At 8:00 a.m. in the capital of the New Independent State, Ai Jiaxi received a strange call.
He was washing his face at the time, and his eyes were covered with water. The mobile phone placed on the sink suddenly vibrated. He didn't even look at the caller, grabbed it and pressed it to answer.
"Hello, is it Ai Jiaxi?" The other party was a male, and his voice was a little low.
Ai Jiaxi picked up the towel, wiped his face and said, "Yes." He wiped his face dry, glanced at the screen, it was a series of numbers, and asked the other party, "Who are you?"
"My name is Pei Shu, and I'm Chen Boqiao's friend," the other party said, "Is Zhang Jue by your side?"
"Not here," said Ai Jiaxi. He felt that this person's question was a bit strange. At eight in the morning, he and Zhang were by no means a couple, so the possibility of being together is very small.
The man named Pei Shu seemed to want to say something, but he didn't say anything, and there was a commotion that even Ai Jiaxi could hear on the other end of the phone.
"Wait." As Pei Shu said, a noise came from Ai Jiaxi's receiver.
Pei Shu seemed to have handed the phone to another person. Ai Jiaxi waited for a few seconds, and another person did speak.
"Jiaxi, I'm Chen Boqiao."
Hearing Chen Boqiao's voice, Ai Jiaxi subconsciously cheered up and said hello to him.
After all, he was listening to his father and colleagues talk about the retrial of Chen Boqiao's case at the dinner table last night.
Zhang Jue should be very happy that Chen Boqiao was found not guilty. Maybe the body can get better faster.
"Is Zhang Jue by your side?" Chen Boqiao asked again.
Chen Boqiao and Pei Shu asked the same question, which confused Ai Jiaxi. He didn't know if they didn't realize the time difference between the Asian Union and the New Independent State or something, why they all came to ask if they were with Zhang Jue.
He repeated: "Not here." And emphasized: "I'm only here at eight o'clock in the morning."
"What's the matter?" Ai Jiaxi asked again out of politeness.
Chen Boqiao paused slightly and said, "Zhang Jue will not answer my call."
"..." Ai Jiaxi was stunned for a moment, then thought for a while before saying, "He can't answer the phone now."
Chen Boqiao also remained silent for a few seconds before asking, "Do you have gland surgery?"
"Oh, you know," Ai Jiaxi said with a sigh of relief when he heard that Chen Boqiao seemed to know about it, "then you still call him. He was still sleeping in the ICU last night, and he came out this afternoon."
"When did he have the surgery?" Chen Boqiao asked.
"The day before yesterday," Ai Jiaxi said, he was talking on his phone, walked back to the bed and sat down, telling Chen Boqiao, "He only woke up for half an hour yesterday, and the doctor said he was a little sensitive to anesthesia."
Ai Jiaxi has been focusing on Zhang Jue these past few days, and she is absent-minded about what she does. The hotel for the birthday party has been cancelled, and she just wants to accompany Zhang Jue to rest.
"I don't know where his cell phone is. What's the matter with you?" Ai Jiaxi asked Chen Boqiao, "I'll go to the hospital in a while, and I can help you tell him."
After a short pause, Chen Boqiao said, "If he wakes up, please let me know." After that, he left a number for Ai Jiaxi: "Just send a message."
Ai Jiaxi agreed and hung up the phone.
After breakfast, Ai Jiaxi drove to the hospital where Zhang Jue had surgery.
Zhang Jue's surgery was still successful, but after the glands were removed, there would be a short-term serious disorder of pheromones, and he needed to stay in the intensive care unit for 48 hours to confirm that the indicators dropped below the dangerous value, and then return to the general ward for observation.
Ai Jiaxi arrived at the hospital at 9:30. There was a section of road in the hospital where driving was impossible, so he got out of the car, wrapped his scarf tightly, and walked in along the cobblestone path.
On the day of the operation, Ai Jiaxi accompanied Zhang Jue to the hospital. They also walked this road together.
Zhang Jue's parents were in front, and Ai Jiaxi walked behind with his arm in his arms, the atmosphere was terribly solemn.
No one present could be sure whether the operation would be 100% successful, but if Zhang Jue was not allowed to perform the operation, perhaps no one except Zhang Jue would be reconciled.
Zhang Jue was the easiest one. He patted the back of Ai Jiaxi's hand, and even smiled indistinctly, making Ai Jiaxi unable to stop guessing whether Zhang Jue was even afraid of losing something. No.
Fortunately, the operation seems to have been successful so far.
Ai Jiaxi approached the glass door, the door automatically moved to both sides, and a hot air came down, driving away the biting cold beside him.
He went to the intensive care unit first, and found that Zhang Jue was no longer there, so he asked a very kind nurse who passed by, and the nurse took him to Zhang Jue's ward.
Zhang Jue fell asleep, wrapped in white gauze around his neck, lying on the hospital bed with a bloodless face.
Zhang Jue's mother moved an armchair and sat beside his bed, leaning on the mattress on her elbows, watching Zhang Jue.
"Auntie." Ai Jiaxi called her, she raised her head, and stood up immediately: "Jiaxi is here."
"Has Ajue woke up?"
Ai Jiaxi approached, only to feel that Zhang Jue's complexion was as pale as a plaster statue, even his lips were white, and his eyelashes trembled gently with his breathing, as if he was about to evaporate in the air.
"Woke up for 20 minutes in the morning," Zhang Jue's mother said. "I came out of the ICU at six o'clock."
She lowered her head, touched Zhang Jue's exposed hand, and gently pulled the quilt out from under his elbow. Without disturbing him, she put the quilt over his shoulder.
The nurse brought an armchair for Ai Jiaxi, and Ai Jiaxi sat quietly with Zhang Jue.
After sitting for a while, Zhang Jue moved his fingers and opened his eyes.
However, his eyes were not focused, he looked forward in confusion, and after a few seconds, he turned to Ai Jiaxi.
"Jiaxi." He said, raised his hand and pressed the automatic lift of the bed, and sat up a little.
Zhang Juelu's wrist on the outside of the hospital gown was almost as thin as Ai Jiaxi's, with an indwelling needle stuck to his wrist and medical tape stuck to his wrist. His skin was almost transparent, and he looked at Ai Jiaxi quietly.
Ai Jiaxi also looked at Zhang Jue through a small piece of air, trying to make herself look happier: "Is it better?" Zhang Jue nodded lightly, and Ai Jiaxi pulled the corner of his mouth at him, showing his teeth: "Then Just fine."
"I'm going to come to your ward on my birthday and ask you to accompany me," he added, "I owe it to peeling the shrimp."
When Zhang Jue heard the words, his eyes twitched.
Ai Jiaxi still wanted to speak, but suddenly saw Zhang Jue's cell phone on the bedside table by Zhang Jue's mother's side, and asked, "Auntie brought the cell phone?"
Zhang Jue's mother followed his eyes and said, "I saw that there were more than a dozen missed calls, but the number could not be called back, so I took it."
Ai Jiaxi nodded, thinking of Chen Boqiao's advice, he sent a message: "Wake up, the phone is by his side."
At this time, the nurse came to Zhang Jue's mother and said that the doctor had something to do with her. She stood up and followed the nurse to the door. As soon as the door was closed, within two minutes, the phone on Zhang Jue's bedside table vibrated. .
Zhang Jue woke up very laboriously and uncomfortable. As long as he moved, it was as if all the muscles in his body were being dissolved, and the acid was almost unbearable.
The doctor had warned him before the operation, explaining that it was the effect of pheromone changes. After ten days, most of the pain could be eliminated, so Zhang Jue was not too panicked.
Hearing the vibration, Zhang Jue wanted to raise his hand to take it, but Ai Jiaxi was quicker and immediately picked it up for him, saying, "I'll take it for you."
Pressed answer and handed it to his ear.
Zhang Jue thanked Ai Jiaxi, pressed his finger on the back of the phone, put the receiver to his ear, and said to Ai Jiaxi, "I'll come."
A male voice came from the other end: "Zhang Jue?"
After the operation, Zhang Jue's brain was still very slow and his reaction was slow. His heart beat faster subconsciously, and then he realized that it was Chen Boqiao who was talking to him.
He was stunned, and almost released his hand from the phone. After a while, he gave a soft "um", feeling that his voice was a little hoarse, but he still said, "It's me."
"You..." Zhang Jue wanted to ask Chen Boqiao a lot of things, but he couldn't turn his head. He thought about it for a while, looked at Ai Jiaxi, and asked in confusion, "What date is it today?"
Ai Jiaxi said the date, which is the date of Chen Boqiao's retrial.
Since he can talk on the phone, it should be fine, Zhang Jue congratulated a little slowly: "Congratulations." He felt that the reason why he missed the re-review of the news was not important to Chen Boqiao, so he didn't want to go into details, and explained in a far-fetched way: "I forgot. watched TV."
"Really, I forgot to watch TV," Chen Boqiao repeated Zhang Jue's words, and seemed to joke with Zhang Jue casually, "How come my memory has become so poor."
But there was no smile in Chen Boqiao's tone, Zhang Jue listened, stunned for a while, and some very faint pains swelled up in his chest.
He felt that Chen Boqiao was unhappy, but in fact he did not have Chen Boqiao's contact information. Even if he watched the news of Chen Boqiao's acquittal, he could not directly congratulate him.
But Chen Boqiao was not happy. Zhang Jue said to Chen Boqiao, "I'm sorry."
"I've been a little busy recently," Zhang Jue added, "I didn't mean to."
Originally, I wanted to say that I must watch it in the future, but it seemed a little unlucky, so I stopped the car in time and didn't say it.
"I'm sorry." Zhang Jue kept calling his head and said it again, only when he finished speaking did he realize that he had already apologized once.
The other side of Chen Boqiao was very quiet. After a while, Zhang Jue's eyes were unable to focus again, and his eyelids were too heavy to lift up. He heard Chen Boqiao say, "You think too much."
"I don't blame you." Chen Boqiao said again.
Every time I hear Chen Boqiao's voice, Zhang Jue's spirit will improve as quickly as the light returns, as if the energy for tomorrow has been advanced, and the brain will suddenly become much clearer.
He suddenly remembered the two phone calls between Pei Shu and him.
Pei Shu said that after Chen Boqiao was released from prison, he would not contact him immediately, so he became a little worried. He took the initiative to change the subject and asked Chen Boqiao: "Is it okay for you to call me?"
"It doesn't matter," Chen Boqiao said, with a tone that made Zhang Jue stable. He whispered, "It's nothing bad, just call you later and pick it up."
Zhang Jue said yes, thinking that he has slept a lot these days, afraid of missing Chen Boqiao's call, and quickly said, "But these days... I may not be able to receive it in time."
Chen Boqiao paused and said, "It doesn't matter." Then he said, "I can hit it a few more times."
Chen Boqiao's voice was a little distorted after being compressed by electromagnetic transmission, but it still sounded very nice, which made Zhang Jue very reluctant to let it go.
But the energy he had overdrawn quickly ran out, and he changed back to the drowsy Zhang Jue who couldn't keep his eyes open. He could only mobilize the remaining energy in his body, concentrate it on his ears, and listen to Chen Bo on the other side of the ocean. Bridge barely audible breathing.
Up, down, up, down.
Zhang Jue grabbed the phone tightly, and his consciousness gradually moved away as the second hand turned.
Suddenly, he seemed to hear Chen Boqiao ask him again, "Where did you find the τ differentiation-promoting agent?"
But Zhang Jue was so sleepy that he could still hear Chen Boqiao's voice, but he couldn't think or open his mouth to answer. He closed his eyes and didn't speak. Chen Boqiao seemed to sigh lightly, or maybe he was still breathing. .
However, Chen Boqiao didn't hang up until Zhang Jue fell asleep completely.
Zhang Jue had a dream about memories, a dream about what really happened.
On the day Harrison saw the name on the fifth ever-bright lamp he had ordered on the snowy mountains, on their way down, the wind was blowing so hard that it lifted snowflakes into the air.
Harrison said something to him. Zhang Jue didn't catch it the first time he said it, and Harrison repeated it a little louder.
He said, "Zhang Jue, you are so vulgar—you actually like Chen Boqiao."
Everyone liked Chen Boqiao one after another, and Harrison thought Zhang Jue was an exception.
Zhang Jue did not answer because he could not answer. He also didn't want to be so vulgar, like everyone else, he had the same fantasy about Chen Boqiao.
But he tried everything he could, but in the end he couldn't find a solution.