Chapter 52: Unconscious
A large truck was approaching head-on. Seizing the moment, Lu Yao gritted her teeth and wrenched the steering wheel toward the truck. The driver, terrified, swerved in the opposite direction and slammed on the brakes. The tires screeched across the pavement, and the luxury car skidded sideways into the guardrail, its hood spewing thick smoke.
The impact was so great that, propelled by inertia, the driver was thrown against the steering wheel, his head striking it hard and bleeding profusely. Lu Yao was hurled forward, her lower back slamming against the dash beneath the windshield—a jolt of pain sharpening her senses. Casting a glance at the wailing driver, then at Qiao Wanliang, who was clutching his forehead in agony, she ignored her own pain and injuries, hurriedly pressed the unlock button, flung open the door, and leapt out of the car.
The driver, clutching his bleeding head, turned to ask, “Mr. Qiao, she’s escaped. Should we go after her?”
Qiao Wanliang had thought that confronting Lu Yao in person would intimidate her into submission. He never expected that not only would she remain unmoved by his threats, but that she would even dare drag him down with her. There was not another woman in the capital with such nerve.
He realized he had underestimated her.
Face dark and voice menacing, he ordered, “Call someone here. Take care of the truck driver and get rid of her.”
The driver pulled away, dialing a string of numbers as he drove, instructing his subordinates to tie up all loose ends.
Lu Yao staggered to the truck and pounded on the door. The truck driver stuck his head out the window, clearly irritated, and swore, “Are you blind? Do you even know how to drive? I’m on a tight schedule for a delivery—you’ve delayed me, who’s going to pay for the loss?”
“Help me… please, help me…” Lu Yao could barely hold on. Her head throbbed, and the driver’s tirade was nothing but a distant buzzing in her ears. With her last scrap of clarity, she pleaded for help.
The truck driver leapt down, seeing Lu Yao’s battered and swollen face, and realized at once something was terribly wrong. He quickly pulled out his phone and called the police. “Hello, police? I’m at…”
Lu Yao could no longer hear his words. Her vision went black, and she collapsed.
Startled, the truck driver’s hand went limp and his phone fell to the ground. He patted her cheeks anxiously, shouting, “Hey, miss, wake up! You can’t die on me now—I’ll never be able to explain it if you do!”
With no time to worry about anything else, he hoisted Lu Yao into his truck and sped off toward the hospital.
On the way, he called emergency services in advance. As soon as they arrived at the hospital, the ER doctors rushed out with a mobile gurney and whisked Lu Yao straight into the emergency room.
“Assistant Ye, I think the woman they just wheeled in was Sister Lu Yao,” Shen Yang called out to Ye Zehong, who was walking ahead.
Ye Zehong’s expression darkened. His deep eyes fixed on the emergency room doors, and just as they were closing, he caught a glimpse of Lu Yao lying unconscious on the gurney, blood seeping from her forehead.
He clenched his jaw, tossed his files to Shen Yang, and hurried into the emergency room.
His sudden appearance drew the attention of many former colleagues, but Ye Zehong had no time to explain. He went straight to Lu Yao’s side and asked the attending physician, “What’s her condition?”
The emergency doctor gave Ye Zehong a strange look, thinking, Didn’t he resign to go home and be a young master? Why is he so concerned about a patient now?
“There’s a contusion on her forehead, probably a mild concussion causing the coma,” the doctor said as he continued working. “No other external injuries, no broken limbs. We’ll send her for a CT scan first to check her brain. If there’s bleeding inside the skull, surgery is needed immediately, or else…”