Chapter 481 He has a daughter?
She rushed forward, reached out and grabbed Zhou Mubin's arm tightly, her nails almost digging into the flesh under his suit.
Zhou Mubin was taken aback by the sudden obstruction. His brows furrowed deeply. He looked down at Cui Xiao's pale, bloodless face and her bloodshot yet unusually determined eyes. His tone was full of surprise and suppressed urgency. "Cui Xiao, wake up! What time is it? Your daughter is still inside, her life hanging in the balance. What are you doing? What could be more important than saving your daughter?"
He tried to pull his hand away from hers, but Cui Xiao gripped it even tighter, her knuckles turning bluish-white from the force.
Cui Xiao bit her lower lip hard, her teeth piercing through the thin skin, a faint taste of blood spreading across her tongue.
The stinging pain kept her muddled mind barely clear.
She knew Zhou Mubin was right, but she also knew that once Zhou Mubin donated blood to Xiao Nuomi, the secret hidden for five years would be completely exposed.
She hurriedly pulled out her phone, her fingertips trembling violently from extreme tension.
The contact list on the screen flickered into a blurry blur before her eyes, and she decided to try something else.
Before she could find anyone to help, Zhou Mubin abruptly broke free from her grasp. Without even glancing at her again, he turned and followed the doctor toward the blood collection room.
Upon seeing this, Cui Xiao's heart tightened suddenly, and she almost instinctively lunged forward to block his path.
Cui Xiao glared at him, her voice trembling with suppressed sobs yet still firm, "I said you're not allowed to go, Zhou Mubin, don't you understand? Get out of my sight right now."
Zhou Mubin was completely stunned by these unexpected words.
He slowly turned around, looking at the woman in front of him in disbelief.
Her eyes were red-rimmed, her face still bore traces of tears, and her lips were bitten until they bled, yet her eyes held an almost obsessive resistance.
He couldn't understand why Cui Xiao would do this.
Is it because she feels that accepting his help is a humiliation, and would rather let her daughter take risks than bow her head?
But that was her daughter, the apple of her eye.
Is this so-called self-respect really that important when it comes to a child's life?
Countless questions churned in his mind. He opened his mouth, about to shout out the questions that had been building up in his heart.
The doctor, who had been observing the two of them, suddenly seemed to remember something and quickly stepped forward, placing his hand between them to smooth things over.
"Sir, please calm down and don't get agitated."
The doctor gently patted Zhou Mubin's arm, then turned to look at Cui Xiao, whose face was tense. His tone was a mixture of understanding and helplessness as he explained, "What is your relationship with the child? A biological father cannot donate blood to a child; it can easily trigger graft-versus-host disease. This disease has an insidious onset, and once it develops, the mortality rate is extremely high, posing a greater danger to the child. If you are Xiao Nuomi's biological father, you indeed cannot donate blood for her safety."
The doctor's words struck Zhou Mubin like a thunderbolt.
He stood there stunned for a few seconds, then suddenly turned to look at Cui Xiao.
All the anger, confusion, and grievances from before transformed into overwhelming shock at this moment.
He finally understood that Cui Xiao's resolute decision just now was not out of spite or resentment, but rather because she was hiding a secret.
Cui Xiao turned her face away, not daring to look at his complicated gaze. She could no longer hold back her scalding tears, which slid down her cheeks and splashed onto the phone screen she was clutching tightly, leaving a small water stain.
Her tense body instantly relaxed, her hand gripping the phone fell limply to her sides, and her shoulders trembled slightly involuntarily.
After the initial shock subsided, a surge of lingering fear gripped Zhou Mubin's heart, making it almost impossible for him to breathe.
He glanced up at Cui Xiao, who was standing beside him with her head down and tears streaming down her face.
Five years of estrangement, resentment at being left without a word, and current worries surged in his chest, but he swallowed the words back before he could speak.
Saving my daughter is the priority; all questions and doubts must wait.
He frowned, walked quickly to a quiet spot in the corridor, and took out his phone. His fingertips were still trembling as he slid his fingers across the screen and dialed a number precisely.
Zhou Mubin deliberately lowered his voice but couldn't hide his urgency. "Immediately contact the director of the city blood bank and use all our connections to find the core cooperative donors of AB type blood. Within half an hour, I need the blood with the highest matching degree to be delivered to the emergency department of the city hospital."
As he hung up the phone, his knuckles turned bluish-white from the force. His gaze unconsciously swept towards the ward, where it met Cui Xiaowang's eyes before quickly looking away.
He didn't say a word throughout, but his decisive actions clearly demonstrated his stance.
Less than forty minutes later, hurried footsteps came from the end of the emergency room corridor. Two nurses pushed a treatment cart with blood bags on it and walked quickly. The "match successful" label on the blood bags was particularly eye-catching.
As the nurse pushed the blood bag into the emergency room and the heavy door slowly closed, Cui Xiao's tense body completely collapsed.
Her legs buckled, and her back slammed heavily against the cold wall. She slid down the wall and sat down on the ground, covering her face with her hands. The sobs she had been suppressing for so long finally escaped through her fingers.
Tears streamed down her face like beads from a broken string, quickly soaking her clothes.
On a bench outside the emergency room, the two stood facing each other in silence, three meters apart, the air thick with the smell of disinfectant and awkwardness.
Zhou Mubin leaned against the opposite wall, took out a cigarette case from his pocket, then remembered that he was in a hospital, and clenched it in his hand in frustration.
Cui Xiao kept her head down, her fingers unconsciously twisting the hem of her clothes. Occasionally, she would glance in his direction, then quickly look away.
Time ticked by in the dead silence until evening, when the red light in the emergency room finally went out. The attending physician took off his mask, breathed a sigh of relief, and said, "The child is out of danger."
Cui Xiao, as if utterly exhausted, was helped to her feet by the nurse. She staggered into the ward and stayed by her daughter's bedside without leaving her side. She carefully held her daughter's warm little hand, as if she would lose something if she let go.
Zhou Mubin did not go in, but stood guard outside the ward, leaning against the cold wall with his hands in his suit pockets.
The smell of disinfectant was particularly strong in the corridor, and the chill of the night seeped into his skin through his suit, but he was completely unaware.
His gaze was fixed on the small glass window on the ward door, peering through the blurry glass at the figures of the mother and daughter inside.
The image of Cui Xiao's resolute demeanor five years ago, and her pale yet delicate face on the hospital bed, repeatedly overlapped in my mind.
My heart felt like it was filled to the brim with something, both sore and swollen, and even breathing was a little painful.
He became a father.
This realization was like a sudden ray of light, cleaving through the gloom and loneliness of the past five years, filling his chest with a warmth he had never felt before.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com