Chapter 16: Zhou Dong: I Will Never Forget the Grace of Saving My Life (Please Follow for Updates~)

Dim light, a corridor with no end in sight.

A male figure in a gray short-sleeve shirt and blue three-quarter pants crawled on the ground, writhing like a will-less zombie, panting heavily while interspersed with meaningless groans of pain, his head bowed so low his face was half-hidden.

Swap the scene for a film set with a "Walking into Science" BGM, and claiming it's a horror movie would feel perfectly natural.

Zhou Yi, already mentally exhausted from a day of training, was so startled he nearly kicked out, ready to send this thing that scared people at midnight to the afterlife—

Especially when this man in a tank top, upon hearing the sound, stopped writhing and slowly, painfully turned his body toward his direction.

"Help... help..."

Fortunately, Jay Chou's faint, mosquito-like weak voice on this desolate corridor was not drowned out; Zhou Yi, startled and suspicious, instinctively reached into his pocket and gripped his phone—

"Could you please, please help... call an ambulance..."

Zhou Jielun, having painfully twisted his body, lifted his head; his pale face looked terrifying, as if he had lost a great deal of blood.

Zhou Yi, who had thought he was encountering some "Taiwanese gang murder-to-silence incident," suddenly saw this face and his eyes instantly flashed with several shades of shock—

Holy crap? Zhou Jielun?!

As someone who had enjoyed the benefits of the last era of gods in the Chinese music scene, Zhou Yi was not unfamiliar with Zhou Jielun's face. Clearly, the person lying on the corridor floor, wretchedly groaning, was the young Zhou Dong.

Did he get screwed over?

Seeing the once glorious musical genius from his memories suddenly intrude into his vision in such a wretched manner, Zhou Yi stood stunned for a moment, which only made the extremely uncomfortable Zhou Jielun more anxious—

"I... I'm not a bad person. Could you please... help call an ambulance? We seem to have eaten something bad; it might be food poisoning..."

Zhou Jielun, his consciousness growing increasingly blurred, gritted his teeth to hold on, while not forgetting to point toward his brother Liu Genhong's front door, indicating he was not the only one in trouble: "There are... there are two more people inside, same as me..."

"I understand. You rest a bit first."

Having reacted, Zhou Yi took out his phone from his pocket and instinctively pressed the three digits 1-2-0 on the keypad, but the action of dialing suddenly froze: "Uh, buddy, what's the emergency number for your Taiwan Province?"

"1-1-9, 1-1-9, 1-1-9 is the emergency number."

Although surprised by Zhou Yi's question, Zhou Jielun quickly realized this person might be a tourist who had just arrived in Taiwan and gave the answer.

In an instant, having dialed the emergency number, Zhou Yi directly informed the operator that someone here needed emergency aid—

"Yes, they say they have food poisoning; the situation looks very bad."

After settling Zhou Dong on the corridor, following his guidance and entering Liu Genhong's home through the wide-open door, Zhou Yi immediately saw a woman lying on the living room sofa, foaming at the mouth—

Judging by her appearance, it was none other than that woman he had encountered earlier while passing the community basketball court.

Next was the young version of Liu Genhong, lying on the floor, extremely weak.

Wen Lan, nearly unconscious, had no reaction to any external movement; however, Liu Genhong, so weak he could barely hold a phone, painfully lifted his head to look at the figure breaking into his home—

"There are three people needing emergency aid in total: one young woman and two young men. The young woman is foaming at the mouth and is suspected to be in life-threatening danger."

After rapidly informing the emergency center of the scene's situation, Zhou Yi hung up the phone and immediately carried Wen Lan, whose symptoms were the most severe on the sofa, out.

After placing her side-by-side with Zhou Jielun on the corridor, he turned back to carry Liu Genhong, who was heavier, out.

"Hey, hey, wake up, wake up, don't fall asleep; if you sleep, you might really die."

Slapping the faces of Liu Genghong and Wen Lan with both hands to keep them away from the incident site, Zhou Yi hurriedly shouted, while also calling out to Zhou Jielun on the other side, who had somewhat recovered, to come over; his face, however, carried a barely concealable strangeness.

He had already remembered what was going on.

The bond between Zhou Dong and his good brother Liu Genhong was said to be one of life-and-death friendship; the reason was that before Zhou Dong debuted, once while bathing at Liu Genhong's house, he stayed in the shower too long, causing a gas leak that nearly killed Wen Lan, Liu Genhong, and himself on the spot.

In the end, it relied on the only one still barely able to move, the young Zhou Dong, crawling out of the front door and knocking door by door until he finally found a neighbor willing to open the door, thus calling for an ambulance.

This was not a rumor, but ironclad fact, even admitted by the parties involved themselves.

"The emergency responders are already on their way; you guys hold on as best you can."

After casually closing Liu Genhong's front door, Zhou Yi returned and helped all three to the ventilated area of the corridor; finally, he took a breath, wiped the sweat from his forehead with his hand, and looked at the only one among the three still conscious, the young Zhou Jielun.

To be honest, the other two: one foaming at the mouth and directly unconscious, the other with a twisted mouth and eyes, so weak he couldn't speak; only Zhou Jielun, though pale-faced, had actually recovered quite a bit.

Should one say it's good physical constitution, or good luck?

"Thank you, truly thank you."

Seeing his friends being carried out one after another, a look of gratitude immediately appeared on Zhou Jielun's pale face: "Thanks to your help, otherwise I wouldn't know what to do.

"If not for you, we might all have died right here."

"You're welcome."

Zhou Yi waved his hand, while manually trying to keep the other two conscious for a last bit, and engaged Zhou Jielun in conversation to prevent him from gradually falling asleep due to lack of talk for too long: "My name is Zhou Yi, what's yours?"

"My name is Zhou Jielun."

"Same surname, quite a coincidence." Listening to the answer he already knew, Zhou Yi smiled: "I just arrived in Taiwan from the mainland a few days ago, so I wasn't familiar with the emergency number here just now."

After someone started talking with him, Zhou Jielun, breathing in large amounts of fresh air, was obviously much better.

Although the paleness on his face had not yet faded, at least he could speak without interruption, and even leaning on the wall, he could slowly stand up: "So you're a friend from the mainland? I'm really sorry to trouble you."

"It's a small matter, but what happened to you guys? Did you eat poisonous mushrooms?"

Although he knew exactly what was going on in his heart, Zhou Yi obviously couldn't play the role of someone who knew things by birth. As someone who had just saved lives, it was only reasonable for him, now free, to ask what happened.

"I'm not sure, but I suspect it's food poisoning. I didn't eat much of my meal, so my poisoning isn't deep. Genhong and Wen Lan finished theirs, so their poisoning is severe."

Leaning against the wall, Zhou Jielun recalled everything he had experienced today and naturally identified the dinner he hadn't eaten much of as the culprit.

Zhou Yi, knowing the answer, couldn't find a reason to correct him at that moment.

Was he supposed to say it was a gas leak?

Don't be ridiculous; gas is colorless and odorless, not to mention he had no idea where the specific leak was; if questioned by the police afterward and unable to explain, he would only invite trouble.

"Oh, right, that muscle man with the twisted mouth and eyes is Genhong, Liu Genhong. The woman next to him is Wen Lan."

After introducing the two who had lost the ability to speak, Zhou Jielun, feeling he could stand straight, stomped his feet twice on the spot; his grimacing expression was strangely comical.

Just as the two were chatting back and forth, the ambulance, having received the distress call and hurriedly bringing the emergency team, arrived downstairs in the residential area.

Hearing the sound, Zhou Yi instinctively walked to the window and looked down, but unexpectedly discovered that besides the ambulance, there was actually a news van?

"Uh, Jielun, does dispatching an ambulance in Taiwan also require sending a news van along?" Zhou Yi's face looked somewhat strange; he then turned to look at Zhou Jielun, who wore an equally confused expression.

The latter shook his head in confusion: "I've never heard of it."

"Tsk, if reporters show up, this is going to be a bit troublesome."

Zhou Yi made a tsk sound, then immediately took out his phone and called his manager Qian Jiang: "Hello? Brother Qian? There's something I need to tell you."

"I ran into something on my way home, saved three people, but right now reporters have arrived. I don't know the rules here, so I thought it would be better to notify you about this."

"What did you say? You saved three people? And reporters have arrived?"

Qian Jiang, still at home, suddenly sprang up from the sofa, his eyes instantly flashing with brilliant light: "Are you okay, A-Yi?"

"Uh, I'm fine. Don't get so excited, Brother Qian. It's better not to hype this kind of thing; I don't like using such matters for publicity." Zhou Yi, who had sensed what his own manager wanted to do in an instant, made his boundaries clear.

Warner is famously an expert at hype; Qian Jiang could stay in this position for so long naturally because he knew this art well. He needed to clarify his bottom line in advance.

Marketing a good public persona can backfire; a slight misstep could lead to moral kidnapping in the future, ruining his reputation. This was something he did not want to see.

"Alright, I understand. Are you still over in the East District? If so, I'm coming over now."

"Yeah, I'm right here. Thanks for the trouble, Brother Qian."

Zhou Yi politely thanked him for the trouble, then hung up the phone. Turning his head, he saw Jay Chou looking at him in surprise: "Are you an artist?"

"Uh, not really yet. I've just been signed by Warner. I'm working on my first album and haven't debuted yet." Zhou Yi raised the phone in his hand and explained to him with a smile.

"I see. If you need help in the future, I can assist you."

Hearing Zhou Yi's profession, a look of surprise flashed across Jay Chou's face, then his eyes filled with determination as he introduced himself: "Actually, Liu Genhong and Wen Lan are also artists, and I am a professional songwriter, the kind who specializes in writing songs."

Admittedly, not many people value his songs right now, but Jay Chou still retained confidence in his own talent.

Even if you take ten thousand steps back, isn't there Brother Xian's company behind him?

This is a life-saving benefactor; if he doesn't repay him thoroughly, it would be unfair to the person who went to such trouble in the middle of the night.

He, Jay Chou, has always been a person who values loyalty.

Zhou Yi's actions, in ancient times, would have meant throwing oneself down to bow and Gao Hu "Benefactor Lord."