Chapter 275: Accompanying Care Throughout
People came and went continuously.
Bai Cha found herself squeezed right into the middle of a street.
Yet this didn’t appear to be modern times.
Furthermore, the surrounding people carried a lifeless, dead aura on their faces.
She was currently looking around when a middle-aged woman grabbed her wrist out of nowhere.
“Come with me!”
The other party pulled her along, leaving no room for refusal.
Yanked forward, Bai Cha stumbled along.
“Let go of me! Who are you looking for?!” Bai Cha heard her own voice speak up.
“Xu Shengsheng. You’re Xu Shengsheng, right?”
Bai Cha paused.
“I am not. What are you looking for Xu Shengsheng for?”
The woman paused as well, halting in her tracks to size Bai Cha up and down.
“Well, you two look quite alike. What relation are you to Xu Shengsheng?”
Bai Cha narrowed her eyes slightly.
“I’m her older sister.”
“Older sister, huh? An older sister works fine too. Are you her biological sister or something else?”
Bai Cha’s mind stirred subtly.
“Biological sister. My name is Xu Taotao.”
The woman nodded, grabbing her hand once more.
“Then there’s no problem. You come with me—it works just as well if you marry in place of your younger sister.”
“Why should I get married? Why should my younger sister get married? Who are you? Marry whom?”
Bai Cha fired off a string of questions, yet the other party merely stated she would find out upon arrival.
The dreamscape concluded right at this point.
She was awakened by someone calling out to her.
“Bai Cha? Can you hear me? Tell us your name.”
Bai Cha’s vision remained somewhat blurred, catching merely the shadows of figures on both sides; the person posing the question appeared to be the anesthesiologist.
The voice sounded as though it originated from far away, far from clear.
“Xu Taotao…” Unable to pull herself out of the dreamscape just yet, she answered instinctively.
The anesthesiologist paused.
“Say that again—what is your name? Has she not come out of the anesthesia’s effects yet? She’s starting to talk nonsense—she wasn’t saying stuff like this just now…”
Catching her rambling chatter, Bai Cha realized in hindsight that this no longer seemed to be a dream—oh, right, she was undergoing surgery before dreaming.
“Bai Cha. My name is Bai Cha.”
“How old are you this year?”
“20.”
“Alright. What relation to you is the person waiting for you outside?”
“A friend.”
“Raise your head slightly.”
Bai Cha moved her head with considerable difficulty.
“Alright, she’s fine now. Did you just dream?” The first half of the sentence was directed at the doctors and nurses.
They shifted Bai Cha onto another bed.
“I did,” Bai Cha was still making efforts to answer.
Speaking proved thoroughly exhausting, and her mind refused to function as well.
“Looks like she’s about ready. Hello patient, come, take a look—this is your appendix.”
Bai Cha looked over blankly.
“It’s already been removed, you’re all good.”
“Alright, the patient’s accompanying family member will do. She might vomit in a little bit, remember to wipe her mouth. For the next three days, no drinking water and no eating. If her mouth gets too dry, wipe it with a damp paper towel for her.”
This was no longer directed at Bai Cha.
In a state of dazed grogginess, Bai Cha closed her eyes once more.
Not until the dizzying sensation steadily faded did she begin feeling a headache, chest tightness, and nausea.
Then, she began vomiting.
Yet her body was incapable of moving, with merely her head able to tilt slightly with effort.
With quick hands and sharp eyes, Shen Qingchen slipped a paper towel beneath her mouth.
Bai Cha vomited out a vast amount of yellow bile.
After all, she hadn’t eaten anything.
It was fortunate she had arrived in the middle of the night; otherwise, prior to surgery, she would have needed to wait for the contents of her stomach to digest first—and if it couldn’t wait, what she vomited out now would contain food remnants instead.
Even so, the yellow bile she vomited out was hardly any better off.
Shen Qingchen wiped her mouth with gentle care, casually retrieving a disposable care pad she had purchased, raising her head to slide the pad underneath to prevent her body from coming into contact with stains on the bed that couldn’t be wiped clean.
Bai Cha felt somewhat embarrassed, yet she was indeed incapable of moving right now—her body couldn’t sit up, and an oxygen tube was still inserted in her nose.
“Sister Shen…” she parted her lips.
Having undergone laparoscopic surgery, it wasn’t as if she were incapable of speaking.
“Alright, don’t dwell on anything. Vomiting after general anesthesia is very normal. Sleep for a bit; once your body can move in a little while, get up and put your clothes on.”
Closing her eyes, Bai Cha nodded.
Shen Qingchen stroked her hair once more.
A nurse entered shortly after to fit a blood pressure cuff on her other arm—the one without an IV needle inserted.
“She’s still receiving IV fluids over there. Keep an eye on it and call us when it’s almost finished—there are several bottles.”
The nurse was speaking to Shen Qingchen.
Inquiring about several additional precautions, Shen Qingchen saw the nurse off.
Bai Cha was incapable of sleeping either.
With the effects of anesthesia completely wearing off, her stomach wasn’t particularly painful, yet her overall body felt thoroughly miserable.
A headache raged, accompanied by a feeling of trapped air in her chest that rendered breathing difficult—exceedingly painful, particularly agonizing, with every inch of her feeling miserable.
Unwilling to cause extra trouble, she kept her brows knitted, enduring it continuously.
A gentle hand was laid lightly across her forehead—carrying a subtle trace of cool chill, yet bringing immense comfort to her head.
For a single fleeting moment, Bai Cha felt a dazed disorientation, recalling her mother from her dream.
Opening her eyes, tears streamed down uncontrollably.
She felt truly so miserable, in pain all over.
“Sister Shen…” Bai Cha parted her lips, crying with tragic sorrow.
“I feel so miserable… my head hurts, my chest hurts, I feel like every inch of me hurts…”
Her gaze full of gentle warmth, Shen Qingchen couldn’t sit down as medical monitors flanked both sides of the bed, so she stooped over, using her hand to gently massage her head while casually wiping away her tears.
“Then I’ll massage it for you. If there’s anywhere else feeling uncomfortable, just tell me directly, alright?”
Her voice was soft and gentle as well, her body still bearing that pleasant rose fragrance.
Bai Cha’s emotions were soothed, yet her physical body failed to feel any better as a result.
The oxygen was removed very quickly; in truth, she didn’t particularly need it to begin with—it made breathing harder due to the blockage instead—it was merely used because her heart was poor, out of fear something might happen to her.
Her blood pressure ran slightly on the lower side, though overall there were zero major issues.
Yet her recovery was simply exceedingly slow.
Gassiness needed to pass following surgery, yet she couldn’t pass gas; the trapped air surged straight upward, reaching all the way to her shoulders, leaving her so sore she couldn’t move—walking offered no utility either, the trapped air surging all the more outrageously the further she walked.
The sole matter capable of making her feel she retained a shred of dignity was that she could still get up to go to the bathroom on her own.
The physical pain peaked on the second and third days, accompanied by a fever; paired with going without food—relying purely on nutrient IV fluids—she was completely incapable of warding off the hollow sensation inside her stomach.
The fever she ran wasn’t high, so the doctor refused to prescribe fever reducers; her headache reached its absolute peak as well, because she was incapable of getting any sleep—the hospital was far too noisy.
Bai Cha had always considered herself quite capable of enduring these things; after all, the sensations inside instances were actually far more agonizing than reality, and coughing up blood indeed hurt to a degree where vision went dark.
Yet Shen Qingchen accompanied her.
She would always be by her side with gentle care in the very first second—whether supporting her up or helping alleviate her pain to the best of her abilities, such as massaging her shoulders.
She would soothe her with a gentle voice as well.
This rendered her incapable of enduring such torment.
Bai Cha set about vomiting once more.
Her head felt thoroughly miserable, yet with her stomach empty, apart from vomiting out a bit of white foam, nothing came up.
This offered zero relief either, turning her stomach thoroughly miserable alongside it instead.
Sitting beside her, Shen Qingchen patted her shoulder and chest lightly, attempting to make her feel slightly better.
Bai Cha thereupon broke down into tears once more.
Letting out a sigh, Shen Qingchen wrapped her arm around her.
“It’s alright, I’m accompanying you, okay? Vent a bit first, then I’ll go call the doctor to have them prescribe medication for you. You can’t go on like this.”
Grabbing the hem of her clothes, Bai Cha sniffled with aggrieved hurt, nodding.
“I want to sleep as well… I feel so miserable…”
She hadn’t even noticed herself acting spoiled.
