The next day, Ying Yunsheng went to work in town as usual.
In the afternoon, Ji Li took some time to tidy up his belongings, packed the still usable items into cardboard boxes, called a car to move them to the town's express delivery station, and then shipped them to Chongliu City.
He was unaware of the changes in the town over the past few years. He searched for the location of the department store on his phone and followed the navigation. Somehow, he ended up in the narrow passage between two houses.
There was light about ten meters ahead.
Ji Li continued forward along the wall, and the narrow passage gradually came to an end.
Before he could even step out, a pair of hands suddenly reached out from behind and abruptly covered his mouth and nose.
A rag was used.
Ji Li instinctively held his breath, but still accidentally inhaled half a mouthful. He suddenly flung the person behind him away, and heard the other person cry out in pain as they slammed into the wall.
It's a woman.
The woman probably didn't expect him to be able to break free. As she tried to grab him, she shouted frantically, "Why are you running? Come back with me!"
The drug took effect too quickly. Ji Li had just stepped out of the narrow alley and hadn't even had a chance to run two steps before he ran out of strength.
My vision blurred instantly.
.
After getting off work, Ying Yunsheng called Ji Li and borrowed the phone from the boss of the place where he worked.
Ji Li didn't have the habit of not answering calls from strangers, but Ying Yunsheng didn't hear the other party answer or hang up. He found it strange, so after returning home, he put his things down, picked up the receiver on the coffee table, and made a call.
Still no one answered.
Just as Ying Yunsheng was about to hang up and go upstairs, the dialing interface suddenly switched to the call interface.
"Ji Li?"
A strange voice came from the other end: "Hello?"
Ying Yunsheng's voice turned cold: "Who are you? Where does this number belong?"
The person on the other end looked bewildered: "I don't know. I found this phone on the street, and no one came to claim it after waiting for ages. I don't know the password... How come someone you know lost this phone? You can come and pick it up now if you have time..."
A sudden gust of cold wind swept through the room from the window, filling his clothes instantly.
Ying Yunsheng was instantly covered in cold sweat: "I'll go get it, you tell me the address."
The other party gave me an address.
Ying Yunsheng hung up and dialed again: "Hello, I want to call the police."
.
For Ji Li, the time it took to get up was only a moment, but when he turned his head and saw the sky outside the glass window high up, he realized that it was already night.
The air was thick with the smell of sulfur. He was leaning against a box of fireworks, the kind that every household sets off during festivals. All he could see were similar fireworks and firecrackers.
There was a chair on the ground directly opposite him, and a person was sitting on it, staring at him with dark, unwavering eyes.
The woman's clothes still bore the scratches left from when she bumped into the wall. She was only middle-aged, but her hair was dry and yellow, and her demeanor made her look older than her appearance.
"Is it you who got Tinghua imprisoned?"
Ji Li's hands and feet were tied, so he couldn't move at all and didn't make a sound.
The woman persisted and asked again, "Is it you who caused Tinghua to go to jail?"
"Who is Tinghua?" Ji Li stared at the woman's face, racking his brains, and recited the name he remembered from four years ago when the police were talking about the driver who caused the car accident. "Lu Tinghua?"
The woman got up, walked over to him, grabbed his collar, and slammed her head against the wall.
"Thump—"
A muffled thud.
"It really was you." The woman's face lost its initial calm the moment he spoke. Her fingers gripped his neck tightly, and her hoarse voice, suddenly rising in pitch, sounded like a vengeful ghost. "It was you! It was you who caused my Tinghua to go to jail! It was you who ruined my family..."
"Bang bang bang!"
Suddenly, there was a loud knocking on the door, followed by someone shouting, "Is anyone home?"
The woman immediately fell silent, looking down at the person whose neck was being choked: "If you dare to make a sound, I'll strangle you right now."
The people outside were still shouting, "Is anyone there?"
It remained quiet inside the whole time.
The woman breathed a sigh of relief as she heard footsteps fading away outside, but her heart was still pounding. She glanced at him, then suddenly grabbed a rag from somewhere nearby, crumpled it up, and stuffed it into his mouth before turning and leaving through the side door.
Ji Li watched her retreating figure, frowned, and just as his hand touched the knot on her ankle, he suddenly smelled a fragrance wafting from the air.
He was startled, and just then, another noise came from outside.
The iron gate was smashed open with a loud crash.
They are police officers.
Two men immediately ran towards the hostage in the corner, while the others scattered to search the area. One of them found a light switch on the wall and was about to take a picture of it—
The rag was removed from Ji Li's mouth, and disregarding the fact that he was still tied up, he said, "Don't press!"
The man's hand trembled: "What?"
"This place is full of gas. If you turn on the light and it sparks, it will explode!"
The person who was about to turn on the light was startled.
The police officer who had crouched down had already untied the ropes binding him and, together with his colleague, escorted him away from the scene.
Ji Li had been tied up for too long, causing poor blood circulation throughout his body and making his limbs weak. He almost tripped when he stepped out of the door. He hadn't felt anything except pain when someone grabbed his collar and slammed him against the wall, but now, with the slightest movement, his vision went black, and he could barely make out the people waiting outside.
Ying Yunsheng had just subconsciously reached out to help him, his hand still halfway in the air, about to speak, when he suddenly seemed to see something and raised his hand to cover his ears.
"Bang—"
A sudden, loud bang echoed through the space filled with fireworks, and the wide-open doors and windows were instantly filled with the red glow of flames, scattering dazzling, colorful light outwards.
For several seconds, Ji Li couldn't hear anything around him. Only after the loud noise caused his tinnitus to gradually subside did he feel the familiar suffocating sensation in his chest.
He slowly gripped the sleeve of the person in front of him and moved his lips very slightly.
Ying Yunsheng didn't hear clearly. His face turned deathly pale as he looked at him, his voice trembling: "What?"
“It hurts,” he said. “My heart hurts.”
A note from the author:
Thank you so much for your support! I will continue to work hard!
Chapter 41
Chapter 41
water dispenser
Ji Li dreamed that he was drowning.
In his dream, he couldn't swim and struggled in deep water for a long time, but he couldn't stop himself from sinking until his hand suddenly grabbed a lifeline.
He couldn't even think about why there was straw in the water. He tried to grab the straw and swim upstream, but he had no strength and could only watch helplessly as the straw in his hand was slowly pulled away.
Then, the straw turned around and got tangled in his hand.
It's become sentient.
The thought vaguely popped into his mind, and then he was pulled up by a lifeline.
Ji Li opened his eyes, and a sudden burst of light filled his vision, making him dizzy. He frowned deeply, and then a hand covered his eyelids.
After a few seconds of adjustment, he opened his eyes again, and his hand, which had been covering his face, moved away, revealing that he was lying on a hospital bed.
His heart was pounding because he had just woken up. He instinctively tried to get up, but he could only move a finger with all his might before the person next to him pressed him down.
"Don't move." Ying Yunsheng noticed his movement as soon as he pressed the call bell by the bedside, and quickly grabbed his hand. "You just woke up, you can't move around. I've called the doctor, we'll examine you in a bit."
Ji Li felt extremely dizzy as soon as he moved his head. He struggled to turn in a different direction and finally saw the person beside the bed and the other person's hand still gripping his wrist.
His lifeline in his dreams.
"Are you dizzy?" Ying Yunsheng's gaze remained fixed on his movements. "Is there anything else that's bothering you?" He reached out as if to touch him subconsciously, but only stopped halfway, making a loose grasping motion. "Does your heart still hurt?"
Ji Li shook his head slightly, then hooked his hand around the other person's fingers and shook it, his voice low and hoarse: "It's alright."
The three words, which were originally spoken in a gentle and soft tone, now felt like knives, easily slicing through Ying Yunsheng's disguise. In the blink of an eye, his eyes instantly turned red.
"Ji Li." He leaned down, half-lying on the hospital bed, burying his head in the other's neck. "I was so scared."
Ji Li could hear the tremor in his voice that he couldn't hide. He wanted to comfort him and reach out to hug him, but first he felt warm tears on the side of his neck.
Ying Yunsheng didn't make a sound. He always cried silently. If you didn't see it with your own eyes or touch it with your own hands, no one could imagine that he was shedding tears. It was as if he was using all his strength to make a sound just to suppress it, to hide his embarrassing side and digest it alone, and others didn't even have the right to know.
Apart from Ji Li.
The silence in the ward lasted for a long time. Ji Li still held Ying Yunsheng's hand with one hand, and with all his might, he lifted the other hand and patted the other's shoulder repeatedly: "It's alright now."
There was a sudden knock on the door, and the person outside called out in a raised voice, "May I come in?"
Before he could speak, Ying Yunsheng stood up first. Except for his still wet eyelashes, there were no traces of tears on his face: "I'll go open the door."
The doctor came over and asked Ji Li a few routine questions, then looked at the data on the monitor: "He'll be fine now that he's awake. Heart disease mainly requires rest; he absolutely cannot be subjected to excessive fright or stimulation. This time, the sudden explosion caused his cardiac arrest, and he'll need to stay in the hospital for observation for the next few days."
Ji Li lay in bed and said to the doctor, "Thank you."
After the doctor left, Ying Yunsheng sat down again: "The person who kidnapped you is the wife of the driver who caused the accident four years ago."
Ji Li knew about this, and what he was more concerned about was: "Did you call the police?"
Ying Yunsheng hummed in agreement: "I called you after get off work, but you didn't answer. The person who found your phone answered."
The rest was mainly handled by the police. Ji Li had struggled and run a few steps away when someone saw him being taken away by a woman. The woman only said it was a family matter, so no one else got involved. When questioned by the police, he realized something was amiss and immediately spilled the beans.
Then comes the process of visiting, investigating, and rescuing.
The woman didn't run far, and because she was delayed by releasing the gas and lighting it, she was caught red-handed by the police who caught up with her. She is now handcuffed and awaiting legal judgment.
Thanks to Ji Li's prior warning, the police officers either exited through the front door or had already chased after the suspects to the side door when the explosion occurred, resulting in only a few minor injuries and no fatalities.