Twist of Fate - Chapter 31

The day after Ms. Pei Anle received the HLA match report, she began her pre-transplant medical examination. Fortunately, all her test results met the necessary criteria—no unexpected complications arose this time.

Both the doctors and the women breathed a collective sigh of relief.

Not long after the test results came back, Ms. Pei Anle began taking mobilizing agents in preparation for the transplant.

Xie Jing, who had just completed her routine bloodwork and liver/kidney function tests, was assisted by Shen Xinghe to Ms. Pei Anle’s hospital room. Unlike the tension that had gripped them over the past few days, there was now a shared sense of relief, as though a heavy weight had finally been lifted.

“Auntie,” Xie Jing called softly as she approached.

But Ms. Pei Anle raised a hand to stop her. “Don’t come too close. I think I’m catching a cold.”

“Okay.” Xie Jing took a step back and, with Shen Xinghe’s help, sat on the bed across from Ms. Pei Anle.

They chatted briefly before Xie Jing, clearly exhausted, returned to her room to rest.

After Xie Jing fell asleep, Shen Xinghe quietly returned to Ms. Pei Anle’s room.

“Auntie, the risks of myeloablative conditioning are really high, and Xie Jing’s health has always been fragile.” After learning they had a match, Shen Xinghe immediately sought out doctors to understand the transplant details. She had naively assumed that a successful match meant things were turning around—but that was just the beginning.

“I know.” Ms. Pei Anle sighed. “We’ll need to trouble you to take extra care of my little niece during this time. Try to keep her spirits up.”

She felt helpless. Her young niece had already endured so much—losing both parents and then falling seriously ill. Making it this far had taken unimaginable strength.

They had chosen a myeloablative conditioning regimen, which meant giving Xie Jing high-dose radiation and chemotherapy to destroy as many of her cancerous and leukemic cells as possible and create space for the donor stem cells to engraft.

The advantage of this approach is that donor cells quickly occupy the bone marrow niche and the relapse rate is relatively low. However, the downside is significant toxicity from the chemo drugs, which can be unbearable and even dangerous for physically weaker patients like Xie Jing, leading to severe complications.

They had considered a reduced-intensity conditioning regimen, but it posed a higher risk of relapse and still involved immunosuppressive and cytotoxic drugs. Xie Jing herself had said she wanted to endure this pain once and for all. She would rather take the gamble than go through this fear and anxiety repeatedly.

Before receiving the hematopoietic stem cell transplant, Xie Jing needed to stay in a sterile isolation unit, as the high-dose chemo would completely wipe out her immune system. For a period after the transplant, her immunity would drop to almost zero, leaving her extremely vulnerable to infection. The sterile unit provided a highly controlled environment to minimize those risks.

The next day, doctors shaved her head, disinfected her body thoroughly, and transferred her into the sterile unit. There, subjected to chemo-radiation at nearly lethal doses, Xie Jing began experiencing frequent fevers, abdominal pain, diarrhea, insomnia, and panic attacks.

Her mental state, already fragile since the car accident, deteriorated rapidly under the stress and threat of death. Depression deepened. Shen Xinghe, frantic with worry, tried everything to cheer her up from outside the isolation unit, changing tactics daily to coax a smile from her.

Ms. Pei Anle, watching her niece waste away into skin and bones, would sneak into the restroom each day to cry her heart out before returning to the room to tell Xie Jing stories from her childhood, pretending everything was fine.

At first, Xie Jing could still listen for a bit. But as the medications intensified, the fevers, vomiting, and diarrhea completely drained her strength. She could do nothing but lie in bed like a dying fish, barely breathing.

After 8 or 9 days in the sterile unit, she had become emaciated. All the preconditioning protocols had been tried, but nothing seemed to help.

Ms. Pei Anle was so worried she could barely eat and would often cry silently behind Shen Xinghe and Xie Jing’s backs. But she forced herself to stay healthy—for the surgery’s sake.

In the midst of all this hopelessness, Shen Xinghe suddenly thought of Qin Ning. Xie Jing must have loved Qin Ning deeply—that would explain why she always tried to maintain her image in front of her and never mentioned her illness.

Acting on a whim, Shen Xinghe gathered every graduation photo, event picture, and public appearance of Qin Ning she could find, playing them on video for Xie Jing over and over. Miraculously, one day, after seeing a photo, Xie Jing suddenly seemed to regain her will to live.

She began to eat again—slowly at first, but the food stayed down. Her vital signs gradually stabilized. Sometimes, she could even manage a few words.

This dramatic improvement brought immense relief to Shen Xinghe. Her heart swelled with bittersweet joy. She started playing the videos more frequently—and upon closer inspection, some of the photos were clearly being updated in real-time.

A few days later, doctors informed them that Xie Jing’s condition had finally stabilized enough to proceed with the transplant. Ella finally let out a long breath of relief, her footsteps heavy as she followed the doctor to the hematology department.

Just before the transplant, Shen Xinghe somehow got hold of a video of Qin Ning at a public event. After watching it, Xie Jing’s lips moved slightly. She gave Shen Xinghe a faint smile.

Shen Xinghe read her lips: “Thank you.”

As Xie Jing was wheeled away for surgery, Shen Xinghe’s heart clenched. The road ahead was still long. She silently prayed that her niece’s late parents would watch over her and give her strength.

The wait for surgery to end was agonizing. Every minute stretched endlessly. Shen Xinghe paced back and forth outside the hallway. Ms. Pei Anle, equally anxious, was trembling slightly—even her lips quivered.

Just earlier, the doctor had mentioned another leukemia patient who had relapsed due to HLA loss. Even after a second transplant with a new donor, the patient had passed away.

Ms. Pei Anle couldn’t bear the thought of losing Xie Jing. She was so young, and they had only been reunited for less than a year.

“Xie Jing will be fine,” Shen Xinghe said firmly, squeezing Ms. Pei Anle’s hand. They drew warmth from each other’s touch.

“My poor little niece…” Ms. Pei Anle squeezed back and looked at her gratefully. “But meeting you has been her greatest blessing. I believe in her—she’ll pull through.”

Shen Xinghe lowered her eyes, holding her phone in her other hand, lost in thought.

Six hours later, the doctor finally told them the transfusion surgery was complete. But before they could fully breathe a sigh of relief, he added that the next 24 hours would be critical—Xie Jing was still in great danger, and they needed to be mentally prepared.

And he was right. Soon after the transfusion, Xie Jing experienced acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) symptoms—fever, discomfort, vomiting. These symptoms persisted for nearly a month without any signs of relief. Trapped in the sterile unit, Xie Jing endured daily torment. Her mental and physical state deteriorated until she was nearly unrecognizable.

Ms. Pei Anle felt she had cried more in these few months than in all her previous lifetimes combined.

Though they couldn’t feel her pain directly, they watched her suffer every day. Just seeing it tore at their hearts. They couldn’t imagine having even half the strength Xie Jing showed.

After the acute phase, she was hit by chronic GVHD, manifesting in her mouth, eyes, lungs, skin, intestines—everywhere. She vomited and had diarrhea constantly, couldn’t sleep, lost her sense of taste, and wasted away until she was nothing but skin and bones. Her post-discharge observation period was the darkest time for all three of them.

Both Ms. Pei Anle and Shen Xinghe ended up being diagnosed with serious psychological conditions.

What had begun as one person’s battle had become a three-person struggle. Now they didn’t need to imagine her pain—they were living it too.

They spent another half year in the hospital. Only then did the rejection symptoms start to ease.

As Xie Jing improved, Ms. Pei Anle and Shen Xinghe’s psychological issues began to fade as well. A few months later, the three of them—skeletal and disoriented—finally walked out of the hospital together.

“I feel like I’ve died and come back 81 times,” Ms. Pei Anle groaned, collapsing limply against Shen Xinghe. Her chin was painfully jabbed by Shen Xinghe’s bony shoulder.

Shen Xinghe trudged forward in a daze, supporting Xie Jing with one hand and holding Ms. Pei Anle’s waist with the other to keep her from falling. “…Same.”

“Thank you both. In this life, the next, and the one after that, I’ll repay you both—even if it means becoming an ox or a horse.” Xie Jing felt deeply guilty for dragging them through this ordeal. If it weren’t for them, she would never have survived.

“No need for all that. Just treat us to a meal,” they teased. After so long eating hospital meals, they were desperate for real food.

“Sure, Chinese cuisine it is.” Though she couldn’t enjoy the feast herself, Xie Jing booked the most renowned Chinese restaurant in the area and ordered a lavish spread of Sichuan dishes to thank them.

“Bon appétit.”

Even after being discharged, Xie Jing still needed monthly blood tests and occasional anti-rejection medications. The doctor strictly instructed her to avoid unhygienic or spicy foods.

She slowly sipped millet porridge, her gaze calm as it lingered on the meat-heavy dishes before her. Ms. Pei Anle gave her a thumbs-up. “Xie Jing, with that kind of self-control, you’ll succeed at anything you do.”

Xie Jing just smiled, unfazed by the praise.

She had deliberately chosen Sichuan food—not Cantonese—because although she couldn’t resist flavorful food, she couldn’t handle spice. So, even faced with a table full of delicious dishes, she felt no temptation.

After the meal, they returned to Ms. Pei Anle’s villa. Though it had been unoccupied for a while, a cleaning service had kept it spotless.

While staying there, Xie Jing often cooked light meals for herself. Eventually, even the pampered Ms. Pei Anle and Shen Xinghe were forced to start cooking too. After weeks of bland food, their taste buds couldn’t take it anymore—they had no choice but to roll up their sleeves and feed themselves.

And so, they began living a few warm, peaceful days… until Ms. Pei Anle suddenly received a call…