One minute earlier, inside the operating room.
The third baby was delivered. Shen Fangyu cut the umbilical cord, and a nurse took the infant from him. Setting down the surgical scissors, he said to everyone, “Good work.”
Then he turned and smiled at the patient in Bed 23. “You worked hard too.”
The woman in Bed 23 was named Wang Qin. Hearing his words, her expression relaxed slightly. Sweat-soaked strands of hair clung to her temples, and she looked exhausted yet happy. The epidural anesthesia temporarily numbed the pain in her lower body, and she was immersed in the joy of delivering her babies safely, the corners of her lips slowly curving upward.
Triplets rarely made it to full term and were usually premature. Wang Qin was no exception. The babies were only briefly shown to her before being placed in incubators and taken to the neonatal intensive care unit.
Seeing Wang Qin lower her eyes and grow depressed again, Shen Fangyu comforted her softly, “You’ll see them again very soon. Don’t be upset.”
Wang Qin nodded and sighed. A moment later, her brows suddenly furrowed, and she gave a light cough. Shen Fangyu had been observing the uterus and waiting for the placenta to deliver. At the sound, his gaze abruptly paused. Moments later, Wang Qin coughed again.
It was just a crisp, ordinary cough, seemingly nothing unusual, yet Shen Fangyu’s pupils suddenly constricted.
“Prepare for endotracheal intubation,” he ordered sharply.
“Huh?” The anesthesiologist froze.
“Hurry,” Shen Fangyu repeated. “Quickly!”
The moment the anesthesiologist brought over the intubation equipment, Wang Qin, who had shown no signs of abnormality just seconds ago, suddenly rolled her eyes back and began convulsing violently.
Shen Fangyu abruptly looked up at the cardiac monitor. Without giving anyone even a moment to react, piercing alarms suddenly erupted throughout the operating room. The vital signs that had been stable only half a minute ago plummeted wildly as though they had gone haywire. In an instant, four merciless zeros appeared on the monitor:
P: Pulse 0/min, R: Heart Rate 0/min, BP: Blood Pressure 0 mmHg, SpO₂: Blood Oxygen Saturation 0%
Cardiopulmonary arrest!
The shrill alarms struck at everyone’s nerves, and the operating room instantly descended into chaos.
“Two milligrams of epinephrine IV in divided doses! Twenty milligrams dexamethasone IV push!”
Shen Fangyu spoke at lightning speed. Interlocking his hands, he pressed forcefully against the lower third of Wang Qin’s sternum. As his body rose and fell, compressing rhythmically again and again, dark unclotted blood flowed from Wang Qin’s uterine cavity. The tube was inserted into her trachea, and the ventilator began mechanically delivering breaths in steady intervals. Large beads of sweat rolled down Shen Fangyu’s forehead.
External chest compressions were physically exhausting. Shen Fangyu was already drenched through.
“Another dose of epinephrine,” he said after glancing at the monitor, issuing rapid instructions. “Four milligrams IV in divided doses. Aminophylline 125 milligrams IV push. Notify the resuscitation team.”
He pressed his lips together briefly. “And issue a critical condition notice to the family. It’s an amniotic fluid embolism!”
The news spread out of the operating room as if it had grown legs. Jiang Xu’s jaw tightened, his heartbeat pounding like thunder. There were two things obstetricians feared most: postpartum hemorrhage and amniotic fluid embolism.
Amniotic fluid embolism was extremely rare and came without warning. What made it most terrifying was how difficult its clinical symptoms were to recognize, combined with how rapidly the disease progressed. From the onset of vague symptoms to death, it could happen within a single minute, leaving medical staff virtually no time to react.
Any pregnant woman could suddenly develop an amniotic fluid embolism for no apparent reason. It was nearly impossible to predict or prevent before delivery, and its fatality rate was terrifyingly high and swift. Because of this, people often referred to it as “Death’s lottery.”
Those selected by it had only the slimmest chance of survival. There had once even been doctors joking that successfully saving a patient with amniotic fluid embolism would give the attending physician bragging rights for the rest of their life.
“Dr. Jiang!”
Jiang Xu turned abruptly. A ward nurse looked at him as if she had spotted a savior. “Dr. Jiang, Dr. Li just took the critical condition notice to speak with the family, and they started fighting. Please go take a look!”
Jiang Xu immediately strode outside. The moment he rounded the corridor toward the operating room entrance facing the patient’s family area, he heard furious shouting.
“What the hell is wrong with you people?! We said natural birth, natural birth! But you insisted on dragging her into surgery just to make more money! Now look what happened! My wife walked in alive, and after only a few hours you’re already issuing a critical condition notice?!”
The man yelling was shoving Li Sheng violently. “If you don’t give me an explanation today, none of you are getting off easy!” he roared. “Get that Shen Fangyu out here! He’s the bastard who insisted my wife needed a C-section! If I don’t beat him to death today, I’m not a man!”
Li Sheng was still trying futilely to explain. “Please calm down. Amniotic fluid embolism is a sudden complication. We’re already doing everything we can to save her–”
Before he could finish, the man punched him hard across the face. “Get your department chief out here!”
Li Sheng staggered backward half a step, clutching his cheek in pain. The man cursed furiously and raised his fist again, but Jiang Xu intercepted it in one swift motion.
Wang Qin’s husband tilted his head and eyed Jiang Xu sideways. “You the chief?”
“A critical condition notice is not a death notice,” Jiang Xu said coldly. “Dr. Shen is doing everything in his power to save the patient right now. He doesn’t have time to fight you!”
“Save her?” The man was emotionally shattered, his booming voice deafening. “She’s already fucking critical, how the hell are you gonna save her? You people are probably just trying to scam more money again!” He shouted, “That damn Dr. Shen should be the one paying for this! What kind of surgery did he even perform?!”
Jiang Xu took a deep breath. “No one wants a patient to develop an amniotic fluid embolism. Doctors have no way to predict this kind of sudden complication–”
Before he could finish speaking, the man lunged at him again. Li Sheng reacted quickly and tried to shield Jiang Xu, but Jiang Xu shoved him aside, tilted his head to avoid the incoming punch, and pointed directly at the man’s nose–
“Please calm down! Your wife isn’t dead yet! Shen Fangyu hasn’t given up on her, so what right do you have to give up first?!”
“Dr. Jiang… stop talking,” Li Sheng tugged at his sleeve and lowered his voice. “You weren’t in the OR, you didn’t see her condition. With how bad it is… she probably… can’t be saved.”
“He can save her.” Jiang Xu turned and headed straight for the operating room, seemingly unaware that his eyes were bloodshot and even his voice was trembling. “He’ll save her.”
And even if he couldn’t save her, it still wouldn’t be his fault.
Chaos reigned in the operating room corridor. Jiang Xu changed into surgical scrubs and washed his hands. He had already lifted his foot, preparing to trigger the automatic door sensor, when after a long moment, he calmed down slightly and lowered it again.
An operating room didn’t become better just because more doctors crowded inside. Going in now would be useless. Shen Fangyu was in there, and he would make the most rational decisions possible.
Jiang Xu slowly exhaled and walked back to the changing room, intending to return to the office and wait for news. Yet after hesitating for a moment, he stopped again. Instead of opening the locker containing his regular clothes, he leaned against the wall and sat down on the floor.
This wasn’t Jiang Xu’s first time encountering an emergency like this. But in the past, he had always been on the front line of the resuscitation effort. Back then, his mind had room for nothing except saving the patient, there was no space left for worry or fear.
Only today did he realize that waiting outside the operating room was far more agonizing than standing beside the operating table. He was worried about Bed 23, and he was worried about Shen Fangyu.
Tilting his head back against the changing room wall, Jiang Xu tried to steady himself. Perhaps only the cold floor and icy wall could help calm the panic in his chest. But the people truly standing at the operating table had no time to panic. The ongoing chest compressions had nearly drained Shen Fangyu of all strength.
Every doctor had their own habits in surgery. Shen Fangyu’s operating room had always been relaxed, often filled with teasing banter. But now every face in the room was grim. No one had the energy or mindset to joke.
The resuscitation process stretched on endlessly, with no sign of hope. Drug after drug was administered, yet the patient remained unconscious. Just as Shen Fangyu felt he could no longer even sense the existence of his arms, the numbers on the cardiac monitor finally began to stabilize.
“She’s back!” Zhang Cheng cried out in joy. “Her heart rate and blood pressure are back!”
After seven continuous minutes of resuscitation, the patient’s spontaneous heartbeat returned, and her blood pressure rose to 150/110 mmHg. The placenta detached naturally.
“Maintain vasoactive medications,” Shen Fangyu said as he finally released his hands. Sweat slipped past even his long eyelashes and into his eyes, the sting forcing him to close them briefly. He slowly let out a breath and said to the person beside him, “Wipe the sweat.”
The circulating nurse wiped the sweat from his forehead and eyes. Once his vision cleared, Dr. Shen disinfected his hands again and picked up the suturing needle.
The Hayman uterine compression suture successfully controlled the bleeding. As the resuscitation continued, Wang Qin’s vital signs gradually stabilized, and her oxygen saturation began to recover.
“Check for abdominal bleeding.”
“The muscles are dark purple, and there’s diffuse bleeding from the wound surfaces,” Zhang Cheng reported. “There’s also oozing beneath the fascia.”
After a brief silence, Shen Fangyu said, “Prepare for subtotal hysterectomy. Have the family sign the surgical consent form.”
Two hours later, the patient who had narrowly escaped death was wheeled out of the operating room and transferred into the intensive care unit.
Wang Qin was rushed away, and the crowd gradually dispersed. A sound came from the doorway. Jiang Xu abruptly lifted his head, his gaze colliding unexpectedly with Shen Fangyu as he entered the changing room.
He looked exhausted. His clothes were soaked through, damp patches spreading across the green surgical scrubs. The blue surgical cap hid all his hair, exposing only a forehead covered in a sheen of sweat.
The moment he saw Jiang Xu, he didn’t speak. Nor was it possible to tell whether he was surprised. He merely paused very briefly before walking straight over to Jiang Xu and crouching down lightly in front of him, bringing their eyes level.
In the corner of the changing room, the two silently looked at each other for a long while without speaking. After what felt like forever, Jiang Xu suddenly reached behind Shen Fangyu’s ear and gently removed his mask. Condensed droplets fell away. The elastic had left deep red marks across Shen Fangyu’s pale face, and the lower half of his face was flushed an unhealthy red from being trapped beneath the mask for so long.
Shen Fangyu kept looking at him, letting him remove the mask, letting Jiang Xu’s hand rest against his cheek. Then he said softly, “I’m so tired, Jiang Xu.”
“Did you save her?” Jiang Xu asked quietly.
Shen Fangyu’s eyes curved slightly. “Mm. We saved her.”
Before Jiang Xu could say anything else, Shen Fangyu, who had just been complaining of exhaustion, suddenly scooped him up from the floor.
Jiang Xu was startled. “What are you doing?!”
“Who told you to sit on the floor?” The brief moment of peace vanished instantly as Shen Fangyu suddenly regained his energy. “There are so many chairs in the changing room, but you had to sit on the ground. And I heard you were outside the OR arguing with the family and defending me too. Seriously, Jiang Xu, since when are you this patient? If Ma Hao found out, he’d probably cry from shock.”
“Put me down!” Jiang Xu glared at him darkly, his fist already clenching in warning. Shen Fangyu had no desire to get punched right after surgery. After taking a few steps, he obediently set Jiang Xu down on a chair in the lounge, though he still threatened him.
“If you sit on the floor again, I’ll carry you around the wards in front of everyone.”
“If you’re tired of living, just say so.”
“There’s no point arguing with family members who are panicking and furious. Even if they really file a complaint against me, the Health Commission will still determine responsibility fairly. That family has terrible tempers, Li Sheng even got one of his loose teeth knocked out.” Shen Fangyu still sounded shaken. “Good thing you didn’t get hurt.”
Originally, Jiang Xu hadn’t intended to argue with the family either. A patient who had been perfectly fine before entering surgery suddenly receiving a critical condition notice, no family member could calmly accept that in such a short time. Angry outbursts were common.
But for some reason, hearing Wang Qin’s husband speak about Shen Fangyu that way had made Jiang Xu unable to suppress the urge to defend him. Even though he had never been someone who enjoyed verbal disputes.
He glanced at Shen Fangyu. “Is Li Sheng alright?”
“Oh, so you got into a fight with the family because you were upset for him? Here I thought you were worried about me.” Shen Fangyu laughed and teased him a little before continuing, “He’s fine. That tooth was badly decayed anyway. He’d already planned to have it extracted, but he kept putting it off because he was scared of the pain. Now he’s finally gone to dentistry to get a new one put in.”
Jiang Xu lowered his eyes. Shen Fangyu glanced at the takeout boxes on the table.
“Eat first, okay?”
He picked up the containers to heat them up, but the moment he opened the lids, he realized Jiang Xu hadn’t touched a single dish.
“Why didn’t you eat? Was it bad?”
Jiang Xu shot him a look.
Shen Fangyu instantly understood, and a subtle smile appeared on his face. “Jiang Xu, why are you so good to me?”
Jiang Xu stood up to leave, but Shen Fangyu grabbed hold of him.
“Come home,” he said seriously, his eyes filled completely with Jiang Xu. “Okay?”
Jiang Xu’s heart skipped a beat. For no reason at all, he suddenly felt a little dazed by that look in Shen Fangyu’s eyes. Then Shen Fangyu continued.
“I finally managed to nurse your stomach back to something decent, and now every day I watch you wreck that terrible stomach of yours again. It honestly makes me feel awful. Come back and follow medical advice properly. Eat your meals on time, alright?”
“…” Jiang Xu said, “Who asked you to worry about my stomach?”
“Doctor’s instinct, Jiang Xu,” Shen Fangyu replied. “Can’t help it.”
“Yu Sang doesn’t eat properly either. Go take care of him instead.”
“Crooked teachers produce crooked students. He copies everything from you,” Shen Fangyu said. “So, Teacher Jiang, you should lead by example and set a good model for your students.”
Jiang Xu glanced at him. “Then next time Teacher Shen wears his white coat, please remember to button it properly. Professor Cui has already criticized your students several times for copying you.”
“But you wear yours according to regulations,” Shen Fangyu teased. “Then why don’t you help me put mine on?”
“Have you no shame?”
“So you can take my clothes off but not help me put them on?”
“Shen. Fang. Yu!”
Jiang Xu shot to his feet, only to meet Shen Fangyu’s triumphant grin after successfully provoking him.
“Alright, relax. Don’t worry, that day, it wasn’t you who took my clothes off. I took them off myself.”
Jiang Xu choked on his own breath. He genuinely didn’t know what exactly he had done to give Shen Fangyu the illusion that they were now close enough for jokes like this.
And what made him even more internally distressed was that Shen Fangyu clearly remembered absolutely nothing and was talking complete nonsense, yet somehow, like a blind cat stumbling upon a dead mouse, he had accidentally guessed a detail Jiang Xu desperately did not want to remember.
For example, Shen Fangyu’s clothes really had indeed been–
Damn it.
Furious, Jiang Xu turned and stormed out without another word. Shen Fangyu hurriedly stood and chased after him. Finally, just before Jiang Xu could become truly enraged, Shen Fangyu softened his voice and said the one thing he should have said from the beginning.
“I was really wrong, Jiang Xu. Can you forgive me?”
Then he added quietly, “I’ve kind of missed you.”