Life is Like a Journey – Chapter 75

Volume 2: Inheritance

Rescue

The strongest rescue team, assemble!

Doctors wearing white coats covered with raincoats and carrying first aid kits stood in two rows downstairs. Dean Meng was giving the final mobilization speech, his glasses fogged up.

            

“Ensure your own safety while doing your utmost to treat the injured, understood?!”

“Understood!”

“Good, get in the cars, prepare to depart!”

            

At the command, security guards opened the hospital’s main gates. Five ambulances filed out one after another, followed by three vans carrying supplies and medicines.

Seeing Yu Gui who came up with Lu Qingshi, Hao Renjie was slightly stunned: “Little fool…”

The scene seemed to replay itself. After Lu Qingshi sat down, she pointed at her: “Good Sister, get her a set of clothes.”

            

A set of white coat and first aid kit was thrown across the space, Yu Gui caught it steadily: “Thank you.”

“While we still have time, call your family, and those who haven’t eaten breakfast, have something to eat first,” Lu Qingshi instructed, holding onto the handrail and looking out at the heavy rain outside the window.

Everyone knew this would be a prolonged battle. As long as the rain didn’t stop, their mission wouldn’t end.

            

Sometimes, doctors don’t just fight against diseases, but also struggle against natural disasters and man-made calamities.

Qin Xuan took out her phone and dialed Old Bao’s number. After a long while, there was still no answer. She lowered her eyes and sighed slightly. Just as she was about to put down her phone, another call came in.

“Where are you?” A familiar voice, it was Xiang Nanke.

            

“I’m in an ambulance heading to Changping Tunnel,” she said. Outside the window, police lights flashed as a police car brushed past the ambulance, driving ahead to clear the way for them.

“I see you,” the pitter-patter of rain accompanied her steady and powerful voice through the earpiece.

“What’s a criminal investigation team member doing in a disaster area?”

            

“The traffic police team is overwhelmed, we’re here to help.”

“Is that so…” Qin Xuan hesitated for a moment but still said: “Be careful.”

“Okay, you too.”

            

After hanging up, her subordinate sitting next to her teased: “Oh, Captain Xiang, we’ve never seen you report your safety to your family before missions. What’s the wind blowing today, or do you have a significant other now?”

A smile tugged at Xiang Nanke’s lips as she knocked him on the head: “Focus on your driving.”

Hao Renjie was an only child, but their nursing team was already short-staffed. The head nurse had to stay behind to manage things, so he took the place of a pregnant female colleague.

            

“Renjie, are you coming home for dinner today?”

He quietly covered the receiver and turned his head to the side: “No, Mom, don’t wait for me. You and Dad eat first.”

The table was set with a sumptuous meal. From her voice, it wasn’t hard to hear that his elderly mother was somewhat disappointed, but he still hardened his heart and said: “Mom, I’ll be sleeping at the hospital for the next few days. Don’t worry about me. Once the peak of patients passes, I’ll come home.”

            

Liu Qingyun and Chen Yi took out their phones, exchanged glances, and then each called their parents to report their safety, as the people they cared about were sitting right across from them.

At some point, their hands had tightly clasped together.

Lu Qingshi handed her phone to Yu Gui: “Call your family.”

            

Yu Gui shook her head, then nodded: “Thank you, Teacher Lu.”

She knew Zhiyou’s phone number by heart, but she didn’t press the dial button. She knew Zhiyou would stop her, would make the courage she had mustered dissipate completely.

She only edited a text message and sent it: Sorry, Zhiyou, just this once I have to break my promise.

            

When she returned the phone, the person opposite lowered her eyes and said in a cold tone: “After resigning, don’t call me Teacher Lu, I’m not that…”

Qin Xuan pulled her clothes, forcefully interrupting her: “Aren’t you going to call Gu Yanzhi?”

This topic shift was very successful. Lu Qingshi said expressionlessly: “No need, don’t pull my clothes.”

            

Qin Xuan reluctantly let go. Soon she understood what she meant by “no need.” As they jumped off the ambulance, the firefighters had arrived at the scene even earlier than them. Several rescue tents had already been set up on the wide highway.

“This is…” Under the grey sky, the tunnel entrance was blocked by fallen rocks. Stranded vehicles and people formed a long line. Police lights flashed as traffic police braved the rain to clear the road.

Under the overpass was a river raging like angry thunder, its splashing water fiercely hitting the stone pillars. A car was suspended in mid-air, with a few pieces of clothing scattered at the bottom of the bridge. Several firefighters were operating in assault boats.

            

Qin Xuan took a look and felt dizzy, her knuckles turning white as she gripped the bridge railing.

Lu Qingshi jumped off the car carrying the first aid kit: “If you’re not feeling well, go back with the next car.”

Groups of two or three pedestrians, escorted by police officers, limped away from the danger zone under umbrellas. Those who came out were all more or less injured. Firefighters ran past her carrying stretchers, the people lying on them shattered by falling rocks.

            

Qin Xuan shook her head: “No, they need me here.”

The rain poured down heavily, mud staining their rain boots, forming winding small streams under their feet. More and more people were evacuated. In the vast expanse of heaven and earth, only a pure white figure was moving against the crowd, upstream.

Rescue teams from various hospitals arrived one after another. Although these people came from different places, wearing different armbands and badges, they all had the same destination and the same name: doctor.

            

Fearing another landslide, the firefighters didn’t dare use excavators or other machinery. They could only use the most primitive method of digging by hand. One person, one shovel, dug open a life-saving passage, advancing bit by bit towards the depths of the tunnel.

The search and rescue dogs searched for signs of life in the rubble, soaked by the heavy rain. After a while, they started barking.

Gu Yanzhi ran over and crouched down, shining a flashlight into the crevice: “There’s someone alive here, someone come help!”

            

They pried with crowbars, carried on their shoulders, lifted with their hands. Sharp rocks ground bloody marks into their palms.

Gu Yanzhi gritted her teeth: “One, two, three, lift!”

The boulder blocking their way was barely moved to create a passage wide enough for one person. A teammate tied a rope around her waist, and she quickly crawled in, hugging the crushed rocks and mud.

            

The car had been crushed out of shape, with a pool of dark blood underneath. The man in the driver’s seat had used his back to protect the woman in the passenger seat. Gu Yanzhi smashed the broken car window. The two people fell out in an embrace, with one of the woman’s hands, nails painted, left behind in the car.

Gu Yanzhi pressed her communicator: “Bring a stretcher down.”

Due to rigor mortis, the man was tightly hugging the woman. No matter how hard they tried, they couldn’t pry his hands open. Some of the hot-blooded young people on the scene had slightly reddened eyes.

            

“Captain, what should we do? Should we saw them apart? Otherwise, this woman won’t make it either.”

Gu Yanzhi closed her eyes for a moment, untied the rope from her waist and tightly bound the two together, deftly tying a knot on the stretcher.

“Pull, pull them out together and we’ll see!”

            

She pushed from below, while her teammates used all their strength to pull from above. Finally, they managed to drag the two adults out of the narrow hole.

“The woman is unconscious, the man shows no signs of life,” a group of people ran back in the heavy rain, rushing into the medical tent.

“Put them here,” Lu Qingshi put on her stethoscope and felt the neck pulse of the man on top. There was no movement, and his body had already turned cold.

            

“We need two people to separate these two, otherwise we can’t treat them,” this familiar, slightly cold voice made the fire captain pause for a moment.

“Captain, we need to go,” her team member was urging her.

Lu Qingshi seemed to sense something and looked up from the stretcher: “Be careful.”

            

“You too,” Gu Yanzhi’s lips curled into a smile as she strode forward, lifting the curtain of the medical tent.

“It’s not working, Sister Lu, we can’t lift him,” Hao Renjie and another male doctor were panting heavily, everyone was at a loss.

Lu Qingshi thought for a moment, then bent down to whisper in the man’s ear: “Don’t worry, we’ll save her.”

            

The man’s hand on her waist suddenly loosened. Lu Qingshi pulled him off: “Hang a black tag, take him over there.”

Scissors quickly cut open the woman’s clothes. Cold electrode pads were placed on her chest. Chen Yi slid the ultrasound back and forth: “Bilateral lung contusion, pleural effusion.”

Without much hesitation, Lu Qingshi grabbed the scalpel from the tray: “First do a closed chest drainage, then open the chest to deal with the lung injury.”

            

Xu Qiankun, listening from the side, was furious: “You’re being too reckless! Look at the environment we’re in, forget about aseptic technique, we don’t even have a shadowless lamp! Just do basic treatment and send her back to the hospital!”

“There’s no time,” Lu Qingshi didn’t even raise her head as the scalpel skillfully made an incision between the ribs, crimson blood seeping out.

Yu Gui squeezed past him, holding a flashlight which she hung on the nearby IV stand: “I’ll help.”

            

“You… didn’t you resign?!” Xu Qiankun’s eyes were as big as copper bells: “Besides, you still have AIDS…”

“I’ve been tested, it’s negative!” Outside, the heavy rain pounded on the tent with a pitter-patter. Yu Gui shouted with reddened eyes: “Do you want to see the test results?!”

Lu Qingshi looked up, her gaze sharp as a knife: “Isn’t the injured person the top priority right now?”

            

He took a small step back, shaken by her gaze. More and more injured were being brought in. He opened his mouth but said nothing more, busying himself elsewhere.

“Chest retractor.”

“Yes.”

            

“Muscle retractor, hold it here,” Lu Qingshi stuffed the muscle retractor into her hand, while she grabbed hemostats from the tray.

Liu Qingyun held a severed arm, wiping the thin sweat on his forehead with his clean shoulder: “It’s no use, Chief Lu. The infection is too severe. If we don’t amputate now, the virus will flow back to the heart and it’ll be too late.”

The woman was only twenty-five or twenty-six years old. Yu Gui felt reluctant: “Let’s think of another way.”

            

“Amputate,” Lu Qingshi decisively ordered: “Clean the tissue surface thoroughly, use a tourniquet to apply pressure and stop the bleeding. As soon as we’re done here, arrange for an ambulance immediately.”

“Alright.”

“Doctor, doctor, please save my daughter!” Outside the medical tent, a woman holding a four or five-year-old child, soaked to the bone, was wailing and grabbing passing medical staff.

            

The child’s wrist had a black tag on it. Yu Gui sent a patient to the ambulance, then looked back at the mother and daughter. Hao Renjie pulled her from behind, causing her to stumble unexpectedly.

“Don’t look anymore, hurry back. More injured are being sent over.”

Yu Gui took one step and looked back, watching the mother crying helplessly in the rain.

            

Just as she was about to enter the tent, the young woman suddenly wiped the rain from her face, rushed into the rain curtain, and picked up the child, running through the mud.

“Follow me!”

The small child was placed on a wheeled bed. Lu Qingshi hung the stethoscope around her neck and walked over quickly: “What’s the situation?”

            

As soon as she finished speaking, she noticed the black tag hanging on her wrist and frowned at Yu Gui.

“Teacher Lu, save her, please save her!” The young person in front of her wearing a white coat was also covered in mud and water. The middle-aged woman who came in with her knelt on the ground, kowtowing incessantly.

“Please, please, doctor!” The “bang bang bang” sound seemed to beat into everyone’s heart like a drum. Chen Yi turned away, quickly wiping the corner of her eye with her sleeve.

            

“Doctor, doctor, over here, more severely injured have been brought in!”

Lu Qingshi slowly pried open her hand gripping her sleeve, pressed her lips tightly, and turned to rush towards the next injured person.

“Get a few people to carry her to the black tag area, clear the hospital bed!”

            

The little girl’s mother screamed and pounced: “No! She’s still alive, she’s still alive!”

Yu Gui shouted at her retreating figure with reddened eyes: “If you won’t save her, I will!”

No matter how many times she performed CPR or pushed how many doses of adrenaline, the data on the monitor still showed no fluctuation.

            

Her shoulders were so sore she could barely lift them anymore. Large beads of sweat fell from her forehead. Yu Gui wiped them away with her shoulder: “Charge to 200J, charging complete, clear!”

The chest cavity bounced up due to the electrical stimulation but quickly collapsed again.

“Another dose of adrenaline.”

            

The medical waste bin at her feet was filled with a layer of empty syringes. Hao Renjie covered the first aid kit, refusing to give any more: “Yu Gui, give up!”

“I won’t!” The young person looked up, eyes red: “We’ve come this far, I can’t accept it!!!”

She remembered what Lu Qingshi had once done for He Miaomiao, opening the chest to directly massage the heart. A glimmer of hope ignited in her eyes as she tremblingly took the scalpel from the tray.

            

“Hang mannitol, disinfect, I’m going to open the chest.”

The hour-long resuscitation effort did not result in a miracle. Yu Gui’s chest was covered in blood, her hand still inside the little girl’s chest cavity, but her head had drooped down, resting on the cold wheeled bed, tears falling silently.

The little girl’s mother rushed over and grabbed her collar, hitting and tearing at her: “Give me back my daughter’s life! Give me back my daughter’s life!”

            

Qin Xuan couldn’t bear to watch anymore and was about to stride over when someone grabbed her wrist. It was Lu Qingshi.

She didn’t understand.

Lu Qingshi lowered her eyes: “She brought this upon herself.”

            

Qin Xuan was so angry her mouth twitched: “That’s your disciple!!!”

“So what?” The doctor’s expression was cold and somewhat inhuman: “Our emergency medicines and equipment are limited in quantity. We can’t waste even a bit on people who can’t be saved!”

“What do you mean by people who can’t be saved? That’s still a life!” Qin Xuan also shouted at her with reddened eyes.

            

Lu Qingshi lightly shifted her gaze: “Dead people aren’t.”

The rescue in the tunnel was pushing forward with difficulty. Occasionally, rocks rolling down from above would hit faces, arms, and legs. Gu Yanzhi’s communicator rang.

“Received notice from the geological department that there’s a high possibility of a secondary collapse in this area. All personnel withdraw, rescue operation suspended.”

            

Gu Yanzhi bit her lip: “But…”

Suddenly, the search and rescue dog darted into the depths of the tunnel, barking loudly.

Gu Yanzhi got up from the ground: “Sorry, I’ll use my discretion in executing your order.”

            

“Gu—” She pressed down on the communicator, cutting off the call.

The powerful flashlight illuminated the pitch-black tunnel. Water dripping from the cave ceiling hit her helmet. Gu Yanzhi pushed up her goggles, her expression suddenly becoming stern.

It was a large bus that had overturned and was severely damaged.

            

The door was severely crushed and deformed, impossible to pry open, and the crane couldn’t be brought in. Gu Yanzhi took a hammer and smashed the car window in a few strikes. Below, her team members supported her weight with their shoulders. Her fingers gripped the sharp door frame, and with a leap, Gu Yanzhi vaulted into the bus.

The smell of blood lingered in her nostrils. Under her feet was a sticky liquid mixed with blood and internal organ fragments. As the flashlight beam swept across, Gu Yanzhi sharply inhaled.

The driver in the driver’s seat had been crushed beyond recognition by a huge rock that had pierced the windshield. His hand was still on the steering wheel, foot on the brake, a pool of blood beneath him.

            

Seats were overturned, items scattered all over the floor, homework books filled with writing soaked in blood pools.

They must have been very happy before this happened. Even though the weather was bad today, everyone had dressed up nicely, carrying a good mood to go on a field trip. They were the hope of many families.

Two hours ago, they might have been chatting here, boys talking about their favorite marbles and Ultraman, girls chirping about their favorite celebrities and stickers. Two hours later, everything had returned to silence.

            

Everyone’s face bore an expression of terror, pressed under the seats in bizarre postures.

Gu Yanzhi lifted up a girl who had been thrown out of her seat and was lying in the middle of the bus aisle due to the violent impact. She felt for her breath, then gently closed her eyelids.

She walked through the blood-soaked aisle, shining her flashlight. A weak groan caught her attention.

            

She quickly walked over, lifted the fallen seat, and was about to drag the person out when the woman with a work badge around her neck cried out in pain: “Don’t… don’t worry about me… save… save the children first…”

The blood-stained work badge showed her position: 6th Grade Homeroom Teacher.

Gu Yanzhi gritted her teeth and put her hand under the woman’s armpit: “No, you need to be saved too.”

            

“Don’t… move…” The woman was in so much pain she was crying. The wound on her head was steadily bleeding. Gu Yanzhi pulled out a bandage from her arm pack and wrapped it around her head first. As she lowered her gaze, she realized that the female teacher’s legs were caught in the wheels of the bus. The sharp metal had almost severed her lower body. Her blood-covered hand gripped Gu Yanzhi’s fingertips.

“Please… save the children… I promised to take them out to play… and to bring them back home safely…”

Gu Yanzhi gritted her teeth, forcing back tears, and pressed the communicator on her chest.

            

“Large number of immobile casualties found in the tunnel, all students. Requesting medical support, requesting medical support.”

Half a minute later, her slightly cold voice came through the earpiece.

“Renji Medical University First Affiliated Hospital medical rescue team received, please report the on-site situation and wait patiently.”

            

Xu Qiankun ran over and handed out raincoats: “Be extremely cautious when entering the tunnel. If the situation doesn’t look good, withdraw immediately. Your own safety is paramount, understand?!”

In this rescue team composed of elite members from various departments of Renji Medical University First Affiliated Hospital, the medical group led by Lu Qingshi had the most extensive experience in field rescue. So they naturally took on this heavy responsibility. But no one expected him to say this.

Liu Qingyun fastened the buttons of his raincoat and smiled: “Don’t worry, Director Xu. When we come back, you’ll treat us to karaoke and drinks, right?”

            

“You rascal,” he made a gesture as if to hit him.

“You’re going in?!” Hearing the news, Xiang Nanke also ran over in the rain.

Qin Xuan put on the hood of her raincoat: “Mm, I have to go now.”

            

“Wait.”

Something soft was placed in her palm. Xiang Nanke closed her fist.

“My lucky charm, take it with you.”

            

Qin Xuan was stunned for a moment. A warm current spread from her hand to her chest. She tucked the lucky charm into the pocket closest to her heart.

Chen Yi was instructing the anesthesiologists under her command about precautions. Yu Gui also ran over carrying a first aid kit. Her face was still swollen and bruised, with tear stains at the corners of her eyes. She said softly: “I’m going too.”

Lu Qingshi slung the first aid kit over her shoulder and lifted the curtain with one swift motion: “Let’s move out!”

            

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