Huo Jingchuan’s brief command had temporarily quieted the room, but as Jiang Mian actually stepped toward the sofa, ready to touch Commander Zhang—whose face had already turned purple-black—the resistance erupted again.
“What are you doing?!”
A sharp, piercing shout rang out.
Blocking Jiang Mian was Zhang Lan, the eldest daughter of Commander Zhang.
Her face was streaked with tears, eyes swollen and red. Despite her overwhelming grief, when she saw a young woman in a worn-out cotton jacket, a complete stranger, daring to reach for her father, every hair on her body bristled.
“Who are you? Some country girl! Don’t you dare touch him!” Zhang Lan roared like a protective lioness, stepping in front of the sofa and reaching to shove Jiang Mian. “This is the Commander! Do you think you can just touch him? What if you hurt him—can you pay for that?!”
The young intern military doctor beside her snapped out of his panic. Though he was already flustered, his instinct to uphold “professional authority” made him leap forward, pointing at Jiang Mian as he shouted,
“Unauthorized personnel, get out! The patient’s condition is critical—he cannot be disturbed! Which unit are you from? Do you even know the rules?!”
Jiang Mian was blocked outside, watching the rise and fall of Commander Zhang’s chest grow weaker and weaker—a harbinger that suffocation would soon stop his heart.
Urgency!
Utter, burning urgency!
Jiang Mian was about to lose it when Huo Jingchuan, sitting in the wheelchair behind her, suddenly spoke.
“She is my lover, Jiang Mian.”
The man’s voice was low and hoarse, yet it fell like a thousand-pound boulder, smashing into the ground. The sound reverberated so forcefully that everyone’s eardrums seemed to hum.
Huo Jingchuan rolled his wheelchair forward a step. His dark, intense eyes locked onto Zhang Lan and the intern doctor. Every word fell like a hammer:
“Let her see him.”
“If anything happens, I, Huo Jingchuan, take responsibility.”
The room erupted in stunned murmurs.
Zhang Lan stared at Huo Jingchuan in shock. “Jingchuan… are you crazy? She… she’s just a country—”
“Step aside!” Huo Jingchuan cut her off without a second thought, his eyes blazing red.
With Huo Jingchuan’s weighty promise hanging in the air, both Zhang Lan and the intern doctor instinctively hesitated.
It was in that instant that Jiang Mian moved.
She saw Commander Zhang’s face, blackening from severe hypoxia, and heard the nearly vanishing wheezing. Her professional instincts completely overrode any pretense.
Explain? Follow protocol?
The Grim Reaper was already wrapping the soul rope around his neck—who cared about rules now!
A cold light flashed in Jiang Mian’s eyes. The timid demeanor she usually wore vanished instantly.
She lunged forward. Facing Zhang Lan, who still tried to intervene, Jiang Mian didn’t waste a word. She grabbed Zhang Lan by the shoulder and shoved her aside with full force.
“Move!”
“Ah!” Zhang Lan screamed.
She never expected that this seemingly frail, bean-sprout-like woman had such strength. Jiang Mian pushed her back several staggered steps, almost sending her into a nearby chair.
The intern doctor was about to rush forward when Jiang Mian suddenly turned.
In that moment, the temperature in the room seemed to drop several degrees.
The almond-shaped eyes that had always been timid and tearful were now sharp as knives, radiating an absolute authority honed from countless life-and-death rescues.
She fixed the intern doctor with an unwavering gaze. The aura she emitted was even more terrifying than Huo Jingchuan’s.
“If you don’t want him to die, shut up—everyone, now!”
“Get out of my way!!”
Her roar was crisp, sharp, and undeniably commanding.
The living room fell into a deathly silence.
Everyone was dumbfounded.
This… was supposed to be the meek little bride who had married into the family just to save on groceries?
That aura—anyone would believe she was the director of some major hospital!
The intern doctor, legs going weak from her gaze, instinctively clutched his blood pressure monitor and shrank to the corner, not daring to breathe.
Jiang Mian had no time to notice anyone’s reactions.
The tiny voice in her mind was already in full berserk mode, flashing comments like subtitles:
So noisy! A bunch of useless idiots!What good are tears? Can they open the airway?And you, pathetic doctor! At a time like this, you’re worried about your laughable pride? That’s laryngeal edema, not a common cold! Ten seconds more, and even an immortal would shake their head!All of you, get out of my way! Don’t block me from saving him!
Huo Jingchuan watched her back—straight and sharp, like a drawn sword—and listened to the fierce, blunt, yet utterly clear thoughts running through her mind.
His Adam’s apple bobbed, and the hand resting on his knee trembled slightly from excitement.
This… was the real Jiang Mian.