59: Don't die in my hands

The icy air, like a sharp knife, stabbed into Su Qingxue's burning lungs.

She suddenly started coughing, breathing greedily, almost painfully.

Every breath of air carried the scent of ice and snow, scraping her throat raw.

But this was the taste of being alive.

In the darkness, the crack in the door let in a faint, eerie blue light reflecting off the blizzard outside.

"Cough... cough, cough, cough!"

Li Hu scrambled and crawled toward the door, using all his strength to push the heavy alloy door open a few more inches.

More air rushed in.

It also illuminated the charred figure lying not far away.

"Chen Mo!"

Su Qingxue's scream tore through her throat.

She scrambled over on her hands and knees, her knees scraping bloody on the cold metal floor, yet she felt no pain whatsoever.

A strong smell of burnt protein invaded her nasal cavity.

Chen Mo lay there, motionless.

His combat uniform was shredded and burnt, his exposed skin was charred black and still emitting wisps of smoke.

Half of his face was covered in blood, the other half was a terrifying pallor.

"Chen Mo! Wake up!"

Su Qingxue tremblingly reached out a hand, searching for his pulse on his neck.

No pulse.

She pressed her ear to his chest.

No heartbeat.

Absolute silence.

Su Qingxue's mind went blank with a ringing sound.

The man who always stood in front of everyone, tearing open dead ends with his crazy plans.

The man who could break down a criminal's psychological defenses with just a few words in the interrogation room.

Was he dead?

"No..."

"No!"

She abruptly lifted her head.

Something shattered in those eyes that were usually as cold as ice.

"You are not allowed to die!"

She ripped open the burnt clothing on Chen Mo's chest, interlocked her hands, and pressed down hard!

"One, two, three, four..."

She performed chest compressions like a madwoman.

Every compression used up all her strength.

It was as if she was trying to force her own heartbeat into that cold body.

"Captain Su! Captain Su!"

Li Hu, dragging his body that had survived the disaster, ran over. Seeing this scene, his eyes immediately turned red.

"Team Leader Chen, he..."

"Shut up!" Su Qingxue roared without looking up. "He's not dead! Get over here and give him mouth-to-mouth!"

Li Hu froze for a moment, then immediately knelt beside Chen Mo's head, pinched his chin open, and breathed a breath into him.

"Thirty!"

Su Qingxue finished the compressions, and Li Hu immediately took over.

Their coordination was so seamless it was as if they had practiced countless times.

But Chen Mo's body still showed no reaction.

Just then.

A burst of hurried and chaotic footsteps came from outside the door.

"Here! Quickly! Medical team!"

Several beams of strong flashlights pierced the darkness, and fully armed SWAT officers and medical personnel in white protective suits rushed in.

Leading them was Bureau Chief Zhou, his face pale with fury.

He saw the tragic scene before him instantly, spotting Chen Mo lying on the ground, his life hanging in the balance.

"Move aside!"

A doctor roughly pushed Su Qingxue aside, and another doctor immediately took her place, continuing the chest compressions.

"Prepare the defibrillator! One dose of adrenaline!"

"Patient has cardiac arrest, large-area electric shock injuries across the body!"

"Oxygen mask!"

Confused commands and the beeping of instruments instantly filled the entire space.

Su Qingxue stumbled from the push and fell to the floor.

She stared blankly as the group surrounded Chen Mo, watching the electrode pads being placed on his charred chest.

"Charging to 200 joules! Clear!"

"CRACK!"

Chen Mo's body suddenly arched up, then fell heavily back down.

The cardiac monitor still displayed a cold, flat line.

"Increase the dosage! 300 joules! Clear!"

"CRACK!"

A flat line.

Still a flat line.

Su Qingxue's heart sank into the abyss, little by little, following that flat line.

"Director Zhou!"

Li Ke's voice came through Bureau Chief Zhou's walkie-talkie, filled with uncontrollable rage.

"The 'Emperor's' signal source has vanished! Just now! He cut all connections!"

Bureau Chief Zhou picked up the walkie-talkie, his voice as cold as the ice and snow outside.

"Point every satellite resource you have at the Svalbard Archipelago! Even if we have to turn that damned island upside down, find him for me!"

He hung up the communication and his gaze fell back on Chen Mo.

The doctor was preparing for the third defibrillation.

"Wait a minute!"

The young doctor who had been responsible for establishing an IV line for Chen Mo suddenly shouted.

Everyone's movements stopped.

"What is it?" the attending physician asked, frowning.

"His blood..."

The young doctor held up the syringe in his hand; the blood inside was a strange, dark purple, almost black.

"His blood coagulation speed is abnormal! And..."

He shone his flashlight onto Chen Mo's pupils.

His pupils, which should have been dilated due to death, were instead contracted into two pinpricks of black.

"This is... a classic symptom of atropine poisoning!"

The attending physician gasped, "No! It's much more aggressive than that! This is some kind of unknown neurotoxin!"

Toxin?

Su Qingxue abruptly lifted her head.

"When was he poisoned?"

"We don't know! This toxin was injected directly into his blood and nervous system via the electric current!"

The doctor spoke extremely fast. "It destroyed the patient's cardiac pacing function! Standard defibrillation is useless! We need an immediate serum analysis! But here..."

Here, they could do nothing.

This sentence struck everyone like a heavy hammer.

That devil.

That "Emperor."

He had anticipated this step long ago.

The electric grid was not his final killing move.

This incurable, lethal poison was.

He wanted Chen Mo, under the gaze of everyone, at the last moment when hope arrived, at the doorstep of victory, to be dragged into the deepest despair.

"Beep..."

Just then.

On the cardiac monitor that everyone had given up on, the cold flat line suddenly jumped slightly upward.

A faint, almost imperceptible peak.

"Beep... beep..."

Followed immediately by a second one.

Everyone froze, staring intently at the screen.

"Heartbeat... resumed?" The young doctor couldn't believe his eyes.

"No!"

The attending physician immediately refuted him.

"That is not a normal heartbeat! The frequency is too slow! And extremely unstable! It's like... like something is forcibly stimulating his heart!"

Su Qingxue suddenly remembered something.

She rushed to Chen Mo's side, recklessly pressing her ear to his chest again.

This time.

She heard it.

Thump.

Once.

A heavy, slow, yet incredibly stubborn heartbeat.

This heartbeat was different from anything she had heard before.

It seemed not to belong to Chen Mo himself.

It carried a rhythm of... madness, desperation, and sin.

[Ding!]

[Detection: Host vital signs below critical threshold. Sinful Heartbeat System automatically activating highest level preservation protocol.]

[Consuming all Sin Points to forcibly maintain host myocardial function.]

[Warning! Sin Points are about to be depleted!]

[Warning! Vital signs continue to decline!]

No one could hear the sounds inside Chen Mo's mind.

Su Qingxue only knew that this failing heart was still beating.

It was fighting the lethal poison from hell in a way that mere mortals could not understand.

"Don't die..."

Su Qingxue lay pressed against his chest, tears mixing with blood and dripping onto his charred skin.

"Please... don't die on my watch..."