After Zhang Wei and the nurse left, Ye Fan lay on the hospital bed to rest for a little while when suddenly, he felt an itchiness under the bandages wrapped around his eyes, akin to the sensation of a wound healing. It started off mild but gradually intensified, and Ye Fan desperately wanted to scratch.
Ye Fan wanted to find the call bell by his bed to ask the nurse to check on him and see if his condition had worsened, so he reached out, searching with his hands.
After groping in the dark for a long time, not only did Ye Fan fail to find the bell, but he also fell off the bed, tumbling to the ground in a heap.
"What in the world is happening?" Not long after learning that he might become permanently blind, or even have his face disfigured, the sudden onset of this intense itch only added to Ye Fan's worries, and it could even be described as terrifying. Ye Fan, in his twenties, was in the prime of his life—the best years one could have.
Struggling to his feet, Ye Fan clenched his fists tightly. He had already begun to face a life shrouded in darkness and needed to keep adjusting to it.
Ye Fan steadied himself up using the bed's edge, and just as he was about to get back onto it, he felt a piercing pain in his eyes as if they were being pricked by needles, as though something was irritating them. Ye Fan thought perhaps the bandages were tied too tightly and reached to pull at them, intending to loosen them a bit.
After tugging at the bandages thrice, Ye Fan felt something was wrong. When he had first been injured, even a slight movement would have caused him agonizing pain, but now there was no such sensation. Having resolved himself that he had gone blind anyway, Ye Fan decided to yank the bandages off.
As he peeled off the layers of bandages, at first everything seemed to go smoothly. But when he got to the last layer crusted with dried blood, he became careful not to disturb the wound, slowing his movements. Suddenly, to Ye Fan's astonishment, he could see a blurry light through the last layer of the bandage...
This meant...
His eyes could still perceive light.
Thrilled, Ye Fan finally removed the last of the bandages. The intense brightness made him uncomfortable, instinctively he used his hands to shield his eyes, then cracked them open slightly. As he slowly got used to the light, he gradually opened his eyes fully.
Ye Fan, who discovered he was not blind, hurried to the bathroom and stood in front of the mirror.
His eyes were largely undamaged except for the pupils, which still bore a hint of red, resembling tinted contact lenses. Aside from the marks left by the prolonged binding of the bandages, there was no other injury on his face.
The only disappointment for Ye Fan was that, while he could now see things, his vision was very blurry, as if his eyes were covered by a semi-transparent cloth.
After staring into the mirror for several seconds, Ye Fan took a deep breath. Although he didn't understand what had happened to him, one thing was clear—he hadn't been disfigured, and he wasn't blind.
For Ye Fan, that was incredibly good news.
With all sorts of thoughts whirling through his head, Ye Fan fell into a deep sleep.
When Ye Fan awoke, it was already past seven o'clock the next day. The first thing he did upon waking was rush to the bathroom. In the mirror, he saw that the blood in his pupils had vanished, and his vision had fully recovered—everything was clear.
Ye Fan wanted to jump for joy and shout out loud to express his excitement.
Brimming with joy, Ye Fan returned to his bed and sat down, only then noticing he was hungry. It was then he remembered Zhang Wei had left some snacks in the cupboard when he visited. Instinctively, Ye Fan looked toward the cupboard.
Suddenly, Ye Fan was astonished to find that he could clearly see the snacks and a box of milk inside the cupboard. Thinking he was hallucinating, he instinctively rubbed his eyes. When Ye Fan opened them again, he saw the cupboard was closed, and yet, he could see its contents once more.
"What in the world is happening?" Ye Fan was utterly bewildered by this miraculous phenomenon.
Just then, he heard footsteps outside the door. Instinctively, Ye Fan turned his head towards the entrance, his gaze piercing through the wooden door and seeing the nurse walking in. Outside, she was talking to a stranger, quietly accepting a red envelope from them.
The nurse whispered, "Don't worry, I will vacate the room as soon as possible."
The person nodded in satisfaction, exchanged a few pleasantries, and then hurried off.
When the nurse came in, Ye Fan realized that he had gained a miraculous power after the catastrophe—clairvoyance!
"What are you doing? Why did you remove the bandages yourself?" The nurse yelled angrily at Ye Fan, who had his back to her, casually placing the tray on the table.
Immersed in the pleasant surprise, Ye Fan didn't pay attention to the nurse's words.
"I'm talking to you, can't you hear? Huh? Are your eyes okay?" The nurse, standing in front of Ye Fan, looked at him, astounded by his intact eyes and face, which was completely healed and even whiter than the rest of his skin.
After the surprise, the nurse said, "I came today to notify you that the treatment fees your boss has paid have run out. If you don't continue to pay, you'll have to move out of the special care ward. Oh, and you have ten minutes." After speaking, the nurse let out a disdainful snort.
The doctor who came in after coughed and said pretentiously, "How can you talk to a patient like that? We are angels in white, saving lives and helping the wounded. Don't always associate us with money."
"Hm? Your eyes have healed already? How is this possible?" The doctor suddenly noticed that Ye Fan's eyes had recovered, and his facial skin too. He was Ye Fan's chief physician and knew Ye Fan's condition back then better than anyone. According to the tests at the time, his eyes surely could not be saved.
But now he saw that Ye Fan's eyes were completely fine.
The nurse didn't care to ponder why Ye Fan had miraculously recovered. She only wanted him to vacate the bed as quickly as possible so it could be allocated to another patient, so she urged, "Are you really deaf? Didn't you hear what I just said?"
Hearing this, Ye Fan became instantly annoyed. These past few days had been frustrating enough. He'd been fired by his boss for playing the hero, nearly lost his life, and now he was being mistreated at the hospital.
"In a shithole like this, even if you paid me, I wouldn't stay any longer." After saying this, Ye Fan turned to leave.
Ye Fan cast a cold glance at the doctor and nurse, who were in a daze, then turned and walked out of the ward.
Standing outside the hospital, Ye Fan checked his pockets with all his possessions in them, totaling up to two thousand yuan. He had intended to call Zhang Wei to celebrate his discharge but then thought better of it, considering how shocked Zhang Wei might be at his rapid recovery, so he took a taxi home instead.
In the city center, the company had rented an apartment for Ye Fan, which was considered company housing. Originally, four people lived there together, but one by one, they had moved out after finding girlfriends, leaving only Ye Fan behind.
The apartment was not very large. The two rooms combined were just over forty square meters, but the sparse furniture and appliances made it look rather spacious. Sitting by the window, Ye Fan pondered over the day's events at the hospital, the clairvoyance ability.
Ye Fan focused his gaze on a cabinet not too far away, concentrated his mind, and the miraculous scene happened again. He saw the contents inside the cabinet with ease. Suppressing the excitement in his heart, Ye Fan's gaze shifted outside the window. A pigeon flew by, and he could see the feather patterns on the bird a hundred meters away, even the numbers on the pigeon's ankle bracelet...
After a series of tests, Ye Fan gleaned some information. He had clairvoyance abilities and could see things from a distance. However, he couldn't overuse this ability, as it would cause dizziness.
Just as Ye Fan was about to rest and recover his mental energy, there came a knock at the door. Before Ye Fan could respond, the landlord, a bald man in his forties, barged in, with a fleshy face looking grim, and said gruffly, "Kid, it's time to pay the rent."
Ye Fan was very annoyed by the landlord's sudden intrusion without permission. Despite it being a rented apartment, he still had a right to privacy.
"The administrative department of your company called me just now. You've been fired. If you want to continue living here, you'll have to pay the rent yourself," the landlord said, rolling his eyes.
Calculating in his mind, Ye Fan considered the monthly rent of fifteen hundred yuan. With such a high price and now being unemployed with only two thousand yuan, he definitely wasn't going to continue renting. But moving out would take a few days, so Ye Fan replied, "Can I renew the rent for a week? I'll move out immediately once I find a suitable place."
The landlord snorted contemptuously and said, "Just knew you were a pauper with no money to renew the rent. For the sake of you being an old tenant, I'll let you. One week, a thousand yuan, pay up now."
One week, a thousand?
Keep in mind, the monthly rent was only fifteen hundred.
Ye Fan became infuriated and asked, "Isn't that price a bit too steep?"
The landlord said unconcernedly, "Nowadays, rents are skyrocketing, and there's no shortage of tenants. Cut the crap. If you want to rent, then rent; if not, get the hell out. I'm not worried about finding new renters."
Ye Fan got angry on the spot and said firmly, "I'm not renting anymore." After quickly packing his clothes and other belongings into a backpack, he turned and left.
The landlord blocked Ye Fan's way and said, "Hey, hey! Don't go yet. Your boss hasn't paid this month's rent. If you leave, who will I chase up for it?"
Ye Fan, losing his patience, kicked the landlord to the ground and shouted angrily, "If you want the rent, go find Zhang Dahhu."
The landlord hadn't expected the usually docile Ye Fan to lash out and was stunned. By the time he recovered, Ye Fan was already gone, leaving the landlord hopping mad, cursing, "You little bastard, dare to hit me."
Standing by the roadside, Ye Fan muttered a curse, "What the hell has happened these last few days? One bad thing after another." Though he cursed, life still had to go on. Calming down, Ye Fan began to strategize how to manage in the future. With the little money he had, it wouldn't last long.
Need to think of a way to make money fast? Now that he had the magical ability of clairvoyance, should he continue to work as before? Ye Fan shook his head. Now that he possessed this miraculous power, why not use it to make money?