Chapter 12: Save Him!

◎ I want to stay by his side… ◎

【Sorry, Host. For the sake of fairness and justice, the Bystander Resurrector System will not provide you with any special advantages. Please complete the resurrection task on your own. You have three minutes left.】

The cold, emotionless voice was as steady as a rock, unwavering.

Just as Xue Huiyu was filled with despair, a passing vehicle noticed the car accident scene. She immediately shouted for help.

Hearing her cries for help, a bystander quickly called 120 (emergency services) while throwing a life ring with a rope from the bridge.

Already exhausted, with her lips turning pale, Xue Huiyu used her last bit of strength to grab the life ring. With the help of the bystanders, she was dragged to the shore.

Once on the shore, Xue Huiyu didn’t take a moment to catch her breath. Her hands were frozen stiff, her right hand was cut by broken glass, with several long gashes bleeding, and her left ear’s earring had been swept away by the sea, exposing a gory wound. But she ignored all of this, urgently slapping Pei Wenyu’s face and calling his name.

Seeing that he didn’t react at all, and the numbers on his wristband had stopped at some point, she immediately laid him flat on the ground, loosened his collar and clothes, and began chest compressions and artificial respiration.

He had opened his eyes just moments ago, but now he had no breath, no pulse…

Recalling the system’s earlier message that she had three minutes left, Xue Huiyu realized that nearly three minutes had already passed, and she felt as if the sky were collapsing.

“Pei Wenyu! Pei Wenyu!”

She cried as she performed chest compressions, and her right hand, which was already cut, broke open further due to the intense compressions. Ignoring the pain, she anxiously shouted to the bystanders, “Has the ambulance arrived yet? Do you know how to perform first aid?”

Effective CPR required at least thirty minutes, and she was too exhausted to continue for that long…

“Please help me!”

The couple who had called the police and thrown the life ring didn’t know first aid, and Xue Huiyu, exhausted from performing chest compressions and artificial respiration, could hardly catch her breath. Her hands were covered in blood, and she felt like she was about to faint when, at last, the sound of an ambulance siren grew nearer, like music to her ears.

When the paramedics arrived with a stretcher, Xue Huiyu, completely limp on the ground, cried out in desperation, “His heartbeat has been restored, but he still isn’t breathing on his own… Please, you have to save him… Please… You must save him…”

Though she had secretly cursed Pei Wenyu many times, and during her postpartum depression had considered extreme measures, she had never truly wanted him to die…

Seeing the drenched woman crying uncontrollably, blood everywhere on her hands and body, and the severely injured man being lifted onto the stretcher, the paramedics assumed she was either his girlfriend or wife. They immediately helped her onto the same ambulance.

Along the way, the paramedics placed Pei Wenyu on a ventilator and performed all possible life-saving measures.

His vital signs were extremely unstable. While his heartbeat and breathing had been restored, he was unconscious, with weak breathing and unstable blood pressure. Additionally, he had multiple fractures, and the wounds were infected due to bacteria in the river, posing a risk of suffocation and hemorrhagic shock at any moment.

The paramedics also stopped the bleeding from Xue Huiyu’s ear and hand and bandaged her wounds. They asked her for details about the car accident and the patient. Xue Huiyu knew it wasn’t the time to cry. After pinching herself hard to stop the tears, she replied intermittently, “His name is Pei Wenyu, he’s a director at the Pei Group. The accident happened about twenty minutes ago.”

Pei Wenyu, this wealthy second-generation heir, was quite famous in Upper Water City, especially since he had just appeared in the news and trending topics earlier that day. But due to his current disheveled, severely injured state, the paramedics hadn’t immediately recognized him.

They looked at Xue Huiyu with a puzzled expression, unsure of her exact relationship with Mr. Pei… Perhaps she was just an acquaintance?

“The car sank into the river about five or six minutes ago, and it was completely submerged for about a minute… I was afraid he might drown, so I performed artificial respiration on him. He briefly regained consciousness and opened his eyes, but I didn’t have the strength to swim him back to shore… So we were floating on the water for several minutes…”

“After reaching the shore, I found that he had no pulse or breath, so I immediately started chest compressions and artificial respiration…”

The paramedics praised Xue Huiyu for her quick thinking and decisiveness, telling her to take deep breaths and calm down. They then informed her of his head injuries and multiple fractures, but the exact details of the fractures could only be confirmed after an X-ray. Overall, the prognosis wasn’t optimistic.

Thinking of how Pei Wenyu had already been disabled from a previous car accident three and a half years ago, and now had more fractures, Xue Huiyu choked up and replied, “He had an accident three and a half years ago and is still using a cane… In the recent accident, his body was trapped between two seats, which might be the cause of the fractures…”

The ambulance reached the hospital quickly, with the road clear that evening, and it happened to be the same hospital where Pei Wenyu had been treated three years ago.

Upon learning that Super VIP Pei Wenyu’s condition was critical, the hospital immediately activated the green channel. Pei Wenyu’s attending doctor, Gu Jiasheng, rushed over in a panic as soon as he received the call. Xue Huiyu followed the stretcher to the emergency room.

Pei Wenyu was sent directly into the resuscitation room due to the severity of his condition. Several experts conducted a joint consultation and unanimously concluded that Pei Wenyu’s life was in grave danger and immediate surgery was necessary.

A nurse, noticing that Xue Huiyu was disheveled, gave her a clean towel to wipe her face and suggested that she also get a blood draw and a chest CT scan to prevent bacterial infection. However, Xue Huiyu had no money on her, so she shook her head and silently stayed at the door of the resuscitation room, her hands clasped in prayer.

[System, it’s already past the three minutes you mentioned, Pei Wenyu will definitely survive, right?]

[Ding! The host is kind-hearted, changing Pei Wenyu’s fate of drowning and earning 2 resurrection points.]

For the first time, Xue Huiyu felt that the “ding” sound in her mind was like heavenly music. But the next second, she heard the system continue: [Although you’ve changed Pei Wenyu’s fate from drowning, his condition is still critical, and he is not out of danger yet.]

Seeing Xue Huiyu trembling uncontrollably from the tension, her physical data unstable, the system 1070, unable to empathize with human emotions, couldn’t process or analyze such data.

After a few seconds of error, it asked: [Aren’t you happy to have earned 2 resurrection points in such a short time?]

Xue Huiyu’s heart tightened, and she then heard the mechanical voice ask: [Is it because you’re worried that Pei Wenyu’s death will affect your resurrection mission? Indeed, if Pei Wenyu dies, your chances of failing the resurrection task are very high, but it’s not impossible to succeed…]

[What?] Xue Huiyu’s mind felt like mush. [Why would I fail if Pei Wenyu dies? Isn’t it a hundred days?]

Though she didn’t fully understand, she clearly heard the part about “one hundred days…”

[Also, how exactly are resurrection points earned? What are the criteria?]

[Host, the way resurrection points are earned and judged affects the fairness of the resurrection task, so we cannot provide detailed information. However, I can tell you that the primary source of resurrection points comes from returning to your original position. You are Pei Wenyu’s wife, Pei Yuqi’s mother, Xue Qingyu’s daughter, the first heir of the Xue family, and the principal dancer of the Shuigou Ballet Troupe… these are all part of your identity. But since you have been dead for three years, some of them no longer belong to you. If everyone forgets you, you will naturally fade from this world. Therefore, the more friends, family, and fans who acknowledge your identity, the more resurrection points you will earn, increasing your chances of completing the resurrection task. Additionally, large amounts of faith value can be converted into resurrection points. But faith value is very hard to obtain, and Pei Wenyu is your husband, one of your closest direct relatives. So if Pei Wenyu dies or if you divorce him, you will lose your biggest source of resurrection points, greatly increasing the chances of failure.]

[…Fade naturally?] Xue Huiyu, who had been listening in confusion, suddenly seized on a key word.

[Yes, host. If you fail the resurrection task, you will completely disappear, but rest assured, everything you’ve done will not disappear from others’ memories.]

[So, if I fail the resurrection, I won’t be able to reincarnate, right?]

[Yes, host.]

[One more thing to note, host: you are in the probationary period. During the resurrection task, you must not reveal your identity or engage in any illegal activities. Otherwise, you will be punished, with minor penalties resulting in a deduction of resurrection points, and serious penalties leading to the immediate failure of the resurrection task.]

Xue Huiyu had initially thought that binding to a system with various cheats would lead her to the pinnacle of life!

But novels were all fake!

Not only did she not have any cheat powers, there were punishments? And the price of failure was complete disappearance?!

Xue Huiyu nearly fainted.

But she optimistically thought, since she was already dead, it wouldn’t make much difference if she vanished again…

No reincarnation? Fine, since reincarnation wouldn’t even be her anymore…

On the contrary, her return to life meant another chance to live!

She could finally touch her child again! And she even saved Pei Wenyu!

As long as Pei Wenyu survives…

But Pei Wenyu and she were a fake married couple. In these hundred days, could she really get resurrection points from him? The likelihood of a divorce seemed greater…

After all, the marriage agreement they signed was for three years…

Xue Huiyu, worried that she wouldn’t earn resurrection points from Pei Wenyu, frowned, thinking about how to delay the inevitable divorce until after the resurrection task was completed…

Her child should still recognize her as their mother! After all, the child had already seen her! Though not entirely fair, she could use the child to keep Pei Wenyu from divorcing her until the task period was over!

She hadn’t practiced ballet in nearly a year, but although she’d started rehabilitation during her confinement, there was still a lot to accomplish in these hundred days, which made her feel somewhat tense.

Besides, it was only three years, not thirty years. Her fans probably wouldn’t switch allegiances so quickly, right?

The hardest part would probably be the Xue family… She had been in a cold war with her father for years, and with his favoritism towards sons, she knew she could never inherit the Xue Group.

But if Pei Wenyu helped her, he was currently the largest shareholder of the Pei Group. If he really inherited the Pei Group, it would mean she had a huge backing.

But all of this depended on one thing… Pei Wenyu must survive.

[System, if I suffer a fatal injury during these hundred days, will I die? Will the task fail early? What if I get seriously injured and end up lying in a hospital for a hundred days?]

[Host, don’t worry. Your body is currently constructed from temporary data. Any injuries, whether from gunshots, knives, blunt force, or poison, will heal much faster than a normal person’s. The more severe the injury, the faster it will heal.]

In the span of one hundred days, no matter what happens, she wouldn’t die.

Xue Huiyu looked at her injured hand, and sure enough, it was already showing signs of healing.

This must be considered a cheat, right?

As she quietly marveled at the situation, a doctor came out of the emergency room. After glancing around at the door, he furrowed his brows and asked the nurse: “We’re about to perform surgery. Mr. Pei’s condition is critical and we need to get a notice signed. How long until his family arrives?”

Without the patient or immediate family signing, the doctor couldn’t proceed with the surgery.

Mr. Pei’s immediate family consisted only of the hospitalized Pei Guoli and his three-and-a-half-year-old son—neither of whom could sign. And Mr. Pei’s father-in-law, Xue Qingyu, had fainted on the spot when he received the phone call…

Thus, it was up to any extended family or acquaintances who could come and sign, allowing the surgery to proceed as soon as possible.

Of course, in emergency cases like this, with approval from the hospital leaders, surgery could be performed without the patient or their family’s signature. However, as Mr. Pei was a Super VIP with a noble status, if anything happened to him without a signature, they wouldn’t be able to take responsibility. No hospital leader would dare to sign off on such a risky decision.

As soon as Xue Huiyu heard that the critical notice needed to be signed, her pupils contracted in shock. She immediately raised her hand and said, “I, I am his…”

Just as she was about to say “wife,” Xue Huiyu felt as though an invisible hand had gripped her throat, choking off her breath. She couldn’t speak a single word, her chest tightening painfully as she struggled to breathe.

【Warning! Warning! Warning!】

The sharp alarm rang loudly in her mind: 【Host, do not reveal your identity.】