The relatives who had been standing at the stairway entrance watching the excitement were startled, instinctively reaching out to grab her!
Xu Huiqing was caught by the quick hands of a relative, who yanked her back by the collar of her shirt with considerable force. But Zhao Zongbao, who had been facing Xu Huiqing with his back to the stairs, was headbutted squarely by her. He felt a wave of excruciating, piercing pain in his nasal bone, followed by a gush of blood, tears, and snot. His entire body was knocked backward and went tumbling down the stairs!
He didn’t even have time to touch the blood gushing from his nose. His hands flailed wildly in the air, trying to grab the handrail. But he was standing far beyond an arm’s reach of it and couldn’t grasp hold at all. Instinctively, he tried to reach out and grab Xu Huiqing. However, Xu Huiqing had been pulled back by the relative watching the commotion, and her momentum carried her backward. She was caught by the relative who had just pulled her, then went limp and collapsed, unconscious, into the person’s arms.
There were both female and male relatives at the hospital to provide care. Seeing Xu Huiqing faint gave them a terrible fright. Worried the floor was too cold, the person supporting her upper body dared not let her lie on the ground and shouted loudly toward the nurses’ station, “Doctor! Doctor! Someone’s fainted!”
Their ward was right near the stairway entrance, next to the nurses’ station. A nurse had also seen Xu Huiqing fall unconscious, and two nurses rushed over to support her, also shouting, “Someone come quick!”
A young man in the corridor saw the unconscious postpartum mother on the floor. Disregarding propriety between men and women, he quickly scooped Xu Huiqing up.
A nurse immediately led him toward the recently tidied-up ward bed, saying, “Here! Set her down here!”
They had just laid Xu Huiqing on the bed when they heard a heart-wrenching, heaven-shattering wail from Mother Zhao outside: “Oh, my dear son~~~”
The shrill, piercing cry frightened the relatives and mothers inside the ward so badly that several small babies were startled awake and began howling. Anyone in the maternity ward who could move ran to the door to see what had happened.
The nurses were also startled, fearing someone had died.
From their vantage point at the nurses’ station, they could only see Xu Huiqing fainting, not the process of Xu Huiqing knocking Zhao Zongbao down the stairs. One nurse stayed in the ward to look after Xu Huiqing while the other rushed out to see what was going on.
What greeted her was a floor covered in blood. Zhao Zongbao’s nose was still uncontrollably gushing blood. Mother Zhao was lifting his neck forcefully, and since the blood couldn’t flow out through his nostrils, it poured from his mouth, making it look as if he were vomiting copious amounts of blood.
Mother Zhao was utterly petrified by the scene. Almost on reflex, she let out a theatrical, opera-like cry: “Oh, my– dear son–“
This was the typical drawn-out wail used by some female family members during rural funerals when, after crying too much and being unable to produce more tears, they were still required to mourn.
Mother Zhao looked so pitiful that anyone who saw her would feel a surge of sympathy. She was nodding her head frantically and distractedly. Her hands and the baby’s swaddling cloth were covered in Zhao Zongbao’s nose blood.
It wasn’t just the nosebleed; his body, arms, and legs were also covered in abrasions.
The arriving doctors were also shocked by the pool of blood. They hurried over to examine him. After the check, they learned it was just a broken nose. They quickly spoke to Mother Zhao, who was terrified nearly to the point of fainting: “It’s a nosebleed, nothing major. Old lady, don’t panic. Take care of the child first and step aside. Don’t stand here in the way.”
The doctors were afraid he might have injured his spine, so they didn’t dare help him up and needed to bring a stretcher.
Mother Zhao was completely out of her wits. She just nodded mindlessly at whatever the doctor said, not really hearing a word, and was gently pushed aside by a medical professional.
It wasn’t until several doctors and nurses arrived and carried Zhao Zongbao away that she snapped to and chased after them, her voice trembling with sobs as she cried out, “Son! Oh, Son! My dear Zongbao!”
Her voice now was no longer the exaggerated, theatrical wail from before, but a fragile, instinctive sound forced from her throat.
To Mother Zhao, Zhao Zongbao was the apple of her eye, her very lifeblood. Seeing him injured, her entire world collapsed. Only after he had been sent into the emergency room and the door shut in her face did her body give out, and she collapsed at the entrance.
Suddenly, with one hand pressed against the emergency room door, she let out a chilling scream as if Zhao Zongbao had already passed away: “Oh, Lord in Heaven above~~ Why don’t you send a thunderbolt down to strike that bitch dead! Pushing my Zongbao for no reason! If anything happens to my Zongbao, I don’t want to live anymore~~!”
The doctors inside, stopping Zhao Zongbao’s nosebleed, were suddenly startled by the shrill, mournful cry outside the door. If the patient weren’t lying right there on the gurney, they’d have thought he had died.
They exchanged pained glances. The attending physician, exasperated, said to a nurse, “Go out and get her moved away from here. How can anyone work with this racket?”
Medical conditions at the time were quite basic, and the soundproofing in the emergency room was poor. They could hear Mother Zhao’s wailing as clear as day.
Zhao Zongbao’s injuries consisted of two serious areas. First, when he fell, his elbow had caught on the edge of the stairs, fracturing the bone. Second, while tumbling down, his head had struck the wall, splitting his scalp. It was unknown if he had a concussion, as further examination was needed.
Additionally, because he had been standing on the stairs and fallen backward, it was unknown if he had injured his spine. If his spine was injured, that would be serious trouble.
Soon, a doctor from the Traditional Chinese Medicine Surgery Department in the adjacent building was notified and rushed over. Entering the emergency room, he asked, “What’s going on? Isn’t this Obstetrics and Gynecology? How did a trauma patient end up here?”
The newcomer was a male doctor in his early forties, exuding an air of calm, deliberate competence. He spoke without haste, but his hands were already moving to work as he talked.
The doctor who had been stopping Zhao Zongbao’s nosebleed and treating his head wound said, “He fell down the stairs. His arm is broken. We don’t know if the spine’s been injured. His leg also seems to have taken a serious beating. He’ll need to be transferred to your TCM Surgery department shortly.”
Because Zhao Zongbao had forcefully impacted his head on the concrete wall, he was currently unconscious.
The middle-aged doctor noticed one of Zhao Zongbao’s arms was bent at a grotesque 120-degree angle and said, “How did his arm end up in such a state?”
For the past few days, Zhao Zongbao had spent every night dancing disco in the dance hall and his days roller skating at the rink. He had a flamboyant, peacock-like personality and loved showing off. His lack of skating skill did nothing to dampen his desire to flaunt, and he had fallen countless times in the skating rink.
Young and physically robust, he recovered quickly from falls and would just get back up and keep skating without a care.
His arm had previously been fractured from a fall, but he hadn’t paid it much mind.
Two doctors and a nurse gave him a basic bandaging and cleaned him up in the emergency room before opening the main door and asking the nurses to send him to the next building.
After all, this building housed Obstetrics and Gynecology. Departments like General Traditional Chinese Medicine and TCM Surgery were all located in the adjacent building.
The moment Mother Zhao saw Zhao Zongbao being wheeled out, she rushed to follow, murmuring in panic, “Son! Oh, my son! Doctor, how is my Zongbao? Nothing can happen to him! If anything happens to him, I can’t go on living either!”
By the end, Mother Zhao was once again in tears, a truly pitiful sight.
The middle-aged doctor followed the gurney toward the next building. A nurse came to console Mother Zhao: “Don’t worry, old lady. That doctor just now is an expert from our surgery department. It’s just some fall injuries, nothing too serious. If you can’t handle the care by yourself, you should call a family member to come. Do you have a telephone at home?”
In those days, private landline phones were still quite rare.
The old woman looked so pitiful and pathetic, but unexpectedly, she nodded vigorously and said, “Yes! We have a phone!”
“Then come with me and give your family a call.” The nurse led the old woman to the service desk.
The nurse’s station had a landline. However, Water Wharf Town and the neighboring city were in different municipalities, so you had to dial an area code first. But Mother Zhao was completely illiterate; how could she know anything about area codes? The call wouldn’t connect. Someone in the crowd who had been watching earlier noticed her accent wasn’t from the city and asked, “Where’s your home?”
Mother Zhao wiped the tears and snot from her face with her palm in a panic: “Water Wharf Town.”
“Water Wharf Town belongs to Wu City, right? I know the area code for Wu City!”
The helpful bystander added Wu City’s area code before the number, and sure enough, the call went through.
The Zhao family was one of the earliest households in Water Wharf Town to install a telephone. Hearing his son had fallen down the stairs, Old Zhao also got a fright: “Is he okay?”
The nurse pressed the speakerphone button and said, “He’s fine, but you’ll need to arrange for another person to come help with the care. Also, your daughter-in-law is unconscious here too. You should inform her parents. If her family can send someone, have her maiden family send a person to help care for her.”
Father Zhao only had this one son, a precious child born after he was forty. Hearing he was injured sent a wave of panic through him, and he nodded in agreement, “Alright, alright!”
At this moment, how could he possibly remember his in-laws? He immediately started calling his five daughters!
The Zhao family’s way was always this: for any matter, big or small, at the slightest sign of trouble, they would summon their five daughters and sons-in-law for help!
His eldest son-in-law could never be bothered to come. His second son-in-law was deep in the mountains, unreachable by phone. His third daughter was married in Five Peaks Mountain Township; calling their Brigade Headquarters did manage to notify her.
His third daughter, after hearing her younger brother was hurt, was also startled and quickly asked, “How did it happen? How’d he get injured?”
Father Zhao, who had just been meek before the nurse, suddenly erupted at his third daughter like a tiger descending a mountain: “I tell you to come, so you come! Where’s all this nonsense talk coming from? So what if you know how he fell? Can you heal him or something?”
His third daughter, Zhao Pandi, was scolded so harshly that her eyes reddened, but she forced herself to act normal as she hung up the phone.
Her maiden family never gave her an ounce of respect in front of her in-laws. Any time, any place, they would beat or scold her as they pleased.
Since her own family didn’t treat her like a person, her in-laws treated her even less so.