Chapter 421 The Power of Growth
The atmosphere inside was so warm and inviting that it brought tears to my eyes.
Su Yue leaned back in her chair, watching the family.
The wind was still blowing outside, rustling the coconut trees, but the lights inside made everyone's faces feel warm.
This is the kind of everyday life she wanted.
The next morning, just as dawn was breaking.
Su Yue drove the jeep, taking Chu Jingya and Yang Yiyi to the military dependents' farm in the west.
The farm had changed dramatically by then.
The once barren salt flats are now divided into neat squares by windbreaks.
The greenhouses stretched out in a row, their white plastic sheets reflecting the sunlight.
The clucking of chickens echoed from the distant henhouse, the most authentic noise of life.
Chu Jingya stood on the edge of the field, holding a sketchbook in her hand, but hesitated to put pen to paper.
She looked at the military wives working in the fields.
Cuihua, wearing a patched old coat, was pruning the sea buckthorn bushes.
Those hands were as rough as tree bark, yet their movements were as gentle as if they were embroidering.
Sweat streamed down her face and dripped into the soil. She wiped it away, a bright smile spreading across her face, and shouted something to the people next to her.
"Why aren't you drawing?" Su Yue stood next to her and handed her a bottle of water.
“I don’t know how to draw it.” Chu Jingya shook her head. “When I was in the cultural troupe, I drew heroes, perfect and all-encompassing figures. Back then, I felt that life was just a spotlight on a stage.”
She pointed to Cuihua in the distance: "But look at them. There are no spotlights, no flowers or applause, not even a decent piece of clothing. But they stand there like a tree, rooted in the soil, unyielding to the wind and rain."
“That’s life.” Yang Yiyi walked over, supporting her back. “Su Yue once said something that I think makes a lot of sense. She said that true heroism is to love life even after recognizing its true nature.”
Chu Jingya was stunned.
Looking at this desolate yet vibrant land, and at the women who were working so hard for a few work points, she suddenly felt the baby in her belly move.
That was a response to vitality.
“I’m going to draw this.” Chu Jingya opened her sketchbook, picked up a charcoal pencil, and said, “I’m going to draw a series of illustrations. I’ll call it ‘The Power of Growth’.”
The charcoal pencil scratched across the paper.
The lines depict the bent backs of the military wives, the stubborn branches of the sea buckthorn tree, and the indomitable spirit of this land.
Su Yue didn't disturb her and turned to check the egg production in the chicken coop for the day.
The day after returning from Red Star Farm, Su Yue changed out of her mud-covered work pants and put on a clean white lab coat.
Conference Room No. 3, Provincial Military Region General Hospital.
The air was filled with a musty smell of tobacco and a strong odor of disinfectant.
The heavy blackout curtains were drawn tightly shut, and an old-fashioned slide projector hummed, projecting sheets of film filled with data onto the mottled wall.
The audience was packed.
The first row is Commander Zheng, along with several leaders from the Provincial Health Department.
The back rows were filled with department heads from the military hospital, as well as experts and professors who had come from the provincial medical university.
Su Yue stood in the light and shadow, holding a pointer in her hand.
"This is the final pathology report that came back from Hong Kong Sanatorium & Hospital last week."
Her pointer tapped on a series of line graphs on the wall. The red lines represented bacterial load, and the blue lines represented white blood cell count.
The two lines intersected abruptly at a certain point.
"Patient Lin Jiahao, male, five years old. He was infected with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, which led to sepsis and multiple organ failure. After intravenous injection of 'Hunter-9' phage stock solution, his body temperature dropped within six hours, and his bacterial load decreased by 99% within twenty-four hours. He was out of danger three days later, and all his indicators have now returned to normal."
Su Yue put down her teaching pointer and turned off the slide projector.
The lights came on, so bright they hurt your eyes.
The conference room was deathly silent, followed by a collective gasp of shock.
Several elderly professors pushed up their thick-rimmed glasses and stared at the film, as if trying to see a hole through the wall.
"This...this is practically pulling someone back from the jaws of death!" The head of pediatrics, Old Zhang, was so excited his beard trembled, and his pen poked a hole in his notebook. "Director Su, is this data...guaranteed to be authentic?"
“I’m willing to make a pledge.” Su Yue pushed a thick clinical report to the center of the table. “This is the joint signature of three attending physicians from Hong Kong Sanatorium & Hospital, and the seal of the Hong Kong Notary Office.”
Commander Zheng picked up the report, flipped through a few pages, and slammed it shut.
"Comrades, I don't know medicine, but I know how to fight." Commander Zheng looked around and said in a loud voice, "Bacteria are also enemies, and invisible enemies at that. Since Director Su has guns that can win battles, we can't let them rust in the warehouse!"
He stood up, placed his hands on the table, and leaned forward.
"I propose we immediately launch the Phase II clinical trial of 'Hunter-9.' This time, let's skip the formalities and get down to business. Where should we focus? I think we should target pediatrics!"
"Pediatrics?" A provincial leader hesitated for a moment. "Commander Zheng, children's immune systems are not fully developed. Isn't the risk too great? What if something goes wrong..."
“It’s precisely because the child can’t take it that we need to save him!” Su Yue interrupted him. “You all know better than I do about the current overuse of antibiotics. If penicillin doesn’t work, we use streptomycin; if streptomycin doesn’t work, we use tetracycline. By the time we’ve tried all the drugs, the child will have been eaten up by the bacteria.”
She pulled a photograph out of her briefcase.
It was a child who had just turned three years old, with tubes inserted all over his body, and his skin was a terrible grayish-purple color due to severe infection.
“This patient was transferred up from a county town yesterday afternoon. He has a pneumococcal infection and is drug-resistant. The doctor issued a critical condition notice, and he's lying in the ICU waiting to die right now.” Su Yue posted the photo on the blackboard. “We can afford to wait, but he can’t.”
The meeting room fell silent again.
"Let's do it!" Old Zhang slammed his hand on the table and stood up abruptly. "If anything goes wrong, I, as the director, will take the blame! As long as we can save one life, it's worth losing this official hat!"
"I agree!"
I second that!
Hands were raised.
Commander Zheng nodded in satisfaction: "Good! It's settled then. Comrade Su Yue, you're in full charge of this mission. Give us the manpower and the money. I only have one request: get those kids back for me!"
"Yes!" Su Yue stood at attention and saluted.
...
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