Chapter 82: Find a Job for the Children?
Xue Yu urgently contacted Zhou Siyan and asked him to come to the operating room.
When Zhou Siyan arrived, he understood the situation and asked, “What should we do now?”
Feng Qizhou was still stopping Mo Li’s bleeding and replied, “The last time I took out Xiaobei, it was because my belly was too big to bear. When I took her out, Xiaobei was very weak. Mo Li is not even full-term yet. The child probably won’t survive in an incubator.”
He pointed out the most important reason, “And the shrapnel went through his abdomen diagonally, and both the brood pouch and the child were grazed. The child needs the father’s spiritual power to heal the wound. The incubator doesn’t have this function.”
Xue Yu stood by Mo Li’s side and held his hand. She checked the reproduction tree and saw that the two flowers were getting dimmer.
“No matter what we do, we have to save Mo Li.”
Mo Li gritted his teeth and didn’t say a word.
He closed his eyes. Xue Yu saw a thin tear stain spread from the corner of his eye. This was the first time she had seen Mo Li cry.
Xue Yu wiped away his tears and said softly, “Mo Li, don’t be afraid. If the child is gone, I’ll give you another one in the future. I’ll give you as many as you want in the future.”
Mo Li still didn’t speak.
Zhou Siyan used his authority to pull up the long-sealed pregnancy textbooks of the White Tower and carefully looked for a solution.
“We can use the method of preserving organs and put the child in an incubator, but we need a non-rejecting spiritual power to support the child.”
That is to say, after putting the fetus in an incubator, a corresponding spiritual power needs to be continuously input into the incubator to maintain the child’s life.
Feng Qizhou was a skilled and bold person, but this was the first time he had encountered such a blind spot in surgery.
He quickly used the usual method of organ transplantation to test the rejection reaction between spiritual powers, and it was a disaster.
He and Zhou Siyan were both land-type spirit bodies, while Mo Li was a water-type spirit body. If they put the child in an incubator, they would not be able to transmit spiritual power to this fetus at all.
Xue Yu tried to say, “Why don’t we use my spiritual power?”
Feng Qizhou was the first to refuse. “No. This spiritual power needs the hormones produced by the brood pouch to act as amniotic fluid. You don’t have the relevant hormones. It won’t work.”
Zhou Siyan said, “Meng Wu is an amphibious spirit body, and didn’t you say that his brood pouch has also grown out? Maybe his spiritual power can support the child. I just don’t know if he’s willing.”
He immediately contacted Meng Wu to come over.
At this time, Mo Li had already fainted. Feng Qizhou could only insert a life support tube into him first and input a physical maintenance agent into his body.
Feng Qizhou did a rejection test. It was indeed a match. For people with the same type of spirit body, organ transplantation would basically not have a rejection reaction, so Meng Wu’s spiritual power could be used to support Mo Li’s child.
Feng Qizhou glanced at the life monitor on the side and said, “It will consume a lot of spiritual power. And if you use your spiritual power to support Mo Li’s child, you will probably have to rest for a long time afterwards.”
Meng Wu asked, “Are you sure the child will live if we do this?”
Feng Qizhou: “There are risks. What I can guarantee you is that I won’t let you die from exhaustion of spiritual power. If any problem arises, I will immediately give up the fetus to save you. I still have that much medical ethics.”
“Then let’s begin,” Meng Wu held Xue Yu’s hand and then took off his jacket.
Feng Qizhou moved quickly. Xue Yu and Zhou Siyan were in the operating room the whole time.
Feng Qizhou was methodically busy with the surgery.
Mo Li was pregnant with a boy and a girl. His current physical strength and spiritual power could not support both children at the same time.
Feng Qizhou decided to take out the female fetus that had been grazed by the shrapnel and treat the wound on the fetus’s back.
Xue Yu looked at this child. It was really small. She wanted to cry a little. “The baby was grazed by a shrapnel. Can it still heal?”
“It’s fine. Even if there’s a scar on her body, I’ll treat her after she’s born.”
Feng Qizhou showed a faint smile. “This baby girl has received the spiritual power of two fathers. She might be a child prodigy in the future.”
Seeing that Xue Yu didn’t understand, he explained, “An organ will be stronger after being supported by different spiritual powers. It’s the same for a fetus. This child has received Mo Li’s spiritual power and also Meng Wu’s spiritual power. She will probably be extraordinary in the future.”
Xue Yu had heard of this.
Organ trafficking in the White Tower was very serious.
She had heard before that some people, in order to have their organs receive the power source of different spiritual powers, would maliciously transplant their organs into others. After absorbing enough of the other person’s spiritual power, they would transplant them back into themselves.
Feng Qizhou placed the female fetus in an incubator and then connected the child’s umbilical cord to the incubator’s support system.
The entire population of the White Tower was sterilized, and childbirth was prohibited. It was impossible to have a suitable incubator for babies.
This incubator was an organ incubator and did not have the function of maintaining a fetus’s life.
Now, to have this incubator maintain the child’s life, Meng Wu had to continuously input spiritual power, once an hour.
And this method might not work. Everything could only depend on fate.
Meng Wu summoned his spirit body, the lizard, and put his hand into the support tube of the incubator, inputting his own spiritual power.
At this time, Xue Yu saw that one of the small flowers on the reproduction tree was slowly glowing, no longer as decadent as before.
“It’s working! This method is working! The flower on the reproduction tree in my spiritual landscape is getting better,” Xue Yu said.
Everyone’s tense heartstrings relaxed a little.
Feng Qizhou continued to perform surgery on Mo Li.
The shrapnel was stuck in Mo Li’s lumbar spine. Feng Qizhou took out the shrapnel, cleaned out the damaged bone fragments, and then implanted a medical steel plate to fix Mo Li’s spine.
He sutured the wound and then injected five enhanced healing agents.
From taking out a fetus to performing surgery on Mo Li’s spine, it took a full three hours.
This was the longest surgery Feng Qizhou had ever performed in his medical career.
Even his arctic fox was exhausted and lay limply under the operating table.
Blueberry came out, leaned against it, and gently stroked its body with its caudal fin.
Mo Li’s injuries were not light, and he still had another male fetus in his abdomen. Feng Qizhou chose to send him to the intensive care unit for observation.
The situation of the female fetus in the incubator was also unknown. She could only be sent to the intensive care unit together, with Meng Wu always on the side to input spiritual power.
After all this, Xue Yu was also exhausted.
She had been fighting with Yan Wantang all day. She hadn’t even had a chance to catch her breath when she came back, and then she had gone to find Mo Li, and had been on tenterhooks in the operating room for so long.
When everything was over, she walked out of the intensive care unit and instantly felt light-headed.
Zhou Siyan held her. “You must be exhausted. You should go and rest.”
Xue Yu forced herself to be cheerful. “I’m fine. I can still hold on. If you have something to do, you can go first. I’ll stay here with Mo Li and the child.”
Zhou Siyan kissed her on the cheek. “I’ll go back and see the children first. I’ll come and find you later.”
“You go,” Xue Yu didn’t dare to leave the hospital and sat on a bench outside the intensive care unit as a family member.
Feng Qizhou was also haggard, his eyes red. “Why don’t you go and sleep in my clinic for a while?”
“It’s fine. I’ll wait here for a while. After I’m sure they’re really okay, I’ll go back and sleep for a while.”
Xue Yu was very insistent. Mo Li had just had surgery, and the female baby in the incubator was also in an unknown condition. She didn’t dare to leave for a moment.
Feng Qizhou had someone send over some food. He and Xue Yu ate together in the hospital’s dining area.
Zhou Siyan returned to Meng Wu’s apartment.
Last night, the three children had been at home by themselves, without a single adult.
They had found diapers to wear themselves and didn’t know how to change into their pajamas, so they had just slept close to each other on the foam mat.
When Zhou Siyan entered, Xue Xiaobei and Xue Xiaonan were not awake.
Xue Xiaohai was awake. She was so hungry that she had opened the formula can herself, reached in, and was eating the dry formula. The powder from the formula was all over the place, and her round face was like it had been smeared with a layer of flour.
“Daddy!” Xue Xiaohai’s two hands were full of dry formula. She ran to him aggrievedly. “Daddy, I’m so hungry. You and Mommy haven’t been back for so long.”
Zhou Siyan’s heart ached. He picked her up and wiped the formula from her face with his hand. “Baby, I’m sorry. It’s because Daddy and Mommy are too busy.”
“I’m so hungry. I’ll just eat this. It’s so sweet.”
Zhou Siyan kissed her. “Daddy will go and mix some formula for you now.”
He quickly carried Xue Xiaohai into the bathroom, washed her face, and then carried her out, mixing a bottle of milk for her.
He then woke up Xiaobei and Xiaonan, took them to wash up, and mixed formula for them to drink.
After the three babies were temporarily full, he changed their clothes one by one.
Xue Xiaohai had some clothes at Meng Wu’s apartment, but Xiaobei and Xiaonan didn’t. Zhou Siyan could only have the twin sisters wear Xue Xiaohai’s clothes for now.
Xue Xiaobei looked at her red bell-bottoms and then at her sister’s yellow lantern pants. “Uncle, can my sister and I wear the same clothes?”
Zhou Siyan said, “We don’t have the same clothes for now. You can wait for a while. When your daddy comes, he can change you into the same clothes. Is that okay?”
He knelt down and tidied Xue Xiaohai’s clothes, bright green harem pants and a purple and blue striped top. He had modified them himself, printing a lot of big red and purple patterns on the pants and clothes. He thought they were very nice, very cute, and very childish.
He lined the three children up and continued to help them put on their shoes.
Xiaobei and Xiaonan couldn’t wear Xue Xiaohai’s shoes and were still wearing yesterday’s. Xue Xiaohai, on the other hand, had new shoes, small red leather boots with crystal sequins on them.
Zhou Siyan was very satisfied with the outfits he had put together for the children. “Alright, the clothes are changed. Do they look nice?”
Xue Xiaobei looked at Xue Xiaohai and then at her own sister, a forced smile on her face. “It’s a little funny, hahaha.”
Xue Xiaonan’s mouth was pouted high, her voice very small. “It’s not just a little, it’s a lot…”
Xue Xiaohai, on the other hand, was used to such a bright red and purple outfit. She stomped her little red leather boots everywhere. “Daddy, I really want to eat an apple. Are there any apples to eat?”
“Daddy will go and look for you in a little while.”
Zhou Siyan felt that he had dressed the three children too cutely. He couldn’t help but take a picture and send it to the group chat.
And he said tactfully, The children are all fine. I just fed them and changed their clothes. @Xue Yu
Feng Qizhou was the first to reply: You surnamed Zhou, what are you dressing my children in!
Zhou Siyan just thought that Feng Qizhou was just bickering with him as usual and did not doubt his own aesthetic sense at all.
The children’s identities had been completely exposed, and there was no need to hide them anymore.
Zhou Siyan openly took the three children to his office. When they passed through the corridor, they ran into Lu Sen and Bai Qi.
The two of them could barely suppress their laughter. Lu Sen said, “I almost thought the traffic lights had come to life.”
Bai Qi took out a piece of candy and waved it in front of Xue Xiaohai. “Here, call me daddy. Your mommy and I are good friends. I can also be your daddy.”
Xue Xiaohai was very fast and snatched the candy. “Thank you.”
“Why didn’t you call me daddy?” Bai Qi said again.
Zhou Siyan’s face was ashen. He picked up Xue Xiaohai and freed a hand to hold Xue Xiaobei and Xue Xiaonan.
Lu Sen and Bai Qi were being sarcastic from behind. “Oh, you’re isolating the White Tower all by yourself. Director Zhou has such great authority. It’s so amazing to have a child.”
***
Xue Yu had been guarding outside the intensive care unit for more than two hours.
When Mo Li woke up, Feng Qizhou went in to examine both of them. Everything was very stable.
Xue Yu also went in and stood by the hospital bed, looking at Mo Li and then at the small child in the incubator.
Mo Li held her hand, his face much better. “Don’t worry. I’m much better now.”
Meng Wu had been sitting by the incubator, looking at the child in the box through the transparent glass.
The child in the box was very small and very calm, but he could feel the child’s tenacious will to live.
“How long does the child have to stay in the incubator?” Meng Wu asked.
Feng Qizhou said, “About a month. I’m not very sure.”
He adjusted the monitor on the side and added, “I suggest we leave her in for a little longer before we take her out. At least ten jin before we take her out. Xue Xiaohai was ten jin at birth. Look how strong she is now.”
Meng Wu’s eyes were dark as he stared at the child in the box.
Xue Yu stayed with them for a while longer. It was almost noon. She stood up. “I’m going back to see the children. I’ll make you some soup and bring it over. You two really need to supplement your nutrition now.”
Meng Wu: “You should take care of yourself first.”
“I’m fine. You’re the ones who have really worked hard!” Xue Yu’s smile was pure, her bright eyes filled with happiness. “I’ll be going now. I’ll be back soon.”
She left the hospital and ran back to Zhou Siyan’s apartment.
She saw a large pile of things at the door of Zhou Siyan’s apartment, from firearms and all kinds of ammunition to mattresses, sofas, pots and pans, clothes, towels, and toiletries.
Xue Yu put her hands on her hips and looked at them carefully. These things were not Zhou Siyan’s. Who on earth had left them here?
Yan Wantang happened to be walking her dog by and whistled at her. “Hurry up and move them in. These are all gifts for the children. It’s everyone’s kind intentions. Hurry up and accept them. Don’t disappoint everyone.”
“Are they all for the children?” Xue Yu picked up a frying pan and frowned.
Yan Wantang’s expression was serious. “That’s right. They are all the kind intentions of the people of the White Tower. Everyone likes your children very much. Hurry up and move them in. Don’t let everyone think that you and the children are ungrateful.”
“Okay, thank you all!”
Xue Yu rolled up her sleeves, opened the door to Zhou Siyan’s apartment, and moved the things in bit by bit.
The people of the White Tower are really something. It’s one thing to send clothes and toys, but they also send toothpaste and toothbrushes, and even leather shoes. The children can’t even use them. Isn’t this just causing trouble?
Although she thought so, Xue Yu did not dare to show it.
She and the children were outsiders in the White Tower. Whether the children could continue to live in the White Tower still depended on everyone’s attitude.
Ten minutes later, Xue Yu stood up the mattress, trying to adjust the angle to drag it into the house.
A sharp shout came from the corridor. “Xue Yu, what are you doing! Are you a robber? Stealing my things in broad daylight!”
Xue Yu put down the mattress and stuck her head out. She saw the deputy director, like a thin monkey, waving his two hands and stomping his feet, shouting in a huff.
“Are these your things?” Xue Yu was at a loss.
“Whose else would they be!” the deputy director’s thin face was trembling with anger. He lowered his head to pull the mattress and did not dare to make eye contact with Xue Yu.
At this moment, Yan Wantang, who was not far away, burst out laughing. She laughed so hard that tears came to her eyes. She led her Tibetan mastiff and left with a swagger, her expression relaxed. “Let’s go! Let’s go to work!”
After a conversation with the deputy director, Xue Yu finally knew that she had been tricked by Yan Wantang.
These things were not gifts from others at all. They were all the deputy director’s belongings.
It turned out that the deputy director had thought that Zhou Siyan had completely fallen this time.
Once Zhou Siyan fell, the position of the director would be vacant, and it would definitely be filled by him, the deputy director.
According to the regulations of the White Tower, a position was tied to the right to use a house, a car, and so on. Once the deputy director became the director and took Zhou Siyan’s position, then Zhou Siyan’s house and car would automatically belong to the deputy director.
The deputy director felt that victory was in his grasp and had been packing his things these past few days.
He had moved all his belongings to the door of Zhou Siyan’s apartment in advance, just waiting for Zhou Siyan to be dismissed so that he could move in immediately.
He had been smiling in his dreams these past few days, the corners of his mouth always turned up, fantasizing about his future life.
A two-bedroom, one-living-room apartment. Such a big house, such a good house. How should he live in it?
Today, he would sleep in the master bedroom. Tomorrow, he would sleep in the side bedroom. The day after tomorrow, he would sleep in the living room. The day after that, he would sleep in the kitchen. And the day after that, he would sleep in the bathroom…
It was so wonderful. He finally had a good house.
But now, all these fantasies had been shattered like a bubble.
Zhou Siyan had regained his position by being a Soldier M.
The deputy director bit his lip, tears streaming down his face. He hadn’t even moved in, and he had already been kicked out.
Xue Yu moved the things she had just moved in out again and said, “You’re too anxious. The higher-ups haven’t even given an announcement, and you’ve already moved your things over.”
The deputy director sniffled. “If it were you, wouldn’t you be anxious?”
He picked up the frying pan that he had used for many years and was reluctant to throw away, and waved it with trembling hands. “I just want to live in a good house! Is that wrong! Everything I’ve done is to have a better house!”
“I’ve slept on the street, in a trash can, and in a corridor! I’ve worked hard to get promoted! I’ve castrated myself just to live a little better!”
He was very emotional, his teeth chattering, making a sound like gears. “I’ve lived in a three-square-meter basement! After a hard day of fighting, I came home and wanted to hang myself, but there wasn’t even enough space to hang myself!”
“I want to have my own nest! I want a lot of space! I want to have a dog at home! I want to have a lot of potted plants! How can a sparrow know the ambition of a swan? You don’t understand anything!”
As he spoke, he began to angrily accuse Xue Yu. “Do you have a house? Is your house big enough? You have so many children. Can you give each of them a room? Can you let the children run around in their rooms? You have nothing, and you have children. You are simply despicable!”
Xue Yu was speechless and didn’t want to provoke him.
She looked at him deeply. “You’re right. It’s my fault. But I also have my own difficulties…”
The deputy director covered his face with both hands, tightly covering his eyes. “What are you looking at me for? Are you trying to get me pregnant? You’re so despicable! The most despicable person in the White Tower!”
“Don’t worry. I know what I’m doing. I won’t get you pregnant,” Xue Yu continued to move things back into the house.
She helped the deputy director move all his belongings back.
The deputy director’s apartment was a one-bedroom, one-living-room, much smaller than Zhou Siyan’s, but compared to her single dorm, it was already a luxury apartment.
But the deputy director had an incredible amount of belongings. The living room and bedroom were all full of things.
Rusty old guns, all kinds of bullet casings, outdated military uniforms, worn-out leather shoes…
All kinds of tattered things that should have been thrown away, the deputy director was reluctant to throw away. He had neatly stacked them all together, filling the one-bedroom, one-living-room apartment.
Xue Yu silently helped him move his things, not expressing any opinion.
More than ninety percent of the people living in the White Tower had psychological problems and all sorts of strange quirks.
She guessed that the deputy director probably had a serious hoarding problem and could not part with anything he had ever used.
Xue Yu returned to Zhou Siyan’s apartment.
After she became a captain, she had gotten a small fresh food quota.
She went to the cafeteria, used up all her quota, and exchanged it for two jin of pork ribs and some fresh vegetables.
She went home and made a pork rib soup, gave each of the children a bowl, and packed the rest in a thermos to take to Meng Wu and Mo Li in the intensive care unit.
Another day passed, and the condition of the female fetus in the incubator was stable.
The two children of Mo Li were still in a state of secrecy.
Xue Yu and the others were worried that if the higher-ups found out, they would forcibly induce labor and abort the child.
They didn’t dare to keep the incubator in the intensive care unit all the time.
After Feng Qizhou’s examination, Meng Wu took the incubator back home, planning to continue to support the child with his spiritual power at home.
Xue Yu finally contacted Youke’en and told him about the matter of the White Tower.
She said that in five days, she would bring the warship and the submarine over, and asked him to prepare to welcome her in advance.
Youke’en said, “Okay. The workers and I are all fine here. But you should still come over and arrange the work as soon as possible. Now, besides eating and drinking, everyone has nothing to do. The workers seem to be getting anxious again.”
“Okay, I’ll be there as soon as possible.”
Xue Yu stayed at Meng Wu’s apartment with the three children, teaching them to read.
Meng Wu sat down on the sofa and asked, “Xue Xiaohai, how many words have you learned?”
“Mountain! I can write ‘mountain’! My name is Xue Lanshan!” Xue Xiaohai showed off proudly.
Before Meng Wu could reply, a clear, childish voice came from the incubator on the side. “Mountain.”
Xue Xiaohai’s head turned left and right. “Huh? Who’s talking? Is that you, Xiaobei?”
Xue Xiaobei shook her head. “It’s not me.”
Xue Xiaonan: “It’s not me either.”
“Me,” the childish voice appeared again.
Xue Xiaohai touched the box in surprise. “Huh? Why is the box talking? Is the little box hungry?”
Meng Wu was also surprised and didn’t react for a moment.
Xue Yu squatted down and looked at the incubator. “It’s the child talking. Xue Xiaohai was also like this. When Xue Xiaohai was still in Zhou Siyan’s belly, she could talk.”
Meng Wu secretly marveled at the miracle of life and said to Xue Yu, “Why don’t we give her a name first?”
Xue Yu was still thinking.
Xue Xiaohai said, “Let’s call her Little Biscuit. A fragrant and sweet little biscuit.”
Xue Xiaonan counted on her fingers. “Xue Xiaobinggan. Four words. What a long name.”
Xue Xiaobei: “We can call her Little Box, because she’s in a box.”
At the same time, Xue Yu received a lawyer’s letter from the court.
Yan Wantang personally called Xue Yu. “The higher-ups’ meaning is that we can let your three children stay for now.”
“But the White Tower does not allow for unemployed vagrants. You should hurry up and find a job for the three children, otherwise they will be kicked out.”