An 80s female translator was spoiled rotten by a rough and jealous man.

Chapter 144 Past and Present
After an unknown amount of time, Jiang Zheng slowly opened his eyes.

The curtains in the room were closed, but sunlight still seeped in, casting a hazy glow over the room.

He didn't sleep well that night. The painkillers worked a little later, but the effect was minimal.

The overwhelming exhaustion caused his consciousness to wander, but the persistent pain in his lower back and abdomen forced him to maintain a fragmented state of awareness intermittently in his dazed state.

My eyelids felt heavy, and after only a quick glance at the ceiling, they closed again uncontrollably.

Like an old machine that has finally been repaired, briefly returning to normal operation before going on strike again.

After a while, Jiang Zheng tilted his head and, with some difficulty, opened his eyelids to look directly at the girl lying on the edge of the bed.

Most of her face was buried in her arms, only her smooth forehead and her beautifully shaped eyebrows and eyes were visible.

The room was dimly lit, and he had just woken up, so his consciousness wasn't very clear.

In a daze, the sleeping face before me overlapped with the face of the girl deep in my memory, with two obedient braids.

The situation was even more critical that time. The bullet hit the area near his lungs, and he could clearly feel the blood flowing out of his body. His breathing became increasingly difficult, and death was approaching him step by step, seemingly ready to take him away at any moment.

She appeared at the door at that critical juncture, when everyone was on the verge of despair.

With a soft creak, the door was pushed open, and a large amount of light poured into the small house.

Driven by instinct, Jiang Zheng gripped the gun handle tightly and, with effort but without sacrificing speed, aimed it at the forehead of the person entering through the door.

The girl was terrified, her face paling as she dropped the things she was holding, her expression filled with horror.

After that, Jiang Zheng couldn't remember clearly. He fell into a coma, and the sound of footsteps walking on the muddy ground gradually receding into the distance struck his eardrums.

She ran away, and his remaining, faint consciousness allowed him to reach this conclusion.

But he couldn't make any more judgments. A strange girl suddenly broke into the small house and found a strange man covered in blood, pointing a gun at her. What would she do after she left, and what impact would it have on him?
Jiang Zheng had no strength left to think. He had completely lost consciousness. Death seemed to have lost patience and was no longer going to wait, and was about to take him away.

Further on... Under the intense stimulation of pain, Jiang Zheng slowly opened his eyes a crack. His vision was blurry, and for a moment he couldn't tell whether he was in heaven or hell.

Then a soft female voice sounded in his ear: "You're awake? The adults all think I'm talking nonsense and don't want to come with me. I can only perform the surgery on you by myself. Please bear with it, I will do my best..."

Oh. So you're still alive.

Her features were more youthful then, she was probably still in school, and her technique was noticeably less refined compared to now. Unlike last night when she was so skilled, the sweat on her forehead while removing the bullet from his head was more than that of the injured man himself.

Now that he's grown up, he's even more capable, and he saved his life again.

A fleeting glance from the black sedan gave him an inexplicable sense of unease, prompting him to persuade Huang Zhiqiang to return to Xu Penggang's study with him.

Once it was confirmed that it was her, Jiang Zheng knew that he shouldn't get involved in such matters, or rather, he couldn't manage so much.

To lose sight of the bigger picture for the sake of small gains, and to create chaos within the established order, is a grave mistake.

Based on his understanding of Xu Penggang, he knew it wouldn't lead to anyone's death, but how could he just sit idly by? Jiang Zheng couldn't get past this mental hurdle.

Even if it takes his life to protect her, it's the right thing to do. Without her, he would have died long ago in that dusty little shack.

Jiang Zheng laboriously forced his right hand out from under the covers, then slowly lifted it up. He saw a bit of dried blood scab stuck to the stray hairs hanging by her ear.

Just like back then, her shiny black hair was stained with the paint from his face, and the first thing he said to her was, "Thank you, your hair is dirty."

He reminded her to clean it before going home, but at that moment, he inexplicably raised the arm wrapped in gauze, wanting to remove the scabs for her himself.

The man slowly moved his fingers toward the girl's face, his movements gentle and slow, whether out of caution or because the wound restricted his movement, or perhaps both.

The moment his fingertips touched the girl's hair, he saw her long eyelashes tremble slightly. For some unknown reason, Jiang Zheng guiltily withdrew his right hand and closed his eyes.

After about ten more seconds, Chu Yao slowly raised her head and chin, patted her cheeks lightly a few times, and muttered softly, "Why is she still asleep?"

Immediately afterwards, he stood up from the chair, bent down, gently lifted the corner of the blanket, checked that there was no obvious bleeding from the wound, and then covered the blanket back up.

She placed her palm on the man's forehead; he didn't have a fever.

She placed two fingers together on the man's neck, silently calculating the pulse rate...

Only at this moment did Jiang Zheng finally realize that everything he had vaguely perceived that night was not an illusion.

It really happened; she really did go back to the shabby little house to see him again in the middle of the night.

The answers to the mysteries that were once unsolved have quietly surfaced, but what has been revealed along with them is not just that.