DTTM 24

Chapter 24: Do You Remember Me?

“Of course not.” I handed him the banana. “I’m sure there’s no driver in the world more suitable for me than you.”

Upon hearing my answer, Zong Yanlei still wore that forced smile, but the coldness in his eyes had lessened considerably.

“I’m not hungry.” He glanced down at the banana but didn’t take it.

I calmly withdrew my hand, put the banana in my mouth, and said one nice thing after another: “There are still two weeks left, so don’t think about the competition for now. It’s more important to recover from your injury. The championship is important, but not as important as your health.”

Zong Yanlei didn’t reply. He stared at me eating the banana for a long time before looking away and turning back to the window.

From my perspective, the small patch of sky framed by the window wasn’t particularly spectacular; against a backdrop of azure blue, there was a thin wisp of cloud, like wisps of smoke—unremarkable.

“Jiang Man, by the end of the year, it will be a full fifteen years.”

I slowed my chewing, and as soon as he said the number fifteen, I realized he was referring to the number of years we’d known each other. From ten to twenty-five, it really had been fifteen years.

Fifteen years, more than five thousand days and nights, more than half a lifetime. Only when these numbers were presented did I realize how much time had passed.

“Even excluding the six years you were gone, we were together for nine years. But even so, sometimes I still don’t know which of your words are true and which are false.”

The banana, which was sweet and soft just a moment ago, suddenly became bland and tasteless. I opened my mouth, trying to say something nice like, “I speak from the bottom of my heart, and I have never lied to you, young master,” but the words seemed to be stuck in my mouth like the sticky banana, and I couldn’t get them out.

“Do you know what’s most hateful about you? It’s not that you lie, but that you can’t keep lying forever.”

Staring at the half-eaten banana in my hand, I lost my appetite. I put my hand down and gently twirled it, not bothering to defend myself.

There was nothing to argue about. I truly did as he said; every word that came out of my mouth was a lie, a complete deception.

And it will continue like this.

“Cough cough…” Zong Yanlei suddenly coughed.

His injury was in his lower abdomen. Coughing would inevitably aggravate the injury, and after just two coughs, his face visibly turned even paler.

I quickly stood up, put the banana back on the bedside table, and walked towards the window that was slightly ajar.

I thought it was an ordinary sky, but when I closed the window, I noticed a pale silver crescent moon perched on the edge of the thin clouds. This crescent moon would be just as uninteresting at night, but its appearance during the day was like a red bean on a white porcelain plate or a green tree in the desert, instantly making the bland sky lively and interesting.

It turned out Zong Yanlei had been watching it the whole time…

I closed the window and looked down. The ward was located on a high floor of the hospital, so I could clearly see the surrounding streets.

The city did have a few nice buildings with modern and gorgeous exteriors and high ceilings, but it was mostly low-rise, dilapidated, and haphazardly laid-out residential areas.

The houses stretched all the way to the edge of the city, mostly old and grayish-yellow, standing close together, their flat roofs piled high with satellite receivers, water tanks, and colorful clothes that needed to be dried.

The scenery you see will be different depending on your location.

Just as I couldn’t understand why Zong Yanlei would stare at a dull corner of blue sky, he probably couldn’t understand what I was thinking when I looked at those buildings with such a huge difference in scale.

After making sure no more air was getting in through the window, I turned around and went to the water bar to get a glass of warm water, then returned to the bedside.

The gaze that had been fixed on me ever since I went to close the window naturally turned towards the glass of water.

“Would you like some?” I tentatively offered the glass to him.

This time, he didn’t refuse and drank half a cup of water from my hand.

After he finished drinking the water, I noticed that he looked quite tired. I was worried that he might get a fever from the exertion, so I was about to tell him to rest for a while when there was a knock on the ward door.

“Come in,” Zong Yanlei said.

Xu Chengye leaned in, holding an A4-sized electronic screen, and smiled awkwardly: “Um, Mr. Zong, Secretary Fang said there are a few important documents that need your review, and also your mother, she wants you to call her back immediately…”

I heard a very soft sigh, and Zong Yanlei held out his palm to beckon to Xu Chengye.

Xu Chengye walked into the ward and handed the electronic screen to him with both hands.

“Then you go ahead with your work, I’ll head back now…” I tactfully got up to give up my seat.

“Don’t worry, this injury is nothing. I’ll have ‘Bazel’ treat it when we get back to Baiyujing. It’ll be healed in half a month.” Zong Yanlei said without looking up as he checked the important documents that he couldn’t afford to miss even for a day.

Xu Chengye didn’t react, and I was taken aback when I realized that he was talking to me.

All hospitals and doctors in Penglai were under the unified management of the government, and the majority of medical services were free for citizens. This policy was in effect since the establishment of the Chu Dynasty, and it did indeed have the initial intention of benefiting the people. However, due to financial constraints, official corruption, and the indolence of the royal family, Penglai’s medical resources had become extremely strained in the past two decades.

The hospital began to advocate for a more primitive treatment approach, which involved using minimal drug intervention to allow the body to repair itself gradually.

At the same time, the government intensified its propaganda of faith, leading people to believe that physical suffering could make the spirit more resilient and pure. Those souls who did not survive the trials were simply following the laws of nature, returning to the embrace of the Sun God, and beginning a new cycle of reincarnation.

If this was the case even for the people of Penglai, then the people of Wo were even less likely to receive effective treatment. Wei Nuan was slowly dragged to her death this way.

Of course, these guidelines were for the general public. The wealthy had their own private doctors, advanced medical care, and imported drugs if they wanted to get treatment.

I almost forgot that as a top-tier medical institution overseas, Bazel even cured Zong Yanlei’s genetic disease, so how could this minor physical injury be a problem for them?

So there was absolutely no possibility of changing drivers; he was just setting a trap for me to fall into.

Tsk, who’s really lying here?

“That’s…that’s wonderful.”

However, I only dared to mutter these words to myself.

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We stayed in Fantong for two more days until Zong Yanlei’s injuries stabilized before setting off back to Baiyujing.

For the next week, he stayed home to recover from his injury, while I trained with the team, and the two of us didn’t contact each other again.

Within a week, two events occurred that were neither major nor minor, but could still be considered “news”.

The first thing was about Zong Yanlei.

A Wo organization claimed responsibility for his assassination attempt and uploaded a first-person video of the gunman to an overseas website.

This organization, called the “Wo Republic Army,” was coincidentally founded by the four kidnappers who abducted me and Zong Yanlei back then.

After our escape, these four were relentlessly pursued by Penglai and disappeared for several years. When they reappeared, they committed the shocking “assassination of a bishop” case that stunned Penglai, they attacked the train carrying a bishop of the Jing Shi religion, cut off her head, carved the letters “Wo Republic Army” on her forehead, and sent it to the university where she worked.

The King of Penglai was furious and immediately labeled them a terrorist organization, personally ordering their annihilation. Of the four leaders, the eldest was killed on the spot, the third was captured alive, and the other two escaped.

In order to deter the remaining terrorists, the king of Penglai subjected the captured leader to severe torture and then beheaded him in public.

The day he died, I went to see him. His eyes had been gouged out, and his tendons in his hands and feet had been severed. He was completely different from the “San-ge” I remembered, who was skilled at wielding a dagger and often swore.

After that, whether out of genuine fear or a renewed period of dormancy, the Wo Republic Army never reappeared. Who would have thought that, six years later, they would once again choose to make a stunning comeback in this manner?

The second thing was about me.

Although Melanie reached an agreement with the production team to replace the footage of Tang Yu’s injury with AI footage, some clips of me “beating” him still appeared online.

“Anger” was the best code for generating traffic, so how could media organizations let go of this hot news that can arouse condemnation?

Overnight, comments about my personality flaws and suspected violent tendencies flooded the internet.

Melanie quickly issued a statement insisting that the videos were all fake and that she would pursue legal action against those who released them. At the same time, she forbade me from speaking out online and reassured me that these controversies would fade from public memory once the Xuanpu tournament started.

She was overthinking it; I didn’t feel wronged. Although the people of Penglai were very dissatisfied with my behavior, the Wo people were happy to see that I didn’t take the nobles seriously and instead admire me even more, which was a good thing.

Compared to the steady progress of the “God-Making Project,” the search for the key progressed much slower.

Three days before Xuanpu Station, I chose a sunny day and, carrying a carefully chosen bouquet of blue-green flowers that perfectly complemented Zong Yanlei’s eyes, went to his residence to visit him while he was sick.

I figured that since the key wasn’t on him, maybe there would be some clues at his house. Unexpectedly, I ran into Lance, who was also visiting him, and the butler even arranged for us to wait in a reception room.

Zong Yanlei was still resting, and it was unknown when he would receive guests. His former navigator and his current navigator were each drinking their own tea, sitting as far apart as possible from each other, with absolutely no intention of getting closer to one another.

“Lance!” A childish voice suddenly broke the silence.

A small blue figure rushed in through the door and pounced on Lance’s side.

“Why haven’t you come to see me in so long? I miss you so much,” Zong Yinzhuo said sweetly.

When Lance saw him, the icy guard on his face instantly crumbled, and he pulled him onto his lap: “Xiao Mitang, it’s been so long, I’ve missed you so much too.”

Zong Yinzhuo swung his legs: “You said you’d play hide-and-seek with me last time, but you broke your promise and made me wait for so long…”

His gaze inadvertently fell on me, and he pouted as he spoke with Lance, only to suddenly look over at me.

“Do you remember me?” I smiled and made a heart shape with my hands.

He stared at the “heart,” slowly climbed off Lance, and then ran like a rabbit to hide behind the sofa.

Lance frowned and glared at me: “You scared him…”

“I remember.” Zong Yinzhuo’s little head peeked out from behind the sofa furtively.

“Um…you, do you want to play hide-and-seek with me?” he asked tentatively, blinking his round brown eyes.