Chapter 19 - 1.19 Don’t Leave Me
The next scene that followed was a blur in Ren Zexi's mind. It was as if his soul had floated out and he could only see numbly as his body did its subconscious reactions. He dashed to Lu Yizhou, crying out in panic. "Uncle Lu! Uncle Lu, what's wrong?!" Looking at Lu Yizhou's deathly pallor, an unprecedented sense of loss overwhelmed him and he was reminded of the despair he felt those years ago when his parents passed away.
No... it couldn't be. Lu Yizhou was healthy, he was still young. There was no way for him to die...
"Young Master!" Butler An's firm and steady voice pierced through the fog in his mind and sobered him up. Ren Zexi had never seen such somberness and gravity in his face before. "Please make way, Young Master! We have to give Master Lu an emergency treatment!"
E—Emergency treatment? He hadn't had the chance to ask yet when Butler An lifted Lu Yizhou up with the servants' help and brought the man back into his room. Ren Zexi numbly followed behind. This wasn't the first time for him to enter Lu Yizhou's room — he had even slept here often when he was small — yet this was the first time he found out that there's a secret room behind Lu Yizhou's large bookshelf.
Butler An handled the mechanism with ease and the bookshelf which took over the entire wall gently split open in the middle, revealing a totally white room — white walls, white tiles, white bed — and many, many other health related machines.
Ren Zexi stared blankly as the servants agilely lowered Lu Yizhou down to the bed and Butler An who activated the machines and started to connect them to Lu Yizhou's body. Their movements were swift and smooth...as if they had done it countless times before.
"Young Master..." A servant supported him worriedly and brought him to sit down. "It's okay, Young Master. Butler An will be done very soon. Here, please drink some hot water to calm down." He handed a glass of warm water over, yet Ren Zexi didn't move to accept it.
His eyes were trained on Lu Yizhou's face which was covered by an oxygen mask. "What is this...?" His voice sounded strained, even a bit foreign in his own ears. "What kind of room is this? Is—Is Uncle Lu very sick?"
The servant had an awkward expression on his face. "Sorry, Young Master. I am prohibited from telling you anything on behalf of Master Lu's order. You might want to ask Butler An instead because he's the one who has been with Master Lu for the longest time. Please excuse me."
Ren Zexi fixed his stare on Lu Yizhou; on his weakly undulating chest, on the rhythmic beep of the machine he had only seen on TV dramas, and on the foreign medical terms Butler An blurted one by one. None of them registered in his mind.
What was happening...?