"Poison acting up?" Qin Ningyi pondered the phrase and quickly grasped the situation. "The other poison in her body?"
"Yes."
"The one she got on the way to Taichuan City?" Qin Ningyi recalled the agonizing pain of the leader he had interrogated.
At that time, the man had been cursing Huo Rou incessantly.
Shen Wuyou shook his head. To make Qin Ningyi understand the gravity of the situation, he had to explain everything.
"That was the second enhancement. Rou truly got poisoned years ago. She'd been managing it well for years, reaching a state of coexistence. I didn't need to suppress it with poison anymore..."
Before he could finish, Anan suddenly looked up and asked, "Uncle Shen, is that the virus research you've been trying to conquer all these years?"
Shen Wuyou froze at his question. He and Huo Rou had never mentioned this to Anan. How did he know?
Anan blinked. The day Qin Ningyi sent him out, he had secretly returned to the room door, bypassing the butler, and overheard their conversation.
He didn't dare to ask, so he decided to investigate himself.
He scoured the internet for every piece of information he could find about Shen Wuyou.
Shen Wuyou's brilliance lay in his ability to solve many difficult problems quickly. Only this virus research project had eluded him for many years.
"Yes."
Anan had always been intelligent. Shen Wuyou, after a moment of surprise, accepted this. He nodded calmly.
"Suppressing it with poison?" Qin Ningyi murmured.
His thoughts drifted to the small medicine bottle in his study drawer, containing the pills Huo Rou had promised not to take anymore.
Those were a sleeping poison developed by Shen Wuyou...
Shen Wuyou didn't notice his anomaly and nodded, "Yes. I couldn't find a cure, and after various discussions, this was the only method found to temporarily suppress the other poison until I could develop an antidote, to lessen Rou's suffering."
He looked at the new medicine in his hand. Even if it was poison, he had no other choice.
"Another person was poisoned along with Rou this time. He died."
"Upon examination, the toxicity of this poison has increased again. The previous medicine for Rou was far from enough for suppression. This is new."
Qin Ningyi stumbled back two steps, the guilt threatening to engulf him.
"The medicine you gave her before... if she stopped taking it..." he said weakly.
Shen Wuyou's eyes sharpened. "She stopped taking it again without authorization?"
"I even threatened her, and she still dared to stop taking it? Even ten years of sleep is better than death!"
Shen Wuyou was furious. "She doesn't care about her own body. Didn't you notice the problem?"
The man who never resorted to violence was also enraged, grabbing Qin Ningyi's collar.
He didn't ask for anything else, didn't ask her to see him, didn't ask for her love.
He just wanted her to live well.
No matter who she chose, who was by her side, or what she wanted to do...
He just wanted her to live well.
To no longer suffer.
As a doctor, this was all he could do for her.
"I'm making progress. Just give me a little more time, five or ten years. I can make her wait until then!"
With the compassion of a physician, he disdained creating poisons.
The first time he ever made a poison was for Huo Rou.
If there had been any other way, who would have watched the woman he loved take the poison he created?
He could only use this method to buy time for himself to find a cure.
"Now you tell me she was kidnapped, and when the poison acted up, she..."
Shen Wuyou dared not imagine. If Huo Rou had truly stopped taking the medicine, she wouldn't have lasted until today. The poison would have begun to act up intermittently.
Qin Ningyi's mind replayed the image of the man in prison rolling on the ground as the poison took effect.
He still remembered Huo Rou's serene expression when she promised not to take the medicine anymore.
The obedient and gentle look in her eyes then was now like a sharp sword piercing his heart.
He gasped for air, overwhelmed by heartache.
"Rou, Rou..."
Qin Ningyi repeated her name incessantly. He had to find her quickly.
He strode towards the door.
Blood had seeped through the bandages on his arm, but his mind was filled only with Huo Rou's pale face.
"Brother Qin!" Zou Xiaoxiao grabbed him.
Where was he going aimlessly? Where was his reason?
"Her medicine, she didn't finish it."
Pulled back by her, Qin Ningyi turned, his eyes bloodshot with deep guilt and self-reproach.
He said the words with great difficulty, his reddened eyes meeting Shen Wuyou's dark pupils.
"Yesterday, she didn't take her medicine at all..."
Upon hearing this, Shen Wuyou could no longer contain his temper and threw a punch.
It was only when Zhao Hengyu came to report the situation that he and Zou Xiaoxiao managed to pull the two apart.
They panted, trying to calm themselves.
"Are you okay?"
Zhao Hengyu looked Zou Xiaoxiao up and down. Although this girl had been to Fenghuo, after so many years, he had to question whether her skills were still effective.
Zou Xiaoxiao gave him a puzzled look. "They were fighting, what could happen to me?"
Zhao Hengyu looked at Qin Ningyi, whose arm wound had split open, and then at Shen Wuyou, who had a bruise on his face.
Was she talking about this?
Never mind. This silly girl. He couldn't be bothered to explain.
He helped Qin Ningyi sit down and explained the situation.
"Our people have located Shen Xiumei's whereabouts. I'll receive immediate notification if there's anything unusual."
They had set up checkpoints everywhere, but Shen Yuanshu had vanished into thin air.
Now, their only hope was Shen Xiumei.
"Oh, and our actions have been too conspicuous. Zhao Wen is already inquiring. Should we tone it down?"
Although all their procedures were legal, Zhao Wen's investigation would inevitably lead to Qin Ningyi.
It was bound to be troublesome.
"No need." Qin Ningyi couldn't afford to worry about such things now. All he wanted was to find Huo Rou as soon as possible.
"Tsk." Zhao Hengyu didn't say much more.
It was rare for this guy to go crazy. He had been waiting for this kind of drama for a long time.
Anan looked at the tracking device Huo Rou had left on him and said with a dejected face, "Mom gave me her tracking device. Otherwise, we could have searched by location."
This remark reminded Qin Ningyi. He looked at Zhao Hengyu. "Get someone to track Huo Rou and Shen Yuanshu's phones!"
Zhao Hengyu also wore a long face. "We tried. Shen Yuanshu's phone has a lot of them, and he doesn't seem to be carrying any. As for Huo Rou's, even the hackers we hired couldn't locate her phone."
"Contact the War Flag Alliance!" Zou Xiaoxiao was a fan of the War Flag Alliance. Who could be better than them at this sort of thing?
"Huo Rou's computer skills are excellent. It's difficult for ordinary people to track her phone. The elders of the War Flag Alliance should be able to do it."
Zou Xiaoxiao excitedly took out her phone. "I'll ask their official Weibo. Given Huo Rou's significant importance to our project, they should accept the job."