The first snow of the winter fell soon after.
Everything was covered with a thick layer of shiny white snow overnight, making them look as though they were made of snow.
Wen Xian wrapped the baby in winter clothing tightly first thing the morning, leaving only his nose and eyes exposed. Madam Wen came in to see her daughter and grandson, only to see them ready to leave. “Why are you up so early? Why don’t you sleep for a while more?” She frowned.
“I need to get back before breakfast. I can’t leave Qifeng alone at home,” Wen Xian said as she packed the baby’s milk powder and bottle into her bag, before slinging the bag over her shoulders and picking up the baby in her arms.
“Qifeng isn’t a kid anymore, he’s not going to starve if you aren’t there, is he?” Madam Wen asked. She didn’t want her daughter to catch a cold from the blizzard outside.
Wen Xian looked at her mother for a couple of seconds and said, “Mom, I’m leaving.”
She had the chauffeur waiting outside, and Madam Wen resisted the urge to get Wen Xian to stay, considering that Wen Xian might have just wanted to be a good wife to her husband. Instead, she put on a thick fur coat and followed Wen Xian out.
She only returned home after Wen Xian had gotten onto her ride. Wen Qing came over in thin pajamas when she was hanging up her coat. Maybe soldiers tend to have a higher tolerance to cold weather? “Where did you go? It’s so early,” he asked.
He could tell that she had just come back from the outside.
Madam Wen smiled. “I just sent your sister off.”
Wen Qing’s face froze for a second. “She has gone back so early?”
“She said that she was worried about Qifeng. You see, they weren’t too interested in each other when they got married, but they seem to be fine now. Your sister wanted to go back early in the morning despite the cold weather just because she was concerned about Qifeng.”
Wen Qing stayed silent, instead pouring himself a cup of water at the table. He pondered over Wen Xian and Zong Qifeng’s matters in his head.
It all started with Wen Jin’s good impression of Zong Qifeng. He stood out from all the rich kids in the area and had risen to the highest rank in his company within a few years and contributed much to the company’s development.
Wen Qing felt proud of his sister for getting married to such a capable man.
As such, he would never allow anyone to mess up this marriage.
He put down his cup. “I’m not eating at home.”
He left to go back to his room after that. “You don’t even have time to eat?” Madam Wen asked. She was clearly unhappy.
“I have training,” Wen Qing said as he closed his door behind him, isolating himself from the world.
The road was slippery from the snow.
Wen Xian looked outside at the snow-covered scenery. Although it felt like a winter wonderland, her heart felt as cold as the temperature that day. There was not a single bit of warmth to this weather.
Screech!
The wheels of the car skidded across the ground, and the driver yelled in shock, “The ground’s too slippery and I can’t stop!”
Before he could say anything, the car slid out of the road. Although the driver had been careful, there wasn’t a fence by the side of the road to stop them, so they could only watch as the car skidded across the slippery ground.
Wen Xian had never experienced anything like this, and she broke out in a cold sweat. She felt helpless and she hugged the baby in her arms tightly.
Luckily for them, a tree managed to break the fall; however, they hung perilously over a steep slope.
“Please don’t move, ma’am,” the driver said as he was clearly frightened by the situation.
The car swayed. It could tip over any moment if the weight distribution was not even.
Wen Xian was immobilized by fear that she held her breath.
“Quick, call Qifeng now!”
The car could topple over any moment, and it only made her more anxious. She was holding a baby who was barely a month old!
The driver immediately took out his phone, and it didn’t take long before Zong Qifeng picked up.
“Sir, we’re in trouble. The road was too slippery and we’re trapped…”
“Wah!”
Before the driver could finish his sentence, the baby cried out in Wen Xian’s arms. Wen Xian immediately looked down to check for injuries, but it made the car lose its balance at last.
In a flurry of snow, screams and cries, the car crashed onto the ground below.
It had toppled over from the steep slope.
The driver passed out on the impact, and Wen Xian wasn’t much better. She felt pain in her legs, but she didn’t have the time to bother about that as she had fixated her gaze on the crying baby.
When the car toppled over, she instinctively held on tight to the baby. She had slammed her foot into the front seat of the car so that it wouldn’t crush the baby, leaving a small space for him.
The baby might have been hungry as his cries grew louder. It took a lot of effort, but Wen Xian managed to reach out and pat him gently. “Don’t cry, baby…”
The baby seemed to understand her words and their current predicament, and his cries stopped abruptly. His watery eyes looked around the car.
Wen Xian began to lose grip on reality, but she forced herself to stay awake for the baby’s sake. She managed a weak smile as she looked at the baby. Thank goodness you’re fine, she thought. I won’t be able to face your parents if anything were to happen to you.
Blood fell from her leg that was lodged in the gap between the seats.
She was about to pass out when she heard a commotion outside.
“We’ve found it! The car is here…”
She heard Zong Qifeng’s voice calling out her name vaguely, but she couldn’t summon her voice to answer him. Everything went black after that.
Zong Qifeng had panicked when he saw blood on his son’s face through the car window. However, when he looked closer and saw how well-behaved the baby was, he began to feel relieved. The baby wasn’t hurt after all.
He reached out to take his son, and it was then when he realized that Wen Xian had used her leg to push the seat away so that it wouldn’t crush the baby. The blood on his face was from her injured leg. Zong Qifeng carried his son out of the car with shaky hands and called for emergency services.
Soon, Wen Xian and the driver were rescued from the car and sent to the hospital by Zong Qifeng’s army of men.
They managed to pull through, though they were both injured.
In particular, Wen Xian’s leg had been crushed for way too long.
“Her leg injury is very serious. Her shin is completely shattered, and we would have to restore it with metal bars. It won’t heal completely, but at least she will still be able to walk normally…”
Zong Qifeng was troubled. Although they had top-notch medical care, but metal bars were still fundamentally different from bones.
Besides, it would be very difficult for her to walk properly again with that shattered shin bone.
He never saw it coming.
“We need your consent. Please sign here if you want to go ahead with the surgery,” the doctor said while handing him the consent form for surgery.
Zong Qifeng signed his name on the form without much hesitation.
There was no way he could reverse the situation, so the best he could do now was to reduce the damage to its minimum to save Wen Xian’s life.
“We’ll use the best methods to help her back on her feet as much as possible.”
“We’ll do our best,” the doctor said, taking the consent form from him and ordered preparations for surgery.
