Undesirable Marriage - CH 6.1

A child.

A child who was not expected by his parents. Who should not have come into the world so soon. Whose existence should not have been reported so hurriedly. Did he not know that his father was not prepared at all?

“A baby.” Dai Xingren tried to imitate his wife’s loving and gentle tone and called in a tender voice, but found he couldn’t imitate her. He couldn’t feel his wife’s heartfelt joy.

He took out a picture hidden deep in his wallet– an ultrasound image of the baby. A few days ago, Mo Chuan Ya had gleefully handed him this picture, asking him to look at their baby, yet he could see nothing but a tiny embryo. She had happily pointed out to him where the head was and where the baby’s tiny arms were, and as he listened, an inexplicable chill dominated his body.

He couldn’t even handle being a husband, and now he was about to become a father?

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A dark fog spread in front of him and he took repeated deep breaths, ordering himself to calm down. Now that his wife was pregnant he had to accept the reality, although he wished the baby had come a few years later in the future…

“Dr. Dai Xingren, please go to the emergency room immediately.” The sound of a stern voice rang out. With a start, he heard the urgent tone of the nurse in charge of the announcement and rushed to the emergency room as fast as he could.

Several trainee doctors and nurses were gathered around a hospital bed, with two police officers standing by one side.

“Rv’p y nsdelxdle rakpsdla okvb alprkayvsau qykzwal yde pbsnj. El nyd’v xlypwal bkp czsse ralppwal.” G vaykdll alrsavle dlahswpzu.

“Tso zsdt byp bl clld kd y nsxy?” Pyk Dkdtald ypjle vbl sqqknla obs bye caswtbv bkx kd obkzl lmyxkdkdt.

“R’x dsv pwal, bl oyp yzalyeu zkjl vbkp obld ol qswde bkx, xyucl y qlo bswap.”

“Rv nswze cl y hldvaknwzya awrvwal sa ysavkn ekpplnvksd. Rdqsax vbl ydylpvblpky elryavxldv kxxlekyvlzu yde ralryal vbl srlayvkdt assx.” Pyk Dkdtald ekalnvle vbl kdvladp vs ynv. “Eblal kp vbl yvvldekdt esnvsa sd ewvu? Pke usw nyzz bkx ulv?”

“Gb?” Mbl kdvlad esnvsap zssjle yv lynb svbla. “Mbl esnvsa sd ewvu vseyu kp Pa. Eydt. Tl pyke dsv vs nyzz bkx kq kv’p dsvbkdt kxrsavydv.”

Pa. Eydt oyp sdl sq vbl xspv qyxswp esnvsap kd vbl bsprkvyz, okvb y pvwccsad yde hkszldv vlxrla. Lsv vs xldvksd vbl kdvladp, lhld vbl nbklq alpkeldv rbupknkyd clnyxl y tsse zkvvzl xswpl clqsal bkx.

Pyk Dkdtald nwazle bkp zkrp kd nsdvlxrv. Mbkp oyp vbl pvyvwp iws sq xspv bsprkvyzp oblal alpkeldvp olal osajle vs elyvb. Jwv ds sdl eyale vs ekpvwac vbl ealyxp sq vbl yzz kxrsavydv yvvldekdt esnvsap.

“Mbl svbla alpkeldvp sd ewvu yal yzps cwpu aktbv dso.” Gdsvbla kdvlad yeele.

“Then what are you waiting for? Call Dr. Wang right away!” Dai Xingren ordered.

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“But he is a prisoner and I heard that he is likely to be sentenced to death soon! Wouldn’t it be unwise to annoy the respected doctors of the hospital just to save a death row inmate who will die sooner or later anyway?”

Having said that, a look of disgust appeared on the intern’s face. Dai Xingren’s eyes sank and a dark memory suddenly resurged.

“Prisoners are human beings too.” He shook his words expressionlessly, no one being able to hear the dark waves lurking in his suppressed voice. “Get Dr. Wang on the phone right now or he’s in derelict of his duty.”

Half an hour later, after a computerised tomography scan, it was confirmed that the patient had an aortic dissection. The operating room was ready and the patient was anaesthetised. However, the attending doctor in charge of the operation was delayed by a minor car accident on his way.

Every second brought the patient closer to death, yet the crowd waited patiently, no one daring to complain.

Finally, Dai Xingren entered the room, and with a brush of his hand announced to the doctors and nurses in the room. “I’ll do the surgery.”

“You?!” Everyone was shocked. This was an aortic dissection operation and the chance of success was less than 60%. Was he crazy?

“I’ve done this once before under Professor Xiong’s guidance, and Dr Wang has agreed that I should start first. Xiao Li will join as my assistant later.” His tone of voice was clear and emotionless, his expression stoic as usual.

Surprisingly, he was not nervous at all! Everyone looked at each other in horror. If a R3 resident wants to take on such a difficult operation, he should at least be cautious and fearful, right? Or did he regard this as a good opportunity to hone his skills?

Cold-blooded– that was the conclusion the crowd drew in their hearts.

Dai Xingren didn’t care what other people thought. Whether they treated him like a monster or a robot, all he knew was that the patient was in danger. And as a doctor, he had to do his duty as a doctor.

He was a doctor and should treat all his patients equally; there was no hierarchy in human life.

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He took a deep breath and was ready to cut, when Xiao Li rolled in like a gust of wind and yelled at him—

“Xingren, your wife is in the hospital!”

____________

Because of an accident, Mo Chuan Ya was admitted to the “He’en Hospital”. When the emergency room saw that she was the eldest Miss from the Mo family, they immediately called her attending doctor. He was on vacation in the south and worried that he would not be able to come in time, so they asked another famous obstetrics and gynaecology doctor for help. Even Dr. Wang, a cardiovascular surgeon who had just arrived at the hospital, was also called in for advice.

“Miss Mo, listen to me, you are in a very dangerous situation and could suffer heart failure at any time. So for safety reasons we recommend an abortion immediately.”

“I don’t want it! You are not allowed to touch my baby!” Mo Chuan Ya was lying in a sick bed, drenched in sweat, having difficulty with breathing due to the pain in both her chest and abdomen, but she was still determined to fiercely protect her child.

“But your heart…”

“My heart can hold it, I promise there will be no problems. You can believe in me.”

It was not a question of believing or not believing. Even if she herself had a strong will, it did not mean that her body would bear. The two senior doctors shook their heads and sighed.

“Where is Dr. Dai? Call him over to persuade his wife.”

“He should be in the operating room now.” Dr. Wang replied. “There was a prisoner with aortic dissection, and I asked him to replace me first.”

“No! Don’t tell Xingren…” Mo Chuan Ya heard the conversation between the two doctors and hurriedly stopped them. “I’ll be fine, don’t disturb him…Yi An, Yi An!” She turned to her friend in panic. “You tell them not to let Xingren know about this.”

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“But Chuan Ya…” Jian Yian frowned worriedly. “How could you not notify your husband when something like this happened? He has the right to know…”

“But he will… I know he will definitely persuade me to abort the baby, but I can’t, I don’t want to…” Mo Chuan Ya shook her head frantically, her ten fingers tugging tightly at the sheets.

“I’m begging you, doctor, can we keep it under observation for at least two more days?”

“Two days?” Dr. Wang raised his eyebrows in shock. “We’re not even sure you’ll make it past two hours now, let alone two days. Your heart function has been declining, you know?”

“It’s going to be fine, I can… make it…” Mo Chuan Ya gasped, trying to find room to breathe through the pain of her heaving chest. She would be able to hold on, she was a mother and it was her duty to protect her baby.

“Doctor!” A nurse rushed over and handed out a document. “This is what Dr. Dai asked me to send over. It’s a consent form for the abortion operation, he signed it.”

When Mo Chuan Ya heard this, she couldn’t breathe for an instant, and opened her eyes in horror.

He had signed it? He had agreed to her abortion? How could he make such a decision without discussing it with her? How dare he?

“Nurse, please… ask him to come here, give me two minutes… no, one minute, I will convince him…”

“But he’s in the operating theatre right now…”

“Please, I beg you, tell him to come over!

______________

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“Xingren, you really don’t want to go and see your wife?” Xiao Li asked in a low voice.

“I can’t leave.” Dai Xingren responded indifferently, took the scalpel from the nurse’s hand, and decisively and accurately cut a hole in the patient’s chest.

Cold-blooded animal! Xiao Li glared at him critically. His wife was struggling in the hospital bed, and he didn’t even shed a drop of cold sweat.

“She only asked for a few minutes, is it so important to operate on a prisoner on the death row?” Xiao Li mumbled as if he were talking to himself, but everyone in the operating theatre heard him, and everyone had their own feelings.

Dai Xingren knew that if he looked up now, he would be met with harsh and critical looks. No one could understand why he insisted on operating on this condemned man, and why he would rather ignore his wife’s pleas for help.

They didn’t know that if he put down the scalpel that day, he would lose his character, lose the morals of a doctor, and at the same time, betray his ideals.

He would not even be able to find his origin, the “origin” of his ambition to become a doctor…

Dai Xingren gritted his teeth, feeling that his eyes seemed to burn. He blinked his eyelids again and again, but, for a moment, found it hard to dispel the mist blocking his view. Beside his wife, there were several doctors waiting to save her, but the life of the person in front of him was hanging in his hands alone―

Forgive me, Chuan Ya, forgive me for not being able to go stand by your side.