DTTM 47

Chapter 47: I Was Abandoned

“We should have adopted another child from a collateral branch in the first place! If he doesn’t live to see the princess come of age and can’t marry into the royal family, what was the point of me taking him back in the first place?”

“Bazel is a bunch of liars. It’s not worth spending so much money on their organization every year!”

“No matter what, we have to make him hold on until next year, until he marries the princess… If his internal organs rot, we’ll replace them with Jiang Man’s. We’ve been supporting that lowly commoner for so long, it’s time for him to play his role.”

I leaned against the servants’ passageway to listen to the argument between Zong Shen’an and Wuxi Li in the study separated by a wall. Actually, calling it an “argument” wouldn’t be accurate; it was more like Zong Shen’an having a one-sided fit of madness.

“He refuses.” After a while, Wuxi Li’s voice rang out, along with the soft sound of a teacup being placed into a saucer. “He said the limit of his tolerance is a blood transfusion. If he were to have the organs of a lowly person enter his body, he would rather die.”

Zong Shen’an sneered upon hearing this: “Does he think this is something he can choose?”

“Given his current physical condition, he probably won’t survive a major organ transplant surgery.”

“Every little bit helps, at least get those damned eyes fixed. That way, at the wedding next year, when he’s in his wheelchair, at least he can look the princess in the eyes and say his vows…”

I pursed my lips, decided not to listen anymore, straightened up, and followed the passage back to Zong Yanlei’s living quarters.

The air was saturated with the pungent smell of disinfectant, mixed with the bitter smell of medicine. I didn’t go into the bedroom immediately, but first went to the bathroom to wash my hands carefully before opening the bedroom door to check on Zong Yanlei.

Only a dim floor lamp illuminated the bedroom, and the oxygen machine whirred monotonously. Zong Yanlei lay in the bed, the quilt draped over him, barely outlining his body. His hands rested on the quilt with layers of bandages wrapped around them, yet still unable to conceal the jagged, protruding shape beneath.

He was like a branch gradually losing its vitality. Even if you carefully placed him in a vase and tended to him with meticulous care, changing the water and adding fertilizer every day, you could only barely delay his withering.

Ever since meeting San-ge and falling seriously ill upon returning home, Zong Yanlei’s health deteriorated rapidly. For the next six months, he spent most of his time in bed, rarely even going to the garden downstairs, let alone university. He even spent his eighteenth birthday in bed.

On that day, I suspected that all the powerful and influential people in Baiyujing sent birthday gifts.

Jewelry, antiques, artworks… a dazzling array of gifts filled the room, but Zong Yanlei didn’t open any of them. He simply packed them up and threw them into the home vault.

That evening, the gifts from his parents arrived. Zong Shen’an gave him an eight-figure check, while Wuxi Li offered a dark fragment of a meteorite.

Zong Yanlei tore up the check, keeping only Wuxi Li’s meteorite fragment, and placed it on his bedside table.

I placed my hand to his forehead to check his temperature, making sure he didn’t have a fever, and then softly called out to him, “Young Master…”

His brow twitched slightly, and he slowly opened his eyes; he wasn’t sleeping soundly.

“What time is it?” By then he was completely blind, and even if the bedroom curtains were open 24 hours a day, he could not perceive the passage of time.

“It’s ten o’clock at night, young master.” I helped him sit up against the headboard and placed several soft pillows behind him.

He said “Oh,” leaned back, and didn’t say anything more after that.

“I’ll go get the medicine. Please wait a moment.”

He was still in the same position when I returned.

Since he went completely blind, he became more and more silent each day. He was either in a daze or staring into the void, and very occasionally, he would ask me to read the news to him. It seemed like he was slowly losing the will to live.

I removed his oxygen mask and gave him the medication in batches, which he swallowed one by one with water. But just when there were only a few pills left, he suddenly covered his mouth, leaned over the bed without warning, and vomited up all the pills.

He threw up, but because he had been on a liquid diet for a long time, he only vomited some digestive juices and pills mixed with blood.

“I’ll go get someone…” I was afraid he would have gastrointestinal bleeding like last time, so I quickly got up and ran outside.

“No need!” He reached out and grabbed my hand, his voice hoarse and weak, “I’m fine, don’t go…”

The grip on my hand wasn’t tight, but it trembled. I hesitated for a moment, and seeing that he seemed to have stopped vomiting, I had no choice but to abandon temporarily my intention to call for help.

“Then I’ll go get a hot towel.” I gently pulled my hand away from him, quickly wrung out a hot towel, carefully wiped his face, then wrapped the filth on the ground and threw it into the trash can in the outer room along with the towel.

Back in the bedroom, he had returned to his original position, lying on his back on the bed, his hands pressed against the blanket, overlapping each other. The only change was that his eyes were not closed this time. He stared at the ceiling, motionless and unblinking, as if he had completely sealed himself off in the lonely darkness.

“Do you want to listen to the news?” I walked to the bedside and asked in a low voice.

Only then did he blink gently.

“…Yes.”

I selected some interesting news articles for him and read them to him one by one.

“Today, His Highness Crown Prince Chu Shengcheng personally visited the Baiyujing Sports Center to conduct the final inspection for the opening ceremony of the first GTC, which will be held in two days…”

At that time, the first GTC competition was about to begin in a few days, and news about it was everywhere, both online and in newspapers.

The stock price of Sun God Group multiplied several times in a month, and major betting platforms opened ahead of schedule. Hundreds of millions, like a ferocious beast, rushed into this upcoming virtual feast.

After reading for about half an hour, I stopped, and he had already closed his eyes and fell asleep again.

I quietly left the bedroom, but did not immediately return to my own room. Instead, I re-entered the servants’ passageway, went down to the first floor, and entered the small chapel located there.

The chapel was cramped and small, no more than ten square meters. Electronic candles burned continuously around the room, casting a false warmth on the walls. At the far end of the room stood a two-meter-tall statue of the Sun God. Below the altar in front of it was a rectangular recess filled with sharp pebbles, which was the “purifying gravel” used by the followers of the Jing Shi religion for daily self-reflection.

I took a white real candle from the candle holder on the altar, lit it with a lighter, then clasped my hands together and slowly knelt down on the purifying gravel.

My knee went from mild discomfort to pain, then to excruciating pain, and finally to numbness; the candlelight flickered with my breath, and the melting candle wax dripped down, flowing haphazardly down my hands, leaving streaks of burning heat on my skin.

This was the faith of the people of Penglai, not the faith of the Wo people. Logically, after leaving the Shengzhe University, I no longer needed to engage in such “asceticism.” But during those six months, I would go there and kneel there for a night almost every few weeks.

I had no intention of “purifying my soul.” My soul couldn’t be purified even by the god of Penglai. If I had to explain it, I might be “fighting poison with poison.”

I tried to alleviate the persistent tearing in my soul through physical pain, hoping that it would heal by dawn.

However, day after day, the rift in my soul not only failed to heal, but grew bigger and bigger, until two voices gradually emerged, one gloating despicably over Zong Yanlei’s dependence on me until his death; the other wailing desperately at the embers of his life that he tried his best to burn, but was destined to be extinguished in the long night.

They chattered incessantly in my ears day and night, almost driving me crazy.

The candles shrank little by little, and the faint light of dawn shone through the stained glass on both sides of the statue, casting colorful, floral halos on the white marble floor and on me.

I stared at the candle flame in my hand, waiting for it to burn out its last bit of energy, before struggling to get up from the gravel.

Every movement of my knee was excruciatingly painful. It took me a while to recover before I dragged myself out of the prayer room.

As luck would have it, I bumped into Wuxi Li outside the door.

“What are you doing here?” She looked at me up and down, and saw my swollen, red hands. “Are you practicing asceticism?”

“Yes, madam.” I put my hands behind my back.

“Is it helping?” Her gaze passed over me and fell on the Sun God statue in the chapel.

I hesitated for a moment, then shook my head.

A mocking smile appeared on her face: “If it’s useless, then don’t bother.” With that, she walked past me and went inside.

“Madam…” I called out to her, my mouth moved, but my brain was working very slowly because I hadn’t slept all night, and I couldn’t make out what I was saying for a long time. “Give my corneas to the young master. We can lie to him that Bazel has a new technology that can cure his eyes. After the transplant, so what if he finds out that they are my corneas? He won’t gouge them out.”

Wuxi Li stood like a straight pine tree beneath the statue, her face showing a rare expression of surprise.

“Do you know that he might only have less than a year left to live? Once he dies, you can leave the Zong family unscathed. Considering your dedication to serving him all these years, I will issue you a letter of introduction so that you can find a decent job in Baiyujing. The rest of your life will be peaceful, healthy, and uneventful.”

“Thank you for your generosity,” I heard my own voice say. “I understand everything you’ve said.”

She stared at me for a long time before quickly walking out of the chapel.

“Then I have nothing to repent for.”

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Wuxi Li acted quickly. She arranged for me to undergo various examinations in Bazel the very next day.

The doctor in charge of the transplant said that because Zong Yanlei and I have the same blood type and were a rare case of full match for leukocyte antigens, my cornea would be more suitable for his fragile body, reducing unnecessary rejection reactions. And because a single cornea can be transplanted in layers, I only need to lose sight in one eye.

What wonderful news.

Meanwhile, Wuxi Li’s persuasion of Zong Yanlei went very smoothly. She lied to him, saying it was just a minimally invasive surgery that took about ten minutes, and that the newly developed artificial cornea by Bazel could completely cure his eyes.

Perhaps it was Wuxi Li’s trustworthy image, or the endless darkness was simply too unbearable, but after learning about the general procedure and confirming the material of the artificial cornea, Zong Yanlei agreed to the surgery without much hesitation.

On the day of the surgery, we were taken into two separate operating rooms at the same time.

Under local anesthesia, my right cornea was peeled away smoothly. In just two minutes, my right eye was nothing but a hollow void of darkness.

Zong Yanlei’s surgery lasted an hour. When he was wheeled out of the operating room, his eyes were wrapped in bandages. The doctor said the surgery was very successful and he would be able to see again in two days at the earliest.

I should have stayed by his side the whole time. But unfortunately, in the evening, Wei Bao called urgently, saying that my grandmother was critically ill.

I didn’t even have time to go back and pack my luggage; I bought a ticket and went straight from Bazel to the train station. Before we parted, Zong Yanlei held my hand and made me promise that I would definitely come back in two days. He wanted to see me the moment he opened his eyes.

“Okay, I’ll definitely be back in two days,” I assured him.

When I arrived in Zengcheng that evening, the anesthesia in my right eye had long since worn off, and the uncomfortable, stinging sensation, like sand rubbing against my eyeball, was distinct and hard to ignore.

When I saw my grandmother, she was on her deathbed.

“Grandma, Xiao Man is here! Open your eyes and look!”

Wei Bao shouted in her ear, and after a long while, Grandmother opened her eyes with difficulty and reached out her trembling hand to me.

“Xiao Man…”

I held those withered, aged hands and replied, “It’s me, Grandma.”

“Xiao Man, you must find…find your father…” Her eyes were cloudy, she seemed to see me, yet she didn’t. “Junda, where are you…Junda…”

She called out my father’s name repeatedly, then suddenly stopped. She let out a long sigh, lowered her hands, and slowly closed her eyes.

“Grandma! Grandma…” Wei Nuan rushed over, crying.

This was my first time dealing with the formal passing of a loved one. Although Wei Bao helped, preventing me from being completely overwhelmed, there were still many things to do. During this time, the pain in my right eye constantly distracted me, and I could only alleviate it with painkillers. Because of this neglect, a layer of milky-white, translucent scar tissue formed on the surface of my eyeball after the wound healed. But that’s another story.

My grandmother had been ill for many years, and I was prepared for her passing. Although I was reluctant to see her go, I wasn’t too heartbroken.

I returned to Baiyujing at the agreed time and appeared at Zong Yanlei’s bedside.

After offering brief words of condolence for my loss, he dismissed everyone else, leaving me alone in his bedroom.

“Untie the bandages.” He sat on the bed with a small smile on his face.

That was one of the few times he felt relaxed and happy in the past six months.

“Young Master, let’s make a deal…” I sat on the edge of the bed, patiently unwrapping the bandages covering his eyes, “When you see me later, can you not be angry?”

“Angry?” He tilted his head, habitually pointing his ear towards me. “Why should I be angry if you broke something?”

Should I call him perceptive? He guessed I had “broken” something with just one sentence.

“Actually, it isn’t really broken. One side is still usable, and… I used it to fix something more valuable.”

The last bandage came undone, it slid down the high bridge of his nose and fell into Zong Yanlei’s arms.

His silvery-white eyelashes fluttered a few times as he struggled to lift his eyelids. The prolonged darkness caused his pupils to contract the moment they came into contact with light. He turned his face away, closed his eyes briefly, and then opened them again.

“Consider this a belated eighteenth birthday gift I prepared for you.”

Five seconds, or ten seconds. His blurred vision finally focused, and everything in the room became clear again.

“So, what exactly is it…” he said, looking at me, the joy he had just shown instantly freezing in his eyes.

Those eyes, now clear and bright again, widened in disbelief as they stared at my right eye, which was covered by a medical patch. His breathing instantly grew ragged.

“No…” He had already realized what I had “broken” and what I had “fixed.” “How dare you… How dare you…”

He reached out to touch my eye, but then withdrew his hand, his fingertips landing right under his own eye.

“How dare you lie to me?” he asked me through gritted teeth, his eyes filled with anger.

His fingertips dug into his skin, instantly tearing open several cuts, and blood trickled down his cheeks like tears.

This was the first time I had ever seen him like this, shocked, angry, hateful…and fearful.

I realized that his genuine reaction after learning the truth might be even more intense than I had anticipated.

“It was my fault. I was wrong, I shouldn’t have lied to you…” I stood up, stepped aside, and dared not provoke him any further.

My apology had no effect; he was still furious and, after leaving three deep scratches on his face, began breaking things.

“No! Take it away! Take it out of my body!!” He swept everything off the bedside table. “Who wants your things? Who wants the things of a lowly commoner like you! Do you think I’ll thank you? You idiot! Who gave you permission to do this on your own? Who allowed you to do this?!”

He was so agitated that by the end of the day, there was nothing that could be done but for his family doctor to give him a sedative injection to calm him down.

Since he couldn’t bear to see me, I was deprived of the right to get close to him.

A few days later, Butler Li came to me and informed me that I would no longer need to take care of Zong Yanlei personally, as he had arranged for someone else to replace me. Effective immediately, I needed to move out of Zong Yanlei’s living quarters and into the servants’ quarters in the wing, where I would be responsible for the maintenance of the garden plants.

I was abandoned.

I arrogantly thought that I could get Zong Yanlei to accept arrangements he didn’t want, but I forgot… he was the master.

***

Author’s Note

Transplanting a cornea from one eye to another in layers is entirely feasible, but a more secure transplant plan for Zong Yanlei would actually be a complete corneal transplant from both eyes… But in order for the story to continue, I can’t let Jiang Man go blind.

To answer another question about whether Jiang Man can split the cornea from his left eye for his right eye:

No, that won’t work. The cornea can only be removed whole and then divided. If it gets infected, both eyes could be lost, which is very dangerous. Besides… you can get a cornea donated by someone else, so you don’t have to divide it yourself!

The most suitable option for Jiang Man is to undergo a corneal transplant (from someone else) once his eye condition stabilizes. However, he doesn’t really care and feels it’s a waste of money, so he hasn’t sought treatment.