Reply to Keats - Chap 55
55. You Like Me, Don’t You?
Chen Wan’s head was pressed tightly into someone’s embrace—a broad, warm chest with a steady heartbeat and a familiar scent. He felt like a drowning man finally able to breathe.
Zhao Shengge’s Colt Python fired swiftly and with deadly precision, striking the assassin squarely in the wrist.
Bang!
With one hand holding Chen Wan down, Zhao Shengge aimed his gun at the deputy. The man raised both hands. “Mr. Zhao—”
Zhao Shengge didn’t listen. He shot him directly in the left shoulder.
As Hu Ming collapsed, the remaining enemies began closing in from all directions. Zhao Shengge looked down and said, “Hold on,” then quickly lifted Chen Wan, vaulting with him through the porthole. The two of them leapt, landing beneath the shock absorber.
Zhao Shengge’s arm locked tightly around Chen Wan, as if trying to press him into his own flesh and bones.
Chen Wan could smell the thick scent of blood on Zhao Shengge. He reached behind to touch Zhao Shengge’s back and his palm came away sticky. It was blood. Uncontrollable killing intent surged through Chen Wan’s mind. His fingers tightened around the Beretta in his hand.
Zhao Shengge gripped the back of his head, his chest vibrating with the depth of his voice. “Don’t move.”
The enemy regrouped, closing in from the front and rear, surrounding them. From within Zhao Shengge’s embrace, Chen Wan craned his neck, raising his gun toward the attackers behind Zhao Shengge.
Click.
The Rose Beretta and the Colt Python cocked almost simultaneously. In the next instant, a volley of gunfire cracked through the air.
Over the vast ocean, smoke and fire exploded in all directions. Amid the chaos and danger, the Beretta and the Colt covered each other seamlessly. Each supported the other, responding in perfect sync.
The Colt led as the sniper. The Beretta stayed close, like a loyal guard and knight. Their firing points followed a tacit understanding and an indecipherable set of defensive tactics no outsider could unravel. Even in the madness of battle, their coordination remained flawless and precise.
Until the sea turned red with blood.
When the leader falls, the followers flee.
A helicopter made an emergency landing.
Li Shenghui personally led a team down, a dense formation of bodyguards flooding the lower deck.
Li Shenghui, a sturdy man in his forties, brought the injured Lin Lian with him. Yet he bowed and groveled to Zhao Shengge like a grandson, apologizing again and again. Zhao Shengge’s expression remained icy. He said nothing.
His grip on Chen Wan’s shoulder never loosened, not even when Fang Jian emerged from the secure cabin or when Li Shenghui spoke to him.
Zhao Shengge was drenched in the scent of blood, dressed in black stained with red, his sharp features cold as ice. He looked like the King of Hell, or a demon walking out of a battlefield soaked in blood.
And Chen Wan was either being held or carried by this King of Hell in front of so many people. Even he wasn’t sure. That hand on his shoulder gripped him with such force it hurt down to the bone.
Chen Wan didn’t make a sound.
The King of Hell’s fingers trembled now and then, but Chen Wan figured it must be his imagination because that hand was steady. Steady enough to shoot someone squarely in the shoulder from five meters away in dim light.
He looked up at Zhao Shengge. The man lowered his head too, staring at him with no expression. His gaze was black and cold, fathomless.
“…” Sensing the fury surging beneath that calm exterior, Chen Wan wisely kept quiet. He remained as still as a quail, letting himself be restrained without resistance.
All of a sudden, he broke free of Zhao Shengge’s grip. Ignoring the blood streaming from his arm, he grabbed the Beretta and fired a shot right in front of Zhao Shengge.
The assassin who had already been disarmed had a hidden blade. While no one was watching, he had broken free of his escorts.
He was coming for Zhao Shengge.
These assassins were all dead men walking. They never intended to make it back alive. If they failed, their lives were forfeit anyway. If they succeeded, their families would receive a substantial payment. To them, the risk was worth it.
There was still space between them, but the memory of the attack on Zhao Shengge in Italy years ago suddenly flooded Chen Wan’s mind. He lunged forward, stepped on the man’s hand, and pulled the trigger. His eyes were bloodshot. “I’ll send you to hell.”
“Chen Wan!”
It was like a reflex. Chen Wan couldn’t stop. His hands were shaking. These past few months, under Monica’s guidance, he had managed to live almost like a normal person. But now, in this moment, everything unraveled. He had relapsed, just like that.
“Chen Wan, calm down.” Zhao Shengge kicked the man aside and forcefully pulled Chen Wan into his arms, comforting him. “It’s okay.”
“Chen Wan, I’m okay.”
“I’m Zhao Shengge. Look at me.”
“I’m fine.”
Chen Wan was trapped in a nightmare, unable to wake. Zhao Shengge wrapped him up completely, gently stroking his back over and over, soothing him. “Chen Wan, relax. I’m fine.”
The attacker was quickly dragged away. As Chen Wan slowly returned to awareness and began to calm down, Zhao Shengge withdrew the hand that had been comforting him. He said nothing more.
Once aboard the helicopter, medics began checking their injuries. Zhao Shengge had sustained joint injuries in several places, while Chen Wan had multiple soft tissue contusions and a head injury.
Zhao Shengge spoke with the doctor the entire time, asking about necessary precautions. Chen Wan watched him, his lips parting several times as if to speak, but each time, he held back. Recalling the conversation in the secure compartment, his heart sank, like the tide pulling away from shore.
After the medical staff left, Zhao Shengge went through the medication and instructions himself, carefully examining each item.
There weren’t many medications for external wounds, but several types of drugs had been prescribed for calming the nerves.
Chen Wan waited for a while. Zhao Shengge was still reading, brow furrowed. Then, in a very soft voice, Chen Wan called out, “Zhao Shengge.”
Zhao Shengge finally looked up. His expression was calm, his gaze deep and composed—so composed it bordered on ruthless. He said, “What is it?”
Chen Wan opened his mouth and asked, “Are you still willing to talk to me?”
“Chen Wan, I always keep my word.” That was exactly what Zhao Shengge had said earlier in the cabin.
Chen Wan paused, nodded slightly, then said softly, “Then I’ll step out first.”
Zhao Shengge suddenly rose to his feet and blocked his way. Standing tall, he lowered his gaze and asked, “Do you feel wronged?”
Chen Wan was startled, then immediately replied, “No.”
It was the truth. He didn’t feel wronged. On the contrary, he understood Zhao Shengge very well.
Chen Wan was a manager too, though not a high-ranking one. But if everyone under him acted the way he just had, openly defying orders, then there would be no rules or discipline.
Since he had chosen to act this way, he would bear the consequences. He didn’t feel wronged. What he did feel was a trace of regret and reluctance.
Reluctance that he and Zhao Shengge, after finally growing somewhat familiar, might return to being strangers. Reluctance over the trip to Feiling Island that never happened. Reluctance to let go of those calls and video chats they could have had anytime, from anywhere…
These were all things Chen Wan had worked so hard to build over a long time.
And now, they would probably be gone.
But Zhao Shengge’s safety still mattered more.
If given the chance to do it all over again, Chen Wan would make the same choice.
Fate remained unchanged, no matter how many times you started over.
Protecting Zhao Shengge’s safety was Chen Wan’s fate.
And he believed in it.
Zhao Shengge stepped closer. Chen Wan had said he didn’t feel wronged, but Zhao Shengge saw his eyes—so dark they looked wet. Zhao Shengge said flatly, “Then why do I feel like that’s not true?”
“I don’t feel wronged,” Chen Wan insisted.
Zhao Shengge frowned, his tone cold and stern. “Chen Wan, do you think what you did was wrong?”
Chen Wan said he did. There was a trace of apology on his face, but not a hint of remorse.
Zhao Shengge’s voice turned icy as he exposed him, “You don’t.”
Zhao Shengge’s presence was overpowering. His expressionless face made the air feel heavy.
“Are you wondering how I got out?” Zhao Shengge questioned coldly. “Thinking that even though you left no room for error, I still got out?”
“Thinking about how to be more thorough next time?”
Chen Wan’s back stiffened.
The passcode had truly been randomly set by Chen Wan. Zhao Shengge had tried hundreds of combinations, applying every algorithm and formula he knew, but still couldn’t crack it. Thankfully, Chen Wan didn’t know that once the secure cabin was sealed, it entered a self-destruct mode.
It was a failsafe designed to protect territorial and geographic intel in case the research vessel was hijacked or trespassed into foreign waters.
But that mode included a thirty-minute reversal window.
Which meant that for thirty minutes, Zhao Shengge could do nothing.
It was the most helpless, most despairing thirty minutes of Zhao Shengge’s otherwise smooth life.
“If you don’t think you did anything wrong, what exactly are you trying to talk to me about?”
Chen Wan opened his mouth. He felt as if Zhao Shengge’s gaze was filled with… disappointment. So he didn’t dare say anything more.
Lowering his head, he murmured, “I’m sorry.”
Zhao Shengge said nothing.
He repeated, “I’m sorry.”
“I’m sorry.”
After using his own life to protect someone, shedding so much blood, and enduring countless wounds, he still had to say “I’m sorry.” Zhao Shengge’s heart twisted tightly in his chest.
There were ten thousand ways Zhao Shengge could punish someone as stubborn and unyielding as Chen Wan. The most effective weren’t physical force or pain, but cutting straight to the heart.
A man as ruthless as Zhao Shengge, once he understood what Chen Wan cared about, gained unmatched power.
Those who are favored are always fearless. For someone like Chen Wan, just one cruel word was enough to make him suffer for a long time.
But Zhao Shengge looked down at the right hand that had bled so much for his sake, and his chest swelled with a dull ache again.
No one would have believed that a man who repaid every grievance with vengeance would only feel relief after pulling Chen Wan back from the muzzle of a gun.
A long silence passed. So long that Chen Wan began to feel short of breath again, like he might spiral into another episode. Then Zhao Shengge finally spoke. “Chen Wan.”
“Can you be a little kinder to yourself?”
Chen Wan froze.
Zhuo Zhixuan had asked him the same thing. Can you be a little kinder to yourself?
He didn’t understand why everyone kept asking him that. His thoughts slowed. Just like the last time, he gave the same answer, “I’m not being unkind to myself.”
It was the truth. Chen Wan genuinely didn’t think he was mistreating himself. He had fought with everything he had to protect what mattered most. He felt lucky. He had no regrets.
“Is that so?” Zhao Shengge stood tall above him, his eyes dark and heavy as he interrogated him. “If you’re not being unkind to yourself, then why did you leave the cabin to me?”
Chen Wan’s back went rigid. The blood in his body began to cool, starting from his fingertips.
In both presence and posture, Zhao Shengge completely overwhelmed him. His deep, silent gaze pierced straight into Chen Wan’s eyes. He warned, word by word, “Don’t lie to me again.”
“If you’re still lying now, then there’s really nothing left for us to say.”
The light in Chen Wan’s eyes went out completely.
Zhao Shengge had found out.
Years of careful hiding and planning had all unraveled in an instant.
In that fleeting moment, countless thoughts surged through Chen Wan’s mind. A deep sorrow rose from within, impossible to hold back.
Zhao Shengge’s voice wasn’t as harsh as before, but the pressure behind it was immense. “Speak. Answer the question.”
Today, he was going to get an answer.
He laid out the evidence as if analyzing data. “You left me the only chance to survive.”
Chen Wan said nothing. Zhao Shengge’s gaze drifted from his arm to his lips, to his eyes, capturing every flicker of emotion. “You even shoved what few bullets you had to me.”
Chen Wan lowered his gaze. He stood like a bamboo stalk in the wind, teetering on the verge of collapse, radiating a lifeless calm. Zhao Shengge’s presence loomed. His tone was gentle and low, but every word hit hard “You’d cut ties and sacrifice yourself to protect me?”
With every question, Chen Wan’s heart sank further.
It was all too obvious. So obvious that lying now would seem idiotic and laughable.
Zhao Shengge was like a judge seated high on the bench. His gaze unwavering, his tone righteous, his logic airtight. Each sentence struck straight at Chen Wan’s soul. Chen Wan stood there like a thief caught red-handed, a criminal who had meticulously plotted to get close to him. With every charge laid bare, he had no place to hide.
As if determined to force a confession, Zhao Shengge looked him straight in the eyes and asked in a low voice, “Chen Wan, you like me, don’t you?”
