My Alleged Husband

Chapter 84: Chapter 82 Worsening Illness_1

Li Jiayuan bounced and ran all the way home, and when she arrived, she saw her father sitting on the sofa, apparently waiting for her to return.

Li Haixiao stood up suddenly when he saw Li Jiayuan come back, but as he did, he sat down again. Li Jiayuan was startled by her father’s abrupt collapse, dropping her handbag and rushing straight to Li Haixiao.

”Dad, what’s wrong with you? Did you hurt yourself anywhere?” Li Jiayuan asked anxiously.

Li Haixiao breathed with difficulty, forcing a faint smile. He gently patted Li Jiayuan’s hand and said, ”It’s okay, as long as you’re back, go to rest early, Dad is going to sleep too!”

”Dad, wait a second, I have something to tell you!” Li Jiayuan called out to stop Li Haixiao.

Li Haixiao thought Li Jiayuan was about to tell him about another trip or visit to some place, he hurriedly said, ”Jiayuan, you’re not going to tell Dad that you’re leaving again, are you?”

When Li Jiayuan heard her father say this, a sourness tinged her nose. She shook her head at Li Haixiao and said, ”No Dad, it’s not that. I want to tell you that Xiao Wei has agreed to marry into our family.”

This news took Li Haixiao by surprise; he smiled and said to Li Jiayuan, ”Good, now I can rest assured. Go to bed early!”

Li Jiayuan watched as Li Haixiao climbed the stairs, step by step, feeling as if her feet were glued to the floor, unable to move.

After a long while, Li Jiayuan slowly walked upstairs. Peering through the crack of the bedroom door, she saw Li Haixiao coughing. She witnessed him wiping his mouth with a handkerchief, which was stained with red. She longed to rush in and hug Li Haixiao, but she couldn’t; she knew he hadn’t told her about his condition to keep her from worrying, and she couldn’t let Li Haixiao know she was aware of the severity of his illness.

Li Jiayuan ran into her own bedroom, closed the door, and started sobbing on the floor. She felt her heart had never been in so much pain; knowing full well how serious her father’s illness was yet unable to speak of it, she now regretted immensely. She felt unworthy as a daughter. Recalling how she had left her father without a thought, she felt self-reproach. She had never considered her father could get sick; remembering her severely ill father waiting up for her late into the night, her heart clenched in pain, a pain that made it hard for her to breathe.

Li Jiayuan wiped away her tears and decided to check on Li Haixiao’s room. When she pushed the door open, he was already nearly asleep: ”Dad, are you asleep? I want to talk to you.”

Li Haixiao didn’t respond to Li Jiayuan. She felt something was wrong and went over to pull at him. When he still didn’t react, she sensed something was amiss and hurriedly called for an ambulance.

The hospital.

”Quick, five cycles of CPR, one milligram of adrenaline IV push...” The words of resuscitation echoed out of the emergency room one after another.

An hour later.

”Doctor, how is my dad doing?” Li Jiayuan asked urgently.

”Miss Li, the patient’s condition is not very good; his illness has further deteriorated. I’m afraid he doesn’t have much time left. You should spend as much time with him as possible,” the doctor said, shaking his head helplessly.

This statement hit Li Jiayuan like a bolt from the blue. She was stunned, not expecting to lose her beloved father.

”Doctor, I beg you, please save my dad. I’ll pay any price just to save him!” Li Jiayuan pleaded with tears streaming down her face.

The doctor sighed and said, ”Miss Li, the patient would not be in this situation had he sought aggressive treatment when it was discovered. Now, the only option is surgery. I can’t guarantee that he will be cured after the surgery. I can only say that after the surgery, everything depends on his fate.”

”Okay, as long as there’s a glimmer of hope, I must not give up,” Li Jiayuan thought the surgery would be simple, but she hadn’t anticipated that it would require her kidney.

”Miss Li, don’t celebrate too soon. Not only does the surgery require a significant amount of money, but more importantly, it requires a suitable kidney source. You should go find a suitable kidney source quickly, or else, given your father’s current condition, he might not survive another three months!”

Li Jiayuan was at a loss for what to do. Where could she find a kidney source? Even if she found a suitable one, who would be willing to donate such a vital organ from their body to someone else? At that moment, Li Jiayuan felt the sky was falling; she had never felt as helpless as she did right then!

When she returned home to get some clothes for Li Haixiao, she inadvertently knocked over a box, spilling its contents. Picking it up, she saw it was labeled ”Will.” She took out the documents and read them; it stated clearly that after Li Haixiao’s death, Li Corporation was to be managed by Li Jiayuan, and all assets were to be transferred to her.

Along with the will, a letter also fell out. The letter read: ”Jiayuan, Dad is not going to make it. When I’m gone, you must run the company well. It’s the fruit of my life’s work, and you cannot let my lifelong efforts go to waste. Dad can’t be there for you anymore. Seeing you return home tonight made me so happy. I’m sorry I couldn’t face your questions—it’s because I feared you might leave me again. That’s why I had to avoid them. Thank you for convincing Xiao Wei to join our family. You are my pride, Jiayuan. How I wish I could be with you forever. All your hard work and sacrifice over the years—I’ve seen it all. My time is running out. Forgive me for not telling you; I just didn’t want you to worry about me. Don’t be sad for me, don’t try to save me. As long as you live a safe, happy life, that’s enough for me!”

Reading the will and the letter Li Haixiao had written to her, Li Jiayuan burst into tears. Li Haixiao had known everything; he knew his time was running out, yet he had kept it a secret from Li Jiayuan this entire time. Suddenly, Li Jiayuan loathed herself for being so callous. She wished she could turn back time so there wouldn’t be as many troubles as there were now.

Li Jiayuan texted Xiao Wei: ”I want to donate one of my kidneys to my dad; he’s not going to last much longer!”

When Xiao Wei saw the message, his brain couldn’t react. After a while, he replied to Li Jiayuan: ”I know you’re hurting, but would your dad even agree to this?”

”I can’t wait for his consent. You know how much Dad has loved me since I was little. Now that he’s sick, who will save him if not his daughter? He has done everything for me; I have nothing to repay him with. I just hope my kidney can help him live a few more years. I want to repay him—I want to spend more time with him. I don’t want him to leave this world so soon. Do you understand? He still thought of me until his dying breath. I already heartlessly abandoned him once. This time, no matter what, I can’t abandon him again... not for any other reason but because he is my father, the man who brought me up. That kindness is greater than heaven itself!”

Xiao Wei never expected Li Jiayuan to be so resolute. He didn’t know how to dissuade her and could only say, ”Jiayuan, whatever decision you make, as long as you don’t regret it, I will always support you.”

Xiao Wei’s words were like timely help in the snow for Li Jiayuan, who needed comfort at that time.

The next day, Li Jiayuan went to the hospital for tissue typing; her kidney was a perfect match for Li Haixiao. And so, she donated her kidney to him. A week after the surgery, Li Jiayuan hadn’t been able to get out of bed. Xiao Wei took care of her in the hospital, and Xia Jing and Zhang Zhentian also visited her a few times. While in the hospital, she wasn’t worried about her own future; she was worried whether Li Haixiao would wake up or not.

After the surgery, the doctor said that due to the prior worsening of Li Haixiao’s condition, it might not be easy for him to recover. Li Jiayuan was always worried that he wouldn’t wake up, waiting for a miracle to happen, hoping that the heavens would give her a chance to honor her father. Perhaps heaven did hear her prayers, as Li Haixiao woke up before long.

”Where is this?” Li Haixiao asked.

”You’re in the hospital. You’ve just had surgery, so you shouldn’t move around!”

Confused, Li Haixiao asked, ”What surgery did I have?”

”You’ve just had a kidney transplant!”

”Can you tell me who donated the kidney?”

”I’m sorry, that’s patient confidentiality; we cannot disclose that information!”

And so, the fact that Li Jiayuan donated her kidney to Li Haixiao was kept a secret.