Chapter Text
Oh no, something is wrong. Very, very wrong. In an indescribable rush of sensation, Shen... (Shen who?) gasped. He felt like his soul vaulted back into his body as his lungs screamed into their first conscious breath. Gasping and disoriented, Shen... (Shen who?) Shen... Shen Yuan? Shen Yuan! awoke chilled, shivering, and alone in a hospital bed.
Frantically, he looked around. It had to have been night. The room was dim, and the faint hums and beeps of hospital equipment generated white noise. Someone in the room was snoring something terrible. Guess it was not a private room...
What was the last thing he remembered?
In bed with someone else, getting cuddled and taken care of by a handsome young man… What!? No!? Absolutely not! Thank you very much! 'System!' Wait, no, what? His brain must really be garbled to be recalling such nonsense.
Dumbfuck author, dumbfuck novel. Yes, that was more like it. Rage. Rage towards the novel he had spent his time and money to read. He had been summing up the score of his complaints with the novel so far, debating people in the comments, growing angrier and angrier until his chest squeezed in pain and his vision went dark.
Another loud snore brought him out of his mind. He fiddled around with his hands nervously, trying to ignore the IV drip pushed into the junction of his elbow. Was there anyone he could call to help him figure out what was going on? Nurse? Family? Mu Qingfang - Mu Shidi? Qian Cao Peak disciple? He sniggered at the last two. Why had his brain supplied these suggestions? That idiotic novel…
It was not long before a night nurse walked by, discovered her patient was finally awake, and alerted his family.
Shen Yuan, though his mind was gaining clarity, his body felt like it must have been dragged through an abyss. His chest was the epicenter of the pain, and his ribs ached with each wheezing inhale. His scrawny limbs felt as though they weighed a ton, and processing this pain, he felt distracted from the rush of activity beyond him. It was not long before two doctors came in. He noted one was familiar, a personal doctor employed by his family, and the other must have belonged to this ICU. The sweep of their white lab coats strangely seemed more familiar than the casual sweats his siblings arrived in or the sleek formal suits of his parents.
There was a flurrying commotion as they all poured into his side of the room. Not that anyone noticed, but the snoring beyond the privacy screen had ceased. His family rushed him, barraging him with love and scolding.
"Ah! You're awake, *sniff* you scared us so much!"
"Your mom's here now; I love you."
"You idiot! How could you let your health deteriorate so badly!?"
And that's what it had been, summed up the doctors. Over his last binge-reading session of Proud Immortal Demon Way, Shen Yuan had barely left his room, let alone his apartment. Over the twenty-day binge - what? he had to re-read it to prove a point to a user he was arguing with on the forums (and no other reason - he had not slept much, not eaten much, subsisting primarily off of caffeine and sugary drinks, and had not gotten up from his computer chair really, except to use the bathroom. Twenty days of this kind of treatment - and it was not the first time he had pulled off such a feat - by the time he had dived back into the forum fray and had gotten himself all worked up again, his heart just could not take it anymore, and he collapsed.
If it weren't for a passing neighbor hearing his final erratic shouting and subsequent slump to the floor, and the expedient response of emergency authorities, Shen Yuan could have ended up brain-damaged, in a permanent coma - or worse - flat-out dead.
He had just awoken from a short-lived coma he was induced into after the event and was on track to make a full recovery thanks to the resilience of youth.
Shen Yuan listened, but not too closely, distracted by the sight of his family. His mother grabbed his hands, his little sister sitting with him on the bed, and his father and brothers looming over him close by. It took him a second to realize his sight was not just blurred by his lack of glasses—oh yeah, he needed those too—but by hot tears streaming out from his eyes.
Why does it feel so long since I have seen them? What do I even say? Shen Yuan thought.
Shen Yuan gained strength by the day. His parents and brothers stopped by when they could, and his sister did not leave his side until she was forced to return to school after summer break. Now, his family seemed reluctant to leave him alone, maybe they no longer trusted him to handle himself like an adult.
Nostalgia colored his emotions as they chatted and told him stories of their daily lives. Strange feelings dredged up in his mind. He had been doted on as the youngest son his whole life, but this did not feel like the first time he was doted on for a medical reason, even though it was the first time his dumbassery had led to such a fate. Right? Wracking his brain, he could not remember any other time...
His family also brought him home-cooked (okay, there was definitely help from the family chef) meals to ensure he ate as properly and as healthily as possible.
He was excited to dig into each and every one of his meals. They should have tasted incredible, especially after twenty days and twenty nights of consuming nothing but energy drinks and sugar—what with his failed photosynthesis from a computer screen and all! But each time, they just tasted… flat? Like he had gotten used to eating six out of five-star cooking? Self-admittedly, he's always been a little spoiled, but not that spoiled, right!?
And then there was the matter of his roommate. He was an older guy, not that much older though; maybe his thirties? Small statured and pudgy, and a fellow glasses-wearing geek. No one came to visit him, not once. He for the most part sat there, on his phone, indulging in the hospital-provided meals, doing his best to stay quiet and in the background while Shen Yuan's own family flitted around him.
Shen Yuan... found that a bit... pitiful. Something in him cared for the well-being of others, especially since... When did that happen? Listen, this guy was here for pretty much the same damn reason he was. Maybe it was not a heart attack that triggered it, but this guy was also recently awakened from a coma. He thought he overheard one of the nurses mention something about electrocution. He had some bandages wrapped around his hands and wrists. And well, he did not really appear to have any support. Like, how sad and scary is that? Shen Yuan might choose to isolate himself, but that does not mean he is alone!
"Hey," he very cleverly piped up. "I do not believe we've introduced ourselves. I'm Shen Yuan." Nailed it. He was the very picture of social alacrity.
The man across the room looked up from whatever he was texting; a hesitant smile reached his eyes under his glasses. "I'm Shang Fei. Nice to meet 'cha."