DASFAM_104

Half a month later, at the hospital.

The moment the heavy, thick plaster cast was removed, Bai Xu felt his entire right hand seemed weightless, and instead found himself somewhat unprepared for this.

The doctor said, "Try rotating it slowly? Is there anywhere that still feels uncomfortable?"

Bai Xu carefully rotated his right hand, but out of the corner of his eye caught sight of Shang Yanxiao standing beside him, his face full of tension.

"A' Xu? How is it? Does it still hurt?"

"……"

Bai Xu smiled and shook his head, "It doesn't hurt anymore, I'm just not quite used to it, it feels like my two hands are different sizes now."

The medical staff, while handling the cast equipment that had been removed, explained, "This is very normal, after all this hand was immobilized without use for two or three months, later on you'll need to gradually practice gripping."

"However, this bone has only just knitted together and healed, remember that at the start you mustn't overexert it, to avoid secondary injury."

"As for the medication, you still need to take it on schedule, and supplement more calcium and protein."

The doctor carefully went over the routine care methods in detail. Bai Xu knew that Shang Yanxiao would take careful charge of these daily matters, so he simply sat there in a daze, listening with one ear and not the other.

"Alright, there's nothing else, you can head back for now. Come back in a while to take an X-ray and check on the condition of the bone again."

"Okay, thank you, doctor."

Bai Xu got up from the chair, and Shang Yanxiao still steadied him out of habit.

The two walked out of the hospital building side by side, and Bai Xu raised his right hand, mischievously grasping at the air in front of his lover.

"Third Young Master, can you rest easy now? The doctor said the bone has healed very well, it's not a big problem."

Shang Yanxiao helplessly stopped him, "You little troublemaker, can you quiet down a bit? Wasn't I already on edge enough these past two months?"

Bai Xu laughed, "Look how nervous you've gotten."

The two of them returned to the open-air parking lot, and Chen Yufei, sitting inside the car, immediately got out to greet them the moment he spotted them.

Seeing that his own matters had been taken care of, Bai Xu said to Shang Yanxiao, "Alright, hurry back to the company, don't let me hold up your real work."

Although the Shang Group had returned to the right track under Shang Queyan's leadership, this didn't mean that Shang Yanxiao, the vice chairman, could simply do nothing.

Shang Yanxiao instinctively replied, "It's already this late…"

Bai Xu quickly stopped him, "It's not even two o'clock. I've noticed you've been less and less willing to go to the company lately?"

Day after day, using the excuse of taking care of him, lingering at home until the sun was high in the sky, and for several days in a row working from home on the computer, as if wishing he could stick by his side every single moment.

"……"

A rare flicker of guilt passed across Shang Yanxiao's brow, and he had no choice but to agree, "Cough, I'll leave the car for you two, have Yufei take you home, I'll take a taxi to the company."

They had come out in one car, originally planning to head home together, but now with the Shang Group and the estate in two different directions, however you looked at it, it wasn't convenient.

Bai Xu didn't think much of it, "What's the rush? Let's drop you off at the company first."

He wrapped his hand around Shang Yanxiao's warm wrist, and didn't forget to tease Chen Yufei, "Let's go, take your Third Young Master to 'school' first, can't have him skipping class again."

Chen Yufei held back a laugh and agreed, "Yes."

Faced with his lover's teasing, Shang Yanxiao pinched the back of his neck affectionately, "Still daring to laugh at me?"

"No, how would I dare laugh at Third Young Master~"

...

The car drove out of the Central Hospital.

Bai Xu saw the large characters on the hospital's sign at the entrance, and suddenly thought of someone, "Right, what's the situation with Shang Qishun now?"

During this period he'd been focused on recovering from his injuries, and had barely heard any recent news about Shang Qishun, only knowing that after being in a coma for the better part of half a month, he had stubbornly regained consciousness.

Chen Yufei, in the front row, had gotten news from Xie Qi, "Still in the investigation and detention phase, I heard he'll be transferred to the Capital No. 3 Prison by the end of the month."

"The word from the lawyer's side is that the earliest the first round of trial hearings could begin is the middle of next month."

Shang Yanxiao nodded, clearly already aware of this matter.

Bai Xu pressed further, "Where is he now? Still in the hospital?"

"Yes, his injuries are severe, being able to transfer him to No. 3 Prison by the end of the month is already considered fast."

"What kind of sentence will he likely get?"

Shang Yanxiao gave a rough outline, "There are too many cases tied up with Shang Qishun. Lawyer Xiao said that if multiple crimes are combined and punished according to law, he most likely can't escape the death penalty, but there's a possibility of a suspended death sentence."

Hearing this, a glint of darkness flickered across the depths of Bai Xu's eyes, "Death with reprieve?"

Shang Yanxiao's tone sank slightly, "The specific outcome will still have to wait for the legal ruling, but, given Shang Qishun's current situation, the death penalty is the consequence he deserves to taste, and a suspended death sentence wouldn't necessarily be any better off."

Looking at it 'favorably,' even if during the two-year reprieve period he reformed himself and performed great merit, what he'd still have to face afterward would be life imprisonment or a fixed-term sentence of up to twenty-five years.

Even if he didn't die, spending this lifetime crippled in hand and leg, stuck in prison, what hope could there possibly be left?

When Shang Yanxiao thought this far, the hatred in his heart finally eased somewhat.

He stopped this topic in time, "Alright, let's not talk about him anymore. Go home later and rest well, when I get back tonight there's something I want to give you."

A light flickered in Bai Xu's eyes, "Giving me a present?"

Shang Yanxiao met the surprise and anticipation in his eyes, his expression softening, "Mm."

...

Twenty minutes later, Shang Yanxiao got out of the car at the company.

Chen Yufei looked at Bai Xu, sitting steadily in the back seat, "Young Master Bai, shall we head back to the estate now?"

"No."

Bai Xu confirmed that Shang Yanxiao's figure had already entered the Shang Group's building, "Back to the hospital. I'll contact Lawyer Xiao, we'll meet up at the hospital shortly."

"……"

Chen Yufei was stunned for a moment, but quickly understood, "You want to go see Shang Qishun?"

Bai Xu didn't deny it, raising an eyebrow, "Hasn't it been over two months since I've seen him? I really ought to take a look at just how wretched this scum is living now."

This Shang Qishun was someone who had nearly cost him his life, Bai Xu wasn't so magnanimous as to let bygones be bygones.

The law had its own standards of judgment, but he likewise had his own way of doing things.

Although Shang Qishun wouldn't be dying anytime soon, this breath of resentment built up in his heart absolutely had to be released!

...

An hour later.

Lawyer Xiao's figure appeared at the hospital building.

Bai Xu exchanged a brief greeting with him, "Lawyer Xiao, sorry to trouble you to make another trip out."

Lawyer Xiao knew Bai Xu's identity, and spoke very politely, "There's no need to stand on ceremony, Young Master Bai. This is my job duty, it's only right."

During the period when police were investigating and detaining the suspect, only family members with a designated lawyer were able to visit.

Lawyer Xiao lifted the briefcase he'd brought, fully prepared, and gestured, "Young Master Bai, because of Shang Qishun's special circumstances, his hospital room has been separately designated by the police on the seventeenth floor."

"I already applied for this when I came. Shall I take you up now?"

"Alright."

The two of them took the elevator up to the seventeenth floor of the inpatient department.

Lawyer Xiao led Bai Xu straight to the intensive care unit at the very end of the corridor, perhaps in order to make it convenient to monitor Shang Qishun's condition around the clock—

The inside and outside of the hospital room were separated by a huge tempered glass wall, through which the situation inside the room could be seen clearly from outside.

The officer responsible for guarding him was sitting right there on a chair in the corridor outside. He saw Lawyer Xiao's familiar face, "Lawyer Xiao, who's this?"

"Officer Song, this is Mr. Bai."

Lawyer Xiao took out the corresponding approval documents, "He won't be going in, he's just entrusting me to pass along a few words to the suspect. Is that alright?"

Officer Song carefully checked Lawyer Xiao's professional credentials and approval documents, only then allowing them through, "Go ahead. Unrelated personnel can only wait outside, no direct contact with the suspect is permitted."

Though that's how it was said, this glass door and window still made 'meeting' convenient enough.

Bai Xu smiled faintly, politely complying, "Alright."

Lawyer Xiao pushed the door open and entered.

The not-very-spacious hospital room was thick with a mingled smell of disinfectant and medicine, very unpleasant. Shang Qishun lay on the bed with his eyes closed, looking utterly lifeless.

In just two short months, his cheeks had already grown hollow and sunken, his skin taking on a sickly, waxy yellow hue.

His exposed right hand had a thick needle tube inserted into it; his fingers, once considered slender, had long since vanished without a trace, leaving behind nothing but scarred, unsightly 'lumps of flesh'.

The sound of Lawyer Xiao's footsteps startled Shang Qishun out of his light sleep; he seemed to jolt awake from a dream, "Who's there!"

His tone was sickly and listless, with not the slightest trace of vitality left in it.

His pupils slowly focused, meeting Lawyer Xiao's face, "You…"

Lawyer Xiao didn't reply, but instead hinted, casting his gaze toward the glass wall two steps away.

Shang Qishun followed his line of sight, and the instant his eyes landed on Bai Xu, his face, previously sallow, instantly turned wonderfully eventful with expression.

Bai Xu simply stared at him without blinking, deliberately raising a contemptuous smile to the utmost degree, even lifting his own right hand, his slender, fair fingertips slowly rotating—

Giving him a 'greeting'.

Even without saying a single word, it was still enough to drive Shang Qishun instantly mad.

Why should it be like this!

Why was it that, having fallen from a height just the same, Bai Xu could stand before him completely unscathed? While he himself had become reduced to this shape, neither fully human nor fully ghost!

Shang Qishun's remaining shred of self-respect seemed to take a devastating blow. Clutching at the blanket with both hands, he threw it off, instinctively wanting to rush toward the glass wall, wishing he could pass straight through it and kill Bai Xu, who had come to provoke him at his very door.

It's just a pity that Shang Qishun had forgotten about his body's current condition.

——Crash!

With a loud crash, his entire body fell uncontrollably from the bed, the needle in his arm wrenched loose as it caught, and the still-not-fully-healed wound on his lower body sent a tearing, searing pain shooting through him.

His palms, with no fingers left on them at all, and his empty, hanging trouser legs, every part of him served as a reminder:

He had truly become, in every sense of the word, a cripple.

"……"

Shang Qishun's face turned deathly pale, his entire body trembling uncontrollably.

Staring at Bai Xu outside the glass wall, whose face was still filled with that smile, he looked exactly as though he'd seen some kind of malevolent ghost, curling himself into a ball in fear, not daring to face it.

"No, no!"

"This isn't me… I'm not like this!"

"Get away! All of you get away from me! Don't look! Don't look at me!"

Facing his heart-wrenching anguish, Lawyer Xiao didn't show even the slightest trace of pity.

Those who do much wrong will surely bring about their own ruin.

He naturally understood the crimes Shang Qishun had committed; the other man ending up in this state was entirely a fate he'd brought upon himself, not deserving even the smallest shred of sympathy from anyone else!

Lawyer Xiao exchanged a glance with Bai Xu outside, and only then did he step closer to Shang Qishun.

He looked down from above at Shang Qishun, collapsed on the ground, too weak to climb up, and relayed the message at a volume only the two of them could hear, "Young Master Bai asked me to tell you—"

——Shang Qishun, the suffering you're experiencing right now is only the beginning! You caused Yanxiao to lose his parents, caused Queyan to be disabled for life, it's only right that it's finally your turn to taste this kind of agony, wishing you were dead.

——The death penalty would be too easy for you. This worthless life of yours ought to be kept around, kept good and well inside that cold, merciless prison!

——By the way, when you have the time, you might as well spend it recalling everything you once had. Only that way will you come to truly understand just how cruel reality can be!

——Someone like you doesn't deserve regret, doesn't deserve to reform and start anew, you deserve nothing but to torment yourself until the very end of your life!

"……"

Shang Qishun listened to these words that sounded like a demon's whispers, and tears suddenly spilled from his eyes, already red-rimmed. It's just a pity that these crocodile tears couldn't buy anyone's sympathy.

If he could, he wished more than anything that everything he'd gone through was nothing but a dream, and that once he woke from it, he'd still be that Shang family eldest young master, sought after by everyone, possessing everything!

Unfortunately, in this lifetime, he no longer had any chance of that!

The hospital room door closed once again. Lawyer Xiao walked out briskly, and once more politely exchanged a word with the officer on guard.

Bai Xu looked at Shang Qishun, wretched and too weak to get up inside the room, then turned and left without so much as a backward glance.

Lawyer Xiao hurried to catch up, "Young Master Bai, I've already passed along everything you asked me to relay, but are you sure provoking Shang Qishun like this won't cause any problems?"

"It won't."

Someone like Shang Qishun was, at his very core, base and stubborn.

While he was up high, that so-called 'self-respect and pride' of his could serve as his backbone; now that he was in the abyss, it was destined to become the sole reason he clung to his miserable, lingering existence.

Since even his 'enemies' hadn't died yet, how could Shang Qishun possibly be willing to die? Since he couldn't bear to die, all that was left for him was to face a reality crueler than death itself.

"Don't be fooled by the few tears of regret he's shedding right now, if he were ever sentenced to death with reprieve, he'd probably spend his time in prison wishing he could curse me and Yanxiao and the rest of them a thousand, ten thousand times over."

"……"

Lawyer Xiao, having worked in this profession, understood deeply just how frightening the human heart could be.

Bai Xu stepped into the elevator, and suddenly recalled something, "Lawyer Xiao, I heard Shang Qishun will be transferred to No. 3 Prison later on?"

Lawyer Xiao nodded, "That's how it looks for now."

A trace of lingering cold light flickered in the depths of Bai Xu's eyes, "Good, then I'll trouble you to go do one more thing for me."

"What is it?"

"I recall that Shang Qishun's half-brother through their father, Wu Chengwang, is also being held at No. 3 Prison? When you have a spare moment, go on my behalf and tell him the 'good news' that his elder brother will soon be joining him in prison."

"……"

Lawyer Xiao's team worked exclusively for the Shang Group, and he himself saw things clearly enough, he understood the meaning behind Bai Xu's words at once.

Wu Chengwang had been an illegitimate child kept out of the light since childhood; all these years he'd had no choice but to follow his father's arrangements, helping Shang Qishun handle matters, even going to prison in his place.

There was no need to think twice to know that Wu Chengwang hated Shang Qishun to the bone!

If these two half-brothers were to cross paths in a prison governed by the law of the jungle, there would certainly be some 'wonderful drama' quietly unfolding!

It seemed that what awaited Shang Qishun in the future was another layer of hell altogether, and every bit of this ill fate was exactly what he deserved!

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