Chapter 6: Awakening
Su Xiaofan had never felt such pain in his entire life.
At the moment he hit the electrical box on his back, it was as if countless ants had burrowed into his body, causing a pain that seemed to shoot straight into his soul. In that instant, Su Xiaofan wished his soul could leave his fleshly body to escape the torment. The pain was beyond words to describe—if his senses of pain still existed, he believed he would be burned alive.
Compared to this experience, Su Xiaofan thought that his car accident was truly a blessing. If pain was graded, that accident would only be a level three or four, but this time, it was at least a level thirteen or fourteen.
Still, Su Xiaofan considered himself lucky. Just as he was pondering whether his soul could ascend, his consciousness was already leaving him. The scene above—the thunderous lightning like a divine passage through a tribulation—he couldn't see anymore. Simply put, Su Xiaofan had fainted.
If Wu Chuanbao and the others had taken a little longer to leave, they would have discovered that Su Xiaofan, who had been presumed dead due to his stillness, was now convulsing. Electric arcs flashed across his body, and the clothes on him had turned to ash. However, a dazzling light flickered on his chest, where the electrical currents gathered together.
It seemed to be a pendant made of meteorite, which suddenly shattered and merged into Su Xiaofan's skin. Meanwhile, most of his body—eighty percent—had been burned by lightning. The exposed flesh suddenly twitched and wriggled, and new skin slowly grew. Under the rain washing over him, some of the charred skin was washed to the ground, flowing away with the water to unknown places.
...
*"Where is this?"*
Su Xiaofan felt his eyelids very heavy. He struggled to open his eyes but found he couldn’t. All he could hear was a distant shout, as if someone was calling his name or maybe calling "brother." But Su Xiaofan was too tired; after listening for a while, he drifted into deep sleep again.
He didn't know how long he had slept, but when he woke up, he could finally open his eyes. Everywhere he looked was white—white walls, white ceiling, and white bedding.
*"Hospital?"* After staring blankly for a few minutes, Su Xiaofan's consciousness seemed to return to his body. He realized he was lying on his side in a hospital bed. It made him very uncomfortable. He tried to move, and fortunately, he could. He then laid himself flat again.
"Ouch!"
As soon as he lay flat, a sharp pain shot through his back. The pain was so intense that his mind nearly shattered. The stabbing pain made Su Xiaofan wish he could faint again.
"Brother, brother, you're awake?" Su Xiaofan's sister, Su Xiaoxiao, exclaimed from the bedside. She had been dozing in a chair and suddenly heard her brother's voice. She thought she was dreaming, but when she opened her eyes, she saw that her brother was indeed awake.
"Turn... turn me..." Su Xiaofan, with no strength at all, moved his lips in an attempt to ask his sister to turn his body.
"Food? Are you hungry, brother?" Su Xiaoxiao’s face lit up with joy.
"I saved half a bowl of porridge for you. I’ll feed it to you."
"Eat... your... food," Su Xiaofan cursed inwardly, nearly fainting from anger at his sister. He gritted his teeth and said,
"Doctor!"
"Oh, right! If you're awake, you need to call the doctor. Wait a moment."
Su Xiaoxiao quickly pressed the call button on the wall.
About half an hour later, after the doctor came and checked Su Xiaofan’s pulse and consciousness, the nurse on duty told Su Xiaoxiao that he could try to eat some liquid food to help his recovery.
Hearing this, Su Xiaofan immediately felt hungry. He didn't know how long he had been in a coma or how he was brought to the hospital. The only thing he remembered was that after coming into contact with the electrical box, his consciousness ascended... No, he fainted.
*"Damn it, do I have some kind of bad luck physique?"* Su Xiaofan thought bitterly.
A few years ago, he had a car accident; now he had been electrocuted. Could there be more misfortune waiting for him?
After drinking the leftover porridge his sister had, Su Xiaofan felt a bit more energetic. At least his throat wasn't so dry. But he still couldn't control his body—at most, he could lift his arm slightly.
"Hand... phone," Su Xiaofan told his sister.
"Brother, rest well. Why are you looking at your phone?"
Su Xiaoxiao shook her head.
"The doctor said you shouldn’t overexert. You need to rest quietly."
"What... date is it?" Su Xiaofan managed to say a complete sentence, eager to find out how long he had been unconscious.
"It's June 10th, and the college entrance exams just finished," Su Xiaoxiao replied.
"Brother, you've been in a coma for twenty-six days. I... I couldn’t find Dad. You almost scared me to death."
She had been busy all this time and hadn't had the chance to be sad. Now that she was quiet, she felt afraid. Although she was usually carefree, the fact that her brother was still unconscious after these twenty days was a huge burden on her heart. She couldn’t hold back and started crying at the bedside.
"Don’t... cry. I... how did I end up in the hospital?"
Su Xiaofan reached out and gently stroked his sister’s hair. He knew his sister was usually lively and carefree, but during his coma, she must have been suffering.
"Brother, I have to tell you, it was all thanks to Uncle Niu,"
Su Xiaoxiao said through her tears,
"if it weren’t for Uncle Niu, you might not have made it to the hospital."
As soon as she spoke, Su Xiaofan’s attention was diverted. She wiped her tears and continued chattering.
It turned out that Uncle Niu, who owned a supermarket, had noticed something was wrong outside the store. After the rain stopped, he went out with a flashlight into the neighborhood. Su Xiaofan was incredibly lucky—despite the power outage throughout the entire community, Uncle Niu saw Su Xiaofan lying on the ground. He quickly called Su Xiaoxiao and dialed the emergency number, then sent Su Xiaofan to the hospital.
According to the doctors, after being taken to the hospital, Su Xiaofan’s heartbeat was very weak, and he could stop at any moment. His back had large burns—about seventy percent of his back was burned—and if not treated promptly, complications from the burns could be fatal.
At first, the doctors issued a critical condition notice. He stayed in ICU for a week until his vital signs stabilized before transferring to a regular ward. But the prognosis wasn’t very optimistic. They suspected that the electric shock had damaged his brainstem nerves. If he woke up, it wouldn’t be a major issue; but if he remained unconscious, he might be a vegetable for life.
"Money!"
Su Xiaofan spat out a word.
He wasn’t sure why, but even though his body couldn’t move, his mind was very clear. Hearing that he was in ICU, he immediately thought of the medical bills. In the past, when Grandpa was critically ill, ICU costs were about 10,000 to 20,000 yuan a day. This time, he had been there for a week, and his savings were barely enough.
"Brother, the money..."
Su Xiaoxiao immediately understood what her brother meant. She said,
"It was all thanks to Brother Gang’s help."
She continued,
"When you were sent to the hospital, I called Brother Gang immediately. He sent over 100,000 yuan overnight. Without that, ICU wouldn’t even accept you. But I’ve already paid him back..."
"Huh? You contacted... Dad?"
Su Xiaofan thought there might be someone else he could rely on besides his sister—his father, Su Weixuan.
"Dad? He’s probably out shark-fishing in some ocean somewhere," Su Xiaoxiao said with a shrug.
She had seen her father only a handful of times since she was a child. If it weren’t for the fact that he often brought back delicious food and fun things, she wouldn’t even consider him a father.
"It was actually Brother Gang who helped. He went to the Electric Tortoise’s department the next day," Su Xiaoxiao explained.
Hearing this, Su Xiaofan understood. Turns out, his medical bills were covered by Electric Tortoise, and he was grateful to two people—Uncle Niu and Brother Gang.
That night, after the incident, Uncle Niu not only called the ambulance and reported to the police but also investigated the scene. The police confirmed that it was an electrical leak from an aging power box caused by rainwater conduction during a thunderstorm, which resulted in his accident—an "accidental disaster."
With the police report, Zheng Dagang and others went to Electric Tortoise’s department the next day to cause trouble. They argued that the power box was old and poorly maintained. They weren’t violent but sat in the offices of various leaders with insulated cups, making a scene. Although the police came, they couldn’t do much about it.
It’s true—"crying children get sweets." Under the demands of Zheng Dagang and others, Electric Tortoise first paid 200,000 yuan to cover the medical expenses, then handed over 300,000 cash to the family and promised to cover Su Xiaofan’s future medical costs.
The 200,000 yuan advanced earlier had been spent in recent days, so Brother Gang and his crew went back to get another 200,000. According to Zheng Dagang, Electric Tortoise had plenty of money, and they wouldn’t let this slide easily.
"So that’s how it is."
After hearing his sister’s explanation, Su Xiaofan closed his eyes and relaxed. He wouldn’t say that he caused the accident by slipping into the electrical box; the police had already confirmed that it was caused by rainwater conduction from a faulty power box, making him collide with it. That explanation was very reasonable and perfect—he felt he had nothing to add.
As for Wu Chuanbao and the others, Su Xiaofan naturally wouldn’t mention it. In the previous car accident, he had been too honest—taking full responsibility, which led the driver who hit him to pay only 5,000 yuan for hospitalization and some supplements. Later, he found out that the other driver’s car was insured, and the money he spent could have been reimbursed by insurance.
"College entrance exams? Xiaoxiao... you didn’t take them?"
Su Xiaofan suddenly remembered something and asked his sister. He had missed the college entrance exams because of the accident. Although he didn’t say it openly, he felt some regret. He never thought that this time, he would also cause his sister to miss the exams.
"Brother, you’re so silly. I was already recruited through a special program, so I didn’t need to take the exam,"
Su Xiaoxiao said with a little teasing.
"When you were in the hospital, I didn’t go to school. They were still fighting for the last twenty days. I was sleeping soundly every day—so comfortable."
"Thanks for your hard work," Su Xiaofan said, reaching out to touch his sister’s head.
He knew that though she was usually carefree and lively, she must have suffered during his coma.
"Alright, Xiaoxiao, you should rest now," Su Xiaofan said.
He needed some quiet time to think about what the doctor had just said. According to the duty doctor, he had only been ruled out as a vegetable; whether his body could recover was still uncertain and would depend on tomorrow’s examinations.
"Electrocuted and still alive?"
Su Xiaofan thought he was very lucky. At the moment he hit the electrical box, he could even smell his burnt flesh. But according to the doctors and his sister, only his back had burns. Had he lost his sense of smell at that moment?
"Huh? What’s this?"
Suddenly, a line of words appeared in his mind:
[Repair Points: 30!]
(End of chapter)
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