Chapter 65

To those waiting outside, a transfer from the ICU unit of one hospital to the sterile ICU room of another hospital made no difference. They still couldn’t see or touch the patient. Ji Xiaotao asked the hospital why their rooms weren’t made of glass. Everybody ignored him.

The hallway outside of the ICU couldn’t be occupied by too many people overnight. Eventually, only Yuan Ye stayed behind. Everyone else found their own spots to rest. Or, they headed back to the hotel to sleep. Yuan Ye couldn’t leave even for a moment. Nobody tried to make him leave either. Lin Feng called, asking about the situation. Yuan Ye said things were okay. It wasn’t too big of a deal.

Before he had left, he had given the director a basic rundown of the incident. He had also notified the other that he probably wouldn’t be able to continue working on the movie. Lin Feng hadn’t mentioned anything extra. He only told Yuan Ye to hurry and head back, and that he wouldn’t have to worry about this film. Yuan Ye had even been capable of calling Feng Leizi and telling him to make a trip over. He told the other to keep an eye on the script. He hadn’t been panicked at all. Very calmly, he had sorted out his responsibilities.

Yuan Ye either stood outside the ICU or walked up and down the hallway outside it. If one viewed this scene in stop motion, Yuan Ye’s figure would be paused in a different place each frame, just like in the movies. The loneliness and desolation were obvious. There were two health care workers in the private ICU room. They occasionally came out for fresh air.

Yuan Ye would ask, “Is he awake yet?”

They would shake their heads. Then, he would ask again, “Is he still bleeding?”n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

They would say, “A little bit.”

Yuan Ye nodded. He didn’t have any other questions.

Half past two in the morning, one of the health care workers walked out. Yuan Ye noticed him and strided over from the other end of the hallway. He walked very softly, making no noise at all. The health care worker had a slight smile on as he said, “The patient’s awake.”

Yuan Ye closed his eyes briefly and nodded. Then, he nodded again. He checked the time on his phone. Even his voice was soft as he asked, “Can he speak?”

“He didn’t say anything,” the other replied, “but he looked pretty alert.”

Yuan Ye inquired, “Has his fever gone down?”

The worker shook his head.

Yuan Ye said, “Got it. Thank you.”

The other waved his hands before entering the room again.

Yuan Ye rested against the wall. He leaned back and thought, he’s awake? I don’t know if he’s of clear mind or not, or what he’s thinking about. If he can sigh, he’s probably going to sigh. Then, he’d have to think about all the follow-up matters.

There was a chair next to the bed. Yuan Ye sat there. The machines in the room beeped from time to time. This sound made people feel an inexplicable sense of discomfort.

Perhaps Fang Shaoyi could still sense something. As soon as Yuan Ye sat down, Fang Shaoyi slowly opened his eyes. There was still an oxygen mask on his face. The way it pulled at his skin made his cheekbones appear very high. He was no longer handsome. Yuan Ye stared at him, just like this. The two of them made eye contact. Through each other’s eyes, they looked into the other’s soul. Suddenly, Yuan Ye pulled the corners of his lips up. He smiled at Fang Shaoyi.

Fang Shaoyi was still staring at him. It was a bit hard for him to smile. Yuan Ye scooted closer. He didn’t touch Fang Shaoyi; he only heaved out a long sigh of relief before chuckling, eyes red. In a raspy voice, he said, “......You scared me to death.”

Fang Shaoyi was still in critical condition. As long as his fever didn’t go down, anything could happen at any time. Additionally, his bleeding still hadn’t gotten fully stopped. During the upcoming doctors’ consultation, they would need to determine their next plan of action. It was crucial to find the area that was bleeding. If they still couldn’t stop the bleeding, they’d have to open up Fang Shaoyi’s chest again. This was all very troublesome, but things weren’t so bad that the only thing Fang Shaoyi could do was lay there and breathe. He wasn’t speaking because it wasn’t convenient to speak with an oxygen mask on. He could still move, though.

Fang Shaoyi reached a hand out. There was still an IV drip attached to his hand. Yuan Ye instinctively reached for him too, but he hesitated for a moment. He didn’t know if he could touch Fang Shaoyi or not. The nurse whispered behind him, “It’s fine. I’ll wipe him off again later.”

This was truly sterile quarantine. Fang Shaoyi couldn’t get contaminated right now. However, it wasn’t so serious that they couldn’t even hold hands. Yuan Ye knew too that he was being overly nervous. He laughed at himself, then bent over and glued himself to the edge of the bed. He took off his mask and allowed Fang Shaoyi’s palm to rest against his face.

“I got skinnier, right?” Yuan Ye inquired.

Fang Shaoyi gently squeezed his face.

“I definitely got skinnier,” Yuan Ye added. “At least five fucking catties. Five catties that I gained after mouthfuls and mouthfuls of food. In the past few days, you scared me so much that I lost all that weight.”

Fang Shaoyi softly slid his hand over Yuan Ye’s head to caress his stubbly hair. He also stroked Yuan Ye’s neck and the dip of his collarbones.

Yuan Ye clutched onto Fang Shaoyi’s hand and pressed a kiss to his palm. When Fang Shaoyi touched his face again, he noticed a slight wet sensation. He used his fingertips to find Yuan Ye’s eyes. Then, he wiped away those tears filled with horror, agitation, and despair.

This was the only visiting time allowed for the first half of the day. Ten minutes passed in the blink of an eye. Their time was up after an extremely brief conversation. Before Yuan Ye exited the room, he wiped his index finger and middle finger against his lips. Then, he pressed these two fingers to Fang Shaoyi’s forehead. Fang Shaoyi stared into his eyes. Yuan Ye sighed and said, “Hurry and lower your fever. Hurry. If you don’t get back to a normal body temperature, you’ll still be stuck here. That way, you won’t be able to see me. If you miss me and start crying in here, I won’t know either.”

There was slight amusement in Fang Shaoyi’s eyes. He blinked playfully.

Yuan Ye suddenly turned back around after walking to the doorway. He stood next to the bed and announced, “I feel wronged.”

Fang Shaoyi cocked an eyebrow.

Yuan Ye said, “I wasn’t fucking allowed to sign the documents. The doctor wouldn’t let me sign. Geng ge signed all the papers. When you’re not sleeping, just stay here and think of a plan. Back then, who forced me to sign? Sign all the future papers the same way you made me sign my name on the divorce papers that year. Don’t you know how to write my name? Only you do, only you’re capable. Sign for me again. I don’t know how.”

After saying this, Yuan Ye turned around and left. Fang Shaoyi watched him until he had completely disappeared.

Yuan Ye told the nurse, “Wipe his hands and face, please. You’ve worked hard.”

The nurse shook his head and said, “Just doing what I should be.”

Geng Jinwei asked Yuan Ye, “How is he?”

Yuan Ye smiled, nodded, and answered, “Great.”

This was Yuan Ye’s answer for everyone. Fang Shaoyi was great. Fang Shaoyi was fine.

But in actuality, how great could he be? Even Yuan Ye himself felt like he could barely breathe when he saw Fang Shaoyi. He almost wanted to take the oxygen mask off and put it on his own face instead. Fang Shaoyi had injured his lungs. Right now, every breath was excruciatingly difficult. He had lost so much blood. If he was in a good state, he wouldn’t need to be wearing something like an oxygen mask now. He also wouldn’t have failed to wake up until midnight last night. His breathing was so shallow that it practically wasn’t noticeable. Merely a few days prior, he had seemed so handsome and alive during their video call. Now, he was laying there, unable to say even a single word.

Yuan Ye shamelessly told Fang Shaoyi that he wouldn’t sign anymore. He pushed the blame for their divorce onto Fang Shaoyi, deliberately being dishonest. He was determined to tally this incident as Fang Shaoyi owing him. Some things were lethal when not spoken out loud. After sharing them, the burden could be lessened, but it still hurt. Also, Fang Shaoyi was the one who owed him. If he didn’t fully recover so they could get married again, how else was he going to pay Yuan Ye back?

Fang Shaoyi’s parents arrived in the afternoon. In the beginning, Ji Xiaotao hadn’t notified them immediately. He wanted to wait for Fang Shaoyi’s condition to stabilize a bit more before telling them. He didn’t dare to tell them. He had only called them after Yuan Ye had arrived yesterday. These things couldn’t be pushed off. Nobody was more terrified than Yuan Ye that something would happen to Fang Shaoyi, but no matter what, nobody had the right to keep this a secret from Fang Shaoyi’s parents. What if? If certain things truly happened, shouldn’t they be allowed to come see him?

After his visit into the room, Yuan Ye had already called them and given them an update on the situation. Now that he saw them approaching, Yuan Ye walked over and hugged Fang Shaoyi’s mother. Then, he held onto Fang Han’s hand and told the two of them, “Dad, Mom, he’s mostly fine now. When his fever goes down, he’ll be able to transfer to a regular room. Don’t worry.”

Fang Han nodded. His voice was still as strong and composed as ever, but the rims of his eyes were clearly red. “I’m not worried. It’s no big deal when you get a trivial injury or sickness on set. I’ve ‘died’ so many times over all these years, but aren’t I still alive and kicking?”

“Yes,” Yuan Ye said. “He’s exactly like you, Dad.”

Geng Jinwei and Ji Xiaotao were both present. The director and producer were present too. Fang Han’s face was dark. His voice was harsh as he asked, “What actually happened? Where did the rebar come from? You used rebar during filming?”

“It was junk from when we took apart a bridge,” Ji Xiaotao replied. “They needed to take apart a Japanese bridge in the movie. After filming, the useless parts needed to be taken away. The tire of the car carrying the junk exploded.”

“Why would the tire explode?” Fang Han’s eyebrows were tightly furrowed together. He stared straight at the producer and asked, “Tell me the truth. Even if you don’t, I’m going to investigate. Was this an accident?”

“It truly was an accident.” These past few days, the producer had been so stressed that his hair had started graying. He looked at Fang Han and sincerely stated, “Elder Fang, right now, the truth is before our eyes. Saying this sounds like a joke, but you’re familiar with our film crew too. Everyone is very well-behaved. It was really only an accident.”

“The car was driving fine, but somehow managed to explode right next to my son? You’re trying to placate and fool me by saying it was an accident?” Fang Han’s sharp gaze focused on the producer. Even though Fang Han was now old, still nobody could handle this glare.

At this time, Director Wei Hua spoke up. “Elder Fang.”

Fang Han waited for him to continue. “Speak.”

“It was an accident, but it was also caused by human error.” Wei Hua didn’t hide anything. He shared the whole truth, every piece of it. He couldn’t keep it a secret forever anyways. Besides, Wei Hua wasn’t the type to try and sweep things under the carpet. He was partially responsible for this accident as well.

All the cars belonging to the film crew had been bought secondhand. When there was no filming occurring, they would remain parked in place for up to one or two years. The tires would degrade. Prior to being brought onto set for use again, they needed to maintain or change the tires. The driver in charge of the car had handed in receipts to be reimbursed for two new front tires, but hadn’t actually switched to the new tires. In actuality, those two tires had already been on their last legs. However, it wasn’t realistic to leave the set and spend a lot of time mending the tires. Thus, the driver merely took out a spare tire and used that instead.

The driver did this for a living. He was very sure in his heart. Trucks weren’t that sensitive; it wasn’t a big deal if one or two tires weren’t up to standard. Under usual circumstances, these tires could’ve absolutely lasted until the end of filming. If he hadn’t felt confident to a certain degree, he wouldn’t have acted in this manner.

Things had started going downhill because the junk was too heavy. The tread pattern on the two coaxial front tires were different. Additionally, the old tire was too badly worn down. Given that the tire pressure wasn’t high enough and the car was driving too fast, a simple dip in the road had caused it to explode.

Wasn’t this an accident? It truly was an accident. However, this was an accident that entirely could’ve been prevented. The driver had the greatest responsibility, but then again, who wasn’t responsible? Nobody could avoid taking responsibility. Inspecting down the line, the root cause of everything was also the fact that the higher-ups hadn’t carefully checked the conditions of the tires.

There were two other actors who had gotten injured at the same time as Fang Shaoyi. The two little actors had sought Fang Shaoyi out so he could help them with their lines. Fang Shaoyi usually never rejected such requests. During lunch, Ji Xiaotao went to help Fang Shaoyi grab his food. Otherwise, given the way the two of them always stuck together, he probably would’ve ended up critically injured too.

Fang Shaoyi had filmed so many movies across the years, after all. A good portion of these had also been action films. He had a really fast reaction speed. The moment of the incident, he had already lunged forward while pushing the two other actors away. Otherwise, he’d definitely have been hit in the head. If that had really happened, his skull would’ve shattered. Had Fang Shaoyi not protected the other two actors, he actually would’ve been able to get out of the way. At least, he wouldn’t be as seriously injured as he was now. But how could he not care for them? Could he watch them die? Would that still be Fang Shaoyi?

Fang Han’s pupils trembled incessantly. His eyes became bloodshot. He asked, “Where’s the driver? Did he die?”

Geng Jinwei answered, “He’s resting in the hospital. Not dead. He’s not even as heavily injured as Shaoyi.”

“He’s not even as badly injured as my son?” Fang Han was truly furious. He had been righteous his whole life, had spent an entire lifetime with no secrets. This was the only reason he was able to say something like this now. “He was the one who sought death, but he wants my son to bear the consequences in his stead?”

“If something really happens to my kid, what are you guys going to compensate me with?” Fang Han pointed at the producer. Then, he turned his gaze towards Wei Hua. The man who had just said, “It’s no big deal when you get a trivial injury or sickness on set,” now slammed his hand against the wall and shouted at these two. “A steel bar passed through my son’s chest. If it had really punctured his heart, what would you guys compensate me with?!”