The low rumble of the off-road vehicle’s engine echoed across the wasteland.
The return journey was even more difficult than the way there. Dawn hadn't fully broken, and the craters and broken roadbeds were hard to see clearly in the gray light. She kept her speed very low. The cabin was silent; the radio channel had long since gone dead, leaving only the crunch of tires over broken bricks and the dull thud of the chassis occasionally bottoming out against something.
After driving for about twenty minutes, she saw the silhouette of the separation wall in the distance.
The pale blue energy shield on the exterior of the wall was still active, shimmering with a cold, white glow in the morning light.
The top of the wall was crowded with figures. Two temporary checkpoints had been set up at the main gate, with sandbags piled into waist-high arcs. The barrel of a heavy energy cannon peeked out from behind the sandbags, pointed toward the wasteland outside.
Qiu Shubai slowed the car to a walking pace. Two thin cracks ran across the windshield, extending from the passenger side to beneath the rearview mirror. A large patch of paint had been scraped off the right side of the body, revealing the silver-gray primer beneath, and the rear bumper was crooked, dragging and scraping against the ground for the entire trip.
The two soldiers at the sentry post raised their rifles first.
One was young, probably in his early twenties, his face still greasy and his eyes bloodshot from pulling an all-nighter. He took two steps toward the car with his gun raised, his gaze sliding from the cracks on the windshield to the Ability Bureau emblem on the door, and then upward to the silver-haired girl in the driver's seat.
He lowered his gun and glanced at the veteran soldier beside him. The veteran also lowered his weapon, and both stood to attention simultaneously, raising their right hands to their temples.
Their heels clicked together with a sharp snap.
They didn't speak or wave her through; they simply stood stiffly on either side of the post, holding a perfect military salute, watching the battered off-road vehicle pass under the gate.
As Qiu Shubai drove between them, she caught a glimpse of the young soldier on the left and noticed his eyes were brimming with tears.
The clatter of the wheels rolling over the metal expansion joint of the threshold rang in her ears, and she suddenly felt something was off.
They seemed to... have misunderstood something.
They weren't saluting her personally; they were saluting this car returning from beyond the wall. They were saluting this scarred off-road vehicle with its web-like cracked windshield.
Because they didn't know what had happened out there, nor did they know when the alert would be lifted. They only knew that someone had driven this car out last night, and this morning, the car had returned, though the driver was different.
The road conditions returned to normal once she entered the city. The asphalt was smooth and clean, and the traffic lights alternated between red and green in their usual rhythm. When she drove onto the viaduct, her phone chimed.
It was a notification from the Ability Bureau’s internal system, stating that the threat in the northern suburbs had been eliminated and the defense zones were standing down in order.
She glanced at the time—5:47 AM—and suddenly remembered something.
Zhang Xian said he would take them to the hospital, but he hadn't specified which one.
She grabbed her phone from the passenger seat and dialed Zhang Xian’s number with one hand. The phone rang seven or eight times, but no one picked up.
She tried a third time, but the call went straight to voicemail. A cold, system-generated female voice came through: “The user you are calling is temporarily unavailable...”
The old man’s phone was likely dead, or perhaps he couldn't spare a hand while carrying two people. Either way, calling him was a dead end.
She had been to many of Yuanxing City’s hospitals and was familiar with about seventy or eighty percent of them. There were only a few places capable of treating seriously injured Punishers.
Her first thought was Yuanxing City Municipal First Hospital, the best comprehensive medical institution in the city, with complete equipment and departments. If Zhang Xian had headed toward the city center, the First Hospital would be the most accessible large hospital for him.
By the time the off-road vehicle turned onto the main road in the south city, it was fully light out. Steam rose from the baskets of roadside breakfast shops, and several middle school students in school uniforms crouched at the shop entrances, munching on buns. It was as if everything from last night had never happened; the city was still the city, unchanged.
Five or six ambulances were parked in front of the First Hospital’s outpatient building, their red and blue lights still rotating, though their sirens were off. Only in a place like this could she feel the scale of last night's incident; the wounded were still being brought in one after another.
Qiu Shubai parked the car in an open space near the emergency entrance. She got out without locking the doors and headed straight for the triage desk.
A nurse in her thirties sat behind the desk, heavy dark circles under her eyes, holding half a cup of cold instant coffee.
“Hello, I’m looking for someone.” Qiu Shubai gave three names: Luo Yang, Li Jinqi, and Zhang Xian.
The nurse set down her coffee, picked up a tablet, and scrolled through the night’s admission records. She swiped twice and then entered the names one by one into the search bar, the table on the screen refreshing three times.
“I’m sorry, we don’t have those three people here. Are you sure they were sent to the First Hospital?”
Qiu Shubai froze for half a second.
“...I’m not sure.”
“Then you should check elsewhere,” the nurse said, pushing the tablet back. “Too many people were brought in tonight, but the registration list is constantly updated. If they were really here, I wouldn't be unable to find them.”
Qiu Shubai nodded her thanks and turned to leave.
The next target was the Third Hospital.
Yuanxing City Third Hospital was one of the few specialized Punisher medical institutions in Jiangnan Province, housing a large number of medical-type Punishers and professional recovery equipment. Almost all emergency cases involving seriously injured Punishers were eventually transferred there.
The Third Hospital was in the east city, taking up nearly half a block. The main building was a gray-white curved structure, its glass curtain wall reflecting the morning sun. Unlike the noisy First Hospital, the entrance here was much quieter. Most people coming and going wore Punisher uniforms or training gear. The few in civilian clothes didn't have the sallow complexion of ordinary patients; instead, they had the characteristic pallor that followed blood loss or blood energy exhaustion.
Qiu Shubai found a spot in the parking lot and squeezed the car in. As she got out, she realized the rear bumper had finally fallen off completely, dragging on the ground and getting caught in the parking space line.
The reception desk in the inpatient department was much more formal than the one at the First Hospital. Two receptionists in light blue uniforms sat behind a curved counter, with names scrolling rapidly across their computer screens.
“Hello,” Qiu Shubai said, approaching the counter. “I’d like to check if several people are being treated here.”
She repeated the three names.
The receptionist on the left, a woman in her mid-twenties, tapped away at her keyboard and quickly pulled up the patient intake list.
“Luo Yang...” she murmured, her eyes scanning the screen twice. “Li Jinqi... Zhang Xian...”
She looked up and shook her head.
“I’m sorry, none of them are here.”
Qiu Shubai’s brow furrowed.
“Who are you to them?” the older receptionist on the right leaned over, her tone carrying a hint of curiosity.
“They are my teacher, my superior, and my... classmate.”
“Hmm... I’ve actually heard of the name Luo Yang,” the older one said, resting her chin on her hand. “He might be a student, but he’s actually quite famous among us old-timers. Why, is he injured?”
“Yes.”
“Then you...” The older receptionist looked her over, her gaze lingering on the long silver hair and the Punisher Academy uniform, before she suddenly let out an “Oh.”
“My goodness!” She slapped the desk and winked at the short-haired girl beside her. “I did hear he had a sweetheart; looks like it was true after all!”
“...No,” Qiu Shubai interrupted. “Those are just... rumors. I’m just looking for them.”
“Oh, young people are always like this,” the older receptionist said with a wave of her hand, her smile full of gossiping enthusiasm. “Coming to find a hospitalized boy? You must care about him very much!”
Qiu Shubai’s jaw tightened. She turned her head to look at the white wall in the hallway, where a floor plan of the Yuanxing City Third Hospital was hung.
The short-haired girl beside her was stifling a laugh, her shoulders shaking.
“Since he’s not here,” Qiu Shubai said, bringing the conversation back, her voice two degrees colder than before, “could you please help me think of where they might have been sent in this situation?”
The older receptionist stopped smiling and thought seriously.
“If you’re sure he’s a student of the Punisher Academy and his injuries are combat-related, then the most likely place would be your own academy’s affiliated hospital, right? It’s small, but the medical team reports directly to the Principal. Internal transfer procedures are the simplest there, so you don't have to go through the external bureaucracy.”
“The affiliated hospital...”
The academy’s affiliated hospital was just across the street from the main campus. It wasn't large and usually handled routine injuries from student training. But Zhang Xian was the Principal; he could mobilize all the affiliated hospital’s resources with a single phone call. If he had flown directly back to the academy with the two of them and put them in the affiliated hospital’s operating rooms, it would indeed be faster than going to any major hospital in the city.
“Thank you.”
She turned and left.
The Yuanxing City Punisher Academy’s affiliated hospital was a four-story gray-white building on the east side of the campus. Qiu Shubai parked the off-road vehicle, which was now completely missing its rear bumper, next to the fire lane at the hospital entrance; she didn't have time to look for a proper parking spot.
She pushed open the glass doors of the first-floor lobby, and the smell of disinfectant hit her along with the cold air from the air conditioning.
Qiu Shubai didn't go to the nurse’s station. She went straight upstairs. The second floor was the general ward area; the hallway was empty, with only a few doors left ajar, emitting the rhythmic beeping of heart monitors.
The third floor was the surgical area.
As she turned the corner at the top of the stairs, she saw a figure at the end of the hallway.
Zhang Xian was sitting on a bench outside the operating room, the buttons of his Zhongshan suit all undone and the hem hanging in rumpled folds. His legs were stretched straight out into the hallway, his back against the wall, and his head tilted back with his eyes closed. At first glance, he looked asleep, but his left hand rested on his knee, twitching unconsciously every few seconds.
The operating room doors were stainless steel double doors with a red light embedded above them, which was currently lit.
Qiu Shubai walked over. Her footsteps on the floor were light, but Zhang Xian still opened his eyes.
He turned his head to look at her for two seconds. There was no surprise in his bloodshot eyes, as if he had known all along she would come.
He beckoned to her.
Qiu Shubai walked over and sat in the chair beside him.
“Old Li and that kid are both in there,” he said, his voice very steady, appearing to have recovered significantly.
“Old Li’s arm can probably be saved, though his flexibility will take a major hit in the future. As for Luo Yang... he has four broken ribs, a bruised patch on his left lung, and countless wounds of all sizes all over his body. The surgery started half an hour before you arrived; it’ll still be a while.”
Qiu Shubai’s fingers tightened on her knees.
“Girl.”
“Yes?”
“I saw everything that happened after you passed out.”
He stared at the glass door of the fire hydrant on the opposite wall for a while, where the red hose inside was coiled into a neat circle.
“Old Li and I were both stunned at the time.”
He spoke, his voice much slower than before.
“The moment you collapsed, that kid reached out and caught you. He could barely hold himself up, yet he was still feeding his own blood into your mouth.”
He paused.
“At first, I thought he was just giving you blood energy—it’s a common emergency technique between Punishers; I’ve seen it a hundred times. But after six or seven drops of blood, I suddenly felt the fluctuations of his ability.”
He turned his head to look at Qiu Shubai.
“That fluctuation clearly radiated from him, so faint that I wouldn't have felt it if I were even a few steps further away. I don't know exactly what he was doing to you, but I saw his expression.”
He spoke extremely slowly.
“That kid usually has a smile on his face and is never serious with anyone. But at that moment, his eyes were fixed on you. That look was like stone—no, even stone isn't that firm.”
“His own blood was probably about to run dry, and his mental power fluctuations grew weaker and weaker. It got so weak I almost thought he was going to head straight to the underworld. But he never collapsed, and he never pulled his hand away.”
“It wasn't until he was certain your condition had truly stabilized that he finally allowed his eyes to close.”
The red light of the operating room was still on, showing no sign of changing.
Qiu Shubai didn't speak. She just sat there on the plastic chair, staring at the double doors of the operating room.
Her own shadow was reflected on the door panels, her silver-white hair scattered over her shoulders, the dust and blood on her uniform dried into mottled dark patches. The outline of her shadow was distorted by the curve of the door, making her look thinner than she actually was.
The red light made the crack between the doors glow, the light steady and quiet.
She heard her own breathing, and she heard Zhang Xian’s soft sigh. At the end of the hallway, a nurse pushed a medicine cart past, the clatter of the wheels over the floor tile joints approaching and then fading into the distance.
Rate on N.U.
