Chapter 456: Face-Slapping and Humiliation
At some point, Wu Sheng had woken up. He lay in his hospital bed, his gaze heavy as he watched the clamoring Guan Dekuan.
When Su Li turned around, she stared blankly at Wu Sheng, frozen in place.
Guan Dekuan, who had been shouting, turned around in disbelief. She was startled when she met Wu Sheng’s eyes.
"You... you..."
"You’re the one who should get out." After days in a coma, Wu Sheng’s voice was hoarse and dangerously low.
Wu Sheng was truly angry.
How could he not be? He’d been woken up by an incessant squawking, and that squawking was telling Su Li to get out.
He had opened his eyes to see a stranger haughtily ordering Su Li to leave, with Bai Xinyue standing right beside her.
There was no way he wouldn’t be furious.
Wu Sheng rarely got angry, but when he did, the terror he unleashed was no joke.
His eyes were dark and grim, and the air grew silent and oppressive under the weight of his voice and gaze.
Guan Dekuan felt as if a hand were squeezing her throat. Terrified, she stumbled back several steps, barely managing to stay on her feet.
Guan Dekuan grabbed Bai Xinyue’s hand, jolting her back to her senses.
She hadn’t expected Wu Sheng to wake up at this very moment. A flash of panic seized her, and it took her a great deal of effort to calm down. Just as she was about to force a smile and greet him, she realized Wu Sheng didn’t seem to see her at all. His eyes were already fixed on Su Li.
His terrifying, grim expression vanished the instant he looked at Su Li. His entire demeanor softened.
The oppressive atmosphere in the room eased along with him.
"Are you stunned? Come here."
Wu Sheng spoke, stretching a hand out toward Su Li.
Su Li, who had been frozen for some time, finally moved.
But it was only to slap herself across the face. It wasn’t a light slap; the sound was sharp and loud.
Wu Sheng’s expression changed, and he shot upright. "Su Li, what are you doing?"
Su Li looked at Wu Sheng and muttered, "Wu Sheng, it hurts. It’s real. I’m not dreaming."
Over the past few days, Su Li had been having constant hallucinations. Whenever she managed to doze off, she would dream that Wu Sheng had woken up, only to wake up herself and discover it was all fake.
But now, it was real. It was really happening.
"Wu Sheng!" Su Li cried out, throwing herself at him and bursting into great, wailing sobs.
"Wu Sheng, how could you wait until now to wake up? How could you..."
In all the days since she’d gotten the call about his accident, Su Li hadn’t cried. She hadn’t dared to. Or perhaps, she had no tears left to shed.
Until this very moment, seeing Wu Sheng awake.
Having suppressed her emotions for so long, Su Li finally let it all out.
It was a strange sort of cry—heartbreaking, as if born from the deepest grief, yet also like the sun breaking through the clouds, filled with overwhelming relief...
It was a painful sound to hear.
Hearing her cries and feeling her body tremble, Wu Sheng’s heart twisted in agony.
"I’m sorry, Su Li. It’s all my fault, it’s my fault..."
Wu Sheng held Su Li, murmuring apologies and comforting words as he lowered his head to kiss her hair.
Again and again, he kissed her. "Don’t cry, Su Li. Please don’t cry..."
At this moment, even a fool could see the deep love in his eyes.
The composure Bai Xinyue had struggled to regain shattered. Watching the scene before her, she felt as if she’d been viciously slapped twice.
’With Wu Sheng and Su Li acting like this, what did that make her?’
As for Guan Dekuan, she was utterly dumbfounded. She was stunned by both Su Li’s sudden, wailing breakdown and Wu Sheng’s reaction.
She never imagined that Su Li—who had always been so cold, so unnaturally stoic she seemed incapable of grief—would suddenly break down like this. A large part of why Guan Dekuan had disliked her was precisely because of that stoicism. Her fiancé was in that condition, yet she hadn’t shed a single tear. She was nothing like Bai Xinyue, who was so visibly worried and grief-stricken.
But when Su Li’s sobs erupted, the sound of her wails made Guan Dekuan’s own heart twist into a knot. Only then did she realize... ’So this is what real grief looks like.’
Wu Sheng’s transformation and the sheer force of his emotions shocked her even more.
’She couldn’t understand it. How did things turn out this way? This was completely different from what she had believed all along.’
’Weren’t Wu Sheng and Bai Xinyue supposed to be the real couple? Hadn’t Bai Xinyue lost an eye saving him? Wasn’t Su Li just some shameless woman who had latched onto him? How could this be...’
Guan Dekuan looked from the completely out-of-place Bai Xinyue to the embracing couple, who hadn’t even spared Bai Xinyue a glance. It took a long moment for her to find her voice and mutter,
"How could this be..."
Su Li’s sobs had just begun to subside, and Wu Sheng was breathing a sigh of relief when he heard the muttered words.
His brow furrowed, and his gaze shot toward the eyesores who still hadn’t left.
Wu Sheng looked up at her, the deep love in his eyes instantly replaced by ice-cold disgust.
"Who the hell do you think you are? Spouting nonsense in my room and you still haven’t gotten lost? And you... Bai Xinyue."
Wu Sheng spat out her name—"Bai Xinyue." Each syllable landed with more weight than the last, his voice dripping with icy disgust and raw killing intent.
As he spoke, his gaze shifted to Bai Xinyue. It was sharp and cold, and the killing intent in his eyes was so thick it seemed to become tangible.
"You actually have the nerve to show your face in front of me!"
"Wu Sheng..." Bai Xinyue called out, her voice filled with terror as she fought the urge to collapse to her knees.
Her eyes filled with disbelief. She had considered that Wu Sheng might be angry when he woke up, given how furious he’d been before. But she never imagined he would be this furious—so furious he looked like he wanted to kill her with his own hands.
Bai Xinyue had been acting a part for the past few days, and had gotten so lost in her role that she was completely unable to accept this reality.
The look in Bai Xinyue’s eyes utterly disgusted Wu Sheng. The killing intent he was desperately trying to suppress began to radiate from him in waves.
"Don’t disgust me. Get out, if you don’t want to die."
’Who the hell does she think she is, daring to look at me like that.’
He looked as if he would strike her dead in the next second. Bai Xinyue stared into Wu Sheng’s eyes, the color draining completely from her face as her pupils dilated in terror.
The hairs on her body stood on end. Wu Sheng’s gaze made her blood run cold, as if she were being stalked by a viper. She had no doubt that the snake would strike in the next instant and kill her.
In that moment, pure instinct took over. Faster than thought, terrified she was about to lose her life, Bai Xinyue spun around and fled in a blind panic.
She stumbled as she ran, as if a wild dog were snapping at her heels.
Already blind in one eye, her vision was impaired. As she fled the room, she nearly fell flat on her face.
With Bai Xinyue gone, Guan Dekuan, who had been hiding behind her, was left exposed.
She stared blankly at Wu Sheng, then at Bai Xinyue’s pathetic, retreating figure. With an expression like she’d just seen a ghost, she dazedly followed Bai Xinyue out of the room.
Bai Xinyue ran out of the room and about ten meters down the hall before she finally felt safe enough to come to her senses.
She turned to look back, only to come face-to-face with Guan Dekuan, who had followed her out.
Guan Dekuan’s expression made Bai Xinyue freeze in place, a chill seeping into her bones as if she’d been plunged into an icy cavern.
Regret, remorse, and overwhelming shame swept over her. She wished the ground would open up and swallow her whole.
She had never in her life been so humiliated. She wanted to find a hole to crawl into and never come out.