WMSR – QT Chapter 49

 

WMSR – QT Chapter 49

By

siofra

Chapter 49 

Yet once he broke free from that mother’s embrace, a brand-new hurdle presented itself: the little boy, weeping so hard his face was slick with tears, refused to budge. At a juncture like this—especially with Bai Yichen having already expended every last shred of his strength and struggling with a crippled lower body—forcing the child away was out of the question. Lowering his gaze, Bai Yichen hardened his expression and told the boy, “Whether you leave or stay is entirely up to you. But if you stay here, there’s a serious risk of the cars exploding, and I’m sure you don’t want your mother’s sacrifice to go to waste.”

The boy looked at Bai Yichen through a tear-blurred haze. At seven or eight years old in this age of digital saturation, he wasn’t entirely clueless. That was precisely why he had wept so bitterly when his mother’s blood had drenched around him. As his gaze swept down and caught sight of the sleeve already stained crimson on the ground where Bai Yichen braced himself, he finally gave a small, shuddering nod.

Seeing the boy agree to leave, Bai Yichen let out a quiet sigh of relief. Fortunately, although the child was young, he had been sheltered fiercely by his mother; aside from a few minor scrapes, he was completely uninjured. Once out of the car, the boy’s physical mobility outclassed Bai Yichen’s by a wide margin.

Apart from turning back every few moments to cast heartbroken, lingering glances at his mother inside the wreckage, the little boy stayed obediently by Bai Yichen’s side as he slowly dragged himself forward. He even kept trying to reach out and prop Bai Yichen up, but his small frame lacked the strength to offer any real assistance. All he could do was watch in quiet horror as fresh blood continued to seep out from Bai Yichen’s already saturated sleeve, leaving a glaring, jagged smear of red across the frost-bitten ground.

He understood all too well why that older brother’s hand was bleeding. After all, from his restricted line of sight while trapped inside the vehicle, he had witnessed every detail of how that hand had reached in and how it had been shredded by the jagged glass just to pop the lock.

It was all for him.

His mother had bled so much for him, and now this older brother had bled so much for him too…

He was terrified—terrified that an older brother who had lost this much blood might end up just like his mother, never able to answer him again.

When Bai Yichen finally sensed they had crawled far enough to reach a safe distance, his hands were trembling uncontrollably and his vision had begun to fracture into double images. Before he even had a chance to catch his breath, he felt a small body rush up beside him. Instantly, his injured hand was scooped up, two pairs of clumsy yet fiercely determined small hands pressing down tightly against the source of the bleeding.

Bai Yichen blinked in surprise, a soft, helpless chuckle catching in his throat alongside a wave of genuine warmth. He kept his arm extended, letting the child press down as earnestly as possible while his other hand fumbled into his pocket. Pulling out the smartphone he had carefully salvaged from his foster parents right before getting out, he dialed the emergency services and police lines.

Upon hearing the reassuring confirmation from the dispatcher and verifying their exact location, a massive weight lifted from Bai Yichen’s chest. The moment that intense, driving adrenaline faded, the body he had pushed past its absolute limits immediately gave out, plunging him into total unconsciousness.

Naturally, the unconscious Bai Yichen had no way of knowing how the little boy spent the next twenty minutes: weeping quietly while stubbornly pressing his small hands against the wound, refusing to let another drop of blood escape.

A little over twenty minutes after the calls went through, the wailing sirens of police cruisers and ambulances tore through the fog, bringing a desperately needed lifeline to this isolated, despairing stretch of highway.

Amidst the heavy, suffocating fog of his slumber, Bai Yichen had no concept of how much time passed until a familiar mechanical chime echoed in his mind:

“Respected host, you have successfully completed the second world mission of the Jinjiang White Moonlight Survival System. Mission completion rate: 100%. You will be rewarded with a total of sixteen years, eight months, and eleven days of lifespan for this world. The reward has been deposited. Wishing you a pleasant life.”

As if finally waiting for that long-awaited confirmation, the tightly wound nerves inside Bai Yichen completely unraveled, pulling his consciousness down into an even deeper, untroubled sleep.

The glaring red light above the operating room doors finally blinked off. A surgeon dressed in scrubs emerged, and a couple waiting anxiously outside alongside a handsome teenage boy immediately rushed forward. “Doctor, how is he?”

The surgeon stepping out pulled down the surgical mask covering his lower face. “The operation went smoothly, and the patient is currently out of immediate danger, but…”

“But what?”

Before the couple could voice their question, the teenage boy nearby blurted out anxiously, his tone carrying the most frantic urgency of the three.

The doctor cast a mildly curious glance at the handsome boy before turning back to address the adults. “During the collision, the patient’s lower back suffered severe, crushing impact. Both his spinal nerves and skeletal structure sustained irreversible damage. Given current medical standards, a full recovery is impossible. Even with optimal post-op rehabilitation, treatment will only serve to manage pain and complications… However, his ability to walk will never return. I suggest you prepare yourselves mentally.”

Upon hearing the doctor’s words, the teenage boy’s hands clenched tightly at his sides. Permanently lose the ability to walk… That means… he’s paralyzed… Ziqian…

The devastating severity of permanent paralysis hung heavily in the air, plunging the couple into a stunned silence for a long moment. At that moment, the emergency gurney rolled out from the operating rooms. Seeing their son step forward toward the bed, the couple quickly followed behind.

The family escorted the gurney all the way to a VIP recovery ward. Noting that the anesthesia hadn’t worn off yet and that the patient was resting quietly, they temporarily stepped outside.

Once they had walked a short distance down the corridor, the teenage boy suddenly reached out to catch the hand of the woman beside him, lifting his head. “Mom, can we take care of Ziqian forever?”

“What nonsense are you—wait, what did you just say?” Hearing her son’s proposal, the woman instinctively bristled; after all, nobody was eager to take on the lifelong burden of caring for a paralyzed stranger’s child. But a split second later, a realization dawned on her. Her eyes lit up instantly as she turned back to look at her son with renewed eagerness. Caring for him forever—doesn’t that mean formal adoption? Lightning-fast calculations raced through the woman’s mind, telling her the idea was entirely feasible. After all, Bai Ziqian was hardly some penniless deadweight.

Catching the shift in his wife’s tone—true to their long marriage—the husband caught on almost immediately. Exchanging a meaningful glance with his spouse, he stepped in, his voice instantly softening with paternal warmth. “Ziqian is such a tragic boy. Both his parents perished in this crash, and he has no other relatives left. On top of that, his legs… Ah. I know you’ve always been close friends with Ziqian. Why don’t you talk to him about it yourself? Your mother and I both agree. After all, we were friends with his parents for all these years; how could we just stand by and watch him have nobody to look after him?”