"..."
What a joke?
Why is Teacher Song here?
Glass fragments splattered everywhere, the sudden crisp sound made him the focus of the crowd, countless gazes looked over, time seemed to freeze, enveloping everyone in a viscous atmosphere, Zhang Shutong could feel the muscles at the corners of his eyes stretching little by little, until he struggled to break free from this solidification.
"What happened to him?" Zhang Shutong asked anxiously, "What happened, he's my homeroom teacher, a teacher from Yingcai Middle School..."
But the leading male nurse obviously had no time to pay attention to him, instead, he was startled by the shattered IV bottle:
"His head is broken, he's lost too much blood, be careful, there are so many people in the corridor, we can talk about it later!"
Before the other party finished speaking, the rollers of the sickbed continued to roll, like a hurried drumbeat on the heart, the nurses passed through the crowded corridor, and only a few quick dialogues could be heard:
"I just arrived, Xiao Li and Xiao Hu, you went with the car, what's the situation?"
"Hemorrhagic shock, unstable vital signs, weak breathing, heart rate 105, currently unconscious..."
"Head trauma, no bleeding from the ears or nasal passages, there are contusions on the chest and abdomen, we are preliminarily suspecting a ruptured spleen, internal bleeding would be a problem..."
"The bleeding is not too serious, it's just that he's been bleeding for too long, he was already in a coma when he was found."
"Level two critical, hurry..."
Critical...
However, the door to the emergency room slammed shut with a bang.
Only then did Zhang Shutong realize that he had followed all the way to the door.
All of this happened in the blink of an eye, a huge sense of dizziness rushed into his brain, he really wanted to rush over and ask for an explanation, what did "level two critical" mean, was the man in mortal danger, what did he go through... But now the cold metal door isolated everything, Zhang Shutong stood in front of the door, until the young nurse came running out in response:
"What's wrong, what's wrong?"
She came to Zhang Shutong's side and noticed the IV catheter in his hand, the blood had already flowed back, spreading out a shallow red line.
"You should pull out the needle first!"
Without a word, she pulled up Zhang Shutong's hand and calmly pulled out the needle:
"Hold it yourself, don't just stand there."
Zhang Shutong subconsciously pressed on the wound.
The young nurse wanted to say something else, but someone in the ward was already shouting, "Nurse, change the medicine—"
"I heard you! Coming, coming!" she also replied loudly, and turned and ran back to the ward, "You should go back now, someone is cleaning outside, I'll give you a new shot after I'm done, don't just stand there foolishly..."
Everyone was busy as a bee.
But Zhang Shutong looked at the emergency room door without moving.
The green light above the door had turned into a shocking red, and the noise from before was like a stone thrown into a wave, not even a splash could be seen.
This was a hospital, where birth, aging, sickness, and death were constantly unfolding. It was not a fault of others' indifference. The crowd only looked sideways for a moment and then went about their own business, buying food, going to the toilet, smoking, and he paced anxiously outside the door, forcing himself to calm down.
What on earth happened?
Didn't we just have lunch at noon?
Ruoping said Teacher Song suddenly had something urgent and couldn't take them home; which means he must have been driving at the time...
So was it a car accident?
But if it was a traffic accident, why did that nurse say he was already in a coma when he was found?
Where did the homeroom teacher drive to?
Zhang Shutong inhaled and exhaled, the insiders were all inside the emergency room, and he couldn't even find a single person to ask.
For the first time, he realized that all he could do was wait. Anxiety climbed up his heart like countless tentacles, making it hard for him to breathe. He was already dizzy, and now his head started to hurt directly. Zhang Shutong threw himself onto a chair opposite the emergency room and subconsciously searched for the symptoms of "ruptured spleen."
The internet here was slow, the data bar at the top of the browser was slow to reach the end, and finally the screen refreshed, and a string of data rushed into his eyes:
"...A true rupture will lead to internal bleeding in the patient's abdominal cavity, the mortality rate can be as high as 90%, timely treatment has a total cure rate of about 50%..."
Zhang Shutong cursed under his breath and turned off his phone.
It's true that looking up illnesses online always starts with a terminal illness. What a bunch of nonsense. He shouldn't have searched for it, but he scratched his hair, and that string of cold data was like a brand in his mind.
It was too sudden.
So sudden there was no warning at all.
How is someone just going to die?
Gu Qiumian's matter hadn't come to an end yet, he was still getting an IV in the hospital, just waiting for everything to be revealed tonight, and then he could finally take a breath, but now his teacher had suddenly entered the hospital, separated from him by a door, his life or death unknown.
And he could do nothing, only wait outside the door.
A sense of powerlessness struck, until the metal door in front of him opened, and Zhang Shutong looked up abruptly.
"That student, yes, you!"
It was the leading male nurse from before. The other party walked over in a few steps:
"What's your teacher's name?"
"Song Nanshan." Zhang Shutong quickly stood up, "The 'nan' from southeast northwest, the 'shan' from tall mountain."
The other party was holding a phone, and he recognized it as Teacher Song's.
"What about his family, parents, spouse, anyone will do. Do you know how to contact them?"
"There are none."
"You don't know or there aren't any?"
"There just aren't." Zhang Shutong was suddenly at a loss for words, "His parents are in another city and can't make it back, spouse... my teacher is single."
As for Teacher Song's colleagues and friends... he tried to recall, but there was only a blank.
Zhang Shutong was taken aback and only then realized that he didn't really know this man. The other party was a carefree man, righteous and unpretentious. Logically, a person like that shouldn't have a lack of friends, but he had never seen the man socialize much. Even when he drank, he would buy beer and drink it back in the dorm. The only people who usually hung around him were a few of them, kids.
"Not a single one?" The male nurse confirmed again.
"No." Zhang Shutong asked again, "How is he now? I heard you say internal bleeding, so..."
"That's not the only problem now."
The other party anxiously interrupted him:
"Your teacher has severe blood loss and urgently needs a blood transfusion, but his blood type hasn't been tested yet, we can't perform surgery at all. We can only do some simple hemostasis measures and medication to maintain him."
Even though it was winter, Zhang Shutong saw the other party wipe the sweat from his forehead. The male nurse quickly continued:
"It's not just you who's anxious, we all are. Everyone is waiting for the test results now, they'll be out soon, but we're a small hospital, and the blood bank doesn't have so many blood types. If his is one of the common ones, that would be great. The most difficult hurdle would be overcome, and we could arrange for surgery immediately. But if..."
But if it's a special blood type, it would be a complete and utter problem. Zhang Shutong silently completed the sentence, and he had an ominous premonition in his heart. This ominous feeling didn't linger for long before it turned into a knife's light that slashed down—
Because the lights in the emergency room were already off.
The door opened, and the nurses and doctors came out in a hurry, pushing the bed. There were various instruments hanging from the head of the bed.
"The results are out, O-type," an elderly doctor instructed, "Xiao Hu, go call the hospitals in the city now and ask them who has blood bags, and then tell the ambulance to get ready to leave. Not a single moment can be wasted!
"The rest of you, lift the patient onto the car now. During this time, always pay attention to his heart rate and be ready to inject him at any time. It's five o'clock now, we can still catch the boat... Xiao Li!"
The man shouted again.
"Coming!" the male nurse responded immediately.
"Xiao Li! What about the patient's family you were told to contact? Where are they? Tell them to go directly to the ferry terminal, don't come to the hospital. Time is of the essence!"
But Xiao Li hesitated:
"We haven't been able to contact the patient's family yet. His phone has a password. I just asked the patient's student, who said his parents are in another city, he's single, and doesn't have any friends or anything..."
"A teacher? Then quickly contact the leaders of his school. I don't care who it is, just get someone to come. Someone must be on the ambulance going to the city later!"
"The school's contact number is not going through, it's Saturday today..."
"Who called 120 in the first place? Where is he?"
"Didn't follow..."
"Didn't I emphasize that the first person to report the incident must be brought along!"
"But that person..."
Both of them became irritable.
"I'll go." Zhang Shutong propped himself up and stood. He was enduring the dizziness, "Don't delay anymore. I can follow along, I'll get on the ambulance now."
"You..." The doctor saw that he was a child and instinctively wanted to refuse.
"My parents are in the city, I can contact them to help take care of him." Zhang Shutong looked into the other party's eyes, and at the same time, he took out his phone and started sending a text message.
"Alright then." The doctor gritted his teeth, "We can't afford to delay. Xiao Li, you take this kid with you. Get in the car now, hurry, the patient's heart rate is starting to drop again..."
Nurse Li quickly ran to the front of the sickbed to clear the way, "Move aside!"
And Zhang Shutong followed at the end of the sickbed. This was the first time he had seen Teacher Song's face. Zhang Shutong took a look. The man was frowning, half of his face was wrapped in bandages. The situation was not optimistic. Maybe he wouldn't even make it to the hospital and would stop breathing halfway. He didn't look again and instead quickly did a calculation in his mind.
It was five o'clock now. Assuming it takes ten minutes to get to the port, and the ferry to the city is a twenty-minute one-way trip, that would make it five-thirty. Today was Saturday, and the city traffic was congested. Assuming another twenty minutes to get to the hospital, it would be five-forty.
And the last ferry was at six in the evening, which meant that if he couldn't get to the port before six, he would be stuck in the city tonight.
Math told him not to go, but his heart told him he had to go.
In the midst of his decision, he had already run downstairs. Zhang Shutong helped the nurses lift the stretcher and carefully put Teacher Song onto the car. He then turned and ran.
"Aren't you coming with us?" Xiao Li roared.
"I'm riding my bike!" Zhang Shutong also roared. He quickly got on the motorcycle, ignited it, and started. He knew that if he went in the ambulance, he definitely wouldn't be able to get back. Only by riding his motorcycle could he race against time.
Zhang Shutong twisted the throttle and sped all the way. He was much faster than the ambulance and reached the port in just seven minutes. It was now rush hour. A ferry was docked at the shore, and the staff were slowly retracting the gangway. The whistle sounded, the engine roared. Seeing that the boat was about to leave, Zhang Shutong suddenly accelerated, and the tail of the bike drew an arc on the ground. He quickly stopped and said:
"Wait! There's an emergency patient, the ambulance will be here in three minutes, I'm clearing the way for it!"
His choice to follow was indeed correct.
No one would joke about such a thing. The staff did not doubt him. Zhang Shutong rode his bike onto the boat. The boat was almost full, and he asked the staff to request the crowd to make way for a clear area to make space for the ambulance.
After all this was done, he could vaguely hear the sound of a siren. He breathed a sigh of relief. When the ambulance came to a steady stop on the deck, he immediately ran to the back door:
"How is he?"
"He's okay. We just gave him a shot of saline." Xiao Li also said, "The hospital in the city has responded, the First People's Hospital. You know where it is, right?"
Zhang Shutong nodded and used this time to call his mom. She and his dad were originally having dinner at a restaurant. After receiving the text message, they dropped their chopsticks and drove over.
"Then we'll wait for you and your teacher at the hospital?" his mom said seriously.
"Mmm, we should get there by five-thirty."
"Alright, I happen to have a classmate in the emergency department. I'll call and ask, and get back to you in a bit..."
His mom always believed in him at critical moments.
Zhang Shutong hung up the phone. Not planning to let the lake wind blow on him on the boat, he walked into the ambulance and sat down.
Only now did he have the time to ask Xiao Li where Teacher Song was found.
"The western suburbs. When we got there, the car had already gone off the road. All the airbags had deployed. Your teacher was already in a coma at that time."
"What did he hit?" Zhang Shutong was taken aback.
"A tree, probably from drowsy driving or the car skidding," Xiao Li mumbled. "These kinds of accidents happen as soon as it snows. No one can really say for sure. And there are no surveillance cameras in that place. Let me give you another example. Before, there was a patient who was driving and swerved to avoid a child who ran out from the side of the road, and the car stalled and he went into a coma. As a result, the child saw that he had caused trouble and ran away without a word. He was found by a passerby. In a situation like that, who are you going to talk to?"
"Were there any other traces at the scene? My teacher shouldn't have been drowsy driving, nor would he have lost control of the car." Zhang Shutong knew Song Nanshan's driving skills.
"You can't say for sure. The ones who get into accidents the most are experienced drivers. Besides, we're not the police or an insurance company. We just focused on getting the person out of the car first and didn't have time to investigate the scene. But I did take a picture, you can take a look."
Zhang Shutong took the phone and zoomed in on the picture. The front half of the Ford Focus was already caved in from the middle. There was a hole in the driver's side window. Teacher Song was lucky to be alive. If the impact had been a little off-center, he probably wouldn't have even had a chance to be rescued at the hospital.
According to regulations, ambulances only take pictures of the accident scene, so there was only the car in the picture, and no more clues. Zhang Shutong looked at it again and again and then returned the phone.
He had been circling the island all afternoon. If Teacher Song's car accident happened in the western suburbs, there was no reason he wouldn't have seen the car, but he didn't. This at least proved that the car accident happened on his way back.
"What about the person who called the ambulance? Why didn't he follow along?"