Volume One, Chapter 83: Forgiveness

Jiang Wan’s mind suddenly went blank.

Though she had already guessed something had happened to Ji Jiali when she overheard Lu Wenzhou’s phone call, hearing him say it aloud left her stunned.

She struggled to steady herself.

She shook off Lu Wenzhou’s supporting hand. “Don’t worry about me.”

It took nearly all her strength to force out those four words.

Lu Wenzhou paused, a flicker of surprise in his dark eyes as he glanced at Jiang Wan, then quickly grasped her meaning.

He turned back to instruct the nurse, hurriedly contacted the hospital administration, and arranged everything necessary.

By the time the ambulance siren rose and drew near, nearly half an hour had passed.

With her right foot in a cast, Jiang Wan could only sit in a wheelchair, waiting outside the emergency room.

“Hurry! Hurry!” The doctors’ urgent voices, along with the rattling wheels of the mobile hospital bed, rushed down the corridor.

A group of people moved quickly toward Jiang Wan.

Several medical staff pushed the bed, accompanied by Lin Zhi, her face streaked with tears, helping to move it along.

Ji Jiali lay on the bed.

Her eyes closed, her face utterly drained of color.

Her fair skin now looked as pale as a sheet of paper.

With their arrival, the air filled with a thick, metallic scent of blood.

Ji Jiali’s long down coat was stained scarlet in patches, soaking the white sheets beneath.

Jiang Wan felt suffocated.

The overwhelming smell of blood and Ji Jiali’s motionless form made her feel as if she were seeing another snowy night from two years before.

Her father must have looked just the same—collapsed in a pool of blood, pushed into the emergency room, never to leave the hospital again.

Fear rose from deep within her, chilling her to the bone.

Jiang Wan’s own face was pale, her body rigid, unable to move.

In her line of sight, Ji Jiali was pushed into the emergency room.

Lin Zhi was forced to stay outside, sobbing, her expression innocent yet anguished.

Behind her, Zhai Honghui was briefing the hospital doctors, giving instructions while rapidly changing into surgical scrubs.

He was preparing to operate, but his assistant informed him, “The patient has RH-negative type O blood. Our blood bank is almost empty. We’ve requested supplies from nearby hospitals, but it’ll take—”

Before the assistant finished, Jiang Wan cried out anxiously, “That’s me! Take my blood! I’m her daughter!”

The doctor stared in surprise, glancing from Jiang Wan in her hospital gown to Zhai Honghui.

He nodded, his expression grave, wasting no time. “Let her into the operating room. There’s no time to lose. We must operate immediately!”

*

Inside the operating room.

Jiang Wan and Ji Jiali lay in the same space, on separate beds.

When the nurse inserted the transfusion line into Jiang Wan’s arm, her red plasma slowly flowed through the transparent tube toward the surgical table.

Under the round surgical lamp, the illuminated side of Ji Jiali’s face looked remarkably similar to Jiang Wan’s own.

But now, lifeless, she was like an empty shell.

Unconscious, her skin had turned ashen-white.

She lay utterly still, at the mercy of fate.

In Jiang Wan’s memory, Ji Jiali had always been vibrant, passionate.

She wore the finest clothes, adorned herself with precious jewels.

Proud and willful, spoiled by affection.

Even after her father left, she was never short of admirers.

Her every smile and frown could captivate hearts.

Yet, now, she seemed drained of all vitality—like a rose wilting rapidly.

Petals fallen, branches withered.

Her vision blurred with heat. Tears welled up and slid uncontrollably from the corners of her eyes.

She had hated Ji Jiali for so long.

But in this moment, fear took hold.

Fear of losing her, fear for her safety.

She was the only family Jiang Wan had left, the only mother she ever had.

And in this moment, Jiang Wan suddenly seemed to understand.

Why her father had chosen to forgive Ji Jiali, let her leave, and allow her to pursue what she desired.

If that would bring back the vibrant woman she once was, then perhaps nothing else mattered.

Better to let her bloom somewhere else than watch her wither by one’s side.

Even if she would no longer belong wholly to him.

As these thoughts flooded her mind, tears streamed ceaselessly, washing over Jiang Wan’s heart, which had been sealed away for so long.

Around Ji Jiali, medical staff gathered.

Zhai Honghui himself took the lead in the surgery.

Perhaps it was his presence that allowed Jiang Wan to cling to a shred of composure at the edge of collapse.

Yet her body trembled uncontrollably.

“Hemostatic forceps.”

“Tissue scissors.”

Within the sealed operating room, only Zhai Honghui’s intermittent voice broke the silence, accompanied by the faint clatter of cold surgical instruments.

The air was thick with complex, mingled scents.

With medical staff blocking her view, Jiang Wan couldn’t see the actual operation.

She could only silently repeat her prayers: May the Buddha protect her, please let nothing happen.

She had already lost her father. She could not lose her mother, too.

“Dad, I forgive her now,” Jiang Wan murmured so softly only she could hear, “I won’t be resentful anymore. I’ll be good to her. Please don’t take her away, let Mom… stay with me, please?”

Her whispers, repeated again and again, sounded like a secret conversation.

Her voice was so faint, only she could hear it.

Time ticked by, second after second.

The surgery lasted more than an hour.

During that time, blood plasma from a nearby hospital arrived.

Jiang Wan was moved out of the operating room ahead of time.

“No!” Weak and frightened, she opened her eyes wide, trying to grasp at something.

She didn’t want to leave.

She was terrified that if she did, she would never see Ji Jiali again.

Until—

Zhai Honghui’s voice came through the mask, “Rest assured, go get your infusion and rest. Your mother’s life is not in danger. I give you my word.”

With those words, the knot in Jiang Wan’s throat finally eased a little.

Due to the excessive transfusion, she was pale and exhausted, her body limp.

Following Zhai Honghui’s instructions, the medical staff wheeled her out of the operating room ahead of time.

Because of this, she gradually began to hear the sounds outside.

Outside the operating room.

Lin Zhi was sobbing, apologizing to Lin Hongguang, who had rushed to the hospital.

“Dad, I’m sorry, it’s all my fault.”

“I didn’t protect Auntie properly—she lost so much blood.”

“It all happened so suddenly, I don’t even know where that stray cat came from—it pounced right at Auntie.”

“Auntie was just trying to shake it off and crashed into the offering table…”

“It’s my fault. If I’d noticed the cat sooner, Auntie wouldn’t be like this now.”

“I’m sorry…”

As Lin Zhi wept, the operating room door swung open.

The medical staff pushed Jiang Wan into the corridor.

Several figures hurried over.

Seeing it was Jiang Wan lying on the bed, Lin Hongguang immediately withdrew his gaze, and asked the medical staff about the situation inside.

“The patient is not in life-threatening danger, but the operation isn’t finished yet.”

“She suffered massive blood loss and uterine rupture. We had to remove her uterus to save her life. She will never be able to bear children again.”