Mother
A piece of flesh that fell from her mother’s body
The sky grew darker, and in the powerless lonely city, lacking large-scale lighting equipment, the people gathered here either held flashlights or turned on their phone flashlights. Several beams of light converged in front of the ruins, illuminating the area for the People’s Liberation Army.
Jian Qing held a flashlight in one hand while silently counting the small school bags on the open ground to the left.
The principal of this primary school, with tears in his eyes, arranged the dug-up small school bags and shoes one by one, making it easier for parents to identify the relics.
10, 20, 30… the more he arranged, the more there were…
Crumpled books were scattered all over the ground, stained with blood and dust.
The language and math books, blown open by the wind, bore the naive handwriting of the students.
The parents of the dead students crouched down, clutching the small school bags in their arms as if holding their own children, wailing and sobbing.
In the hospital, Jian Qing had heard many cries, but it was the first time hearing so many people wailing in such a heart-wrenching manner.
Every cry was like weeping blood.
The anesthesiologist in the same team wiped his tears after removing his glasses; the surviving female doctor from the county hospital who lost her daughter heard the cries but remained expressionless, looking towards the direction of the ruins, not daring to shed tears, fearing that once she did, her psychological defense line would collapse.
It was not yet the time for her to collapse.
When the earthquake occurred, the students of this school were preparing for class. As the earth shook and the mountains rocked, students from the fourth and fifth floors staggered down the stairs, and by the time they reached the second and third floors, the teaching building began to collapse.
This primary school originally had five floors, but after the earthquake, it collapsed into two floors, with the remaining three floors sinking into the ground.
The deeper they dug, the smaller the chances of survival for those buried.
As time passed by the minute and second, the flashlight’s beam gradually dimmed.
The power was almost gone.
Once the power is completely gone and the ruins can no longer be seen clearly, the rescue work can only come to a halt.
The higher authorities, through a satellite phone, contacted the brigade commander of the army, informing him that a larger aftershock might occur during the night.
The brigade commander notified the parents gathered around to retreat to a safe open area and not to approach the dangerous building.
Not a single parent was willing to retreat; they still gathered in front of the heap of ruins, waiting for their own children to be excavated.
After the search and rescue team moved the stones with their bare hands, they discovered a female student suspected to be alive and quickly shouted, “Doctor! Doctor! Come and look! Her finger is moving!”
Jian Qing and the two doctors beside him rushed up to assess the little girl’s vital signs.
“She still has a heartbeat.” Jian Qing cleared the mud and dust from her face and mouth to prevent suffocation.
The other two doctors attended to the obvious bleeding wounds on her body.
While treating her, Jian Qing said, “Her limbs are swelling, and there is subcutaneous bruising1. Be careful to prevent crush syndrome.”
“My child, my child!” A woman from the outer area rushed in, shouting at the little girl.
A large stone was still pressing on the little girl’s leg, and the woman rushed over, wanting to move the stone away.
“Don’t move it yet!”
One of the People’s Liberation Army soldiers stopped her from moving it, but she burst out with brute force and pushed the soldier away.
Jian Qing loudly stopped her, saying, “Don’t move it! Do you want to kill her?”
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Upon hearing the words “kill her,” she paused, hesitated, stepped back, and looked helpless and bewildered.
Jian Qing lowered her voice and explained, “Don’t rush to move her. Wait for us to handle it. The heavy object has been pressing on her for too long, and her muscles have already become necrotic2. If you move it abruptly, the toxins gathered around the necrotic tissue will be released instantly, which could cause her heart to suddenly stop or lead to acute kidney failure and death.”
In medicine, there is a term called “crush syndrome,” which describes this situation. Human muscle cells contain potassium ions3 and myoglobin4. When muscle cells are crushed and damaged by a heavy object, the potassium ions, actin, and acidic toxic substances are released in large quantities. If the heavy object is moved abruptly, the blood supply to the compressed area is restored, but a large amount of potassium ions and other toxins will circulate throughout the body.
Although the woman did not understand many medical terms, she was willing to trust the doctor. Her knees weakened, and she knelt down, kowtowing and crying, “Doctor, please save her, please save my child…”
“Mom…” The little girl in the ruins heard her mother’s voice, and tears in her eyes, mixed with mud and dust, rolled down her cheeks.
Jian Qing wiped away her tears and said to the woman, “I will save her, we will all save her… Stand up, come over, and talk to her…”
The woman grabbed her daughter’s small, dusty gray hand and cautiously said, “Baby, mom’s here, mom has returned. The uncles from the People’s Liberation Army and the doctor aunties are all here to save you, don’t be afraid…”
The doctor quickly established an intravenous line for the little girl, providing fluid infusion, protecting the kidneys, and correcting electrolyte imbalance.
After finishing these tasks and preparing the stretcher and other items, they signaled to the People’s Liberation Army, “Move.”
The barehanded excavation work was not easy, as they had to ensure they did not injure the buried person and also consider the other survivors in the ruins to avoid causing a secondary collapse.
Two hours later, they successfully rescued the little girl. The People’s Liberation Army carried her onto a stretcher, and the doctors lifted the stretcher and ran towards the medical tent.
The rescue work continued until 10 PM, with flashlight power nearly exhausted. It was so dark that you could barely see your hand in front of your face. Everyone did not dare to continue excavation recklessly and temporarily withdrew to the open area beside the ruins.
The People’s Soldiers used the sky as their blanket and the earth as their mat, lying on the muddy ground to rest.
The military medical unit, the medical team from First Affiliated Hospital, and the surviving doctors from the county hospital were still in the tent, using flashlights to perform emergency surgeries.
There was no large equipment and no completely sterile environment; everything relied on experience and skill.
The risk of surgery was extremely high, but without it, death was certain.
After her internship and rotation, Jian Qing almost never returned to the operating table. Specialization requires focus, and even though manpower was tight at the moment, she couldn’t intervene unless it was particularly urgent. Instead, she worked with her teammates from the pharmacy department to inventory the remaining medicines.
A teammate from the pharmacy department said, “At this rate, the medicines are completely insufficient. By tomorrow, they will be used up, and we don’t know when the next batch of rescue teams will arrive. Can we find somewhere to dig out a bit more?”
They approached the local county party secretary to inform him of the situation.
The dusty and tired county party secretary had not closed his eyes for a day and a night, sending wave after wave of people to convey messages outside.
The life or death of his family and children was unknown, and he hadn’t had time to inquire about their news. Before the People’s Liberation Army troops arrived, he was continuously organizing self-rescue efforts here.
“Ten kilometers away, there is a health clinic. I have already arranged for cadres to dig there and also asked the director of the county hospital to bring people to dig through the county hospital’s ruins.”
After saying this, he thanked the medical team from Jiangzhou, then limped on his injured right leg and continued to busy himself with settling the disaster-affected people.
A teammate from the pharmacy department, watching his back, said, “This leader is someone who gets things done.”
The team members went together to the county hospital’s ruins to dig for medicines with their bare hands.
The county hospital area was also filled with the stench of decay. On the ground, they occasionally saw colleagues dressed in white, their clothes covered with a thick layer of dust. The surviving doctors had no time to bury their colleagues’ bodies; they simply cried and used a cloth to cover them before continuing to rescue the medicines.
Medicines could only support for a while longer, but with roads blocked, large medical equipment couldn’t come in, and the wounded couldn’t be transported out. The original county hospital was almost completely destroyed at the epicenter. Without dialysis machines, doctors were unable to perform blood dialysis on patients with crush syndrome, and could only resort to amputation or watch helplessly as they died.
Exhausted from sweat and tears, by a little past two in the morning, they each returned to the tent to rest.
The tents they brought were limited, with no gender separation, so everyone crowded together to sleep.
Continuous aftershocks twisted buildings into pretzels, and crashing sounds echoed from the distant hillside.
Jian Qing lay on the ground, nestled in her sleeping bag, feeling like a piece of gravel in a shaking sieve.
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She opened her phone and looked at her chat record with Lu Yinxi for a while, then opened the photo album and stared at the face on the screen for a long time before placing the phone on her chest and falling into a deep sleep.
After the aftershock, heavy rain began to fall, soaking the sleeping bags and backs, but everyone was too exhausted to get up and too sleepy to open their eyes. They all just lay there in the rainwater, sleeping for a few hours until dawn, when there was enough visibility to climb up and continue rescuing people.
On the morning of the second day after the earthquake, the film crew began to collect donations and blood donations.
Lu Yinxi’s filming was nearing its end. She went to the director to plead to concentrate her remaining scenes within these two days so she could finish filming and go to the disaster area.
The director said, “You little child, you’re not a doctor or nurse, nor a soldier. You’re thin and weak; going there would just add to the chaos, huh?”
Lu Yinxi said, “I want to be a volunteer. They’re definitely short of people over there! I’m young and physically strong. Although I don’t have professional knowledge, I can still help with purchasing supplies, distributing items, bringing some medicine over, and caring for patients.”
Currently, the only volunteers who can sign up to enter the front line are those with medical-related backgrounds. Others are on standby in the rear city district.
But in a few days, the disaster victims from the front line will be transferred to the rear, and even the first batch of front-line doctors will temporarily retreat to the rear to rest.
By then, she will have the opportunity to see Jian Qing.
In this city, what she can do is limited. Going to where Jian Qing is, even if she can’t meet her, just doing some similar work will make her feel much more at ease.
No longer needing to be anxious every day, no longer needing to search for familiar figures on the television all day.
The director, still concerned, continued to persuade, “There are still many aftershocks over there. I heard the roads are all blocked. You have to walk in; don’t run around. It’s very dangerous!”
Lu Yinxi directly said, “My significant other is over there. I’m worried about her. I want to go find her.”
The director said no more, blinked twice, and agreed to Lu Yinxi’s request to concentrate her final scenes into two days to finish filming.
After finishing the work with the film crew, Lu Yinxi signed up to join the volunteer team at Jiangzhou’s First Affiliated Hospital.
She had previously interned at the First Affiliated Hospital, and the person in charge of the hospital’s volunteer team recognized her and grouped her with student volunteers from Jiangzhou University Medical School to take care of things. They were soon to depart with the fifth batch of medical teams sent by the hospital, traveling by special vehicle.
In just a few days, the First Affiliated Hospital had already dispatched four medical teams, and its emergency and orthopedics departments were filled with injured people from the disaster area.
Before departing, Lu Yinxi bought fruits and snacks and went to the third hospital in a neighboring city to visit Jian Qing’s mother, Ruan Sheng.
She first contacted Fu Yuan to inform her that Jian Qing had gone to the disaster area and that she was still receiving news related to her. Before departure, she entrusted the care of Ruan Sheng to herself.
Fu Yuan took Lu Yinxi to the ward to visit Aunt Ruan.
She was a very thin woman, nearly 1.68 meters tall, yet weighing less than 90 jin, with a bony frame and wrinkles across her face.
In her features, there was a faint trace of the grace she had when she was young, suggesting that she was a very beautiful woman in her younger days.
Her gaze was somewhat dull, but upon seeing Lu Yinxi, there was a hint of brightness. She rushed over, hugged her, and said, “Xiaoxi, you finally came to take mom home?”
Lu Yinxi’s body stiffened for a moment, then she hugged her back and gently patted her shoulder.
She had looked at Ruan Sheng’s medical record and knew that she once had a daughter who passed away early, named Ruan Xi.
“Xiaoxi, you’ve grown so big! You’re even taller than me now.”
Lu Yinxi took Ruan Sheng for a walk in the small garden downstairs of the hospital, with Ruan Sheng holding a stack of drawings and happily chattering away.
“They all say you died; your sister also said you died. It was she who lost you, yet she said you died. I didn’t believe it, so I hit her once, and now she ignores me. I just knew you were still alive.”
Hearing these words, Lu Yinxi felt somewhat angry and heartbroken, thinking, why did you hit her?
Yet she also understood that this was a mentally unsound patient, and she couldn’t overly blame her for anything.
“She locked me in here and wouldn’t let me go home to see you. I couldn’t personally celebrate your birthday, but every year I’ve helped celebrate your birthday. Look, every year I’ve drawn a birthday cake for you.”
Lu Yinxi pulled her to a bench to sit down, fed her small pieces of fruit, and took her drawings to look at.
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The first few sheets, without exception, all show an adult, a little girl with braids, and a birthday cake.
The later sheets added a slightly taller girl holding the hand of the braided little girl.
“You, ah, are so good at choosing days. On New Year’s Eve night, when everyone was celebrating the New Year, you made me move into the hospital and came out of my belly. Look at you, born already 2 years old. Every year on New Year’s Eve, I celebrate your birthday, and you always wanted your sister to blow out the candles with you and have her lull you to sleep at night. Your sister lost you; do you blame your sister?”
Lu Yinxi had not yet answered when Ruan Sheng, looking ahead with an empty gaze, began to speak to herself: “You must not blame her. At that time, there were many human traffickers. After you went missing, I saw your sister cry for a very long time.
It was mom who didn’t take good care of you; it was mom who was useless. Mom didn’t know that beast, while I was not at home, wanted to do such dirty things to you two children.
After you were lost, mom was afraid she couldn’t take good care of your sister, so she sent her to dad’s place.
After sending her away, I missed her very much but didn’t dare to see her. Her dad also wouldn’t let me see her, so I just sat at her school gate, looking from afar at dismissal time.
Later, I desperately tried to forget her, thinking that forgetting would mean I wouldn’t miss her so much. As a result, I really did forget, and only recently remembered.
Your sister thought I didn’t want her anymore, and now she still secretly blames me. She hasn’t come to see me this month.
I never didn’t want her; which child isn’t a piece of flesh from their mother’s body? I just felt that I got sick and was very useless, unable to take good care of you, causing you two children to suffer a lot.”
The author has something to say:
Happy Labor Day on May 1st! In the next chapter, let them meet!
Footnotes
- Subcutaneous bruising: Occurs when blood vessels beneath the skin break due to trauma, causing blood to leak into the surrounding tissue and resulting in a visible discoloration. It appears as a darkened area on the skin, typically red, purple, or blue, and fades as the blood is reabsorbed.
- Necrotic: Refers to the death of cells or tissues in the body, often due to injury, infection, or lack of blood supply.
- Potassium ions: Potassium ions (K⁺) are essential electrolytes that help regulate cell function, including muscle contraction, nerve signaling, and fluid balance in the body.
- Myoglobin: A protein found in muscle tissue that binds oxygen, aiding in oxygen storage and transport within muscles for energy production.