Chapter 382: Chapter 381: Hope of Life
The armpit is an area dense with pain-sensitive nerves.
To wake the unconscious, greasy middle-aged man as quickly as possible, Wang Chuan gave his right armpit a sharp twist.
The effect was immediate.
Noticing the man’s eyeballs moving beneath his eyelids, Wang Chuan covered his eyes and said in a serious tone, "I’m Wang Chuan, an attending physician from the Affiliated Hospital. Don’t open your eyes just yet."
"If you don’t want to die, do as I say..."
"Breathe in..."
"Breathe out..."
"Breathe in..."
The reason it was Wang Chuan and not Yan Feifan doing this was because Wang Chuan’s voice and appearance had the charm of a mature, middle-aged man, making it easier to gain the patient’s trust.
Yan Feifan was still a bit too young.
To make himself more credible, Wang Chuan didn’t mention he was a plastic surgeon, only emphasizing that he was an attending physician at the Affiliated Hospital.
The awakened, greasy middle-aged man seemed to recall what happened before he passed out. After a few short, ragged breaths, he began to follow Wang Chuan’s instructions, breathing in and out to his rhythm.
After ten or twenty of these breaths, Wang Chuan checked the man’s carotid artery and felt his heartbeat return to a steady rhythm.
"Mr. Zhao Lin, you are still at the Earl’s Clubhouse."
"You’ve been stabbed, but luckily, your heart is still beating tenaciously, just as it was before you were injured."
Wang Chuan explained the man’s situation, then added, "An ambulance will be here any moment."
"Until then, you need to remain calm. Don’t let your heart beat too fast, or there could be complications."
"Do you understand?"
The middle-aged man named Zhao Lin nodded. Wang Chuan continued, "Breathe in... breathe out... breathe in..."
"You can open your eyes now..."
As Wang Chuan spoke, Zhao Lin slowly opened his eyes. His gaze instinctively drifted downward, and he saw the handle of the ice pick protruding from his chest. His breathing immediately became ragged again.
"Calm down... breathe out... breathe in... breathe out..."
Following Wang Chuan’s rhythm, Zhao Lin quickly regulated his breathing again, forcing himself to calm down.
"Zhao Lin, you have two enemies right now: your own emotions, and any jolting."
"If your heart ruptures, it’ll all be over in a minute."
"Do you understand?"
Zhao Lin stared at Wang Chuan’s face and nodded again.
Wang Chuan said gravely, "Since you understand those two points, there’s a choice you need to make."
"The nearest major hospital equipped for cardiac repair surgery, Binhai Transportation Hospital, is two kilometers from here."
"You can take the ambulance, or you can walk there yourself."
"The ambulance will be faster, but it will be a bumpy ride."
"Walking there yourself will be steadier, but it will take longer. During that time, no one can guarantee that nothing will go wrong."
"Mr. Zhao, will you choose the ambulance, or will you walk to the hospital yourself?"
Zhao Lin’s eyes swept around the private room before he asked, "Doctor, which option is safer?"
Wang Chuan was silent for a moment before saying slowly, "I recommend you walk to the hospital yourself."
"However, I can’t guarantee that your heart won’t suffer a complication during that time."
Zhao Lin closed his eyes, then opened them again a moment later.
"Doctor, I understand what you mean."
"I could die at any moment."
"Doctor, with you as my witness, I’d like to state my last will."
Wang Chuan gestured to Yan Ziruo and Yu Suye, who were standing to the side.
The two of them immediately took out their phones, aimed them at Zhao Lin lying on the carpet, and started recording.
Zhao Lin looked at the phone in Yan Ziruo’s hand and said softly, "To prevent any accidents or disputes, I, Zhao Lin, hereby state my last will."
"Eighty percent of my entire estate will go to my wife and two sons. The other twenty percent will go to my parents."
After a pause, Zhao Lin spoke to the camera again. "Honey, thank you for sticking by me through all the hard times."
"I know I’ve been a bastard these past few years."
"Honey, I’m sorry. Please let me marry you again in the next life, so I can properly repay you."
Zhao Lin’s expression was conflicted as he continued, "Honey, after I’m gone, you can remarry, but the children can’t change their last name."
"Mom, Dad, please take care of yourselves. Your son has been unfilial."
"To my oldest and my youngest, study hard, respect your mother, and take care of your grandpa and grandma for me."
"That’s all."
Zhao Lin turned his gaze to Wang Chuan and said, "Doctor, I’ve made up my mind. I’ll choose to walk..."
With Wang Chuan and Yan Feifan’s careful help, Zhao Lin managed to get to his feet without incident.
Escorted by six security guards from the Earl’s Clubhouse—three in front and three behind—Zhao Lin slowly walked out of the private room, one step at a time, heading for the stairs...
Yan Ziruo, who had remained in the hallway, watched Zhao Lin’s departing figure. Feeling a pang of sympathy, she moved closer to Wang Chuan and Yan Feifan and said, "It’s difficult for him to move. Why not have a cardiac surgeon bring surgical equipment here to operate on him?"
"Hey, Feifan, didn’t you brag that you can even do heart transplants?"
Yan Feifan couldn’t be bothered to answer his sister.
Wang Chuan explained patiently, "His condition requires major open-heart surgery, which needs equipment like a heart-lung machine."
"We’d have to move an entire cardiac operating room here. That’s not something you can do in a short amount of time."
Yan Feifan spoke up, "The military has mobile field surgical units that can be deployed on the spot for surgery."
"Hey, Chief, I think the hospital needs to be equipped with a surgical vehicle like that to prepare for similar situations."
Wang Chuan shot him a look and said, "A fully-equipped surgical vehicle like that would cost at least ten million to start."
"You want the hospital to spend a fortune maintaining a mobile surgical unit just for the three to five special cases that might pop up in a year?"
"Do you think that’s realistic?"
Yan Feifan said with a solemn expression, "Life is priceless. Even if it only saves one person a year, that’s enough."
"Besides, every year, quite a few critically ill patients die on the way to the hospital because they couldn’t get timely treatment."
At this point, Yan Feifan became even more convinced that this kind of vehicle-mounted mobile operating room was absolutely necessary.
’The military’s off-road surgical vehicle might be overkill. But maybe we could convert a large bus into a mobile operating room?’
Just as Yan Feifan’s imagination was taking flight, Wang Chuan’s voice sounded in his ear again. "Life is priceless. That’s just something people say."
"A hospital has to calculate costs."
"Even individual families have to consider whether they can afford to save a loved one at any cost."
Yan Feifan said contemplatively, "Chief, I still think this kind of mobile operating room is necessary."
"At major disaster sites, large-scale events, for emergency rescue missions, and so on."
"Why must the patient always come to the hospital? Why can’t the hospital go to the patient?"
"Technologically, it’s completely achievable."
Wang Chuan replied flatly, "Return on investment."
Noticing that Yan Feifan still looked very keen on the idea, he worriedly asked Yan Ziruo.
"Ziruo, Feifan doesn’t make all the development decisions for Extraordinary Technology by himself, does he?"
Yan Ziruo shook her head. "Of course not. The majority shareholder, Song Yi, has the final say."
Wang Chuan said with feigned exaggeration, "That’s a relief."
"With an idealist like Feifan who acts on every whim, I was genuinely worried he’d run the company into the ground."
Yu Suye came to his defense. "Chief, Feifan’s idea for a mobile operating room has its merits."
Yan Feifan huffed indignantly, "When I’m rich, I’ll convert a mobile operating room like that myself and prove its practicality and necessity with facts..."
After such an unexpected incident, none of them were in the mood to sing anymore.
Coincidentally, a live stream of Zhao Lin walking to the hospital had appeared online.
So they returned to the karaoke room to watch the live stream.
On the live stream, Zhao Lin was shown moving forward slowly, step by tiny step, his face grim. He was escorted by several security guards, with an ambulance, police, and a crowd of onlookers following behind. The scene was truly heart-wrenching.
"He’s going to make it, right?" Yan Ziruo asked quietly.
Yan Feifan grunted in affirmation. "He will."
"Sis, never underestimate a person’s potential, especially when it’s a matter of life and death."
"If he wants to live, he’ll succeed..."
For Zhao Lin, the short distance of nearly two kilometers was as arduous as the Long March.
However, after an hour-and-a-half trek, victory was finally in sight.
Zhao Lin could already see the entrance to the Binhai Transportation Hospital.
In front of him, two lines of people formed a human wall, creating a long, clear path for him.
Zhao Lin took another deep breath, lifted his leg, and took another step toward the hope of survival...
"Whoa... Whoa..."
Suddenly hearing someone make that sound, Zhao Lin, who had been completely focused, was momentarily distracted.
He had a feeling and looked up.
A glittering object was falling from the sky.
’Is that... a drone?’
PS.
My thanks to my dear readers "Shining Larkspur," "Jue Ji," and "Drifting Red Leaf 12" for their tips and support!
Wishing all my readers, new and old, even greater success in the new year!!
