Not the Best Start Chapter 9

Blake Pang received the news seven hours later. Ethan Shen was still sleeping. He suddenly had a high fever at night, reaching 42 degrees, which alarmed the nurses and doctors on duty in the entire hospital. Fortunately, after emergency treatment, his temperature gradually dropped to 39 degrees. The hospital was very busy during the day, and Blake Pang did not sleep all night. After receiving the news, he found Jordan Wang outside the emergency room.

"Li Liangqing, 28 years old. His girlfriend Xia Lan is only 20 years old." Jordan Wang put the phone back into his trouser pocket and let out a long breath.

"Where are the people?" Blake Pang asked.

"Inside." Jordan Wang pointed towards the emergency room.

"what happened?"

"Just like you said, he was already beyond saving when we found him."

Blake Pang was stunned for a moment: "What's in there..."

"Xia Lan." Jordan Wang was silent for a while, then said, "Li Liangqing's upper body and lower limbs were sawed open, and his abdominal organs were basically destroyed. Xia Lan was only seriously injured, but she was still alive."

Blake Pang was speechless for a moment, and his eyes subconsciously looked in the direction they came from.

"We are waiting for Xia Lan to come out. The forensic doctor has taken Li Liangqing away. If drugs are really involved, this case will not be a small one." Jordan Wang sighed with a headache.

Blake Pang and Jordan Wang talked for ten minutes on the side chairs, then turned and left. It would take at least an hour for Xia Lan's condition to come out, and Blake Pang was still worried about Ethan Shen being alone.

Jordan Wang looked at his back as he left, and for a moment he seemed to sense something. He opened his mouth and said loudly: "Thank Ethan Shen for me!"

Blake Pang turned around and smiled politely at him. Jordan Wang was silent for a while and said, "Tell him that without him, Xia Lan would be dead by the time we arrived." Blake Pang put away his smile, nodded dully, and disappeared from Jordan Wang's sight. Jordan Wang picked up the ringing mobile phone in his trouser pocket and said, "Jordan Wang. How is it... um... what?"

Kevin Xiao's voice came out from the microphone: "No drugs were detected in Li Liangqing's body. He was beaten to the point of internal organ rupture. He was stabbed 17 times, with the largest wound running through his waist. It is currently speculated that his spine was severed by a diesel electric saw..."

After returning to the ward, Blake Pang subconsciously looked at Ethan Shen's abdomen. Ethan Shen's internal organs were bleeding severely, but his recovery speed was already amazing compared to ordinary people. Blake Pang sat on a stool next to the bed and peeled a pear for him. Ethan Shen didn't like apples, and Blake Pang never ate fruit before, but in the eight years of taking care of Ethan Shen, he gradually learned to make fruit platters for Ethan Shen in different ways every day, just so that he could condescend to taste it and supplement some vitamins.

Ethan Shen was still sleeping, but his sleep was very light. When Blake Pang came in, his voice was very light, but it still made him turn over uneasily. Blake Pang promptly grabbed his hand that was receiving the IV drip and put it away, then began to peel a pear for him.

Ethan Shen slept until 10 o'clock in the morning, and Blake Pang had just finished peeling a pear. He looked at Ethan Shen, who squinted his eyes, and said, "You are finally awake."

Ethan Shen glanced at the pear in his hand, licked his cracked lips and said, "Give me some water."

Blake Pang handed him the warm water that had been poured a long time ago. When he saw him raise the hand that was receiving the IV drip, he moved away and said, "Change it."

Ethan Shen impatiently changed his hand, and drank most of the glass of water on the pillow that Blake Pang had propped up for him, and burped. Blake Pang felt a little relieved, handed him the pear and said, "Do you want to cut it?"

"No." Ethan Shen took the pear, looked at it, and said, "Do you want it?"

"Pears can't be divided." Blake Pang smiled, put the cup aside, and tucked the quilt for him.

Ethan Shen sucked the juice from the pear and said, "How is it?"

Blake Pang knew that the first thing he would ask when he woke up would be this. Although he didn't want to answer, he still opened his mouth: "Two people, one died, and the other is still being rescued."

Ethan Shen paused for a moment and asked anxiously, "Who died?"

"Male, 28 years old, named Li Liangqing."

"Where's the girl?!"

"rescue..."

Ethan Shen sat up suddenly, but then he took a deep breath and let out a hoarse cry. Blake Pang quickly grabbed him, let him lean against him, and then slowly put him down: "What are you doing!"

Ethan Shen's face was distorted and he couldn't even speak. He held onto Blake Pang tightly with both hands. The pear fell onto the quilt, wetting a small piece of the sheet.

Blake Pang steadied him, put the pear casually on the coffee table beside him, and remained in the posture of supporting Ethan Shen in mid-air.

As soon as Mason Yang came in, he saw Blake Pang's weird and twisted posture and was stunned for a moment. Blake Pang heard his footsteps and immediately recognized him. He turned his back to him and shouted, "Fei, come here!"

Mason Yang hurried forward and walked around to the other side of the bed, and was immediately frightened by Ethan Shen's expression.

"What's going on here!"

Blake Pang did not answer him, and said, "Put up the pillow."

Mason Yang hurriedly made a pile of pillows for Ethan Shen.

"Higher."

Ethan Shen exerted a lot of effort to catch his breath, and with a pale face, he let go of Blake Pang. Mason Yang saw that Blake Pang had been keeping that posture motionless, and he felt a little surprised and admired. They often need to maintain a posture when training in the army. Blake Pang has been away from the army for eight years, but his physical fitness has not weakened. Mason Yang now thinks that it is because he must always be vigilant to take care of Ethan Shen, the big bomb.

"The man is still in the emergency room, why are you so anxious? Don't forget that you just had a massive internal hemorrhage, and that man was sawed into two pieces!" Blake Pang was so angry that his voice rose.

Ethan Shen said nothing, and silently moved his head to the other side. The two of them were in a stalemate. Mason Yang was very sad to see this, and he wanted to know more about the man who was "sawed into two pieces" mentioned by Blake Pang. He was ordered to buy breakfast and necessities for Ethan Shen in the morning, but he was the last person to know about the case after running around for the whole morning.

Blake Pang and Ethan Shen were in a stalemate for three minutes. Blake Pang gave up and said, "Captain Lucas asked me to tell you that if it weren't for you, both of us would have died."

Ethan Shen raised his head slightly, and Blake Pang knew that he had heard him, so he continued: "Although the person you saw could not be saved, you saved another person."

Ethan Shen closed his eyes and said coldly: "No."

Blake Pang didn't know what this sudden "no" meant. He tried hard to analyze Ethan Shen's expression, but Ethan Shen's expression was blank.

"She took too much psychoactive stimulants, and the beating didn't kill her on the spot... or maybe he calculated the time..." Ethan Shen's expression became more and more blank, but Blake Pang found something shocking in his words. For a long time, Ethan Shen could only deal with one person at a time. In other words, he would not predict the next person's misfortune before the previous person's misfortune came true. Ethan Shen never talked about this rule, but Blake Pang could sense it. He had two speculations about Ethan Shen. One was that Ethan Shen could not bear the effects of two misfortunes at the same time, and the other was that Ethan Shen's ability limited him and he could not predict two people at the same time. But now...

Blake Pang grabbed Ethan Shen's shoulders tightly, widened his eyes and said: "How do you know that the other one is taking excessive stimulants?! You saw two people? What is their relationship with Wu Busheng!?"

Something flashed across Ethan Shen's eyes for a moment, and he remained silent. Blake Pang did not miss the sudden change in his expression, and grabbed him and made him face himself: "You..." Blake Pang just opened his mouth, and then found that he had nothing to say. Ask him to stop holding on to Wu Busheng? Ask him to stop being paranoid? The person Ethan Shen has been most obsessed with in the past eight years is Wu Busheng, and Wu Busheng put him in jail. Ethan Shen is not Blake Pang, and he cannot let go of an enemy easily. Blake Pang knew that these words were useless to Ethan Shen, but he did not expect Ethan Shen to pay such a huge price for a little clue.

Blake Pang was silent for a while, and just as he was about to speak again, a police officer suddenly pushed the door open from outside, glanced around, saw Mason Yang and Blake Pang, and immediately said: "Xia Lan is dead."

"What?!" Mason Yang shouted. Ethan Shen uttered the same words as the police officer: "Died despite failed rescue efforts."

Blake Pang immediately turned his head and looked at Ethan Shen. He instantly understood what Ethan Shen meant by "no".

"You... knew that already?"

Ethan Shen looked at him with empty eyes: "It's useless even if you send him to the hospital...as long as I see death."

Blake Pang sat in the hospital corridor smoking. He kept thinking about Ethan Shen. He had always thought that Ethan Shen would not look at two people at the same time, but this time he broke this limit. Ethan Shen had 17 knife wounds from Li Liangqing, including one that cut him in half, and also the reaction of Xia Lan's overdose of stimulants.

He looked at two people at the same time.

Natalie Wang's death didn't put him in the hospital before, but this time he was sent to the emergency room. This fact itself made Blake Pang feel a little frightened. He couldn't judge how serious the injury of the person Ethan Shen was seeing was to send Ethan Shen to the hospital, but now he knew the fate of the two people.

Blake Pang pushed his hair back with his hands and exhaled a puff of smoke.

Two people died. To be honest, Ethan Shen didn't go to hell, which made Blake Pang feel a little lucky. Blake Pang speculated that the two people died at different times. Ethan Shen recovered very quickly after the first heavy blow, which saved him a little. Xia Lan's injury was not as serious as Li Liangqing's, and Ethan Shen's high fever in the middle of the night was probably because of this. Blake Pang felt that Ethan Shen had walked back and forth at the gates of hell this time.

Ethan Shen knew from the beginning that both of them would die. However, even so, he still saw the doom of the two. Was this his obsession with Wu Busheng or his hope that Xia Lan might be rescued?

Blake Pang rubbed his face vigorously with one hand. He didn't know. He guessed that Wu Busheng was because he noticed the drugs. Ethan Shen usually wouldn't have such a big interest in two strangers. He took the initiative to listen to what the two people said.

But what puzzled Blake Pang was that no one could understand Ethan Shen's need for predicting people's past information. If one of the items was not described, would Ethan Shen's prediction still be accurate?

Blake Pang finished smoking two cigarettes and threw the B*tts into the trash can. Mason Yang came from the corridor and greeted him.

"Didn't you quit smoking?" Mason Yang looked at the two cigarette B*tts. Blake Pang sighed and said helplessly: "Yes."

Mason Yang was silent for a while, and then said, "If Ethan Shen had not been sent to the emergency room in front of me, I would have really thought he was a murderer."

Blake Pang didn't say anything. He thought of the first time he met Ethan Shen.

Before he was imprisoned, Ethan Shen had already been the focus of the special department of the central government. Fortunately, Ethan Shen was a member of the police force at that time, and his performance was very good, without any bad records, so the central government's attention to him was only at a very low level. Almost everyone in the special department knew about Ethan Shen. Blake Pang took over the job after the previous special police officer who monitored Ethan Shen was transferred.

The special police who monitor special people like Ethan Shen will transfer and replace personnel every once in a while. Blake Pang was just an ordinary special police officer. The first person he took over was Ethan Shen, and until now, he has not taken over the second one.

Blake Pang is also the only special police officer who has taken over a mission for eight years.

Before Blake Pang knew that Ethan Shen was his task force, he had met him once at the Yangcheng Police Station - when he was still an ordinary special police officer. Ethan Shen, wearing a forensic white coat, walked past him quickly with a grim look on his face, followed by several team assistants carrying corpses from the accident scene.

Blake Pang's eyes stayed on Ethan Shen for a long time. Jordan Wang, who was on a business trip to Yangcheng to help deal with the accident, greeted Blake Pang when he saw him.

"You're here."

"Hey, Captain Lucas." Blake Pang raised his hand and greeted him, but when he turned around, Ethan Shen had disappeared.

"Do you find it novel?" Jordan Wang patted his shoulder and pointed in the direction where Ethan Shen disappeared.

"Isn't he too young? Where can you find top students?"

"Ethan Shen, an intern forensic doctor. The kid isn't even an adult yet. But don't underestimate him, most of the difficult cases in this area depend on him."

"So powerful?" Blake Pang smiled noncommittally.

"Haha..." Jordan Wang just smiled and didn't explain in detail to him.

When Blake Pang saw the young face again in the personnel information for his task later, he realized why Jordan Wang had been vague and skipped the explanation at that time. Ethan Shen was not an ordinary forensic doctor, nor was he an ordinary intern with high grades. He was a "special person".

Blake Pang once asked Ethan Shen if he remembered the first time he met him, but Ethan Shen only gave him a cold look. Ethan Shen was reluctant to talk about the time before he went to prison, as if it was a prison of memories.

The second time Blake Pang saw Ethan Shen was a week before Ethan Shen’s accident, which was also the week when he took over Ethan Shen.

Ethan Shen sat on a plastic chair in the police hall, holding a can of Coke in his hand. He crossed his hands around the can, his eyes and eyebrows focused on it, as if he was thinking about something.

Blake Pang hesitated for a moment, then greeted him from the side: "Ethan Shen."

Ethan Shen slowly raised his head and glanced at him, pushed his glasses, and said, "Hello."

That was the most polite greeting Ethan Shen had ever given to Blake Pang in his memory.

His greeting did not contain a rhetorical question, and Blake Pang felt that Ethan Shen did not welcome his interruption and did not even want to know who Blake Pang was.

Blake Pang sat down on a chair next to him and said, "My name is Blake Pang, and I'm a special police officer."

"Oh." Ethan Shen lowered his head again, then he seemed to remember something and raised his head and asked: "What's the matter?"

Policemen like Blake Pang were not recommended to contact the person on the mission. But after seeing Ethan Shen's reaction, Blake Pang wanted to contact this person. He also knew that Ethan Shen might not take him seriously at all. This made Blake Pang feel more relieved.

"I heard you've been following that case --- Wu Busheng's."

"Yeah." Ethan Shen put the can of Coke on the chair between him and Blake Pang, then stood up and suddenly left.

Blake Pang was stunned for a moment. He didn't expect Ethan Shen to not even say a word. Blake Pang didn't know what Ethan Shen meant by his sudden departure. Blake Pang scratched the back of his head and asked loudly: "Where are you going?"

Ethan Shen said, "Throw away the jar."