The Escape

When that metallic scraping sound rang out overhead, Xia Mianyue’s entire body froze.

The shape of the ventilation vent was indistinguishable in the darkness; only a subtle prying sound could be heard.

Once, and then again, as if something from above were slowly moving the grille away.

In the next second, a burning hot hand suddenly covered her mouth.

Xia Mianyue’s breathing hitched as she was pressed by the shoulder by Pei Jin, brought into the blind spot between the camp bed and the wall.

“Don’t make a sound.”

His voice was pressed against her ear, low and hoarse to the point of being nearly a whisper.

Xia Mianyue nodded.

Separated by the protective suit, she could still feel the heat of his palm; that was not the temperature of a normal person.

The outer room grew even messier.

Someone was shouting for a nurse, a patient knocked over an equipment cart, and a metal tray crashed onto the ground, rolling far away with a clatter.

The door panel was heavily bumped once, and the medical staff shouted urgently for people to step back.

This medical point could no longer be held.

Pei Jin’s hand moved away from her mouth, his other hand reaching under the pillow to grip that black dagger once more.

Xia Mianyue lowered her voice: “Mr. Pei, is there someone above the ventilation duct?”

Pei Jin raised his eyes to cast a glance.

In the darkness, the depths of his eyes were burning red, yet that bit of losing control was still suppressed by his willpower.

“Not sure,” he paused, his voice growing deeper. “But we can’t wait.”

Xia Mianyue understood immediately.

Right now, one of them was running a high fever, while the other could only count as half a nursing hand.

Outside, the patients were losing control; above, someone might be approaching; and the access control wasn’t necessarily safe either.

Staying here was truly waiting for death.

She quickly scanned around, remembering that when the medical staff were entering and leaving just now, there was a small door behind the equipment room.

“There is a maintenance door in the back.”

Pei Jin cast a glance at her.

Xia Mianyue had already picked up the emergency bag, stuffing the antipyretic medicine, alcohol cotton pads, forehead thermometer gun, and two bottles of water all inside.

Her movements were very fast, a completely different person from when she was frightened just now.

Pei Jin supported himself against the edge of the bed to stand up; with this single movement, his vision violently went black.

The high heat rolled up from inside his body like a wave; his knuckles tightly gripped the bed frame before he barely managed to keep himself from falling.

Xia Mianyue hurriedly went forward to support him.

“You go slower.”

“Don’t talk nonsense.”

Pei Jin’s voice was cold and hard, a trace of panic interwoven within his words.

Xia Mianyue did not argue, merely slinging his arm over her own shoulder.

She was still wearing that set of ill-fitting protective clothing, her movements not considered agile, yet her strength was much greater than it appeared.

Years of pushing carts and moving linens were not endured for nothing.

Pei Jin lowered his head to catch a glimpse of her.

Her round profile was pressed with a bit of a red mark by the goggles, her breathing was also a bit hurried, yet she gritted her teeth without crying out from exhaustion.

This woman appeared soft.

Yet when truly encountering trouble, she was actually steadier than many people.

Just as the two shifted to the doorway of the equipment room, a click suddenly traveled from the ventilation vent overhead.

The grille had loosened.

Xia Mianyue’s back instantly went cold.

Pei Jin blocked her behind himself with a reverse hand, the dagger raised, his gaze deathly staring above.

A larger battering sound suddenly traveled from the outer room.

A patient who had lost control burst through the isolation curtain, and the medical staff shrieked as they retreated.

Amidst the chaos, someone crashed into the equipment room door; the door panel shook once, just happenly blocking their silhouettes.

Pei Jin said in a low voice: “Go.”

Xia Mianyue immediately swiped open the back door of the equipment room; behind the door was a narrow maintenance passage.

A smell of rust and a damp, cold wind rushed against their faces.

Overhead were only a few red emergency lights, alternating between light and dark, illuminating the metal walls as if they were condensed with a bloody color.

The passage was very narrow; two people walking side-by-side was barely manageable.

Xia Mianyue supported Pei Jin as they walked inside, the door behind them brought closed by her reverse hand.

The moment the door shut, the chaotic sounds of the medical point were instantly isolated outside.

Pei Jin walked slower and slower.

His body temperature was too high, and the efficacy of the medicine had not fully kicked in yet, so every single step felt as though he were stepping on a shifting deck, double vision constantly flashing past his eyes.

Yet he still did not press his weight completely onto Xia Mianyue.

“I can hold out,” he said.

Xia Mianyue did not expose him.

She merely supported his arm more steadily, saying in a low voice: “There is an equipment storage bay ahead, go inside to hide for a bit first; you need to cool down.”

Pei Jin wanted to say there was no need, but a bout of low coughing surged up in his throat first.

He turned his head away, forcefully suppressing it, yet his complexion turned even worse.

Xia Mianyue felt her heart tighten as she listened, accelerating her steps.

At the end of the maintenance passage was a grey iron door.

The electronic lock beside the door was old, the red light flickering twice before lighting up.

Xia Mianyue tried once with the backup card stuffed to her by the medical staff just now; it didn’t open.

Her palms sweated as she tried a second time.

Beep—

The green light lit up.

The door opened.

Inside was an abandoned equipment storage bay.

The space was not large, piled with old toolboxes, cable reels, and folding protective panels; in the corner was a folding camp bed, the lighting dim and yellow, the air filled entirely with the smell of metal rust.

Xia Mianyue supported Pei Jin inside, locking the door dead with a reverse hand.

She did not catch her breath immediately, but first dragged a toolbox over to wedge behind the door, and also pushed the movable cable reels over to block the gap of the door.

Only after finishing these did she look back at Pei Jin.

He was already sitting by the side of the folding bed. His collar was pulled open, his forehead was covered entirely with cold sweat, and that bit of red at the corner of his eye appeared deeper due to the high heat.

He kept his eyes raised, watching the direction of the door with vigilance.

Xia Mianyue took out the thermometer gun: “Mr. Pei, measure it.”

Pei Jin did not speak.

Beep—

39.6°C

A haze rose upon Xia Mianyue’s face; it could no longer be delayed.

She dug out the antipyretic patch and water, delivering them before him.

[Pasting it on will make you a bit more comfortable.]

Pei Jin cast a glance at her; this time he did not argue, accepting those two items.

Xia Mianyue took out the towel again, poured warm water and a bit of alcohol onto it, wrung it until it was half-dry, and applied it onto the side of his neck across her gloves.

Pei Jin took a deep breath.

He seemed to want to dodge, yet in the end he merely closed his eyes, permitting that bit of cool sensation to press upon his burning skin.

The storage bay became quiet.

There was only the extremely light hum emitted by the old fan overhead, and Pei Jin’s repressed breathing sounds.

Xia Mianyue wiped past the side of his neck for him, then wiped his arms.

She tried her best to avoid excessive contact, yet the space here was too small, and the folding bed was also narrow.

Every time she leaned forward, she would inevitably get close to him.

Pei Jin kept his eyes closed, his Adam’s apple rolling once.

“Stay far away from me.”

Xia Mianyue’s movements paused.

“I will retreat once I finish wiping.”

“It’s not that I’m afraid you’ll get infected,” his voice was hoarse to the extreme. “It’s that I am not quite sober right now.”

Xia Mianyue’s eyelashes quivered slightly.

She understood; he was afraid he would lose control again like just now, gripping her and not letting go.

She responded in a low voice: “I know.”

Yet she did not stop.

She merely made her movements even lighter, carefully replacing the towel that had already grown hot for him across the protective suit and gloves.

Right at this moment, Pei Jin’s phone vibrated once.

The screen lit up; it was a text message sent by Pei Xubai.

[Zhou Ziqian’s accounts have a problem.]

[A week ago, he cleared a foreign gambling debt; the amount was very large. For Rawlinson to be able to enter the card game, someone must have pulled strings from within.]

[Qin Shuyao is missing; she might be looking for you two. Hide well as quickly as possible, wait for my news.]

Xia Mianyue finished reading, carrying many doubts; there were too many details inside that she couldn’t understand.

In Pei Jin’s view, Zhou Ziqian owed debts, Rawlinson boarded the ship through supplementary registration, and Qin Shuyao was missing.

These matters finally connected into a single line; this accident had not started from the cocktail party.

They had long since been calculated into the play by someone.

Pei Jin stared at the screen, the corner of his lips pulling coldly for an instant.

“Idiot.”

Xia Mianyue knew he was speaking of Zhou Ziqian.

If it truly was for money that he brought Rawlinson into the card game, Zhou Ziqian himself had also become the very first person to be utilized.

Just as she wanted to ask something, Pei Jin suddenly raised his eyes to look at her.

“Xia Mianyue.”

“Mm?”

“If the door cannot be held, go toward that side.”

He pointed to an old-style exhaust vent in the corner of the storage bay.

“Behind that should connect to the lifeboat maintenance line. Your height isn’t tall; you can crawl through.”

Xia Mianyue’s movements went rigid; this sentence did not sound like comfort, but looked more like assigning a path of retreat.

Her throat tightened: “Then what about you?”

Pei Jin leaned against the wall, closing his eyes slightly.

“I will drag them down.”

Xia Mianyue’s eyes instantly turned hot.

He was clearly burning to the point of being nearly unable to stand steadily, his mouth still cold like a knife, yet at a time like this he found a path for her first.

She lowered her head to wring the new towel dry, her voice somewhat muffled.

“I won’t go.”

Pei Jin opened his eyes to look at her.

Xia Mianyue did not look at him, only continuing to wipe the back of his hand for him.

“President Pei told me to keep watch over you. I agreed, so I cannot leave you here alone.”

Pei Jin stared at her for a few seconds.

Unsure whether it was the high fever burning his consciousness until it grew heavy, or because the temperature inside this narrow storage bay was too stuffy, he suddenly raised his hand, clutching the hem of her protective suit.

The movement was very light.

So light that it did not look like an order, but looked more like unconsciously grabbing onto something.

Xia Mianyue was stunned for two seconds, not dodging away.

Pei Jin kept his eyes closed, his voice low and hoarse: “Don’t speak.”

She softly responded: “Okay.”

“Let me lean for a while.”

Xia Mianyue’s heartbeat quietly accelerated.

Yet in the next second, she saw his brow painfully furrow, his forehead leaking another layer of cold sweat.

That bit of ambiguity was quickly suppressed by heartache.

She did not draw back the hem of her clothing, only sitting down by the side of the folding bed so that he could slightly lean against her a bit.

Separated by the protective suit, she could still feel his body temperature, which was hot to an astonishing degree.

Pei Jin’s forehead lightly rested against the side of her shoulder, his breathing settling down bit by bit.

He seemed to say something in a low voice amidst the heaviness.

Xia Mianyue did not hear clearly, and could only lightly pat the back of his hand.

“I am here,” her voice was very light. “Mr. Pei, I am right here.”

At this time, outside the door, an extremely light sound traveled over.

Click.

It sounded like someone swiped a room card.

Xia Mianyue’s body instantly tensed; she raised her head to look toward that grey iron door.

The outside of the door was very quiet.

After a few seconds, it was another soft sound.

It wasn’t Pei Xubai’s people; Pei Xubai’s people wouldn’t fail to speak up to verify.

Someone was testing the door.

Xia Mianyue slowly stood up, her fingers feeling out that roll of heavy insulating tape inside the toolbox.

She looked back at Pei Jin, who was burning to the point of being semi-comatose.

This hurdle, she was afraid she would have to block it first.