My Chongxi Husband Is Faking His Coma novel · Chapter 14 of 24

Chapter 14: Twelve Steps

Lin Zhi stood with his back to the wall until the footsteps went away.

Then he looked up and down the corridor.

There was a window at the end, with a grille.

There was a fire door, now bolted.

And beside Room Twelve there was a small red box with a glass front and a hammer on a chain.

"Zhaoran," he said. "Can you hold your breath?"

"Why?"

"I'm going to be very stupid."

He put his elbow through the glass.

The alarm went off through the whole building, and every magnetic lock let go with a clunk.

Down the corridor a door burst open, and somewhere a nurse screamed, and somewhere else a man began to shout orders.

He dragged his husband off the bed.

There was no time to find a chair.

He bent his knees and hauled the long arms around his own neck, and gripped the thighs, and stood up with a grunt.

"You can't carry me down three flights," said Zhaoran, into his ear.

"Watch me."

The stairwell was packed with white coats and dressing gowns, and nobody looked twice at a cleaner carrying a patient out of a fire.

On the second landing Lin Zhi's knees began to shake.

"Put me down on the first floor," said Zhaoran. "I want to walk the last of it. Just twelve paces. Let me."

At the bottom, in the corner of an empty lobby, Lin Zhi set him on his feet.

The long legs shook and held.

One arm lay around Lin Zhi's neck, and the other hand was flat against the wall.

"One," said Zhaoran.

He took a step.

Lin Zhi walked beside him with a hand at his waist and said nothing at all.

His right foot dragged and caught at the end, and the knee began to give.

"Twelve," said Zhaoran, and folded.

Lin Zhi swung him onto his back before he reached the floor and ran through the open doors into the light.

A black sedan stood at the end of the car park with its engine running.

A big man in a driver's cap leaned on the bonnet, smoking, and he looked up at the alarm.

He looked at the cleaner running across the asphalt with a man on his back, and he dropped the cigarette.

"Hey!"

A small green car shot around the corner of the building and slammed to a stop beside Lin Zhi.

"Get in!" shrieked Pei Wen. "Get in, get in, get in!"

Lin Zhi threw Zhaoran across the seat and dived in after him headfirst.

The big man was running now, with one hand reaching inside his jacket.

The little car screamed, and the door swung shut on Lin Zhi's foot, and they were through the gate and out on the road.

Pei Wen drove up into the hills above the lake with white knuckles and tears running down his chin, praying to some god of small cars.

He turned off at last onto a lane between tea bushes, and stopped behind a long low shed that smelled of roasting leaves.

"My aunt's," he said, hoarsely. "She's at her daughter's in Suzhou. Nobody knows this place. There's a room upstairs and a bath. I'm going to go and buy food and a phone and not come back for hours."

"Pei Wen," said Zhaoran, from the seat.

"Yes, sir?"

"Thank you for waiting."

Pei Wen made a noise and fled.

The room above the shed had a wide plain bed, a window full of green hillside, and a tin bath behind a screen.

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