Life is Like a Journey – Chapter 74
by Little PandaVolume 2: Inheritance
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The Most Horrific Scene in History
Before even reaching the subway station, there was several meters deep water accumulation under the overpass. A private car was completely submerged, and traffic police were directing traffic in the pouring rain. Yu Gui wanted to take a few more steps forward to see if there was anyone still in the car.
Before she could move, a patrolling police officer wearing a raincoat came to disperse the onlookers: “The road ahead is severely flooded, and the subway has stopped operating! With such heavy rain today, don’t go to work. Hurry home and stay there!”
Yu Gui pressed her lips tightly, her socks already soaked through her rain boots. She took two steps back to avoid the congested crowd.
Forget it, she thought, I’ll take the bus instead.
“Due to the influence of Typhoon Morocco, the southeastern coastal areas of our country have experienced widespread rainfall for over twenty days, with Jinzhou City and its surrounding areas being particularly severely affected. According to reports, the rainfall in Jinzhou City from the early hours of yesterday to this morning has exceeded 200 millimeters. Many main roads in the urban area are severely waterlogged, and the subway has been urgently suspended. Relevant departments remind you to close your doors and windows, prepare for strong winds, lightning, and other severe weather conditions, and try to minimize going out…”
Early in the morning, an emergency meeting was held in the hospital. While other units would suspend work and classes in such extreme weather, only the hospital not only operated as usual but also opened a green channel. Since last night, the emergency department alone had treated more than twenty patients with drowning, falls, electric shocks, and other injuries.
Another tough battle, Hao Renjie walked out of the conference room yawning, just about to sneak back to his office for breakfast when Lu Qingshi tapped his head from behind with a medical record folder.
“Get to work, give me the nursing handover report.”
He had to follow her to do rounds with a bitter face, reporting in detail how the situations from last night’s night shift were handled.
Standing once again at the entrance of Renji Medical University First Affiliated Hospital, Yu Gui looked up at the steel monster standing under the gray sky, silently giving herself encouragement.
Just as she was about to step onto the stairs, an ambulance brushed past her.
“Make way, make way! Doctor, doctor, save him quickly!” Her familiar colleagues ran out pushing a wheeled bed in the heavy rain.
As one ambulance just left the parking area, the green channel opened again, and another ambulance from the city center hospital drove in.
“Male patient, 25 years old, electrocuted by a leaking electric pole while walking in floodwater, Glasgow Coma Scale E2V1M2, please help!”
“Don’t worry, one, two, three, lift!”
The medical staff worked together to lift the unconscious male patient onto the wheeled bed.
As Yu Gui watched, she felt a surge of emotion deeply buried in her blood, making her eyes well up. However, she knew that there was no place for her here anymore. From the moment she submitted her resignation to the medical affairs office, everything happening in the emergency center was no longer related to her.
The young woman quickly withdrew her gaze, pulled up her mask, and slipped into the outpatient hall.
Lu Qingshi, leading a group of people, hurriedly brushed past her. The doctor’s face was cold, her eyes as serious and focused as ever.
“Arrange for those who can be discharged to leave quickly, free up the beds.”
“There will only be more patients coming for treatment later. Once diagnosed, immediately let the various departments take them away. No need to keep minor injuries, those in the observation room can be transferred to regular outpatient if there’s no issue after half a day. Save resources for those who need more help. Remember to be careful and cautious in diagnosing conditions. If unsure, report to the superior doctor.”
Lu Qingshi walked while holding a thick stack of lab reports and test results that needed signing. Her steps didn’t stop, nor did her pen, as she gave instructions while walking.
The elevator doors closed, leaving only half of her beautiful profile visible. Yu Gui pressed the button, and the elevator slowly started, heading towards the hematology department.
When the needle pierced her skin, Yu Gui suddenly tensed up. The nurse patted her arm and comforted her softly, “Don’t be nervous, it’ll be over soon.”
Yu Gui nodded, watching the dark red blood flow back into the test tube. She anxiously lowered her sleeve, took the receipt, and sat on the long bench in the corridor, anxiously waiting for a result.
“How is it today?” Chemotherapy drugs kill cancer cells while also damaging normal physiological tissues. A month after admission, Dai Yuchen’s bone cancer had metastasized to her lungs, and she was put on a ventilator.
Because time was tight today, Lu Qingshi couldn’t talk to her much. She felt her forehead; the temperature was a bit high. She instructed the nurse to watch her carefully and observe for a while longer. If it didn’t improve, they would use antipyretic medication.
Just as she was about to leave, the little girl grabbed her wrist. The white breath she exhaled fogged up the oxygen mask.
“Dr. Lu… will I die?”
Lu Qingshi bent down and placed her palm over the girl’s eyes: “If you listen, you won’t.”
Coming out of the special care ward, Hao Renjie quickly followed beside her: “Remember that old man who was hit by an electric bike last time? It’s been so long, he’s still staying in the hospital without paying, and the family won’t even leave us a phone number. Feels like they’re treating us as a nursing home!”
“Are the test results out? Let me take a look,” Lu Qingshi reached out, and he handed over the medical record.
Glancing at it under the hallway’s fluorescent lights, Lu Qingshi stuffed the chest X-ray back into his arms.
“Call the police and let them handle it.”
In the past, only the outpatient hall and emergency department of Renji Medical University Hospital were bustling with people every day. Today, unusually, even non-clinical departments like the laboratory were filled with anxious patients and family members waiting for results.
Yu Gui gave up her seat to a pregnant woman and stood up, walking to the glass curtain wall. The rain on the floor-to-ceiling windows formed lines, creating a huge rain screen. In the distance, the Jingji Building was hidden in the gray clouds. Below, at the hospital entrance, vehicles came and went, with ambulances constantly dropping off severely injured patients. The medical staff had all turned into small white dots busy at work.
She saw Hao Renjie pushing a wheeled bed into the pouring rain.
“What’s the situation, how did he get injured so severely?!”
The pre-hospital emergency doctor who brought him was wearing a raincoat, covered in mud from head to toe.
“Collapse! The tunnel collapsed! The Changping Tunnel, more than 40 kilometers away from Jinzhou City, has collapsed!”
Hao Renjie’s whole body shook. Without bothering to wipe the rain from his face, he knelt on the wheeled bed, squeezing the air bag: “Quick, quick, send him to the resuscitation room, and ask Sister Lu to come over!”
Blood, the blood flowing from the stretcher spread from the parking area all the way to the steps. Yu Gui was watching intently when suddenly someone called her name.
“Yu Gui, who’s Yu Gui?! Your test results are out!”
She turned her head to look at the thin piece of paper waving in the nurse’s hand, swallowed hard, and hesitated to step forward.
The TV was still on in the ward. The old man lay in bed with his injured leg elevated, swaying his head along with the opera.
Someone in the ward found it noisy and picked up the remote to change the channel. He was about to curse loudly but was drawn in by the female host’s gentle and pleasant voice.
“Alright, now that we’ve finished talking about the disaster, let’s switch to some lighter content, shall we? During the Mid-Autumn Festival when various industries are starting to take holidays, there’s a group of people who work tirelessly day and night, sticking to their posts. They’ve finally managed to complete the Changping Tunnel from Feng County to Jinzhou City ahead of the original end-of-month schedule. With this, the Feng-Jin Expressway is now fully connected, giving us Jinzhou residents another great place to escape the summer heat! Our station’s reporter brings you a live report from the scene!”
The reporter, wearing a raincoat and holding an umbrella, appeared on the screen: “Despite the rain today, it hasn’t dampened people’s enthusiasm for travel. On the first day of the Feng-Jin Expressway’s opening, there are already hundreds of tourists who drove from Jinzhou to play, as well as young students coming for autumn outings…”
A tour bus came into view, with elementary school students in uniforms, carrying backpacks and wearing red scarves, jumping and skipping around the small shop at the highway entrance, making their final food purchases.
After entering the Changping Tunnel, it’s all mountains, so many tourists choose to buy things here.
One after another, private cars, vans, large trucks, and tour buses entered the immeasurable tunnel. The rain got heavier and heavier, and danger extended its tentacles in the darkness, ready to devour everything.
“Why is it so dark? Honey, turn on the ceiling light,” the woman sitting in the passenger seat was painting her nails and had smeared some on the back of her hand.
The man impatiently turned on the ceiling light: “Isn’t it always like this in tunnels? Why are you painting your nails while sitting in the car? With all this shaking, don’t get it on the seat!”
As soon as he finished speaking, the car in front suddenly braked hard, slowing down. The man cursed and quickly turned the steering wheel to the left.
“Damn, don’t you know how to drive?!”
The woman yelped “Ouch!” as the nail polish bottle flew from her hand and fell onto the floor mat.
A pungent smell spread, and the man looked at her with disgust: “I told you not to paint, but you insisted. You’re washing the car when we get home!”
The woman unbuckled her seatbelt and reached out to pick it up: “It’s because we’re going to meet your parents, and I wanted to look nice to make you proud.”
“Come on, who has nothing better to do than look at your nails?” The man said this, but a hint of a smile appeared at the corner of his lips.
“Did you pick it up? Quickly fasten your seatbelt—” He was driving while glancing at her side.
“Did you hear that? What’s that sound?” The woman bent down, her hand not yet touching the nail polish bottle. In the dim light of the car, she saw the transparent glass bottle trembling slightly, along with small pebbles on the floor mat.
The rumbling sound in her ears became clearer, like thunder.
The man turned on the radio: “Is it starting to rain outside again?”
The woman picked up the nail polish bottle and sat up. A rock the size of a fist hit the car window with a loud bang, leaving yellowish mud on the clean glass.
The woman began to scream, and the man turned his head to shout at her: “Are you trying to get us killed, you idiot! What are you screaming for?!”
Before he finished speaking, a huge shadow appeared in front of the windshield.
The small black dot in their pupils gradually became clearer, and an enormous boulder crashed heavily onto the hood of the car.
All screams were choked in their throats.
“Alright, now we’ve arrived at the entrance of the Changping Tunnel. As you can see behind me, the vehicles waiting to enter the tunnel have formed a long queue…” The camera panned back, the rain getting heavier. A clap of thunder sounded in the sky, and the female reporter had to raise her voice to speak.
A bus full of students slowly drove past her into the tunnel.
“The person next to me is the chief engineer responsible for the construction of the Changping Tunnel. Let’s interview him.”
The reporter held the microphone out to the young man wearing a safety helmet beside her, but instead of answering her question, the man turned his gaze towards the majestic mountains.
The thunder seemed to echo in the valley, getting stronger and stronger. An abnormal earthy yellow color appeared where the distant mountain range met the sky, and that splash of yellow rushed down with lightning speed.
The young engineer’s eyes widened suddenly, and he shielded the reporter beside him with one arm: “Get down, watch out!”
“Ah!” A scream tore through the screen, followed by a harsh static sound, and the communication was cut off. The camera screen went fuzzy.
Everyone in the ward was dumbfounded. Just as Lu Qingshi was about to push the door open, the head nurse ran over with an anxious expression: “Dr. Lu, it’s not good. There’s been a serious collapse at the Changping Tunnel. We’ve received notice from the Emergency Management Command Center that all major hospitals in Jinzhou City should urgently dispatch their core forces to form medical rescue teams and head to the scene immediately!”
Xu Qiankun put on his white coat as he came out of the locker room: “Old Zhang, I’ll leave the emergency department to you.”
“Don’t worry,” the other chief physician of the emergency department was a kind-hearted professor over fifty with superb medical skills. Leaving him in charge gave Xu Qiankun some peace of mind.
“According to the meteorological department, there will be heavy to torrential rain in the coming days, and there may be secondary collapses. Entering the disaster area for rescue carries certain risks, so this rescue mission is voluntary…” The head nurse was drafting the rescue team list with a pen. Before she could finish speaking, the nurses in light blue uniforms in front of her all raised their hands, including several with big bellies. Her expression became stern, and she emphasized again.
“Those who are pregnant, only children in their families, or in poor health should not go. The work in the hospital is equally arduous!”
The light pink paper gradually appeared through the gaps between her fingers. Yu Gui felt somewhat timid yet eager to see the result.
She took several deep breaths, suppressing the panic in her heart, repeatedly telling herself to stay calm. This wasn’t a critical illness that would lead to immediate death; with good control, one could still live a quality life.
Just as she completely moved her fingers away, the hospital broadcast sounded:
“Due to continuous heavy rain, a serious collapse has occurred at the Changping Tunnel, 40 kilometers away from our hospital. According to the notice from higher authorities, our hospital has urgently activated the major disaster mass casualty treatment plan. Please clear sufficient beds in all departments for severely injured patients from the disaster area. From now on, the operating rooms will be open 24 hours a day, and the green channel will be open all day. Please ask all department members to stay at their posts and do their best to treat the injured. At the same time, the Provincial Health Planning Commission is dispatching core members from various hospitals to form a medical rescue team. Qualified medical staff please register with your department heads and head nurses, then gather at the hospital entrance to head to the scene immediately!”
Yu Gui stood up, the paper slipping from her fingertips. The young woman covered her face, crying tears of joy.
Thank goodness.
The elevator descended rapidly.
In critical moments, even though Xu Qiankun’s medical skills were mediocre, his management abilities were outstanding. By the time the first batch of injured arrived at the emergency center, he had already arranged hospital rooms and surgeries according to urgency, while also asking various departments to come down for triage. After examination, those without internal or external injuries to the chest and abdomen were given simple debridement, suturing, and bandaging by nurses before being urged to leave the hospital.
“Count the instruments and medicines, bring everything we can.”
The medical affairs department also urgently went into operation, with Liu Changsheng taking the lead in loading the vehicles. Box after box of life-saving medicines were carried onto the ambulances.
President Meng personally took charge of the emergency department, determined to guard the first line of emergency care in the hospital.
“Make way, make way! Doctor, save him quickly, he’s not going to make it!” An ambulance covered in mud drove in through the green channel, and several medical staff rushed over.
“Get out of the way! Save my wife! Save my wife! Please, doctor!” A middle-aged man knelt in the outpatient hall, crying and shouting.
The woman lying on the stretcher had a head injury, her face covered in blood, her body soaked, without a single patch of intact skin.
There were also children two or three years old crying loudly in the crowded crowd, their arms bent at a weird angle, hanging from their shoulders by just a bit of skin.
“Dad! Mom! Where are you?!”
“Where’s the obstetrician?! Please, save her, she’s about to give birth!”
The pregnant woman lying on the stretcher was moaning in pain, blood flowing between her legs.
Struggling, crying, sobbing, breaking down…
Death played out before her eyes one by one.
This was truly what could be called “hell on earth”.
But even in hell, pure white flowers bloomed.
“Another dose of adrenaline! Don’t stop chest compressions!” The doctor was wiping away tears while performing CPR.
“There’s no time! Give me the forceps, we’ll deliver right here!” Qin Xuan’s white coat was unrecognizably dirty, half covered in blood stains and half in mud.
A young nurse in light blue uniform swiftly picked up the child sitting in the crowd, crying loudly.
“Dr. Zhang, Dr. Zhang, come quick to see this child!”
Another mouthful of blood sprayed onto the doctor’s white coat. The monitor started beeping, his hands shaking like sieves, tears streaming down his face: “I’m… I’m sorry… I can’t insert it… Can someone help me… She… She’s dying…”
On the stretcher was a child wearing a red scarf, with a pretty butterfly knot on her chest and two small braids. If she weren’t dying, she would surely be a beautiful little girl.
The new intern wiped tears with the clean part of his shoulder. Lu Qingshi rushed through the crowded sea of people and beds with nowhere to step, but someone had already beaten her to it.
“Move aside! Give me a 5.0 tube!” A thin figure brushed past him, bending over the bed. She swiftly put on gloves from the medical cart, her movements fluid and practiced.
“Dr… Dr. Yu…”
Seeing he didn’t respond, Yu Gui snatched the laryngoscope from his hand, pried open the little girl’s jaw, changed the angle, and inserted it steadily. Then she removed the inner core and secured it with tape.
“Stethoscope.”
Seeing him still in a daze, Yu Gui sighed deeply, pulled the stethoscope from around his neck, and put it on herself. She listened for less than a minute.
“Acute cardiac tamponade, we need to do a pericardiocentesis immediately. Bring the chest puncture kit.”
“Oh, oh, okay!” He fumbled around the medical cart, pulling out instruments, accidentally knocking over the saline solution.
“Disinfect, 2% lidocaine for local anesthesia.”
The needle tip steadily entered the skin, drawing back a syringe of dark blood. The various indicators on the monitor began to rise.
Yu Gui breathed a sigh of relief, took off the stethoscope, and threw it back to him.
“Quickly send her to the resuscitation room for further examination.”
As she stood up and turned around, someone was quietly watching her.
She bowed slightly, knowing she had overstepped, and turned to leave.
Unexpectedly, someone called out to her.
“Get in the car.”
Those simple words left her unable to move.
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