When Wenchuan was lifted into the Medical Vehicle, he was still clutching Xu Zhihan's sleeve.
There was little strength in his hand. His fingertips gripped only a small fold of fabric, and blood ran down the side of his wrist, dripping onto the vehicle's metal floor before a medic quickly pressed gauze against it. The moment Song Zhixia climbed in, her expression was so grim she looked ready to curse, but after seeing the readings on the monitor, she pressed her lips together and administered the Medicine first.
"Lu Wenchuan, can you hear me?"
Lu Wenchuan's eyelids stirred.
"I can."
Song Zhixia cut away the gauze on his wrist, keeping her voice very low. "Don't fall asleep."
Lu Wenchuan murmured an acknowledgment, but his gaze rested on Xu Zhihan.
Xu Zhihan stood by the vehicle's door, the hem of his clothes wet and his hands bloody. Some of the blood was his own; some came from Lu Wenchuan. The Silver Nameplate lay beneath his collar, its cracks still there. The mark left by the fourth Fragment glowed faintly, like a wound that had not closed.
Song Zhixia did not look up. "Xu Zhihan, sit down too."
Xu Zhihan did not move.
Song Zhixia's voice turned cold. "I don't have time to argue with you."
Only then did Xu Zhihan sit in the chair beside him, his gaze still fixed on Lu Wenchuan's wrist.
The corner of Lu Wenchuan's mouth shifted.
"I'm still awake."
Xu Zhihan looked at him. "You'd better stay awake."
"That sounds like a threat."
"It is."
Lu Wenchuan gave a quiet laugh, so faint that pain cut it short the next second. Song Zhixia administered the second dose, and the red line on the monitor finally stopped falling. It still hovered at the edge of danger, though,