The ashes in the fireplace were cleaned up by the servants early the next morning, as if the funeral of burning souls had never happened.
The door that was kicked was replaced with a new one, which was thicker.
The messy furnishings in the place have also been restored to their original state, and each item is placed in its precise position that belongs to Lu Qingyue.
This pure white cage, except for the wooden wall that nailed all the light, everything was back on track.
Su Wan is also "back on track".
That burning also seemed to burn away all the unstable impurities belonging to "Su Wan" on her body.
She became more "perfect" than ever.
She no longer needed a tablet, and every piece of the [Code of Conduct] seemed to be directly burned into her mind. She eats, walks, reads, smiles, and every action seems to be cut out of Lu Qingyue's video frame by frame, accurate and elegant, and she can't pick out the slightest mistake.
She became a perfect, 3D-printed replica, a gorgeous, breathing porcelain.
But only she knew that her inner world had long been burned to the ground by the fire, leaving only a charred and grassless ruin.
And on top of this ruin, she began her new, silent war.
- Hunger strike.
This is not a fierce, defiant protest.
It is a calm, slow, self-withering process.
Every day, the three meals sent by the maid are still Lu Qingyue's favorite and nutritionally balanced combination.
Su Wanhui sat at the dining table with a smile on his face as usual. She would even pick up a knife and fork and cut the steak into perfect, 1.5cm wide pieces.
But she wouldn't put them in her mouth again.
She just sat like that, maintaining a graceful posture, watching the food, from warming, to cooling, to being silently taken away by the maid.
Her body, at a speed visible to the naked eye, quickly collapsed.
The already slender figure became thinner, as if a gust of wind could blow it down. Her cheeks sank, her lips lost all blood, and her whole body was as pale as a piece of paper that would break at any moment.
But her eyes were always calm.
It was the ultimate peace that saw through life and death.
In this most negative way, she declared her final control over this skin.
You can command me to laugh, command me to speak, command me to be anyone.
But you cannot command my body to accept these nourishments that do not belong to me and depend on for survival.
Two days later, the atmosphere in the mansion dropped to freezing point again.
Uncle Chen stood outside the heavy door, listening to no sound inside, and for the first time, a trace of anxiety appeared on his ancient face without waves.
He couldn't afford any mistakes from Miss "Moonlight".
He had to bite the bullet and report the situation to Bo Jinshen, who was far away in Europe and was on the verge of anger because of the frustration of the project.
On the other end of the phone, there was a suffocating silence of more than ten seconds.
Immediately, it was Bo Jinshen's voice that suppressed his monstrous anger and was extremely cold.
"She wants to die?"
"Very good."
Call Gu Yanzhi and ask him to get over immediately. Tell him that I want my 'work' to be intact. If anything goes wrong with that thing, let him raise his head to see it. "
"Beep-"
The phone was hung up severely.
Half an hour later, Su Wan's door was opened.
This time, it was not Uncle Chen who came in, nor any maid.
But a strange man in a white coat.
He looks about thirty years old, thin and straight, wearing a pair of glasses with gold frames, and his eyes behind the lenses are clear and warm. He had a faint, good-smelling disinfectant mixed with the fragrance of grass and trees, which was incompatible with the coldness of everyone in this mansion and the domineering scent of gardenias.
He is Gu Yanzhi.
The chief surgeon of Bo's private hospital was also one of the core members of Lu Qingyue's rescue team that year.
Gu Yanyi walked into the room, and his brows frowned imperceptibly.
The light in the room came from artificial lighting, pale and without a trace of temperature. The huge, nailed wall of oak planks, like a silent tombstone, exudes a suffocating sense of oppression.
In the air, there is a strong gardenia fragrance, mixed with a hint of faint smell of burnt things, which is so weird that it makes people's hearts tighten.
Then, his eyes fell on the slender figure on the bed, which almost blended in with the white sheets.
The girl lay there quietly, wearing a white silk nightdress with a high neckline, her long hair spread out on the pillow, and her face was almost transparent. She closed her eyes and breathed weakly, like a lily that had a broken stem and was rapidly withering.
His heart seemed to be stabbed gently by something.
Uncle Chen followed behind him, with a hint of urging in his tone: "Dr. Gu, I'm sorry to trouble you." "
Gu Yanzhi nodded and did not speak.
He put the medicine box on the bedside table, moved slowly, and sat down on the edge of the bed.
He stretched out his hand, ready to check Su Wan's pulse.
His fingertips are warm and dry.
At the moment when she was about to touch her wrist, the girl on the bed slowly opened her eyes.
The four eyes met.
Gu Yanzhi saw a piece of ... in those eyes
Moor.
After being burned by fire, a dead wasteland with no grass growing.
There is no fear, no hatred, no despair, nothing.
There is only an empty, inorganic calm.
He has seen countless dying patients, and in their eyes, there is either unwillingness or relief. But he had never seen such an eye, an eye that belonged to the living, but was more silent than the dead.
His movements, incomprehensible, paused for a second.
Immediately, he resumed his profession.
He spoke in a gentle, non-aggressive voice: "Don't be afraid, I'm a doctor. Mr. Bo asked me to do an examination for you. "
His fingertips rested lightly on her cold wrist.
The pulse is weak and disordered.
He glanced at it seemingly casually as he checked. He noticed that there was a faint blue-purple bruise on her wrist that had not completely subsided, as if someone had grabbed it with great force.
He glanced at her out-of-place turtleneck pajamas again, and it was clear in his heart.
Under this collar, I'm afraid there are more unknown scars.
"Severe dehydration, malnutrition, and unstable heart rate."
He withdrew his hand and said to Uncle Chen on the side in a pure, professional tone belonging to a doctor.
"This won't work. The human body is not a machine, and no matter how perfect the 'work' is, it also needs basic energy to maintain its operation. "
He deliberately added the word "work", and his eyes, as if he were innocent, stayed for a moment on Su Wan's unresponsive face.
"I needed to give her fluids, electrolytes and glucose. In addition, she was in a poor mental state, and I needed to take a tube of blood and take it back for a comprehensive nutritional and hormone level analysis to see what was wrong. "
This reason is reasonable and cannot be refused.
Uncle Chen immediately nodded: "Okay, everything is up to Dr. Gu." "
Gu Yanzhi skillfully took out the infusion equipment and blood collection needle from the medicine box.
His every move is gentle and focused.
When he disinfected Su Wan's arm with alcohol cotton, the cold touch made Su Wan's dead body tremble slightly uncontrollably.
"Don't be nervous, it will be fine soon."
He reassured softly, there was a natural and calming power in his voice.
The cold needle tip pierces the skin.
Su Wan was still expressionless, his eyes were empty.
But only she knew that at the moment the tip of the needle pierced, her heart, which had already been numb, ... I felt a long-lost and real sting.
The pain was different from all the humiliation and harm brought by Bo Jinshen.
Infusion, blood draw.
The whole process is quiet and fast.
After doing all this, Gu Yanzhi packed up the medicine box and stood up.
He said to Uncle Chen: "The infusion takes about two hours." I will stay here until the end. "
Then, he took out a small, white medicine bottle and a prescription note from his pocket and handed it to Uncle Chen.
His tone returned to the formulaic, family doctor's tone.
"This is a complex B vitamin that helps stabilize nerves and improve mood. Starting tomorrow, let her take one tablet a day with meals. This helps to improve her 'state' and better complete the 'task' assigned by her husband. "
Uncle Chen took the medicine bottle, glanced at the label on it, nodded, then turned around and placed the medicine bottle on Su Wan's bedside table.
Two hours of infusion time, long and quiet.
Gu Yanzhi sat on the chair next to the bed, did not speak again, and did not read any documents.
He just stayed quietly, accompanying him.
Like a silent, gentle guardian.
When the last drop of the medicine fell into Su Wan's blood vessels, Gu Yanzhi pulled out the needle and pressed the hemostatic cotton for her.
He explained a few precautions to Uncle Chen, then carried the medicine box and left the oppressive cage.
The door was locked again.
In the room, Su Wan was the only one left.
No, maybe there's one more thing.
- The small, white vitamin bottle.
Su Wan lay on the bed, motionless.
The body has a trace of strength because of the infusion, but the spirit is still in ruins.
She didn't know how long she had been lying down.
It wasn't until late at night that she slowly sat up from the bed.
Like a mechanical puppet, she stretched out her hand and picked up the small medicine bottle on the bedside table.
She wants to complete the "task" assigned by Dr. Gu.
She wants to take medicine.
She wants to live and continue to play this perfect, qualified work.
She unscrewed the bottle cap, and the action was numb and mechanical.
She poured out a white pill.
The moment the pill rolled into her palm, she felt that something else in the bottle seemed to fall out with it.
Not pills.
It is a very finely rolled ... Small paper rolls.
Small, almost negligible.
Su Wan's movements froze instantly.
For the first time, there was a slight ripple in her dead, like an ancient well.
She held her breath and pinched the little roll of paper with her trembling fingertips.
She slowly unfolded.
Under the dim night light of the room, a line of scribbled but powerful handwriting belonging to the doctor came into her eyes.
[In case of emergency, you may need to get out for a short time, take three tablets in a row, which can cause the illusion of acute hypoglycemic coma, which takes effect within half an hour and is harmless to the body.] ]
[Don't let anyone find out.] ]
Boom——
This small, thin note, at this moment, like a silent thunderbolt, exploded in Su Wan's dead and silent spiritual world that had long been reduced to ruins.
That's not a comfort, it's not a promise.
That's a handful... Weapons.
A poisoned weapon that allowed her to regain control of her body at a critical moment.
It was the first copy she received after falling into this boundless hell, from the outside world, without any strings attached... Goodwill.
And... Tinder.
Su Wan's fingertips began to tremble violently.
She stared at the line of words, reading it over and over again.
It seems that every word is fiercely engraved into one's bone marrow.
After a long time, she slowly raised her head and looked at the nailed wooden wall that symbolized absolute despair.
In this eternal darkness, there was something in her dead eyes, as if it had been rekindled by this small fire.
That's not hope.
Hope is too far away and too extravagant.
That's a kind of ... The instinct called "survival" is tougher than hope and calmer than hatred.
She rolled up the small note again, and then, without hesitation, put it in her mouth, and swallowed it fiercely with the water at hand, along with the vitamin.
Destruction, all evidence.
She clutched the small medicine bottle tightly.
The cold bottle, in her palm, gradually had a hint of warmth.
In the darkness where no one could see, the corners of Su Wan's mouth slowly hooked up a curve.
That was not Lu Qingyue's gentle smile.
Nor is it her own, painful smirk.
but one, cold, determined, with a hint of crazy calculation... A new arc.
Bo Jinshen, your game has just begun from now on.