release that man
In the impenetrable darkness where she could barely see her fingers, Ye Shuang slowly awakened to herself…
That was not that accurate. She could not even feel her body, so it was impossible for her to possess the concept of seeing her own fingers. Instead of saying it was darkness, it was more like nothingness. Every concept and matter dissolved into nothingness there; everything felt as surreal as a dream. But was she not dead?
The snippet of memories after she met Jennifer crossed her mind, and Ye Shuang was suddenly reminded of what had happened before she lost her consciousness.
So, what was she now?
There was a voice calling from the distance. After she tried to focus to analyze it, she realized that there were a few familiar voices coming from outside.
“What the hell! You Chinese sure know how to play. You can change gender just like that, changing day after day… Of course, I knew you should have known about this. Why didn’t you tell me?”
That was Anthony’s voice on the verge of a mental breakdown.
“When will my sister wake up? Why hasn’t her injury recovered after a month? Even a coma shouldn’t disturb one’s homeostatic ability!”
That was Ye Feng’s depressed voice.
“Shut up, you dummy! If her body is performing fine, this wound would be healed already… Tsk! You and Xiao Shuang dared hide such a big secret from me.”
Even Yao Zhixing was there.
Although she could not feel any lethargy from her body, Ye Shuang soon felt her consciousness slipping. After hearing a few disjointed sentences, the voices finally drifted away, and she lost consciousness again. After who knew how long, after Ye Shuang’s consciousness was reawakened from the abyss. She heard her father’s voice coming from outside. “You’re telling me this is to save her‽ Who told you to use this crazy idea to save her‽”
The voice sounded powerful, and it echoed in the room. This time, Ye Shuang was sure she was woken up by her father’s voice. It looked like the volume of the voice was related to her reception of the sound. The doctor was not just tricking her—talking to a comatose person would help, and of course, the louder the better.
After thinking some random thoughts, Ye Shuang heard Ye Feng’s voice coming in to join the discussion. It was softer than Father Ye’s voice, and it sounded like he was helping someone, “Dad, dad, don’t be mad. It has already been a month…”
Wait, why is it still a month‽
She felt like she had lost consciousness for far longer than that.
Mother Ye tried to console him as well. “Ol’ Ye, stop screaming. Han Chu is a good kid; it is good that at least he is trying to come up with solution, and it has been a month already.”
Another ‘a month’… Can’t you people give me more useful information? We’re all from the same family. Fewer roundabout words and more sincerity, okay?
Ye Shuang, who was stripped of her voice due to her condition, felt overwhelmed by fatigue and once again lost consciousness.
When she woke up next, it was a long time later.
It was so long that she did not realize how long it had been. Even Ye Shuang, who could not feel the passage of time, had a feeling that it had been a very long time.
…
When Ye Shuang fully woke up and could open her eyes, she felt achy from all parts of her body. Actually, it was considered normal. After all, she had been lying there, and a machine would grow rusty after not being used for long, much less a human body… She should be thankful that her body had not atrophied. Her brain came back online, and her mind slowly snapped back to normal. Ye Shuang, who had regained her normal status, assessed her current situation before sighing in satisfaction.
The girl in pajamas crawled out of bed slowly like a senior. When she moved her feet onto the thick, soft carpet, Ye Shuang realized what was wrong. She looked around and saw that she was standing inside a large, bright bedroom. It did not look like a VIP room at a hospital.
There was a large floor-length window next to the wall so that the sunlight could filter in without any problem. Right opposite the bed was a large television, and on the other side of the wall was a bookshelf. It filled the wall from the floor to the ceiling. Not only were there professional books that sounded difficult from the names, there were various document boxes of varying colors and sizes.
An office table that was gigantic next to the bed was placed with a laptop that was left open. There was a cup of coffee next to the laptop. It seemed like the owner had just had a meeting there. She touched the cup with the back of her hand. It was still warm, so the person had left not too long ago…
So… what is this place?
She was not at the hospital, nor was she at home—how did she end up in this strange place?
Beyond the window was a large garden, beyond that was the wall, and beyond that was spacious greenery and a lake in the distance. In between them were many other exquisite looking villas. If she was not wrong, this should be the legendary high-class resort area… and the price was naturally also quite ‘high-class’.
Ye Shuang was silent. After experiencing her alien evolution, she suspected that she had now transmigrated…
The lock clicked softly. Someone was opening the door from the outside. Ye Shuang, who was alert, turned her head away from the window. Han Chu was holding his phone and operating something, and his other hand was pulling casually at his collar that had been creased after opening the door. Then he walked in like this was his home…
Wait a minute, this probably is his home!
Because of how shocking that discovery was, at least it was way shocking for Ye Shuang’s imagination, Sister Shuang naturally froze next to the window.
After Han Chu dealt with the message on his phone and finished dealing with the things that he should, he placed the phone back in his pocket and lifted his head. His eyes fell on Sister Shuang, who seemed to have frozen next to the bed…
Since her eyesight had not regressed, she saw clearly that Han Chu was stunned frozen as well. He stood where he was, and his eyes widened and maintained that superhuman state of not blinking his eyes for at least half a minute…
Ye Shuang was feeling quite unlike herself. After all, she had found herself a guest in his home, and she had suddenly run into the owner of the home without any preparation. This would lead to an awkward situation between all the parties. It felt like she had trespassed into his home.
However, after seeing the reaction from Han Chu and the reminder of the man’s stupid face before she lost consciousness, with this comparison in her mind, she instantly felt much more relaxed. The two-stared at each other for a long time. Ye Shuang suddenly smiled and was the first to give the greeting. “Brother Han.”
“…” Han Chu finally blinked slowly. “You’ve woken up?”
After that, Han Chu seemed to recollect the mind that he had lost from shock. He walked over with a series of nods. When he retook the seat at the office table beside the bed, he had collected his thoughts somewhat.
“Take a seat.” Han Chu greeted her back and raised his chin to signal for Ye Shuang to take it easy.
Ye Shuang did not think to stand on ceremony, but she looked around, and other than the chair that Han Chu was sitting on, the only place left that she could occupy was the bed… one that she could not only sit on but also sleep on.
“…” Ye Shuang.
A person in a coma should not be moved around a lot, so with that in mind and the posture that she woke up in, looking at this room that had the decoration style of Han Chu written all over it…
She felt like she had come to some kind of shocking conclusion.
Han Chu noticed that Ye Shuang had not moved from the spot. She merely looked around, and then a thinking frown came on her face. She was silent. Therefore, something came to him as well, and he admitted with a generous nod, “Yes, we are living together.”
“…” Ye Shuang, once again.
After giving it some thought, Ye Shuang decided to think on the bright side. With something that she needed to find out, she probingly asked, “So that it’s more convenient to take care of me, who saved your life?”
Even though she felt awkward saying that, she had something more important to worry about.
“It is the nurse’s task to take care of you. I am not good with that,” Han Chu answered calmly and objectively. He lowered his eyes to look at the laptop screen. He used the mouse to click open a document, and he started working on it. “I meant what I said when I said we are living together. There is no need for you to fixate on that.”
No, that is exactly the thing that I need to fixate on!
Han Chu’s voice was even and calm like he was saying something that did not have anything to do with him. “Also, we registered our marriage about one year ago… in case you are worried that this is illegal.”
Ye Shuang was shocked! Did lighting strike her where she stood?
Ye Shuang did not know how to react. With shaking lips, she asked in confusion, “Brother, Brother Han, have I transmigrated? I feel like I have jumped over some very important details. Are you sure you are married with me? Brother Han, please explain the situation to me, stop playing with the computer! You have been typing a series of letters that make no sense at all. Do you think I can’t see that‽”
Having been exposed by Ye Shuang, Han Chu turned from shame into anger. Therefore, in his anger, he decided to unleash an ultimate on Ye Shuang. He probably thought about exposing everything all at once before slowly piecing the pieces together later.
Han Chu dragged Ye Shuang out of the main bedroom and turned to the room next door. He pushed her forward to show her the door to a nursery.
“…” Ye Shuang.
“I believe you remember what I told you when I had someone help look over your blood sample after the first time your body show serious signs of genetic collapse.”
Ye Shuang’s brain indeed exploded. She stood at the door in total shock. She did not dare step in to confirm what was sitting inside the crib that was placed in the middle of the room.
Right then, Han Chu’s voice began next to Ye Shuang. He explained slowly and evenly, “The difference between the inputted DNA and the original DNA is too big, and this caused problems during the process of assimilation. Biological evolution happens step by step, but you skipped the whole process right to the end, and that caused your DNA cellular structure to be highly unstable. It was like walking on a tight rope; you could have collapsed at any moment…”
Ye Shuang’s rusty neck creaked noisily as she turned left and right. She asked drily, “But… what does any of that… have to do with the thing in the room?”
“That was what I was about to explain next.” Han Chu took a deep breath and closed his eyes. “When you were shot, that actually presented you with a unique opportunity. One’s genes can be seen as an AI program. It might react slowly or even not at all to the collapse that came from inside the body, but it was highly sensitive to destruction and collapse that came from external factor. For example, when a person gets injured, there will be the coagulation of blood and the release of antibodies—that’s the body’s natural instinct.
“When you were suddenly injured by an external factor, this highly evolved body decided internally that you needed to expand your body’s hidden potential to resist this danger, and then it used a rate of recovery so fast that our current medical technology cannot understand to protect you.
“As it expends a lot of energy during this process, the more serious the injury one suffers, the longer the convalesce period will be. You do not need me to explain something as simple as that to you, right?”
“Oh, then it does sound like I was pretty lucky then.” Ye Shuang was still baffled and insisted on turning the topic back. “So, what about the child?”
“The child is another problem.” Han Chu sighed. “Due to the serious injury, your body activated a self-protective mechanism, and perhaps because of that, when your physical condition stabilized again, the rate of genetic collapse also started to slow down. However, even so, that does not mean that it had stopped. It was still there. Once you left the state of mortal danger, the evolved part of your cells returned to activity, and then the threat that it posed to your body returned…
“Do you still remember?”
Han Chu finally opened his eyes. He saw that Ye Shuang had her head lowered, so he slowly reached out his hand to place on her stomach.
“I once told you that perhaps pregnancy is the only solution to this problem.”
Life is a magical thing. It starts to grow from a cell of an ovum and starts to construct a whole new lifeform during the process of pregnancy. Nerves, blood vessels, bones, internal organs… everything else, it all starts from absolutely nothing to become something by using the genes as the earlier design and the mother’s body as the soil for it to grow. Everything follows the rules that have been laid down in nature for centuries. Slowly, the seed grows and turns into a complete, isolated, and healthy lifeform.
“The genetic code inside your body can be used to complete a growth that is isolated from you. This pregnancy process suits the natural growth pattern of biological lifeform in nature, and the result is a new cell that has normal, stable growth. This process is eventually taken over and assimilated with a better system, and the system is then provided to the mother’s body. After all, they come from the same system, so naturally, it will be able to resolve the issue of the problem that came from your overly sudden evolution…”
Han Chu blinked. He was silent for a long time after giving his explanation like a computer that had malfunctioned. When even Ye Shuang thought that it was strange for him to pause for that long and wanted to say something, he suddenly reached out to cover her eyes and then continued in the dark. “Ye Shuang, I do not want you to die.”
After a long silence, Ye Shuang, her eyes still covered, could not help but mock, “That last sentence is definitely one hell of a twist.”
It felt as if they had suddenly moved from a sci-fi novel to a romance novel.
Han Chu gave a long sigh. As he released the grasp from Ye Shuang’s eyes, he nuzzled his chin into the bow of her neck and hugged her from behind. He chuckled. He was probably not used to this either. He laughed for half a minute before raising his head and looking into the pair of eyes that stared at him. With a serene and matter-of-fact tone, he said, “We’ve done more than that, so why can’t I say these things?”
“Brother Han, you have dropped your sense of shame. Let me pick it up for you. You can still use it in the future.”
“Just leave it be,” Han Chu replied. “After all, it is nothing important.”
“It is very important.” Ye Shuang pouted. “Originally. your presence as the boss was already strong enough, and now that you have lost your sense of shame, it is even scarier. Even if one does not touch the bottom line often, it can be used to stop people from doing something crazy.”
“Bottom line, is it?” Han Chu thought back to the past. When he thought about this, he could not help but break into laughter. “I crossed that line when I made you pregnant. Yao Zhixing, Anthony, and my father-in-law…”
“Wait a minute!” Ye Shuang was suddenly reminded of something and stopped him from continuing. “When I was drifting in and out, I overheard a conversation about one month. I think my father was shouting, saying that you use this kind of crazy idea to save me… They were talking about the fact that I was one month pregnant?”
Han Chu was surprised. “You overheard us?”
Should she not have heard that? This was something that was crucial in her life. How could these people make the decision for her just like that‽ Ye Shuang felt mad.
“It’s good that you heard us.” He gave it some thought and then decided that this was not worth bringing up. So, he instantly abandoned the thought. “In any case, because of that, I needed to expand a lot of energy to persuade your father to allow us to get registered. Of course, Xiao Feng rallied behind me a lot during this time.”
I knew that traitorous munchkin has something to do with this!
…
Ye Shuang still thought that this was surreal. After all, too many things had changed. Perhaps it was Han Chu’s cool analysis and how naturally he had accepted the whole situation, so she did not feel that the changes were out of place at all. Other than the overly intimate moments, the interactions between the two were still the same as before.
What about Han Chu?
Initially, he only did not want her to die, so be it contacting hospitals, checking for information, analyzing data, or anything else… everything that he had done, he felt it was his responsibility to do so. If it was Anthony or Yao Zhixing who was lying there, he would have done the same thing because they were friends.
But later, when he saw that no change in Ye Shuang’s condition, he started to slowly realize that if the girl could return to normal, he was actually willing to sacrifice more. Due to how important she was, he could not accept the possibility of her disappearing from his life.
That was when his attitude changed. The concern and care deepened day after day, until one day, Han Chu was considering whether she would ever wake up. If she could not, would he ever get used to the fact that such a fixture in his life had disappeared just like that?
Then, just like in the movies, he was hit in the head by an epiphany. Perhaps he had been paying attention to Ye Shuang subconsciously since a long time ago, but he only realized it then. Or perhaps that was cultivated further during this period when she was unconscious, which created this illusion. No matter the source, the ending was still the same.
They had celebrated Christmas together, cooked at home together, mocked others together, solved problems together, and even faced death together… Now, Han Chu could not tell from his memory when he started to pay Ye Shuang so much attention. One thing that he could be certain about was, he was not going to let her out of his sight again.
Sighing, he tightened the hug around Ye Shuang. He felt the body of the person who had just joked with him freeze slightly. Han Chu casually used his head to brush against Ye Shuang’s cheek. He closed his eyes to say, “You probably need some time to get used to this. After all, a whole year has passed… but it’s okay. We can take this slow.
“I occasionally smoke, I drink during business meetings, and I have a penchant for sweets… Of course, I go to the dentist every year.”
Slowly and gently, he reintroduced himself to Ye Shuang.
“I come from quite a wealthy family, but I have no trouble supporting a family myself. You know about my career. If you worry about the risk, I can start to shift into more administrative work. But if you prefer freshness and adventure, we can continue the model that we have been operating on. My family is kind and friendly. My little sister likes you. We have a child who is three months old, and I know that he will be very handsome in the future…”
In his hug, the person slowly relaxed. Even though she did not accept it directly, at least she did not reject him outright. Han Chu’s lips curled into a smile. He continued to mumble the introduction. When he opened his eyes, his gaze was soft.
When, upon seeing the crib, Ye Shuang’s reaction was shock and she not turn around to give him a slap, Han Chu had figured out the girl’s attitude. Perhaps she still could not confirm whether she loved him or not, but at least she did not hate their current situation.
That meant at least she felt some affection toward him.
With this initial affection, they could take the rest slowly. After all, they had plenty of time. Patience, waiting, one-hit kill. And now, he needed to ensure that his target let her guard down…
“There is no need to rush…”
We can take this slow.
“I will wait for you until you are ready to hold my hands…”
He was the best headhunter in the business and naturally also the best hunter.