Transmigrated as the Paranoid Protagonist's Pregnant Beauty - Chapter 2

“What do you mean?” Zou Beiqi was left thoroughly confused by Heng Shi. One moment Heng Shi said he was not interested, and the next he offered another chance. Did this guy not realize how contradictory he sounded?

“I have spoken with the hospital administration. Your father’s current condition makes him a very suitable candidate as a subject for our company’s new drug. I am sure you have heard about clinical trials. The medication costs are entirely free, and other medical expenses will also be discounted. However, since it is a new drug, you will need to shoulder a certain amount of risk.”

At this, Heng Shi paused. “If you agree to my terms, I can also grant you one wish. Think it over carefully.”

Zou Beiqi truly could not bring himself to reject him outright. He recalled his mother’s strained, put-on smile back in the hospital room, and the description of his father’s ending in the novel suddenly flashed through his mind. Even though the miracle drug hit the market, they did not have enough money for follow-up treatments, and his father ultimately passed away from the illness.

Could this miracle drug be the very one Heng Shi was developing?

He did not dare to be certain, nor could he afford to take a reckless gamble; human lives were at stake.

“When do I need to decide?”

“Within three days. I need your answer,” Heng Shi said coldly as he brushed past him. “I have said all I need to say. My assistant has called you before, which means you should have his contact information. If there is anything you need to understand, you can contact him.”

When Zou Beiqi returned to the hospital room, his hands were carrying a few portions of nutritious meals. His father on the hospital bed had already woken up, though his face remained entirely devoid of color. Zou Beiqi stepped closer and called out softly, “Dad.”

“Qiqi is here? Oh, look at these failing old eyes of mine, I did not even notice you.” As his father spoke, he tried to sit up straight to talk to Zou Beiqi, who hurriedly reached out to support him. “You do not have to force yourself to sit up.”

“What kind of talk is that? If I do not get up, how can I eat?” His father’s expression clearly revealed the physical pain he was enduring, but he never uttered a single word of complaint to Zou Beiqi, simply opening his mouth in silence to receive the food his son was feeding him.

“Dad.” After much deliberation, Zou Beiqi felt it necessary to bring up the matter of the new drug as soon as possible. “Just now, the doctor said there is a new drug undergoing clinical trials, and they said Dad’s illness is suitable for it, and asked if we would be willing to try.”

Heng Shi’s identity was too difficult to explain, so he simply used the doctor as a substitute.

His mother did not understand much about clinical trials, but upon hearing that there was a new drug, her eyes curved into smiles. “There is a new drug? Then will your father get better soon? How much will it cost?”

“It is free, and other treatment fees are also discounted,” Zou Beiqi’s lips quivered. “No one has used the new drug yet, so we do not know how effective it will be. Whether it can cure him is hard to say.”

His mother instantly fell silent, and even his father, whose eyes had just held a glimmer of hope, saw his gaze dim.

During this period, aside from going to the company for his regular work, Zou Beiqi spent practically all his remaining time at the hospital. Ever since the topic of the new drug came up, the atmosphere in the hospital room had grown rather solemn. After discussing it with his family for a long time, they finally decided to give the new drug a try. Rather than waiting passively for the day his father could no longer hold on, it was better to take a bold leap of faith.

“Qiqi, it is fine. Your father has always been lucky. He married your mother and had you, so having this life is already a tremendous blessing.” His father smiled, gently patting the back of Zou Beiqi’s hand.

“Yeah.”

If he really had a tremendous blessing, he would not have fallen ill in the first place, Zou Beiqi thought. His eye sockets inexplicably stung with acid, but seeing that his father, who was clearly the patient, was still trying his best to comfort him, he reined in his surging emotions.

He took some time to call Yan Ze back and informed him that his father agreed to the trial. A few days later, the doctor and Heng Shi appeared in the hospital room together. Zou Beiqi stood to the side, listening as the doctor explained the precautions, while Heng Shi occasionally chimed in with additions. During the Phase I trial stage, his father’s health status would be closely monitored by dedicated personnel every day, and the testing of various physiological indicators would become frequent.

Zou Beiqi was uneasy, so he took time off from work for the first few days to personally tend to his father with meticulous care. His mother initially objected, telling him to focus on his career, but Zou Beiqi exhausted every argument, soft and hard, until he finally persuaded her to go home and rest.

Usually, it was other researchers who came to check on his father’s condition, but today, to everyone’s surprise, Heng Shi appeared in the room, silently staring at the various indicators displayed on the machine.

“How is my father doing?” Zou Beiqi could not help asking.

“Everything is normal.”

When Zou Beiqi arrived, he happened to bring along a portion of street-vendor stir-fried rice noodles for himself, while his father had his usual nutritional meal. He first handled his father’s meal and, seeing that the older man had fallen into a deep sleep, finally opened the lid of his own rice noodles. The aroma wafted through the air, but Heng Shi, sitting across from him, furrowed his brow. “Do not eat things with such a heavy smell inside a hospital room.”

“I will not next time.” Thinking that it might indeed affect others, Zou Beiqi honestly admitted his fault. “Are you not going to eat something?”

Heng Shi had been sitting here all morning just like him, without even drinking a cup of water.

“Later, I am not in a hurry.”

“Would you like some stir-fried noodles? I have not eaten yet.” Zou Beiqi handed the disposable chopsticks he had just split apart toward Heng Shi, only to receive an icy-cold response. “I do not eat these things. There is too much oil and salt, a lack of hygiene safeguards, and the flavor is too strong. You had better eat less of it, too.”

Indeed, no matter how one looked at it, Heng Shi did not seem like the type to eat street food. Descriptions of him from the novel suddenly popped into Zou Beiqi’s mind. He could be summarized entirely by the word fastidious.

Yet, in reality, Heng Shi had not always been like that. When he was very young, after being diagnosed with an illness, his parents abandoned him at an orphanage. Later, he met a kind-hearted grandfather who adopted him. The grandfather spent money to hire the best doctors to cure his illness, spoiling him into a delicate young master. Unfortunately, the grandfather could not stay with him for long, passing away from illness a few years later.

“Is this your way of caring about me?” Zou Beiqi withdrew his chopsticks, startled.

“I just do not want to smell this pungent odor in the hospital room because of you.”

Zou Beiqi answered nothing.

“Also, do not think that just because you have slept with me, we are very close.” Heng Shi cast a final glance at him before turning his gaze back to the machine.

Understood. That meant he should talk to him less.

Zou Beiqi did not care much for it anyway. He ate the stir-fried noodles on his own, but for some reason, the food he usually loved so much suddenly lost all its appeal now that it was in front of him. It even tasted increasingly nauseating, and after only a few bites, he put his chopsticks away.

Before he even had time to clean up the leftover food, Heng Shi took the rare initiative to throw a question his way. “Have you decided?”

“Huh?”

“The condition. I agreed to it.” Heng Shi’s smile clearly lacked any kind intentions. “Someone like you, and you can even forget about this?”

Fine. In Heng Shi’s eyes, Zou Beiqi was already a petty villain who would stop at nothing to suck up for favors.

Zou Beiqi could not think of anything he wanted off the top of his head. He had money, and his life was secure for the moment; his sole worry was his father. “Can you cure my dad?”

“I am not a doctor, so I cannot guarantee it. All I can tell you is that the new drug at least will not kill him.” Heng Shi’s gaze shifted to the patient with his eyes tightly closed on the bed. “I will fulfill my responsibility, monitor his condition, and contact specialists for treatment at any time. You can rest assured on that front.”

“Thank you.” It was a very simple pair of words, but Zou Beiqi said them with utmost sincerity.

Zou Beiqi trusted Heng Shi’s work, but at the end of the day, a new drug carried risks. Even though it was controlled by the male protagonist wrapped in a halo of plot armor, guaranteeing quality and preparation standards, it was not guaranteed to match his father’s current physical condition.

Terrified that something might go wrong while he was not looking, he spent virtually the entire day in the hospital room and even set up a folding cot to sleep right next to the bed at night. As a result, the next time Heng Shi saw him, heavy dark circles hung beneath his eyes.

The summer night breeze poured into the room as Zou Beiqi dragged his heavy body over to close the window.

Before falling sleep, his father had urged him to rest early, cheerfully telling Zou Beiqi that his left eyelid had been twitching and good news would arrive soon.

“Yeah, it will. Go to sleep.” Zou Beiqi tucked the quilt in snugly around his father.

On the other side, Heng Shi was acting like a machine, doing nothing but watching the equipment, seemingly noticing Zou Beiqi’s gaze. “Everything is normal.”

“How much longer are you staying?”

“Until one or two in the morning, probably.”

Heng Shi had been sitting here from the afternoon until late into the night, still not having touched a single drop of water or a single bite of food, just like last time. Zou Beiqi stood up, preparing to pour Heng Shi a cup of water, but the moment his legs straightened, a sensation of impending collapse washed over him, and his head grew dizzy and heavy.

In truth, he had been unusually prone to fatigue and sleepiness lately. Zou Beiqi figured it was due to his constant exhaustion over his father’s condition. Looking at the frail figure on the hospital bed, he always forced himself to keep going.

He tried his hardest to hold on, but ultimately could not fight the pull as he began to keel over. Just as he was about to lose consciousness, he felt a pair of strong arms catch him.

“Zou Beiqi.”

It was Heng Shi’s voice. Opening his eyes slowly at the call, Zou Beiqi found himself lying on the folding cot while Heng Shi stood beside him, the two of them locking gazes.

“Awoken so soon?” Heng Shi asked with slight surprise. “How do you feel? Should I call a doctor?”

“No need, I am fine now. I just have not been sleeping enough.”

“You do not need to watch him twenty-four hours a day,” Heng Shi frowned.

“What if…”

“Health is a very important thing.” At this, Heng Shi paused inexplicably. “If you cannot even keep a grip on your own, what makes you expect your father to?”

Feeling that Heng Shi’s lecture was fair and knowing he was in the wrong, Zou Beiqi did not dare to voice a retort.

“Wait here, I will be right back.” Dropping those words, Heng Shi walked out of the room without waiting for a reply. Before long, he returned with a small medicine bottle and a plastic cup.

“Medicine to improve sleep quality,” Heng Shi said, unscrewing the cap and pouring the medicinal powder into the cup, where it quickly dissolved into a large cup of liquid. “It effectively improves light sleep, excessive dreaming, and other issues. Even a single dose has a noticeable effect.”

“Thanks. Turns out you actually know how to be nice to people,” Zou Beiqi took the cup, though what he actually wanted to say was that it turns out he actually knew how to be nice to the ungrateful pest in his eyes.

“Because you are sick.”

Zou Beiqi thought that sounded right, yet somehow felt entirely wrong.

He took a sip of the medicine, and the bitter taste instantly bloomed across his mouth, causing him to instinctively wear a tortured expression. “It is too bitter.”

“Suck it up.”

It would not do to waste someone else’s kind gesture, so Zou Beiqi pinched his nose, preparing to gulp it all down in one go. Right at that moment, Heng Shi spoke up. “Wait, hold on.”

Heng Shi walked out the door again, returning with a small packet of dried tangerine peel. Tearing open the packaging, he placed a single piece right into Zou Beiqi’s palm.

Zou Beiqi wanted to thank him again, but Heng Shi urged him to finish the medicine first. With the bitter medicine swallowed and the tangerine peel entering his mouth, the taste in his mouth instantly improved quite a bit.

“Put the cup down. Hand over.”

Though he did not know the reason, Zou Beiqi obediently complied. Heng Shi fished a small jar of ointment from his pocket and applied it to the skin of Zou Beiqi’s hands. It felt cool and very comfortable.

“Anti-mosquito ointment. There are a lot of mosquitoes in the hospital.” With his fingertips dipped in the icy-cool cream, Heng Shi applied it inch by inch to Zou Beiqi’s face, tracing down his neck all the way to his collarbone.

Heng Shi unbuttoned two buttons of Zou Beiqi’s shirt, his pads touching the faint, lingering traces of red marks left behind from that night.

Zou Beiqi was not used to being touched like this by others, and an inexplicable itch crawled all over his body, making him deeply uncomfortable. Noticing that Heng Shi had stopped moving, he could not help asking, “What is wrong?”

“They have not faded yet. I suppose I bit you rather hard.” Heng Shi’s gaze locked directly onto the mark on his collarbone, as cold and detached as a doctor delivering a diagnosis report.

“Huh?” Zou Beiqi’s thoughts seemed to be instantly yanked back. “This bite mark is real?”

“Did you or did you not know whether it was real?” Heng Shi let out a cold laugh. “Zou Beiqi, do you really think playing dumb now will make me treat you like a good person?”

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