Chapter - 23

                                    

                                          
XIAO ZHAN!!"

As soon as they heard screams from the other room, both the women left whatever they were doing and ran towards it. On reaching there, seeing the view from inside, their hearts were filled with ache.

"Oh my God!! A-Zhan!!" When Mrs Xiao saw her son, a sob came out of her mouth. Hurrying in Xiao Zhan's direction, she took her son in her embrace who was there, sitting in the wheelchair, trembling like a withering leaf in autumn. 

His lips were blue with cold and quivering like a fish without oxygen, struggling to breathe. His unsteady eyes were streaking with moist for keeping themselves struggled to open for so long, even the area under his eyes was damp with the fluid running from them. As he felt his mother's familiar embrace around him, subconsciously his intents wallowed and Xiao Zhan instantly clung to her for warmth.

"Your hands are so cold A-Zhan. How did all this happen?" Taking his hands in her, she cried out with a cracking voice, feeling the coldness emanating from her son's hands. They were as cold as ice. Mrs Xiao started to rub them so they would be provided with some warmth. 

"YiBo, what happened to Xiao Zhan?" Mrs. Wang questioned her son who was leaning down before Xiao Zhan, drying his feet with a towel. He didn't answer just went to one side to pick the basin of the water and gave it to his mother. She took it not asking further and went to the bathroom.

Meanwhile, getting up from his position, Wang YiBo took Xiao Zhan's body out of his mother's arm who at first, didn't seem to want to let him go away from her protective hold. But unwillingly, she had to lose her hold on him to let him go when she heard Wang YiBo saying that he had to put Xiao Zhan on the bed. 

"Let me shift him to the bed, Mrs Xiao." Mrs Xiao moved aside without further protest.

After unlocking the safety belt around Xiao Zhan's waist, Wang Yibo leaned down a little against the wheelchair, picking him up as a cotton sack, and bringing him to the bed, only to have him lay there. Xiao Zhan was skinny. Too thin even to call a skeleton. Yibo could feel each of his bones with a mere touch, along with the tangles of nerves woven under his skin. It reminded him that this vulnerable person needs extra care to recover. 

Picking up the blanket, Wang Yibo wrapped Xiao Zhan's shivering body under it. Xiao Zhan felt his upper body frozen because it was as hard as a stick when he was laid down. There was no sound coming out of his mouth except the ramble of his teeth which were clanking uncontrollably, because of the constant shivering. At that point, dizziness was taking over his senses more and more as he tried to keep awake and he found himself once again plunged into darkness.

"Xiao Zhan! Look here. Don't close your eyes. Wake up, Xiao Zhan. Wake up." Wang Yibo gently dabbed on his cheeks so that he didn't fall unconscious. "I said wake up. You have to stay awake. Don't sleep. Don't. You need something to eat before sleeping. You need the energy to get internal heat to warm up your body. Open your eyes. Open it." He shook him again.

"Huh!" Xiao Zhan weakly opened his eyes to hear that someone was calling him constantly and he also felt soft taps on his cheeks. But he couldn't keep it up for long and soon he closed them again, let him drift into a slumber. He has no more energy to fight his dizziness. When Xiao Zhan thought that he might fall into drowsiness silently, a scorching cold passed through his bones, making him jolt in Wang YiBo's hands. A low groan was left from his trembling jaw.

"Mrs Xiao, Give me that heating pack." Wang Yibo pointed to the hot pack bottle, still trying to keep Xiao Zhan awake. The tremor he felt in his body through Xiao Zhan made him worried to the core. "Give me that heating pack. Be quick." He said firmly, noticing the old lady did not move from her spot and it made him a little mad at her.