116: Chapter 116 Have you forgotten who you are?

The gauze on her knees had been changed, and she still limped a little when walking, but at least she didn't need anyone to support her.

She must have heard the commotion below.

The shouting of those people in the rock crevice traveled up along the cliff face, and blown by the sea breeze, it was intermittent, but clear enough.

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Xiao Liang's words, "Knock her out first and talk later," she probably heard them too.

"Awake?" Lin Fan asked, his tone no different from usual.

"Mhm mhm!" Song Ya flashed a smile.

She walked to the edge of the platform and looked down briefly. That glance was very short, but her entire body shuddered.

"Lin Fan."

"Hmm."

"Can you... save President Su?"

Lin Fan turned his head and looked at Song Ya.

The girl's expression didn't look like she was joking. She bit her lower lip, and the scar at the corner of her mouth that hadn't fully healed yet was pulled into a white streak.

Had she forgotten the pain before her scars had even healed?

Lin Fan didn't respond, waiting for her to continue.

Song Ya didn't continue either, and the two stared at each other in silence for a few seconds.

"You know what those people below did to you, right?" Lin Fan spoke first.

Of course Song Ya knew; every scar on her body remembered it.

"Su Qingxue is also one of them," Lin Fan said.

"President Su is different." Song Ya grew somewhat anxious.

"How is she different?"

"Lin Fan, do you know what it feels like when you're pinned to the ground by a group of people, everyone is watching you, and not a single person helps you?"

Song Ya didn't look at him; she stared at the newly faded rope mark around her wrist.

"It's not the pain; pain isn't the hardest part. When you're being beaten, your mind is actually blank. Your body reacts faster than your brain—curling up, holding your head, balling yourself into a tight cluster—these are all instincts."

"The most agonizing thing is seeing the people standing nearby—some laughing, some turning their heads away, some pretending not to hear. Lying on the ground with my mouth full of mud and sand, I raised my head to cry for help, and then I saw those people's eyes. In an instant, my whole being was filled with despair, knowing I couldn't survive."

Song Ya paused.

Her fingers stroked the light pink rope mark around her wrist, her fingernails tracing back and forth along the texture of the scar.

"But a certain person gave me hope for life and gave me water."

Lin Fan didn't move.

"That afternoon when they divided the meat, each person only got a piece the size of a fist. President Su tore half of her portion and shoved it into my mouth."

"And the water—a small half-bottle she saved—she came all the way to the darkest corner to feed me."

Song Ya turned her head and looked at Lin Fan.

"Lin Fan, you might think this is nothing. Half a piece of meat, a few sips of water, counting on your fingers, they're not worth mentioning."

"But you don't know what it feels like when someone is beaten to the point of not wanting to live, and someone walks over, crouches down, and hands water to your lips."

"That is the only touch of warmth you reach when falling into boundless darkness."

"Before that, I was trampled and ignored; living was nothing but torture, and there wasn't a shred of vitality left in my heart. I only felt that I was no different from the stones and rotten wood by the roadside, and no one would care even if I died."

"Yet President Su crouched down and shared her only half-piece of meat and small half-bottle of water with me."

"These meager things couldn't fill my stomach or quench my thirst, but for the first time when I was in utter despair, they made me feel that I was being treated as a human being, not an object to be trampled at will."

"Just like a drowning person grabbing a piece of driftwood, just like touching a bit of warmth on a cold night, that tiny bit of insignificant kindness was my entire reason for holding on."

"So, Lin Fan, I'm asking you to help me save her..."

Lin Fan didn't respond.

He stared at Song Ya, the temperature in the depths of his eyes dropping degree by degree.

This woman.

Having taken a trip through the gates of hell, the flesh on her knees worn down to the bone, her fingernails forcibly ripped back, two ribs caved in, rolling on a mat with a 40-degree high fever for four days and four nights.

She had managed to salvage her life with great difficulty.

And the result?

The moment she could get out of bed and walk, her first thought wasn't how to live a couple more days, but running out to plead for someone else.

And specifically for one of those people who had pinned her to the ground and dragged her along.

In the past, she acted as a peacemaker for ordinary colleagues; now she was directly blocking knives for her boss.

Having walked through the gates of hell, her saintly heart hadn't worn away a single bit; instead, it had leveled up.

Lin Fan suddenly felt a bit annoyed.

It wasn't anger at Song Ya herself, but anger at that stubborn nerve in her head that could never be pulled out.

Kindness, on this island, was a chronic illness.

It couldn't be cured, but it could cost you your life.

He had spent half a bottle of alcohol, a third of his gauze reserves, and gone four days and nights without closing his eyes to physically lower her fever, just to drag her back from the hands of the King of Hell.

It wasn't so that she could forget the pain once her scars healed and turn around to jump right back into a fire pit.

Lin Fan felt that his alcohol and gauze from the past half month might have been wasted.

"Song Ya."

Lin Fan spoke, his tone calm, but Song Ya's body instinctively tensed up.

Having spent these days with Lin Fan, she had figured out a pattern: the calmer Lin Fan was, the more dangerous it was.

When he lost his temper, it was actually fine; when he was truly about to draw his knife, it was this kind of temperatureless calm.

"I used up all my medical supplies, stayed up for four days, just to pull you back from a 40-degree high fever."

"Have you forgotten who you are?"

Lin Fan turned around, his temperatureless eyes meeting hers directly.

"Right now, you are standing on this platform, wearing my clothes, eating my food, drinking my water, and using my medicine. Every healed wound on your body was piled up using my resources."

"Your life was saved by me, using my supplies, my time, and my energy. Therefore, this life of yours is not just your own."

When these words were spoken, the rims of Song Ya's eyes turned red.

It wasn't grievance, but a kind of embarrassment of having nowhere to hide after being exposed.

She knew Lin Fan was right, every single word was right.

What she owed Lin Fan wasn't as simple as just a life. Those alcohol, gauze, and clean water were more precious than gold on this island.

She was clear that this debt was something she could never repay.

"You used my things to recover your body, and then turned around to bargain with me for someone else?" Lin Fan's voice had no fluctuations. "Do you think you have that qualification?"

Song Ya's hands were shaking.

Not because of the cold, nor because of fear. It was because she knew every word Lin Fan said was a fact.

She truly had no qualification to negotiate terms with Lin Fan. From the moment she was carried onto this platform, her life belonged to Lin Fan.

If anyone else from below had stood in front of Lin Fan and said such things, they would already be a corpse that had fallen off the cliff.

The reason Lin Fan was still reasoning with her instead of directly taking action wasn't because he was soft-hearted, but because she was Song Ya.

But the fact that "she was Song Ya" in itself did not mean she could overdraft limitlessly.

"Su Qingxue saved you, not me." Lin Fan threw the words out.

"Because she shoved half a piece of meat into your mouth and fed you half a bottle of water, you want me to go down and fish her out from the hands of more than twenty people."

His tone didn't change. "That half-piece of meat wasn't fed into my mouth, and that half-bottle of water didn't pass through my throat. She has kindness towards you; what does that have to do with me?"