133. Stitching complete, returning to Great-Uncle Five! (Please add to your favorites)

After Dr. Lu left, only Su Yunjin and Fu Lin remained in the emergency room.

With the stinging of the hydrogen peroxide gone, the pain in her wound began to subside. Su Yunjin looked up, her eyes still brimming with tears, and met Fu Lin’s gaze. For once, she showed a rare moment of embarrassment. "What are you looking at? Haven't you ever seen a girl cry?"

Her voice carried a mix of grievance and stubbornness. Having just finished crying, she hadn't yet wiped away the tears, and under the lights, her eyes—still shimmering with moisture—appeared exceptionally pitiful. Combined with the way she pouted in her embarrassment, she looked like a cute, disgruntled kitten.

Fu Lin couldn't help but chuckle.

"You're still laughing!" Su Yunjin said, annoyed.

"Alright, alright, I'll stop. How are you feeling? Does your hand still hurt as much as it did before?" Fu Lin asked, his tone softening into one of concern as he yielded to her glare.

"It's better. It doesn't hurt as much, but it still aches."

"Well, of course it does. You're no Marvel superhero. That was just the disinfection; you still have to get stitches. It’s going to hurt for a long time after that. You regret it now, don't you?" Fu Lin said in a reproachful tone, though Su Yunjin could tell that the reproach was rooted in genuine care.

She rolled her eyes at him and turned her gaze to the floor. "What else could I do? Did you expect Guan Tongyue or Zhang Chuchu to know how to start a fire?"

"Actually, it wouldn't have mattered if there was no fire. We were all nearby. You didn't really think we would just dump you all in the forest and leave you to fend for yourselves, did you?" By the end, a look of amused disbelief crossed Fu Lin’s eyes, as if he were looking at someone foolish.

The weight of that look landed squarely on Su Yunjin. She instinctively looked up, fuming at his underlying implication, but she had no retort—because, truthfully, she hadn't known.

All she had been able to determine was that the forest wasn't overly dangerous, though it did have unpredictable factors like snakes. She also knew that with the drones following them, they wouldn't be left without a way to call for help. But as for where Fu Lin and his team were hiding, she wasn't a psychic; she couldn't have possibly guessed.

"Oh, I see. You really thought I had abandoned you?" Fu Lin saw right through her thoughts, but he was actually becoming a bit irritated now. Putting everything else aside, was he, their squad leader, really that untrustworthy?

Could he really just lose his soldiers like that? Even a toddler would know that the military camp isn't a death trap. While accidents do happen every year, they are never something the instructors want to see. Fundamentally, their job is to protect their subordinates, not to treat them like disposable tools, even if these so-called subordinates were just a group of celebrities with nothing but a pretty face.

"Who was to know? The notice for this field training came so suddenly, and we were told nothing afterwards. You never showed your face, either. What did you expect me to calculate? Or did you want me to pull out some copper coins and perform divination?" Su Yunjin stared defiantly into Fu Lin’s eyes.

Fu Lin, who had been quite firm, softened his stance. His voice took on a slightly evasive tone: "You know I'm a student. I happened to have some school matters to attend to that day."

"Well, there you have it. I didn't know what you were doing, and you tell me—separated by half a mountain—how was I supposed to know you were nearby?" Su Yunjin countered, rolling her eyes at him again.

Fu Lin didn't speak, and neither did Su Yunjin. The emergency room, occupied by only the two of them, felt somewhat awkward in the silence.

Fortunately, the awkwardness didn't last long. Soon, Dr. Lu returned and gestured to Su Yunjin, "Let's go. To the operating room."

Su Yunjin stood up, supporting her left hand with her right, and followed the doctor into the operating room. Suturing was a minor procedure requiring little preparation. She sat on a stool and placed her hand on the surgical table. A nurse administered the anesthesia, and a few minutes later, the suturing began.

"Young lady, do you play any instruments?" Dr. Lu asked suddenly as the needle pierced her skin.

"Not really, just occasionally. Why do you ask, Doctor?" Su Yunjin asked, puzzled.

Dr. Lu replied, "Oh, that's good. If you were a professional pianist, your hand wouldn't be as flexible as before after it heals."

"That should be fine then. I don't really do much precision work anyway." Just as she said this, Su Yunjin suddenly thought of the needlework Sixth Grandma had taught her, and her heart skipped a beat. "Doctor, will I still be able to thread a needle and do embroidery with this hand?"

"Embroidery? You can do embroidery?" Dr. Lu looked up at her as he continued the stitches.

Su Yunjin nodded. "Yes, I know Su-style embroidery. Do you think my hand will be affected?"

"It’s hard to say. It depends on the recovery. After all, it was a deep wound. It didn't hit any major nerves, but it definitely grazed some fine nerve endings," Dr. Lu said with a hint of regret.

Su Yunjin suddenly felt tense. At first, she hadn't realized the importance of her hands, but now, thinking of the skills Sixth Grandma had passed down, she realized they were entirely dependent on her hands. If her hand couldn't function as it once did, wouldn't that mean she had failed Sixth Grandma?

Her heart, previously unburdened, suddenly felt heavy. She spent the entire suturing process lost in troubled thoughts. When she emerged from the operating room, her expression was grave.

This startled Fu Lin, who had been waiting outside. He hurried over and asked, "What's wrong? What did Dr. Lu say?"

"It's nothing," Su Yunjin said, shaking her head. She stared blankly at the ground, her mind racing with ways to restore her left hand to its former state. She didn't notice that Fu Lin, who had been right beside her, strode back toward the operating room.

Only after confirming with Dr. Lu that her hand would be fine did he walk back over, feeling relieved. By then, however, Su Yunjin had already walked quite a distance ahead.

"We're heading back to the camp today. I'll talk to the production crew about your show; you won't need to participate in the remaining days of the journey," Fu Lin said, catching up to her as they left the hospital and climbed into the military vehicle.

Given her current condition, she was no longer fit for field training. It was more important for her to rest and recover quietly.

"I'm not going back," Su Yunjin, who had been silent the whole ride, finally spoke.

This took Fu Lin by surprise. "You're not going back to the camp? You still want to film the show?"

"Put that aside for a moment. First, take me to see Great-Grandpa Fifth."

If it were anyone else, Su Yunjin would never have bothered him with this. But now, thinking of Sixth Grandma’s embroidery skills, she felt she had to let Great-Grandpa Fifth examine her injury. Since the wound was still fresh, there might be room to influence the recovery process. If she waited until it had already healed, it would be much harder to restore the damaged nerves.