Winnie nodded. “That’s good to hear. Maybe it’s because you were wearing masks at that time, so you didn’t inhale the gas directly. I wonder if those students are fine. The classroom was sealed off at that time, and they might have inhaled some of the gases before the SWAT officers took that thing away.”
Lisanne found her throat tightening as she looked at Winnie, who was separated from her by a wall. “You’re still thinking of the kids at a time like this… But don’t worry. They’ll be given a checkup and will be under observation. If anything happens, we’ll notice it immediately.”
“All right.” Winnie smiled at the glass wall. “You should do the same. You have to undergo scheduled checkups too.”
When Lisanne saw that Winnie was smiling in the wrong direction, she broke down.
She put down the phone and started sobbing miserably.
“Don’t be like this, Lisanne,” Winnie said, sounding cheerful. “I’ll get better. Trust me.”
Right then, Winnie heard someone opening the door and coming in.
She said to Lisanne, “The doctor must be here. I’ll hear what they have to say.”
“Okay.” Not wanting to get in the way of Winnie’s treatment, Lisanne immediately put down the phone.
This time, the ophthalmologists were not the only ones there; Josiah had come as well.
On his way there, he had heard from the other doctors that Winnie had lost her sight.
He desperately wished that it was just a joke or a misunderstanding.
Yet, when he finally stood in front of her, he realized she did not notice that he was there as well, and his heart sank.
Back then, he had guessed that something might go wrong, and he was hoping that the two of them would come back. Little did he expect to be greeted by the sight before him.
The doctors gave Winnie her diagnosis. Their preliminary belief was that her condition might be blindness caused by temporary ischemia of the central retinal artery, but they could not rule out that it could be retinopathy caused by inhalation of radioactive gas, or that the optic nerve had been damaged instead.
As for more details, they would need Winnie to head to the hospital for a thorough checkup. At the same time, they needed a specialist on her case.
However, Winnie was currently under quarantine, and they had to wait until everyone was there for the specialist’s diagnosis.
Hence, Winnie postponed her schedule by a day.
Xavier wanted to make arrangements for everything immediately, for he was terrified that she would miss the golden hour.
However, Winnie understood the condition mutation theories that the doctors had told her earlier, so she knew that nothing would worsen overnight. In fact, it was likely that her loss of vision was connected to her mental state.
Winnie somewhat knew what was going on. Even though she appeared composed, she was feeling terrible inwardly.
What she needed most at that moment was rest.
She needed to give her body time to recover, and she needed to mentally prepare herself.
At her insistence, the doctors left.
The second the door closed, she frowned.
Thinking that she was feeling unwell, Xavier quickly asked her what was wrong.
Her frown deepened. “I remember hearing five people coming in, but why did only four leave?”
“Oh, my god.” The eyes of Josiah, who was standing at the end of the bed the entire time, reddened when he heard her say that. “Are you a god or a monster? How did you even hear how many people came in?”
Yet, Xavier could only feel his heart ache to hear those words from her.
The three of them later chatted for a while longer before Winnie finally kicked them out of the room.
Xavier, especially, even wanted to stay overnight in the quarantine room, and Winnie had to spend much of her breath before convincing him otherwise.
It was only when Winnie was the only one left in the room—when she opened her eyes to see nothing but darkness—did she let the tears silently roll down her cheeks.
Nevertheless, she did not regret it.
She still believed that she had made the right choice.
The next day, Winnie went to the hospital for a thorough checkup.
Their general conclusion was that it was retinopathy, and the specialist’s recommendation was to undergo laser surgery. However, the results of the surgery depended on the individual, and its success was not guaranteed.
Winnie was still optimistic about the matter. Once the surgery date was set, she returned to the quarantine room to continue her quarantine.
During her stay there, Rufus and Beatrice both came to visit her. Even Nate came over.
The teacher from the school came to visit her as well.
However, the teacher came with bad news. Apparently, two of the children were starting to have nosebleeds even though they were usually healthy and previously had no signs of nosebleeds. As of her visit, checkups and treatments had already been arranged for the children.
What was even worse news was that Lisanne’s and her colleague’s physical conditions were getting bad as well.
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