Yun Shui scrambled to her feet in a panic. Bai Mingyi helped pick up the down jacket that had fallen to the ground, gave it a few vigorous shakes, and with practiced ease stuffed it into her half-open hiking backpack.
She followed the medical staff out. Nearby, there was a temporary shelter set up by a construction crew—the team had been responsible for road repairs and had just finished their work. Fortunately, the shelter hadn't been dismantled yet.
The Fleet Commander's consciousness was far from clear. He could only manage to murmur a few fragmented syllables before quickly lapsing into a coma.
To prevent fibers from adhering to the wounds, his clothes—soaked through with blood and mud—were all cut away. He was given a quick wipe-down, the wounds flushed with saline solution, then debridement and abdominal suturing were performed.
If not for these extraordinary circumstances, the Fleet Commander would now be recovering inside a High-end Medical Pod, surrounded by various instruments. The temporary shelter's equipment was far from complete, and nursing staff were stretched thin. Following the doctor's instructions, Yun Shui kept using alcohol cotton balls to physically bring down his fever.
A faint scent of blood lingered in the air.
Over the following two days, aid from other regions finally began to arrive, with helicopters carrying relief supplies.
Yun Shui was soaking instant noodles while listening to everyone chatter. They said Gaotang Fortress had been unable to restore communications because, after the earthquake, terrorists lurking in the Core Zone had orchestrated explosions and installed highly concealed signal-jamming devices. The main cause, however, was that the earthquake had severed base stations and backbone fiber-optic cables. Repairs were still underway, and the military's communications vehicles would likely roll in within a few days.
At this point, Gaotang Fortress was in total communication blackout—effectively cut off from the world.
When the local person in charge heard that the Fleet Commander was injured, he went out of his way to dispatch a large amount of equipment from a private hospital in the Core Zone. Still, with scarce supplies and manpower, conditions remained quite poor.
Yun Shui was now technically a volunteer. Although she wasn't officially on duty, she had no heart to rest. The Fleet Commander needed his bandages changed, medication, and IV drips every day—and he wasn't the only patient. The nurses were nearly run off their feet. Yun Shui could only help where she could: hauling water, handing out compressed biscuits, climbing up and down to hang light bulbs and pitch tents. She'd grown somewhat familiar with the medical staff, including Bai Mingyi.
Bai Mingyi was actually pretty unlucky himself. He was a medical school student with one year left before graduation, and he'd just happened to have free time to visit his cousin. But halfway through his visit, his cousin received an urgent notice to come to Gaotang Fortress—a matter of life and death—so Bai Mingyi hitched a ride on his cousin's helicopter and ended up here, temporarily staying at the official residence. He'd barely spent one night there when the earthquake hit, and he'd lost contact with his cousin ever since.
Bai Mingyi propped his chin on his hand, resting. "So tired."
Yun Shui's physical exertion over these two days had also exceeded her limits. She rubbed her forearm, imagining she could feel new muscle forming, and couldn't help feeling a little pleased.
Bai Mingyi let out a friendly scoff, rolled up his sleeve, and flexed slightly. "Hmph."
The clean, defined lines of his forearm beneath the hoodie were quite pleasing to the eye. Yun Shui gave him a thumbs-up. But before she could offer a few words of praise, a nurse came out to find her, saying cheerfully, "Family member! Your man is fully conscious now!"
Yun Shui immediately stood up, muttering under her breath as she hurried over, "I'm not his family member!"
By now, more than sixty hours had passed since the Fleet Commander had been rescued. His wound had required eight stitches.
Seeing the Fleet Commander on the hospital bed still wrapped in bandages, with a bit of stubble on his chin, very quiet, his profile under the bright light bulb was as sharp and handsome as if drawn with fine brushstrokes. Yet there was still a faint trace of grime on his face, and his gaze was sunken.
The pillow didn't seem sufficient—this patient was resting on a folded military survival blanket, looking somewhat disheveled.
Yun Shui let out a sigh of relief seeing him awake, feeling an unusual sense of daze. The socially inept professional clumsily showed concern for her superior: "General, are you alright?"
Unexpectedly, Jiang Xie turned his head with great restraint, maintaining an elegant curve of his spine even while half-paralyzed, and frowned lightly: "You brought me here?"
Yun Shui answered honestly: "I just found you and asked the doctor to bring you over."
The medical staff who knew the situation teased: "Your girlfriend was so anxious at the time, she was almost in tears from worry."
Yun Shui was immediately alarmed: "No, no, that's not…"
Jiang Xie paused, glancing at her coolly for a few seconds: "Girlfriend?"
Afraid the Fleet Commander would hold a grudge against her, Yun Shui desperately tried to clear herself of any suspicion of coveting her superior: "I didn't say that, I…"
Only then did the medical staff cast a somewhat pitying look at Yun Shui, pulling her aside and whispering: "Miss, don't be upset. His symptoms should be temporary. Just help him recall things more."
Yun Shui's head was about to steam, utterly flustered, yet the more she listened, the more something felt off.
The Fleet Commander, having been unjustly "slandered," didn't refute it either. He sized up Yun Shui, seeing her hair messy like withered grass, her face deathly pale, her eyes and cheeks flushed red—looking utterly exhausted and worried sick, like a bird with its feathers all puffed up.
The man gave her a pitying look, feeling a long-missed sense of irritation.
Then the middle-aged female doctor patted Yun Shui's shoulder, sighed, and whispered: "He has amnesia."
Oh…
What?!
What?!
Yun Shui smiled stiffly, not quite understanding: "What, no, is there a mistake…"
The doctor wasn't joking at all. Her expression turned serious, staring at Yun Shui with bright, piercing eyes filled with humanitarian sympathy: "After he woke up, he didn't know anything we asked him. Family members should accept reality as soon as possible. He probably suffered a blow to the head—traumatic brain injury. The patient doesn't remember his own identity or information about others. It may take some time to recover."
Yun Shui felt like she was listening to nonsense, dumbfounded. She turned to look at the Fleet Commander—Jiang Xie's posture was proud, his expression cold, just as always.
Yun Shui couldn't bring herself to believe it for a moment, stubbornly turning back to ask him: "General, do you really not remember anything?"
The Fleet Commander lowered his eyes and sneered: "Indeed, I can't recall." He slightly inclined his body, apologizing without any sincerity: "Though it's a bit cruel, this lady, even if I've lost my memory, I feel you absolutely wouldn't be within my standards for a partner. I think that's quite unusual."
Yun Shui had no choice but to believe it now. Not only had the Fleet Commander lost his memory—he'd lost his mind too!
The doctor glanced at them awkwardly. The Fleet Commander's attire revealed no rank insignia, so she adopted the posture of an elder and spoke up in righteous indignation: "Young man, don't be like this. If it weren't for your girlfriend, you'd still be lying by the rubble with your blood drained dry and no one would have found you. Even if you don't remember anything, is this the attitude to show your lifesaver? Rude."
The rude Fleet Commander pressed his lips tightly together. On ordinary days, he combed his hair back as much as possible, leaving only a bit of fringe. But now, without styling gel to manage it, his hair hung loose, brushing against his well-defined brow bone, making him look both stubborn and somewhat in the wrong.
When he first woke up, his mind was a complete blank, carrying a restless anxiety that had nowhere to settle. He was suspicious of everything, like a prickly hedgehog.
This temporary housing unit was cramped, yet it held four beds, and the family members of the other patients were silently casting glances over to watch the commotion.
Yun Shui felt a bit embarrassed. She took the Nutritional Paste from the doctor and walked over.
She asked him quietly, "Could it be that you're not fully awake yet?"
The Fleet Commander said calmly, "I'm perfectly awake. And I truly don't remember."
Yun Shui opened the lid of the Nutritional Paste with a troubled expression. "Do you remember what your name is?"
The Fleet Commander: "Jiang Xie."
"What about your position? Your age?"
The Fleet Commander shook his head.
Yun Shui rarely saw him like this. Her confidence quietly swelled as she interrogated him: "General, what do you remember? Your parents? Friends? Subordinates? You've forgotten all of them?"
The Fleet Commander nodded. "What is my rank?"
Yun Shui was afraid that if he ever regained his memory, he'd come looking for her to settle the score, so she answered truthfully, explaining his situation, briefly stating her own name, and confessing: "General, I'm just a clerical officer on your fleet. What we have between us is purely revolutionary camaraderie—absolutely no impure relationship beyond that of superior and subordinate."
The Fleet Commander was skeptical: "But they said it was you who insisted on finding me, carried me for several hundred meters, cried your eyes out, and collapsed from exhaustion."
When others called you her boyfriend, you wouldn't believe it, looking down your nose at everyone with that haughty gaze. Now that it's been clarified that it's not a romantic relationship, you're suspicious again! What a troublesome man!
Yun Shui said frantically, "It wasn't that dramatic. Really."
Jiang Xie wavered slightly. When he first woke up, the medical staff had all emotionally recounted how wonderful his girlfriend was. At that moment, he'd felt a slight confusion. But after seeing his "girlfriend," it was like the clouds parted to reveal the sun—his heavy mood eased a little, and it seemed his bad temper immediately sprang back to life.
But now that he knew he'd lost his memory, Yun Shui immediately denied it.
He watched Yun Shui, who was tearing open the Nutritional Paste packaging. She was very young, with disheveled hair and fairly fair skin, though her lips were chapped. She looked utterly haggard—her features weathered, eyebrows drooping, dark circles prominent under her eyes, and the corners of her eyes tinged red.
A little pitiful.
He racked his brains but came up with nothing. He watched Yun Shui squeeze the Nutritional Paste into a bowl, stir it into an unappetizing mess, and prepare to feed it to him with a spoon.
This was so intimate—highly unusual.
To care for the wounded, Yun Shui, seeing the pitiful state of his hands, kindly prepared to feed the Fleet Commander. But Jiang Xie's dark, deep-set eyes were fixed intently on her.
The Fleet Commander had always possessed sharp, striking features, and when he looked at people, there was always a hint of condescension—an aloof, above-it-all arrogance. But now, with such rare seriousness and depth in his gaze, it seemed to carry an unexpected hint of tenderness.
Yun Shui's heart skipped a beat. "You… you're not eating?"
Jiang Xie looked at the girl's ears turning bright red, and his suspicion only grew.
"Girlfriend" was probably not a rumor without basis. She had saved him, spoke softly and gently, and when she stole glances at him, she looked shy and bashful, yet she refused to acknowledge their relationship.
Had his words upon waking hurt her feelings?
Jiang Xie broke out in goosebumps from his own bizarre speculation.
It was just a subconscious feeling that something was very off, as if he needed to prove that the relationship between Yun Shui and himself was not as plain and insipid as water.
Something was wrong.
He decided to observe her.
Jiang Xie: "Yun Shui, I don't want to eat. I want to wash my face."
Yun Shui set down her bowl, speechless. The Fleet Commander was wounded quite severely—pitifully so—but his will to live was far too tenacious. He could still order people around even now. He was a truly terrible patient.
She went to find a volunteer to get a face towel, then went to the makeshift restroom next door and took a large disposable plastic bowl that had been used for serving rice, filling it with water. She soaked the face towel and helped him wipe his face.
Because she had been exhausted all day—bending over, carrying water, and being mentally drained—Yun Shui no longer had the energy to think, so she inevitably kept offending the Fleet Commander. As she wiped his face, she complained, "You're so dirty."
The Fleet Commander looked displeased and said in shock, "Yun Shui, are you disgusted by me? I'm wounded this badly." He then put on a stern face and questioned, "Is this any way to speak to your superior officer?"