Shen Huaichuan had a mission at the time and had to return to his unit the next day, so he couldn't leave immediately.
The elderly couple, traveling alone, didn't dare to delay for a moment. They bought the fastest train tickets overnight and rushed anxiously towards Y Province.
On the way, the two encouraged each other and gave each other words of encouragement:
"When we see the children, no matter how badly they are injured, we can't panic or cry! We have to stay calm! We have to let the children know that as long as their parents are there, the sky won't fall! We have to hold them up!"
They envisioned almost every possible bad situation and mentally rehearsed how to face it bravely.
At this point, Shen Zhenbang's voice began to tremble uncontrollably. He clenched his teeth tightly, his cheek muscles tensed, and his eyes instantly reddened as he said:
"But we... never expected this..."
"When we finally arrived at the hospital and rushed into the ward, what we saw..."
He stopped abruptly, his breathing became heavy, and his lips trembled.
After a long pause, he mustered all his strength and squeezed out broken words through gritted teeth:
"...That...that's not it at all...! It's not the kind of injury we're thinking of..."
Shen Zhenbang spoke with great difficulty because what he saw was—
On two side-by-side, snow-white hospital beds, lay two human figures wrapped in thick cloth like mummies.
The exposed skin was minimal, mostly bruised and swollen, or covered with horrific, crisscrossing wounds; there was hardly a patch of healthy flesh to be found.
His face was a terrible sight; his features were almost unrecognizable. Only by looking at the name tags hanging above the bed could one barely tell which one was the son and which one was the daughter-in-law.
They remained motionless and silent, with only the monotonous and unsettling beeping of the cold medical equipment beside the bed.
No matter how Shen Zhenbang and Qin Peilan called their names tremblingly and shook their arms, they did not respond.
The military doctor next to them told them in a heavy tone that the two men had been shot multiple times and lost too much blood; their vital signs were already extremely weak when they were brought in.
The most fatal thing was that he suffered a severe blow to the head. It is a miracle that he was able to be saved and keep alive.
But the brain damage was too severe, and the hope of waking up was extremely slim.
In medicine, this is called a "vegetative state," which is... a person in a vegetative state.
All the mental preparation and pretense he had put on before the journey crumbled instantly when he saw his son and daughter-in-law in such a terrible state and heard the medical diagnosis that was almost a death sentence.
She was surrounded by doctors and nurses, but Qin Peilan broke down on the spot.
She collapsed to her knees on the cold cement floor with a thud, abandoning all pretense of dignity and composure. Clutching the hem of the medic's white coat, she wept uncontrollably, pleading:
"Doctor! Please! Save them! Save my children! My eldest son is already missing... I can't lose Huaiyue and Weiwei too! Please! We have money! We'll give up everything we own to treat them! We'll sell everything we own to treat them! As long as there's even the slightest hope, we'll treat them! Please, please think of something!!"
Shen Zhenbang was also in tears, supporting his almost paralyzed wife, pleading with the doctor again and again, as if if they pleaded more earnestly, they could get a slight chance of a turnaround.
However, the equally exhausted military doctor, with red-rimmed eyes, simply shook his head weakly and offered a heavy word of comfort:
"We've done our best. It's a miracle they survived. What happens next... really... is up to fate and their own destiny..."
"Unless...a miracle occurs..."
The doctor's words were tantamount to sentencing Shen Huaiyue and Xiaowei to death.
Shen Zhenbang closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and when he opened them again, his eyes were filled with unfathomable pain.
"Your mother, Perrin, suddenly everything went black, her body went limp, and if I hadn't caught her quickly, she would have collapsed to the ground..."
"She grabbed my arm, her nails digging almost into my flesh, repeatedly muttering, 'Let me go with Huaiyue... How am I supposed to live like this...' The way she looked... it was truly... truly heartbreaking..."
He couldn't continue; his Adam's apple bobbed violently, and he remained silent for a long time, as if he had returned to that suffocating and desperate moment.
Zhou Qiqi felt a pang of sadness, a heavy and oppressive feeling, and her nose stung with tears.
Unable to bear seeing her father-in-law in such pain any longer, she quickly changed the subject and asked softly:
"Dad, what about Zhouzhou? How was Zhouzhou? Where is she?"
Upon hearing the name "Zhouzhou," Shen Zhenbang's expression softened slightly, and his tone became a little angry as he said:
"Sigh, thankfully, the doctor mentioned Zhouzhou later, which temporarily pulled your mother back from that life-threatening situation. Otherwise... given her condition at the time, she might really have gone with him..."
"We quickly asked the doctor how the child was, where he was, and if he was hurt."
"The doctor said the child is lucky and nothing serious! There are some abrasions on his elbows and knees, which have already been treated. Everything else has been checked and is fine. He is resting in the children's ward upstairs now. We should go and see him as soon as possible."
Upon hearing this, the elderly couple forgot all about their grief and immediately helped each other upstairs to the children's ward, stumbling and falling.
"Pushing open the ward door, I saw... Zhouzhou, that child..."
At that time, Zhouzhou was only four years old, a thin and small child, wearing a loose hospital gown, sitting alone on the edge of the hospital bed.
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