Chapter 45: A Special Patient

A tiny child, seeing an adorable flowerbud, could not resist reaching out to pluck one. A faint, heart-refreshing floral fragrance emanated from deep within the bud, bringing a lovely smile to his face.

Crack!

A loud slap echoed through the air. The little boy tumbled to the ground, clutching his stinging left cheek, staring blankly at the person standing beside him. The flowerbud had also fallen to the ground, crushed by the momentum of his fall, its juices staining his clothes with a pale pink hue.

"Daddy..." the little boy whimpered, not daring to cry out loud. His soft, delicate red lips were pressed tightly together as he blankly raised his gaze to look at the father who had struck him.

He knew his father did not like him, and he had never dared to dream that his father might love him a little more. Today, school had let out early, and seeing that the flowers here were blooming so gorgeously, he had sneaked in to take a look. The buds were so pretty that he couldn't help picking one, never expecting his father to catch him.

The young man standing beside the little boy shared an extremely similar facial features with him. While the little boy was soft, tender, and cute, the young man's face resembled permafrost that never thawed—lacking any warmth, and instead filled with aloofness and detachment.

"Yi, Daddy hit you today so that you would understand you are not an ordinary child. You are destined to achieve great things in the future, and you must not indulge in such trivial matters. Right now, studying diligently is what you ought to be doing." The man's handsome, thin lips opened and closed, uttering words completely devoid of warmth, every single sentence urging the little boy to endure hardship.

The little boy lowered the hand that had been pressed against his face, pressed his small lips together, and stood up by himself. He didn't even dare to brush the dust off his clothes, keeping his eyes lowered as he listened to his father finish speaking. In a tiny voice, he said, "Bao... Yi knows he was wrong. He won't do it again." He had wanted to say to his father like other children: *Babe just liked that flower so much*, but he dared not.

The young man's cold eyes flickered, and he nodded, saying, "Good! That is my, Gu Yu's, son. Go to your room and review your books."

The little boy fought back the tears threatening to fall, bowed to the man, and then turned to walk toward his small study. His not-yet-tall figure forced itself to walk forward with adult-like steadiness, as though his destination lay straight ahead.

The young father watched as the tiny figure was gradually swallowed by the cluster of flowers and trees. A hint of warmth finally appeared in his perpetually icy eyes, but alas, that trace of warmth lasted far too long. He brushed a fallen leaf from his clothes, parted the flower bushes beside him, and walked away as well.

That was the summer he was seven years old, the first time his father had ever hit him. Although that slap had not severed the bond between father and son, it had cast a shadow over his young heart. In the past, his father had been stern with him, but had never struck him. He also knew his father did not love him—unlike the children he saw at school, who were constantly cherished in the palms of their parents' hands. From that moment on, he knew that besides himself, no one was obligated to treat him well, and therefore, he had no need for anyone's kindness.

As the long dream faded, his vision was filled with white—a cold white accompanied by a pungent odor. Seeing this white, he felt only coldness, an endless coldness, a bone-chilling frost that seeped straight into his soul.

Where was he? He stared blankly for a long moment before his wits finally returned. He was lying on something, and the chill on his body was because a white sheet had been draped over him.

He moved his fingers, his wrists seemingly bound by something.

The room was very quiet, as if he were alone.

Gradually, memories of what had just happened drifted back into his mind.

His mother had told him to return to the ancestral estate. The fact that Gu Xinyao was incapable of siring offspring had already reached her ears, and she intended for him to act as a surrogate. He had refused, whereupon several men seized him, and he was drugged. And then?

He could not remember. A dull ache in his body stirred an unspeakable shame deep within his heart. Could it be that he had already been...

No, he would not allow this. He shouted, "Someone! Someone come! Help—help me!"

He exerted all his strength, yet the sound he produced was quieter than his usual speaking voice.

Even so, someone pushed the door open and entered.

"Young Master Dugu, what is the matter with you?" Before long, a doctor wearing a white lab coat and a surgical mask walked over.

Two nurses followed behind her, both also wearing masks.

He had endured countless hardships; these humiliations were something he could still withstand. Forcing himself to remain calm, he asked, "What have you done to me?"

The dull, lingering ache coming from his lower abdomen led him to suspect that the procedure might already be finished, but he would absolutely not surrender.

The doctor chuckled softly, though it was hidden behind her mask and invisible.

She patted the bed sheet covering Dugu Yi. The cold, direct contact with his skin made Dugu Yi acutely aware that he was completely naked at that moment. Thus, all he could do was find a way to escape.

"Young Master Dugu, it is your mother's wish that you undergo this procedure. The operation itself is not long, taking only a few minutes. If you cooperate, everything will go smoothly; if you do not cooperate, you will suffer a great deal."

The doctor's eyes, exposed above her mask, flickered with an odd light. She had never implanted a gestational matrix for a man of such striking looks. She had already carefully examined his body and found it to be perfection itself. She imagined that if the implantation succeeded, the child born from such a paternal body would undoubtedly be exceptionally brilliant.

The female doctor's words offered Dugu Yi a glimmer of hope. They had not yet begun the operation; he still had a chance. Composing his thoughts, he continued, "Then why do I feel a bit of pain in my body?"

Hearing Dugu Yi's words, the female doctor frowned slightly. She had performed countless procedures of this kind, mostly requested by married couples who were quite cooperative. This time, however, orders had come directly from the head of the Dugu family, which was why she had agreed to perform the procedure for this striking man—though she had been unsure if he was willing.

Just moments ago, they had given him a full physical examination, and the data showed that all his indicators were completely normal. Logically speaking, there shouldn't be any discomfort.

She lifted the bed sheet to check Dugu Yi's body. Because of the matching tests required for the procedure, a tiny incision had been made slightly below his navel. However, their advanced medication should have caused the wound to heal naturally within an hour without leaving a scar.

As it turned out now, that small incision had run into a snag; a tiny section had not closed up completely as expected, making the implantation surgery impossible for now.

"What is going on here? It should have healed after the medication was applied. How could it have torn open?" The doctor's gaze grew cold. She dropped the sheet, turned her head, and glared at the nurse beside her.

The nurse also spotted the tear and her heart skipped a beat. She had taken a phone call earlier and therefore only applied the medication cursorily, assuming it would be fine. She never imagined that such an oversight would cause a disaster.

"Dr. Fang, I-I'm sorry. It was my fault." She lowered her head and confessed her mistake.

The female doctor, addressed as Dr. Fang, flashed a sharp look before turning back to face Dugu Yi.

"Young Master Dugu, this was our mistake. The surgery will have to be delayed by a day, and I will explain the situation to your mother." Having said this to Dugu Yi, Dr. Fang waved a hand and instructed the two nurses, "Wheel Young Master Dugu to the VIP ward. Remember, no visitors are allowed under any circumstances."

With that, she cast a meaningful glance at Dugu Yi and stepped out of the operating room.

The boulder hanging in Dugu Yi's chest finally dropped. It seemed he had escaped disaster for today.

The nurses wheeled Dugu Yi out of the operating room and onto a private elevator that was already unlocked.

Just then, a young woman rounded the corner, muttering to herself while clutching a prescription slip. Catching sight of the open elevator, she abandoned the slip, raised a hand, and shouted, "Wait for me!"

Unfortunately, the elevator was never meant for ordinary patients, compounded by Dugu Yi's special status. The nurses simply pretended not to hear and pressed the close button.

The exact second the elevator doors slid shut, the woman outside blinked in astonishment, followed instinctively by a cry: "Handsome!"

The elevator had already closed; no one inside answered her.

The man who had followed her from the corner watched her standing blankly in front of the elevator and let out a cold laugh. "Run into an old flame?"

The mockery on the young man's handsome face drained a bit of color from his striking features. The young woman snapped out of her daze, scratched her head, and said with some embarrassment, "What old flame? Just an acquaintance. I don't know what happened to him, but why is he here, being pushed into the elevator on a surgical gurney? I told them to wait, but they wouldn't stop."

The man glanced at the elevator and sneered again. "An acquaintance? Do you have any idea what kind of people use that elevator?"

"What kind of people?" She didn't visit hospitals often, so how would she know?

"Generally, people of high status who require strict confidentiality. And anyone going up to that floor is either getting an abortion or a gestational implantation. Which category does your acquaintance fall under?"

Shang Ran opened her mouth. She knew that handsome guy had a wife, but an abortion or an implantation? No matter how she thought about it, neither seemed possible.

"Can we go take a look?" She had a gut feeling that the handsome guy did not fit into either of those scenarios.

The man looked at her, annoyance flickering in his eyes, but he answered anyway: "Of course you can. But your status has to be high enough, and you have to be a relative of his. Judging by you, you're none of those things."

It wasn't that he looked down on her; she was merely a corporate director, hardly qualified to step foot inside a VIP ward.

Shang Ran frowned. That really was tricky.

"I've got it!" She snapped her fingers, pulled a communicator from her pants pocket, and pressed a few buttons.

"Xiao Tang, it's me, A-Ran. I need you to do me a favor..."

After finishing her instructions, she hung up the phone. Turning around, she caught the man staring at her and shuddered.

"Look, A-Fei, keep this a secret for me. I just feel like something's wrong with this situation, and I have to go check it out."

The man nodded, choosing not to give her a hard time. He said casually, "Fine, I'll go with you. Didn't the doctor say so anyway? Keeping this pregnancy is more dangerous than terminating it, so getting rid of it might save me the trouble." He patted his still-flat belly with utter indifference.

Hearing his words, Shang Ran furrowed her brows. This was precisely why she was afraid of him talking like this. The boss had entrusted him to her care, not for her to help get rid of the child.

"I say, A-Fei, Big Brother, Brother-in-law, can you please settle down? Didn't my oldest sister just take a few artistic nude photos of a model? Besides, there were female models among them too! Why do you have to care so much, going as far as to ruthlessly destroy your own flesh and blood?" If this pregnancy were lost, she feared her eldest sister might kill her and still not vent her anger.

The man called A-Fei raised an eyebrow at her, and seeing her miserable expression, he actually chuckled. He wasn't deliberately trying to give anyone a hard time, especially since he wasn't even married to *you-know-who*, regardless of what she called him.

"Just call me A-Fei. It's too early to call me brother-in-law, and besides, who ends up being your brother-in-law is still up in the air." He scoffed. His family had never looked favorably upon someone like him from a kabuki background; if not for the child, they probably would have broken up their romance long ago. How could she talk about ruthless destruction?

Seeing that his attitude had softened slightly, Shang Ran quickly stepped forward to support his arm.

A-Fei, you must be careful, okay? I was careless just now.

A-Fei turned his head and sized her up once more. It was rare to see her looking so serious.

Whatever you're planning, I still have to go with you to take a look. Don't forget, he's a man, and it's always inconvenient for a woman like you to be around.

He sighed, muttering that these women were all careless—VIP wards were full of men, so what fun did she expect a woman to find there?

Ah? True. But with A-Fei tagging along, she would have to be even more careful, Shang Ran thought.

Author's note: I've updated today too! o(n_n)o~