CHAPTER 693: CHAPTER 693: THE PRICE

One and a half hours later, the elderly gentleman in the general ward gradually awoke, looking and feeling exactly the same as when he entered the operating room.

Seeing this, the representative from J Country standing in the ward crossed his arms and sneered mockingly.

Compared to their perfect masterpiece, this was indeed far inferior.

Ann Vaughn ignored the mocking gaze of the J Country representative, went to the bedside to take the old man’s pulse, and asked, "Sir, how do you feel?"

"I..." The old man couldn’t help but reach for his legs that had been paralyzed for years, looking bewildered and incredulous. "My legs seem to have feeling again..."

Not only his legs, but also his degenerated sensations and his body’s responsiveness had miraculously improved.

The old man thought he was dreaming, and excitedly lifted the blanket, intending to take a few steps.

The nurse in the ward quickly rushed forward to support him to prevent a fall.

Who would have thought the old man not only didn’t fall, but walked steadily for several steps, then turned around and walked back, his back straight without the slouch he had in the wheelchair.

If not for his unchanged face, one might think he was someone else entirely.

The live-stream audience was dumbfounded.

The director of the institute and some other executives were even more shocked, exchanging glances at this scene, this...

How is this possible!?

Even they found it hard to believe what they were seeing, let alone the J Country representative who looked down on Ann Vaughn and S Country’s medicine.

But as soon as he thought of something else, the J Country representative immediately sneered.

"Hmph, just making him move again is called rejuvenation? Is this all your capabilities amount to?"

Before Ann Vaughn could respond, a doctor entering with the old man’s examination report said, "It’s not just mobility! This gentleman’s five senses and various body metrics have all reached healthy states!"

"That’s impossible!" The J Country representative snatched the report from the doctor’s hand and rapidly read through it.

The more he read, the worse his expression became.

He wanted to question if it was a trick, that they switched the report of this eighty-nine-year-old man with that of a younger one!

But the report bore the signature of the J Country representative who guarded there, indicating that the results were accurate.

No matter how bad his expression, the old man smiled like a blooming flower, went to Ann Vaughn, and thanked her, "At first, I understood rejuvenation as making an old person return to a young state. Frankly, I was very worried."

"Even if one could return to their youthful form, everything can’t truly revert to its original state. If we keep dwelling in the past, how can we live well in the future?"

"This current state is the best. Young lady, you have changed my decades-long view of traditional Chinese medicine."

At this moment, Ann Vaughn suddenly understood why she irrationally chose to forgo a more reliable remedy and opted for a modified one with lower efficacy to take a gamble.

—Rejuvenation sounds tempting.

But when you think it through, you’ll find it’s like Pandora’s box, filled with despair mistaken for hope.

If a single remedy could bring an elderly person back to youth, granting them time—even endless time.

Then who would cherish the present time and the people they should cherish?

In the long run, everything would fall into chaos.

"I should be the one thanking you." The inexplicable heaviness in Ann Vaughn’s heart suddenly vanished as she softly thanked the old man.

Just then, the director received a notification that the elderly lady in the 24-hour intensive care unit had awakened.

Upon hearing this news, the old man’s eyes brightened, and he eagerly walked out.

"Dr. Vaughn, would you like to come along?" The director asked Ann Vaughn kindly.

Ann Vaughn also wanted to know how J Country made that elderly lady "rejuvenated," so she agreed.

Leaving the ward, Ann Vaughn walked at the back, rubbing her stomach while softly complaining to Sherry, "I almost drank a potion in the operating room to fill my stomach..."

"I know, right? If we came out earlier, we could have eaten something," Sherry teased with a smile.

"Finishing the operation too early might raise suspicion; the act must be fully committed..."

As they spoke, they reached the elderly lady’s ward.

Next, Ann Vaughn heard a piercing scream from inside the ward.

She exchanged a glance with Sherry and quickly went to the glass window outside the ward to look inside.

The elderly lady, lying on the bed, had a face that had been renewed, with not a trace of the previous wrinkles and scars. Her exposed skin showed no sagging and appeared firm and elastic.

It’s said that wrinkles are the greatest killer of a woman’s beauty.

Without wrinkles and sagging skin, if the lady walked down the street now, no one would associate her with the word ’old’.

Strangely, the lady showed a pained expression, crying out sharply and clinging tightly to the old man.

The old man sat beside her, holding her hand, letting her bite him without ever pulling away, constantly comforting her, but she couldn’t hear a word.

Ann Vaughn’s gaze focused on the elderly lady’s hand that showed some abnormalities, and discovered that her skin was continuously sagging, and the previous spots were reappearing!

Not until the J Country doctor administered medicine and an injection did her cries subside.

After a while, the J Country representative and medical team came out, all with joyful expressions.

"The operation was very successful. People might believe she’s in her thirties or forties when she goes out," they said.

Everyone had witnessed this, so there was no doubt.

J Country’s medicine had advanced to such a level that the director and several executives couldn’t help but worry about the outcome of the competition.

Ann Vaughn, standing by the window, shifted her gaze to the J Country doctors and asked pointedly, "May I ask, how long can her current state last?"

The faces of the J Country doctors changed, but none spoke.

Instead, Lewis Hale spoke up, "As long as she can maintain her youth, what’s the harm in paying a little time and minor price? Plus, isn’t this lady now perfect?"

"Your idea of perfection is that once she leaves the medication and injections, she will be in excruciating pain like just now," Ann Vaughn looked at him coldly, "Is that what you call perfect?"