For a whole week, Huo Chuxue didn’t see He Qingshi, giving him the cold shoulder and letting him stew in his anxiety. Huo Chuxue found this feeling incredibly satisfying. Who told him to treat her like that before? Now that the tables had turned, she was determined to make him suffer.
When Qiao Shengxi learned that Huo Chuxue had, with lightning speed, ended up in bed with He Qingshi, she was first utterly shocked. Then she let out a long sigh to the heavens. “Xiaoxue, I can already picture your dad coming after you with a kitchen cleaver. That scene is going to be absolutely brutal!”
Huo Chuxue: “…”
Huo Chuxue hurriedly begged, “Xixi, please keep it a secret! Once things are stable, I’ll come clean with my dad myself.”
Qiao Shengxi rolled her eyes. “You should pray you can actually secure He Qingshi first. Men who ditch you after getting what they want are a dime a dozen these days.”
Huo Chuxue was brimming with confidence. “Don’t worry about that. Securing He Qingshi now is as easy as me nodding my head.”
Qiao Shengxi: “…”
In the blink of an eye, it was already November. Qingling’s dreadful weather meant winter arrived early in November, the entire city swept by a bleak, howling wind.
Late at night, an ambulance delivered a high-risk pregnant woman, a patient with severe preeclampsia, with Huo Chuxue as the lead surgeon.
Many women feared childbirth, not just because pregnancy was arduous, but because giving birth carried immense risks. Both mother and child teetered at the gates of hell.
Husbands were always asked this question—
“If something goes wrong, do you save the mother or the baby?”
But when this question became a stark reality in the obstetrics department, the truth was far more cruel than anyone imagined.
At 25 weeks pregnant, she had a preeclampsia attack. Her condition was highly unstable, her life hanging by a thread. The urgent priority was to terminate the pregnancy.
Huo Chuxue went to communicate with the patient’s family, informing them of the condition and the situation, asking them to sign the surgical consent form so they could proceed with saving the mother’s life.
The patient’s husband wore an expression of utter indifference and refused to sign. “This is the Old Wang family’s first child. My wife and I have been married for fifteen years. She finally managed to conceive this child. If this child is gone, I’ll never get to be a father in this lifetime… No matter what, this child must be saved… It must be saved…”
Huo Chuxue was so angry she could spit blood. “You can have another child if this one is lost. Medical technology is so advanced now. Prepare properly, and you can still be parents. If all else fails, there’s always test-tube babies. But if your wife is gone, she’s gone for good!”
The husband was utterly unreasonable. “You doctors are so capable, why are you wasting time talking to me? Hurry up and go save my wife! I don’t care, if anything happens to my wife and child, I won’t let your hospital off the hook!”
Huo Chuxue stopped wasting words on the man and turned to negotiate with the patient’s mother-in-law.
However, the mother-in-law was even worse. She grabbed Huo Chuxue’s surgical gown, gnashing her teeth. “Anyone who dares let the Old Wang family line die out, I’ll make them pay! You doctors took so much of our money, you have to save my grandson. Otherwise, I’ll ruin this hospital’s reputation…”
Huo Chuxue was furious. “Your daughter-in-law’s condition is critical. If you don’t sign soon, she’ll die.”
“You doctors are all the same, scaring people, making it sound so serious just to squeeze more money out of us, this fee, that fee. Don’t think I don’t know your tricks.”
Huo Chuxue yelled back, “That’s your daughter-in-law’s life we’re talking about!”
“She married into our Wang family over ten years ago. I’ve fed her well, clothed her well, taken care of her. Shouldn’t she give me a grandson?” The mother-in-law said with disdain. “Every woman has to have children. Everyone gives birth like this. I’ve never seen one as delicate as her, making such a big fuss over having a baby…”
The situation was critical. Fang Ru and the Dean rushed to the hospital from their homes to negotiate with the family. But the other side was completely unreasonable and refused to sign.
For a moment, they were at an impasse, everyone at a loss.
In this day and age, there was no shortage of scum. And the hospital was like a gathering place for them, constantly refreshing Huo Chuxue’s understanding of human depravity.
Fang Ru asked Lin Yao worriedly, “What about the patient’s parents? Have they been contacted?”
Lin Yao said, “Both her parents have passed away.”
Fang Ru asked, “Siblings?”
“She has a younger brother, but we can’t reach him.”
The situation was urgent. Not daring to delay, after discussing with the Dean, Fang Ru said to Huo Chuxue, “Time is of the essence. Saving lives comes first. If anything happens, the hospital will take responsibility!”
Huo Chuxue nodded. “Understood.”
Just then, a young man in his early twenties, with dyed blond hair and wearing ripped clothes, charged unexpectedly into the crowd. His speed was such that no one was prepared.
He held a sharp kitchen cleaver, which he pressed directly against the husband’s neck. His eyes were bloodshot as he roared, “Wang Chuang, I’m warning you, sign it now! If you delay saving my sister any longer, I’ll chop you up right here, believe me? Sign it now…”
The middle-aged man looked as if facing a great enemy, his face instantly turning deathly pale, his words stumbling. “Yangyang, what are you doing? Put the knife down, we can talk this through…”
The patient’s mother-in-law was horrified, shrieking in a shrill voice, “Yangyang, have you lost your mind! How dare you hurt your brother-in-law! Put that knife down… This is the end… Call the police! Someone’s trying to kill someone…”
The young man pressed the blade closer, drawing a thin line of blood. “Sign or not? If you don’t sign, I’ll slit your throat right now…”
“I’ll sign, I’ll sign, I’ll sign right now… I’m signing…”
For a moment, it was chaotic and noisy, complete pandemonium.
And under the threat from his brother-in-law, the husband finally signed the surgical consent form.
As Huo Chuxue was about to enter the operating room, the young man bowed deeply to her. “Doctor, please, you must save my sister. She’s the only family I have left.”
Looking at him, Huo Chuxue suddenly felt like crying. She nodded. “I’ll do my best.”
She would definitely do her best!
Thanks to the timely rescue, the patient was out of danger.
When the patient was wheeled out of the operating room, her husband and mother-in-law were already nowhere to be seen. Only her younger brother remained.
After the farce, everyone was left sighing with emotion!
Lin Yao felt a pang of fear, thoroughly shaken. “Seeing that mother and son, my fear of marriage is acting up again. Women are so pitiful.”
Qiao Shengxi put an arm around Lin Yao, comforting her. “Yaoyao, you have to believe there are still plenty of good men in the world. Your luck won’t be so bad that you run into a scumbag.”
Fang Ru looked at Lin Yao and said, “That’s why you young people must keep your eyes open before marriage. Never let yourselves be blinded by scumbags.”
Qiao Shengxi said hatefully, “If my husband ever had that kind of character, he’d better pray I don’t make it off the operating table, otherwise I’d chop his dick off.”
Everyone: “…”
Qiao Shengxi sighed. “After this mess, that family is completely broken.”
“Good riddance! A husband and mother-in-law like that aren’t worth keeping!” Lin Yao said indignantly.
Fang Ru, however, shook her head, turned, and walked away. “You all are still too young!”
Huo Chuxue was utterly exhausted. She wondered what kind of incredibly strong heart the patient would need to hear about everything that happened tonight from others once she woke up.
“The delivery room is the most dangerous yet warmest place for a woman. In the delivery room, there is new life, there is death, there is joy, there is grief, there is hope, and there is despair. The obstetrician is the witness to it all.”
She wished she could only see new life, joy, and hope.
Early the next morning, after handing over her shift to a colleague, Huo Chuxue drove alone to Yanshan.
There were many people climbing the mountain in the morning. She followed the crowd slowly up to the summit.
She stepped on every step and counted them. There were 1588 steps in total.
With each step she took, He Qingshi’s words couldn’t help but echo in her ears.
“I often climb Yanshan alone, from the foot of the mountain to the summit, counting every step—1588 in total. Standing at the summit, I often feel that living is meaningless, that my life will just be like this—living in loneliness and triviality, drifting through life aimlessly. That feeling is like a person who has been ill for a long time, emaciated and beyond saving…”
Every word was like a hammer, striking heavily into her heart.
She suddenly felt she understood him a little. To be born human, living itself is a kind of suffering.
Many trees on the mountain had already turned yellow, the ground covered with withered branches and fallen leaves. The wind swept through the forest, creating waves of sound.
Reaching the summit, the view was incredibly open, the entire city sprawled out beneath her feet.
It was a cloudy day. Great masses of dark clouds piled up on the horizon, rolling boundlessly, making the light appear particularly gloomy.
In broad daylight, not a single light was visible.
He Qingshi had said that night, “They aren’t like stars. Regardless of cloudy or clear skies, wind or rain, they always light up when night falls.”
She had come at the wrong time. It was daytime now, and she couldn’t even see the “stars.”
A cold wind picked up at the summit, the chill becoming noticeable.
She sat alone on a rock, staring blankly at the distant scenery, briefly emptying her mind, trying not to think of anything.
She was often disappointed with this world, especially after witnessing the malice in people’s hearts and the fickleness of human relationships.
Often, what doctors could do was actually very limited. Faced with death and illness, they were frequently powerless. Whenever she encountered such situations, after the initial self-blame, Huo Chuxue would let it go. After all, those were things beyond human power to change.
But what was most infuriating were situations like tonight’s, where at the critical moment between life and death, there were always those who, for their own selfish interests, showed complete disregard for life.
Fang Ru always said she wasn’t cut out to be a doctor because she wasn’t cold enough. She couldn’t maintain her composure when facing such things.
She didn’t know how long she had been sitting there. Someone stood behind her. She heard his voice. “If you want to cry, just cry it out.”