Suddenly going through a change like this is the hardest thing on a person’s mind.
Especially since this illness didn’t appear overnight, and it wasn’t some terminal disease either. It was simply because the family had no money, which allowed her to gradually end up like this.
This made it very easy for Zhong Xiu to develop feelings of resentment and hatred toward her family.
After all, if the family had money, all of this could have been avoided.
Zhong Jinian was stunned for a moment, then shook his head and said, “No, my daughter’s emotions have been fairly stable all these years.”
“Although she sometimes feels down, whenever that happens, I take her out for walks to different places, like the parks in the city or by the lake.”
“She doesn’t like crowds, so I take her at night or early in the morning. As long as she walks around a bit, her mood improves a lot.”
“After walking around these places with her for a while, I go to work.”
Zhong Jinian’s words brought tears to many viewers’ eyes in the livestream.
“What a good father.”
“Yeah, if I suddenly got this kind of illness and watched myself get uglier day by day, I’d definitely lose my mind.”
“You can tell her dad isn’t just handsome — he’s also a very patient person. Otherwise, there’s no way she’d be this emotionally stable.”
“The fact that she hasn’t become depressed after all these years says a lot about how well her dad has done. And after comforting his daughter every time, he still has to go to work. That’s exhausting.”
Qin Jiang also admired Zhong Jinian from the bottom of his heart.
People like Zhong Jinian had little education. Even for work, he could only start with physical labor like hauling bricks.
But it was exactly people like him who were far more reliable than those wealthy parents.
Because Zhong Jinian’s entire focus was on Zhong Xiu. His one and only thought was to keep Zhong Xiu alive and healthy.
So Zhong Jinian’s care for Zhong Xiu was more than enough. And precisely because of that, Zhong Xiu had managed to maintain her mental health up until now.
Qin Jiang said to Zhong Jinian, “Don’t worry. The pain on Shen Ting’s end won’t be a big problem. As long as her mental health is fine, I’m confident I can cure her.”
Soon, Zou Moli came out of the pharmacy with Zhong Xiu.
Zou Moli handed a examination report to Qin Jiang.
“Dr. Qin, the report is out. The situation is quite complicated.”
Qin Jiang picked up the report and looked at it, then said to Zhong Jinian, “The illness your daughter has is called fibrous dysplasia. It’s a non-hereditary congenital abnormality of bone development.”
Zhong Jinian quickly asked, “Then why did she get this illness? My daughter never ate takeout or anything like that growing up, and she didn’t like snacks either.”
Qin Jiang patiently explained, “The exact cause of this illness is still not entirely clear. In other words, modern medicine still can’t explain why this kind of symptom suddenly appears.”
“But the good news is that this illness can be treated through surgery, and the cure rate is quite high.”
“The bad news is that your daughter’s fibrous tumor has already grown quite large, and it’s on her face, which makes the surgery extremely difficult to perform.”
When he heard the surgery would be very difficult, Zhong Jinian immediately became anxious.
He kept saying, “How could this happen? Why did it turn out like this?”
“My daughter is clearly kind and lovely. She shouldn’t be like this.”
Zou Moli thought Zhong Jinian didn’t understand how this illness had developed to this point, so she explained, “Mr. Zhong, the principle behind this illness is the abnormal proliferation of fibrous bone tissue.”
“It’s an abnormality in the process where bone fibers turn into bone during the body’s skeletal development.”
“The bone fibers in your daughter’s upper jaw should have calcified into hard bone, but for some reason, they turned into a gelatinous bone tumor. This gelatinous bone tumor keeps growing and accumulating over time, forming an enormous protrusion.”
“That’s why your daughter’s face has become what it is now.”
Hearing Zou Moli say this, Zhong Jinian let out a heavy sigh.
Qin Jiang also shook his head at Zou Moli, signaling that Zhong Jinian wasn’t trying to find out why Zhong Xiu had ended up like this.
After all, the reason no longer mattered to Zhong Jinian.
Zhong Jinian was silent for a moment, then asked, “Doctor, can you tell me — if we do this surgery, is there any risk?”
Qin Jiang said, “All surgeries carry risk. And your daughter’s bone tumor is located near the brainstem.”
“The brainstem area is considered a surgical no-go zone. In principle, we shouldn’t act rashly there.”
Qin Jiang was silent for a moment, then couldn’t help but say, “If we do the surgery, there’s also a very high chance your daughter won’t make it off the operating table.”
When Qin Jiang said this, both father and daughter’s hearts sank to the bottom.
The viewers in the livestream found it even harder to bear.
“Oh god, this is just too cruel. The surgery risk is really that high?”
“The surgery could easily kill her on the spot. But without surgery, she’ll suffer a fate worse than death. And the bone tumor will keep growing. How do you even choose?”
“Fate has been far too cruel to this father and daughter. Why do good people always get hurt?”
After explaining the condition, Qin Jiang left the decision to Zhong Jinian and didn’t rush them.
After all, the risk of this surgery was simply too high. Even with his system boost, Qin Jiang wasn’t completely confident.
If it had been discovered and treated early, the surgery risk would have been much lower.
But now, the bone tumor on Zhong Xiu’s face wasn’t just large — it had also formed masses in multiple major nerve areas.
This meant her vision, sense of smell, and sense of taste had definitely been affected to a great extent. She had even lost some of her chewing and swallowing function.
Zhong Jinian couldn’t help but ask, “If we don’t do the surgery, how much longer can my daughter live?”
Qin Jiang said, “Based on the current growth rate of the bone tumor, without surgery, your daughter should still have about five years.”
“During these five years, the bone tumor will continue to grow.”
“First, your daughter will go blind, then lose her sense of smell, then lose her sense of taste and her ability to swallow. She’ll starve to death.”
Hearing Qin Jiang say this, Zhong Jinian completely broke down.
Even without surgery, Zhong Xiu would only live five more years?
Just as Zhong Jinian was struggling to make a decision, Zhong Xiu suddenly spoke up. “Dad, I want to do this surgery.”
“I’ve been a monster for over ten years now. I don’t want to keep living like this. There’s no dignity in it at all.”
“Dad, let me have the surgery. If I don’t make it off the table, then just pretend you never had me as a daughter.”
Hearing Zhong Xiu say this, Zhong Jinian wept uncontrollably.
Covering his mouth, he cried and said, “It’s all because your dad is useless. If I had earned that 150,000 sooner, you wouldn’t have had to suffer like this.”
