoshi.

Sang Xiaoshi watched him, instinctively straightening his body to face him.

He would have been better off not moving; the stiff gesture only made Shen Siyang more certain. Without a word, he stepped right past Sang Xiaoshi to get behind him.

Sang Xiaoshi was dressed entirely in black tonight—a black short-sleeved shirt and black pants. What lay before Shen Siyang’s eyes now was a large, damp patch soaking the back of the boy’s shirt.

Sang Xiaoshi instinctively tried to move away.

Shen Siyang grabbed his hand, his brow furrowing tightly. “Don’t move.”

He caught a much stronger scent of metallic blood.

He carefully lifted the back of Sang Xiaoshi’s shirt. Despite preparing himself for the worst, the moment he saw the boy’s back, Shen Siyang’s breath hitched.

Several long, raw, bloody welts cut across Sang Xiaoshi’s fair skin. Beneath those fresh wounds, he could faintly discern several older scars of similar length that had already started to fade.

Shen Siyang felt a sudden rush of blood straight to his head. His hands trembled uncontrollably as he clutched the fabric of Sang Xiaoshi’s shirt.

“Sang Xiaoshi.”

The boy shifted slightly, only to be held firmly in place again.

Shen Siyang stared at Sang Xiaoshi’s back, completely terrified to move or even let the shirt drop back down. If the fabric touched the raw flesh and stuck to it, the pain would be unimaginable. After a quick calculation, he rolled up the back of the shirt a few times, fished a large binder clip out of his bedside drawer, and temporarily clipped it in place.

Having done that, he turned to walk out. But just as his hand touched the doorknob, Sang Xiaoshi pulled at him.

Shen Siyang stopped and turned around, meeting a pale-faced Sang Xiaoshi whose eyes were red with panic. He knew the boy was misunderstanding—thinking that Shen Siyang was angry and about to abandon him.

Under normal circumstances, Shen Siyang would have explained right away. But he was furious right now. Since coming to this world, no, in all his twenty-five years of life, he had rarely been this angry.

And so, he didn’t offer an explanation. He simply looked at Sang Xiaoshi. “The wounds on your back—did Luo Qifeng do that?”

Sang Xiaoshi lowered his eyes and gave a tiny, subtle nod.

Looking at him like this, Shen Siyang felt a mixture of heartache and fury. “If you were so scared of me getting angry, why didn’t you tell me he beat you when I asked you this afternoon?”

Sang Xiaoshi’s eyelashes fluttered uncontrollably, but he remained silent for a long time.

Shen Siyang took a deep breath. “Does he hit you often?”

This time, Sang Xiaoshi answered quickly in a soft whisper, “N-not often. Only a, a few times.”

Shen Siyang felt a heavy lump form in his throat. “So what? Because it’s only been a few times, it doesn’t count as abuse? Because it’s only been a few times, you thought it wasn’t serious enough to tell me?”

As the words fell, Sang Xiaoshi slowly raised his head to look at him. He stared back with bloodshot eyes for a long moment before whispering, “I’m sorry.”

In an instant, Shen Siyang exploded like a volcano. “Sang Xiaoshi! Is this something you should be apologizing to me for? Why do you think I’m angry? I’m not mad because you hid it from me—I’m mad because you don’t take your own safety seriously! Hitting people is against the law! He belongs in jail for this! And the wounds on your back are so severe. In weather this hot, if you leave them covered up without treatment and they get infected, it could kill you! You cannot just endure domestic violence! Enduring it only makes criminals bolder! You have to speak up, you have to ask for help, do you understand?”

Through everything Shen Siyang had said up until that point, Sang Xiaoshi had merely listened in silence, his eyes rimmed with red. But at the final sentence, his eyes blinked, and the moment his tears spilled over, he suddenly burst into a loud, frantic sob.

The moment Sang Xiaoshi started crying, Shen Siyang froze.

In all the time he had known the boy, he had never seen him cry, let alone break down into such breathless, ragged sobs. He was thrown into total disarray, completely at a loss for where to put his hands. “Xiaoshi, I’m sorry. I was wrong, I shouldn’t have yelled at you.”

He raised his hands to wipe away Sang Xiaoshi’s tears, a heavy ache rising in his own chest that made him feel like crying along. “I was just terrified. Looking at the wounds on your back hurts me, and I can’t even begin to imagine how much it hurts you. How can you bear so much pain? You’re going to break my heart.”

Sang Xiaoshi’s crying suddenly grew louder. He gripped Shen Siyang’s hand tightly, slowly burying his face into the crook of his arm.

Terrified of aggravating his injuries, Shen Siyang didn’t dare move, letting the boy rest against him. After crying for a bit, Sang Xiaoshi suddenly spoke through his choked sobs.

“I, I didn’t just bear it. I asked, asked for help before. But, but Aunt closed her eyes. I secretly, secretly opened the window so Ge, Ge Jiabao could see me eating, eating by the wall, but, but he didn’t help me. He just, just turned it into a joke. I, I called the police, but Luo, Luo Qifeng told the police, police uncles that I fell from, from a tree. There was no, no evidence. No one, no one would arrest, arrest him just because he made me eat with with the dog. There was no evidence, and no, no witnesses to prove he, he beat me.”

Sang Xiaoshi raised his head again, looking at Shen Siyang through a blur of tears.

“Xiaoshi, didn’t want to just, just bear it, b-but I didn’t dare try anymore. I didn’t want, didn’t want Brother Siyang to leave, leave me too.”

All of Shen Siyang’s simmering rage vanished in an instant, utterly extinguished. Carefully avoiding the boy’s injuries, he pulled Sang Xiaoshi tightly into his arms. “I’m sorry, Xiaoshi. I blamed you unfairly, I’m so sorry.”

“I’m not going to leave you. I can save you, I can save you.”

He buried his face beside Sang Xiaoshi’s ear, swearing a solemn vow. “There is absolutely someone in this world who can save you, Xiaoshi. Never stop fighting, and never give up on asking for help.”