Chapter 1622: A Glory, a Dream

But he himself was not entirely sure, because he had never died before! He only remembered rambling on and on to the Third Prince Zhu, the Rent-Collecting King, the Lucky Emperor, and the rest of them with a whole load of nonsense, and then he found it harder and harder to breathe, and then one breath simply would not come, and finally everything went black before his eyes, and he lost all awareness. He was probably dead!

But the problem was, if he was dead, he should have no awareness at all!

He should feel nothing, have no mental activity whatsoever, everything returning to stillness, with only eternal peace remaining — that was what death was...

But after Zhu Cilang had been dead for a while, suddenly he had sensations again. Although his whole body was weak, and even drawing breath was exhausting, he still had feeling!

Could it be that he had not died completely, and had come back around?

At that thought, Zhu Cilang made an effort and let out an "mm-hm" cough, and then he heard a shout from somewhere beside his ear: "He's awake, he's awake, the patient's awake..."

"Awake? Are you serious?"

"Really, really — listen, he even coughed!"

"Quick, quick, Xiao Wang, go and call Director Chen, Director Wang, and Director Li all over here... Auntie Zhao, hurry and call his family! To wake up like this — this is a miracle!"

What? What were they saying? Zhu Cilang panicked at once. How could it be "the patient's awake"? It should be "the Retired Emperor is awake"! And what was all this Xiao Wang, Auntie Zhao... those forms of address were wrong! And what were all those directors for? The Imperial Medical Academy had no office called director!

Could it be, could it be... Zhu Cilang felt a wave of dizziness. He no longer dared to be certain whether he was still Zhu Cilang!

He wanted to open his eyes and look, but no matter how he tried, he could not open them — his eyes seemed to be stuck shut by something.

He wanted to cry out, but could only manage a few "mm-hm" coughs, because there was something stuck in his mouth, he did not know what, and it was extremely uncomfortable!

This was clearly a case of being seriously ill and sent to the intensive care unit!

The Ming dynasty surely had no intensive care unit, did it? Zhu Cilang — no, it should be Zhu Yaofei — was now completely stunned. He discovered a terrifying reality! It turned out that his soul transmigrating into Zhu Cilang and saving the Great Ming had all been nothing but a dream! A dream so real it was hard to believe... and now, the dream had finally ended!

When the dream ended, all was emptiness! A glory — so it had been a dream after all!

Just as Zhu Yaofei was feeling shocked and bewildered, the sound of footsteps and discussion, along with the soft sound of a door opening, came all at once.

"Hey, he really is awake!"

"Really, really — how extraordinary..."

"He actually woke up... how long was he unconscious?"

"A year... a year and two months!"

"It's a miracle! To be unconscious for so long and still wake up — that's not easy!"

"It's because his wife refused to give up. Otherwise he would have been gone long ago..."

"He won't have any after-effects, will he?"

"Auntie Zhao, what are you thinking? How could he possibly have no after-effects after all this?"

Listening to the conversation of these doctors and nurses, and that Auntie Zhao or whoever she was, Zhu Yaofei's heart went completely cold... A year and two months in the intensive care unit! How much would the medical bills be? Could it be covered by medical insurance? If it could not be covered by insurance, even selling the house would not be enough!

And also, I've been lying here for a year and two months — what about my job?

Besides, that person also said there would be after-effects. I'm only 40 years old — am I supposed to lie in a hospital bed until I die?

No, I have to go back to the Ming dynasty. I want to go back and be the Emperor... Ancestors, let me go back!

But there was no going back! Just as Zhu Yaofei was desperately wishing to return, someone had already come to examine him — taking his blood pressure, listening to his heart — and in the end they reached a conclusion: the patient was generally normal!

Normal?

If I were normal, Zhu Yaofei thought to himself, I would be the Sage Ancestor Emperor of the Great Ming!

"Remove the tube, carefully..."

A somewhat older doctor, who might have been some sort of director, spoke up. Then Zhu Yaofei felt the tube in his mouth, the one that had been making him so uncomfortable, being gently pulled out.

"Peel the tape off his eyes too... turn off the light first."

The tape stuck over Zhu Yaofei's eyes was also quickly peeled off. He struggled to open his eyes. Whether the light was too dim, or his long coma had damaged his vision somehow, all he saw before him was a hazy, blurry mass.

After another while, Zhu Yaofei's vision recovered somewhat. He saw a circle of doctors in white coats and large face masks standing before him. He slowly turned his head again and surveyed the situation inside the hospital room... and then his heartbeat quickened a little!

Because he discovered that he was lying in an extremely luxurious private intensive care room!

He had seen the world, after all. There had been elderly people in his family who had been ill, and he had also gone to hospitals to visit sick old superiors, but he had never seen a hospital room with such a sense of luxury... How much did this cost per day? It had to be at least ten thousand, right? Lying there for over a year, that was at least several million! That spendthrift woman Ake, how could she spend money like this! No, wait — it wasn't Wu Ake...

The moment Zhu Yaofei thought of Wu Ake, thought of all those lovely women in the rear palace, thought of the magnificent old mountain palace... he could not help but feel tears coming to his eyes!

It was too real... how could it be a dream? And if it was a dream, why did it have to end?

Zhu Yaofei was discharged from the hospital! He had no idea how he was discharged, because he was completely dazed, completely unable to accept reality! So he simply let himself be handled by a group of masked doctors and nurses, and underwent a whole battery of examinations... and then his wife came hurrying over and completed the discharge procedures for him.

Right — his current wife was not Wu Sanmei, nor Wu Ake, nor Zheng Chagu. She was a woman with a very good figure and apparently very high-end clothing. Zhu Yaofei only remembered that her name was Shen Xiaoru, that she was 9 years younger than him, and was only 32 this year... but he could not remember clearly what she looked like, and he could not see clearly either.

Because this woman was also wearing a large face mask, covering her face completely!

What was wrong with the people of this era? Everyone was wearing masks. Even Zhu Yaofei, who was too weak to walk and could only sit in a wheelchair, had a mask put on him, and was pushed out of the hospital building by that Auntie Zhao — who was probably a caregiver hired by Shen Xiaoru.

As they passed through the hospital lobby, Zhu Yaofei noticed many people queuing — this must be a large hospital, and large hospitals always had many people queuing, but the people queuing in this hospital all seemed to be standing rather far apart... what on earth was going on?

Just as Zhu Yaofei was completely baffled, he was pushed up beside an MPV of some brand he did not recognize. That Auntie Zhao pulled open the door, and then she and Shen Xiaoru together helped Zhu Yaofei, who had been bedridden for over a year and had no strength, into the vehicle.

Zhu Yaofei found the interior of the vehicle very clean and tidy, with a high-end feel to the trim... This car must be very expensive, right?

"To the airport," Shen Xiaoru said in a low voice.

"All right." Auntie Zhao answered, then shut the door and went around to the front passenger seat.

The car soon started up, drove out of the hospital gate, and onto a very bustling street. Zhu Yaofei looked at the scene outside and found that the pedestrians were all wearing masks of various kinds... what on earth was going on?

Also, the cars coming and going on the street looked... a little strange, full of Eastern luxurious elements, and Zhu Yaofei could not recognize any of their brands at all.

"Yaofei, take off your mask and let me look at you. Do you still remember me?"

A woman's voice, somewhat trembling, interrupted Zhu Yaofei's thoughts.

He quickly turned his head to look, and saw his wife... the woman who would not give up on him even if it ruined the family... had already taken off her mask, revealing an extremely delicate face.

That's right, she was still Xiaoru... Xiaoru was Zhu Yaofei's subordinate, and also a white-collar beauty with a Shanghai hukou whom he had spent great effort and money to pursue and win. But the Shen Xiaoru before his eyes was completely different from the Shen Xiaoru in Zhu Yaofei's memory!

The wife in Zhu Yaofei's memory was a typical Shanghai woman — quite pretty, spent money freely, had a somewhat willful temper, but on the whole was rather cute. But this Shen Xiaoru before him had a noble bearing that Zhu Yaofei was very familiar with... and when she had met him in the hospital earlier, she had not seemed hysterical either, but had maintained a calm composure. Only now, sitting in the car, with her mask off, did tears pour from her beautiful eyes like a spring!

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