Ye Huizhong entered a room, and the smell of disinfectant immediately assaulted his nose. His gaze went to a bed in the middle of the room. Lying on top of it, a young man was sleeping. His head and hands were wrapped in bandages, and his skin looked paler than usual. There was no significant visible improvement from the last time Ye Huizhong checked on him.
"Leave me be. I want to be alone right now." Ye Huizhong said as he waved his hand to a male nurse standing nearby, prompting him to bow respectfully and leave the room.
"Then I will leave as well, Boss. I'll let you know if we gain more information from the man." The bald man said.
"Alright. You may leave."
The bald man retreated and closed the door, leaving Ye Huizhong alone with the unconscious Dai Zhiqiang. He stood a few steps away from the bad while staring at the young man with an inexplicable gaze.
He recalled that Dai Zhiqiang seemed to be in a good mood last night and couldn't wait to get off of work. However, just when his shift was about to end, there was some commotion in the bar. Dai Zhiqiang was involved in a brawl fight with some troublemakers as the security there.
Despite having the upper hand in the fight, luck seemed not to side with Dai Zhiqiang when one troublemaker took out a gun and caused a tremendous uproar and panic. Although those troublemakers had already been apprehended, the casualties on their side were not small either. One of them was Dai Zhiqiang, who suffered a deep injury caused by the knife of the troublemaker.
Ye Huizhong highly doubted all this was just a mere coincidence. The commotion happened right on the day when he visited the bar after a while, so he couldn't help but feel suspicious that this was another kind of attack from one of his enemies, which was a lot.
Among all his subordinates on the scene then, Dai Zhiqiang displayed an excellent performance by successfully cornering them and apprehending one of them before the authorities came. This way, they could extort some information from the man he caught while giving the rest to the authorities.
Ye Huizhong was actually convinced that those men probably knew nothing and were only disposable pawns, but when he looked at the casualties those people had inflicted on his place and his people, he just couldn't resist the urge to give them the most painful torture.
Ye Huizhong wasn't a generous or clean person. He didn't mind breaking one or two rules if that meant he could achieve his goal.
"Ugh…"
Ye Huizhong's line of thought was interrupted when he heard a groan from the young man. He took a few steps forward and observed his condition closely. Dai Zhiqiang didn't appear to be conscious yet, but he seemed in pain.
"Zhiqiang, can you hear my voice?" The boss asked his subordinate.
"Fa…ther, Shen…Qiang… I'm sorry…." Dai Zhiqiang mumbled in his sleep. "Cai…Yi…"
Ye Huizhong couldn't make out what he said properly because his voice was too weak. It seemed like he was calling out for a few people.
"A nightmare?" Ye Huizhong heaved a sigh of relief. For a second, he was worried his condition had worsened.
"I…have to…find…you…."
Dai Zhiqiang frowned, and beads of sweat rolled out from his temple. He seemed to have a rough time in his dream since he began to trash his legs and injured hands around. Ye Huizhong quickly held him down out of reflex.
"Get a grip of yourself!" Ye Huizhong roared in annoyance, mainly because he was never a patient man from the start, except in front of his grandson.
Thankfully, Dai Zhiqiang only struggled for a while before his eyelids slowly quivered. In the next second, those eyes slowly opened. Perhaps the old man's roar roused him from his sleep.
"Have you regained your consciousness yet?" Ye Huizhong stared at the young man's dazed eyes and waved his hand several times in front of them. "Can you recognize who I am?"
Dai Zhiqiang's eyes gradually regained their focus as the reality seemed to come back to him. "Boss?" He called out hoarsely.
"That's right. Don't move around anymore lest you want to open your injury. If that happens, it will take longer before you can return to your family."
Dai Zhiqiang blinked his eyes several times before sweeping his gaze across the room. "How long since I have been unconscious?"
"Almost a full day."
"This can't be. I need to contact them." Dai Zhiqiang wanted to sit up, but a throbbing on his abdomen made him groan painfully. "Agh!"
Ye Huizhong shook his head. "I have warned you not to move too much, you rebellious brat."
Dai Zhiqiang was drained of energy, and that throbbing sensation was enough to send him flat to the bed again. As much as he wanted to move, he knew his body condition better than anyone. At this rate, it would take a long time before he could meet his family again because they absolutely couldn't find out what had happened to him.
There was also Li Caiyi. He wondered if she would be worried if she knew he was in this condition.
A stinging pain attacked his head in a split second, making him hold his head while grimacing. Ye Huizhong, who noticed that, asked him, "Is your head hurt? Do you need me to call the doctor?"
"No, Boss. The pain is gone now."
Dai Zhiqiang lay on the bed with a messy mind. The nightmare he had just had was probably the worst he had ever experienced in his whole life. Although he couldn't remember much of it, that sense of despair remained even now.
"How is your feeling now? This happens because you are too reckless." Ye Huizhong reprimanded him in a stern tone.
"I feel terrible, Boss."
"I appreciate your honesty. Now go reflect on your behavior last night."
Dai Zhiqiang sighed. "Forget about me, what about those guys? Did we manage to apprehend them?"
"No need to worry about things like that. Your brothers will take care of this. Just focus on recuperating."
"Then can I ask for my phone? I need to at least inform my family so that they won't worry about me."
"I will ask someone to fetch it for you, then. I can at least let you have the remains of it."
"What do you mean by that?"
"Your phone took the brunt of the knife attack directed at you, so it died on behalf of you. You can't use it anymore now."
Dai Zhiqiang clicked his tongue when he heard that, completely forgetting that the one in front of him was his boss.
"You cheeky brat," Ye Huizhong shook his head helplessly, as though he had given up on fixing his attitude.