“Thank you~”
Yan Kuan was not good with words; this was already his most sincere thanks.
Although he didn't say it, Yan Kuan's gratitude towards Chen Bugu was genuine.
When they first woke up on the first floor of the inpatient department, everyone was terrified looking at the bones scattered everywhere.
Although Chen Bugu had said last night that everyone could leave this forest, today they almost faced total annihilation, and everyone had a deeper understanding of the dangers of this forest.
The utility of a green-grade equipment, just from the Lianxin Crossbow, was evident.
Yan Kuan knew deeply that this gift was not light, and he was too clumsy with words to express his gratitude, so he could only repay it through his actions in the future.
As for the Storage Ring (Green) and the Wind Gale Dagger, Chen Bugu generously accepted them himself.
He had always lacked effective close-range damage methods, and although the Wind Gale Dagger was only a white weapon, it was sufficient at this stage, certainly better than a Goblin's wooden club.
He had already injected his spiritual power into the Storage Ring (Green), and the ring had completed its recognition of him as its master. Now, besides him, even if others got his ring, unless there was a special method, they wouldn't be able to use it, let alone view the items inside.
Although this battle was dangerous, the harvest was plentiful, and Chen Bugu was quite satisfied.
Just as everyone was preparing to leave the outpatient building, Chen Bugu unexpectedly saw a notebook on the hallway floor.
He immediately recognized it; it was the notebook Lin Ye had been holding when he fell into a hallucination earlier.
“Could it be that everything Teacher Lin saw was just a hallucination? It would be too worthless to end up like that because of it.”
Chen Bugu thought to himself as he picked up the notebook from the ground and began to flip through it.
Page by page, Chen Bugu's expression slowly changed from casual at first, to serious, then to gloomy…
Everyone saw Chen Bugu stop in the hallway, his expression somewhat off.
“What are you looking at? Why that expression?”
Lin Xiaoxiao leaned forward, wanting to see what Chen Bugu was reading.
Suddenly, Chen Bugu closed the notebook and threw it directly to Lin Xiaoxiao.
“Jiang Yutang is Teacher Lin’s wife. You can read the rest yourself.”
Chen Bugu hadn't expected that Jiang Yutang, whom he saw in the hallucination, was actually Lin Ye's wife.
“I need to go to the inpatient department to confirm something. I’ll meet up with you all later.”
After saying this, Chen Bugu left everyone and quickly ran downstairs.
Yan Kuan and Old Liu looked at each other, not knowing what had happened.
Lin Lin and Bai Ting had already moved closer to Lin Xiaoxiao, standing one on each side, following Lin Xiaoxiao as she read out loud, word by word.
“September 10, 2001, Su Xun, that damned idiot…”
Three minutes later, Lin Xiaoxiao’s voice became colder and colder, devoid of any emotion.
When she finished the last sentence, she tore the diary to shreds.
“Ah! I’m going to kill that guy named Huang!”
Lin Xiaoxiao was so angry that she threw the torn diary on the ground and stomped on it several times, but no one stopped her.
Old Liu finally understood why Lin Ye always looked speechless when his wife and daughter were mentioned in the tunnel.
Chen Bugu went to the inpatient department, and after coming out, he walked straight towards the guard room.
In the guard room, Lin Ye sat on the ground, head bowed, sitting silently.
“Teacher Lin, I found something.”
Chen Bugu took out a name tag from his pocket and slowly placed it behind Lin Ye.
Seeing that Lin Ye didn't turn around, he slowly continued.
“That guy named Huang is dead. In the hall on the first floor of the inpatient department, there’s a skeleton whose clothes have a tag hanging on them, with that guy named Huang’s name and his position…”
Lin Ye still didn't turn around. He kept his head down, deep in thought.
“When we were searching the inpatient department, I went to the medical staff's duty room, wanting to change clothes.”
“In the duty room near pediatrics, I accidentally found this, left by your loved one…”
Lin Ye finally reacted. He slowly turned around, his body trembling uncontrollably.
Finally, he saw the name tag in front of him.
The words on it were still clear.
“Tiancheng City First Hospital, Pediatrics, Jiang Yutang”
Chen Bugu silently backed out.
The moment he closed the door, he saw Lin Ye already in tears.
“If I hadn’t kept encouraging her to run for election, to get promoted, she might not have been used…”
“I am the murderer, I am the one who killed her.”
Lin Ye knelt on the ground, clutching the name tag, his words mixed with tears falling to the ground.
Chen Bugu quietly listened to Lin Ye’s self-reproach outside the door, not interrupting.
In his previous life, Chen Bugu also had a woman, but unfortunately, she died in a mission, leaving no remains.
They met during a mission; he saved that girl's life.
That girl wanted to repay him, but she was low-level, had poor equipment, and had nothing presentable.
So she spent a night with Chen Bugu.
In the apocalypse, everyone was in danger, living today might not mean living tomorrow. The concept of chastity was not so important, and it was common for the weak to sell their bodies to attach themselves to the strong.
Chen Bugu also didn't understand why that woman later clung to him, even though he wasn't strong.
But they just lived together, for two months straight.
They went on missions together, hunted mutated beasts together, ate together, slept together. They did everything, yet there was no clear relationship; they never even said
“I like you” from beginning to end.
He, Chen Bugu, was incompetent, a coward, couldn't protect his parents, and didn't make anything of himself. How could he be qualified to talk about love?
After that woman died, Chen Bugu didn't shed a tear, nor did he become disheartened.
He was even surprised to find that he didn't even know the girl's name.
He still followed the team on missions, killed mutated beasts, plundered energy to seek breakthroughs, barely surviving in this fucked-up apocalypse.
Until one day, he had to leave that place. While tidying up the house they had once shared, he found a piece of soft armor the woman had made for him, tucked under the bed board.
The bottom right corner of the soft armor even had the rather cliché words “Bu Gu” written on it.
That day, Chen Bugu suddenly felt immense grief, collapsing powerlessly in the room, tears streaming down his face uncontrollably.
Chen Bugu later asked many people, but no one knew what that girl's name was.
If he had asked her name earlier, would there not have been so many regrets?
If he had cared for her more earlier, would he have been able to persuade her not to go on that dangerous mission?
Chen Bugu didn't know.
At this moment, standing at the door of the guard room, listening to Lin Ye's crying, he suddenly felt a sense of empathy.
Even though there was a door between them, the sorrow spread unchecked like ink dripping into clear water, making him feel a bit suffocated too.
He touched his pocket, suddenly remembering that in this life, he hadn't learned to smoke yet.
He smiled bitterly and walked away in a hurry.