Xia Chen reached the girl's side in two or three strides. He crouched down and gently brushed away the stray locks of hair covering the girl's face.
Beneath the stray hair was a face as still as stagnant water. The girl's eyes were gently closed, as peaceful as if she were asleep. Traces of dried tears stained the corners of her eyes, adding a poignant and heartbreaking beauty to her appearance.
Having been single for more than twenty years since birth, Xia Chen swallowed hard. In this instant, the philosophy he had believed in for all these years—that having no woman in one's heart allows one to channel the divine sword—shattered quietly.
"Damn it, what on earth am I thinking!"
Fortunately, Xia Chen still possessed some sanity. After giving himself two hard slaps across the face, he reached out and shook Shi Yao's shoulder.
"Little sister, can you hear me?"
Seeing that the girl still showed no reaction, Xia Chen knew she must have lost consciousness entirely.
He picked the girl up from the ground. The moment their bodies touched, Xia Chen felt as though he were holding something soft and delicate.
"So light."
He looked at the girl in his arms, and the pity in the depths of his eyes grew heavier.
Even someone as weak as Xia Chen could lift the young girl before him with one hand, which showed just how light she must be.
"Misfortune always seeks out the wretched; a fraying rope always snaps where it is thinnest. That saying isn't entirely without reason, but you're quite lucky, girl, to have met me. With me here, I won't let you die in this dark little alley."
If Shi Yao had been awake at that moment and heard these words, she would surely have devoted herself to Xia Chen, willing to hand over her life to him without hesitation.
From that day on, she would no longer be lonely.
Because amid the myriad lights of the city, there was finally one lamp that would shine for her, and in this vast sea of humanity, there was at least one person who cared about her.
With empty pockets, after sending the girl to the hospital, Xia Chen had no choice but to grit his teeth and run back and forth on his own two legs. First, he went to the night market to redeem his phone, and then he rushed back to the hospital to pay the medical deposit.
After finishing all this, Xia Chen collapsed straight to the ground, panting heavily. Someone even mistook him for having an asthma attack and prepared to call a doctor for him, which he managed to stop just in time.
"Since when did I become so weak?"
Xia Chen shook his head in disbelief, then took out his phone, intending to see what his "sons" were up to. The moment he opened the group chat, however, he instantly regretted it.
"Why hasn't Brother Chen replied so late at night?"
"Oh no, Brother Chen went out to buy meat skewers for us—he couldn't have gotten himself bought out of existence, could he?"
"No way! If Brother Chen is gone, who am I going to borrow money from?"
"This is bad, Brother Chen hasn't told me his bank card password yet! He can't disappear!"
"Brother Chen, can we, can we still meet again? I've begged before the Buddha for hundreds of years..."
Looking at the outrageous remarks in the group chat, each one more absurd than the last, Xia Chen nearly bit through his back molars.
Such remarks were explosive enough to rival anything in the twenty-first century.
To reestablish his dignity as a father, Xia Chen almost poked holes through his phone screen, and eventually, he simply switched to voice input.
Xia Chen: "You unfilial grandsons, just wait until I get my strength back, and I'll come over and thrash every single one of you."
Less than a second after Xia Chen sent the message, his "sons" rushed to respond.
Chen Nan: "Look, Brother Chen won his resurrection match and he's back."
Cheng Ruo: "Children, look who's here."
"It's Brother Chen! We're saved."
"Oh no, Brother Chen is weak! Kids, run!"
Seeing his good buddies making memes out of him, Xia Chen's mouth twitched with anger.
Xia Chen: "Damn it, do you guys really want me to come over to your beds tonight and thrash you?"
As soon as these words were uttered, the group's arrogant momentum subsided a bit.
Cheng Ruo: "We were just worried about you! You weren't replying, so none of us could sleep."
Chen Nan: "Yeah, Brother Chen, the jokes were fake, but worrying about you was real."
These heartfelt words from the guys cooled down Xia Chen's fury quite a bit.
Although these fellows were usually unreliable, they were indeed people you could entrust things to in times of crisis.
After exchanging a few more pleasantries, they all went off to sleep. After all, not everyone was an unemployed freeloader like him.
Xia Chen exited the group chat, scrolled through some short videos, and then stared up at the hospital ceiling, feeling quite content.
According to the information he got from the medical staff, Shi Yao probably wouldn't wake up until tomorrow. Since that was the case, there was no need for him to stay here any longer.
As for the human trafficker who had kidnapped Shi Yao, he had already reported him to the police and described the man's appearance as best as he could. Whether they could catch him was no longer his concern.
As for those two punks with dyed hair, he wasn't in a hurry to deal with them. First, they had run off too fast, leaving him no time to get a clear look at their faces; second, he had already plotted a good show of dogs biting dogs in his mind—though the prerequisite was bringing the mastermind to justice.
Xia Chen walked out of the hospital and stretched lazily. Today was undoubtedly his most tiring day in recent years. By this time it was already late afternoon, and for safety reasons, he chose to wait for the bus.
When he finally got home, it was already deep in the night. The place he lived in was very small; the furniture consisted only of a television, a set of sofas, and two beds—one of which had come free with the purchase of the other.
Moreover, whenever winter arrived, the water supply would be cut off from time to time, which was undoubtedly fatal for someone like Xia Chen who had a bit of a cleanliness obsession.
If the house had any advantage at all, it was that it was located in the city center, but for an unemployed person like him, that seemed completely useless.
Xia Chen first took a hot bath and then lay down on the bed, staring blankly. Though he called it staring blankly, his mind was still filled with the girl's peerless beauty.
"Damn it, is a lustful ghost possessing me?" Xia Chen tossed and turned on the bed, sitting up every now and then to give himself a fierce slap across the face.
That night, Xia Chen fell asleep amid irritation. Yet even after falling asleep, the corners of his mouth curved upward slightly, as if he were having a sweet dream.
Early the next morning, Xia Chen woke up early—or rather, he was woken up by his phone ringing.
He wiped some unidentified liquid from the corner of his mouth and picked up the phone from the cabinet.
When he saw that the call was from the young nurse who had asked for his number yesterday, Xia Chen instinctively assumed something had happened to the girl, and hurriedly answered.
"Hello, are you the family member for Room 209?" The voice on the other end of the line clearly carried a hint of displeasure.
Xia Chen instinctively nodded; 209 was indeed the room he had booked for the girl. He said slowly, "Yes, what's wrong?"
"Come over here and look after your sister! Ever since this girl woke up, she's kept herself smothered in the blanket and won't say a single word. If this goes on, I really worry she's going to suffocate herself to death."
The nurse's helpless voice reached Xia Chen's ears.
"I'm sorry, my sister is a bit introverted. Please keep an eye on her for a moment." Xia Chen wedged the phone between his neck and shoulder while using both hands to put on his clothes and pants.
"Alright, then hurry over. I have other things to deal with in a moment."
"Got it, sorry for the trouble."