Zhou Shiyi was pushed out by Gu Sheng, watching Huang Cheng pounce on Gu Sheng; the two of them rolled on the ground twice.

Soon Gu Sheng gained the upper hand. He pinned the frantic Huang Cheng’s arm. Logically, from that angle Huang Cheng should have loosened his grip from the pain—people always seek benefit and avoid harm—but Huang Cheng risked dislocating his arm and still turned to face him.

At first Huang Cheng hadn’t planned to do that. The people from that organization were all lunatics; they said that as long as an alpha used this, no matter how formidable he was, he’d end up begging on his knees for them.

He himself was an alpha and naturally didn’t like that kind of thing, but he still put it on.

Gu Sheng was caught off guard and got jabbed by Huang Cheng with a syringe.

“Gu Sheng!”

Gu Sheng frowned and pushed Huang Cheng off him with a cold face; the syringe was also taken away.

Zhou Shiyi ran over and caught the wobbling Gu Sheng. Seeing Huang Cheng still struggling, Zhou Shiyi kicked the back of Huang Cheng’s neck, and Huang Cheng went still.

The police were startled too; they hadn’t expected Huang Cheng to dare attack the victim again within just a few steps.

Zhou Shiyi rolled up Gu Sheng’s sleeve and saw a tiny puncture wound on it, blood seeping out.

Zhou Shiyi didn’t know what Huang Cheng had used on Gu Sheng; he ran through all the bloodborne infectious diseases in his head.

He was deeply anxious, but Gu Sheng suddenly went limp and slid down.

Zhou Shiyi hurriedly caught him.

Gu Sheng, however, clutched the back of his neck hard and stared at him without blinking.

“Quick, get him into the car—the ambulance is on its way.” The officer made a call and hauled Gu Sheng up from the ground; Gu Sheng was burning hot all over, his body terribly limp.

The two of them got into the squad car. The officer turned on the siren; other vehicles cleared the way as they sped toward the hospital.

Gu Sheng kept his eyes closed, trembling all over and breaking out in a cold sweat. Zhou Shiyi heard him calling that he was cold and took off his coat to drape it over Gu Sheng.

Perhaps catching a familiar scent, Gu Sheng groggily opened his eyes. A drop of sweat ran into his eye and then out again.

Gu Sheng blinked at the discomfort, unable to make out who the person in front of him was.

“Gu Sheng, hold on, we’re almost at the hospital.”

Zhou Shiyi’s voice trembled; Gu Sheng felt a sharp ache in his nose.

Gu Sheng’s lips moved; Zhou Shiyi pressed his ear close and heard Gu Sheng repeating, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, Zhou Shiyi.”

“You haven’t wronged me, Gu Sheng—stay strong, tell me if you’re feeling unwell, tell me.”

Gu Sheng was still lost in his own world, repeatedly apologizing to Zhou Shiyi, or rather apologizing to the person from Zhou’s memories.

He remembered—he remembered everything.

Just now Huang Cheng had pricked him with a needle, and the image overlapped with the memories.

In the last life, Huang Cheng also used that same needle to jab his gland, and in the end Gu Sheng could only lie on the floor and wail.

Huang Cheng didn’t fare any better. The whole hall was filled with the scent of synthetic pheromones, which robbed him of his fighting ability as well. The teammates who arrived later gave Huang Cheng an injection in his gland; he convulsed in pain and finally passed out.

Passing out might have been the best outcome, but Gu Sheng remained fully conscious and felt the drug working on his gland.

His gland felt as if someone had scalded it with hot oil — the pain was unbearable.

The people from that organization looked at Gu Sheng still conscious and sneered, “There’s one more—he’s not out yet.”

Another person laughed, “Then give him another shot.”

Gu Sheng tried to move backward, but the drug did too much damage to his body. The physique he had always been proud of meant nothing against the serum. In the end he couldn’t avoid it; the group held him down and injected him in the gland again.

He watched those people being arrested by the police, but it was already too late for them—they had all been injected with the drug. Gu Sheng finally held on until the police arrived, and this time he lost consciousness.

When he woke up, he was already in the hospital. He heard the police telling his parents that his condition was irreversible and, in severe cases, could affect his lifespan.

Later, Gu Sheng cooperated actively with the doctors’ treatment. Although the process was nothing short of having every bone in his body shattered and then painstakingly pieced back together, he was fully conscious throughout.

Each treatment left the patient with severe psychological trauma; some patients later fell to their knees before the doctor, weeping, and begged not to be treated anymore.

Gu Sheng had been holding on all along, clinging to a sliver of hope.

Until later, the hospital said they had used their last resort and there was nothing more they could do.

Gu Sheng’s hopes were shattered. When he woke, he found himself bound to the bed with restraint straps applied by the doctors. Sunlight streamed through the window and fell on him, bringing a rare touch of warmth.

Gu Sheng kept staring out the window, lost in thought, until the person across from him couldn’t help but speak.

“Hello, I’m the officer in charge of this case. Do you remember me?”

Gu Sheng continued to stare absentmindedly out the window and didn’t answer.

The officer said, “All the suspects involved in this attack have been arrested and brought to justice. We will give you an explanation.”

“Gu Sheng, we are very sorry about what happened to you. We’ve already been in touch with the hospital; they said there is a procedure still in the clinical trial stage, also researching glands, which might help you. If you’re willing, we’ll coordinate with that lab and give you priority consideration.”

Gu Sheng turned his head to look at him. He watched the dust dancing in the sunlight and felt like one tiny speck of dust—still holding a sliver of hope before finally falling to the ground.

In the end, Gu Sheng still agreed.

He didn’t expect to see Zhou Shiyi in the lab.

Zhou Shiyi probably didn’t expect they’d meet like this either.

Then again, Zhou Shiyi’s excellence in university was obvious to everyone; becoming the lead on an experimental project wasn’t really something to be shocked about.

Later, later on.

That period left him with painfully vivid memories, so Gu Sheng chose to forget. He now overlapped the image of the young Zhou Shiyi with the Zhou Shiyi from his previous life.

He still remembered that, on the brink of death, he heard Zhou Shiyi’s voice trembling as he said, “Gu Sheng, hold on a little longer, your family is already on their way, the doctor has come too, just hang on a bit more.”

Finally, Gu Sheng opened his eyes and covered his bony hand over Zhou Shiyi’s trembling arm. Zhou Shiyi felt the pressure and immediately clasped his hand back.

Gu Sheng touched the wound on Zhou Shiyi’s hand and saw that it hadn’t been bandaged—just exposed to the air, bloody.

A sharp ache rose in Gu Sheng’s nose as he said, “I’m sorry.”

“You don’t have to apologize to me. Really, Gu Sheng, you’re the strongest, bravest person I’ve ever met.” Zhou Shiyi’s hand was very cold; the hand that was usually steady trembled slightly.

A tear rolled down Gu Sheng’s cheek as he said again, “I’m sorry.”

That was the last thing he ever said.

Gu Sheng kept crying; Zhou Shiyi watched anxiously, but could only lay his head in his lap and reach out to wipe away Gu Sheng’s tears.

The police saw it in the rearview mirror, floored the squad car, and finally the police car and the ambulance met halfway.

The moment the car stopped, several medics jumped out of the ambulance, carrying a stretcher as they sprinted toward them.

As soon as they reached Gu Sheng, they carried him into the ambulance.

Zhou Shiyi wanted to follow, but Gu Sheng suddenly opened his eyes.

Gu Sheng’s body was still a bit warm; perhaps because he’d grown used to the pain, these medicines were still within what he could bear.

A tear hung at the corner of Gu Sheng’s eye, but his gaze was clear and his speech perfectly coherent.

He blinked, and said to a worried Zhou Shiyi, “Zhou Shiyi, I can handle it. You go ahead and give your statement to the police.”

After something this serious happened, the police had already notified the Gu family, and now the city’s best doctors were waiting outside the emergency room.

Zhou Shiyi still felt uneasy, but Gu Sheng insisted.

The doctor was urging him as well.

Zhou Shiyi could only let go; Gu Sheng lay on the stretcher, watching Zhou Shiyi through the crowd.

In the middle of the night, in dreams and waking, Zhou Shiyi could still often recall the look in Gu Sheng’s eyes from that time.

That deep attachment and reluctance—Gu Sheng didn’t even dare to blink, as if he wanted to carve Zhou Shiyi into his mind, looking at him with one unwavering, exacting gaze.

Zhou Shiyi stood where he was, watching Gu Sheng being pushed into the ambulance, until the ambulance doors closed and a door stood between Gu Sheng and him.

Although he could no longer see Gu Sheng, the look Gu Sheng had given him at the end was deeply etched into Zhou Shiyi’s mind.

Watching the ambulance drive away, Zhou Shiyi felt as if a piece of himself had suddenly gone missing.

The police got out of the car and took Zhou Shiyi back into the vehicle.

Zhou Shiyi, however, kept worrying about Gu Sheng’s condition, his mind uneasy.

Gu Sheng lay on the hospital bed, listening to the doctor say, “Someone injected the patient with a drug; we still don’t know what it is.”

“It’s a synthetic pheromone,” Gu Sheng suddenly said.

The doctor asked in surprise, “You know?”

His body was faintly feverish, the glands injured at the back of his neck throbbing dully; that kind of pain that penetrated his organs reminded him of what he’d gone through in his previous life.

But this time, he hadn’t let Huang Cheng touch his glands, and the syringe only stayed in his body for a moment before being pulled out, so not much of the drug was actually injected.

The reason he was in such agony was entirely because the lost memories suddenly snapped back into place—several years’ worth returning all at once—and his brain couldn’t handle it.

He spent his last three years in Zhou Shiyi’s laboratory. During those three years, he endured that kind of pain every single day; by the end, he had grown mostly numb.

Now this small bit of pain meant nothing to him.

After explaining his condition to the doctor, the doctor gave him drugs to stimulate metabolism, to help him metabolize the excess pheromones.

Being injected with artificially synthesized pheromones can lead to minor or major problems.

In medicine, pheromones are also injected into alphas and omegas who have not yet reached maturity to stimulate their glands and trigger the maturation process. The whole procedure is controlled by doctors to avoid irreversible harm.

But if the pheromones injected at one time exceed the person’s own maximum capacity, the patient’s glands won’t be able to handle it and will suffer damage.

Pheromones play a regulatory role in various bodily functions of alphas and omegas; if the glands are damaged, it will cause all kinds of physical problems for alphas and omegas, the most obvious being unrelenting pain, as well as disruption of susceptibility and heat cycles.

As time went on, without exception, alphas and omegas died from pheromone□□; in the end many literally died from the pain, unable to bear it and choosing to kill themselves.

So the regulation on artificial synthesized pheromones was very strict; they could only be accessed after multiple inspections.

At the sound of Gu Sheng mentioning artificially synthesized pheromones, none of them reacted at first.

When they arrived at the hospital, sure enough the Gu family had already gotten there. They’d been frantic on the way; Gu Yuan, who was always immaculate, had his hair disheveled.

Seeing his family all there, and thinking of how in his past life he had died alone in Zhou Shiyi’s arms without even getting to see them one last time, he squeezed Nian Meilan’s hand and called out, “Mom.”

Gu Sheng’s tears seemed like he couldn’t hold them back any longer; it was as if he had suffered some enormous grievance, and the moment he saw his family he suddenly broke down.

The Gu family were all stunned—Gu Sheng hadn’t cried in front of them since he was seven.

Nian Meilan made a soft “ai” sound. “Shengsheng, don’t be afraid, we’re all here.”

Gu Sheng nodded as the doctor pushed him into the emergency room.

Before being pushed in, Gu Sheng glanced once toward the hospital entrance. He didn’t see the person he wanted to see. He closed his eyes and silently mouthed that person’s name in his mind.