Life is Like a Journey – Chapter 86

Volume 2: Inheritance

Inheritance

There’s not a single normal person in the Lu family.

When the tube in her throat was slowly removed and the anesthesiologist reduced the anesthesia to a local level, and her vital signs were stable, the intraoperative awakening began.

            

The neurosurgeons were on high alert. Yu Gui stood behind Gu Yanzhi with a pen and paper, watching her hold Lu Qingshi’s hand. The person lying on the operating table slowly opened her eyes.

The world transitioned from a state of chaos to a somewhat blurry blue, with the beeping sounds of the precisely operating instruments reaching her ears.

“Qingshi?” A gentle call completely pulled her consciousness back.

            

Due to the anesthesia, she couldn’t feel any pain or any part of her body. Her gaze drifted vaguely until it finally focused on her, wearing an isolation gown.

Yu Gui took notes and glanced at the neurosurgery professor, who nodded and picked up a pair of forceps to make a mark on the exposed brain tissue.

“Qingshi, who am I?” Gu Yanzhi licked her somewhat cracked lips, her eyes full of anticipation as she looked at her.

            

Lu Qingshi frowned slightly, her pupils becoming exceptionally clear and pure: “Gu… Gu Yanzhi…”

Yu Gui whispered a reminder from behind her: “Captain Gu, ask her name and date of birth.”

“Okay.”

            

Lu Qingshi turned her gaze to her: “No… no need to ask…”

Her throat felt like it was on fire, and she had to swallow: “Lu… Lu Qingshi… thirty… thirty-five years old… birthday is… December 15…”

The neurosurgery professor smiled: “Alright, it seems the language function is intact. Hand me the probe.”

            

He handed back the forceps, and the instrument nurse replaced them with a new one: “Does Director Lu know what we’re doing now?”

“I do… thank you…”

Intraoperative awakening is a rare procedure in neurosurgery, allowing for the maximum removal of brain tumors while preserving the patient’s functional areas. She never expected she’d need it one day.

            

“Teacher Lu, squeeze Captain Gu’s hand.”

As Lu Qingshi squeezed, the probe also went in. While their hands were tightly clasped together, Gu Yanzhi wiped away tears with her shoulder.

“I’m sorry… you suffered… I didn’t… protect you well…”

            

A weak smile appeared on Lu Qingshi’s lips. She was very tired and couldn’t say much.

“Squeeze your right hand,” Yu Gui noted, and the neurosurgery professor made another mark on the brain tissue.

Vaguely feeling something in her right hand, Lu Qingshi gently pinched it and asked with her eyes: What is it?

            

The person who had just repeatedly called it a token of love had a look of sudden realization on her face: “I’ll tell you when you’re better.”

“Alright,” the neurosurgery professor put down the probe. “Bend your right knee.”

Yu Gui gently tapped with a reflex hammer, and at that moment, an unexpected change occurred. Lu Qingshi suddenly began to convulse, releasing her grip on Gu Yanzhi’s hand, her gaze turning vacant.

            

“Qingshi! Qingshi!” Gu Yanzhi called her name loudly, but there was still no response. Several doctors rushed over and pulled her away.

“Captain Gu, you need to step outside for a moment.”

“Hurry, anesthesiologist, revert to general anesthesia, administer antihypertensive medication, and add muscle relaxants.”

            

Gu Yanzhi was pushed out of the operating room. She punched the wall, her eyes red with tears.

“It’s all my fault…”

“Captain Gu, don’t be like this,” Yu Gui followed her out, eyes also silently red. “I can feel that Teacher Lu has you in her heart. Everything will be alright.”

            

Gu Yanzhi buried her head in her knees and didn’t speak for a long time. As Yu Gui was about to go back in and the operating room door was closing, she heard sobs from the corridor.

In the end, they couldn’t completely remove the tumor. Lu Qingshi, with tubes all over her body, was sent to the ICU, where no visitors were allowed. Gu Yanzhi could only stand outside the glass door, looking in from afar.

The phone in her pocket vibrated. She answered in a daze, “Hello?”

            

“Comrade Gu Yanzhi, please return to the team immediately. The command headquarters orders you to go to Pinggu Village for flood relief work!”

“Damn it…” she was about to curse but remembered what Yu Gui had just told her.

“These are Teacher Lu’s house keys, taken from her pocket. After thinking it over, we decided to give them to you.”

            

A set of keys, stained with mud and blood, was placed in her palm.

Gu Yanzhi put them away.

She was about to leave when she suddenly said, “Do you remember the time when Teacher Lu operated on you after you got injured?”

            

“There were so many people in the operating room, and she said in front of us, ‘You are a hero, deservedly so.’ These words shouldn’t come from me, but if she were conscious, she probably wouldn’t want you to feel guilty about her. After all, Captain Gu is also a hero who has saved many people in her eyes.”

Gu Yanzhi swallowed her tears, turned with the phone in hand, put on her hat, and strode away.

Qingshi, wait for me to come back.

            

Today marks the fourth day after the disaster. Including Lu Qingshi’s surgery, some doctors haven’t closed their eyes for 48 hours. The anesthesiologist fell asleep leaning against the corridor right after stepping off the operating table. The neurosurgery professor had to be assisted down, and as for Dean Meng, he fainted from exhaustion the moment he exited the operating room.

“Dean, Dean…” A group of people rushed him to the emergency room.

The nurses at the triage desk rubbed their eyes while eating instant noodles, occasionally running to the wards to change medications. When they returned, they would add hot water to their cold noodles and finish them in a few bites before continuing their work.

            

The young doctors took on most of the trivial tasks, running back and forth, writing medical records, comforting patients, and reporting conditions to the attending physicians. It wasn’t until the afternoon that they had a chance to sit down and eat their breakfast from the morning.

Liu Qingyun stumbled back to the dormitory, collapsing onto the bed without even changing clothes, completely unconscious.

Chen Yi lay over the computer, a cup of warm instant noodles beside her.

            

Hao Renjie lay on his back on the office sofa, snoring loudly.

Other colleagues, either sitting or lying down, rested briefly on the bunk beds in the duty room, all looking disheveled.

Yu Gui carefully maneuvered around them, placing her white coat neatly. Her belongings were still in the locker, including a blue stethoscope, several medical records, the 《Surgery》 textbook Lu Qingshi often used to throw at her, and—her badge.

            

Green and white background.

The person in the photo smiled with innocent radiance.

After witnessing so much life and death, she thought she could never smile like that again.

            

Yu Gui reached out and took it out, gently stroking the words on it.

Renji Medical University First Affiliated Hospital Emergency Department.

Resident Physician.

            

Yu Gui.

Plop—

Tears wetted her fingertips. Yu Gui put it back, gently closed the locker door, and bid farewell to her past self.

            

As she was about to leave the outpatient lobby, someone called out to her.

Buddha says, cause and effect cycle, life is a series of reincarnations. She never expected that the person who brought her in would now also try to keep her.

Liu Changsheng pulled a document from the drawer and placed it in front of her: “Your resignation application, Teacher Lu never signed it. Now it’s returned to you.”

            

She opened it in shock, finding not only the column for the attending physician’s signature and stamp empty, but also lacking the signature of the medical office leader.

Liu Changsheng sighed deeply, speaking earnestly, “Come back, Yu Gui. It’s not just Lu Qingshi who needs you; the emergency department needs you, our First Affiliated Hospital needs you, and most importantly, the patients need an excellent doctor to give them new hope.”

When the old man got off the plane, the surgery had already ended. The hospital arranged for someone to wait at the airport, and he was brought back to the hospital without any delay. As he was about to enter the outpatient lobby, Lu Xucheng suddenly stopped: “Quick, fix my hair, is it messy? And this tie…”

            

The nanny laughed but couldn’t persuade him otherwise, so she helped tidy the few tufts of white hair on his head and straightened his tie.

“Don’t worry, old sir. There’s no lasting grudge between grandparents and grandchildren. When the young lady sees you, she’ll surely get better!”

He liked hearing this, so with a cane in hand, he walked inside, supported by the nanny.

            

He passed through the white corridors, general wards, single rooms, VIP rooms…

Around the corner was the NIICU special care ward in neurology, where a strong smell of disinfectant hit his nose. Someone who had smelled it all his life suddenly felt physiologically uncomfortable and stopped abruptly.

Liu Changsheng was leading the way: “What’s wrong, Academician Lu? Director Lu hasn’t woken up yet after the surgery, but you can still go and see…”

            

Lu Xucheng banged his cane on the ground loudly: “Why would I look if she’s not awake! Such a worthless person, putting herself in the ICU while trying to save someone—she’s completely disgraced me, Lu Xucheng!”

The nanny quickly patted his back to calm him down, “Sir, don’t be angry… don’t be angry…”

As people age, they start to pant when they speak too quickly. Lu Xucheng turned around, holding the nanny’s arm, “Let’s go, let’s see Xiaomeng first.”

            

The “Xiaomeng” he referred to was Dean Meng.

Liu Changsheng had no choice but to wipe the sweat from his forehead and quickly follow, thinking to himself: This old man’s temper is too big.

Plop—

            

The reading light in the ward was turned on, and the old man shakily raised the film and put on his reading glasses to examine it closely.

Dean Meng, lying in the hospital bed with an oxygen tube in his nose, glanced at him, “Stop looking, Master, I won’t die just yet.”

Lu Xucheng snorted heavily through his nose, “I advise you to retire early and unload this big burden; maybe you’ll live a couple more years.”

            

Meng Jihua chuckled, “That’s not possible. With no successors, I have to use these old bones to train a few more talents.”

“What, is my only child not enough for you to command?” At this point, the old man was angry, he tossed the film heavily into Liu Changsheng’s arms, “Take it away, take it away, what opinion could I possibly give? Even the Jade Emperor couldn’t pull you back from courting death.”

Liu Changsheng quickly caught it and, with a careful smile, helped him to sit down.

            

“Don’t be angry, don’t be angry. As for Director Lu’s situation, we really didn’t expect it to…”

“Alright, alright, stop, stop. Don’t I know you leaders? The people below charge into battle while you sit back and enjoy the fruits. This old man has eaten more salt in his life than you’ve eaten rice. Bring me paper and pen.”

Only the last sentence was important, so Liu Changsheng quickly pulled out a notepad for him.

            

Lu Xucheng began writing vigorously. Although he was over eighty, apart from some leg issues, his handwriting was still steady, with the elegance and flair of running script. He quickly drafted a new treatment plan.

“Try this. With bone dissolution syndrome progressing to this point, we can only treat a dead horse as if it were still alive.”

Bone dissolution syndrome, also known as the phantom disease, has unclear causes and mechanisms. It manifests as the gradual dissolution of bones throughout the body, with significant fibrosis replacing normal bone tissue. Currently, it cannot be cured surgically, and radiation therapy has minimal effect.

            

There was only one path before him.

Meng Jihua gently closed his eyes. “Thank you, I’m really happy you came to see me, teacher.”

Lu Xucheng wasn’t in the mood for such sentimentality. He tapped Meng Jihua’s stomach with his cane, “Wake up, wake up, don’t sleep. Tell me, tell me about my Qingshi…”

            

Liu Changsheng’s mouth twitched. Just now in the corridor, they loudly scolded Director Lu, and the whole hallway heard it. Now what’s going on?

“Hey, you, brew some tea, make it strong. Yes, yes, close the door for me.”

Liu Changsheng pointed to his nose, “Me?”

            

“Yes, you, why can’t you understand human language?”

He had no choice but to close the door for them.

It was rare for the teacher to be in a good mood, and Meng Jihua perked up as well, “Director Lu is an exceptionally talented doctor…”

            

“Of course, and just look at who trained her. She didn’t get a few beatings when she was a child…”

Listening to the laughter and cheerful conversation coming from the room, Liu Changsheng deeply felt: There’s not a single normal person in the Lu family.

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