Just thinking about that scene sent shivers down her spine, and even her breathing trembled with fear.
A strong feeling of weakness suddenly swept through her body. Her legs went weak, and her body started to fall to the ground. Fortunately, the baby was being held firmly in Ethan's right hand at this moment, so the child didn't suffer any bumps.
Ethan was quick-witted and quickly stretched out his left hand to support her steadily, urgency in his tone. "Are you okay? Where does it hurt? Are you injured?"
He looked down and scanned her body, seeing that there was no blood and no obvious wounds in sight.
The woman took about a minute to recover, and her body gradually regained some strength.
She stood up straight, her voice still trembling. "Thank you... Let me check the baby first."
As she spoke, she took the child from Ethan's hands and pressed her face tightly against the baby's soft little face.
That feeling of being pulled back from death's door, that fear between life and death—Ethan understood it all too well.
He stood quietly next to her, watching her hold the child to calm down, confirming that she was indeed uninjured except for her pale face.
At this moment, there was a sudden sharp pain in his back. The area near his right shoulder blade felt like it was burning, and the searing pain shot up his spine.
Ethan subconsciously reached back to touch it. His fingertips met sticky warmth, and when he raised his hand, his fingers were already dyed a vivid red—most likely from flying glass fragments or debris that had bounced off his back when the car hit the tree just now.
He frowned, knowing in his heart that he was injured.
But his eyes swept over the woman who was still trembling slightly while holding her child, and he breathed a sigh of relief—this injury was really nothing compared to the two lives he'd just saved.
....
Ethan glanced at the completely crashed Porsche. The driver was staggering out of the deformed driver's seat. There were already people around helping, and some were holding their phones calling 911.
It seemed he wasn't needed here for the time being, and the burning pain in his back was still intensifying.
He decided to leave first, find a nearby urgent care to disinfect and apply some medicine. The warmth on his back was flowing down his spine, and the wet sensation was becoming clearer and clearer.
Just as he took two steps, a woman's urgent voice came from behind him. "Please wait a moment!"
Ethan turned around and saw her staring at his back, her face suddenly changing, her exclamation filled with incredible panic. "Oh my God! You're hurt!"
Only then did she notice that the back of Ethan's white T-shirt had been stained with vivid red.
Just now, she'd only been focused on checking her child and hadn't realized that the teenager who'd saved their lives was already injured.
The woman wasn't stupid. After thinking for a moment, she understood—when he'd grabbed her and pulled back just now, he must have turned around and shielded her in front of him, which was why he'd been scratched by flying debris.
Her face instantly became more anxious. She quickly rushed to Ethan's side and grabbed his arm. "Let's go, I'm taking you to the hospital! The wound needs to be treated properly and examined."
Ethan didn't really want to go, so he smiled and shook his head. "It's really not necessary. It's just a small injury. I'll find an urgent care to disinfect it, put a bandage on it, and it'll be fine."
"How can that work!" The young woman wasn't willing to accept that, holding his hand tighter, her tone full of urgency. "Urgent care isn't safe enough. You have to go to the hospital! Come with me quickly. If you lose too much blood or get an infection, it'll be too dangerous!"
She said this while holding the baby tightly in her arms with one hand and dragging Ethan toward the side of the road with the other. Her steps were hurried but steady, afraid of delaying even a moment.
Ethan smiled helplessly. "Alright, alright, I'll go."
The woman turned her head and glared at him, with a little anger between her brows, but her tone softened. "That's more like it. You wait here, don't move!"
She said this while holding the baby and walking quickly toward the side of the road. After walking a few steps, she couldn't help but look back, her eyes showing fear of losing some treasure, worried he'd slip away while she wasn't paying attention.
"Don't run away!" She urged again, with pleading and fear in her voice. "You have to go to the hospital to get it treated. It's hot now, and wounds get infected easily."
"Yeah, I'm not running." Ethan nodded repeatedly, smiled, and raised his hand. "Don't worry."
The young woman then quickened her pace and walked toward a car parked on the side of the road.
"Beep beep~"
Two crisp car sounds rang out beside him. Ethan followed the sound and saw the lights of a car in the parking space flashing, emitting a soft glow.
It was a black Mercedes-Benz, with smooth and elegant body lines. The headlights flashed twice, as if saying hello silently.
"Damn, Mercedes-Benz E-Class." Ethan was secretly shocked. This wasn't a cheap car.
The 2014 Mercedes-Benz E-Class had a sticker price of at least $70,000. In this era, it wasn't an exaggeration to say that someone who could drop almost the price of a house on a car was quite well-off.
Ethan couldn't help but raise his eyebrows. He hadn't expected that the young woman he'd saved was from such an affluent family.
The woman first opened the rear door, carefully placed the baby into the car seat in the back, fastened the straps, her movements gentle and practiced.
After doing all this, she turned around and walked to the passenger side, pushed Ethan's arm, and motioned for him to get in the car.
Ethan was just about to bend over and sit down, but his movements suddenly stopped and he looked up at her. "Why don't I just take an Uber? Don't worry, I'll definitely go to the hospital to get it treated."
The young woman was stunned for a moment, followed his gaze to sweep over his back, and instantly understood his concern—the blood stains on the white T-shirt had spread significantly. Obviously he was afraid of staining the leather seats in the car.
She pressed her lips together, and a complicated feeling appeared in her heart. At a time like this, he was still worried about this.
"Stop being difficult." She pretended to be angry and pushed him, but her tone softened. "Just sit down."
Ethan no longer refused and simply sat in the passenger seat. As soon as he leaned on the back of the seat, there was a sticky touch on his back. He didn't have to look to know it was blood oozing from the wound that had already stained the seat cushion.
....
The woman got into the driver's seat, quickly started the car, turned on her left turn signal, merged into traffic, and drove toward the main road.
This area was the Riverside Plaza business district, and traffic was already dense, but the Mercedes steadily picked up speed. The steering wheel turned flexibly in her hands, obviously rushing to the hospital.
She took the time to turn her head and glance over, finding that Ethan was leaning on the passenger seat with an indifferent expression, as if the injury to his back wasn't worth mentioning.
"Hang in there a little longer. We'll be at the hospital soon." She said softly, with unconcealable urgency in her tone.
In fact, there were only two traffic lights from Riverside Plaza to Memorial Hospital, but every extra second she had to wait made her feel a little more anxious.
"It's fine. I feel like it's almost stopped bleeding already."
Ethan smiled, his face full of nonchalance.
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