Waiting for You in a City

To some extent, Xu Qin saved the young man’s hand without amputation. Later if rehabilitation training went well, he could recover part of his grip strength, but holding a scalpel was no longer possible.

The young man was taken to the ward, only then was he carried out, the new doctors and patients came in.

After Xu Qin finished the operation, she counted the spare surgical tools and medicines, found that there was a serious shortage, when she was about to report to the liaison department, a team of soldiers carried a box into the medical center, which was the medicine that had just been dropped by air.

The leading officer said that more were still on the way and would be sent in tomorrow morning.

The people from the logistics department thanked them while counting the medicine.

Xu Qin went over to see if there were any surgical instruments, but when she raised her eyes, she saw the officer frowning and staring at her, as if he was recalling something.

Xu Qin looked at him strangely. The officer smiled and said, “Did I… Have I seem to have seen you from somewhere?”

In this situation, such a conversation is too frivolous.

Xu Qin: “I have no recollection.”

Turning to leave, the officer said, “It’s normal that you don’t recall, it should have been many years ago.”

Xu Qin glanced at the two bars and one star on his shoulder, and when she looked at him again, his eyes were no longer very friendly.

The officer explained: “I am from the third division of the XX Panzer Corps, called Lu Jie, not a bad person.”

Xu Qin still didn’t answer. At this time, a new seriously injured person was brought in, and she immediately went to pick him up and left him behind.

A soldier came up to him and asked, “Commander, what are you doing? This is too inappropriate.”

Lu Jie slapped the soldier on the back of the head: “Am I that kind of person? ——Your boss was born as a scout, and it is impossible to remember people wrongly….. This girl is really familiar.”

He was obviously a person with a deep impression, but he really couldn’t remember it for a while.

Lu Jie frowned and pondered, and casually glanced in Xu Qin’s direction, who had long disappeared into the inner hall.

Lu Jie did not bother much on this matter, and quickly took his subordinates out to rush to rescue.

On the first night after the earthquake, Wangxiang stayed awake.

There were cries for help everywhere, and people were needed everywhere. The army and doctors had been added one after another, and everyone was saving lives, professional and non-professional.

When Xu Qin completed the third operation in a row, it was already two o’clock in the morning, there was no time to rest, a new injured person was sent again, broken leg and bleeding heavily.

Xu Qin followed the stretcher, pressing hard to stop the bleeding of the patient, and when she hurried through the hall, she didn’t notice that she passed Song Yan.

At that time, Song Yan had just carried a dug up wounded to the hospital, he couldn’t care about the injuries on his body, so he rushed out.

Everyone in the emergency center was walking extremely fast and in a hurry. In the moment of passing by, perhaps a fleeting thought flashed in each other’s subconscious.

The orange-clothed firefighter and white-clothed doctor who passed by just now seemed to be him/her?

But neither Song Yan nor Xu Qin looked back, neither slowed down. Each other was unusually determined and quickly walked in their own direction.

……

At half past four in the morning, as the difficulty of the rescue in front increased, the speed of rescue began to decrease, and the number of people sent to the emergency center gradually decreased.

However, doctors still had no time to rest, and most of the people rescued in the later stage were seriously injured, and doctors were often required to participate in the treatment during the long rescue process.

Xu Qin took the initiative to apply to go to the scene to rescue; Xiao Xi, Xiao Bei and the others also went together.

It was the darkest of the night, and the town was bleak in the depths of winter.

Xu Qin sat in the battered van, and the cold breath came up from the soles of her feet.

Occasionally a few exhumed bodies lay out next to the rubble on the side of the road, the whole town was racing against time to save lives, and no one cared about burying them.

The headlights hit ahead, and in the white light, there was a silent and terrifying scene.

Suddenly, there was the barking of dogs ahead, as if to warn of something.

The car drove past and it was a ruin. The searchlights were on, illuminating the firefighters’ orange clothes in light yellow. A bunch of servicemen in camouflage uniforms were there.

Two groups of people stood in place, motionless. Only Song Yan was squatting on the ground, smoking.

A police dog was barking at Song Yan, and then ran to the ruins, shouting wildly inside.

Everyone was still above the ruins, only the dog and the smoke from Song Yan’s fingertips showed signs of movement.

It was a really weird sight.

Xu Qin got out of the car and walked over, faintly hearing a woman’s cry from somewhere: “Save me, please save me.”

The whimpering of this weak woman mixed with the whining north wind was particularly oozing.

The police dog understood the human cry for help, ran to the gap in the ruins and barked wildly, and soon rushed to Song Yan to shout, telling him that someone was buried inside.

But no one moved.

The camouflage major on the side ordered: “Captain, you are disobeying orders! The higher-ups were very clear. Rush to the next location immediately.”

Song Yan was covered in dirt, his face was full of dust, blood and sludge on his hands were mixed together, his eyes were also full of red blood, and he replied in a dumb voice: “There are still people underneath.”

“You also know that she’s buried too deep and cannot be saved!” The major lowered his voice and stepped forward, “There are more people waiting for you to save in other places. Let alone the time to save her, we can save a dozen more people now it takes a few hours to save her, and it may collapse halfway and take my life as well.”

Those buried deep in the ground may sense something, and their cries became more and more mournful: “Don’t go, please don’t leave me, don’t go! I don’t want to die, I beg you!”

Xiao Meng, the police dog, did not understand the trade-off between the pros and cons of humans, and was so anxious that he ran back and forth between Song Yan and the gap.

“Shi Li Tai,” Song Yan spoke, tiredness made him gasped softly, “I swore when I came, do you remember?”

His soldiers nodded.

Song Yan extinguished the smoke and got up: “Then let’s do it.”

Xiao Ge, Yangchi and the others did not say a word, and followed Song Yan towards the ruins.

“You guys! – You are hurting more people by delaying time here!” The major clenched his fists and looked back at his soldier, “Hurry to the next location.”

The soldiers followed him and left.

Xu Qin glanced at the current situation, the survivors were trapped at the bottom, this was a collapsed five-story civilian house, several load-bearing walls and roof beams were overlapped, even if Song Yan and their whole team of men went up together, it was difficult to lift.

Xu Qin ran to the side of the car to find the driver: “Go to the town to find someone, and call everyone who can help on the road.”

“Okay.”

Looking back, Song Yan and the others had already begun to move the wall, which was a reinforced concrete wall the size of a hotel bed, and seven or eight men barely carried a trace of their strength at the same time.

Song Yan puffed up his body, and his cheeks flushed: “One, two, three——”

The huge steel wall swayed slightly, and it was lifted off the ground little by little extremely slowly.

Xu Qin watched, her fingers dug into the palm of her hand.

The weight of the reinforced concrete made all the men bend over, their legs and feet trembled, and the huge wall trembled slightly.

Song Yan reminded in a hoarse voice: “Stand firm on your feet! Don’t step on the ground!”

The crowd carried the wall, inch by inch, along the rugged ruins, carefully moving down.

Song Yan was at the bottom of the slope, the wall was slanted, the center of gravity was uneven, and the weight suddenly fell on him. The veins on his forehead were bulging, sweat was profuse, and his whole figure was like a bow that was about to break.

At that moment, Xu Qin suddenly thought of that rainstorm night, he also tried his best to rescue her in the car.

Just thinking about it, the stone under Song Yan’s feet suddenly slipped, and he knelt down! His side was suspended in the air, and the rest of the people couldn’t catch it, and the wall slid down with a bang, smashed into the ground, crashed into Song Yan, threw him down the ruins, and buried him in an instant.

“Captain!” A group of team members rushed forward, Xu Qin also rushed over.

Fortunately, there was a stone next to it, creating a gap. Everyone dragged Song Yan out from under and asked about the situation. It didn’t hit anyone, it just hit hard.

Xu Qin stood on the outer edge of the crowd, couldn’t get in, stretched her neck and couldn’t see anything, so she stepped on a tall stone and looked in. Song Yan patted the ashes off his body, rubbed his aching chest, and as soon as he looked up, he saw Xu Qin standing on a high place, her small face was blown pale by the wind, her eyes were shocked.

Song Yan looked at her quietly for a second, then withdrew his gaze and continued to move with everyone.

Xu Qin and Xiao Xi also helped clean up the small stones, they were tired and sweaty after only a few back and forth.

As for Song Yan and the others.

The pain was exhausted to the limit, their hands and feet were twitching, sometimes they almost lost consciousness, and sometimes the pain seemed to break their back and tore their arms apart. But no one looked back, they gritted their teeth to lift the boulders that were pressing on the survivors.

It’s just that the “one, two, three” shouted again and again became more and more hoarse and more miserable.

When everyone was about to use their last strength, the driver came with several townspeople, and more people came to help.

After nearly an hour, the darkest night had passed, the sky began to appear a hint of white, they finally dug a V-shaped hole and dug under the ruins.

Xu Qin followed Song Yan, Xiao Ge down the slope and deep into the ruins,

A young woman hidden in the gap between the refrigerator and the load-bearing wall, crying.

Song Yan stretched out his hand towards her, his scarred hand trembled from extreme exhaustion, the woman squeezed Song Yan’s hand, and Song Yan pulled her up and handed her to Xu Qin.

Xu Qin quickly preliminarily detected her calf fracture: “Send to the emergency center immediately.”

The woman was relayed and carried upwards.

Song Yan asked, “Is there anyone else down there?”

“I don’t know, I live on the second floor.”

Song Yan flipped open a few cement slabs and looked deeper, and suddenly found that there was also a woman lying on her side on the ground, not moving.

“Xiao Ge, come here!”

The two lifted the board, and the remaining woman in the ruins was covered in blood, facing the wall and hugging herself, curled up into a ball, with her back against the beams that fell down during the earthquake.

Xu Qin went over to probe the woman’s pulse and checked her pupils, although the person still had body temperature, she was dead.

Xu Qin let go of her and got up to give emergency treatment to the living woman, and Song Yan suddenly spoke: “Wait a minute.”

“She’s dead.” Xu Qin said, carrying the medical box and walking up.

Only after taking two steps, Song Yan shouted coldly: “Xu Qin!”

Xu Qin turned around.

Song Yan: “She’s a pregnant woman.”

Xu Qin was taken aback, and quickly slid down the ruins to see that this woman’s abdomen, her curled posture, was protecting the child in her belly.

Xu Qin’s heart shook fiercely, she had never made such a serious mistake in judgment.

Her hands immediately wiped the dirt and stones off the woman’s stomach, and sure enough, it was the size of a full-term, and Xu Qin’s hand had not yet moved away, and there was a trace of vibration in her belly, kicking into the palm of her hand.

“Child is alive.” Xu Qin said, her mind blank for a moment.

She quickly pulled gloves and scalpels out of the medical kit, and she had never performed a cesarean section. At this moment, she didn’t know if it was because of the fear caused by unfamiliarity, or because of the guilt caused by ignoring and making mistakes, her hand under the knife trembled a little, unprecedented.

Sweat dripped from her forehead. The moment the knife cut, she closed her eyes forcefully, and when she opened them again, she was as calm as before.

On the side, firefighters and villagers all stood on the slope and waited.

Little by little, the night faded, and the sky brightened.

Finally, a dawn-like cry came from under the ruins, tearing the sky apart.

Xu Qin was sweating, she quickly cut the umbilical cord, handed the baby to Xiao Nan, who caught it with a white cloth, but the moment Xu Qin let go, the baby’s hand grabbed her little finger.

Xu Qin was startled, and it took a full two seconds before she broke away from the baby’s clenched hand.

On the slope, people had happy smiles on their tired faces, and they watched Xiao Nan carry the child out and rush to the hospital.

A fellow standing on top of the ruins rushed down to Xu Qin and gave a thumbs up: “Thank you, doctor!”

Everyone followed and said, Xiao Ge and Yang Chi also grinned: “Thank you, doctor.”

Xu Qin didn’t say anything, nor did she look at Song Yan beside her, she squatted back with her eyes hanging down and sewed the woman’s stomach together.

The tension and concentration passed, and the sweat-soaked back was blown by the winter wind, freezing cold.

Song Yan sat beside her, and suddenly spoke lightly: “Thank you, Doctor Xu.”

Xu Qin’s hand on the stitch paused, she lowered her head, motionless, and after a long time, she shook her head very gently.

……

What was the promise?

What was the oath?

What was perseverance?

The words she said had never counted, and the promises she had made were never guarded, whether it was the knife in her hand or the person beside her.