Chapter 324: A Half-Life That Was Rather Lucky

After Denton left the gun shop, his mood was one of frustration and unease.

"Damn it, he actually dropped the ball on something like this! He actually dropped the ball on something like this!"

He hammered the steering wheel twice, cursing himself bitterly in his heart: "I'm so stupid... stupid like this, how can I possibly avenge Elizabeth?"

In fact, right at this moment, he wanted nothing more than to slap himself twice more, but he was about to return to the hospital to see Elizabeth, and he must not show any cracks on his face.

Denton rubbed his face, smearing away the marks of the two slaps he had received in the gun shop, then drove the car out of the alley.

"Fortunately, I still managed to get quite a few handguns and bullets," he thought to himself. "These things are enough for me to execute the plan, or rather, even without these things, I would still have to do it."

The black van circled around in the Central City, winding through street after street; after circling for fifteen minutes, Denton confirmed there were no followers behind him, so he drove the car to Central City Hospital.

He carried the bag of pastries upstairs—just yesterday, due to his long-term unemployment, Elizabeth had been transferred from the ICU to a general ward, and his savings were exhausted.

Denton's mood was very complex; he did not know what feelings to hold toward this. He felt very guilty for failing to protect his wife, but Elizabeth's view was different.

"My time is running out, Denton," she said. "I don't want to die in the ICU."

"It's too quiet in there, no one talks, no one sings, and I can't see you. Just moving to a general ward is fine; you can accompany me by the bedside, sing for me, and bring me pastries."

He said nothing, feeling only ashamed; he had failed to protect either his life's research or his life's partner.

"When he was young, he was just an ordinary bookworm; after growing up, he liked biological science, so he smoothly completed his doctorate and became a researcher."

Sunlight spilled into the ward from the window, falling on the hospital bed, warming the person lying there.

The person on the hospital bed was telling Ma Ma Zhaodi her story.

"That is when I met him. Thinking carefully, it seems I haven't walked with him for too long a path until now—maybe just over ten years?"

The black-haired woman lay on the bed, recalling as she spoke; as she spoke, she seemed to drift off into a daze.

"Over ten years isn't long?"

Ma Ma Zhaodi casually handed her a chocolate: "Special made, want to try?"

"Thanks, Old Ma."

Elizabeth smiled as she peeled open the chocolate: "Over ten years is so short; actually, I wanted to accompany him for several more decades... pity my luck wasn't very good."

After speaking, she peeked cautiously around the room and the corridor, then only then put the chocolate into her mouth.

"Haven't eaten this in a long time." While chewing the wine-filled chocolate, she explained quietly: "When I was in the ICU, the doctors wouldn't let me eat anything, but now that I'm out, I can secretly eat."

"When you get home, just call Denton to buy it for you." Ma Ma Zhaodi shrugged, stood up to take his leave: "See you next time; remember to come buy my pastries."

"If we meet again, I will definitely come buy." Elizabeth smiled: "Old Ma, could you turn on the TV? I want to watch the news."

"Sure."

When Denton went upstairs, Ma Ma Zhaodi was tuning the news channels in the ward.

"Oh, great, it's Denton." He said happily: "Come quickly, come quickly; I can't figure out your channels. Your wife wants to watch the news."

He wasn't lying; actually, over the past period of time, Ma Ma Zhaodi hadn't even watched TV much; computers and mobile phones were his most common information collection channels—remote controls and program channels and the like were things he simply never cared about.

"Old Ma? Why are you here—"

Before Denton's question could fully leave his lips, a thick wariness already appeared in his eyes; meeting Old Ma once at the gun shop was already quite coincidental, now meeting him again at the hospital, and this time the other party had even directly found Elizabeth's ward; this made it impossible for him not to be nervous.

If he had evil intentions toward him, Elizabeth would become the best bargaining chip. "Is he following me? Or does he actually know what I did today? Has he investigated me? Was he sent by someone?"

Fortunately, Elizabeth spoke up at this moment.

"Denton, you're back? Old Ma came to the hospital today to deliver pastries to someone, and I just happened to see him, so I forcibly dragged him to chat for a while and extorted a few pastries."

"It's not really 'forcibly' or 'extorted'." Ma Ma Zhaodi spread his hands: "Business can be done anytime; I'm not that urgent."

Denton took the remote, casually switched to the Central City News, then said to Elizabeth: "Elizabeth, wait a moment; I'll pay him for the pastries."

"Oh, oh."

"Denton, that's just a few pastries, no need to—"

"Don't speak yet; I have something to ask you."

In the hospital corridor, Denton spoke quietly with Ma Ma Zhaodi: "Did you really come to deliver pastries?"

"If I can deliver to the gun shop, can't I deliver to the hospital? My skills are good; having orders anywhere is normal, right?"

"Then did you tell Elizabeth about me working at the gun shop?"

"No, I didn't. Why? Did you hide it from her and go there?"

"I... I was afraid she would worry. In any case, just don't mention this matter."

"Then that's easy to say."

After the two briefly finished discussing, Ma Ma Zhaodi returned to the ward to bid farewell to Denton and Elizabeth, then went downstairs and left.

And Denton was peeling an apple for Elizabeth by the bedside.

"Denton, aren't you going to the lab this afternoon?"

"... I secretly ran out for a while to see you."

"You've been running out too many times recently." Elizabeth's beautiful eyebrows furrowed: "I'm right here; I won't grow legs and run away."

"It's fine." Denton forced a smile at her: "Your side is more important."

Elizabeth reached out and touched Denton's face, wanting to say something, but her gaze was then drawn to the news on the TV.

"This morning, a sudden fire broke out in a residential building; the fire spread rapidly, expanding to the entire building. Currently, this major fire has been extinguished by firefighters; the police are searching for the cause of the fire. Fortunately, no one was injured in this major fire."

"It is worth mentioning that a young girl in the fire scene and several men and women repeatedly emphasized that they were instantly rescued from the fire scene by a red lightning bolt; however, other people outside the fire scene seemed not to have seen this strange red lightning bolt. Currently, we can only tentatively conclude that this is because the fire scene lacked oxygen, causing some groups to collectively hallucinate."

"Red lightning..."

Denton, who was peeling the apple, glanced at the news and thought silently in his heart: "Could it be another person like me? Just that our abilities are a bit different?"

Facts proved that Denton's brain was indeed much sharper than Clyde's.

And the news broadcast on the TV continued.

"Let's look at the next news item—this one is news about the gun shop."

Denton's heart suddenly grew tense.

(End of this chapter)