Page 151 of He Is My Bride

Li Ying felt the sting as the collection needle pierced his skin and watched it sink into his cephalic vein. He didn’t mind needles or blood, even his own. He had watched his blood being taken many times before, having often offered himself as the medical students’ pincushion in lab.

“Do you see many people here every day?” Li Ying chatted while Wang Yan filled the test tubes through the blood collection needle.

Watching the dark venous blood softly squirt into the tube made Li Ying feel light-headed. He looked away, but that didn’t help. Something was bothering him, and it was not the blood.

“I’m just a stand-in, I don’t know.”

A stand-in…“I see. Where do you normally work?”I need more information!“Excuse my curiosity, I’m a medical student myself.” Li Ying kept up the chatty tone, although his head felt empty and the words just fell out of his mouth.

“Is that so.”

She’snot interested in talking with me at all. I need to get her to talk!

“I’m currently specializing in transplantation surgery.”

“Wow!”What is a resident surgeon doing here? It doesn’t make sense,it’s suspicious!“That must be interesting!”

“M-hm. It is. Challenging, also.” Wang Yan turned the last filled tube of blood in her gloved hands nimbly a few times before putting it on the holder. “I’ll put a gauze on, please press this here.”

Li Ying helped her by holding a swab over the injection site while she took a gauze and wrapped it around his elbow.

“Thank you!” Li Ying’s mind felt like it was floating away while everything around him seemed very sharp and clear. He stared at the blood-filled tubes standing in their holder.

“That’s it, we are done,” Wang Yan said. “You can expect your health certificate by mail by the end of the week.”

“Alright. Thank you, Doctor Wang.” Li Ying got up, took his purse, and left.

The sound of his heels echoed at a quick pace in the long corridor, and his vision grew tunneled as he headed for the door. His breath ran fast. He observed all this as if from outside of himself. Li Ying knew now what it was:

I think I’m having a panic attack. …Why?

Li Ying’s mind was as if external to his body. He reacted faster and made quicker decisions in this state instead of freezing, but he didn’t feel like he was himself, or like anything around him was even real. He thought of the blood tubes.

Gender can be tested from blood. Wang. She was a Wang. She was a Wang. She was a Wang…

Li Ying realized Hanjun was calling his name. Li Ying saw his worried face before him. He was back in the car.

“Li Ying, say something!” Hanjun now shook him gently, and Li Ying was violently dropped back into reality. He heard his own voice speaking:

“The doctor’s name was Wang Yan. She took my blood.”

Hanjun froze. “Wang Yan? Did she touch you?”

Li Ying shook his head. This seemed to help him regain the sense of his body and his surroundings. This hadn’t happened in a long time, not once since he had met Hanjun, although his snapping at Tang Xiuxiu had perhaps been similar.

“She didn’t perform the pelvic examination, but she took my blood. Gender can be tested from blood. We need those samples before they go into the lab.”

Hanjun didn’t hesitate: he reached past Li Ying and opened the glove compartment, taking out a small handgun and a silencer, which he rolled in place.

“Hanjun?! Don’t…!”

Li Ying was in complete disarray, but Hanjun failed to recognize his panicked state.

“Just for protection. Stay here.” Hanjun hid the gun under his belt beneath his jacket and exited the car.

Li Ying was left sitting there, stunned. He heard himself hyperventilating. A voice emerged from inside him then:

Calm down, you idiot!He commanded himself to take deep, slow breaths. He couldn’t panic now.Hanjun needs to be able to rely on you if anything goes wrong. You have to be ready!