Chapter 74 Before the Storm 01

Fu Luoyin encountered a roadblock during his drive, causing a delay in his journey.

The artificial island they were on was initially applied for by the Su family to develop into a quarantine and rehabilitation center. However, due to various reasons, the plan was canceled, and the area was transformed into a gated resort community. It was not accessible to the general public, and its precise entrance wasn't even marked on maps. This isolation made it almost impossible to navigate when roads were closed.

Just as Fu Luoyin drove off the sea bridge and onto the mountain road, he noticed a police cordon in the middle of the road. Several officers were there, flashing warning lights to indicate that he should turn back. He got out of the car to inquire about the situation. A police officer informed him, "It looks like you won't be able to pass tonight. A large truck has just overturned down there, and we're preparing for a rescue operation. We hope you can understand."

As Fu Luoyin held A-level clearance, he usually had the authority to override road closures, but he wouldn't misuse it in such circumstances. He nodded and said, "I understand. Thank you for your hard work." Then, he turned around and drove back towards the island.

His brows furrowed, and his anxiety was visible on his face. Despite recognizing the uncontrollable nature of the situation, an increasingly strong premonition nagged at him, leaving him with an unsettled feeling.

He called Zhou Heng. "Get a helicopter here immediately."

It was half past three in the morning, and Zhou Heng's voice was groggy with sleep. However, it quickly turned alert upon hearing Fu Luoyin's tone. "Do you have a mission?"

"No mission. I'm going to find Lin Shuicheng. Have the helicopter here within thirty minutes," Fu Luoyin instructed.

Zhou Heng was on the verge of losing his mind. "Your helicopter is parked at the Jiangnan branch, and it would take at least a few hours to fly over! And it's still a thunderstorm right now!"

Fu Luoyin replied, "Then use your authority to requisition one randomly."

In the end, Zhou Heng arranged for a helicopter nearby – bought under the name of Fu's Military and Technology Company at double the price, along with a hired pilot who flew over in half an hour.

Fu Luoyin fed Lin Shuicheng's ID card location into the system. "Head there."

He noticed that Lin Shuicheng's ID card signal paused briefly at a nearby hospital before moving on swiftly. The speed indicated that he had likely boarded another vehicle, but not heading back this way; instead, it was drifting further away.

All sorts of ominous speculations emerged at that moment. Fu Luoyin's face turned ashen, his fingers clutching the seat tightly.

The downpour made visibility worsen, yet he continued calling Lin Shuicheng repeatedly.

The last call connected, but Lin Shuicheng remained silent. All that could be heard from the other end was wind and rain.

"Mr. Little Fu, we're almost there, but the slope of the orchard below isn't suitable for landing! Visibility is too low; it's not advisable to stop!"

"Hang a rappelling rope for me. Notify ground personnel to prepare for an emergency rescue."

"Mr. Little Fu, you have no security measures in place!"

"I'm not concerned about this height. I'll go down first; you should return to base."

Fu Luoyin removed his coat and glanced outside—the distance was so great that he could see a police car smashed into an apple tree at the end, its front crumpled, but the people inside were indistinct.

The rappelling rope was lowered, and Fu Luoyin swiftly descended its rungs.

Amidst the heavy rain, visibility was low, and the wind from the helicopter's rotors made the rope sway wildly, almost reaching a parallel angle. Nevertheless, Fu Luoyin held on firmly. His skills honed in District 8 weren't for nothing. In less than twenty seconds, he released his grip and leaped to the ground, dashing towards the car beneath the apple tree in the rain.

As he drew closer, Fu Luoyin's heart nearly stopped— the front of the car was utterly crushed, the frame wobbling. Lin Shuicheng sat in the driver's seat, his eyes closed, head tilted to one side, motionless.

"Lin Shuicheng?" Fu Luoyin flung open the car door, leaned in, and pulled Lin Shuicheng out. Panic tinged his voice, "Lin Shuicheng?"

Rainwater sluiced in through the window, dripping off Lin Shuicheng's cheeks and eyelashes like shimmering pearls, cold to the touch, with almost no detectable warmth.

Sirens echoed in the distance.

For the first time, Fu Luoyin truly understood the meaning of fear. Only his years of experience and composure kept him barely functioning, allowing a semblance of rationality to remain—he could feel Lin Shuicheng's breath, suggesting that he might have been knocked unconscious by the immense impact. The subsequent drop in temperature could have led to hypothermic shock.

He opened the back door of the car and gently laid Lin Shuicheng inside, checking his breathing and assessing his injuries.

Blood stained the back of Lin Shuicheng's head, slick and sticky. The wound wasn't deep; it seemed he had hit his head on a window frame. Fu Luoyin started to remove his own coat and jacket, using the car's tissues to roughly dry Lin Shuicheng's body before wrapping him up and holding him close.

"Don't worry, I'm here. I've come for you," Fu Luoyin whispered, pressing his face against Lin Shuicheng's cheek, trying to convey warmth. "Everything's alright now. I'm with you, you need to be strong."

The wail of police sirens approached.

In his dream, Lin Shuicheng felt an intense cold.

In this dream, there was a hand holding his, a grip he recognized—the kind that didn't come from ordinary people but from someone he knew. This person always held his hand tightly, almost painfully, as if only by doing so could they confirm his presence and assert their ownership.

There was only one person who constantly exceeded his expectations, intruding into his life with dominance, strength, and arrogance, challenging all his previous assumptions, taking unconventional paths or even bending the rules.

He murmured softly, "...Fu Luoyin."

Fu Luoyin's grip on Lin Shuicheng's hand tightened, his voice strained and hoarse. "I'm right here."

Emergency medical staff were placing a hot water bottle beside Lin Shuicheng, who slowly opened his eyes.

His vision was blurred, barely able to discern the silhouette in front of him as Fu Luoyin. In the freezing cold winter, he wore only a single layer, while his coat covered Little Lin's body.

"Shuicheng, how did you get here?" Little Lin whispered softly.

He vaguely recalled having a dream where Fu Luoyin called him, transporting him back to that rainy night after his speech at Star University. Fu Luoyin had crossed deserts and mountains to tell him stories.

But the dream had become reality – Fu Luoyin had actually come.

With a deep exhaustion in his voice, Fu Luoyin said, "I'm here to pick you up."

"Save your strength and rest first. I'm right here with you, understand?" Fu Luoyin held his hand, murmuring repeatedly, "It's alright, don't be scared. I'm here."

Along with the ambulance, the police arrived.

To explain why Lin Shuicheng had been driving a police car when the accident occurred, the officer told Fu Luoyin, "We were planning to take Mr. Little Lin home. But it seems Mr. Little Lin wanted to go back earlier on his own. There was an issue with the route, so he ended up in the outskirts. You arrived before our team, and we're grateful for that. Otherwise, the situation would have been terrifying."

Lin Shuicheng needed three stitches for the wound at the back of his head. Fu Luoyin went to pay and arrange for the medical procedures.

The disinfection room didn't allow visitors, so Fu Luoyin waited outside.

The anesthetic spray wasn't very potent. As the physician sewed Lin Shuicheng's wound, the latter's face turned pale, and he breathed in sharply.

"Try to endure it a bit. You might not be sensitive to the anesthesia. It'll be over soon," the doctor said. "But then again, you probably don't mind since you're not afraid of death, so pain shouldn't be a big deal, right?"

"Fear of death and pain are both human instincts," Lin Shuicheng replied with a faint smile. "Do you have a medical license?"

"I know how to sew up wounds. I used to be a team medic, and my teammates always praised my steady hands," the doctor said. "How about this? Am I a better doctor than a taxi driver?"

He put down his tools, cleaned the blood around Lin Shuicheng's wound with antiseptic cotton, and then moved around to face him.

Lin Shuicheng lifted his gaze and looked at him calmly.

The man before him was none other than the red informant he had encountered outside Star University Hospital last time.

"Let's get down to business. Someone is waiting for me outside," Lin Shuicheng said.

The man seemed intrigued. "So, you do have genuine feelings for Little Fu after all?"

There was a subtle tone in his voice when he mentioned Fu Luoyin, as if he were referring to a familiar or often-heard name, even with a hint of concealed favoritism.

Lin Shuicheng said wearily, "I just don't want to waste time. I need rest."

"The only thing we can offer you," the man said, seeing that Lin Shuicheng truly looked unwell. He sobered up and held out his hand, a USB drive swaying at the end of his fingertips, gleaming with metallic luster. "Don't worry about whether it's empty or if we're tricking you. Someone like you, if you could do something crazy once, you could do it again. We can't afford to take that risk."

Lin Shuicheng took the USB drive and studied him intently.

The man paused for a moment and nodded slightly. "Also, I want to apologize for not predicting today's situation with the truck. It was our fault."

"Your safety has always been on our watchlist, but today's incident caught us off guard. We didn't expect you to directly drive the young employee out, nor did we anticipate the arrival of that truck, so we couldn't prevent it from happening right away. You have yourself to thank for your quick thinking," the man explained.

Lin Shuicheng asked, "Why do they want to kill me? Or let me put it this way, why would they try to drive me mad by harming the people around me? Who are they?"

"You know who they are. In fact, you've crossed paths with them before," the man said.

Lin Shuicheng fell silent for a moment.

"RANDOM," he whispered.

"Yes, I understand your concerns, but I still need to reiterate what I told you last time – there's no deception in my words," the man said in a low voice. "You think we've kept things from you, but that's not the case. Until today, your security level was green, meaning you were in the less critical category. You believe that all these accidents have underlying motives, but in the intelligence analysis of our Ninth Bureau and the National Security Agency, these incidents were indeed free from any deliberate human interference."

"At present, we have no clear understanding of how these incidents are achieved. We analyze tens of thousands of unexpected events daily, searching for human involvement... You're like a small stream swept up in these currents, but today's incident involving you shares a striking similarity with what happened to your family six years ago. Moreover, the unpublicized assault on Luo Song near you and the assassination attempt on Chu Shihan at the harbor exhibit an equally high level of correlation. It's only now that we can confirm your uniqueness to RANDOM, and that the events you've experienced in the past might be connected to them. That's why we're breaking protocol to share this information with you today."

The man looked at him meaningfully. "For your protection and due to certain historical reasons, my superiors would prefer you not to be involved in these matters. However, it seems fate has other plans, and you're not someone we can easily shield from it."

"In the USB drive is a collection of all 'accidents' we've gathered so far, which remain inconclusive as to whether they were caused by human factors or purely natural occurrences, starting from when you were five. As a scientist, perhaps you can find some answers for us," the man continued. "You might wonder what we want from you or what your value is, but unfortunately, even we don't know that."

Lin Shuicheng was taken aback.

"All we know is that you're the only person who has survived multiple attacks by the RANDOM organization, who have shown a uniquely artistic approach to recreating past events without actually taking your life," the man said. "That's your value, Lin Shuicheng – find out what it is. Understand what this so-called deity wants from you, why they keep obstructing you without ending your life; you might become the key to solving crucial issues for both the National Security Bureau and Section Nine."

Lin Shuicheng stood silently, feeling a dull ache in the back of his head.

Opening the door, the man glanced back at him. "Also, it's best you keep your distance from President Little Fu. Otherwise, there may be things in the future that neither of you would wish to witness."

Startled, Lin Shuicheng asked, "Is he one of yours too? Part of Section Nine, the NSA?"

"President Little Fu belongs to Section Seven," the man replied. "Theoretically, he's not part of our faction. Take care and rest well, Teacher Little Lin."

Having paid the fees, Fu Luoyin carried a pile of medications to find Lin Shuicheng.

Upon seeing that Lin Shuicheng was standing on the ground instead of lying in bed, Fu Luoyin immediately attempted to carry him back onto the bed. However, Lin Shuicheng declined, "I want to go home."

Fu Luoyin was taken aback for a moment before softly confirming, "...Dongtong City?"

Lin Shuicheng sighed, "Star University."

Only then did Fu Luoyin recall that Lin Shuicheng had a house at Star University. He reached out to touch his face, "Alright, I'll take you back then. Have you ever been on a helicopter? We can take one back?"

Lin Shuicheng nodded wearily.

Twenty minutes later, the helicopter landed on the hospital's rooftop.

It was noisy up there, so Fu Luoyin gave Lin Shuicheng a sedative and put noise-canceling headphones on him. Then, he earnestly held him in his embrace, allowing Lin Shuicheng to lean against him and sleep.

The air conditioning was on, making the cabin warm and cozy.

Fu Luoyin gently hugged Lin Shuicheng and whispered softly, his voice clearly transmitted through the earphones, "You're still angry with me."

Lin Shuicheng didn't respond, likely striving to fall asleep.

"Fancy not breaking up, then?" Fu Luoyin gently caressed Lin Shuicheng's cheek and mumbled, "Now you owe me another favor... When do you plan on repaying it? I haven't even asked you, nor have you told me..."

Did he not ask if he knew about the substitute thing?

What was he thinking?

As Fu Luoyin pondered these thoughts, he felt a wave of drowsiness and a subtle ache in his heart.

With Lin Shuicheng leaning against him, he struggled to stay awake. Lowering his head, he observed how tranquilly Lin Shuicheng slept in his embrace, without any signs of movement.

After much deliberation, he couldn't resist reaching out to check for his breath.

After feeling the moist warmth for a while, he retracted his hand.

A short while later, Fu Luoyin felt unsure if he could detect Lin Shuicheng's breathing, so he stretched out a fingertip to place it under his nose.

This person breathed so softly, as if they didn't need air to live.

As Fu Luoyin was grappling with the dilemma of whether the airflow caressing his fingertips came from the warm air conditioner above or Lin Shuicheng's breath, he suddenly felt a sharp sting followed by a brief moist and cool sensation as his finger was enveloped in someone's mouth.

Lin Shuicheng had gently bitten him.