After donating blood, Su Ningning drove Su Muchen back to Guichen Studio from the hospital.
By then, the ancient books and records had already been personally delivered from Jiyuan to Guichen Studio.
Su Muchen looked at the records and ancient books packed inside a large confidential case and thought: Looks like I have plenty to investigate now.
But he did not even have time to rest. Working with Qianqian, he packed up the antibiotics, oral antidepressants, blood transfusion equipment, along with the 250cc bag of fresh blood that had just been delivered and was being preserved inside a specially designed refrigerated constant-temperature container. He stuffed everything onto a cart in one go.
He changed back into Dasheng clothing.
When Wei Mingchen had helped him change before, he had roughly memorized how to put the clothes on. Putting them back on was not a problem; he just could not make them look quite as neat.
Su Muchen raised his hand and pointed at the medical kit they had brought back.
“There are the accessories Xiao asked me to bring back inside. The glasses and earphones are both in there. You two can take care of them.”
He had already turned around to leave when that cold, unfamiliar string of words Xiao had mentioned earlier suddenly flashed through his mind.
His footsteps stopped.
He turned back and asked curiously, “By the way, what is a McMillan TAC-50?”
Su Ningning, who was sitting nearby, instantly brightened at the name. She blurted out, “Oh, that’s an anti-materiel sniper rifle. A long-range killing machine. From two kilometers away, it can blow a person’s head apart like a watermelon.”
Su Muchen: “……”
Su Ningning leaned forward, unmistakable excitement and fanaticism appearing in her eyes.
“Xiao wants it? Who is he planning to shoot in Dasheng? Give me ten minutes. I’ll go get him an upgraded model right now!”
Looking at Su Ningning’s excited expression, as if she wished she could carry a rocket launcher through the door this very second, the corner of Su Muchen’s mouth twitched. He silently rolled his eyes.
Is there not a single normal person among this line of Gatekeepers?
Did this whole bunch of people collectively grow up crooked from childhood?
“Ningning, stop fooling around.”
Su Qianqian, who was counting the supplies nearby, shot her a look. Her tone and expression were extremely serious.
Su Ningning shrank her neck and immediately wisely shut her mouth.
Then Su Qianqian put down what she was doing and walked over to Su Muchen.
Her face, which was usually as precise and emotionless as an AI, now faintly carried a trace of heaviness.
“That kind of thing absolutely cannot be given to Xiao in his current state. Gatekeepers cannot interfere with cause and effect excessively. That is gambling with your life against the Gate Cable’s strangulation. He doesn’t care about his own life, but we still want him to live a few more years.”
As she said this, Su Qianqian took a neatly folded note from a hidden compartment and hesitantly stuffed it into Su Muchen’s hand.
“I don’t know whether I should take this out. But there are some things that, if no one tells you… with Xiao’s stubborn temper, he’ll never tell you himself in this lifetime. You’re his doctor now. You should know.”
Su Muchen lowered his head and unfolded the piece of paper.
It was a long-term prescription from a private hospital in Hailing City.
The handwriting on it was cold and rigid. It contained only one medication name—
Triazolam.
It was a powerful sleeping medication classified as a Level Three controlled psychotropic drug.
And in the patient-name column was a name that was so familiar to him that it was carved into his bones, yet at the same time incomparably unfamiliar—
Su Jinye.
The fingers holding the prescription unconsciously tightened. His fingertips gradually turned pale from the force.
So, during those dark nights he could not see, that cousin of his who appeared to be capable of everything actually had to rely on a controlled sleeping medication that was practically like a drug just to barely obtain a moment of peace.
“I already put the medicine in that pile of medications. I don’t really know what he went through, because he almost never talks about his own affairs.” Su Qianqian looked at Su Muchen’s darkening expression and spoke softly. “We Gatekeeper candidates are forcibly sent to the family’s special training facility when we’re young. If we aren’t ultimately chosen by the ‘Gate,’ we can choose to return to our original families.”
She sighed lightly.
“But more than ten years of inhuman training and brainwashing had already created an insurmountable estrangement between us and our original families.”
She turned her head and glanced at Su Ningning, who was somewhat dejectedly twisting her fingers nearby. A trace of bitterness appeared in her eyes.
“Ningning and I… only joined the Gatekeeper team because we simply couldn’t fit back into the warmth of our original family.”
Hearing this, Su Muchen felt as though something had stabbed him hard in the heart. An indescribable bitterness surged up inside him.
He had never known that in order to guard a single gate, the price was a group of children being forcibly stripped of their childhood and humanity through blood and tears—and that someone like Xiao had been created as a result.
Was something like this really right?
“Actually, Qianqian and I are still doing okay.” Su Ningning tugged at the corner of her mouth, trying to lighten the atmosphere. “Back then, when we were sent away, at least one of the elders in our family strongly objected and cried, refusing to let go no matter what. But I heard one of the instructors at the training facility say privately… that Xiao, back then, was personally pushed through the gate of the training facility by his own biological parents.”
Su Muchen’s pupils suddenly trembled.
Only then did he realize that he knew absolutely nothing about Xiao’s original family.
Xiao occasionally mentioned several uncles and elders in the family. He would even mention the old man, Su Huaishan.
But he never said a single word about his biological parents.
The only thing he had ever said was:
I really don’t want to go back there anymore.
Thinking about it now, Xiao was not being rebellious.
It was a piece of rotten flesh that had grown over his heart after being abandoned by his closest relatives.
Su Qianqian’s face rarely showed such a complicated and worried expression.
She looked at Su Muchen and spoke heavily, word by word:
“Xiao probably won’t tell you. Actually, throughout history, the Gatekeepers chosen by the Gate… have never lived very long.”
Those words were like a heavy hammer, striking Su Muchen so hard that he almost could not stand.
He understood the implication almost instantly.
“It’s because… every time the ‘Gate’ is opened, it consumes life force, right?”
Su Muchen’s voice trembled slightly.
Su Qianqian nodded heavily.
“The average lifespan of a Gatekeeper is often only around thirty-five to fifty-five years old, especially during eras when the Gate Master manifests and the two worlds are in turmoil. The previous Gatekeeper died at only thirty-seven. That year, Xiao inherited Guichen’s inheritance and became the new Gatekeeper. At that time… he was only twelve.”
Her eyes lowered, the tenderness and pity in them impossible to conceal.
“He was the youngest successor in the history of the Gatekeepers, and also the one with the most terrifying natural talent. Although he was always defiant toward the elders of the clan, his strength was far beyond what we candidates could ever hope to match, so those elders simply didn’t dare order him around. It’s just…”
Su Qianqian paused and bit her lip before continuing.
“It’s just that he takes everything too seriously. He has too much of a sense of responsibility. He carries everything himself and wants to protect everyone by keeping them behind him… He thinks he’s made of iron.”
Su Muchen stood there, his hands and feet turning cold.
Yes…
Xiao really was like that.
In the past, Xiao had blocked all of Sheng Chengxiu’s threats and all the hidden attacks from the Sheng financial conglomerate one by one. He would not let Su Muchen touch any dirty business, and he kept everything tightly hidden from him.
How could he have been so stupid in the past?
That cousin who seemed almost omnipotent was actually not a god at all.
He was also a mortal who could feel pain, bleed, suffer sleepless nights, and be crushed beneath the weight of responsibility.
If he could return to the past, he really wanted to punch his former self—the self who had been content with comfort and knew nothing—hard in the face.
Unfortunately, there had never been an option to start over.
Su Muchen took a deep breath and carefully slipped the thin prescription into his pocket.
He raised his head and looked at the two people before him, both of whose eyes were filled with worry. He forcibly suppressed the bitterness in his heart and managed to pull out a gentle yet resolute smile.
“Don’t worry.” Su Muchen patted the medical supplies on the cart, his voice steady. “I’m his attending physician now. No matter what injuries he has suffered or how serious his illness is, I’ll take responsibility for taking good care of him. I’ll… heal him completely.”
Hearing this promise, the tightly furrowed brows of Su Qianqian and Su Ningning finally relaxed slightly.
“Then I’ll head over first. I’ll leave Guichen Studio to you two.”
Su Muchen pushed the cart loaded with medical supplies and nodded at them.
“Mm. Please take care of Xiao.”
Looking at him, Su Ningning’s eyes held a degree of respect that had never been there before.
◆◇◆◇
After a brief bout of dizziness, the smell of earth and charcoal fire once again rushed toward him.
The cold once again gathered from all around.
When Su Muchen pushed the cart out through the Gate, he discovered that apart from several elite personal guards sent by Xiao Yuan to receive him, there was also a man standing quietly in a shadowed corner some distance away from the altar, where the light could not reach.
The man was dressed in streamlined black night clothes and looked to be in his twenties.
He stood there expressionlessly, without the slightest trace of a living person’s presence. Yet the gaze he fixed on Su Muchen was heavy.
Perhaps sensing the confusion in Su Muchen’s eyes, the black-clothed man did not say anything. Instead, he lifted his cloak, strode forward, and knelt on one knee beneath the steps in front of Su Muchen, performing an extremely standard salute.
“This subordinate is Mo Fei. Under His Highness’s orders, from today onward, I will not leave your side.”
The man’s voice was utterly emotionless, hoarse and crisp.
Su Muchen froze and instinctively repeated, “Not leave my side?”
“Yes.” Mo Fei straightened, like a lifeless statue, and replied woodenly yet firmly, “Until Physician Su returns to the Administrative Office.”
Su Muchen immediately understood.
This person must be one of the top shadow guards or covert guards under Xiao Yuan.
This enormous underground cavern was wide open, with no rocks or shadows that could be used for concealment. Mo Fei had been ordered to guard him to the death, yet there was no way for him to conceal his movements. So he had simply appeared directly in front of him.
This seemingly somewhat thick-headed behavior actually concealed Xiao Yuan’s almost obsessive desire to protect him.
“Then I’ll trouble you, Mo Fei.”
Su Muchen smiled gently.
Mo Fei said nothing and merely followed silently nearby.
He made not the slightest sound when walking, his entire person like a ghost in the night.
When the group escorted the supplies back to the southern courtyard of the Administrative Office, the night in Dasheng had already grown completely dark.
◇◆◇◆◇
The cold wind of the Northern Frontier howled outside like an evil ghost. The wooden door of the guest room was pushed open and quickly closed again, shutting the wind and biting cold outside.
Su Muchen removed the heavy medical kit and backpack from his back and walked around the folding screen in a few steps, discovering Xia Lanshi sitting before a long sandalwood desk in the outer room.
To avoid disturbing Xiao’s rest in the inner room, several heavy black-lacquered pine-and-crane folding screens had divided the room into two sections.
On one side was Xiao’s sickbed.
On the other was the temporary military desk Xia Lanshi had set up.
The desk was currently piled with mountains of documents, yellowed ancient books, and urgent military reports. Only a dim oil lamp had been deliberately blocked halfway by books, restricting the light to the area around the long desk so that it would not disturb anyone’s peace.
Hearing the movement, Xia Lanshi raised his clear, handsome red eyes. There was a faint trace of fatigue in them that was difficult to detect.
Su Muchen walked over, gently set down the medicine box, and lowered his voice.
“Xia Lanshi, have you slept?”
Xia Lanshi smiled gently.
“Physician Su, rest assured. I’ve rested for two shichen.”
Ever since Su Muchen had previously given the Prince of Su a directive that he had to sleep at least two shichen every day, this rule had unknowingly become the minimum sleep standard for the entire core circle of the Prince of Su’s trusted subordinates.
“That’s good.”
Although Su Muchen felt speechless, he also understood that this was an extraordinary period.
He merely nodded and did not delay any further.
He took the precious blood bag out of the refrigerated constant-temperature container. When his fingertips touched the surface of the bag, he could still feel its slight coolness. In the spring night of Dasheng, even this little chill was already enough to feel bone-piercing.
He quickly placed the blood bag into a portable blood transfusion warmer and connected it to the portable power bank.
When the warmer started, it emitted a faint hum, which was drowned out by the crackling of the charcoal fire beyond the folding screen.
A few minutes later, the temperature of the blood bag had stabilized at a level close to body temperature.
Inside the room, Xiao was lying on the bed and noticed the movement beside him.
He opened one eye a crack and saw Su Muchen half-crouching beside the bed, checking the indwelling IV line in his arm.
The line had been established during the emergency treatment. The needle was large enough to be used for blood transfusion, so Su Muchen did not replace it. He first flushed it with normal saline to confirm that the line was unobstructed, and only then connected the warmed blood bag to the IV line.
As he adjusted the roller clamp to control the flow rate, he watched Xiao’s reaction without blinking.
The dark-red blood was flowing into Xiao’s body through the warmer at a stable temperature.
On the sickbed, Xiao looked at the dark-red liquid slowly flowing into his body.
His cracked lips moved slightly. His brain’s instinctive resistance made him want to struggle.
“Take it away…”
“Don’t move.” Su Muchen gently pressed down on his uninjured arm, his tone leaving no room for argument. “What’s being connected now is blood. If you refuse the transfusion, this bag of blood will have to be discarded. You decide.”
“There’s no need to worry about infection.” Su Muchen’s voice was unusually gentle, as though explaining it to Xiao. “It’s been tested. The blood types have also been crossmatched. There’s no problem.”
When he said this, there was an extremely subtle pause after the words “it’s been tested.”
Outside in the room, Xia Lanshi understood instantly from that single pause and the obvious paleness of Su Muchen’s lips.
This was not someone else’s blood.
It was clearly the doctor’s own life, forcibly drawn from his own body.
Su Muchen had no intention of telling Xiao the truth voluntarily. He knew Xiao’s stubbornness too well. If he found out this was Su Muchen’s blood, he would probably pull the needle out even if it meant his blood vessels burst.
Xiao looked at Su Muchen’s eyes, faintly bloodshot yet bright.
His throat moved.
In the end, all his stubbornness and resistance dissolved completely beneath that gaze.
He wearily closed his eyes and squeezed two words out from deep in his throat.
“…Whatever.”
At that moment, the curtain moved slightly.
Xiao Yuan, dressed in dark robes, had somehow already entered the inner room.
He stood in the shadows, his sharp gaze sweeping once over Su Muchen’s bloodless face. His handsome brows were tightly knitted, but in the end, he remained silent and asked nothing.
Su Muchen took several rows of pills from the medicine box and checked their names and dosages one by one beneath the light.
His movements were quick, yet he did not omit a single step.
He opened the packaging, checked the labels, and placed the medication that needed to be taken into a small dish.
He took warm water from the military physician and half-crouched beside the bed, softening his voice.
“These are your bedtime medications. Get up and take them before going back to sleep.”
Xiao’s gaze fell on the few pills in the small dish, then stopped on the light-blue pill, which had already been broken in half.
He said nothing. He simply allowed himself to be helped upright, placed the pills into his mouth with Su Muchen’s assistance, took a sip of water, swallowed, and then lay back down on the pillow.
Su Muchen placed the cup back on the table and confirmed that Xiao was lying properly before turning toward the military physicians nearby.
“His white blood cell count is still elevated… which means there’s still a mild inflammatory response. The injectable antibiotics need to be continued for at least another two days.” His tone returned to the steady calm of a doctor. “Once he can start eating, we can consider switching him to oral antibiotics.”
He took several rows of pills that had already been unpacked from the medicine box and placed them on the table, pointing at them one by one with his fingertip.
“I’ve written down the dosages and instructions for taking these medications. The nighttime medication should be taken before bed. The daytime medications should be taken according to the time intervals. Pay attention to his reactions after taking them. Especially at night, pay close attention to his breathing.”
The military physicians lowered their heads, their writing brushes moving rapidly across the paper as they recorded the unfamiliar drug names, shapes, colors, and dosages one by one.
Xia Lanshi stood to one side, listening quietly.
He did not take notes because he had already committed all that information to memory.
Every word Su Muchen had said, every number, and the purpose of every medication.
He asked quietly, “If he becomes drowsy or groggy after taking the medication, is that a normal reaction?”
Su Muchen nodded.
“It’s normal at first. If it continues for more than two days, or if his breathing slows or he becomes unconscious, stop the medication immediately and wait for me to return.”
Xia Lanshi nodded and committed it to memory.
Su Muchen walked back to the bedside and glanced at the readings on the monitor.
Heart rate, blood pressure, and body temperature were all within a stable range, with no abnormal fluctuations.
He said quietly, “You still need to rely on this line to hold you up for now. Don’t rush to pull it out.”
Only then did he remember what Su Huaishan had told him.
He said to Xiao again, “The old man asked me to tell you: ‘Once you’ve rested enough, come back immediately. A Gatekeeper doesn’t have to die in front of the gate to be considered responsible.’”
Xiao did not respond. He merely kept his eyes closed.
The blood transfusion proceeded smoothly.
Several military physicians were exceptionally permitted to stand at the corner of the folding screen and observe and record the procedure.
Over these past two days, they had witnessed the astonishing methods of this so-called “Guichen Medical Sect.”
Those transparent tubes, precise flow-rate adjustments, and the small “blood-warming box” that could continuously maintain warmth without charcoal fire.
They all clicked their tongues in amazement while frantically writing on sheets of rice paper.
Of course, these records containing only the superficial aspects of modern medicine would all be strictly controlled afterward by the Prince of Su’s covert guards. There was absolutely no possibility of them being leaked.
Su Muchen had also brought over the medical record for Xiao, No. 003, from Guichen Studio, and filled in the conditions of the past few days, the treatment methods, medications, and data one by one.
The blood transfusion process this time was recorded as well.
Half a shichen later, the blood bag was empty.
Xiao’s breathing had become much steadier, and he had fallen into a deep sleep.
Su Muchen turned off the blood transfusion warmer, skillfully flushed the line with normal saline, and then let the IV drip continue.
When he stood up, his footsteps swayed slightly. He grabbed the bedpost and steadied himself.
Xiao Yuan immediately stepped forward and supported him.
“I’m fine. I just stood up too quickly.”
“Go back to the west courtyard and rest. There are people here to watch over him.”
Xiao Yuan was worried that he would collapse again.
But Su Muchen shook his head.
“I just finished the blood transfusion. He still needs to be observed. Xiao’s blood and mine are somewhat special. I’m afraid there might be some adverse reaction.”
Then he pointed at the confidential case that the personal guards had carried inside.
“I brought the Gatekeeper’s ancient books and records over. I’ll investigate while I wait. When the time comes, I’ll go to sleep.”
Xiao Yuan frowned slightly, but he knew that Su Muchen had his own persistence.
He called for the personal guards to add two large chairs and a table beside Xia Lanshi’s desk.
“I’ll investigate with you.”
“Okay.”
Su Muchen took out, one by one, the ancient books brought from the underground deep vault beneath the Su family’s old residence:
Guimen Sanlu, Miscellaneous Records of the Guimen;
and Shoumen Lu, Chronicles of the Gatekeepers.
Xiao Yuan sat down beside him and proactively pulled the thick branch-family ancient book of the Su family, Guimen Sanlu, in front of himself.
“Jingyuan, this one is for you too.”
Su Muchen took a special booklet from the bottom of the case and handed it over.
“This is the ‘translation of the Sheng Family Fragment’ that Xiao previously recorded using… special means. There may be things inside that only you can understand, although Sheng Chengxiu may have hidden the important parts.”
Xiao Yuan reached out and took it.
At this moment, the long desk held the ancient books of the Su family’s branch, the historical records, and the translated version of the Sheng Family Fragment.
The three of them lowered their voices to the absolute minimum.
Under the dim yellow lamplight, they began carefully unraveling the threads of fate and crisis.