magicChapter 64  

Yuan Ye got off the plane a whole thirty hours later. A storm had struck locally. All the flights at the airport had gotten suspended. That day, Yuan Ye had tried everything he could, but ultimately couldn’t leave the island.

Ji Xiaotao pitifully said through the phone, “......Ye ge, don’t worry.”

Yuan Ye made a noise of acknowledgment. He told Ji Xiaotao, “If anything happens, call me immediately.”

“Don’t rush, Ye ge,” Ji Xiaotao said.

Yuan Ye’s throat was hoarse too, but he still sounded calm. Or, it could be said that he sounded collected. Ji Xiaotao wanted to keep talking to him: it seemed like talking to him could make one feel safe.

Aside from the film crew members, it had originally only been Ji Xiaotao at the hospital. He had handled everything himself, and had done a great job at it. But no matter how strong he was, he only looked composed. He was actually very panicked and scared in his heart. The only two people who he felt, from the bottom of his heart, that he could rely on, were Geng Jinwei and Yuan Ye.

Neither of them were here, but neither of them had sounded agitated over the phone. Since they weren’t agitated, it didn’t seem like anything terrible would happen. Thus, Ji Xiaotao was willing to believe that the scariest possibility wouldn’t occur. As long as that didn’t occur, he could handle anything else.

Geng Jinwei arrived at midnight on the day of the incident. When Ji Xiaotao finally saw him, he had already lost his voice. Geng Jinwei’s face was as dark as a moonless night. He scanned the hospital hallway, sharp gaze sliding across each person’s face. He didn’t reply to a single greeting, heading straight toward the set designer instead. Geng Jinwei grabbed the other by the hair, forcing him to lean his head back. Then, he punched the set designer twice on the chest. Each punch was intended to damage.

“Boss Geng, Boss Geng......” Nobody dared to say anything else to calm him down. Nobody reached out to stop him either. There was even a perverse sense of pleasure visible in Ji Xiaotao’s eyes. Each punch Geng Jinwei threw gave him joy. He leaned against the opposing wall, coldly watching. As long as Geng Jinwei didn’t actually beat the guy to death, it didn’t matter.

Right now, it was unsure if Fang Shaoyi would live. If he survived, everything would be fine, but if anything actually happened to him, then nobody would be able to live. The driver for that car would be the first to go; the set designer wouldn’t be able to escape responsibility either. The car belonging to the set design team had been carrying junk and driving way too fast. While making a turn, the tire had suddenly exploded, causing the car to lurch forward uncontrollably. Even two houses had collapsed. It was incredibly fortunate that Fang Shaoyi and the other two actors hadn’t been too close to the road. Otherwise, there probably wouldn’t have even been a need to send him to the hospital.

Such a serious accident had already occurred. Almost all the important film crew members were present. The little area around the emergency room was crowded with people. Director Wei was obviously there as well. He looked very frail and like he had suddenly aged many years. In the end, he was the one who stepped forward and stopped Geng Jinwei from continuing. Geng Jinwei’s blood red eyes made eye contact with him. Director Wei silently shook his head at the other.

Right now, Geng Jinwei didn’t want to give anyone face. He stopped at this time only because he couldn’t kill this person yet. There was no other reason.

After, Geng Jinwei walked over and wrapped his arms around Ji Xiaotao briefly. Then, he forcefully patted the other’s back. Several parts of Ji Xiaotao’s lips had already cracked open. His voice finally started shaking now that he was talking to Geng Jinwei, face to face. “Geng ge, I’m......quite scared.”

After letting go of him, Geng Jinwei lowly said, “Don’t worry. Don’t be scared.”

A call at such a time wouldn’t necessarily be a good thing. Yuan Ye hadn’t even figured out with what emotion he should answer the phone in case it really did start ringing.

But fortunately, the first thing that Ji Xiaotao said when Yuan Ye called him after getting off the plane was, “Don’t worry, Ye ge. He’s temporarily stable.”

Temporarily stable. This was only temporary, but for Yuan Ye, it was already enough. Yuan Ye replied, “I still need two more hours.”

“Don’t rush. Everything’s fine,” Ji Xiaotao told him.

There was already someone waiting outside the airport. As soon as Yuan Ye got out of the airport, he headed straight to the county hospital. When he got there, there weren’t that many people in the hospital anymore. They had all been kicked out by Geng Jinwei. Only six people remained: all of their faces were ashen pale. All of them looked worse for wear.

Yuan Ye had run up the stairs. He wasn’t in the mood to wait for the elevator. He nodded at the director and them. Ji Xiaotao had already walked over. He told Yuan Ye, “Ye ge, don’t worry. Just now, the doctor said he’s still stable.”

Yuan Ye was still panting. He didn’t want to hear these things. He simply asked, “Is he still bleeding?”

Ji Xiaotao nodded. “Yes. The doctor also asked if we want to transfer hospitals.”

“Yes,” Yuan Ye said without second thought. After saying this, he turned to look at Geng Jinwei. “We need to transfer, right Geng ge?”

On this matter, he and Geng Jinwei shared the same opinion. Since it had been an emergency, they had taken Fang Shaoyi to this small hospital for emergency treatment. Now that he was stable, they needed to transfer hospitals. But right now, the hospital wasn’t letting them leave. Fang Shaoyi hadn’t gotten out of critical condition yet. It was too risky to transfer. The hospital’s suggestion was to wait a bit longer.

Yuan Ye had already gotten a summary of Fang Shaoyi’s injuries when he had called earlier. The other’s collar bone was broken. The rebar had pierced through his right chest and stabbed the right lower lobe of his lung. The hospital had asked for a specialist from the provincial hospital to come do the surgery. They had repaired the puncture and tried to stop bleeding, but the results weren’t ideal. As for the head wound, it was actually the least serious one. The injured area had been stitched five times. The loss of consciousness at the time of injury was likely due to concussion.

As soon as he heard these results, Yuan Ye actually exhaled in relief to himself. There were too many organs in the human chest. The four words “rebar through the chest” had caused Yuan Ye to stop breathing for a few seconds when he had heard them. He didn’t even want to think about the consequences if Fang Shaoyi had injured his heart or an important artery. However, this didn’t mean that a lung injury wouldn’t be life-threatening. Only, compared to the other organs, having the lungs injured could allow Yuan Ye to heave a slight, slight sigh of relief.

“Director.” Yuan Ye walked over and lowly told the director and them, “We won’t talk about those extra things right now. I just have one request. You absolutely need to keep this information a secret. Not even a single phrase can get leaked out.”

The producer replied from beside him, “Little Yuan, don’t worry about that. Nobody from the film set will say a word.”

Director Wei held onto Yuan Ye’s hands. He didn’t say anything. His palms were very cold. Yuan Ye knew that the director was actually suffering just as much as everyone else. To him, Fang Shaoyi was basically half a son. Additionally, he had been the one who had asked Fang Shaoyi to act in the film as a favor. Now that such an incident had occurred, the director was definitely the one in the most pain.

Yuan Ye comforted him, “Heaven helps good men. My ge will be fine. You ought to head back and rest too.”

Director Wei shook his head. He sat in the chair and didn’t move.

Yuan Ye was too calm. He was so calm that he didn’t even seem like a human anymore. Even Geng Jinwei had punched someone without saying anything when he had first arrived. However, from beginning to end, Yuan Ye had maintained his rationality. He only kept his eyes glued onto the door leading to the ICU. This hospital was too crude; it didn’t even have a private sterile care room. It only had one big room in the ICU that contained all the ICU patients.

Fang Shaoyi hadn’t woken up during all this time. Each time someone walked out, they gave the same answer. Each doctor had the same expression on. In the end, Yuan Ye simply stopped asking.

However, staying like this forever wasn’t a plan either. It had been over thirty hours, but Fang Shaoyi still hadn’t opened his eyes. The blood flow in the drainage pipe had never stopped either. They had already gotten into contact with a better hospital. The ambulance was waiting outside too. Yuan Ye and Geng Jinwei had the same idea. They weren’t going to wait anymore. They were going to transfer hospitals immediately.

A young doctor brought the transfer form over. They needed a family member’s signature. Yuan Ye stood up and reached his hands out to accept it. The doctor hesitated for a moment. Yuan Ye said, “Give it to me.”

The doctor handed it over. Yuan Ye quickly wrote his own name in the name blank. After, when he saw the “relationship to patient” blank, Yuan Ye felt like he had been stabbed in the eye. The tip of his pen started quivering.

The doctor had been staring at Yuan Ye from the beginning. At this time, he tentatively asked, “You’re no longer the patient’s spouse, right?”

Yuan Ye had stayed up for over a dozen hours straight. His eyes were already bloodshot. Right now, he stared straight at the doctor. He looked a bit terrifying, but his countenance also caused others to feel a strange sense of pity. The doctor reached out and quietly pulled the form out from Yuan Ye’s hands. He turned around and handed it to Geng Jinwei.

Geng Jinwei accepted it, glanced at Yuan Ye, then lowered his head to sign his own name.

From when Yuan Ye had received that first call till now, Ji Xiaotao had only seen and heard a calm, composed Yuan Ye. He spoke logically and acted logically, as if he believed, from the bottom of his heart, that this was only something trivial. That there was no need to panic.

But a simple transfer form seemed to have suddenly crushed Yuan Ye into a million pieces. His hands trembled uncontrollably.

“Ye ge......” Ji Xiaotao called out to him.

Yuan Ye returned to his senses. He shot a glance at Ji Xiaotao, then waved, gesturing that he was fine. Somewhat stiffly, he walked over to the stairwell. He felt around in his pocket. He wanted to light a cigarette for himself, but he didn’t have any cigarettes.

Yuan Ye leaned against the wall and slowly squatted. His arms blocked the view of his head. His entire being was curled up in a manner that suggested he was rejecting the whole world.

The person lying in there was Fang Shaoyi, the man Yuan Ye had loved for eighteen years.

Even when Fang Shaoyi merely had a headache or slight fever, Yuan Ye felt like this was a big deal. Right now, he was laying in the ICU, unconscious and with a forty-degree fever that wouldn’t go down. There were also various tubes stuck into his body while the drainage pipe incessantly drew blood out of him.

Such a Fang Shaoyi was lying in that room, but Yuan Ye wasn’t able to sign for him. All the people around him – Geng Jinwei, Ji Xiaotao, even the director – had more of a right to sign than he did. What could Yuan Ye write in the “relationship to patient” blank? Ex-husband? Or friend?

This was too comical and too cruel.

The ambulance sped into the city, driving on the green road the entire way. As they carried the stretcher into the emergency room, a young doctor yanked up the blanket and covered the patient’s face.

All sorts of people passed to and fro in the hospital. Fang Shaoyi’s face couldn’t be seen by outsiders. Even Yuan Ye and Ji Xiaotao were covering their faces; the doctor was doing this with good intentions. However, Yuan Ye hadn’t gotten any time to prepare before the doctor had acted. His immediate response was to fling the covering the doctor had placed on Fang Shaoyi’s face off and to remove his jacket and use that instead. Covering Fang Shaoyi’s face with a white cloth was too painful. It wouldn’t do. He already had no color on his face. How could they cover him in white too?

The patient had been safely transferred. The entire trip, his vital signs remained relatively stable. This, at least, could allow others to slightly relax. But prior to the stretcher being brought into the emergency room, Yuan Ye glued his face to Fang Shaoyi’s for a brief moment, disregarding the doctor’s opposition. His eyelids were trembling very hard. His eyelashes fluttered against Fang Shaoyi’s face.

Ji Xiaotao’s nose instantly soured. He turned away and wiped his eyes.

That day, Yuan Ye softly whispered something into Fang Shaoyi’s ear. “I’ve returned my light to you......I don’t have any light left.”