Chapter 388: 388: What on Earth Happened? (Requesting Monthly Pass)

“Plane crash, passenger Wang Yang still in critical condition!”—Yahoo, “Wang Yang sustained a severe concussion, and emergency rescue is underway!”—America Online, “Wang Yang is in a life-threatening condition!”—Lycos, “On his way back to America, Wang Yang encountered strong turbulence, seriously injured and his life and death are shrouded in mystery”—Sina, “Wang Yang is critically injured and his life is in danger at any moment”—NetEase, “Director of ‘Firefly’ Wang Yang critically injured”—BBC, Tencent, Sohu, Naver, Yahoo Japan…

Could it be!? The whole world was shocked. Was Wang Yang going to become another celebrity to die young, like Bruce Lee, River Phoenix and others? The youngest billionaire, the youngest Oscar-winning Best Director, ‘Firefly’ reaching new heights, and expecting his first child with his beautiful wife at the end of the year… This guy was only 25 years and 6 months old! Billions of people around the world were deeply concerned. Wang Yang’s spokesperson, Susan McCarthy, confirmed the news to the media: “When the accident happened, Yang was just returning from the restroom. He has sustained a severe concussion and is currently in a coma.”

Susan McCarthy didn’t divulge details such as Wang Yang’s specific condition or Jessica’s emotional state, only asking everyone to pray for Wang Yang, and requesting the media not to disturb him and his family so they could quietly get through this difficult period.

“Oh God! Please don’t take Wang Yang away! My heart is absolutely shattered!” “This is literally killing me!” Fans of movies and dramas from around the world went crazy. Even those who weren’t fans were stunned. Anyone who liked films didn’t want to see Wang Yang’s life end so abruptly. And it wasn’t just about the movies— who wanted to see a promising young legend die so suddenly, especially with his wife heavily pregnant? “Oh heavens! Wang Yang, you must pull through!” Evelyn typed through tear-filled eyes on Wang Yang’s blog, leaving a blessing. The message board had exploded. Clair was wiping tears with one hand while typing a message with the other: “Wang Yang, God bless you!”

Of course, there was a large group of Yang haters or those who gloated over the disaster, or those who cursed maliciously, wishing Wang Yang would die! It would be better if he died! And many others watched with a detached interest, “Although I’m not a fan of Wang Yang, what can I say now? I hope he gets well.” “I don’t like it when people die, especially someone as young as Wang Yang. I wish him a speedy recovery!”…

At UCLA Medical Center, one of the best hospitals in Los Angeles and the entire America, clusters of media reporters and paparazzi gathered outside, anxiously tracking the developments! They were after photos of Wang Yang’s injuries, who was visiting him, Jessica’s facial expressions—these were worth a fortune, all news! And if Wang Yang suddenly passed away—that would be big news! They had to hold their positions. Meanwhile, many media text editors and reporters had even ‘pre-written’ obituaries for Wang Yang, ready to be the first to report any new information. Would this prominent figure end his life so abruptly?

If Wang Yang had been sent to the hospital just ten minutes or half an hour later, it might have been too late to save him. He was diagnosed with a severe concussion, cerebral contusion without more severe injury such as major lacerations or intracranial bleeding. Additionally, he suffered a right forearm radial fracture and various soft tissue injuries throughout his body.

The head trauma naturally resulted in his prolonged unconsciousness. With anything involving the brain, the situation could be minor or severe. Although the cerebral contusion did not require surgery, “consciousness disorder” is one of its most prominent clinical signs. Due to differences in injury and the individual, the duration of coma can range from minutes to hours, days, months, or even a vegetative state. Doctors were unable to predict when Wang Yang might wake up. It was known that he had been in a coma since the accident, even having stopped breathing at one point. No one dared to declare that he wouldn’t become vegetative, but no one dared to confirm it either, though at least now he was out of immediate danger.

“Oh my God!” Upon hearing of his son’s severe injuries, Wang Yang’s deeply worried parents flew immediately from San Francisco to Los Angeles. They just landed at LAX and boarded the car that had been waiting for two hours to rush to UCLA Medical Center.

For Jessica, the hour of waiting to learn about his actual condition was sheer torture, like being in hell. And it was a lengthy car ride to get to the hospital, not to any ordinary ward—obviously all the “he’s not really hurt” was deceitful, but how she wished it weren’t so.

As they approached the ICU where Wang Yang was being treated, not only Jessica but also Joshua and the others felt increasingly heavy-hearted, experiencing the painful reality that someone important to them was “critically ill.” Pushing through the door into the ICU secured by bodyguards, they saw Wang Yang lying on a white hospital bed, his eyes closed, with a breathing mask on his face, his forehead wrapped in white bandages, and his right forearm also covered in white bandages, while a white blanket covered the rest of his body from the chest down.

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A multifunctional breathing machine next to the hospital bed was in operation, assisting his breathing; the heart monitor beeped rhythmically, “beep, beep,” as Wang Yang’s vital signs fluctuated on the screen, drawing lines of erratic waves.

“Yang—!!” Jessica suddenly turned as pale as clay, and if it weren’t for Kathy, following closely behind her daughter, supporting her, she would have collapsed to the ground. Kathy comforted her softly, “It’s okay, it’s okay…” Mark-Alba tightened his face, Joshua covered his face with both hands, cursing something under his breath, while Susan McCarthy remained silent. Jessica’s pallid face showed utter bewilderment as she weakly walked towards the bed, her slight hope born from wild thoughts that “maybe Yang is playing a prank on me?” was thoroughly extinguished. She knew that no matter what happened, as long as he could speak, he would definitely call her immediately…

“How could this happen…” Walking the short distance to the bed, Jessica was already in tears. He was supposed to come home today. They should have been filled with laughter and joy. She looked at him, gaunt and unconscious in the bed, and her heart ached unbearably. His voice from yesterday still echoed in her ears: “I so wish I could hear the baby’s heartbeat now, how I wish I could kiss you! Tomorrow!” Jessica’s eyes were filled with tenderhearted pain. She pressed her trembling lips together and reached out to gently stroke his face, “Yang, wake up, Yang, get up, Yang, it’s me, Yang… wuwu, Yang, can you hear me? Yang… talk to me! Yang—”

Kathy held her daughter tighter as she began to shake more violently; Mark-Alba clenched his fists tight and swung them, holding his breath in distress, the veins on his forehead bulging; Joshua dared not to sigh loudly, unable to accept the reality of the usually strong and robust Yang lying unconscious in the hospital bed, dependent on that machine for breathing—previously, he had almost lost his life, it was too frightening… Jessica suddenly turned around, her anger piercing the sky: “Tell me everything, start from the beginning, I want to know, I want to know!! Don’t lie to me anymore, he is the man I love most, FUCK! What are you trying to do!!”

“Jessica! Jessica, don’t be like this, calm down…” Kathy tried to soothe her daughter, everyone knew the baby couldn’t take this excitement! Although she was deeply pained, she consoled her daughter: “Let’s talk about it slowly. The doctor said Yang will wake up soon, but he definitely doesn’t want you to hurt yourself or the baby, right?”

After looking at Wang Yang and turning her head back, Jessica’s tear-blurred eyes suddenly flashed with a sharp, furious expression, her voice growing from soft to loud: “Mom, stop talking! I don’t want to hear your platitudes…” The only principles she would listen to were the ones spoken by him. Jessica frowned deeply as she took a deep breath, yet she still could not help but cry out, “I’m not calm, I’m not calm!!! The baby’s not calm, I’m not calm, FUCK—FUCK! Wuwu… Mom, tell me, tell me…” She began to plead.

“Jessica…” Kathy’s eyes were already brimming with tears, knowing that the more they hid and the more they denied, the more emotional her daughter became, all in vain. Why wouldn’t Yang wake up!? She sighed and nodded to Susan McCarthy, patting her daughter’s shoulder: “Mary, everything is going to be okay.”

“Yang was on the plane when it experienced two rapid descents. He had just left the restroom to return to the cabin…” As Susan recounted the details with sorrow, Jessica turned into a stone statue. Hearing “He was unconscious at that time, all the way until they got off the plane, until now…” and that he had stopped breathing for a while, her shoulders shook. Biting her lip to hold back her sobs, so she could hear the details of his injuries clearly; a wave of dizziness came over her, and a sour pain spread through her right forearm. Hearing “The doctor said he is most likely to wake up tonight, maybe tomorrow or in a few days”, she knew that meant “uncertainty as to when”.

Seeing the grief-stricken Jessica, Susan McCarthy pursed her lips regretfully and closed her eyes, then pulled out a black wallet from her coat pocket and returned it to her: “Yang was looking at this wallet before he became unconscious, he was holding onto it the entire time.”

“Yang…” Jessica took the wallet blankly. As if by a tacit understanding, she opened it and saw a photo from their green years together—him 18 and her 17, the photo he often said he cherished the most, “Your slightly shy smile is so cute,” he would say. Now, that photo was smudged with bloodstains, and tracing his fingerprints across her smiling face, she could empathize with his feelings at that moment, and couldn’t help but softly call out, “My dear…” Suddenly, her heart clenched, her vision darkened, and Jessica fainted, falling backward.

“Doctor, go get a doctor—” Kathy quickly supported her daughter with all her strength, making sure not to let her stomach get squeezed or bumped, while Joshua rushed over in a panic: “Oh, my God! Jessica—” Mark-Alba and Susan McCarthy, without another word, dashed out to call for the doctors and nurses.

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Pregnant women are particularly prone to getting excited, and since the couple was so in love, they went to great lengths to keep the whole affair a secret. They simply did not want Jessica to be overly sad and hurt herself and the baby. They did not want to witness such a scene, yet it still happened.

Glancing at Wang Yang over there and then at Jessica, who he was supporting, Joshua’s eyes also became a bit moist. In a mixture of anger and sorrow, he shouted, “Yang! Get up quickly!” Wake up! Damn it, how could you let this happen! Without you, many people have lost the core of their work and lives!

Wang Yang still lay motionless on the hospital bed, while the heart monitor continued to emit a steady heartbeat: “Beep, beep, beep…”

“I’m back, Jessica, baby, I’m back!” The afternoon sunshine in Los Angeles was very warm. On the lush and spacious front lawn, Wang Yang walked toward the house happily shouting and laughing, yet it seemed like no one was at home—everything was so quiet. Where had she gone? Wang Yang looked around the living room and then toured places like the study and the bedroom: “HELLO?” He came to the open-plan kitchen and saw the note stuck on the refrigerator that read “Yang is back!” A look of puzzlement crossed his face. With a flick of his right hand, he tapped the note. She was not at home, and no one was answering her phone. What’s going on?

“Woof, woof!” Just then, Danny suddenly came bounding from the back garden, shaking his head and wagging his tail. Wang Yang smiled and bent down to hug him, petting his neck: “Hey, Danny! Buddy, haven’t seen you for a week, did you miss me? Where did Mommy go?” Danny sat down quietly, staring at him with round eyes.

“JASSICA! I’m certainly going to give her a hard time tonight…” Wang Yang complained about Jessica’s disappearance and stood up to call Joshua, Eileen, the Albas, and other places, only to find that no one was answering! He frowned and shook his phone. Could it be broken? But the landline was the same… Sitting on the living room couch, Wang Yang felt that something was amiss. He turned on the TV, but all channels were just static “shh, shh, shh” with no signal. He turned on the computer and couldn’t connect to the internet…

After much hassle, Wang Yang called various repair services and 911, but still no response! Damn it!! “What the FUCK happened?” Wang Yang cursed as he made his way to the garage. It was as if everything had changed since he came back from Asia… But had he come back from Asia? Which part of Asia?

“WHAT-THE-FUCK…?” When Wang Yang, followed by Danny, drove out in his Hummer H2, he discovered that the entire Beverly Hills, the whole of Los Angeles, was deserted! Not a person in sight, not a dog or a cat to be found. Along the city streets between high-rise buildings, cars had been abandoned haphazardly. Sheets of paper and plastic bags were swept up by gusts of wind, spiraling in the air, all devoid of life; traffic lights at intersections flashed erratically, as if it was a dead city.

Truly fucking bizarre! Where had everyone gone? Wang Yang looked around bewilderedly and couldn’t help but honk his horn “beep, beep—” He also yelled out the car window, “HEY!!! Is anyone there?!? FUCK—” Danny, coiled up in the passenger seat, suddenly started barking frantically: “Woof, woof—” Wang Yang asked in confusion, “What’s wrong?”

In an instant, he saw a large group of people, who looked like looters or zombies, suddenly emerge from somewhere at the street corner ahead. They had fierce faces and were as skinny as sticks, yet they moved towards him with terrifying speed. Danny bared his teeth viciously and groaned: “Woof, woof—”

“Oh, my God—” Wang Yang thought this was too irrational, but regardless, it was dangerous! He stepped on the gas pedal, reversing and steering without regard for traffic rules, trying to shake off the monstrous, non-human creatures behind him. Then, another large group of creatures charged at him from the front. Wang Yang froze for a moment, then frowned and fiercely stomped on the gas pedal…

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The sunset sky was covered in patches of golden twilight. On the deserted street, the Hummer sped towards a group of monsters with a “Boom—”

“Beep, beep, beep…”

As the night began to fall in Los Angeles, the sky over Toronto was already filled with stars. “What!?” Rachel’s eyes widened in disbelief as she watched the news report on TV, Wang Yang was in a serious accident involving a plane? She was on the verge of losing her ability to breathe. “Why didn’t anyone tell me! Oh God! Why didn’t anyone tell me!” After spending an afternoon fishing by the lake, such an incident had occurred! How was he now? Biting her lip, she took out her cellphone and rushed towards the computer in the bedroom.

Susan McCarthy, the spokesperson for Wang Yang, brought relief to billions around the world when she announced to the media in the evening that “Yang is now out of life-threatening danger.” However, a piece of bad news followed, “He is still in a coma for the time being.”

Under the veil of night, at the UCLA Medical Center, the paparazzi lingering outside prepared to stay all night, trying to figure out how to infiltrate the hospital for information. Inside the ICU where Wang Yang was kept, Jessica, who had already awakened, sat by the bed, holding his right hand and gazing at his face, unwilling to leave even for a moment, occasionally wiping the tears from her eyes. Wang Yang’s parents, both deeply concerned and pained, along with Mark-Alba, Kathy, and Joshua, took turns urging her to adjust her mood and rest, comforting her with assurances that “Yang will wake up soon,” but Jessica had been silent for a long time, only calling out Wang Yang’s name and various nicknames.

As time ticked away, Wang Yang’s parents and the others gradually left the room with saddened expressions. In the end, only Joshua remained silently by her side. Seeing his sister’s face full of sorrow reminded him of the vibrant and happy woman he saw at noon, and his heart shattered. What comforting words could he say? If Yang could wake up and speak, even now, he would surely make her burst into laughter with just a few words. If only he would wake up…

Joshua sighed inwardly, trying to mimic Wang Yang’s tone, he reassured her with a smile, “Jessica, it’s no big deal! Uh, you know better than anyone that Yang is a very strong person. Right now, he must be saying ‘A little concussion trying to bring me down? As if!’ ” He earnestly added, “Jessie, Yang will wake up soon.”

“Yes, that’s right…” Jessica nodded with a fragile smile, not daring to imagine what it would be like if she lost him. She really didn’t know, she really didn’t know, perhaps she would go to heaven too, have the baby and bring it to this world, then jump from his favorite Golden Gate Bridge. But what about the baby?… That was all just wild thinking!! Jessica shifted her gaze to her brother and whispered, “Joshua, could you leave us alone for a little while? I want to talk to him alone.” Joshua nodded, stood up, and walked out, “Call me if you need anything.”

“Yang.” Jessica tenderly caressed Wang Yang’s pale face, speaking to him, “Wake up, can you get up? Why are you oversleeping…” She smiled and said, “No matter how long you sleep, I’ll be waiting for you, I’ll guard you, but please wake up soon, okay? The baby misses you and wants to hear your voice, and I do too…”

After talking to him for quite a while, Jessica leaned over to gently kiss his bandaged forehead. Then, she suddenly let go of his hand, slowly knelt down by the bedside, taking care of her belly, and looked up into the sky, her heart filled with devoutness and determination, whispering her prayer, “Lord, I cry out to you, my Lord! Do not ignore me, please heal Yang and let him wake up soon, okay? My Lord! If you keep silent on me, I will fall into Satan’s grasp…”

Tears streamed down her cheeks. (n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

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