Chapter 36: Awake, Awake!

During his university days, he volunteered and specifically learned basic first aid and nursing techniques from medical personnel. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) was one of the required skills. Once, he encountered a patient on the street suffering from a heart attack. He saved the person’s life using CPR, an event that left a deep impression on him.

He never expected to encounter a drowning child here. Time is precious for drowning victims; if you miss the window, even a god would have difficulty bringing the person back. He was now racing against the clock to save a life.

Pressing the child’s forehead down with one hand while lifting the child’s chin up with the other, he pinched the child’s nose and gave the child two rescue breaths, mouth-to-mouth. Feeling for a pulse under the child’s neck with two fingers, Cao Xiangnan’s heart tightened.

“Wait a little longer.” Old Doctor Luo was seeing such a strange way of saving a person for the first time. He reached out to stop the ge’er from approaching and neatly unbuttoned the child’s clothes, placing two fingers on the child’s chest to estimate the location of the heart. Locating the cartilaginous knot at the lowest end of the sternum, he determined the position, opened his palm, and placed his other hand overlapping on top.

“Two compressions.”

Compressions, breaths, compressions, breaths, alternating continuously. The more he did it, the calmer Cao Xiangnan became, counting the time in his mind and checking the child’s pulse in the neck every minute.

Seeing such a strange way of saving someone for the first time, the onlookers quieted down for a moment. Most people didn’t believe that this could save someone. Even Old Doctor Luo said there was nothing he could do; could this really bring the person back? Despite their disbelief, everyone waited quietly.

Suddenly—”Cough… cough cough…” The child on the ground coughed, then coughed again, expelling water from his mouth and nose.

Cao Xiangnan collapsed to the ground, feeling that if the child hadn’t woken up, he would have died from excessive oxygen deprivation. However, he was very happy that the person could be saved. After all, this was a fresh, young life.

“He’s awake! He’s awake!” someone shouted.

The crowd outside, witnessing the miracle, erupted in an uproar.

“He was really saved?” Some people could hardly believe what they were seeing unless they had witnessed it themselves.

“Waa… A-mu… Wuu wuu wuu…” Overwhelmed with fright, the child cried, calling for his A-mu.

The ge’er next to him pounced over, hugging his child tightly, holding back tears as he comforted his child, “Xuanxuan, A-mu’s Xuanxuan. Be good, don’t cry, don’t cry. A-mu is here; it was A-mu who didn’t watch over Xuanxuan, it’s A-mu’s fault.”

If he hadn’t failed to keep an eye on the child, the child wouldn’t have run off to play in the water and fallen in. If he had really lost the child today, he really didn’t know how he would have lived on. He couldn’t even imagine it.

“Wuu wuu wuu, A-mu…” Old Doctor Luo looked at the young man sitting on the ground and nodded. It was the first time he had seen such a strange method. If he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes, he wouldn’t have known that this could save a drowning person.

Cao Xiangnan subconsciously looked up to find Qi Wanfeng. Seeing Qi Wanfeng standing at the front with the child, he waved to him. As Qi Wanfeng came over with the child, he smiled weakly and said, “Give me a hand.”

“Husband, are you alright?” Qi Wanfeng asked with concern.

“It’s nothing, just a little dizzy from oxygen deprivation; I’ll be fine after a rest.” Mainly, this body’s physical condition was too poor. Cao Xiangnan looked at the ge’er crying as he held the child, knowing that every child was the lifeblood of their parents. If the child had really died, he really didn’t know what this ge’er would have done. He should be thankful.