Chapter 69: On the Brink of Life and Death, "Leaving it to fate" became the only thing he could do...

In late September, Zhu Liushuang accompanied Zhuang Xiaoqian to a bridal shop to try on wedding dresses and also chose the style of bridesmaid dresses.

As the autumn dryness gradually faded, the temperature in Gucheng dropped day by day in the mornings and evenings, and red maples became the main feature of the green belts along the roads. In the past two weeks, she had only met He Ming once. The rest of the time, she had been living her life earnestly.

Of course, she had also subtly inquired about He Ming's whereabouts from Gu Xufeng and others. That day happened to be the day she accompanied her mother to the hospital for a follow-up appointment. After learning that He Ming was also at the People's Hospital, Zhu Liushuang excused herself to go to the restroom and quietly slipped away to the inpatient department.

Unfortunately, she couldn't find He Ming anywhere after searching all over, so she had to return home disappointed.

Life went on like this. Aside from their daily routine of checking on Xie Jingzhi's condition, they rarely communicated. Most of the time, Zhu Liushuang would throw out a question, and He Ming would give a curt, methodical answer. If she didn't press further, the conversation would abruptly end.

Zhu Liushuang was very distressed by this stagnant situation.

Actually, she was already contacting him quite frequently. If she were any more enthusiastic, she was afraid that she would be too overbearing and scare him away.

But if she held her breath and didn't contact him, she was afraid that if too much time passed, she would disappear from his friend list.

Zhu Liushuang slumped over her desk, sighing deeply. The teacher on the computer screen in front of her was firing off words like a machine gun, but she couldn't hear a single one.

"Buzz—" The phone vibrated twice.

She glanced at it listlessly, thinking it was just another spam ad, but then she saw He Ming's name in the push notification list.

The disappointment on her face vanished instantly, and Zhu Liushuang sprang to her feet, bracing herself against the table. She quickly grabbed her phone, unlocked the screen, and opened WeChat, all in one fluid motion.

[The ventilator was removed today, and Grandpa is now able to breathe on his own, albeit barely. If his heart rate and blood pressure can stabilize, he should be able to be transferred to the intensive care unit this Saturday.]

As she read the message, her hands trembled slightly, perhaps because she was too excited.

After a month of anxious waiting, the dawn of victory was finally breaking. Zhu Liushuang was happy for Xie Jingzhi and also breathed a sigh of relief for He Ming.

[That's great! I wish Dr. Xie a smooth transfer out of the ICU. I'll come over Sunday morning.]

The moment she sent the message, a more extravagant hope filled her heart. She wanted their marriage to take root, sprout, and blossom into a flower called "love," witnessed by Xie Jingzhi.

Unfortunately, Zhu Liushuang did not live to see the day she had hoped for.

She couldn't contact He Ming after work on Friday. He didn't reply to her WeChat messages, so she called him again. There was no answer.

Helpless, Zhu Liushuang mustered her courage and asked Lin Hui. The reply she received was: "Teacher He took the day off today, and I'm not sure of the specific reason."

She sought help from Gu Xufeng, who said he was on a business trip in Shanghai and also couldn't contact He Ming.

Left with no other option, she called Ye Xingzhi again. Ye Xingzhi, who had just finished grading the monthly exam papers, was feeling dizzy and irritable. He told her that after catching up on some sleep, he would go to He Ming's house for her.

Zhu Liushuang was worried and sat in the bedroom dialing He Ming's cell phone again and again, hoping that someone would answer the phone.

"Sorry, the number you dialed is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later..." The cold, mechanical female voice kept repeating in her ear. Glancing at the full moon outside the window, she jumped up from the stool.

She grabbed the cardigan from beside the bed and quickly walked out.

The living room lights were on, and Gu Chunling was weakly leaning against the sofa, looking for her medicine.

"Mom, what's wrong? You look so pale." Zhu Liushuang asked, hiding her anxiety. She quickly walked to Gu Chunling's side, bent down, and placed her hand on her mother's forehead.

"It's so hot, she has a fever!" She hurriedly went to the medicine box to find a mercury thermometer, then disinfected it and put it into Gu Chunling's mouth.

The clock on the wall pointed to nine o'clock in the evening. She sat down next to her mother and asked, "Did you suddenly feel unwell?"

She worked overtime at her company today and didn't come home for dinner. When she got home, she saw that the living room light was already off, so she assumed her mother had gone to bed early and didn't disturb her.

Gu Chunling shook her head; she had a thermometer in her mouth and couldn't speak.

Zhu Liushuang suddenly felt guilty. Ever since Xie Jingzhi was admitted to the ICU, she had been focusing all her attention on He Ming and had clearly paid less attention to her mother. She lowered her head in silence, her eyes filled with self-reproach.

"I felt a little dizzy this afternoon, and I thought it was because I didn't sleep well. Just now, while lying in bed, I felt hot and cold, and my head hurt even more, so I wondered if I had caught a cold." Gu Chunling took out a thermometer and handed it to her daughter.

Zhu Liushuang took the thermometer and looked at it closely: "38.7! Quickly give her fever reducer..." As she spoke, she quickly found a tablet of Sanlitong in the medicine box, broke it off, and put it in her mother's hand. Then, she got up to get a water glass from the dining table.

"Besides the headache, are there any other discomforts?"

"My arms and back are a little sore... and my stomach feels a bit uncomfortable." Gu Chunling swallowed the fever reducer with her water glass.

"Could it be the flu? Mom—have you had anyone with a cold around you lately?"

Gu Chunling rubbed her stomach as she tried to recall: "I don't remember very clearly. But there were always a few coughs when customers came and went in the shop."

Zhu Liushuang's expression darkened, and she asked in a feigned reproach, "Did you not wear your mask properly? I've told you so many times, the immune system is weakened by the biological agents, so you need to pay attention to daily protection."

"It's just that wearing a mask all day long is too stuffy..." Gu Chunling felt guilty and aggrieved. Before she could finish speaking, she felt a churning in her stomach and then bent over to vomit.

Fortunately, she only drank half a bowl of plain porridge for dinner, so she didn't vomit anything else.

Zhu Liushuang consciously took a mask from the cabinet and put it on, then helped her mother to the bathroom to rinse her mouth. She then picked up a rag and ran to the living room to clean the floor.

"Mom—how are you feeling now?" She kept turning to ask, worried about her mother.

Her response was a sickening sound of retching.

After wiping the floor, she threw away the rag and sprayed some hypochlorous acid disinfectant onto the floor tiles.

"Let's go to the emergency room, you can't go on like this!" She walked to the bathroom door and made the decision for her mother.

"Just...take some medicine, okay?" Gu Chunling looked up, revealing a deathly pale face. The high fever made her head feel dizzy.

“Don’t try to tough it out. If it’s H1N1, you’ll need special treatment. Vomiting is no small matter…” Zhu Liushuang took her mother’s arm and led her outside, her tone resolute, “Let’s go now.”

Gu Chunling was too weak to argue, so she could only be helped out by her daughter.

————

Zhu Liushuang was completely exhausted after that night.

Two long lines of patients formed at the emergency department of the People's Hospital, most of them coughing and having fevers. When it was Gu Chunling's turn, the doctor asked a few simple questions and wrote out several prescriptions.

Blood tests, ultrasounds, nucleic acid tests—you have to queue everywhere.

After the tests are completed, waiting for the results takes a long time.

Near midnight, the nucleic acid test results came back, and it was positive for influenza A.

Zhu Liushuang took several kinds of medicine from the pharmacy window and walked back to the waiting area.

"After you get in the car, please take the special medicine first. The sooner you take it, the more effective it will be..."

Gu Chunling rubbed her hands together and moved to the side, saying, "Xiaoshuang, stay away from Mom." She was afraid of infecting her daughter with the virus.

“I’m wearing a mask… Besides, the hospital is full of viruses, let’s go home quickly!” Zhu Liushuang said helplessly. She helped her mother up, let her lean on her, and slowly walked outside.

By the time I got home, it was already 1 a.m.

After a hasty wash, she collapsed onto the bed and soon fell asleep.

He Ming also suffered greatly that night.

During the day, he received a WeChat message from the attending physician informing him that all the necessary medications had been administered, but Xie Jingzhi's high fever persisted, and the situation was not optimistic.

Just a few days ago, he was excitedly looking forward to taking his grandfather out of the ICU, but now the old man has fallen into a coma again.

In the afternoon, just as he went in to visit, the machine beside the bed suddenly emitted a sharp, piercing hum. Blood oxygen saturation and blood pressure plummeted.

The nurse rushed over to check, her face grave: "Family members, please leave immediately. We need to begin resuscitation."

Immediately afterward, more and more footsteps gathered. He Ming was pushed out by the white wall of people, his eyes blankly fixed on the busy figures of the medical staff inside the glass window, a chill running down his spine.

This reminded him of that bitterly cold winter day when he was fifteen. When the police told him about his mother's death, his world suddenly seemed to plunge into darkness.

Outside the ICU, several family members who had put on protective suits in advance were stopped by nurses at the door.

"Ladies and gentlemen, there is currently a rescue operation inside. Visiting hours will be postponed by half an hour."

The family members seemed used to such scenes and silently dispersed without any objection.

He Ming slowly walked to the wall and slumped down on the ground. The hospital floor emanated a chilling coldness that seemed to seep into his flesh. He covered his face with his hands, trying his best to keep the tears welling up in his eyes from falling.

At this point, "leaving it to fate" became the only thing he could do.

A scene flashed through my mind: an elderly man, covered in tubes, lay lifelessly on a hospital bed, surrounded by medical staff. Adrenaline and a defibrillator were used in turn, and a tug-of-war with death began.

He couldn't bear to look at such a scene, such pain, which his grandfather had endured for over a month.

He Ming began to regret and doubt whether it was right or wrong for him to do everything he could to keep his grandfather alive.

Half an hour later, the sensor door to the ICU opened, and the attending physician came out. He removed his mask and told him in a heavy tone, "Currently, Mr. Xie has been saved. But we cannot guarantee his future condition... The next resuscitation may be in a few hours. In short, you need to be mentally prepared."

The harsh sandpaper scraped against his throat, preventing him from making a sound. He could only nod silently.

"Let's inform your family..." the doctor hesitated, the implication in his words couldn't be clearer.

After the doctor left, He Ming returned to the spot where he had been sitting, took out his phone, but for a moment didn't know who to call.

His phone screen was filled with missed calls—from Zhu Liushuang, Gu Xufeng, Lin Hui, and Ye Xingzhi. But he numbly clicked delete, not calling back a single one of them.

They didn't have many relatives. His maternal grandfather had a younger sister who married and moved to Haishi when she was young. Because of the distance, the two families didn't visit each other very often. On his maternal grandmother's side, after several elderly people passed away, the younger generation had almost no contact. The elderly couple had a son and a daughter; their son died of severe pneumonia when he was one year old. He Ming had only seen this uncle who died young in photographs. As for his mother…

After much deliberation, he called his cousin, who lived in Haishi, hoping they could come as soon as possible to see the old man one last time.

He didn't eat dinner and just stood there blankly outside the ICU until late at night.

A cleaning lady noticed that he was all alone and kindly advised him, "Young man, the floor is cold at night. Why don't you sit on a chair? Don't ruin your health by staying up too late."

But He Ming ignored him, staring blankly at the ceiling like a puppet on a string, motionless.

At midnight, his great-aunt's family arrived from Shanghai, accompanied by his father and Ye Xingzhi.

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Author's Note: Dr. Xie's filming is wrapping up, so sad [chin resting on hand][chin resting on hand]