Chapter 457: Outburst
"What are you looking at? Stop gawking." Humiliated and enraged by the girl’s stare, Bai Xinyue slapped her across the face without a second thought.
"You useless thing! Get lost!"
Ever since she lost her sight, Bai Xinyue couldn’t stand the sight of Guan Dekuan and her big, bright eyes. She had only given the girl the time of day because of her constant brown-nosing, wanting to amuse herself by watching her grovel. But she never imagined...
In that moment, Bai Xinyue wanted nothing more than to gouge out the girl’s eyes.
Guan Dekuan had been so eager to get involved only to curry favor with Bai Xinyue. But a part of her truly pitied Bai Xinyue and had been moved by her devotion to Wu Sheng.
What she had just witnessed was already shocking enough. She never imagined that she would walk out only to be met with a slap and a stream of insults from Bai Xinyue.
It was true she had sucked up to Bai Xinyue, debasing herself in the process. But she came from a respectable family; she had never been humiliated like this before.
"Bai Xinyue!"
Clutching her cheek, she stared at Bai Xinyue’s distorted face, her own expression a mixture of anger and resentment. "You’re insane!"
Bai Xinyue’s eyes narrowed dangerously. Without a second thought, she lunged forward, her fingers aiming straight for the girl’s eyes.
’She hated those eyes. They were just like Su Li’s—so big, so bright, so dark.’
"AHH..." Guan Dekuan hadn’t expected Bai Xinyue to go for her eyes. She shrieked, barely dodging the attack. Terrified by the crazed look on Bai Xinyue’s face, she turned and fled.
"Monster! Demon!"
She ran off screaming, leaving behind Bai Xinyue, whose attack had missed its mark—her aim thrown off by her single eye.
Bai Xinyue watched her flee, then glanced at the curious onlookers. The stares were like a bucket of cold water, shocking her back to her senses.
She retracted her hand, trembling. With her head lowered and shoulders shaking, she looked as if she were about to burst into tears as she slowly made her way back to her room.
Her downcast eyes were filled with regret.
’I lost my composure. That scene... Wu Sheng’s attitude... they made me lose it!’
’I have to calm down. I have to calm down...’
Bai Xinyue’s hand trembled as she touched her blind left eye, her face contorting for a brief moment.
’Wu Sheng can’t just walk away from this. He can’t pretend it has nothing to do with him. I’m blind in one eye because of him, and he *will* take responsibility for it!’
’If I hadn’t gone looking for him, I never would have gone to that godforsaken place. If I hadn’t gone looking for him, I never would have gone up that damned mountain, and none of this would have happened.’
The hand touching her left eye trembled uncontrollably.
The white gauze over her eye could have been removed long ago, but she refused, insisting on keeping it on.
The proud Bai Xinyue was still unwilling to accept the reality of being blind in one eye. The gauze served two purposes. First, it cultivated an image of fragility, forcing people to acknowledge her injury and her plight.
The second reason was that she simply couldn’t bring herself to accept this new reality.
’As long as the gauze is on, it’s perfectly normal that I can’t see. But if I take it off and I still can’t see... then I’ll truly be blind...’
Bai Xinyue refused to remove the gauze and refused to be discharged. Mrs. Bai understood her daughter’s state of mind and catered to her feelings, never pressuring her and letting her stay in the hospital for as long as she wished.
The doctors had seen plenty of patients like Bai Xinyue, who were well enough to be discharged but refused to leave. Since the family had connections and the hospital wasn’t short on beds, there was little they could do.
"Help me take off the gauze," Bai Xinyue said to Mrs. Bai, her face pale as she returned to the hospital room.
Mrs. Bai glanced at her daughter with concern but ultimately did as she asked.
The gauze over Bai Xinyue’s left eye was finally removed.
"Alright, open your eyes for me," the doctor said after carefully taking off the last of it.
Bai Xinyue silently counted to three before opening her eyes.
She could feel her left eyelid lift, but... everything on that side was still pitch black. She couldn’t see a thing.
Her knuckles turned white as she gripped the bedsheets.
The doctor, unconcerned with her inner turmoil, simply made a professional observation.
"The wound is fully healed, so you don’t need the gauze anymore. Vision can potentially be restored with surgery in the future. With only one eye, your field of vision will be affected. You’ll need to get used to it. And don’t think glasses will fix the issue."
The doctor instructed, looking at Bai Xinyue’s dull, lifeless eye.
Seeing her daughter’s vacant, unfocused eye, Mrs. Bai couldn’t stop a sob from escaping, clamping a hand over her mouth.
’Her baby girl... My heart would break if she so much as tripped and got a bruise. The worst injury she’d ever had was a scraped knee... My precious, pampered child. My daughter, who was always so radiant and confident...’
Mrs. Bai was overcome with grief.
One might think losing only one eye wasn’t so bad, but the impact on a person’s life was immense.
Her daughter, who had always carried herself with such superiority, seemed to have lost her entire aura in an instant, all because of that one eye.
Mrs. Bai’s heart felt like it was being twisted by a knife; the pain was unbearable.
Bai Xinyue stared blankly for a few seconds before suddenly speaking again.
"The gauze. I want the gauze. Wrap it up again."
The doctor, who had been on his way out, frowned. "There’s no need to wrap it. The wound has healed. Keeping it covered all the time isn’t good for the eye..."
Bai Xinyue cut him off, her voice dangerously low. "I told you to wrap it, so just wrap it. Cut the crap."
The doctor’s expression soured. He turned on his heel and left.
Mrs. Bai rushed to comfort her. "Yueyue, don’t be angry. I’ll do it."
As Mrs. Bai hurried out, Bai Xinyue squeezed her eyes shut, unable to suppress a piercing scream.
After the scream, tears began to stream down her face.
Muffled, suppressed sobs filled the hospital room.
From the moment she knew she was blind, Bai Xinyue had been on the verge of a breakdown. But she couldn’t let herself cry, couldn’t let herself collapse, so she had been holding it together until this very moment.
But now...
In stark contrast to the oppressive gloom in Bai Xinyue’s room, the tension that had suffocated Wu Sheng’s room for days finally lifted.
With the unpleasant person gone, the icy expression on Wu Sheng’s face melted away completely.
"How long was I asleep?"
He kissed Su Li’s hair and asked softly.
Recalling his last moments of consciousness and sensing the current state of his body, Wu Sheng knew he must have been out for a long time. Otherwise, Su Li wouldn’t be crying so hard.
Su Li had a good cry, venting all her emotions. Though exhausted, she gradually began to calm down.
She sat up straight and wiped her tears. "Asleep? You call that being asleep?"
Wu Sheng rubbed his nose. "Alright, then. How long was I out?"
"Ten days, including today." Recalling the doctor’s warning that he might never wake up, Su Li had the sudden urge to give Wu Sheng a good smack.
"Don’t you ever scare me like that again, Wu Sheng. I can’t take it..."
Wu Sheng nodded frantically. "Okay, okay. I’ll do my best not to scare you. I’m always careful, but... it was a mission. Sometimes getting hurt is unavoidable..."
Seeing the look on Su Li’s face, he quickly changed his tune. "But don’t you worry. I’ll do everything I can to make sure I don’t get an injury this serious again."
Su Li nodded, then belatedly asked, "Did I hurt you just now?"
Wu Sheng shook his head. "Not at all."
He stroked Su Li’s hair. "Tell me what’s happened while I was out."
Su Li gave him a brief summary. When Wu Sheng heard that the doctor had said he might never wake up, he could only imagine the agony she must have gone through.
But when he heard about Bai Xinyue’s vague claims, all he could do was sneer.
"Her? Save me? And she has the gall to take credit for it! If she hadn’t disobeyed orders and taken Little Hei up the mountain, he wouldn’t have gotten into trouble, and I wouldn’t have been injured. This is all her fault from the very beginning. She should be glad I’m not holding her responsible. I can’t believe the nerve she has."