In the interstellar age, there were very few times when a doctor was needed, even in the military. In most of the mecha w.ars, mecha warriors who encountered serious attacks wouldn’t even have the chance to see a doctor, but would be buried in the sea of stars. It could be said that Yu Xinran’s appearance here today, covered in blood, was the result of her excellent piloting skills.
There were quite a few people gathered around, and after seeing Yu Xinran close her eyes, Duan Hengye heard an uncontrollable whimper in his ears. The robots from the medical area had been waiting here for a long time, ready to take Yu Xinran to the starship’s nutritional warehouse. However, due to the fact that the fragments of the mecha on Yu Xinran’s body hadn’t yet been cleaned up, she couldn’t be moved hastily. Duan Hengye saw the white starship medical robot constantly hovering and moving around Yu Xinran’s side, and the dark red light coming from the small viewport further set off the atmosphere of the scene with tension.
Now that Meng Jinhuai and Dongfang Hewen weren’t on the starship, Duan Hengye was the highest-ranking person here. Although he knew that the people gathered here were here out of concern for Xinran, after seeing the woman’s eyes close in pain, Duan Hengye still immediately turned around and ordered the onlookers to disperse.
Most of the people who stayed on the starship tonight were technicians, and because they had been staying in the back, they were rarely able to see such a scene, so their nervousness spread abnormally fast. Even though Duan Hengye had never been to w.ar before, he was after all a person who had died once before, and his mental capacity was higher than that of these staff members.
Because of the lack of sleep, Duan Hengye was still very tired, but his aura didn’t decrease by a single point. Not long after hearing his order, the people around him returned to their own residences one after another. At this time, the corridor finally became quiet, and apart from the Starship Medical Robot, there were only doctors, as well as Duan Hengye and his assistant Ye Pu.
After it quieted down, Duan Hengye was even able to clearly hear the slight crashing sound of the medical pliers swinging and clamping the mecha fragments with each stroke. There was even the sound of the …… small knife breaking through the flesh. Duan Hengye noticed that even in unconsciousness, Yu Xinran couldn’t help but wrinkle her eyebrows, looking extremely pained.
Because there was no one to cover them, Duan Hengye was now finally able to see clearly where Yu Xinran’s wounds were. In addition to the large piece of mecha debris on her left arm that he had just discovered, Yu Xinran’s injuries below her neck were even more serious. After seeing this, Duan Hengye couldn’t help but tense up, unlike the arm, this location was just too fragile and deadly.
As the doctor moved, the pained expression on the unconscious Yu Xinran’s face became more and more obvious. Ye Pu also noticed this, and after seeing Yu Xinran’s expression, he couldn’t help but take two steps forward, then hesitantly asked the other doctor who wasn’t in a working state, “May I ask …… if Admiral Yu Xinran didn’t have anesthesia?” What Ye Pu said was also the question that Duan Hengye was wondering about.
After hearing his words, that staff member suddenly pursed his lips, “We can’t administer anesthetic, the ingredients inside the mecha’s paint are too complex and toxic. Now that they have entered the bloodstream, we don’t know if it will react in any way when it encounters the anesthetic.”
As soon as the doctor’s words fell, Ye Pu’s line of sight involuntarily fell onto Duan Hengye. To be honest, even Duan Hengye couldn’t help but be stumped for a moment after hearing what that doctor said just now. What he said wasn’t wrong, in order to cope with the extreme temperatures in space as well as all sorts of cosmic rays, the paint composition of the mechas was really very complex, and many of them were toxic. In such a short period of time, even Duan Hengye couldn’t determine exactly how it would react after encountering the anesthetic.
He had never thought about this before, and after hearing the doctor’s words, the hand that had been quietly hanging down at his side couldn’t help but slowly curl up. Duan Hengye thought, simply doing research in a laboratory was indeed two completely different feelings from being personally involved in the practice. Although he had previously imagined whether he would gain any additional valuable experience because of this w.ar, he had never thought of trading his friend’s health …… or life for this. It was just too much.
After all, he was an assistant who stayed with him all day, Ye Pu now had a good understanding of Duan Hengye’s personality. At this time, after seeing Duan Hengye’s expression, he immediately thought that Professor Duan was eighty percent inwardly taking the blame for himself. Ye Pu wanted to say something, but after opening his mouth, he realized that he didn’t seem to have anything to say.
At this time, Duan Hengye finally walked over to where Yu Xinran was, and then slowly squatted down. Duan Hengye didn’t get in the way of the doctor’s movements as he gently picked up the woman’s wrist from the metal floor, and then stretched out two fingers to latch onto it. Although he knew that the medical equipment of the Interstellar Era was very reliable, Duan Hengye understood that if he asked, these doctors would definitely reassure him that Yu Xinran was fine. So after thinking for a while, Duan Hengye still couldn’t help but put his hand on the woman’s wrist.
As a practitioner of ancient martial arts, Duan Hengye slightly knew a little bit about pulse. Although it was only superficial, it was enough to be used here. Experience told Duan Hengye that Yu Xinran’s condition was very bad …… and could even be said to be “hanging by a thread”.
Standing on the side to watch, Ye Pu didn’t know what Duan Hengye was doing, but little by little his expression became even worse. After a while, Duan Hengye suddenly stood up from the ground again, and then stood by the wall for a long time without saying a word.
After seeing his appearance, Ye Pu didn’t dare to ask. For a while, the corridor fell into an eerie silence. Other than the sound of the doctor operating the tools to remove the mecha fragments, there was no more noise here. Time passed by, although Yu Xinran had already been given medication to stop the bleeding, the wound was too large and the mecha paint contained highly toxic elements. Although Yu Xinran’s physical quality was very good, after a while of time passed, her face still paled.
Not just Duan Hengye, Ye Pu’s heart was also firmly gripped by this image. He and Yu Xinran had known each other for ten years, and in Ye Pu’s impression, Admiral Yu had always been the spokesperson for the word “energetic”. Yu Xinran’s complexion wasn’t very fair, but rather a healthy light honey color, and in all the years he had known her, Ye Pu had never seen her like this.
Not knowing how long had passed, the doctor surrounding Yu Xinran finally stood up with some difficulty holding onto one side of the wall. He then took a number of luminous bodies that Duan Hengye didn’t recognize from the hands of the starship’s medical robot on the side, and then affixed them to Yu Xinran’s body.
“Professor Duan, the mecha fragments have now been removed.” Just then, the medical robot went up to gently lift Yu Xinran up, then moved towards the medical room on one side.
Upon hearing this, Duan Hengye nodded and then said with incomparable sincerity, “Thank you.” After all, Yu Xinran was a woman, and although he was incomparably worried in her heart, Duan Hengye still stood in the middle of the corridor and didn’t have the intention of following the robot to the medical room. At this time, the surrounding female doctors who had been watching earlier also followed the robot into the chamber, and then closed the silver-colored hatch.
It wasn’t until the corridor was empty again that Duan Hengye asked those doctors who hadn’t followed them in, “After entering the nutritional warehouse, roughly how long will it take for her to awaken?”
Hearing Duan Hengye’s question, this one doctor clearly froze for a moment. And from the other’s hesitation, he also approximately read the meaning of it. Because he came from the Earth, Duan Hengye was a little too trusting of the current technology and medical techniques that were incomparably advanced in his own opinion. But the truth was that technology wasn’t everything.
The doctor hesitated for a moment and finally spoke, “It’s like this …… Because the injuries that Admiral Yu Xinran suffered now are really too serious, the time of awakening …… this matter, we can’t say. The only thing that can be confirmed now is the recovery of the trauma, the rest is unknown.”
Different nutritional silos had different uses, like the one with special functions that Duan Hengye had used before, it was the one that had special preparations made a few months in advance. And like the ones that the military department always prepared, they were only capable of healing external injuries. So according to the doctor, right now, although Yu Xinran’s wounds were able to heal, whether or not the entire person’s state could be completely restored was still unknown.
Duan Hengye’s fingertips had only briefly been attached to Yu Xinran’s wrist for a while just now, and now, although he had already left it for a long time, there was still a feeling of a faint pulsing beat that had yet to subside on his fingertips.
……
The position he was in now had no view window, so he couldn’t see the sunlight either. Waiting for the doctor in the corridor to finish speaking and leave, Duan Hengye glanced at the light computer before noticing that a night’s time had actually passed like this.
Just now, his nerves had been taut, and it was only after Yu Xinran was sent into the medical room that he felt a renewed sense of exhaustion coming towards him. He moved to walk back, but it was only at this time that he realized that his legs were already a little stiff from standing.
Unable to help it, he reached out his hand to hold the wall of the starship for support. After noticing his movements, Ye Pu, who had been standing nearby, was also a bit worried. Ye Pu walked up, “Professor Duan it’s already morning, you should have a meal and then take a rest.” Duan Hengye knew that his state was also very important right now, so after hearing Ye Pu’s words, he hesitated for a moment before following Ye Pu along towards the dining room.
Although this giant starship was extremely large, there were many people living in it. In order not to hinder the work in the passageway, the robots here wouldn’t deliver the meals directly to the various cabins, so if you wanted to eat, you had to go to a specific place on your own to be able to do so. It wasn’t the peak time for meals yet, and there were only a dozen people in the several hundred square feet of space when Duan Hengye came. Those few people wanted to greet after seeing him, but they were all gently waved away by Duan Hengye.
In his opinion, this restaurant was very similar to the cafeteria when he was in college. Perhaps it was because of this sense of familiarity, after sitting here, the apprehension in Duan Hengye’s heart slightly disappeared. The flavor of the meals in the military restaurant was average, so Duan Hengye quickly finished eating and returned to his own place.
Exhaustion hit Duan Hengye, and when he woke up again, it was already five hours later. His sleep wasn’t restful, and within just five hours, countless phantasmagorical dreams had unfolded. Although when he woke up, Duan Hengye couldn’t specifically remember what he had just dreamt about, the exhaustion brought on by his sleep still hadn’t dissipated.
After opening his eyes, Duan Hengye couldn’t help but be flabbergasted for a moment when he saw this four-sided windowless cabin, before reacting to where he was now. Although his brain’s operating speed was still a bit slow after getting up, Duan Hengye still quickly sat up from the bed, and then took the light device that was in hibernation mode to one side, and began to look at the information that had been received in the past few hours.
What Duan Hengye was most looking forward to, of course, was being able to see the news of Yu Xinran’s awakening. But to his disappointment, he did receive a lot of content on his light device no doubt, but there was none of what he was expecting. Because of his higher authority, many of the messages that Duan Hengye received now were battle situations that were currently not communicated on the Star Network. Because the messages were more important, Duan Hengye had seen a string of bright red alert lights since the light device had awakened from hibernation mode just now.
Most of the content was talking about the execution of Meng Jinhuai’s mission, and after Duan Hengye briefly read through it and realized that nothing had gone wrong over there, he finally let out a sigh of relief.
Speaking of yesterday, when Duan Hengye left the lab, he was in too much of a hurry, and then shortly after he left, Southern Star sent out that kind of notice to the public, and the combination of the two naturally scared a bunch of his colleagues. And now Duan Hengye finally saw the one located in the middle of the cracks, the message Su Mingge had sent him earlier.
Thinking about it carefully, his previous behavior was really scary enough. After seeing Su Mingge’s message, Duan Hengye hurriedly clicked in and proceeded to explain yesterday’s events to him. Of course, now that the conflict between the Ye Tian Empire and the Lai Sheng Alliance had spread throughout the stars, even if Duan Hengye didn’t explain, Su Mingge was aware of what had happened.
However, after receiving his reply, Su Mingge was still very excited. After confirming for half a day that the place Duan Hengye was currently in was safe, the two of them exchanged information about the Institute’s next steps through the light device. Duan Hengye left too quickly yesterday, and there were indeed many important things that were not communicated. Even though Su Mingge now had a very rich experience in dealing with the affairs of the institute, he still couldn’t quickly take over in a short period of time.
After handing over all the work with Su Mingge, another hour had passed. After briefly organizing himself once again, Duan Hengye walked out of his cabin again, then came near the medical room.
After confirming with the doctor on duty who was guarding this place, he finally walked into the cabin after going through heavy sterilization procedures. Unlike how she looked in the morning, Yu Xinran, who was now sleeping inside the nutritional warehouse, had changed out of her military uniform, and she was wearing a white special lab coat, and her long hair, which was originally neatly tied behind her head, was also spread out.
After seeing Yu Xinran’s current appearance, he was taken aback. Yu Xinran’s hair was very long and she had an extremely large amount of hair. Now that it was spread out, from Duan Hengye’s perspective, it really looked very much like water plants in the middle of the deep sea, with an inexplicable sense of suffocation.
This nutrient warehouse was extremely large, saying that it was a small swimming pool wasn’t too far off. Duan Hengye slowly walked forward, and then couldn’t help but stick his hand to the wall of the warehouse. Looking at Yu Xinran, who still didn’t show any signs of waking up, his expression slowly changed.
As a mecha designer, Duan Heng Night had always been very self-conscious. He knew that what he had designed was bound up with the lives of countless people. Among them were both enemies and friends……. Although the mecha Yu Xinran was piloting wasn’t designed by Duan Hengye himself, just today, when the all-out w.ar hadn’t even begun, Yu Xinran had used such a serious injury to teach Duan Hengye another lesson.
-Actually, it wasn’t just the general direction of the design and structure, any detail on the mecha may be magnified in the context of the w.ar and proceed to produce an unexpected effect.
His mood gradually grew heavy as he turned around and left the front of the nutritional warehouse, and after a brief chat with the doctor over here, he once again walked towards his residence.
But before Duan Hengye could reach his destination, he saw a person standing at the end of the corridor. The light there was a little too bright, so Duan Hengye could only roughly make out an outline – that person was tall and wearing a long military uniform. After seeing Duan Hengye standing still, that person also walked over towards him.
After walking in a little bit, Duan Hengye realized that the one who was standing there was actually Meng Jinhuai, he didn’t know when he finished his mission and came back to the starship. What Duan Hengye didn’t know was that because he had just walked out of the medical room, his face didn’t look very good. Meng Jinhuai noticed this, and before he even walked through the door he reached out and swept Duan Hengye into his arms, and proceeded to hold him.
This embrace didn’t last long, and before Duan Henghe could feel the body heat coming from underneath his uniform, Meng Jinhuai had already let go. At this time, the hatch directly opposite Duan Hengye also opened. The warm-colored light inside the cabin was cast onto Duan Hengye and Meng Jinhuai’s bodies along the gap, “Let’s go.” Only after hearing his words did Duan Hengye reach out his hand to push the doorway wider, and then walked in with Meng Jin Huai.
“Yu Xinran ……,” Duan Hengye didn’t know if Meng Jinhuai was clear about Yu Xinran’s condition right now, so after a slight hesitation, he still said the name out. Upon hearing this, Meng Jinhuai also nodded a bit, his expression was heavy, “When I first returned to the starship, I asked for the details of the situation. The doctor said that …… Yu Xinran’s current situation isn’t very optimistic.” In front of Duan Hengye, the doctor might have slightly blurred Yu Xinran’s injuries and told him not to worry too much. But in front of Meng Jinhuai, the leader of the military department, the doctor did have to be truthful.
Although he had a bottom in his heart before, after hearing these words come out of Meng Jinhuai’s mouth, Duan Hengye’s heart still couldn’t help but be shaken.
…… he had never thought about mecha coatings before. After Yu Xinran’s injury a few hours ago, Duan Hengye immediately reflected on it, and immediately after that, he realized that if he had thought about it earlier, he could have actually avoided the current situation.
The significance of life was incomparably heavy, although on the surface he looked a bit cold or didn’t care much about anything, Duan Hengye was incomparably concerned about this.
After hearing Meng Jinhuai’s words, Duan Hengye nodded silently. He wasn’t a person who talked a lot, but after encountering this matter today, his heart gave birth to a whole lot of words to say. But reason told him that the empire was in a special period right now, and Meng Jinhuai was even busier, so he shouldn’t say those words at this time.
Although Duan Hengye himself didn’t want to say anything, but Meng Jinhuai could tell what he was thinking. Or rather with his understanding of the other, even without looking at him, he could guess what Duan Hengye was worried about right now.
Meng Jinhuai realized that at this moment, Duan Hengye was in a very dangerous state. This didn’t refer to the physical state, but rather the state of his psyche that was going to extremes and falling into a trough.
Meng Jinhuai had noticed long ago – Duan Hengye vaguely had this burden a long time ago, and now Yu Xinran’s injury was undoubtedly pushing him in a dangerous direction of self-doubt. Meng Jinhuai had seen many people in this state over the years, and they mostly appeared in defeated generals. This kind of emotion might be hard to detect when it first appeared, but once it festered, it was an extremely dangerous thing.
The two of them stood in the center of the cabin, as Duan Hengye remained silent, Meng Jinhuai once again gently embraced him, then said in Duan Hengye’s ear, “There are some things that an individual can’t decide on …… You’ve already done a very good job, and no one can be perfect.”
Hearing Meng Jinhuai say this, Duan Hengye wasshocked, then he finally spoke, “I know …… But, maybe I’m just selfish, although I knew this before, but after seeing Yu Xinran’s appearance …… ” Duan Hengye didn’t finish his sentence, Meng Jinhuai interrupted him “Do you know how many people around me have gone in so many years of w.ar?”
As soon as Meng Jinhuai’s words were spoken, Duan Hengye couldn’t help but slowly stand up straight, and then looked towards the other with a complicated look. Only to hear Meng Jinhuai say almost word for word, “In these ten years or so, the people who were initially by my side are now only Yu Xinran and Dongfang Hewen.” What Meng Jinhuai said was the truth, but it sounded as absurd and cruel as a story.