Rough version of amputation surgery
People say seeing is believing, and I've heard it all and seen it all. Yu Zhongjian himself clearly distinguished between me and the "girl he admires." So why is he jealous? Unless the person he admires is Gao Chen, and he's jealous of me, I have no reason to believe that his strange behavior is due to jealousy.
Han Bo, a man who has had seven relationships, has lost all credibility with me. He won't help me keep an eye on people, so I'll do it myself. Moreover, I've decided to scoff at all his opinions on relationships from now on.
The dying base commander and Captain Lin were placed on the prisoners' truck. Before setting off, Grandpa Tang went to check on them and basically agreed with Yu Zhongjian's assessment. The base commander was beyond saving and could die at any moment. If antibiotics could be found and his right arm could be amputated, Old Lin would have a glimmer of hope.
We had no antibiotics, only a few boxes of cold medicine, fever reducers, and heatstroke prevention drops that we found in villagers' homes along the way. Creating an environment suitable for surgery in the middle of nowhere was nothing short of a pipe dream. In other words, not only Lao Lin, but everyone who was injured or sick on the way to Beijing had to endure it, relying on their own immune system to recover.
I was dizzy from the sun, but I still insisted on staying with Gao Chen and Xiao Zhang on the truck to take care of the wounded. I gave them both some water, but they couldn't eat any of the dry rations. When the truck bumped along the road, Lao Lin could still groan a couple of times, but the base commander just drifted along without any reaction.
Liu Sicheng and the boy named Peng Di slumped against the car door, dejected, muttering, "Is there no hope? Is there really no hope?"
No one answered him. Zhang Yanhuang sighed repeatedly. Gao Chen took off his coat and held it over the heads of the wounded to shield them from the sun. The prisoners sat in two rows behind the front of the vehicle, watching this scene, occasionally whispering a few words, their eyes filled with lingering fear and relief.
Actually, I feel fortunate. If I had reacted slower, if I had run slower, today either I would be crying for others, or others would be crying for me. Both Yangcheng and Fengcheng had survivors who died in the bombing, and there must have been others like Lao Lin who were injured by the blast and crushed, buried under the bricks and soil, unknown to anyone. Severely injured but not dying immediately, stubbornly breathing, struggling in the darkness, despairing, enduring the pain until their last breath.
Old Lin and the base commander were fortunate to have met two people who never abandoned them; however, their unwavering support could not save them from their impending death.
These associations make me very uncomfortable. After the outbreak, hundreds of millions of people in Huaicheng and even across the country turned into zombies overnight. Before there is evidence that the source of the disease was released by humans, we can tentatively regard it as a natural disaster. Natural disasters have already caused heavy losses to humanity, yet some people who "put the greater good first" are creating a predicament for humans, killing so many survivors. They are despicable and hateful.
So, even if you're just an elephant's leg, we little ants still have to take a bite out of you, capital city.
Thirty kilometers from Baicheng, the base commander died. Before he died, blood kept gushing from his nose and mouth, bright red blood mixed with small chunks of unidentified substance, his neck and chest almost completely submerged in the blood. After vomiting blood, he started vomiting blood foam. When the blood foam was gone, he quietly tilted his head, never opening his eyes or uttering a single word.
Therefore, the entire team stopped, and Zhang Yanhuang and Liu Sicheng carried his body down and placed it in a dry ditch covered with weeds by the roadside. They shoveled a few shovelfuls of soil on top of it, saving him from the tragic fate of being left to rot in the wilderness.
Shortly after the car restarted, Liu Sicheng touched Lao Lin's forehead. Because he had been exposed to the open sun, it was impossible to tell if he had a fever. Lao Lin's face was bluish-black, his features were swollen, and the blood on his right arm wound had congealed, looking like a murky blob, much thicker than his left arm.
After touching him, Xiao Liu seemed to have made up his mind and said to Gao Chen, "Company Commander Gao, this can't go on. When we get to Baicheng to rest, please ask that old doctor to amputate Captain Lin's leg."
Gao Chen frowned: "The conditions are too rudimentary. There's no alcohol, no anesthesia, no blood transfusion equipment, and we can't even give him an anti-inflammatory drug. Do you know what amputation means? He could die immediately."
Liu Sicheng said with a straight face: "He would have died even if I hadn't stopped him, and he would have died even more painfully. His family is gone, I saved his life, and I will stand up for him."
Gao Chen glanced at me, and I thought he was going to ask for my opinion. I was just about to say, "Let's just cut it off, we'll try anything," when he picked up the walkie-talkie and reported the matter to Yu Zhongjian... Well, I'm still in the process of stepping down and handing over the reins, so making decisions and giving orders isn't my responsibility. He's always been a very rule-abiding person. I really wanted to tell him to be careful, that guy surnamed Yu might set a trap for him. He was probably thinking about how to cause trouble, but unexpectedly, Yu Zhongjian readily agreed.
Baicheng was not spared either. Like us, it was a fellow countryman on the same northern line, and was bombed to the point that houses collapsed and no one was found. We continued to clear the roads, search for resources in the surrounding area, and take turns shouting messages. At the same time, we set up a makeshift tent on the truck with plastic sheeting for Grandpa Tang to perform the amputation surgery on Old Lin.
Grandpa Tang was furious: "This is utter nonsense! I will never have this surgery."
I grabbed his arm to stop him from leaving: "Are you just going to watch him die?"
"Death? He might live a few more days without surgery, but he'll die on the spot!" He reached for the plastic sheeting and sneered, "What is this? What kind of junk is this? Where's the sterilization? Where's the anesthesia? Where are the instruments? Performing surgery in the truck bed, without even a hemostat, what am I supposed to do? Chop with an axe?"
Liu Sicheng stared blankly: "Just cut him. You're a doctor, so you'll be more accurate than us. Whether he lives or dies after you've cut him depends on his fate."
"Nonsense! Nonsense!" Old Tang shook his head angrily. "Just because you cut off the necrotic limb doesn't mean everything will be fine! If the severed limb isn't treated properly, it will still die and cause poisoning. Now there's nothing there, how can we treat it? Do you think that after cutting it off, you can just leave it lying here with a large open wound and it will heal on its own? That's ridiculous!"
Liu Sicheng lowered his head and stopped speaking. Even a skilled cook can't cook without rice; we all understood Old Tang's concerns, but this wasn't a choice. I grabbed Old Tang's shoulder and said, "Grandpa, he's going to die anyway. Under the limited conditions, please amputate his arm as professionally as possible. Don't worry about bacterial infections or anything like that. If he recovers, that's a miracle; if he doesn't, and he dies, that's expected, and no one will blame you."
Grandpa Tang rolled his eyes: "I'm a doctor, not a butcher. What you're describing is how you slaughter pigs and cattle, I don't know how to do that!"
Three men walked over and listened silently for a while. Gao Chen then said, "Forget it, don't force Dr. Tang. Xiao Liu, wipe away the blood, give him some water, and make him more comfortable."
Yu Zhongjian, who had been indifferent and unconcerned, suddenly said upon hearing Gao Chen's words, "Old Tang, we have plenty of knives, axes, and saws. Burn some liquor to disinfect them, but be careful not to cut the artery. After you're done, tie it up with a belt, and leave the rest to fate."
Grandpa Tang panicked: "Captain Yu, this won't do..."
“That’s settled then. You’re the only professional doctor in the team. Your time to be tested has come. Regardless of whether the surgery can be completed in two hours, the convoy will depart.” He left these words without room for argument, then turned and swayed away.
Old Tang and I stared at each other. I shrugged, and Old Tang stomped his foot angrily: "You make it sound so simple, just cut it up and tie it with a belt! You're testing me, I think you're just trying to make things difficult for me!"
Han Bo winked at him: "So, are you going to do it or not? If you're not going to..."
Old Tang slapped his palms and shouted at me, "Dr. Qi, are you going to do anything about this? He's threatening me!"
I said I couldn't help: "If my leg were healed, I could understand your difficulties, but now I'm a cripple and can't do anything. Captain Yu is stubborn and ruthless, so you should listen to him."
From that day on, Lao Tang came to check on me every day, tapping and probing here and there. After confirming that I was completely pain-free, he encouraged me to boldly throw away my crutches and walk again, and then urged me to seize the time to regain leadership of the team.
The grueling amputation surgery was finally performed. Without any proper medicine or equipment, and with the operating room completely drafty, Old Tang's only permitted request was a cup of scalding hot, strong tea. Apart from Liu Meili, who assisted him throughout the entire process, no one else dared approach the truck bed.
We're worldly people; we've faced, killed, dismembered, and even gutted all sorts of zombies, so you'd think we'd long since banished fear from our minds. But when Old Lin suddenly let out a piercing scream, I was genuinely terrified, my hands went numb, my legs went weak, and my heart pounded with fear. The onlookers, their faces filled with terror, all fled to avoid seeing or hearing anything.
It wasn't a zombie that was severed, but the arm of a living person. Without anesthesia, it was all done through sheer willpower. The scream was filled with intense, tangible pain, so cruel and brutal that no one could bear to hear it.
I don't remember how long that "operation" lasted, but I do remember that when Yu Zhongjian announced the departure, Grandpa Tang just crawled out of the plastic shed, covered in splattered blood. For the first time ever, he asked for a cigarette, stood on the truck bed with his hands on his hips, and fiercely smoked it like a shrewd butcher.
Several members of the medical team took turns caring for Lao Lin for several days. He endured fever and inflammation, screaming, convulsions, and fainting spells in extremely harsh conditions, suffering unbearable pain, but ultimately he did not die. Of course, he did not recover either; he just lingered half-dead in the vehicle, conscious for five minutes and unconscious for ten hours.
After passing through Baicheng, I received another pledge of allegiance: sixteen men, four guns, and seven bags of rice totaling 1,400 jin (approximately 750 kg). Upon entering Yucheng in S Province, I received yet another pledge: twenty-two men. Yes, only twenty-two men, no rice, no weapons, just a meager amount of dry rations and water. If Yu Zhongjian hadn't said that all twenty-two were able-bodied young men, useful for a group fight, I would have really wanted to abandon them and run away. Who knows when a fight would even start, and I'd have to feed them the whole way—it would be a terrible waste.
As the convoy grew longer and the number of people increased, Yu Zhongjian decided to save time and move forward at full speed, no longer taking detours on national and provincial highways, and heading directly to Beijing via the Yujing Expressway.
This decision was made after reconnaissance. The bombers weren't entirely without merit; after wreaking havoc on Yucheng, they also bombed the densely packed zombie hordes on the highway. Although the once comfortable asphalt concrete road was now a rugged rural dirt road, the absence of a large number of zombies allowed the convoy to finally move forward smoothly.
Once you're on the highway, you can't stay overnight in small villages to cook; you have to stop at roadside service areas. The advantage is that you can get fuel and supplies, use the restrooms, and if you find a large service area with a hotel, you can even stretch out your legs and take a nap. The disadvantage is that there are quite a few zombies in every nook and cranny of the service areas, so you always have to wield your big sword and kill a few times before resting. This is where having more young and strong men comes in handy; a team of hundreds of men can go in and clear them out, and the battle can usually be over in less than three minutes.
Like a flock of migratory birds, we moved from the south to the north in weather that alternates between two seasons in a single day; like a group of displaced refugees, without a fixed abode, we overcame a series of difficulties such as zombie invasions, extreme heat and cold, lack of medical care and medicine, dust and filth, shortage of clean water, and scarcity of food. Guided by planes that appeared every now and then, one day at the end of December, we saw the towering lightning rod on the hundredth floor of the Jinghua Building, a landmark building in the capital.
People got off the bus one after another, looked northward, held hands excitedly, and their faces were full of joy—I guessed it, they were all so dirty that you couldn't tell their original faces, but they should have been happy. Why suffer and endure hardship? Wasn't it all for this day?
After being a cripple for over a month, my fracture has completely healed, and my speed, strength, and explosive power are even greater than before. I feel like I could start practicing the Shadowless Kick. Grabbing a walking stick, I quickly climbed onto the truck, then nimbly scrambled onto the cab. Standing on the high ground, gazing into the distance, I let out the most hearty laugh I had in two months, exclaiming with boundless pride, "Hahaha! Comrades, we've arrived! Those big shots in the city are going to have nightmares tonight! Follow me into the city!"
"Everyone get on the bus, turn around, and retreat fifty kilometers to meet at the Lizhou service area." An annoying voice interrupted my enthusiasm, not giving me a chance to rally everyone.
"Hey!" I pointed my gun at him. "What are you doing? We're heading straight into the city after exiting the highway. Why are you backing up?"
He looked up at me and gave me a perfunctory smile: "I'll tell you later."
People boarded the bus again, turning it around without hesitation; obeying his orders had become a habit. And what about me? Who still remembers that I was the acting team leader? The survivors who joined later all called me Doctor Qi, just like the old man. But when they said it, the word "doctor" seemed to be gradually taking on a literal meaning. People often asked me what to do about liver pain, gallbladder pain, kidney pain, or a side stitch...
I jumped off the front of the car and sat down on the side of the curb next to a dark, humanoid figure. I casually asked, "Old Lin, how's your left-hand practice going?"
The dark-skinned man was Captain Lin. As a seriously wounded and ill soldier, he had never received any special treatment. Apart from sleeping in rooms at a few service areas for a few days, he spent most of his time in the open cargo bed, exposed to the wind and sun until he was unrecognizable, even worse off than the prisoners in the same truck.
Yu Zhongjian ignored him; only Gao Chen and Zhang Yanhuang regularly came to offer their help. This man, without any resources—no gun, no food, and no healthy body—didn't make any demands. He simply stayed quietly in the car, letting the pure air and wild wind heal his wounds. Even so, he didn't die; his vitality was astonishing.
He raised his half-severed arm, which was bandaged up, and said, "What's the point of training? I've lost my arm and my leg is broken. I'm just a useless person."
"Our team doesn't support useless people. If you eat one more cookie, I eat one less. If you don't contribute anything, why should I let you eat?"
“I can choose not to eat,” he said, his eyes dimming. “You can abandon me anytime. I don’t understand why you have to save me. I should have died long ago.”
He didn't want to live. After regaining his senses, he tried to commit suicide several times by crawling towards the car while it was speeding by, but Liu Sicheng dragged him back each time.
I scoffed: "What's wrong? You don't want to live anymore just because you're disabled? You're over forty years old, have some self-respect, will you? If you go to the underworld and see your mother-in-law, she'll point her finger at you and yell, 'Kid, you haven't even avenged me for being blown up, and you still dare to come down here to see me?'"
Old Lin covered his face with his left hand, his breath trembling as he gasped for air. After a while, he calmed down and asked, "How did you know my mother-in-law was killed in the bombing?"
"Liu Sicheng said that the reason you stood out and performed well at the Luo Shiqi base, doing jobs that others were unwilling to do, was so that your mother-in-law, your wife, and your son could live a better life."
Mentioning these three people, Old Lin could no longer maintain his feigned calm and broke down, pounding his chest and crying: "I worked myself to the bone to protect them for more than half a year, and they were all blown up like this. My son, he was only eleven years old! Waaaaah!"
I patted him on the shoulder: "So you don't want an explanation? Don't you want revenge? If you don't hurry up and practice your left hand, can you even lift a knife to kill your enemy? It's easy to die but hard to live. As a man, I think you should challenge yourself with something difficult. Then you'll be able to hold your head high when you meet your mother-in-law in the future."
I only chatted casually for a few minutes before getting off the truck; I wasn't intentionally trying to give Lao Lin any pessimistic advice. So, as soon as the truck stopped, I jumped off without looking back. Whether he was inspired and became more spirited, or whether it hit a nerve and made him even more despondent, I don't care. Adults are responsible for themselves.
Lizhou is considered a suburban county of the capital, less than 30 kilometers away by expressway. We did not exit the expressway, but stopped the convoy at the service area closest to the Lizhou exit, and listened to Commander Yu's instructions on the next work plan.
“We don’t know the situation in the capital. We don’t know how many bases there are, who commands them, or the number and equipment of the armed groups. It’s not appropriate for a large group of people to rush into the inner city of the capital. They are very likely to be intercepted and separated by armed forces and sent to different bases or areas. We need to send people in to investigate first. So we’ll settle in the service area for a few days and formulate a detailed petitioning plan after the investigation is completed.”
With no objections from the crowd, I raised my hand and asked, "What kind of reconnaissance are we talking about? Are we sneaking in to conduct reconnaissance, or are we openly defecting to the base and infiltrating the enemy's ranks to conduct reconnaissance?"
Yu Zhongjian said solemnly, "First, we'll sneak in and investigate. If we're discovered, we'll openly defect to the base. This mission is quite difficult and will be carried out by Gao Chen, Zhou Yi, Lai Yunfei, and me."
Zhang Yanhuang and I raised our hands at the same time and said in unison, "I'll go too."
Yu Zhongjian said, "Xiao Zhang has another task. Qi Aifeng is responsible for leading the team at the service area and settling the people in."
Lai Yunfei can go but I can't? You're getting a little cocky, kid!
"I don't want to! I want to go ahead and scout!" I stepped forward and shouted, "If you don't agree, I will officially revoke your command from today onwards!"
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