“That’s just it!” Sweat was spreading over Chen Lie’s brow like an oil spill; he was so flustered he was now tripping over his own words. “I’ve tried all the antidotes available, none of them work! She’s not getting better—in fact, she’s getting worse!”
“Getting worse?” Huo Shaoheng was skeptical. “What’s the worst that could happen? This isn’t poison. If we run out of options we’ll just let her shake it off on her own. It’s not as though she’ll die.”
“Shake it off? What do you think she is, one of your Special Ops men?!” Chen Lie’s eyes were wide, and his neck was rigid with indignation; in his mind, Huo Shaoheng’s suggestion was completely barbaric.
The soldiers enlisted with the Imperial Military’s Special Operations Forces lived up to their name—they were the truly exceptional, and the best of the best. Their training was extreme, requiring them to risk their lives, and they did not hesitate to use shady methods that were shunned by other soldiers.
Poisons, aphrodisiacs, seduction: each and every one of the Special Ops soldiers had experienced them first-hand, and consequently developed the constitution to resist them.
“Well, what’s wrong with that?” Huo Shaoheng gave him a look that was sharp enough to kill.
Chen Lie produced a handkerchief, and wiped the sweat off his brow. He mumbled, “But she’s struggling so viciously. Look, she even broke the rope.”
He pointed towards a corner, where a white nylon rope lay, torn in two.
Huo Shaoheng glanced at it and said, without missing a beat, “Then give her a sedative. She’ll sleep it off in a day or two.”
It was just an aphrodisiac; nothing he hadn’t seen before.
The Special Operations Forces had to undergo anti-seduction training, and as part of the program they were required to prove they could resist the effects of sexual stimulants.
The soldiers were given aphrodisiacs, injected in small doses.This allowed them to understand not only how the drugs worked, but also how to quickly and effectively take the necessary counter-measures.
It was hell to experience, but the effects always went away, eventually.
Chen Lie closed his eyes. “Fine, I’ll give her a sedative. But I’m not taking any chances. I’m hooking her up to a respirator. I’ll monitor her heart rate and pulse, too.”
Huo Shaoheng nodded. “Do it.”
Both men walked over to Nianzhi.
Huo Shaoheng sat on the edge of the bed. He gripped Gu Nianzhi’s shoulder with one hand and held her arm with another. His grip was as powerful as a metal clamp; Gu Nianzhi, who had been struggling violently just a moment ago, suddenly found herself pinned down.
Chen Lie immediately found a vein and injected a sedative.
During the injection, Huo Shaoheng noticed that Gu Nianzhi’s struggling was becoming increasingly powerful and violent.
He hadn’t been using his full strength, as he was afraid of hurting Nianzhi. Now, however, he had no choice but to pour his entire strength into his grip.
He kept her shoulders pinned in a death grip, and only let go when Chen Lie had finished injecting the sedative.
Gu Nianzhi’s body convulsed once, then slowly subsided.
Chen Lie heaved a sigh of relief. He wiped the sweat off his brow, and said sheepishly, “I should have thought of giving her a sedative earlier.”
As he said that, he put an oxygen mask on Gu Nianzhi and hooked her up to the equipment that would monitor her heart rate and pulse.
Huo Shaoheng nodded, and rose from the bed.
His entire back was drenched with sweat. He turned to look at Gu Nianzhi, who had calmed down, and said, “Well, I’m heading back for a bit—”
He had scarcely finished his sentence when, out of the blue, the monitors Chen Lie had finished setting up started wailing.
The piercing noise echoed all around the sickroom, as loud as a police siren. Chen Lie was so startled he nearly fell over.
“What’s going on? What’s going on?” He jumped to check the numbers on the monitor, and his face immediately paled. “Sh*t, why is her blood pressure spiking?! Her heart rate is increasing, and it looks like she’s suffocating. It’s… it’s the sedative!”
Gu Nianzhi was apparently having an allergic reaction to the sedative.
Chen Lie did not have the time to wonder about this: he immediately said, “We have to give her something to counter the sedative, now, or she’ll die.”
Huo Shaoheng nodded. “Then do it quickly!”
Chen Lie produced another syringe, found a vein, and gave Gu Nianzhi a shot of the counter-sedative.
Almost immediately, Gu Nianzhi’s blood pressure began to fall. Her heart rate and pulse also returned to normal. However, this also meant that her body was no longer sedated.
The itch was burrowing deep inside her, into her organs and bones. It felt like she had a million ants running through her veins, like she was being caressed all over with countless soft feathers.
She could not stand it any longer; she cried out, “No… no… save me… save me… save me, Huo Shao!”
With her incredible strength she quickly freed herself from the respirator and the monitors, kicking and shoving the equipment away. She rolled about, nearly falling off the bed.
She was behaving like a longtime drug addict, forced to quit cold turkey.
“How is this possible?” Huo Shaoheng’s calm demeanor finally cracked, and there was now a flicker of doubt on his face.
Chen Lie looked like he was about to cry. “I knew it, there’s something funny about this drug. I started a component analysis of the drug after getting her blood sample, but reverse analysis takes a long time. It’s not done yet!”
“How long do you need?” Huo Shaoheng’s brows were knit together.
“I’m not sure, maybe at least six hours.” Chen Lie checked his watch. “What are we going to do in the next six hours? Before I’m done analyzing the drug, she might already be…”
Huo Shaoheng shivered.He could not help looking at Gu Nianzhi, who was lying on the sofa.
Huo Shaoheng became her guardian when she was only 12. She practically grew up under his care.
In Huo Shaoheng’s eyes she was still only a little girl.
But now, tortured by the effects of an aphrodisiac, Gu Nianzhi’s body appeared to be impossibly lovely and supple.
Huo Shaoheng tore his eyes away from her, and looked at Chen Lie instead. “What will happen to her?”
Chen Lie shook his head. “I don’t know yet, but judging by her current numbers, the drug may destroy her central nervous system if she doesn’t find relief from the violent effects of the drug soon. If that happens, turning into a vegetable would actually be the best-case scenario for her.”
Huo Shaoheng’s brows were once again contorted. He paced a little, his riding boots tapping out a steady, unhurried rhythm on the floorboards. Gu Nianzhi, who was shivering and moaning, seemed to sense him; she opened her eyes, and turned her head towards Huo Shaoheng, staring at him with unfocused eyes.
Her burning desire showed openly on her small, oval face.
Chen Lie gave a mirthless laugh. “She’s lost it, she’s not in there anymore. Don’t believe me? Try calling her name, she won’t respond.”
Huo Shaoheng stopped in front of the sofa, and scooped Gu Nianzhi up. She was still tied up securely, but her head would not stop thrashing about; Shaoheng had to keep her head still with his hand. “We’re going to my place.”
Huo Shaoheng had a private compound on the grounds of the Special Ops base, complete with a 3-storey house. It was heavily guarded: only those with high-level security clearance were allowed to enter.
Chen Lie nodded. “I was just about to say that. Your place is a lot safer. There are just too many people coming and going here. If someone sees her…” He gave a wry smile.
The soldiers around them may be trustworthy men who had gone through hell and back together, but Gu Nianzhi was a young lady, and under the current circumstances it was necessary to keep her best interests in mind.
Chen Lie covered Gu Nianzhi with a blanket.
Huo Shaoheng bundled Gu Nianzhi in the blanket and took the only elevator in Chen Lie’s clinic down to the underground passage. From the passage, he entered the basement of his compound and went up to the third floor.
Chen Lie followed behind, carrying an emergency medical kit on his back. In his hand was a laptop bag stuffed with sheets of handwritten notes he had yet to key into his laptop.
They reached the third floor of Huo Shaoheng’s house, entered Nianzhi’s bedroom, and placed her on the small bed. Huo Shaoheng freed her from the nylon ropes.
But the moment her limbs were free, Gu Nianzhi leapt on him like an animal with bloodshot eyes. Huo Shaoheng did not mind. He pinned both of Gu Nianzhi’s wrists together in a single-handed grip. He turned to Chen Lie and said, “Come help me.”
Chen Lie looked over to him, and gestured. “Tie her to the bed. Make sure her arms and legs are tied, so she won’t be able to move.”
Huo Shaoheng looked at Gu Nianzhi’s bare arms—they were already bruised purple from the nylon ropes.
He thought for a moment, and then rummaged about in his closet. He found several indigo scarves and proceeded to tie Gu Nianzhi to the bed with them, spread-eagle.