Chapter 448: Not in Vain
The surgery had been going on for two hours, and there was still no news from inside.
Whether the outcome was good or bad was completely unknown.
Meanwhile, Bai Xinyue and the child named Little Hei had both been moved to a ward.
Bai Xinyue’s injuries were mostly scrapes, but the most severe was to her eye.
Her eye had been pierced by a sharp object, and it was confirmed that she was now blind in her left eye.
As for Little Hei, his other injuries would heal with proper rest, but because he had suffered a blow to the head, whether or not he would wake up was purely a matter of luck.
If he was lucky, he would wake up. If not, he would be in a vegetative state for the rest of his life.
Many people came and went outside the operating room—some she knew, some she didn’t—but Su Li had no energy to pay them any mind.
After another half hour, Tang Yuanxiao rushed over with Yu Le and several others.
Like everyone else, they greeted Wu Qihua and offered reassurances that Wu Sheng was a good man whom fate would surely protect, and that he would be all right.
Wu Qihua forced herself to greet them in return.
Tang Yuanxiao glanced at Su Li, who looked as if her very soul had been drained from her body. His feelings were complicated.
Without saying much, he pulled Yu Le and the others to go donate blood.
The moment Tang Yuanxiao heard that Wu Sheng was seriously injured and urgently needed blood for his surgery, he gathered everyone he could and rushed them over to donate.
None of the people Tang Yuanxiao called hesitated.
Their reasoning was simple: the more people, the more blood. If one person’s blood type wasn’t a match, surely someone else’s would be.
After Tang Yuanxiao’s group, others who heard the news trickled in, all doing whatever they could to get to the hospital to donate blood. They all shared the same thought.
The news of Wu Sheng’s severe injuries sent shockwaves everywhere, like water dropped into a sizzling wok.
Ye Xilan also received the news, along with the fact that Bai Xinyue had been injured in the same incident.
She was terrified and rushed over immediately.
Although she didn’t know where Li Xian was, the fact that he had lost his composure and stormed out of a meeting for the first time convinced Ye Xilan that his reaction was because of Wu Sheng.
She hurried to the hospital and made her way to the surgery floor, but when she saw Wu Qihua, she didn’t dare approach. Instead, she hid to one side, waiting anxiously for news.
After a moment’s thought, she went to check on Bai Xinyue.
Bai Xinyue had already been moved to a ward. The Bai family had arrived and were all gathered around her.
Mrs. Bai was sobbing her heart out, wailing over and over about what would become of her perfectly healthy daughter, now that she was blind.
Looking at the unconscious Bai Xinyue lying on the hospital bed, one eye bandaged, Ye Xilan shed a tear as well.
When Bai Xinyue woke up from the anesthesia, the first thing she saw were the tear-filled eyes of Mrs. Bai and Ye Xilan.
"Mom... Aunt Ye."
After greeting them, she realized her left eye was covered. It was disorienting to see with only one eye, and everything was blurry.
She was awake, but her mind was still groggy. She raised her hand, intending to touch her left eye.
"Yueyue, you can’t touch it!"
The moment Mrs. Bai saw Bai Xinyue wake up, she rushed to her side. Seeing her daughter raise her hand, she immediately moved to stop her.
"Yueyue, does it hurt terribly?"
As Mrs. Bai held her hand, Bai Xinyue frowned, her mind still sluggish. "Mom, what... what happened to me..."
As the words left her lips, her memory came rushing back.
The excruciating, stabbing pain from when her eye was injured seemed to flare up all over again.
The sticky feeling of her hands slick with blood... and Wu Sheng...
Bai Xinyue remembered the sight of Wu Sheng after she had turned him over, and her entire body began to tremble.
"Mom, my eye! My eye hurts so much! What happened to my eye?"
Bai Xinyue had been pampered her entire life. She had never experienced real pain before. The unbearable agony from her injured eye was the worst she had ever felt.
She had passed out from a combination of overwhelming pain and shock.
Seeing Bai Xinyue in this state, Mrs. Bai’s heart felt like it was being shredded.
"Yueyue, it’s okay. Don’t cry, please don’t cry. You can’t cry right now."
’The doctor said that with Bai Xinyue’s eye in this condition, she couldn’t get too emotional, and she absolutely couldn’t cry.’
"Mom, tell me, what happened to my eye? Why can’t I see anything?"
Bai Xinyue’s mind was consumed by a single thought: her eye. She just wanted to know if it was all right. She gripped Mrs. Bai’s hand, her long fingernails digging deep into her mother’s skin without her realizing it.
A sharp pain shot through Mrs. Bai’s hand, but she ignored it, focusing only on consoling her daughter.
"Don’t be scared, Yueyue. You just can’t see for now. We’ll get you treatment, you can have surgery, and then you’ll be able to see again."
’The doctor said surgery was an option later, that surgery could restore her sight. If we can’t do it here, we can go to a foreign country for treatment.’
But Mrs. Bai’s words brought Bai Xinyue no comfort. She was in utter disbelief.
"’What do you mean, I can’t see? Am I blind? Blind?!’"
Bai Xinyue’s world spun. ’Blind... How could I, Bai Xinyue, be blind?’
’How could I be blind? How could I?’
"Don’t be scared, Yueyue! It’s only one eye, you still have the other one! Mom is here, you don’t have to be afraid of anything. We will absolutely get your eye fixed for you."
Mrs. Bai held Bai Xinyue, comforting her over and over again.
But Bai Xinyue simply stared straight at the ceiling, lying rigid as if she were numb to the world.
Even her good eye remained fixed and unblinking for a long time.
Mr. Bai, who had been silent all this time, looked at his daughter’s state and turned his head away—whether because he couldn’t bear to watch or because he was afraid he might start crying himself, it was hard to say.
Watching from the side, Ye Xilan’s heart ached for her.
’Such a lovely girl, suddenly blind in one eye... Anyone in her shoes would be devastated.’
Mrs. Bai tried to console her for a long time, but Bai Xinyue remained completely still and unresponsive. Terrified, Mrs. Bai began screaming hysterically for a doctor.
When the doctor arrived, Bai Xinyue’s condition was unchanged.
Mrs. Bai flew into a rage, shoving the doctor and screaming that they were useless.
In the end, it was pain that brought Bai Xinyue back to her senses.
Once the anesthetic wore off, a searing, unbearable pain began to throb in her injured eye.
The pain snapped Bai Xinyue out of her stupor, forcing her to become calm and rational.
’In her heart, she was burning with hatred and despair, utterly unable to accept her new reality.’
This was Bai Xinyue’s true state of mind. If she followed her heart, she would want to destroy everything, to lash out and ruin it all.
But her upbringing—the education she had received her whole life—forcibly split her into a different person.
’Things are already this way. No amount of crying or cursing can change reality. It’s better to calm down and figure out how to handle it.’
’I can’t have lost an eye for nothing!’
It was as if Bai Xinyue had been split in two: one half was irrational and crazed, the other was cold and logical.
In the end, her rational side won. Through the unbearable pain, she looked toward Ye Xilan, who was watching her with a pained expression. A startling light flared in her one good eye.
’I’m already blind in one eye. To do nothing about it... Unacceptable!’
Remembering the state she had seen Wu Sheng in, Bai Xinyue suddenly grabbed Mrs. Bai’s hand. "Wu Sheng... How is Wu Sheng?"
Mrs. Bai froze for a second, then burst into tears of joy. "Yueyue, you scared me to death! You were so still, you scared me half to death..."
Bai Xinyue ignored her mother’s crying and looked directly at Ye Xilan. "Aunt Ye, Wu Sheng... How is Wu Sheng?"
’Wu Sheng isn’t dead, is he? He can’t die!’