Chapter 44: Are You Sure You’re Not That Heartless Toward Me Either

Chapter 44: You're Not Actually That Heartless Toward Me, Are You?

Lei Zheng genuinely couldn't understand it. He was just taking a shower—how the hell did it turn into such a big deal?

Shards of glass and blood-mixed water were everywhere, winding along the grout lines of the tiles. At first glance, it looked like a crime scene.

Lei Zheng stared at Shu Hanqing's bloody right hand, his face dark enough to drip. He muttered a curse under his breath, then scooped the man up out of the pile of glass shards in a motion that wasn't particularly gentle but was extremely steady.

Shu Hanqing was, after all, a grown man over 1.8 meters tall with a well-proportioned, flexible frame. Yet Lei Zheng carried him out in long strides without even breaking a sweat.

Lei Zheng ignored the mess in the bathroom entirely, setting the man down on the single iron-frame bed in the inner room. He turned, grabbed the clean dark-green military base shirt, and roughly pulled it over Shu Hanqing. Then he reached back, grabbed the medical kit from the corner of the table, and slammed it down on the headboard.

Shu Hanqing remained silent, brows furrowed tightly, his eyes, slightly reddened from the steam, fixed intently on Lei Zheng's every move.

Lei Zheng crouched down and used medical tweezers to pick out the glass shards embedded in the flesh one by one. Then he roughly unscrewed a bottle of medical disinfectant. If it were his own wound, he would have just poured the whole bottle straight down over it.

But this was Shu Hanqing.

The man already hated him.

Lei Zheng grabbed a cotton swab, muttered "this might sting a bit," and dabbed a little onto the wound.

Shu Hanqing, at a loss for words, snatched it out of his hand and poured it straight over his own hands and feet.

The antiseptic set off a sharp, searing pain. Shu Hanqing sucked in a sharp breath. Lei Zheng pressed a cotton ball firmly against the wound to stop the bleeding, irritably lifting his eyes to glare at him: "...I just don't get it. Who the hell pissed you off in the shower? What, you saw yourself all banged up and ugly in the mirror and couldn't handle it?"

The sting on the back of his hand shot straight up his nerves. Shu Hanqing stared blankly at Lei Zheng's arrogant, wild face.

Being stared at so directly by those eyes—damp yet unnervingly dark—Lei Zheng felt a strange unease creep over him. His movements unconsciously gentled, and he pursed his lips, muttering: "...Fine, I'll shut up. I won't bother you."

Once the wounds on his hands were mostly taken care of, Lei Zheng looked down—his feet were also covered in thin cuts from the glass shards, blood still streaming out, blooming into glaring red splotches.

The moment Lei Zheng saw the blood, the nameless anger in his chest boiled over.

He roughly grabbed a bandage to wrap the foot, his tone dripping with barely concealed jealousy as he snorted: "I've told you how many times—Rong Hua's tough as nails, he's not dying! You don't need to worry yourself sick over him. He went on a rampage today and single-handedly took down several high-level superpower users. Tomorrow morning, the central base is going to be in an uproar over it. And I have to go clean up the mess he left behind? I must have owed him in my past life."

He finally finished cleaning and bandaging all the wounds, big and small, crisscrossing every which way.

Lei Zheng stood up.

Shu Hanqing, who had been silent all along, suddenly leaned forward and wrapped his arms around Lei Zheng's waist. His face pressed tightly against Lei Zheng's midsection.

This sudden intimacy stunned Lei Zheng completely, leaving him frozen in place, caught between flattery and bewilderment.

His hands hovered awkwardly in midair, not daring to put them down.

The fearsome Commander Lei, who ran roughshod over the entire base, took a full moment to react before he cautiously lowered his head and tested the waters: "Shu Hanqing? You... mistook me for someone else?"

The sun must be rising in the west.

Shu Hanqing usually kept as far away from him as humanly possible. And now he suddenly gives him a warm hug? Knowing Shu Hanqing's temperament, the next second should bring a crisp slap right across his face.

His nose was filled with the smell of antiseptic.

Shu Hanqing closed his eyes and murmured: "Lei Zheng... you're not actually that heartless toward me, are you?"

Even at the very last moment of his previous life, Shu Hanqing hadn't dared to believe Lei Zheng would kill him.

The man whose face was streaked with tears, who had sacrificed his life without hesitation to give Shu Hanqing another chance at rebirth—and this Lei Zheng before him, sharp-tongued but soft-hearted, awkwardly fidgeting—at this moment, they merged across the barrier of time and space.

Those words carried the grievance Shu Hanqing had suppressed for far too long.

Lei Zheng heard them, and for reasons he couldn't explain, it felt like a giant hand had squeezed his heart, flooding it with a bitter ache.

Lei Zheng couldn't understand the story behind those words, nor did he know about the tangled fates of the previous world.

He just looked down at the nape of the man's neck, and his palm came down, pressing comfortingly against the back of Shu Hanqing's neck. Then he sat down on the narrow edge of the bed and pulled Shu Hanqing into his embrace with a firm tug.

This time, Shu Hanqing—usually as prickly as a rose—offered no resistance whatsoever.

Lei Zheng's heart was pounding like a war drum, silently wondering what the hell Shu Hanqing was playing at today.

Could it be that Shu Hanqing had been swept off his feet by his timely, dramatic rescue? Had he finally realized that a reckless little brat like Rong Hua, who only knew how to charge in headfirst, wasn't worth entrusting himself to? And that Mu Ye—that pretentious, posturing hypocrite always putting on airs—was nothing but a sanctimonious fraud at his core?

Shu Hanqing should have figured this out long ago.

No man in the world could hold a candle to Lei Zheng's towering presence.

This was the first time since Lei Zheng had met Shu Hanqing that the man had voluntarily shown him any warmth at all.

Lei Zheng's hardened, decisive heart was now practically soaked in a boiling honey pot, drowning in tenderness.

He pulled the man in his arms even closer, deliberately lowering his voice: "...What's wrong? Baby, you really got scared today, didn't you? Qin Shenzhen and his men deserved what they got. Even if Rong Hua hadn't made his move today, I would have personally taken those little bastards' lives right then and there."

Shu Hanqing being scared? Of course not.

Lei Zheng's broad palm pressed against Shu Hanqing's supple, slender waist, feeling the warmth of his body through his palm. His Adam's apple bobbed. In the end, he couldn't help himself. His mind wandering, he lowered his head and pressed a scorching kiss to the edge of the white bandage at Shu Hanqing's temple.

The man in his arms leaned into him obediently, not even pushing him away for once.

Seeing this, Lei Zheng was overjoyed. Having tasted a bit of sweetness, he had no intention of stopping.

He tightened his grip on Shu Hanqing's vulnerable, sensitive nape and pressed down hard onto those two pale, bloodless lips.

At the critical moment, Shu Hanqing, quick-eyed and swift-handed, clamped his hand firmly over Lei Zheng's approaching mouth.

This man really never changed his nature—give him an inch and he'd try to take the whole mile.

Lei Zheng's face was pushed away, his lips brushing against Shu Hanqing's soft palm. In the end, he could only concede in defeat: "...Fine, fine, fine. I won't kiss you, alright?"

The restraint of the palm withdrew. Shu Hanqing tilted his head slightly and asked in a low voice: "Rong Hua... is he really alright?"

The moment he heard that name, Lei Zheng's earlier amorous thoughts scattered. Impatiently, he said: "Yan Shenyun gave him an injection to suppress the zombie virus. That little bit of virus won't cause any big waves. Besides, that kid Rong Hua is as tough as a wild mule—he's got a long life ahead of him."

Shu Hanqing had been wearing nothing in the bathroom earlier. Now he had only a loose shirt on, not even a layer underneath, with a thick bandage wrapped around his head. No matter how you looked at it, he seemed pitiful enough to tug at anyone's heartstrings.

The loose, oversized shirt hung slack on him, its excess hem just barely reaching the top of Shu Hanqing's thighs. His long, well-proportioned, elegantly shaped legs dangled bare right in front of Lei Zheng's eyes, making his throat run dry.

Lei Zheng rubbed his nose somewhat awkwardly, covering up his parched throat with a cough: "...I'll go find you a pair of pants. There are no clean underwear right now, so just wear the outer pants for the time being."

Shu Hanqing nodded obediently: "Alright."

His sudden compliance made Lei Zheng feel a sense of unreality.

In the past, the proud and aloof Shu Hanqing would either mock him with cold words and sarcasm, or simply treat him like air.

Lei Zheng found a new pair of training pants, came back, knelt on one knee by the edge of the bed, took Shu Hanqing's bare legs, helped him slip them into the pant legs, and carefully rolled up the excess length of the trouser cuffs.

He gripped Shu Hanqing's slender ankle and rested the injured foot directly on his own sturdy thigh.

Shu Hanqing seemed to be getting a real kick out of being waited on.

Just as Lei Zheng stood up to adjust the fit around Shu Hanqing's waist, he glanced up and caught sight of the back of Shu Hanqing's neck, fully exposed where his collar gaped as he bowed his head—several dark, muted Thunder Marks lay dormant there.

Lei Zheng's heart inexplicably skipped a beat, his mind racing as the curiosity buried deep within him surged to the surface. He opened his mouth, about to ask in a low voice about the origin of the Superpower inside Shu Hanqing's body.

"Knock, knock, knock—"

A knock at the door cut him off.

Lei Zheng thought, who the hell could that be, showing up at such a perfect time.

As the door swung open, the first thing he saw was Yan Shenyun's expressionless face.

Yan Shenyun stood coldly at the threshold, his lab coat buttoned all the way up to the top, radiating an icy aura that made people keep their distance.

Yan Shenyun's gaze cut straight past Lei Zheng's shoulder, boring into the room, and he spat out four words without preamble: "Where's Shu Hanqing?"

Lei Zheng planted his towering frame squarely in the doorframe, blocking the other man's probing gaze like a gatekeeper, and said, thoroughly annoyed: "He's resting here for now, and I'm taking care of him myself. No need for you to bother, Professor Yan."

Inside, Shu Hanqing, who hadn't even put his shoes on yet, felt his heart clench the moment he heard Yan Shenyun's voice.

Ignoring the thick, bulky bandages on his hands and feet, he hopped on one leg, stumbling toward the door: "Professor Yan! Where's Rong Hua? How is Rong Hua now?"

Seeing him teetering, Lei Zheng reacted fast, steadying the swaying Shu Hanqing with both hands.

Yan Shenyun watched Shu Hanqing's concern for Rong Hua, a dark flicker passing through his eyes: "He got the antitoxin, so he won't die for now, but he's still in a deep coma."

With that, he ignored Lei Zheng, who was scowling nearby, and pulled his hand out of his lab coat pocket: "Since you're okay, come with me."

Shu Hanqing hesitated, looking at the hand extended toward him.

Lei Zheng gripped Shu Hanqing's supple shoulders with both hands, pulling him closer into his embrace, and said possessively to Yan Shenyun: "I told you, he's staying with me tonight. Several people got hurt or died today, so you guys must be busy over there. I'm the best one to take care of him."

Lei Zheng had finally seen Shu Hanqing soften toward him, and he was desperate to show off in front of him. Privately, he harbored the absurd suspicion that maybe Qin Shenzhen's sneak attack on the back of Shu Hanqing's head had knocked some sense into that thick skull of his.

He had to seize the chance.

But Yan Shenyun wasn't budging an inch.

He looked coldly at Lei Zheng: "Officer Lei, you seem to have gotten one thing wrong. Shu Hanqing was originally brought here by me personally. And in terms of affiliation, he's a staff member of the Central Laboratory, so he's under my management."

Shu Hanqing's mind was still a mess.

He had finally caught a thread of clues about his memory being erased in his past life, and he was dying to ask Lei Zheng about it.

Just as he was about to speak, Yan Shenyun cut in: "Shu Hanqing, don't forget what you promised me back then. Now, I need you."

Oh, right.

Shu Hanqing recalled that in exchange for Yan Shenyun's help in removing his Lightning Ability, he had indeed agreed to be Yan Shenyun's test subject.

Shu Hanqing said: "...Lei Zheng, I need to go handle something with Professor Yan first. I'll come find you later."

Lei Zheng's face twisted in displeasure: "What did you promise this guy? Tell me, and I'll do it for you, how about that?"

Shu Hanqing looked at Lei Zheng, who seemed hell-bent on meddling in every aspect of his life with that terminal case of machismo—exactly like in his past life.

"...This is my business. I'll deal with it myself."

The door swung all the way open.

Seeing this, Yan Shenyun made a move to scoop Shu Hanqing up in his arms.

Shu Hanqing quickly hopped back half a step, refusing: "It's fine, Professor Yan. I can hop back on one leg, no problem. No need for you to carry me."

Yan Shenyun pulled out a high-end communicator from his pocket and told his assistant outside: "Bring a wheelchair over."

The assistant came quickly, and within a few minutes, a wheelchair was parked at the door.

Shu Hanqing sat down in the wheelchair, letting Yan Shenyun grab the handles.

Yan Shenyun pushed him out: "Officer Lei, mind your position over the next few days. Don't come near our side—we won't be welcoming you."

Lei Zheng spat inwardly, "Like hell I won't come anyway."

This was the perfect chance to show off and curry favor with Shu Hanqing—how could he possibly stay away?

Suddenly reminded of something, Lei Zheng's fingers lingered on his lips, which had touched Shu Hanqing's face just moments ago.

Savoring that faint warmth, even through the palm of his hand, a goofy grin spread across Lei Zheng's face.

Even if Shu Hanqing didn't feel anything for him, he'd make him his anyway.

Let alone the fact that he clearly did—Lei Zheng's eyes flashed with ruthless, unyielding determination.