Chapter 156: The Twenty-Year-Old Huo Qingyan Looked Unhappy
After Huo Qingyan’s car plummeted, Jiang Su’s car lost its front support and fell right after it.
Jiang Su rushed to the edge of the guardrail.
Both cars had sunk, leaving no trace behind.
Looking down, he could only see the surging river water.
Jiang Su wanted to call out Huo Qingyan’s name.
But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t make a sound.
“Susu!”
Someone forcefully pulled him back from the edge.
It was Xu Mocun, his face a mix of severity and panic.
Xu Mocun’s lips were moving, but Jiang Su couldn’t hear a word he was saying.
“Da Xu, I’m glad you’re okay,” Jiang Su whispered.
“Da Xu, let me go. Huo Qingyan fell into the river. I need to save him.”
“The rescue team will be here any minute! They’ll save Huo Qingyan!”
Seeing Jiang Su’s dazed expression, Xu Mocun’s heart went cold.
Huo Qingyan had gone down with the car; the odds of survival were slim to none.
If Huo Qingyan really died, how would Jiang Su make it through the rest of his life?
“Let me go!” Jiang Su grew frantic, his eyes reddening as he struggled with all his might.
Just then, another car screeched to a halt nearby.
Yu Shifan got out of the car, walked straight to Bai Mu’s door, yanked it open, and stabbed a dagger into Bai Mu.
“You son of a bitch! You ruined my reputation and sent me to prison! I’m going to kill you!!”
Yu Shifan cursed violently as he stabbed Bai Mu repeatedly.
By the time the police rushed over and subdued Yu Shifan, Bai Mu had already stopped breathing.
Zhou Fu arrived with the search and rescue team. Though he looked panic-stricken himself, he tried to comfort Jiang Su. “President Huo is a lucky man; heaven will watch over him.”
Most of the time, offering comfort is synonymous with self-deception.
April was the season of rising water levels.
This increased the difficulty of the salvage operation for the rescue team.
Jiang Su wanted to go down with the rescue team.
No one could stop him.
Jiang Zhaoyu rushed over upon hearing the news. He didn’t try to persuade Jiang Su, but simply said calmly, “Go ahead.”
Just as Jiang Su turned around, Jiang Zhaoyu delivered a forceful chop to the back of his neck with his hand.
Jiang Su’s vision went black, and he collapsed.
The scene was chaotic and noisy. The emergency doctors had already arrived. Jiang Zhaoyu supported Jiang Su and requested of the doctor, “Please, give my brother a sedative. Thank you.”
Knocking Jiang Su out was only a temporary measure; he would wake up soon.
A sedative would keep him asleep until the search and rescue team had results.
Xu Mocun and Zhou Fu simply watched in silence as the doctor administered the sedative to Jiang Su.
Without the sedative, there was no other way to stop Jiang Su from doing something foolish.
…
When Jiang Su woke up, he reached out to touch the throbbing pain at the back of his neck.
As he applied pressure with his fingers, the sharpening pain jolted him fully awake.
He murmured a name: “Huo Qingyan…”
He rolled out of bed and ran toward the door.
He opened the door and saw Jiang Licuan immediately.
“You’re awake.” Jiang Licuan wasn’t his usual playful self. He looked down at Jiang Su’s bare feet with a calm expression. “Why did you come out without putting on your shoes?”
Jiang Su acted as if he hadn’t heard him. He looked up at the darkening sky outside and asked with a trembling voice, “Where is Huo Qingyan?”
When the award ceremony ended, it was nearing 5:00 PM, and the sky had still been bright.
It had to be at least 8:00 PM now.
He had slept for two or three hours.
Seeing him like this, Jiang Licuan sighed softly. “They found him.”
Jiang Su’s eyes lit up instantly.
“Take me to see him.”
“Put your shoes on first.”
Jiang Su quickly returned to the room to put on his shoes.
Jiang Licuan took him to the entrance of the emergency room.
Many people were guarding the door: Zhou Fu, Jiang Zhaoyu, Xu Mocun…
Jiang Zhaoyu walked over and handed him something.
Jiang Su lowered his eyes to take it.
It was a notice of critical illness.
He remembered the year his mother was critically ill; he had stood at the door of the emergency room just like this and received a similar notice.
The difference was that Huo Qingyan had stood beside him then.
Now, Huo Qingyan was inside.
His fingers clenched unconsciously, crumpling the thin paper.
People often look back on the past shared with a loved one when that person is about to leave.
The year he first met Huo Qingyan.
He was fourteen, and Huo Qingyan was twenty.
The twenty-year-old Huo Qingyan carried a faint, almost imperceptible gloom in his eyes. He looked like he wasn’t living a happy life, yet he still extended a helping hand to a complete stranger.
That version of Huo Qingyan was actually kind-hearted and full of hope.
That Huo Qingyan had a fatal attraction for Jiang Su.
From then on, it spiraled out of control.
It was just that in the years that followed, under Huo Zhenheng’s day-after-day torture, the hope in his heart was extinguished bit by bit.
Jiang Su knew nothing of this. He thought that as long as he gave Huo Qingyan enough love, Huo Qingyan would love him back.
But Huo Qingyan, trapped in the mire, needed someone to pull him out most of all.
They were both wrong.
Huo Qingyan was wrong to think that Jiang Su couldn’t weather the storm with him.
Jiang Su was wrong for not realizing Huo Qingyan’s predicament sooner.
— Swish.
The operating room doors opened.
The doctor came out.
“The surgery went smoothly, but the patient is not out of danger yet.”
…
In the days that followed, Jiang Su received a notice of critical illness every day.
When Huo Qingyan jumped from his car before it sank, he was struck by the car that fell in after him. When he was found, he was barely breathing.
Jiang Su came to the hospital every day to look at Huo Qingyan through the observation window on the ICU door.
Zhou Fu was busy handling the Huo Group’s official business and could only find time to visit Huo Qingyan occasionally.
Intermittently, he told Jiang Su about what had happened during that time.
Bai Mu had been plotting in the shadows for years, using every means to probe into the Huo family’s affairs. To get close to Jiang Su and find a breakthrough, he used himself and others.
Yu Shifan was once a prominent figure, but after being ruined by Bai Mu, he naturally hated him to the bone.
Huo Qingyan had pulled some strings to get Yu Shifan released from prison early, but he had miscalculated that Bai Mu would develop murderous intent toward Jiang Su and decide to go down in flames with them.
Bai Mu first sabotaged Jiang Su’s brakes. After being stabbed by Yu Shifan, he managed to escape and chased them to the Qingjiang River, ramming Huo Qingyan’s car into the water.
As for the matter with Huo Qingyan’s mother, Bai Mu had indeed secretly fueled the fire, aiming to let Huo Qingyan inherit Huo Zhenheng’s shares so he could reap the benefits later.
On this day, Jiang Su went to the hospital to see Huo Qingyan as usual.
Huo Qingyan was still in the ICU.
But today, Jiang Su didn’t receive a critical illness notice.
He asked the doctor, “Why is there no notice today?”
The doctor chuckled. “Because the patient is out of danger.”
After living in fear for so many days, the taut string in Jiang Su’s heart finally relaxed at this moment.
It took him a good while to recover. “Thank you, doctor.”
Huo Qingyan’s vital signs all returned to normal, but due to severe brain trauma, he didn’t wake up even after being transferred to a general ward.
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