Chapter 6

Yesterday, the weather bureau predicted that the weather would change drastically due to the typhoon. So this morning, before the shift change, a torrential downpour began. The rain brought by the typhoon was not like the lingering drizzle of the rainy season, but like the surging Yellow River, surging and unrestrained. Tang Fei took advantage of this free time, finished a piece of bread, drank some milk, and looked out the window. The dense rain curtain outside, accompanied by the gale, was smashing against the ground with a clatter.

She thought to herself, “Oh no, how will I get home? Will I be able to get a taxi in this weather? I can only hope that Tang Anhua will remember his daughter after sending Dr. Jiang.”

To be safe, Tang Fei shamelessly made a phone call.

Tang Anhua agreed, but couldn’t help but nag, “I’ve told you to buy a car for yourself, it’s safe and convenient. In weather like this typhoon…”

The same words, repeated over and over again, Tang Fei’s ears were calloused. She tried to escape, “I’m going to do my shift change, I’ll contact you after I’m done.”

Tang Fei hung up the phone. She didn’t know that Tang Anhua on the other end of the phone was complaining to Jiang Junli beside him, “It’s only 7:15, what shift change? She’s just tired of hearing me talk.”

Jiang Junli spoke the truth, “Sometimes you do talk a bit too much.”

Tang Anhua finally shut up. Due to his profession, he was also a head teacher, and he was used to lecturing people.

Speaking of shift changes, unlike other departments, the handover between doctors in the critical care emergency department required bedside handover for critical cases and emergency surgeries of the day. They needed to understand the current situation of critical patients and surgical patients for observation and further treatment. Therefore, Tang Fei had finished her shift change by almost 9 pm. As soon as she entered the office, she heard Lin Ye say in a loud voice, “Alright, everyone’s here, let’s have a short meeting.”

This was the habit of team two. Whenever a patient’s treatment failed, they would gather around the small coffee table in the office after the shift change to hold a summary meeting. The meeting was not just Lin Ye talking, but everyone could speak. After all, they were the ones with the most pressure in the entire hospital. No matter how capable or experienced they were, they would always feel like they had been negligent or done something wrong. So they would speak up, to minimize the phenomenon of them constantly replaying events in their heads during their rest time. In short, they used collective communication to relieve individual pressure.

The colleagues around her spoke one after another, until it was Tang Fei’s turn. She pursed her lips and asked directly, “Dr. Lin, given Professor Zhong’s physical condition, with no spontaneous circulation restored after more than 25 minutes of CPR, the chances of successful resuscitation were close to zero. Even if he miraculously recovered spontaneous circulation, the patient would suffer irreversible brain damage or organ failure due to prolonged hypoxia. So why persist?”

“Do you think it’s also a kind of torture for Professor Zhong?”

Tang Fei choked, “Yes, the patient has been bedridden for months, there isn’t even a place to insert a needle on his arms.”

Lin Ye spoke slowly, her voice was soft but firm, “As doctors, in the face of death, we should first consider the patient, or their closest family members. They still have hope for life, how can we easily give up?”

“The patient himself…” Tang Fei rubbed the tiger’s mouth of her left hand with her right hand, weighing her words carefully, she didn’t say what Professor Zhong had requested before falling into a coma again.

“Besides, Professor Zhong’s children were still on their way to see him for the last time when we were rescuing him.”

Word for word, Tang Fei clearly read the word “regret” from her tone and expression. For a moment, she wanted to remind the other party that it might not be a good thing for a doctor to be overly empathetic.

She wanted to relieve her colleague’s pressure, but ended up putting more pressure on herself.

“Meeting adjourned.” The 15-minute meeting ended, Lin Ye packed up her notebook and medical records. The other doctors were eager to leave work, while Tang Fei lowered her head and casually flipped through the medical records, wanting to speak but hesitating. She hesitated for a moment, not knowing how to bring up the topic. Finally, she returned to her seat, thinking to herself, I’ll find a chance to talk about it later.

By the roadside outside the Second Affiliated Hospital, Tang Fei held an umbrella in her left hand and a phone in her right hand, calling Tang Anhua.

The phone transmitted a mechanical female voice, “The phone you dialed has been turned off. Please redial later.”

Unreliable, he must have forgotten to charge his phone last night.

Tang Fei gave up, switched to using WeChat to hail a taxi, but unfortunately, Didi showed that there were no available vehicles nearby, and no one was picking up fast rides either. She sighed, put away her phone, and prepared to hail a taxi by the roadside. Under the rain curtain, a tall and thin figure was wearing a black T-shirt, the white sweatpants on his lower body were already soaked. She stretched out her right hand to hail a car, but she couldn’t get a car, and she got splashed with water. Just as she was about to go to the parking lot to put on her raincoat and ride her bike back, a white Volkswagen Golf stopped in front of her.

The car window on the driver’s side rolled down, and Lin Ye’s beautiful face appeared, she said softly, “Get in.” The wind blew into the car, swirling her long hair, covering her face, leaving only a pair of clear eyes, like a touch of coolness in the summer heat. Time seemed to stand still, Tang Fei stood there in a daze.

“Dr. Tang?” Lin Ye’s voice grew louder.

“Oh, thank you.” Tang Fei came back to her senses, suppressing the thoughts that had arisen from her suddenly abnormal heartbeat, opened the car door, closed her umbrella, and ducked into the car.

Lin Ye didn’t expect her to sit directly in the passenger seat, she was stunned for two seconds, the bewilderment in her eyes dissipated, then she said softly, “There are new face wipes in the bag in the back seat, wipe the rainwater off your body.”

She spoke with concern, but her tone was very flat. However, Tang Fei heard it in her ears, and her nose felt sour because of the other person’s long-lost gentleness. She began to regret why she hadn’t kept her, and when she regretted it, she sent a long message, only to find that she had been deleted and blocked.

The rain outside was getting heavier, and she couldn’t see the vehicles in front of her. Lin Ye was worried about an accident, so she told her, “Turn around and get it first, then I’ll start the car.”

“Okay.” The repeated concern hit the softest part of Tang Fei’s heart. She sniffed, turned around and rummaged through her pocket, took out the face wipes, then sat back down and fastened her seat belt.

Lin Ye finally started the car. She rarely didn’t turn on the car radio, the car was silent, until a ring broke the silence.

Tang Fei watched as she clicked on the car’s Bluetooth and pressed the answer button. Although Lin Ye was wearing headphones, Tang Fei could still faintly hear the warm voice on the other side of the phone, sitting beside her.

“Mommy, are you driving?”

Lin Ye’s lips curved into a smile, she replied patiently, “Yes, Mommy is driving.”

“Going home?”

“It’s raining heavily, Mommy is going to send an aunt home first.”

Lin Yangyang said in a childish voice, “Oh, Mommy drive carefully, Yangyang won’t bother you.”

Lin Ye smiled even more, “Okay, Yangyang be good.”

“Mommy hang up first.” The child had already learned the etiquette of making phone calls that Lin Ye had taught her.

Lin Ye responded, reached out to end the call.

From the moment she answered the phone and the other side called her “Mommy”, Tang Fei immediately pulled herself out of her previous self-indulgence and waited anxiously for the call to end, before she barely managed to squeeze out a smile and sincerely praised, “Your daughter is very cute.”

Lin Ye focused on driving, she said, “Thank you.”

Continuing on, 10 minutes of driving passed.

“Just stop at the next intersection, it’s convenient for you to turn around.” She actually remembered her address, Tang Fei was confused again, her mind was in turmoil, the car stopped steadily by the roadside. She thanked her again, quickly picked up her umbrella on the floor, opened the door and stepped into the rain curtain.

The torrential rain raged for a whole day and night, finally stopping at 10 am the next day.

 Tang Fei always liked to plan ahead, when to buy a motorcycle, when to renew her license, when to take tomatoes to the hospital for a checkup. For example, today, she had planned to go to the gym after her nap.

 Because emergency doctors not only need comprehensive knowledge and skills, but also physical strength. It is said that 4 out of 10 doctors in their emergency department choose swimming, 3 choose ball sports, and the rest probably choose fitness.

At 2:40 pm, Tang Fei, who had rested well, took a taxi to the gym near Shujiang University. As soon as she entered, the front desk salesperson greeted her enthusiastically, first introducing her to the courses, then understanding her fitness frequency, what kind of membership would be convenient, and finally deciding on a coach.

Salesperson: “There are only two coaches available at this time, which one would you choose?”

Tang Fei naturally chose a female coach.

“At the same time, the coach will be responsible for four people, is that okay?”

“No problem.”

After signing the fitness contract, the salesperson took her to change clothes, then took her to a medium-sized classroom, and said, “First, take a stretching class, there are 11 people inside, plus you, a total of 12 people.”

The salesperson had already informed the coach, Tang Fei waited for her to leave, afraid of disturbing others, she pushed the door open slowly. But with just one glance, she saw Lin Ye on the far right of the second row, standing there, raising her hand to do the movements. Her snow-white skin seemed to blend with the white wall behind her.

Some people, you can’t avoid them even if you want to.

The coach noticed she was standing there in a daze, and called out to her, “Student, you go to the far right of the second row to fill the empty space.”

Tang Fei heard this, her feet seemed to be rooted to the ground, she struggled to lift her feet and walked towards the second row, finally standing to the right of Lin Ye, with space for two people between them.

“Everyone listen to the music and stretch with me to relax.”

“Now we’re going to do some hamstring stretches, two people in a group, help each other.”

 The coach finished speaking, except for Lin Ye and Tang Fei, the other 10 people had voluntarily divided into 5 groups, facing each other in pairs.

 Tang Fei glanced at Lin Ye with her peripheral vision, seeing that the other person was standing there just like her, her expression slightly gloomy, obviously both of them were a little awkward because of this arrangement.

 What should I do? She pondered, the next moment, before the coach could urge them, Lin Ye in front of her sat down on the floor, her legs stretched out, she tilted her head slightly to look at her, her soft voice blew like the wind, “Dr. Tang, can you help me.”