WMSR – QT Chapter 35

 

WMSR – QT Chapter 35

By

siofra

Chapter 35

With a heavy bang, the violent collision left Bai Yichen dizzy and disoriented. Yet ignoring his own state, he tightly grabbed the person who had lunged over him, instinctively trying to shield him as much as possible. The moment his vision cleared enough to focus, he stared at the person he was awkwardly pinning down by the shoulders and forced out a demand from his raw throat: “Are you out of your mind?!”

Indeed. Unbuckling your seatbelt at the very precipice of a car crash—how else could someone be described if not entirely unhinged? Yet the perpetrator of that reckless act paid zero attention to his own earth-shattering stunt, focusing entirely on the person sheltered beneath him: “Chen-gege, are you alright? Did you take any hits?”

Staring at the purple bruise blooming across Su Yuanhang’s forehead from the impact, Bai Yichen was half-tempted to laugh out of sheer exasperation. “You’re the one who unbuckled your seatbelt, and you still have the bandwidth to worry about me? You better check yourself first.” Even as he spoke, Bai Yichen’s gaze scanned frantically across Su Yuanhang’s frame, knowing full well that unbuckling in a crisis was an unpardonably high-risk gamble.

The inspection only served to spike Bai Yichen’s fury even higher. Fortunately, the trajectory of the crash had managed to avert catastrophic damage, but even so, Su Yuanhang was peppered with minor cuts and bruises. Aside from the nasty contusion on his forehead, a deep graze wept blood down his forearm. Had he simply stayed securely strapped into his seat like a normal person, none of this would have happened.

Faced with Bai Yichen’s gathering storm of thunderous wrath, Su Yuanhang simply confirmed that his Chen-gege remained completely uninjured before a brilliant, radiant smile bloomed across his face: “Chen-gege, as long as you’re safe, nothing else matters.”

Before Bai Yichen could unleash his reprimand, he was abruptly enveloped in a tight, suffocating embrace: “Chen-gege, as long as you’re safe… thank goodness you’re alright. If anything had happened to you, what would I have done…”

The lecture sitting on the tip of Bai Yichen’s tongue dissolved into dead silence. It vanished not merely because of the raw, naked emotion bleeding through Su Yuanhang’s words, but because of the faint, trembling shudder vibrating through the arms locked around him. It was the residual tremor of stark, paralyzing terror. In that precise heartbeat, Bai Yichen finally understood: Su Yuanhang hadn’t unbuckled his seatbelt out of ignorant bravado, but because he genuinely valued Bai Yichen’s survival far above his own life. That was why, without a fraction of hesitation, he had ripped off his restraints solely to form a human shield.

Recalling those fragmented lines of text glimpsed across those hidden cards—a devotion stretching unbroken from fragile boyhood into mature manhood—Bai Yichen closed his eyes. When he opened them again, his voice emerged hoarse and subdued: “Let’s go. We’re heading straight to the hospital to get checked out.”

The accident had already drawn a ring of curious onlookers. Traffic police had materialized nearby, and witnesses had dialed for an ambulance, but neither Bai Yichen nor Su Yuanhang sustained injuries severe enough to warrant waiting around for paramedics. They flagged down a passing taxi and headed directly for the nearest medical center.

Once the battery of diagnostic scans concluded and Su Yuanhang’s cuts were properly disinfected and bandaged, neither of them walked away with anything more serious than superficial scrapes. Bai Yichen let out a long, pent-up breath of relief, reaching out to gently graze the edge of the medicated bruise on Su Yuanhang’s forehead. “Remember to apply the ointment when you get home. And mark my words: if a situation like this ever pops up again, you are explicitly forbidden from pulling a stunt like today.”

Su Yuanhang readily uttered an obedient affirmative to the first half of the decree, while offering a dense, evasive wall of silence regarding the rest.

Watching his reaction, Bai Yichen didn’t need a crystal ball to decode the subtext: the kid clearly planned to repeat the exact same maneuver if lightning ever struck twice. A complex cocktail of exasperation and helpless resignation washed over him. Fortunately, he likely wouldn’t be granted another lifetime to experience a road accident alongside Su Yuanhang.

The thought of his inescapable expiration date arriving a few months down the line sent a sharp pang of guilt rippling through his chest as he gazed at the young man beside him. Trying out a tentative probe, he murmured, “Xiao Hang, if I had actually met with a fatal accident today… what would you have done?”

Before Bai Yichen could even draw breath to finish, a sudden, brutal pain flared across his knuckles—Su Yuanhang had clamped a hand over his wrist with terrifying, bone-crushing force.

Realizing the volcanic intensity of his own reaction, Su Yuanhang rapidly reined himself in, loosening his grip. Yet his eyes remained locked onto Bai Yichen with an unblinking, chilling gravity: “Chen-gege loves making such morbid jokes. Nothing could ever happen to you. You’re going to stay by my side forever, just like I’m going to stay by yours. We are never, ever separating.”

Perhaps unnerved by the absolute, fanatical certainty ringing in Su Yuanhang’s tone, Bai Yichen paused for a beat before offering a gentle counter: “Xiao Hang is a grown man now; why are you still so clingy? Nobody stays bound together forever.”

Misinterpreting the underlying subtext of Bai Yichen’s warning, Su Yuanhang choked back a ragged breath, forcing his voice into an artificial, rigid calm: “We won’t separate. Even if… even if Chen-gege gets married in the future, we still won’t cut ties. I’ll always be right there watching over you, making sure you live a happy life, Chen-gege.”

Confronted with that resolute declaration, Bai Yichen fell utterly mute, struck by the sudden, heavy realization that there were simply no words left in his vocabulary that could bridge the chasm between them.

Author’s Note: I’m starting to notice a recurring curse: the ML characters I painstakingly write always get sidelined by readers, while the tragic second-lead sacrificial types sweep up all your obsessive affection. Sighs mournfully. 

Chapter 19: The Plan

In the wake of the vehicular collision, both men retreated to their respective domains to recuperate. A handful of days later, Bai Yichen returned to the hospital in solitary silence, finally claiming the physical dossier containing his comprehensive diagnostic audit.

The microsecond his eyes snagged on the delicate, evasive hesitation masking the attending physician’s expression, an icy certainty settled deep within Bai Yichen’s chest. And when he finally scanned the official medical verdict confirming he was harboring a rare, utterly incurable terminal pathology, he felt a strange, detached sense of closure—as if an overdue shoe had finally hit the floor.

“Ahem, Mr. Bai… these are our facility’s preliminary diagnostic readings. However, because this specific pathology is exceptionally anomalous, if Mr. Bai wishes to secure absolute certainty, we strongly recommend seeking a secondary confirmation at a higher-tier metropolitan medical center.” The physician delivering the paperwork maintained a tone of exquisite gentleness, leaving a cushioned margin of deniability. Yet as his eyes drifted back to Bai Yichen’s strikingly refined, youthful face, an uncontrollable wave of silent grief welled up in his chest. What a devastating waste of a brilliant young life.

Naturally, Bai Yichen understood that the doctor’s words were partly designed to cushion the blow and mitigate any catastrophic psychological shock. But having mentally fortified himself long in advance, his equilibrium remained remarkably undisturbed. Retaining a composed facade, he lowered his eyes to re-verify the data on the page before lifting his gaze to ask, “Does this condition carry any window of remission or cure?”

“This… given how scarce documented clinical precedents are, there is currently no internationally recognized therapeutic protocol capable of reversing it.”

Bai Yichen lapsed into a brief, contemplative stillness. “How much runway do I have left?”