Although everyone had mentally prepared themselves, they were still shocked when they finally saw what Zhong Xiu actually looked like.
The viewers in the livestream were even more stunned, gasping in disbelief.
“My god, she actually has a horse face? Are you serious?”
“I’ve only ever seen a face like that in anime. I never thought it could exist in real life?”
“That doesn’t make sense. With a face like that, how does she breathe and eat? How does she even live?”
The viewers in the livestream simply couldn’t understand it.
At first, everyone was just frightened, but once they calmed down, confusion took over.
Calling Zhong Xiu a horse face was absolutely not an insult or an attempt to humiliate her. It was simply a fact.
The part of Zhong Xiu’s face where her nose should have been seemed to have been stretched out, forming a massive slanted rectangular bone structure.
On either side of this slanted rectangle were Zhong Xiu’s two eyes.
Below the slanted rectangle were her two nostrils and her mouth.
So her face really was almost identical to a horse’s face, with virtually no difference.
Qin Jiang was also deeply shocked, momentarily at a loss for words.
Zhong Xiu also noticed the astonished gazes of the people around her. She anxiously wanted to reach up and cover her face.
Zhong Jinian quickly comforted her from the side. “Good girl, don’t move around. Let the doctor take a proper look.”
“Only after the doctor sees clearly will we know how to treat your condition.”
For all these years, Zhong Xiu had never dared to look in a mirror, because she knew exactly how ugly she was.
Now, being stared at by Qin Jiang and the others, her intense self-esteem and inferiority complex exploded at the same time, and Zhong Xiu burst into loud sobs.
This made the viewers find it even more bizarre.
It was like a monster with a horse’s face and a human body sitting there, making the crying sounds of a young girl. No matter how you looked at it, it felt eerie.
Some of the more faint-hearted viewers even left the livestream directly, not daring to watch anymore.
Qin Jiang observed Zhong Xiu carefully for a while, then asked, “She wasn’t born like this, was she?”
Zhong Jinian shook his head.
“She was perfectly normal as a child. It was only after she started middle school that her face began to change. It changed gradually, and it kept changing until it became what it is today.”
“Dr. Qin, look, this is a photo of my daughter when she was little.”
Zhong Jinian took out a yellowed, creased photograph and handed it to Qin Jiang.
Qin Jiang looked down and saw that it was a family photo of Zhong Jinian with his wife and daughter.
When the viewers saw the photo, they all cried out in shock.
“This girl was so beautiful as a child? She looked just like a doll. She was so adorable.”
“Look at her dad — he’s handsome, and her mom is beautiful too. You could tell she was going to grow up pretty.”
“If she hadn’t gotten sick, she’d probably be a real beauty now. I never expected her to get sick and end up like this.”
The viewers all felt sorry for Zhong Xiu.
At the same time, they understood why Zhong Xiu had suddenly broken down and cried so hard.
After all, the contrast was just too extreme.
She used to be so beautiful, and now she was so ugly. Who could handle that?
Qin Jiang said, “So what you’re saying is, she wasn’t born like this. It was an illness she developed later that gradually made her look this way.”
“Then why didn’t you take her to the hospital when it first started and wasn’t so serious?”
Zhong Jinian said with deep self-blame, “I… I did take her to the hospital. But the doctor said her situation was very complicated. It was some kind of disease — anyway, she needed surgery.”
“At the time, the surgery would cost 150,000. We couldn’t afford that much, so we had no choice but to take her home.”
“I’ve finally saved up 150,000 over all these years, so I wanted to bring her back and get the surgery done.”
When everyone heard Zhong Jinian say this, they all fell silent.
If the surgery could have been done back when it was first discovered, Zhong Xiu’s condition definitely wouldn’t be as severe as it is now.
This was probably the one thing Zhong Jinian regretted most, and also the one thing that broke Zhong Xiu the most.
The viewers in the livestream watched with teary eyes, unable to hold back their sighs.
“He probably never imagined that 150,000 would ruin his daughter. If he could have seen today coming, maybe he would have sold everything he owned to treat her.”
“To the person above, I think you’re being a bit naive. How do you know he didn’t already sell everything? Look at his clothes and pants — they’re all styles from over a decade ago. That shows he wasn’t willing to spend money on himself.”
“Yeah, 100,000 back then wasn’t the same as 100,000 now. Do you think just any family could pull out 100,000 in savings for medical treatment? Let me ask — how many people in this livestream right now have over 100,000 in savings?”
“Never underestimate the love parents have for their children. As long as they’re normal parents, there’s no one who doesn’t want their child to be safe and healthy. And didn’t he just say it? He saved for all these years and finally managed to save up 150,000.”
Living conditions are better now, so many young people have never gone hungry or endured hardship. They have no concept of what 150,000 meant back then.
In the early 1990s, a family with 10,000 yuan in savings was considered outstanding.
Some places would even issue a “Ten-Thousand Yuan Household” plaque to people with 10,000 in savings.
Back then, a hundred yuan was a huge sum of money.
But now, a child getting a Chinese New Year red envelope gets several hundred or even over a thousand.
On top of that, money has become digital. How much you have is just a string of numbers on your phone.
Many young people have never even held a bundle of 10,000 yuan in their hands to feel its weight.
So many people were baffled — why couldn’t Zhong Jinian come up with 150,000 back then?
What baffled them even more was that after saving for so many years, Zhong Jinian had only managed to save 150,000.
Qin Jiang wasn’t baffled. He simply said to Zhong Jinian, “Let’s do a checkup first. Your daughter’s situation will most likely require surgery. Don’t worry about the cost for now — I’ll reduce it appropriately here. Our top priority is to help your daughter recover her health.”
Zhong Jinian was an honest, simple man.
Hearing Qin Jiang say this, he thanked him repeatedly, and even wanted to kneel down to him.
Qin Jiang quickly helped him up, then had Zou Moli take Zhong Xiu to the pharmacy for a comprehensive examination.
The moment Zhong Xiu entered the pharmacy, Zhong Jinian’s tears could no longer be held back. They fell one drop at a time.
Zhong Jinian clutched his bank card tightly and handed it to Qin Jiang.
“Dr. Qin, why don’t I just transfer the 150,000 to you first? If it’s not enough, tell me, and I’ll go borrow more.”
Qin Jiang shook his head.
“I told you, don’t worry about the medical expenses for now. What concerns me more right now is Zhong Xiu’s psychological state.”
“Over these years, she hasn’t developed any mental health issues, has she?”
