The nurse broke up the two young people’s tender gaze and said helplessly, “We’re at the hospital. Little miss, step aside for a moment. We need to bandage his wound first, we’ll be getting out shortly.”
Ye Yi, addressed as “little miss,” was in a flustered panic.
What was she supposed to do now?
She leaned close to Xie Yi’s ear and whispered, “Did they see your face?”
“Yes.”
“They saw your face, this is hard.” Ye Yi thought for a bit, then peeled off her down jacket. The instant she took it off, gooseflesh rose all over her. Hiss, so cold! The temperature seemed to have dropped again.
Suppressing her fear, she dipped a finger in the blood at the edge of Xie Yi’s abdominal wound and drew it onto his left wrist.
The whole sequence of actions left the nurse beside her baffled. “Little miss, what are you doing?”
“Auntie, my boyfriend’s father doesn’t approve of us being together. He hired a group of people to drag us back, and I don’t know whether he’s got men at the hospital entrance. We’re truly out of options. Nurse, could you please help us?” Ye Yi made up a plotline. To stay alive, she really had given her all.
Outsiders couldn’t harm the natives, that was the rule of this world’s consciousness, and now she could only exploit that rule.
She just hoped that gang of outsiders would abide by it.
Xie Yi couldn’t grasp what she was trying to do and struggled to sit up. Seeing this, Ye Yi pressed him back down and, possessed by a drama-queen spirit, declared, “You lie still. I can’t keep hiding behind you anymore, for our love, I’m willing to give everything.”
She brought her face close to Xie Yi’s ear and hissed through gritted teeth, “Stop moving. Your character right now is a young man who tried to kill himself for love and passed out.”
To make the nurse believe it, she even pretended to kiss Xie Yi’s cheek, though in reality she only pressed her face against his.
Before standing up, she shot Xie Yi a vicious glare.
Saving this Random Teammate, she really had gotten the raw end of the deal.
Turning back to face the nurse, she grabbed her hand and, in a tearful voice, sobbed, “Auntie, please help us, surely you can’t bear to watch them tear a loving couple apart.”
Looking at this pitiful pair of fugitive lovebirds [1]a couple on the run for love, Bonnie-and-Clyde style jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_2933359_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_2933359_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });, the nurse gave a great wave of her hand. “No problem. I’ll play it by ear when the time comes.”
Ye Yi then looked at the two uncles in the vehicle who’d helped carry the stretcher and hadn’t stirred since boarding, and they too said they’d help.
The nurse gave Xie Yi’s wound a quick dressing. Before getting out, Ye Yi tucked the exposed hood of Xie Yi’s tracksuit all the way into his clothes. She draped the black down jacket she’d just removed over Xie Yi, covering his face and leaving a small gap for him to breathe.
Finally she hid Xie Yi’s wristband so not a trace showed, and left his right hand half-exposed to display the bloodstains.
With everything ready, she said to him in a low voice, “Now, remember: you’re an unconscious man. Don’t make a sound.”
She stood up and flashed the nurse an OK sign. Everything was set, it was almost showtime for their acting.
A perfectly good survival map, and she’d turned it into some over-the-top soap opera.
Watching the nurse open the door, the two uncles carried the stretcher out, and Ye Yi, gripping the stretcher’s steel rail, got out right behind them.
The instant she stepped out, her body shivered on its own. It was truly too cold. She prayed they’d get inside soon and, whatever happened, she wouldn’t catch another chill.
She looked up and around, sure enough, a group of fierce, thuggish men stood at the hospital entrance, interrogating everyone going in and out.
Ye Yi’s nerves tightened at once. She stuck close behind the nurse and headed for the entrance.
“Coming through, coming through, make way up front.” The nurse walked in front, her tone urgent.
At the entrance they were, as expected, stopped by that gang.
The leader arched an eyebrow, sized up the man covered in a down jacket on the stretcher, and asked fiercely, “Hold it. Who’s on the stretcher?”
“Big brother, this is my boyfriend. It’s all my fault, I threw a fit and demanded we break up.” Ye Yi rubbed her eyes hard and said in a tearful voice, “He couldn’t get over it and tried to kill himself.” She lifted her face and glanced at the leader. “Big brother, just let us in! He’s lost too much blood, if he’s not treated now, he’ll be gone. Big brother, I’m begging you.”
A lackey beside them took a casual look at the man on the stretcher and said quietly to his boss, “Boss, this guy really does have a wrist wound.”
The leader nodded coldly. “Check whether they’ve got wristbands on their hands.”
Hearing this, Ye Yi immediately sensed trouble and played dumb. “Big brother, what wristband? My boyfriend’s about to die, who cares about a wristband?!”
Surely this gang wouldn’t force their way in to check for wristbands, would they?
The lackey stepped forward, about to lift the down jacket to inspect.
Ye Yi quickly moved to block him, putting a hand behind her back to wave off the uncles carrying the stretcher while shouting at the gang, “Who even are you? You’re not the police, what right do you have to search us?”
Looking at the crowd waiting nearby, she turned and appealed to them tearfully, “Uncles, isn’t that right? The hospital isn’t theirs to run, why should we need their permission to go in?”
The people nearby had long been displeased with this gang’s high-handed behavior and spoke up one after another. “Exactly. The girl’s boyfriend even tried to kill himself, and they’re still blocking the way. Have they no humanity?”
Someone bolder stepped right up. “The hospital belongs to everyone. We go in whenever we want, who cares who you are.”
And another group of people who also had wristbands hid in the crowd and started fishing in troubled waters [2]exploiting the chaos to slip through jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_2933359_1_2').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_2933359_1_2', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });, shouting loudly, “We’re all here for medical care! Every second wasted, can they take responsibility for that?”
At this point the nurse, who’d slipped away earlier when she saw things going wrong, came over leading a group of people in security uniforms and pointed straight at the thugs. “It’s this group, blocking the entrance, not letting us in.”
Seeing the security guards arrive, the crowd grew even more worked up and spoke out one after another. “Is your hospital going to do something or not? So many people blocked at the entrance, not allowed in, who answers for delaying our treatment?”
The security guard at the very front, burly of build, planted himself in front of them and demanded, “Who are you people? What are you doing blocking our hospital?”
A yellow-haired lackey said arrogantly, “I’d advise you not to stick your nose in. A security guard should stay put in your little guard room. Wander out here and you might not make it back.”
The leader of the thugs raised a hand to hold back the lackeys itching to act behind him and, facing the crowd’s questioning, said calmly, “Sorry, we’re looking for someone.”
Yet not a shred of “sorry” showed on his face. What a load of rubbish this was. If that person hadn’t offered enough supplies, he’d never have come to such a tedious place to look for someone.
Ye Yi stood behind the security guard, watching the front descend into disorder, not the least bit flustered. The messier the better, only in the chaos could she slip inside.
It was just that standing outside was truly too cold, the skin exposed to the air was about to freeze stiff. This temperature was a little abnormal. She looked up at the gray sky and saw dense little gray dots drifting down from above, drifting all the way onto her face. Was it raining?
The sky had been too dark before, so she hadn’t noticed. She stretched out a hand, and several snowflakes drifted onto her palm. It was snowing.
Thinking of the map’s name, Extreme Cold Blizzard, could the blizzard be arriving?!
She panicked at once, and, ignoring the still-bickering crowd, shouted loudly, “It’s snowing!”
The fierce, thuggish men blocking the entrance immediately stopped their quarrel, whispered among themselves for a moment, and, without another word, simply walked off.
Seeing everyone had cleared out, Ye Yi quickly called to the uncles carrying the stretcher, rushed into the hospital, found the ER doctor, and had them start treating Xie Yi’s wound.
While waiting, Ye Yi hugged her ice-cold arms and stood at the ER lobby entrance, warming herself in the heating.
The warm air blowing over her was wonderfully cozy, this was what winter was supposed to feel like. If she hadn’t entered the map, she’d be lying in bed right now, playing on her phone, eating chips, drinking her fizzy happy water.
That feeling? Ah, she could only imagine it. There were still twenty-odd days left to get through in this map.
She didn’t know how many more days she could hold out, or how many points she’d end up earning.
Warming herself, she suddenly realized something was off. The hospital hadn’t lost power? Then why, when she’d left her lodging that afternoon, had there been no electricity at home while there was here? Did the hospital have a generator?
Even if it did, she had no way to get her hands on it, she’d gotten excited over nothing.
She stared at the snow outside, watching it slowly grow from light to heavy. On the cement road outside, a thin layer of white had already spread.
The cold wind blowing in through the door gap had turned colder again. She couldn’t keep waiting here, she had to head back.
The sky had gone completely dark. If she didn’t head back now, she couldn’t be sure she’d survive in the freezing outdoors.
She turned toward the ER entrance to look for Xie Yi. Just as she reached the door, it opened from the inside.
Ye Yi watched Xie Yi come out and asked, “Stitched up? Do you need to be admitted?”
“No need.”
“Then I’ll head back first.” Seeing Xie Yi’s cold reaction, Ye Yi proposed leaving.
“Mm.” Standing in the doorway, Xie Yi calmly spat out one word, with no expression at all.
So cold, not a shred of warmth toward the person who’d saved his life.
Forget it. She had her double points, no need to fuss over the man.
Looking at the down jacket already on Xie Yi’s body, she opened her mouth but didn’t know how to ask for it back.
Xie Yi glanced at her and understood the situation. He took off the down jacket and handed it to the Random Teammate before him whose name he still didn’t know, saying his thanks: “Thank you.”
Whatever else, today it was she who’d saved him.
Ye Yi took her down jacket. “No need. I only did it for the double points.”
“Goodbye.” She turned and walked off, putting the jacket on as she headed for the hospital entrance.
The moment she stepped out of the ER, she clearly felt the cold air and snowflakes blowing relentlessly against her face.
White snowflakes danced freely in the air, the snow was noticeably denser than before.
Ye Yi pulled up the hood of her down jacket, and, tucked into its warmth, felt much better at once.
By the white glow of the snow, she made her way toward her lodging. The sky was pitch-black, only the white snow-glow on the ground was visible. Ye Yi began to feel uneasy.
A little afraid, she took the gun she’d stashed in the system Backpack while making the emergency call and gripped it in her palm again.
Holding the gun, she felt much steadier at once. She hurried the whole way, not daring to look back even once, terrified someone would suddenly leap out. She walked the entire way on tenterhooks, and thankfully, right up until she reached the complex, nothing happened.
Ye Yi stepped into the elevator and only then glanced out, at ease.
Huh? There was someone at the entrance. How had she not seen them when she came in just now?
Before the elevator closed, she peered out carefully, eyes wide.
It was him!
References[+]