A deep, magnetic, and gentle voice echoed in her ears.

Someone was calling her name.

’Who could it be?’

Sitting in a pure white space, Yu Lan tilted her head, a hint of confusion on her beautiful face.

She had been here ever since she woke up.

She didn’t remember a thing.

There was no one here, and nothing else.

All she felt was an intense sorrow gripping her heart.

It hurt so, so much.

’Something incredibly painful must have happened before I fell asleep,’ she thought.

The calls came one after another, an unbroken chain of sound.

Yu Lan, who had been sitting cross-legged on the floor, slowly rose and began to walk toward the source of the voice.

As she moved, patches of black began to stain the pure white space.

As if it were being devoured, the darkness started to close in on Yu Lan.

Startled, Yu Lan began to run, faster and faster.

Her chest heaved, and her breathing grew heavy.

The next second, sitting vigil by the bedside, Huo Zhanting, Shen Zueran, and the two other men saw Yu Lan’s eyelashes tremble slightly as she lay in her hospital bed.

It was like a signal.

After her eyelashes fluttered, Yu Lan’s fingertips, resting on the bed, also began to twitch.

The men, who had been guarding her bedside ever since they found her, held their breath at the sight, their hearts pounding in their chests.

They waited with tense patience for their long-slumbering Sleeping Beauty to awaken.

Evidently, Yu Lan did not make them wait long.

A short while later, lying in the hospital bed, the young woman—pale but still breathtakingly beautiful—quietly opened her eyes.

Her amber eyes stared at the white ceiling of the hospital room, a flicker of dazed confusion in them. She clearly hadn’t come to her senses yet.

The next second, Huo Zhanting, sitting by the bed, grasped Yu Lan’s hand and brought it to his lips, kissing it as if in prayer. His deep-set eyes were red-rimmed.

"Thank God, Lanlan. You’re finally awake."

"You have no idea how scared we’ve been."

Even now, when the men recalled the moment they saw Yu Lan collapse on the warship, an indescribable terror seized them.

Especially when they had held her and discovered the beautiful female had almost no blood left in her body.

Her body was feather-light, utterly weightless.

Her breathing was so faint that even the superior hearing of a 3S-level male could barely detect it.

During the days Yu Lan was in a coma, she had been in critical condition over a dozen times.

They all thought they would never see her again.

Thinking of this, even someone as strong, stoic, and proud as Huo Zhanting, the Imperial Marshal, couldn’t help but shed a tear in secret.

It was the same for Su Xingye, Shen Zueran, and Li Yucheng.

The first thing Yu Lan saw upon waking were four pairs of red-rimmed eyes staring pitifully at her.

She forced a smile and said,

"Sorry about that. I almost made widowers out of you all."

"Then don’t you dare do it again."

Li Yucheng was the first to snap, retorting immediately.

To him, a top-tier tycoon who had received an elite education since birth, those dead males, no matter how precious, were not worth Yu Lan sacrificing her own life for.

’There’s no problem in the world that money can’t solve.’

’If it came down to it, he would give away his family’s entire fortune to compensate their families, all for her sake.’

He just didn’t want to lose Yu Lan.

A single tear fell from Li Yucheng’s deep-set eyes.

He had so little in his life. He was lucky enough to meet Yu Lan, and had to risk his life just to win a chance with her.

The moment he watched Yu Lan nearly die, he wanted nothing more than to follow her into death.

He couldn’t accept a world without Yu Lan in it.

"If you do this again, if you die, I’ll slit my own throat and die with you."

Li Yucheng said petulantly.

"See if you dare to do it again."

Just as Yu Lan was about to say something, Shen Zueran frowned and cut in, changing the subject.

"Alright, alright, Lanlan just woke up. Why are you talking about this now?"

’All this talk about dying...’

’He never wanted to hear that word in front of him again.’

Shen Zueran felt he was about to have a panic attack just hearing the word.

Su Xingye quickly followed up, "By the way, Lanlan, a lot of people on the Star Network are speculating that you might be a 3S-level female."

"Back then, after you cried, the levitating orb broke and the broadcast cut out. All anyone saw was a flash of Golden Mist, so no one saw what you did afterward."

’If the whole thing had been recorded, there wouldn’t be any doubts on the Star Network now,’ Su Xingye thought.

Su Xingye continued.

"If you want to reveal your healing ability, this would be the perfect opportunity."

"What do you think?"

After Su Xingye finished speaking, the other three men in the room all waited nervously for Yu Lan’s answer.

Yu Lan was already dazzlingly famous, sought after by countless people.

One could only imagine how many more suitors and admirers she would attract if her 3S-level Healing Power was revealed.

And they had already prepared themselves to fight off a Little Five and a Little Six.

The question made Yu Lan pause.

She had only just woken up. Because she had expended so much of her power on the tournament battlefield, her Healing Power was severely overdrawn, and her head was splitting.

She couldn’t help but raise a hand to her forehead, letting out a soft sigh. Her voice was strained as she spoke:

"Let’s just leave it for now. Let things take their natural course."

"No need to pay it any special attention."

"Okay, we’ll listen to Lanlan."

The four men’s voices rang out in unison. They would, of course, listen to Yu Lan; they would accept whatever decision she made.

After they replied, the hospital room fell utterly silent again, with only the slow hum of the medical equipment audible.

「A moment later.」

Yu Lan’s hesitant and strained voice broke the silence.

"How... are they?"

This was the question Yu Lan had wanted to ask most since the moment she woke up.

But she had kept it buried in her heart, not daring to voice it.

She was afraid.

Afraid of getting a bad answer.

It was like Schrödinger’s cat.

As long as she never opened the box, she could deceive herself into believing the cat was still alive inside.

If she never asked, could she pretend in her heart that they were all still alive?

The feeling she had right before she passed out—that she had saved them—now seemed like a phantom, a mirage.

Yu Lan couldn’t see it clearly.

Now, she had to break that illusion and find out what the truth really was.

At this moment, the beautiful female sitting on the bed was deathly pale, her complexion thinner than paper.

And yet, her amber eyes shone with absolute determination.

She stared intently at the four men before her, not missing the slightest flicker of expression on their faces.

She was afraid.

Afraid they would lie to her just to put her mind at ease.

Peace of mind born from deceit is not true inner peace.

Seeing her like this, Huo Zhanting and the others let out a heavy sigh.

They marveled once again—how could such a female exist?

She was fatally soft-hearted and kind.

Like a shining pearl in a crowd, drawing everyone’s gaze.

Huo Zhanting parted his lips, his deep golden eyes looking earnestly into Yu Lan’s, and replied with firm conviction:

"They’re alive. They’re all alive."

"Lanlan, you succeeded. You saved them."