"Right! It's too hot! You can't stay at the school gate for even a second," Song Xinxin said, already taking a sip of the coffee in her hand.
Meng Qingyan also took a sip. Even though it tasted a bit bitter, he found it immensely sweet.
A voice in his heart told him that even if the person who saved him half a year ago wasn't Song Xinxin, his feelings for her were genuine. Of this, he was entirely certain.
The woman standing at the mouth of the alley earlier—he would definitely find out who she was. If necessary, he could give her some money to express his gratitude, but anything more than that, he could not give.
"Let's go, let's not stand out in the sun," Song Xinxin said, glancing up at the sun.
Although autumn had arrived, the weather was still sweltering. Standing in the sun for even a little while left one drenched in sweat.
As they talked, the two of them got into the car. Meng Qingyan then drove toward the martial arts club.
They chatted casually during the ride, and Meng Qingyan briefly introduced the club to her.
Song Xinxin listened very attentively.
Upon arriving at the club, Meng Qingyan stated their purpose at the front desk, and a staff member led them upstairs.
In the upstairs office area, a tough-looking woman in her thirties walked toward them.
The staff member guided them forward and introduced, "This is our gold-medal coach—Qin New, Coach Qin."
Seeing the two of them, Qin Nian squeezed out a stiff smile. Perhaps accustomed to putting on a stern face to maintain her authority, even when she wanted to smile now, she couldn't quite manage it.
She remembered the boss's explicit instructions: these were VIP clients who must be well taken care of, and her attitude had to be impeccable.
"Hello, Coach Qin, I'm Song Xinxin. I'd like to try your devil training!" Song Xinxin spoke up first.
"That's right, just a simple taste of it," Meng Qingyan added, afraid that Song Xinxin might get hurt.
"This... I understand." Qin Nian nodded. From the moment they walked in, she had picked up on the dynamic between the two.
This wasn't her first time seeing such a situation: a couple having a spat, where the woman suddenly signs up for devil training simply to torture herself in order to gain her partner's pity and affection.
However, Song Xinxin's goal was nothing of the sort; she genuinely wanted to experience this terrifying devil training.
Qin Nian gave her a brief tour of the environment and then designed a customized devil training regimen for her. To achieve the desired results within just two days, the intensity of the training would be extremely high, placing very strict demands on her physical endurance.
Naturally, Song Xinxin had come to experience precisely this kind of intensity, and she was extremely confident in her ability to persevere. But Meng Qingyan, standing nearby, felt that this was simply too inhuman and utterly devoid of mercy; he was strongly opposed to it.
Yet Song Xinxin paid him no heed—nor would she have listened to him—and the end result was that she directly enrolled in the devil training, leaving Meng Qingyan completely powerless to stop it from happening.
Out of safety concerns, he called his private doctor to ensure that medical assistance could be provided to Song Xinxin in the event of an emergency, pulling her back from the brink of danger.
As the training began, under Qin Nian's arrangement, Song Xinxin performed various high-intensity exercises with very few rest breaks in between. It was clearly becoming too much for her to bear, and her heart pounded violently under the relentless waves of exertion.
She pushed herself to keep up, but as the intensity escalated round after round, her breathing grew heavier and more labored. Noticing this, Qin Nian asked her, "Can you still keep going?"
Gasping for breath, Song Xinxin gritted her teeth and replied firmly, "I can, Coach!"
Seeing this, Qin Nian motioned for her to regulate her breathing. She stopped and tried to steady her breath, but it felt as though someone had ripped her heart out and held it right up against her ear.
The thumping sound of her heartbeat—*thump, thump, thump*—echoed relentlessly in her ears. She struggled to regulate her respiration, but all she could hear was the heavy thudding of her heart mixed with the sound of her own gasping, as if those two sounds were the only things left existing in her entire world.
Her vision grew increasingly blurred under the stinging onslaught of sweat. Just as she tried to blink to clear her sight, darkness suddenly descended, her world turned pitch black, and she lost consciousness, collapsing heavily to the floor.
Quick as lightning, Qin Nian lunged forward and caught Song Xinxin just as she was falling. "Song Xinxin..."
Meng Qingyan and his private doctor, who had been standing nearby the entire time, rushed over simultaneously. The doctor told them to lay Song Xinxin flat on the ground. Meng Qingyan patted her shoulders while calling out to her, but there was no response.
The doctor stepped forward and checked her carotid pulse. After five or six seconds, he said gravely, "Carotid pulse is gone. Cardiac arrest. Call an ambulance—emergency!"
As he spoke, he straightened Song Xinxin's limbs, positioned her arms outward at her sides, unzipped her athletic jacket, and loosened the waistband of her pants. She was wearing a wireless sports bralette underneath. He located the spot two finger-breadths above the xiphoid process, placed the heel of his left hand on the spot, and interlaced the heel of his right hand over it, keeping all fingers raised off the chest cavity. With his elbows locked straight and using the weight of his upper body and waist, he began chest compressions at a depth of 5 to 6 centimeters and a frequency of 100 to 120 beats per minute.
On the very first compression, the doctor began counting. When he reached 27, 28, Meng Qingyan, kneeling beside him with a tense face, started counting along. When they reached 30, Meng Qingyan sprang into action. He first checked Song Xinxin's neck for injuries, then tilted her head to one side, cleared her oral and nasal airways, straightened her head back out, and opened her airway using the head-tilt, chin-lift maneuver.
Meng Qingyan took a deep breath, sealed his lips over Song Xinxin's, and pinched her nose shut with his hand. As he blew air into her mouth, her chest rose visibly.
Then Meng Qingyan quickly released her nose and withdrew his mouth, letting the air out—the first rescue breath was complete. He immediately took another deep breath and administered the second rescue breath using the exact same method.
Seeing him finish, the doctor repositioned himself and began the next round of compressions.
Qin Nian, who had finished making the emergency call, stood nearby watching the two men work with swift reactions, seamless teamwork, and methodical efficiency. Her mind was in complete turmoil. This was the first time a trainee had suffered cardiac arrest during her sessions; if it resulted in a fatality, her career would be finished.
Three minutes later, the doctor announced, "Five cycles complete!" He checked Song Xinxin's carotid pulse once more, glanced at her cyanotic lips, cheeks, and nail beds, and said with a solemn expression, "Meng Qingyan, keep doing chest compressions. I'll go get the adrenaline..."
At the doctor's command, the two resumed their division of labor.
Those critical three minutes felt entirely different in Song Xinxin's world.
The moment she lost consciousness and collapsed, her soul seemed to detach from her physical body, plunging heavily into a dark abyss. Beneath her was a rapidly spinning vortex; she spiraled downward endlessly, failing to stop even as she reached the very center, falling right through the core.
She plunged into a sea of fire where countless fiery serpents reached out in all directions as if hunting for prey. Imbued with a strange vitality, the moment the fire serpents spotted her, they all lunged at her in unison. She fled in panic, scurrying in every direction, but no matter where she ran, new fire serpents burst forth from beneath her feet.
Before she could dodge in time, a fire serpent coiled tightly around her ankle. The scorching burn caused her agonizing pain, and her desperate struggles were entirely in vain.
As one fire serpent climbed up her leg, others quickly followed suit. She screamed in agony as the serpents wound their way up her legs until they completely enveloped her entire body.
Suddenly, a fire serpent drilled straight into her heart, and an intense wave of heat rushed through her chest, her heart filling with searing flames.
In an instant, the flames transformed into freezing ice, wrapping around her in layer after layer. Plunged into the glacial cold, she found herself completely paralyzed, unable to move a single part of her body.
Even her heart was choked by the flames turned to ice, losing its ability to beat.
The aura of death suddenly descended, and Song Xinxin felt an unprecedented sense of despair...
She gradually gave up the fight, letting her limbs grow numb in the biting cold. In that moment, she seemed to accept her fateful death.
Right at that very moment, she seemed to hear a call from the immortal realm: "Song Xinxin... wake up, Song Xinxin..."
Immediately afterward, she felt her chest being forcefully compressed by an external force. Under this outside pressure, the ice encasing her frozen heart cracked bit by bit.
The cold did not disperse; she still could not move or breathe. Just then, a warm current of air forced its way into her body. She clearly felt that the moment that current entered her mouth, wherever it reached, the ice melted away.
In that instant, she seemed to feel a rebirth, feeling her life returning little by little while death was being stripped away piece by piece.
Meanwhile, back at the club, the ambulance had arrived. Through the tireless efforts of the doctor and Meng Qingyan, Song Xinxin's pulse and spontaneous breathing had been restored. She was lifted onto a gurney and loaded into the ambulance to be rushed to the hospital for follow-up treatment.
Meng Qingyan boarded the ambulance with her, holding her hand tightly the entire way without loosening his grip for even a second.
The moment Song Xinxin collapsed, it felt as though someone had violently wrenched his heart, the intense pain leaving him at a complete loss. At that moment, he was genuinely terrified—terrified that Song Xinxin would just leave like this.
Leaving before anything had even begun. "Song Xinxin, you're going to be fine. Believe in yourself, you have to wake up!"
At this moment, after the glacial cold receded, Song Xinxin felt as though she were adrift in a boundless ocean, floating upon the surface and rising and falling with the waves. Faint human voices reached her ears, though they weren't entirely clear. After drifting for who knows how long, she slowly opened her eyes.
A azure sky came into view, and looking down, she saw only the deep blue sea. In this vast expanse of heaven and earth, she seemed to be completely alone.
A sense of loneliness washed over her. She slowly stood up and looked at her own reflection on the water's surface. In the reflection, she looked haggard and hollow-eyed. Her figure appeared somewhat bloated, and her abdomen protruded prominently, as if she were carrying a child.
Upon recognizing the reflection in the water, tears instantly streamed down Song Xinxin's face. She knew that the figure mirrored on the sea was herself, who had perished in the fire prior to her rebirth.
She gazed at her reflection, tears suddenly flowing uncontrollably as the pain in her heart was reactivated. A single tear fell into the ocean, stirring up raging billows.
The reflection in the water was shattered by the waves, only to reassemble, and once broken apart all over again...
Just like her life—shattered, and then pieced back together.
"Song Xinxin... you have to hold on, don't give up... Song Xinxin..." Meng Qingyan shouted, cheering her on as she was wheeled into the operating room.
"Song Xinxin... don't give up... I'm waiting for you here..." For some reason, Meng Qingyan's voice reached the ears of the weeping Song Xinxin. Wiping the tears from her face, she turned around, seemingly wanting to trace the source of the voice within this desolate world.
"Waiting for me? Who is waiting for me?" A question popped into her mind, and she wondered who on earth it could be.
Following the sound, she walked forward step by step. The further she walked, the brighter the light became, growing more and more intense. Finally, she arrived before a glowing door and, enduring the blinding pain, pushed it open.
"Song Xinxin... you're awake?" Meng Qingyan gripped Song Xinxin's hand in joyous surprise, staring at her as she slowly opened her eyes, the concern in his gaze threatening to overflow.
Looking at his slightly haggard appearance and recalling the voice she had just heard, Song Xinxin wondered: was the person who said he was waiting for her this man right before her? Her gaze was blank, like a newborn baby full of curiosity yet harboring a trace of fear toward unfamiliar things.
Looking down, she saw that her hand was still clasped tightly within his. In that moment, whether out of bashfulness or the realization that he was holding on a little too tightly, she instinctively felt that things shouldn't be this way.
She gave a slight twitch, as if trying to pull her hand out from his large palm.
Sensing her movement, Meng Qingyan instinctively tightened his grip even further. "What is it? Is there somewhere you're still uncomfortable?"
Startled by his sudden display of care, Song Xinxin felt a wave of astonishment. Why was this man, whom she had only met a few times, so terribly nervous about her?
"I..." Song Xinxin stared into his eyes. They were crystal clear and completely transparent, revealing the very bottom. Deep within those eyes lay the silhouette of a person, and upon closer inspection, she realized that silhouette was none other than herself.
"Are you hungry? I'll go ask the doctor what you can eat," Meng Qingyan said, finally releasing Song Xinxin's hand and turning to walk toward the door.
"Don't..." Song Xinxin blurted out on an impulse, extending half of her hand and leaving it suspended in midair, as if complaining why he had let go just like that.
Hearing her, Meng Qingyan turned back, took her hand back into his palm, gently pressed it against his cheek, and said tenderly, "Don't be afraid, I'll be right back!"
His tone was exceptionally gentle, and his eyes were filled with deep affection. At that moment, even Song Xinxin herself began to harbor doubts: "Why does it feel to me as though the person lying in this hospital bed is his beloved, and not me—someone he has only known for a few days and met a mere handful of times?"