Rebirth Of Chen An

Chapter 167: A Vegetable, Almost

For the past month, Chen Yang had stood outside the ward and watched the unconscious Chen An through the glass, feeling empty inside. Since the day of the crash, Chen Yang felt his entire world was plunged into total darkness. The only thing he could do each day was to come to the hospital and watch the man from outside the ward.

When he finally saw the man open his eyes and move, Chen Yang was rooted to the spot for nearly half a minute, before he came to himself and ran to call the doctor. He’d forgotten that he could press a button and the doctors would be there immediately.

Until this moment, Chen Yang still could not quite bring himself to believe that Chen An was truly awake.

The slap Chen An gave him reminded him that it was really Chen An, his uncle.

“Of course you’re not dreaming.” When he saw Chen Yang, Chen An could not help but remember the Prince in his ‘dream’, who really pissed him off, therefore the slap.

Now he saw Chen Yang crying with abandon, Chen An turned into a smile and rubbed his head affectionately: he really liked his Chen Yang much better.

Lu Feng did not burst into tears like Chen Yang, but his eyes were also red, and with the red marks left on his face by Chen An’s slap, he looked rather like the meek young wife who felt wronged by her husband.

“Look at you two, sniffling and crying; An is awake, not dead.” Ivanov, who’d been left out until this moment, jumped out and tried to remind the others of his existence, especially Chen An. “Darling, do you know how I spent the past month? Every day, I prayed to God that he may let you wake up and open your eyes.”

God?

Based on what Chen An knew of Ivanov, he would found it more credible if the latter said he made a deal with the devil in hell. Pray to God? If he did, God would have given the abominable hairy bear a kick in the butt.

But of course, all Ivanov was trying to say was that he’d stayed here in the hospital, by Chen An’s side, like Lu Feng and Chen Yang, for the past month.

…

Two more days and the doctors confirmed that there was nothing seriously wrong, so Chen An decided to leave the hospital.

Actually, after the accident in the Middle East happened, Chen An was immediately taken to the nearest hospital. Later he was transported to Europe for the best possible medical treatment.

Doctors’ diagnosis was that Chen An’s brain suffered a serious concussion as he was thrown out of the plane, and it was likely that he would remain in a vegetative state for the rest of his days.

If the doctors had not found Ivanov’s “you will also be in serious danger if my baby does not wake up” expression really threatening, they probably would have proclaimed Chen An a vegetable henceforth on the spot.

Who would have thought, after the three took turns to take care of him for nearly a month, that he finally did wake up?

“You remember it too, right? That means it’s not a dream. Those things really happened.”

Sitting on a recliner and basking in the lovely sunlight, Chen An talked to Ding Sheng on the phone. Ding Sheng called him from the US; the young man was much less inclined to hold his horses, and would have called Chen An the day he woke up if his family had not dissuaded him.

Still, Ding Sheng phoned Chen An as soon as he was discharged from the hospital and asked the question that Chen An intended to ask him.

“Do you still remember the things that happened when we time-travelled?”

Before contacting Chen An, Ding Sheng had looked into what happened on the day of the crash. The hull of the plane was ripped and Chen An was unfortunately thrown out through the hole. Ding Sheng grabbed his clothes as it happened and held onto him; thus the two were violently tossed from the plane.

The eery thing was, most of the weapons on the plane were missing, including tanks and helicopters.

In the aftermath, people like Lu Feng were preoccupied with the condition of Chen An, and nobody cared to find out what happened to the weapons: whether they were stolen or just vanished into thin air.

The results that came back gave Ding Sheng quite a shock: the weapons that disappeared were the same as the ones he and Chen An took out of the plane while they were in the other world.

Something more surprising awaited them. About a week later, while drinking tea with Ivanov, Chen An heard that the missing weapons were found, in a state too damaged to be of any use, so they were practically dealt with as scrap metal.

Ivanov’s words brought a knowing smile onto Chen An’s face. Before he set out to see the foreign leader, he told the General and the Prince to destroy the weapons he and Ding Sheng brought, whether he came back or not.

Though he and Ding Sheng had destroyed some before they departed, they were quite powerless against the big ones like the tank.

“Darling, why are you smiling? Oh my God, are you sure everything is okay with your head? How can you smile when you hear our weapons are destroyed? I can’t believe my own eyes!”

Ivanov had not gone back to Moscow, and he stayed in the villa that they arranged for Chen An. When he had time, he’d chat with Chen An over tea, or they would go out for a walk under the northern European sun.

“Why shouldn’t I smile?” Chen An took a deep breath, lolled back on the recliner, and half closed his eyes, “Ivan, I had a long dream while I was unconscious.”

“Let me guess. I’m in the dream, right?” Ivanov loved to jest, as always.

Only this time, the hairy bear was right. Chen An did see Ivanov in his dream. Or more accurately, he saw a man who looked like Ivanov.

True, loyal, and dependable.

To a certain extent, these qualities of the foreign leader existed on Ivanov too. Previously, Chen An didn’t quite pay attention, but in the past days he noticed that underneath a playful and sometimes cynical surface, Ivanov had the same heart as the leader of the foreign nationals.

A heart that was never taken back once it was given.