61: You coward!

“Beep—” The piercing, sustained tone was like a red-hot steel needle violently stabbing into the eardrums of everyone in the cabin.

On the cardiac monitor, the green waveform representing life, after one last faint jump, completely flattened into a cold, straight line.

“He's gone! Cardiac arrest!” “Quick! Defibrillate!”

The attending physician shoved the blocking nurse aside, tore open Chen Mo's scorched clothes, and pressed two cold electrode pads firmly onto his chest.

“Charge to 300 joules! Clear!” “Thump!”

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

On the monitor, the line remained perfectly still and flat.

In that instant, Su Qingxue's pupils lost all focus.

The entire world—all sounds, all light—dissolved into a silent, cold gray.

“Pupils dilated, no light reflex...” “Resuscitation failed. Prepare to record time of death...”

The doctor's emotionless pronouncement sounded distant and blurred, as if coming from another world.

No.

Only this single word remained in Su Qingxue's mind.

She abruptly pushed away the nurse in front of her and collapsed onto Chen Mo.

She pressed her ear tightly against his scorched, cold chest.

She had to listen.

She had to hear the final sound of the heart of the man who was always terrifyingly calm.

One second.

Two seconds.

Dead silence.

Just as her last hope was about to be completely crushed by the cold reality, *thump*.

A dull vibration, so faint it was almost imperceptible.

It passed through her ear canal and struck directly at her soul.

Su Qingxue suddenly lifted her head, something shattering in her bloodshot eyes.

“He's not dead!”

Her scream tore through her throat.

“His heart is still beating!”

The attending physician frowned, glancing at the motionless straight line.

“Officer Su, please calm down. Sometimes, after death, muscles can...”

Before he could finish, a cold hand, like an iron vise, grabbed his collar tightly.

Su Qingxue's face, disheveled from tears and bloodstains, was thrust close to his.

All color and warmth had drained from her eyes, leaving only a nearly cruel coldness.

“Save him.” Her voice was terrifyingly calm.

“I don't care what method you use.”

“Adrenaline, cardiotonics, even if you have to replace all his blood, you must keep him alive.”

She leaned close to the doctor's ear, every word like a cold wind blowing from frozen Siberia.

“He owes me a life.”

“If he dies...”

“I will make him owe it to me in hell.”

...Norway.

Oslo.

Military Medical Base.

Under the shadowless lamps, there was dead silence, broken only by the faint “drip-drip” sound of various precision instruments operating.

Chen Mo lay on the sterile operating table, covered in tubes and lines of various colors, like a disassembled precision doll.

A massive blood purification machine was emitting a low roar, gradually filtering the deadly toxins from his body.

Outside the operating room, Bureau Chief Zhou and Zhao Dahai stood before the large glass window, their faces paler than the snow outside.

Li Hu and Li Ke stood guard at the door like two door gods, their expressions blank.

“What's the situation?” Zhao Dahai's voice was hoarse, as if scraped by sandpaper.

Su Qingxue leaned against the cold wall, silent.

She just stared intently at the man on the operating table, her usually icy eyes now filled with endless emptiness.

A blonde man in a white lab coat approached.

He was the base's Chief Medical Officer and one of Northern Europe's top toxicology experts.

“Incredible.” He looked at the test report, his face showing the shock of having his understanding overturned.

“I have never seen the structure of this toxin before. It acts directly on neurons, inhibiting all bioelectrical signals. Theoretically, the victim should be brain dead within three seconds.”

“But he... he is still alive.” The man pointed to the screen of a nearby cardiac monitor.

On the screen, a faint yet incredibly stubborn waveform was stubbornly beating, once, and then again, at a frequency of thirty times per minute.

“I cannot trace the source of this energy.”

“It does not belong to any known bioelectrical pattern. It is more like... a ghost signal forcibly implanted by an external force.”

“It is simulating the heart's pacing function, forcibly commanding the already dead myocardial cells to continue working.”

Zhao Dahai's mouth slowly dropped open.

He recalled Chen Mo's inscrutable methods of solving cases, and his uncanny ability to always 'hear' the killer's heartbeat.

“I don't care what kind of ghost signal it is!” Zhao Dahai grabbed the expert's collar, his bloodshot eyes filled with anxiety.

“I just need you to tell me if he can live!”

“I don't know.” The expert pulled his hand away, his face revealing the helplessness of a scientist confronting the unknown.

“This is a war. His body is fighting a battle against the toxin that it is destined to lose.”

“This 'Ghost Heartbeat' is his reinforcement. But this reinforcement is also burning up his own life.”

“I can only clear the toxin, but whether he can wake up depends on his own will, and also...”

The expert glanced at the strange waveform on the monitor.

“It depends on how long this ghost heart can beat for him.”

Just then!

“Drip... Drip...”

On the monitor, the previously stable waveform suddenly began to flicker violently!

The frequency of the beat was rapidly decaying at a visible speed!

“Oh no!” The expert cried out in alarm!

“That energy... it's fading!”

Outside the operating room, everyone's hearts leaped into their throats!

Su Qingxue suddenly stood up.

She stared intently at the waveform flattening out, her eyes, which had just regained a flicker of spirit, were once again submerged in the gray of despair.

No.

Absolutely not.

You cannot die.

You still owe me a life!

She rushed to the large glass window and hammered her fists against the cold glass!

“Chen Mo!” Her roar tore her throat!

“You wake up right now!”

“Aren't you the Judge?! Aren't you the one who can judge all evil?!”

“Can't you even judge your own life now?!”

“You coward!”

Her voice penetrated the thick soundproof glass, piercing through the layers of instruments and tubing.

It was like a key, plunging into the depths of Chen Mo's consciousness, which was about to be completely swallowed by darkness.

Coward... Yes.

I am a damn coward.

A coward who hid in a closet and watched his parents be murdered.

A coward who threw up at a prop corpse during a simulation.

A coward who... couldn't even control his own death.

No.

A violent, insane will, one that did not belong to this body, exploded from the deepest part of his soul!

I am the Judge!

I am the Judge who once perished with the crime emperor in an explosion, the one who judged countless evils!

My fate can only be judged by me!

The next second!

“Beep—!”

The waveform that was about to flatline, under the horrified gaze of all the doctors,

violently jumped upwards!

Then it began beating frantically at a frequency more stable and powerful than any time before!

“H-how is this possible?!” The Chief Medical Officer stared at the miraculous waveform on the monitor, his eyes behind his glasses filled with mind-boggling shock!

“His will to live... forcibly restarted that energy!”

“Quick! Prepare the serum! His body... has come back to life!”

Outside the operating room, Su Qingxue's body slowly slid down the cold glass wall to the floor.

She looked at the lifeline that had begun beating again on the monitor.

Hot tears finally streamed from her empty eyes.

She laughed.

As she laughed, she began to cry again.

Like a madwoman.