"Lei Ting! Lei Ting!"
In the profound darkness, Lei Ting seemed to hear someone calling his name.
He wanted to respond, but he couldn't make a sound. He tried to make some movement, but he couldn't feel the presence of his body below the neck. All he knew was that he seemed to be lying flat.
By his ears, the Fine Crushing noises and the continuous shouting coiled around, gradually "sorting out" his messy consciousness, which was like a ball of wool, until he finally managed to open his eyes.
He exerted great effort to open his eyelids, and a beam of white light pierced through the darkness and shone into this world.
Then, because his eyes couldn't adapt to the blinding light, he was forced to return to the "darkness" again. The consciousness that had been recovering was also completely interrupted with this blink of his eyes.
I don't know how much time had passed. When Lei Ting opened his eyes again, what came into view was no longer the blinding white light, but a white bedsheet.
"Hey! His dad! Dian'er is awake!" Lei Ting's mother, Liu Huisheng, called Lei Tao to the bedside of the sickbed in a hurry and with joy. She held Lei Ting's left hand with both of hers.
Dian'er was Lei Ting's childhood nickname. The origin was simple. Lei Ting itself means thunder and lightning. Plus, when Lei Ting was a child, he thought his name was really cool and often said he was the "incarnation of thunder and lightning". Over time, he got the nickname Dian'er.
"… Mom…" Lei Ting called out in a hoarse voice and tried to sit up, but as soon as he exerted force, Liu Huisheng stopped him.
"Hey! You're still weak now, so it's better to lie down," Liu Huisheng said worriedly. Then she let out a sigh:
"I don't know what wrongs you've done. You were struck by lightning at the graduation ceremony, and now when you went hiking with a friend, you were struck by lightning again. But luckily, the doctor said you don't have any obvious internal or external injuries. Just rest in the hospital for two days for observation. If everything's okay, you can be discharged. It's really a blessing in disguise."
"Yeah," Lei Tao leaned down on the other side of the sickbed:
"I don't know if you've offended some immortal. The probability of such a thing happening is so low, yet you managed to encounter it twice within a month. After you're discharged from the hospital, go to the temple and pray to the Buddha. Fortunately, you're okay. If you had died, I'd have to have another child with your mom, and that would be really troublesome…"
Before he could finish speaking, Lei Tao was slapped hard on the head by Liu Huisheng, who had stood up. At the same time, the latter scolded:
"You old fool! What are you talking about? You're always saying these unlucky and disgusting things. Get out of here!"
"Yes, yes, yes." Realizing that he had said something inappropriate, Lei Tao didn't argue and slunk out of the ward.
Liu Huisheng waited for a few more seconds. After making sure that Lei Tao didn't quietly open the door and peek in, she squatted down again and said apologetically:
"Sorry, Dian'er. You know your dad has a loose tongue, so don't take it to heart. It was just a joke."
Lei Ting knew his father very well, so naturally, he didn't care about those joking words his father had just said. Moreover, he even quite liked this kind of family闹剧, after all, it was one of the manifestations of a harmonious family.
Compared with that, he cared more about what his mother had said before.
"Struck by lightning… Yeah, I was struck by lightning again. Looking at it this way, I was finally saved by the lightning… If there really are immortals in this world, then it seems the Thunder God takes good care of me. The first time I was struck, it gave me superpowers, and the second time it saved my life…" Lei Ting muttered silently. Suddenly, he noticed something:
"Wait… Mom only said that I was struck by lightning again and didn't mention those terrorists… Could it be… they don't know about this? It should be the soldiers and policemen outside who sent me to the hospital. Did they hide this matter to keep it confidential? That makes sense. After all, if it got out that there was such a well-equipped group of terrorists in the country, especially near Shanghai, who knows how much panic it would cause. Putting myself in their shoes, I would also choose to hide it… I just wonder if there's any hush money or something…" While Lei Ting was thinking about these things, Liu Huisheng stood up and left the ward, planning to find something for Lei Ting to eat.
She had confirmed Lei Ting's condition with the doctor several times. She knew that he was recovering well and was even almost fully recovered and could be discharged immediately. So, there was no problem with eating.
Watching his mother close the door of the ward, Lei Ting also figured it out. He lay back down and stared blankly at the white ceiling.
After a short moment of being in a daze, he sat up again, looked around, and made sure there were no surveillance cameras in the ward. Then he stretched out his right palm and activated his ability.
With a thought, several silver-white electric arcs emerged from the palm of his hand, twisting and entangling irregularly, just like long worms swaying in the water.
"It seems… easier…" Lei Ting felt some changes and murmured to himself.
After thinking for a while, Lei Ting took a deep breath and exerted more effort to activate his ability, wanting to see if his "electricity capacity" had increased.
Before he was ready, the electric arcs in his palm increased rapidly with lightning speed, and even the brightness in the room seemed to increase a bit. In the blink of an eye, he had an "electric ball" in his hand. If he listened carefully, he could even hear the crackling sound of the electric sparks.
Looking at the magnificent sight in his hand, Lei Ting was filled with joy and also affirmed one of his thoughts.
He had really become stronger! After being struck by lightning the second time!
After reaching this conclusion, he immediately started thinking about whether he should find an opportunity to be struck by lightning again. As for the consequences of doing so, he didn't really care much. After all, he hadn't suffered any serious harm from the first two times, and he didn't even get injured the second time. Maybe he would be completely "immune" the third time!
Just as Lei Ting was excitedly formulating the "plan for being struck by lightning the third time" in his mind, his brain suddenly froze, like a mobile phone that suddenly lost its signal. He instantly felt weak all over, his waist went limp involuntarily, and his upright upper body fell back down again.
Along with the feeling of weakness came a great sense of fatigue. The moment his head touched the pillow, Lei Ting lost consciousness.
And the electric ball, which was as big as an average person's palm, dissipated in an instant about ten seconds after its appearance, just as Lei Ting lost his strength.
...
In a certain ward of a military hospital in a military garrison area of Shanghai.
Liu Peng, who was the leader and the initiator of the terrorist action and had also been "struck by lightning twice" along with Lei Ting but had survived by luck, was sent here.
After being examined by the doctor in the military hospital, the man surnamed Lin, who had come with the company, also received some good news. Liu Peng was not seriously injured. He had just gone into temporary shock. Thanks to the emergency rescue by the doctor in the ambulance on the way to the hospital, he was out of danger.
Hearing this, the soldiers guarding outside the ward all heaved a sigh of relief. Although they had initially planned to kill the enemy, since it was possible to capture him alive, it was definitely better to do so.
"How long will it probably take for him to wake up?" The man surnamed Lin asked the doctor.
"It should be around two to three hours. However, if you're in a hurry to interrogate him, you can directly inject the 'forced awakening agent'. But that will more or less affect his brain and thus influence the result of the interrogation," the doctor replied.
"Then let's just wait," the man surnamed Lin made a decision without hesitation.
There was no need to sacrifice the accuracy of the interrogation result just to save a little time. Anyway, they had plenty of time.