Lin Jiahui walked past from the side, saw Ruan Mian staring blankly at the note, and came over curiously: “What are you looking at so intently?”
“Nothing.”
Ruan Mian quickly clenched her fist and stuffed the note into her pocket, holding the spray bottle and walking out.
“Why so secretive?”
Lin Jiahui muttered, but didn’t care much either, holding the medical record clipboard and walking into the inner room.
Ruan Mian came out of the lobby. The late spring sun after seven o’clock still did not have much warmth. But the thing in her palm felt exceptionally scalding.
During those two years in high school, her private interactions with Chen Yi were not many, and there were few things related to him, let alone something he took the initiative to give her.
The most memorable time was in the first semester of senior year when they were about to have competitions1. She and Chen Yi left the school after the competition class at night and ran into someone selling sweet potatoes at the school gate.
He bought a few sweet potatoes and gave her one.
Even now, Ruan Mian still remembered the warmth of that sweet potato in her palm, and the surprise and delight she felt when she received the sweet potato at that time.
At that time, she hid her feelings very deeply, making it almost impossible for others to notice. It was an unconditional love without the slightest complaint.
Now times have changed, and they have both changed. As Ruan Mian looked at the thing in her hand, she felt some unspeakable emotions.
She stood there in a daze until Meng Fuping called out to her before she came back to her senses. She patted her face and ran over quickly.
The medical teams in the disaster area were divided into two batches, one from the military region, and the other was doctors from major hospitals across provinces and cities.
Among them there were further divisions into groups A, B, and C that took turns accompanying the rescue team to the scene. Ruan Mian was in Group B and went to the scene today.
It was already the eighth day of the rescue. Everyone was very clear that under such circumstances, it would be very difficult to find any more survivors after such a long time. But no one on site spoke of giving up, and the rescue pace was accelerated imperceptibly.
By noon, the medical team had recorded 5 deaths today, and 0 survivors found. Ruan Mian watched as Meng Fuping covered the last person with a white cloth. Even though she was used to life and death, she still felt stifled in her heart. Her eyes reddened as she turned her head to look elsewhere.
Not far away on the hillside, Chen Yi and his team were still busily searching the ruins for any possible signs of life. Probably around 1pm, a cry came from that side: “There’s someone here!”
The other members of the rescue team practically sprinted over, with the medical team following closely behind.
It was a public toilet built at the foot of the mountain. After the earthquake, mudslides erupted from the mountain above, almost burying this place entirely. The rescue team probed through the cracks between some large boulders and detected life signs. They tried shouting inside a few times and vaguely heard a response, but it was not very clear. Shouting again after that elicited no more response.
Chen Yi and Shen Yu urgently formulated a rescue plan, while Meng Fuping contacted the medical center to prepare to receive and transport the injured out of the disaster area.
It took over half an hour. The stones pressing down above were moved away, revealing the situation below. It appeared to be a mother and child. The mother sat on the ground with the child in her arms. There was a protruding piece of fractured concrete slab on the side, with steel bars piercing through the right chest and into the child’s left shoulder. It was not a penetrating wound. Due to the lighting, Meng Fuping was also unable to determine the specific situation. But it looked like both had already fallen unconscious, unresponsive to the shouts of rescuers.
Unsure if there were any supporting points nearby, and the collapsed structure was complex, Chen Yi was afraid it would cause secondary collapse. He could only get people to dig out the surrounding stones by hand.
All around was hazy gray. Ruan Mian saw the man’s fingers gradually dyed red from the ash-gray, and then covered again by the gray soil.
They only took a dozen minutes to dig out a hole barely passable by one person with their bare hands. Chen Yi lay at the edge of the hole, poking half his body in to look around. It was a space propped up by various concrete slabs, very narrow.
He stood up and said to Shen Yu: “I’ll go down first to check the situation of the mother and child. You keep expanding the hole.”
“Okay, be careful.”
Shen Yu called for rope equipment.
“No need, too troublesome. The space inside is very small.”
Chen Yi retracted his gaze and saw Ruan Mian standing to the side with slightly reddened eyes. His eyes paused briefly but did not linger. His figure soon disappeared from everyone’s sight.
Ruan Mian’s heart quivered as he jumped down, and her fingers unconsciously turned red.
The hole was not very deep from the ground. Chen Yi’s voice soon came from below: “The adult has no breathing or heartbeat. The child is still alive, breathing very weakly.”
Meng Fuping stepped on the debris to get closer to the hole. Just the description was too one-sided. He prepared to go down as well, but the excessive fatigue over this period had already drained his body, making it unsuitable for him to go to such a dangerous place. Shen Yu hesitated with the rope in hand.
Seeing his concern, Ruan Mian walked up and said, “Let me go. I’m Teacher Meng’s student. I’ll understand the situation better than others.”
Hearing this, Chen Yi looked up from the bottom of the ruins and only saw a corner of the white coat.
Time was life at this moment. Shen Yu outside did not hesitate further. He put the rope around her waist and gently said, “Don’t be afraid. Chen Yi will catch you below. We’ll also pull you up if anything happens.”
“Okay.”
Ruan Mian walked to the hole, met Chen Yi’s gaze through the dim light, and her heart suddenly calmed down. Holding the support next to her, she jumped in.
Chen Yi took a step forward and steadied her as she landed, his chin grazing her forehead. The warm touch was fleeting.
Neither paid attention to this detail. Ruan Mian quickly squatted to check on the mother and child while Chen Yi got up to take the medical kit handed down by Shen Yu.
The people outside did not stop moving, continuously expanding the hole, letting in rays of sunlight.
Chen Yi held the flashlight for Ruan Mian. Both were silent. A few minutes later, Ruan Mian stopped moving and pursed her lips before saying: “The mother is gone. Let’s save the child first.”
Chen Yi met Ruan Mian’s eyes and saw the redness around her eyes. He turned off the flashlight and said okay as he stood up.
“Shen Yu, pull Ruan Mian up.”
After saying this, he squatted down to let Ruan Mian step on his shoulder and climb out. As his palms clasped her ankles, both their heartbeats stuttered for a moment, though neither knew it.
Once out of the ruins, Ruan Mian reported the situation to Meng Fuping: “The mother has a penetrating wound and has lost too much blood, no longer breathing.
The steel bar is stuck in the child’s right shoulder, not penetrating the chest cavity. There is a large bruise on the chest. Blood loss is not much. No other external injuries, vital signs are weak, in a coma.”
“Good, thank you for the hard work.”
Meng Fuping patted Ruan Mian’s shoulder, then immediately threw himself into the next stage of rescue.
The child was rescued ten minutes later. The rescue team severed his last connection with his mother and sent him out, while his mother stayed here forever.
No one knew how the mother and child survived these past eight days, but this child would remember forever that his mother had given him life twice.
After being rescued, the medical team urgently sent the child to the medical center. Meng Fuping returned with the team while Ruan Mian and three other doctors remained on site.
Under the ruins, Chen Yi and his teammates had just cut the steel bar between the mother and the concrete slab when he suddenly felt trickles of ash falling from above, with cracking sounds around them.
Chen Yi reacted swiftly, pushing the team member nearest the outside out. Right after, this gap was buried by rubble and stones that collapsed under the weight.
At the time, Ruan Mian was nearby bandaging a wounded soldier when she suddenly heard panicked yelling from behind.
“Chen Yi!”
“Captain!”
“Chen!”
Before she could react, the soldier sitting on the ground suddenly stood up and ran towards the previous ruins.
The unfinished white bandage fluttered in the wind on his arm.
It should have been several seconds before Ruan Mian got up from the ground and looked back. Shen Yu and his teammates were frantically digging out the stones above with their bare hands.
It’s said that one’s life flashes before their eyes right before death. But in the dozen or so seconds Ruan Mian ran towards the ruins, she revisited all those past events as if in fast forward.
Her head was suddenly filled with those fleeting fragments. By the time she reached the ruins, her entire body bent over panting heavily, hands clutching her clothes on her knees as if grasping a life preserver in the sea.
Since reuniting until now, she thought she had been composed enough. But faced with life and death, that composure was all pretense.
Shen Yu and the others quickly cleared the rubble above, exposing the original hole again. He shouted almost hysterically into it: “Chen Yi! Chen Yi! Can you hear me?”
All around was quiet, only the sound of the wind.
Ruan Mian stood among the crowd, holding her breath in fear of missing any slight sound that might exist. Seconds and minutes ticked by.
Faint noises of stone knocking came from the ruins.
Shen Yu was still lying at the cave entrance, his hands and face covered in dirty, messy bloodstains. Sweat slid down his temples and cheeks, dripping inside.
In the corner, Chen Yi struggled out from between cracked cement slabs, sitting on the ground leaning against a rock. He responded: “I hear you…”
The moment Ruan Mian heard his voice, it felt like her heart was grabbed and squeezed – both sour and painful. Tears welled up in her eyes instantly, and she quickly wiped them away.
Shen Yu was still lying at the cave entrance, his voice somewhat hoarse already: “Can you fucking move? Report your location to me if you’re not injured.”
Chen Yi lightly coughed out a laugh: “I’m not injured. I’m 45 degrees southeast of you.”
“Stay there, don’t move.”
Shen Yu stood up, his eyes also red: “Team 1, leave four people here with me to rescue Captain Chen. The rest of you keep going to search and rescue elsewhere.”
“Yes sir!”
The team dispersed again. Ruan Mian walked down from the ruins, her hands and feet weak, her back drenched in sweat. She lowered her head to take a few deep breaths, then picked up the medical kit and followed the rescue team forward.
It was nighttime when she saw Chen Yi again.
At the time, after pushing his teammate out, Chen Yi rolled to the side in time, hiding in the gap created by the overlapping slabs.
That was already a dead load-bearing corner, a very stable structure. Although he hid in time and didn’t suffer any major injuries, the superiors knew he had almost met with danger and gave him strict orders to rest at the main base for the night.
When Ruan Mian returned, he was on an IV drip in the infusion hall, sitting in the same spot as last night, only with one more person by his side.
It was Song Yangling.
She was the one who changed his dressings and set up the IV yesterday, and again today. Currently, the two of them, one standing and one sitting, were both exceptionally good-looking. It was quite a pleasing sight.
After Ruan Mian came in to drop off her things, she hurried out again. Lin Jiahui followed her out. Sitting there, Chen Yi glanced towards the door, then looked back at the woman speaking to him, tone indifferent: “Sorry Dr. Song, I’d like to rest for a bit.”
The words Song Yangling was about to say got stuck in her throat. She had only been standing there for less than two minutes and hadn’t gotten to the main point yet, but seeing how exhausted he looked, she didn’t insist on staying. She just said softly: “Then call me if you need anything.”
“Okay, thank you.”
After Song Yangling left, Chen Yi looked towards the entrance again. It was bustling with people coming and going, the night scene vague.
He raised his hand to rub his temples, leaning back against the chair and closing his eyes. Occasionally he would open them again when he heard footsteps, to take a look.
Outside the center, Ruan Mian washed her face with cold water, about to leave, when Lin Jiahui who had chased after her grabbed her arm: “Where are you going?”
“Going to see Xiaohuo for a bit.”
The local Luolin government had already found a suitable welfare home in the neighboring city. These children would be evacuated from the disaster area early tomorrow morning. Ruan Mian had been dizzyingly busy these past few days, and every time she went over, Xiaohuo was already asleep. Today she happened to come back early, so she wanted to go take a look.
Lin Jiahui withdrew her hand, chin jerking back: “And you’re just going to ignore this?”
Ruan Mian wiped the water droplets off her face, asking: “Ignore what?”
“Are you really dumb or just pretending to be dumb?”
Lin Jiahui put both hands in her pockets: “You didn’t see Song Yangling’s obvious intentions?”
Ruan Mian scratched her brow, answering absentmindedly: “I saw it.”
“And this is your reaction?”
Lin Jiahui was silent for a good while before saying: “Let me advise you one last time as someone who’s been there – some people, just having the fortune to meet them is already great luck. Let alone also having the chance to reunite and see them again. If you don’t seize it, someone else will take your place.”
Ruan Mian lowered her eyes without responding.
Lin Jiahui sighed, as if resenting iron not becoming steel: “Forget it, I’ll help you hold on to him first. We’ll talk when you’ve made up your mind.”
Not giving Ruan Mian a chance to refute, Lin Jiahui turned and walked inside. Ruan Mian raised her hand to rub her face. The things from today and much earlier left her heart a tangled mess that she couldn’t unravel, stifling her breath. Her whole body felt somewhat dizzy and muddled.
She stood there thinking for a long time before finally walking in the direction opposite of the center.
After visiting Xiaohuo, Ruan Mian came out of the tent area and had barely taken a few steps when she suddenly bent over throwing up. Having not eaten much during the day, all that came out was a pool of clear water.
Doctor Luo, who had come out with Ruan Mian, hurriedly ran over to support her: “What’s wrong? Are you not feeling well somewhere?”
“It’s nothing, just a little dizzy and nauseous.”
Ruan Mian went to a nearby faucet to rinse her mouth with some cool water, but still felt dizzy and unwell.
“I don’t think you’ve rested these past few days, right? Your complexion doesn’t look too good either.” Doctor Luo said: “Let me help you to the center to lie down for a bit.”
Ruan Mian rubbed her temples, her smile somewhat pale: “Don’t trouble yourself, go busy your things. I can head over myself.”
“Are you sure you can make it yourself?”
Ruan Mian gave an “Mm” and watched the doctor leave. She lowered her head to splash more cool water on her face, waiting a good while before slowly continuing forward.
By then, it was 11pm. There weren’t many people at the center entrance. Chen Yi had just finished his IV drip and was walking out with Shen Yu.
The three of them bumped into each other. Shen Yu had just started to say “Ruan” when he saw the figure in front of them sway and fall backwards. Before he could react, Chen Yi beside him had already rushed forward.
Shen Yu was stunned for a couple beats before coming to his senses. Seeing Chen Yi pick the person up, he hurried back inside to call the doctors. The doctors standing at the registration counter rushed over.
Ruan Mian was quickly pushed into the temporary emergency room. A nurse pulled the curtain, blocking the view of those standing outside, who could only hear voices coming from within.
Shen Yu sat on a plastic stool to the side, glancing at the silhouette by the window, then peeking inside again. A bold thought slowly emerged in his mind.
After quite a while, Lin Jiahui pushed the curtain open and came out from inside. Shen Yu stood up and asked: “How is Ruan Mian? She’s alright, isn’t she?”
“It’s nothing serious, just overexertion and fatigue.”
Having also been badly frightened upon seeing it was Ruan Mian carried in, Lin Jiahui only just calmed down now. As if recalling something, she looked at Chen Yi silently standing to the side.
Their gazes met for a second and she gave a slight smile, looking away to say: “Ruan Mian doesn’t have any major issues now. You don’t all have to keep waiting here.”
Shen Yu said: “Alright then, thanks for the hard work.”
“Just doing our jobs.”
Lin Jiahui gave Chen Yi one last look before turning and going back inside. As the curtain fluttered open and closed, all Chen Yi could glimpse was a corner of the white coat hanging off the bedside.
Shen Yu walked out with an arm across his shoulders, questions on his mind but unasked. Only occasionally he would give thoughtful looks at Chen Yi, smiling meaningfully.
Chen Yi’s heart was also in turmoil. Shen Yu’s smiles were annoying him. He shrugged the arm off his shoulder, saying “What’s wrong with you” before quickly making for the sink to splash water on his face.
Shen Yu leisurely followed over: “Nothing’s wrong with me. What could be wrong? I just suddenly realized something incredible, hard to believe.”
Chen Yi straightened up, his drenched face rugged and chiseled, his brows and eyes deepset. His expression was somewhat aloof: “What did you realize?”
Shen Yu smiled gleefully, looking very punchable: “Can’t say, I’m not certain yet.”
Chen Yi stared at him for a couple seconds, then unexpectedly swept his foot out from under him. Caught off guard, Shen Yu swayed and knocked into the wash basin someone had left on the counter, splashing water all over his feet.
He shook his feet and yelled at Chen Yi’s receding back: “You’re the one with issues!”
Hearing this, Chen Yi gave a lazy laugh without turning his head, continuing on his way. He first went to report to his superiors. Shen Yu also came over after a few minutes.
Sitting at the table, Chen Yi glanced at the man’s feet – still wet.
With a dark look, Shen Yu walked over. Seeing someone’s hand half-covering his face in laughter, he was so angry he didn’t know where to start. He lifted his foot, about to sneak attack, but the commander looked up just then. He hurriedly stopped, stumbling a little.
Thinking Shen Yu was tired, the commander showed concern for him in a couple sentences before bringing up the topic of this meeting. They had reached this stage of rescue. This first dispatched team would start preparations to withdraw, leaving the remaining matters to the rear units.
The meeting went on for over an hour. When it ended, Chen Yi came out from the tent but didn’t follow the large team. Instead, he walked towards the medical center.
The captain of Team 3, Wu Muyi, bumped Shen Yu’s shoulder and asked: “Where’s Captain Chen going so late, isn’t he going to rest?”
Shen Yu scratched his brow, smiling: “How can rest compare to what’s important?”
His words were obscure. Wu Muyi didn’t understand at all, but also didn’t ask further, just yawned and sighed: “It’s finally ending.”
When Chen Yi arrived at the medical center, he stood outside for a while before going in. Lin Jiahui, who had already spotted him earlier, stopped her conversation with a colleague and came over.
“Here to see Ruan Mian?”
She asked.
Chen Yi gave an “Mm,” asking: “Is she awake yet?”
“Not yet, she’ll probably sleep for a while.”
Lin Jiahui jerked her thumb back: “She’s in the first bed by the door in the treatment room. Go on in yourself.”
“Thanks.”
“Don’t mention it.”
Watching him walk off, Lin Jiahui called again: “Captain Chen.”
Chen Yi stopped and turned back.
“There are other patients resting in the treatment room. Please keep the noise down.”
Lin Jiahui smiled: “Much appreciated.”
He nodded and continued on his way.
In her deep slumber, Ruan Mian was unaware of anything happening. Chen Yi sat by the bedside, arm propped on the chair armrest, head tilted as he watched her face for a long time.
He recalled their high school days, when she did poorly on her first monthly exam due to weak subjects and was called to Teacher Zhao’s office. Later, he happened to be passing by and was called in by Zhao Qi.
The female student was probably embarrassed and kept her head lowered without making a sound. She only reacted a little when Teacher Zhao said to let him take a look at the essay she wrote, sneaking glances at his actions.
Chen Yi no longer remembered what that essay was about, only that her astonished reaction when he agreed to tutor her writing.
Later, when Chen Yi came out of the office and recalled that scene, he still felt it was a bit strange. Was he really that unwilling to help others?
Through more interactions afterwards, Chen Yi realized Ruan Mian seemed to actually be quite afraid of him. But he didn’t care much for these details at the time, only finding it odd in hindsight.
He hadn’t done anything particularly outrageous back then and was considered easy-going in class. So why was she so afraid of him?
Also, Chen Yi recalled her earlier words to Yu Zhou about not being familiar with him. He scratched his brow, suddenly letting out an amused hum.
She really was heartless.
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