Chapter 50: I Can Feel My Legs
Ye Ruoling’s face fell. She immediately rushed forward and pulled Shanshan into a hug.
"Don’t get the wrong idea, everyone. She’s just a sincere little girl."
"Her father was severely injured in the line of duty. He can’t walk anymore, but he’s a hero. He’s a hero to all of us."
As she spoke, her eyes began to well up.
Many people had already noticed the father and son’s snide attitude.
Now, hearing the truth, their anger flared.
"How can you say something like that? Have you no conscience?"
"He shed his blood for this country, and you’re making snide remarks behind his back? Who do you think you are? You’re shameless!"
"Whether he’s disabled or not is irrelevant! What matters is character! You look down on people... if your son grows up with your kind of attitude, is he going to turn into a piece of trash too?"
The man’s face instantly turned beet red.
The boy beside him was so frightened he ducked his head and hunched his shoulders, wishing he could disappear into a crack in the floor.
The pair didn’t dare stay a second longer. They lowered their heads and tried to make a quick escape.
Seeing them try to flee without so much as an apology, Shanshan felt both hurt and furious.
She broke into a run, burying her face in Ling Anxun’s chest and pretending to be upset.
Then, she secretly wiggled the fingers of her right hand.
Just as the father and son were scrambling to get away, they suddenly tripped over something.
With a loud SPLAT, both of them fell flat on their faces.
It happened so suddenly that the onlookers stared in stunned silence for a moment before bursting into gales of laughter.
"Serves them right!"
"Exactly! What goes around, comes around! See? Instant karma!"
Shanshan secretly peeked her head out. She glanced at the father and son struggling on the ground, and the corners of her lips curled into a smirk.
Then she stood on her tiptoes and leaned close to Ling Anxun’s ear, her voice soft and sweet.
"Daddy, you’re sparkling. That’s all the good karma you’ve saved up from doing good deeds. From now on, everything will go your way. Don’t be sad, okay? I’m here. I’ve got your back."
Ling Anxun listened, lowered his head, and a faint smile touched his lips.
He stroked Shanshan’s head, his gaze gentle.
But deep in his heart, a chilling cold had already spread.
He knew the world wouldn’t treat him gently just because he had shed his blood for it.
He also knew that some wounds couldn’t be healed by a child’s few heartwarming words.
Despite the little incident, the family still had a wonderful time.
Ling Anxun and Ye Ruoling bought Shanshan five new outfits and three pairs of little shoes.
They also picked up a pile of toys, hair clips, and snacks.
Ye Ruoling was particularly focused when choosing the hair clips, holding each one up to Shanshan’s head to see how it looked.
A pink bow, little blue stars, a sparkly strawberry clip...
Although Ling Anxun didn’t know much about these things, he nodded earnestly.
"That one’s pretty."
"This one’s nice too."
"Let’s just buy them all."
Xiao Zhou followed behind, laden with bags of all sizes, grinning from ear to ear.
The moment they got home, Shanshan dashed into her room and started trying on her new clothes, one by one.
First, she put on a pink dress and spun in a circle.
Then she pulled on a blue t-shirt and did a little hop.
Then she put on the bow-shaped hair clip, stood on her tiptoes, spread her arms wide, and announced,
"Look at me! I’m a little princess!"
Then she threw herself into Ling Anxun’s arms, giggling as she nuzzled his cheek.
The ticklish sensation softened his heart, and he couldn’t resist lifting her high into the air, which sent her into peals of delighted screams.
After dinner, her eyelids grew heavy, and she was so sleepy she nearly fell asleep right at the table.
Ye Ruoling wanted to carry her to bed.
But she mumbled, refusing to go, insisting she had to watch the little bear dance in her cartoon.
In the end, it was Ling Anxun who picked her up. He hummed a few lines of a nursery rhyme, and she finally closed her eyes in a drowsy haze.
After a day of walking nearly twenty thousand steps, everyone was completely exhausted.
Ye Ruoling sat on the sofa in a daze, rubbing her temples.
Xiao Zhou was in the kitchen, cleaning up after dinner.
Ling Anxun also felt completely drained, every muscle aching, so he went to bed early.
Moonlight streamed through the window, illuminating the fairytale book on his nightstand.
He closed his eyes, his mind replaying the image of Shanshan’s smiling face from earlier that day.
A small smile played on his lips as he slowly drifted off to sleep.
But while Shanshan slept soundly until morning, he was jolted awake in the middle of the night.
In his dream, he had instinctively rolled over to dodge something.
That scene played out repeatedly in his dreams, always with the same outcome.
But this time was different.
As he rolled in his dream, he felt his right leg move.
A sudden tingling sensation shot through his right leg.
He froze, his heart suddenly hammering in his chest.
’It’s not a dream.’
’It’s real...’
’I can feel it.’
He stared intently at his right leg.
He couldn’t make out its shape in the darkness, but he could *feel* its presence.
He tried to move his toes, but it was no use. He still couldn’t.
But the tingling sensation remained.
It lasted for a few seconds before slowly receding.
He lay frozen in bed, not daring to move.
He was terrified that if he so much as blinked, the sensation would vanish.
The next morning, when Xiao Zhou pushed the door open, he nearly jumped out of his skin at the sight of him.
"Sir? Your face... you look like you’ve seen a ghost! Didn’t you sleep at all last night?"
Ling Anxun’s eyes were bloodshot, his eye sockets were sunken, and his face was ashen.
Xiao Zhou assumed he was still upset about what had happened the day before.
Just as he was about to offer a few words of comfort, Ling Anxun suddenly gripped his wrist, his voice trembling.
"My... my leg... last night... I felt something. Get the car. Now. We’re going to the hospital!"
"R-Really?"
Xiao Zhou carefully lifted the blanket and stared at the leg.
Seven or eight scars crisscrossed the leg.
The deepest one ran from the top of his thigh all the way to the outside of his knee.
In the past, whenever he’d massaged it, the skin had been rigid and unresponsive.
But today...
With the lightest touch of his fingertips, the skin quivered.
Xiao Zhou snatched his hand back, then mustered his courage and touched it again.
This time, he clearly felt the muscle in the leg twitch.
He spun around and rushed to get the car, immediately helping Ling Anxun and speeding toward the hospital.
By the time Shanshan crawled out of bed, Ling Anxun was already at the hospital.
"Mmm... Daddy, good morning."
She rubbed her eyes, her little face flushed and her messy hair sticking up in a few places.
Then she trotted off, her steps light as she hurried to the room next door.
The bed was a mess, the blanket balled up and tossed in a corner.
The wheelchair was gone, too.
She stood at the doorway, stunned for a few seconds, the wheels in her little head spinning furiously.
"Grandma! Grandpa! He’s gone! Big Brother! Second Brother!"
A moment later, she spun around, her voice rising to a shriek.
She shouted as she ran barefoot across the floor.
Ding Qin was sitting on the sofa reading the morning paper. At the sound of the shouting, she shot to her feet with a rustle of the paper.
They searched every corner, but there was no sign of Ling Anxun.
"Xiao Zhou is gone too, and the car’s not here... Something’s happened to Uncle Anxun, hasn’t it?"
Ling Zhiyu ran in from the backyard, covered in sweat.
Without another word, Ding Qin snatched the living room phone and dialed Xiao Zhou’s number.
The call connected instantly, and a familiar voice came over the line.
"Ma’am, something was suddenly wrong with the Sir’s leg. I was worried about delaying, so I rushed him over. I’m so sorry, I didn’t have time to call."
Ding Qin’s heart clenched before he had even finished speaking.
"His leg? What’s wrong with his leg? Don’t you move! We’re on our way! You make sure the doctors save that leg! Do you hear me? They are absolutely not to amputate! Absolutely not!"