Chapter 149: Back on Track
"The patient is regaining consciousness..."
"The pupils are constricted and react to light."
"The patient is showing signs of recovery..."
Su Qing heard a noisy sound in her ears and her eyes were illuminated by a strong light. Her consciousness, which had been trapped in darkness, began to slowly loosen.
She tried to open her eyes and wanted to tell those voices to stop, but she could do nothing. Her body seemed to be out of her control. Her consciousness floated above, and she saw her lifeless body lying somewhere cold.
"Blood pressure 90/60, heart rate 108, shortness of breath, on ventilator."
The fragments of memory began to piece together little by little. It seemed that she had been in a car accident...
No......
wrong......
She detonated a nuclear bomb!!!
Su Qing struggled with all her strength, but a huge force pushed her back into her body...
The person lying on the bed suddenly sat up.
She stared straight ahead with unfocused eyes until her body was shaken and a sound gradually reached her ears.
"Xiao Qing! Xiao Qing! Look at me, I am your mother!" A familiar female voice choked with sobs.
"Doctor! Doctor, hurry up, my daughter is awake!"
The intense dizziness made Su Qing's consciousness begin to blur again. She fell back on the bed, her eyelashes trembling. When her vision finally began to clear up, what she saw was the pale ceiling.
"Su Qing, can you hear me?" Someone waved his hand in front of her eyes.
Su Qing looked over and saw several pairs of eyes staring at her with concern.
She tried to nod, but ended up only making a faint grunt in response.
"Don't be anxious, take your time." The doctor in a white coat soothed.
"Xiao Qing..."
Standing next to the doctor was a middle-aged man and woman. Su Qing tried to focus his gaze and recognized the middle-aged woman with tears on her face who was being supported by the man.
"Mom...Mom..." Her voice was hoarse and not like her own.
Mother Su's tears burst out instantly. She rushed forward and held Su Qing's hand tightly, "Thank God! Thank God, you finally woke up..."
After regaining consciousness, Su Qing closed her eyes and looked at her parents again.
They really appeared before her and embraced her.
so......
She is back.
Su Qing sat on a bench downstairs in the inpatient department, staring straight ahead with an unfocused gaze.
It was a week after she woke up.
In the car accident, Su Qing suffered no other injuries except for superficial scratches, but she remained in a coma. Her parents hurried to the city where she was studying and transferred her back to City B. At the best comprehensive medical hospital in China, she underwent a comprehensive examination after consultation with experts and professors from various departments.
But the result is still the same. No one knows what caused Su Qing to fall into a coma. With the existing medical means, doctors can only carry out conservative treatment to maintain her body functions. No one can predict whether she can wake up or when she will wake up.
Su Qing's parents said that he had been in a coma for a month.
But she stayed in another world for a whole year.
Looking at the orderly world in front of her, Su Qing even wondered whether the memories in her mind were just a dream she had while she was unconscious.
During the few days she stayed in the hospital, friends and relatives came to visit her one after another. She looked at the familiar faces, but her heart did not feel too much.
After two more days of observation, the doctor told Su Qing that he was fine and could be discharged at any time.
So her parents took her back home.
Looking at the familiar furnishings in the room and her parents who had aged significantly due to worrying about her for the past month, Su Qing could no longer hold back and hugged them and burst into tears.
"Dad...Mom...I miss you so much." Su Qing's voice was trembling so much that it was almost inaudible.
"Xiaoqing, my Xiaoqing, it's okay. We are going home. Don't be afraid." Mother Su hugged her daughter tightly, gently stroking her back with one hand, and comforted her with sobs.
Father Su surrounded the mother and daughter, his eyes red and his voice low and hoarse, "It's all over..."
"Okay, go change your clothes first. We'll make you your favorite dish. You've been living on nutrient solution and liquid food for the past month, and you've become so thin. Daddy needs to nourish you."
Su Qing sat on the sofa, watching her parents busy in the kitchen, with the long-lost smell of fireworks lingering in her nostrils.
The surrounding environment was so familiar yet strange. She raised her hand to check the time, but found that the bracelet on her hand had disappeared. The empty wrist made her feel a little uncomfortable.
She has been trying to call the system these days, but has received no response, and no interface has appeared in her mind.
"Xiao Qing, what are you daydreaming about?" Mother Su poked her head out of the kitchen, a scallion still clutched in her hand. She smiled and waved, "Go wash your hands quickly. You'll be able to eat soon."
"good......"
When Su Qing finished washing his hands and came to the dining table, it was already full of food.
"Hurry up and sit down, dinner is ready." Mother Su called Su Qing.
Father Su came out of the kitchen wearing an apron and carrying a plate of food. "The last dish is Xiaoqing's favorite sweet and sour spare ribs!"
As soon as the sweet and sour spare ribs were placed on the table, Mother Su picked up a piece and put it into Su Qing's bowl.
"Try your favorite sweet and sour pork ribs."
Su Qing stared blankly at the sweet and sour pork ribs in front of her, tears instantly blurring her vision...
At night, Su Qing sat in front of the bay window, her fingertips gently sliding across the glass.
The voice outside the bedroom door was very low, but every word penetrated her extremely sensitive ears.
"Xiao Qing has been acting weird since she woke up. She often stares blankly at one place. Today, she cried so sadly while looking at the sweet and sour pork ribs. She went back to her room without even eating a few bites of food. Old Su, the more I think about it, the more scared I get. Let's take her to the hospital tomorrow." Mother Su said worriedly.
Father Su sighed, his voice filled with fatigue. "Well, the child has been sleeping for so long, so it's understandable that she might be a little out of place for a while. Didn't the doctor say she needs time to adjust and recover? I think we should wait a little longer. Don't put pressure on her. Let's just continue as usual. If things don't work out, take her out more often."
"I'm just worried about her. I wonder if she has hurt her brain..." Mother Su cried softly.
"Nonsense! We've had it checked so many times in the hospital, and several neurologists said there's nothing wrong! Don't scare yourself."
The voice gradually faded away...
Su Qing rested his forehead against the cold glass and closed his eyes.
Since waking up, there has been no roar of zombies, no horrific scene of blood and flesh flying everywhere, and no busy farming and construction in the base.
Her parents took good care of her, and her relatives and friends visited her from time to time and told her some interesting stories.
Everything was so normal, so normal...it almost suffocated her.
She tried to reintegrate into the world, chat and gossip with her friends again, and wanted to be that ordinary college student again.
But every time when it was late at night and everyone was asleep, she would wake up from a nightmare, with the touch of pressing the nuclear bomb button still lingering on her fingertips and the blazing mushroom cloud still reflected in front of her eyes.
Those memories of struggling to survive in the apocalypse, those days and nights spent building the Dawn Base, those people who fought alongside her, were all these just a long nightmare she had while she was in a coma, or did they really exist?
The sweet and sour smell of the sweet and sour pork ribs at dinner instantly struck the softest corner of her memory.
"Qin Yu..." Su Qing murmured the man's name unconsciously.
A tear silently slid down, leaving a dark mark on the nightgown.
midnight.
Su Qing lay on the bed, staring at the ceiling with his eyes open.
The door was pushed open very lightly, making a slight "click" sound.
Almost at the moment the sound was heard, Su Qing suddenly sat up from the bed and took out the fruit knife hidden under the pillow.
"Who?" she asked in a low voice, with a murderous intent in her voice that she herself didn't even notice, her sharp eyes fixed on the dark shadow at the door.
The dark shadow was obviously frightened by this sudden reaction and froze in place.
"Xiao, Xiaoqing?" It was her mother's voice, full of doubt and uncertainty. "You...why haven't you slept yet?"
With a "click", the ceiling light was turned on. The dazzling light made Su Qing squint uncomfortably and subconsciously raised his hand to block it.
"Oh my God, Xiaoqing, what are you doing with a knife? Lao Su! Lao Su, come here quickly!" Mother Su was so frightened when she saw the cold light in her daughter's clenched hand that her voice suddenly rose. She was at a loss and screamed for Father Su.
Father Su rushed into the room upon hearing the shouts. Seeing his daughter holding a fruit knife in her hand and a vigilant look in her eyes, he was also shocked. He forced himself to remain calm, and walked closer with light steps, "Xiaoqing, be good, give the knife to Daddy."
He lowered his voice and deliberately slowed down his tone, fearing that he would startle his daughter. "Xiao Qing, mom and dad are here, you are safe. Put the knife down, okay?"
Su Qing was stunned for a moment, frowned at the fear and worry on his parents' faces, and silently put the knife in his hand back under the pillow.
"Mom, why are you and I coming to my room so late?"
When Su's mother saw that she put down the knife but put it under the pillow, she was still frightened. She rushed forward and almost snatched the fruit knife out and threw it to Su's father behind her.
"Xiao Qing, what are you doing? What's wrong with you? Is there something you can't tell Mom and Dad?" Mother Su clutched Su Qing's shoulders and burst into tears. "Ever since you woke up in the hospital, you... you've become a completely different person."
Father Su quickly interrupted Mother Su and said, "Alright, alright, you too. What are you doing running into the child's room in the middle of the night? Look how scared you made the child."
"I just wanted to see if she was sleeping well..." Mother Su sobbed aggrievedly.
"Mom, I'm fine." Su Qing lowered her eyelashes and said softly.
She didn't know how to explain her behavior. Should she say she was used to it? In the apocalypse, danger could happen at any time. She always kept a gun beside her when she slept.
Since there was no gun here, she took a fruit knife instead.
If she said this, her mother would probably think she was crazy.
In the next few days, the atmosphere at home became delicate and tense.
Mother Su no longer raided Su Qing's house in the middle of the night, but the look in her eyes when she looked at Su Qing was always filled with worry that she wanted to say but couldn't.
Su's father tried hard to play the role of mediator, taking Su Qing out in various ways, such as taking a walk in the park and shopping in the mall, trying to dilute the strangeness in her with the daily life.
Su Qing cooperated and played the role of a daughter who gradually returned to normal.
She would take a second look at the beautiful dresses in the window, take a sip of the ice cream her father bought, and even take the initiative to chat about hot gossip with friends who came to visit her.
But only she herself knows that nothing can go back to the way it was.
Her perception of her surroundings became extremely sharp: the distance of footsteps, the source of sight, any possible cover in the environment... These skills that she relied on for survival in the apocalypse, now in this peaceful world, became an invisible barrier separating her from everyone else.
That day, she and her mother accompanied relatives who came from afar to the most famous attraction in City B, the Capital Square.
After a stroll out of the square, the crowd walked along Ning'an Street.
When he reached the gate that symbolized the center of national power, Su Qing stopped and looked inside.
A tall man in military uniform with an upright posture flashed past the red screen wall inside the door.
Su Qing's pupils suddenly contracted, and all the blood in his body seemed to freeze at this moment.
That is...
She stepped forward, and two plainclothes officers in black suits in front of the door quickly flashed in front of her and reached out to stop Su Qing.
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