Nuptial Chamber Next Door

Chapter 37 – Meeting

After spending the whole day in this manner, I finally landed at the hospital for the night shift.

I had just put on my white coat when I heard someone run to the nurse station.

I opened the door and saw the tearstained face of a woman. I couldn’t help but sigh

Her husband was a cancer patient and was suffering from an advanced stage of liver cancer. Unfortunately, the cancer cells had spread to the lungs and oesophagus leading to gastrointestinal bleeding. There was no way we could operate on him anymore. The Director had already warned the family to prepare for his funeral. Maybe today was his last day.

“Doctor, please save him”, the woman pulled at my sleeve and cried as she begged me, “ I’m sure you can think of a way.Even if you cant save his live, just make it so he can live for two more days.”

“ I’ll do my best”.

I went to the ward. The patient could not talk. Seeing me, he started to scream, as if to tell me that he could not bear to die , leaving his two year old daughter behind.

His family and friends were crowding the whole room .I gently asked them, “Please go to the corridor. The patient needs to be in a peaceful atmosphere.”

I instructed the nurses to give him painkillers. Even though I wasn’t sure how much the patient was capable of understanding, I still whispered to him,  “ This is the latest anti-cancer drug developed in the United States.”

He quietly looked at me.

“ And tomorrow, we will get the most authoritative experts to do your surgery..”

He nodded and caught my wrist with his hand.

I knew that I could not save him. The only thing I wanted to do was to give him just a smidgen of hope to accompany him through the last night of his life.

An hour later the patient’s breathing became gradually more and more difficult.

I smiled and comforted him

“ My father had cancer three years ago. He had lymphatic cancer, the form of cancer that spread the most easily. He told me that his greatest regret was that he would not be able to see me. Now he is healthy and alive, waiting for a fair, chubby grandson. Cancer is not an incurable disaes. Dont give up.

The patient struggled to breathe, never guving up.

I shouted to the nurse, “ Nurse!”

“ Dr Bo”

“ Get it!”

Knowing it was futile, we still put in our last efforts to help him fight for every last second..

He grabbed my wrist desperately, his eyes wideningin despair.

“ Do you want to tell me something?”

He moved his head very slightly.

As he looked at his wife crying, he whispered his daughter’s name.

When he was gone, his wife was no longer crying. In a stupor, she kept on whispering to herself, “What do I do? What after this  …”

I have heard this question countless times. The answer is the same for parents, children, spouses; you have to live well.

Perhaps there would be many hardships, but at least we still had a life to live.

After this extreme emotional experience, I was exhausted. As I tiredly walked back to my room, I heard two nurses gossiping.

“What kind of guy? How is it that I never saw anything ?”

“ He was standing in the corridor. Very handsome, very cool, even better looking than Secretary Zhong.”

Another nurse chipped in, “ That look, wow!”

I did not know what they were talking about.

I had too many patients die on me and right now I was just feeling numb. I didnt have the energy to berate them for gossiping while on duty.

“ Is it? Oh, I was busy inside”, there was a tone of resentment in the nurse’s voice.

Another nurse , on her way back to get some medicine also got involved in the discussion.

“ You are talking about the guy who was standing in the corridor , right? Is he someone from the patient’s family?”

“ No, he came to…”

At this point she saw my cold face and was immediately silenced, “ Dr Bo..”

“ Hello”, I nodded trying to keep my tone calm.

“ Did it work?”

“ For a while.”

In the night , I could not sleep. I walked out of the hospital;. I had a breathless feeling in my chest. I wanted to cry , but for the last three years, ever since I had left Kansai airport I could no longer cry.

I got into my car, rolled down thewindow and tried to inhale deeply, getting enougoygen inside my lungs to counter the feeling of suffocation I was experiencing

I pushed the seat back and closed eyes to relax. Without knowing it, I fell aslepp

I dreamt. In my dream, someone was holding my hand firmly. I could not see his face but I could hear him calling, “ girl..”

I struggled, trying to break free fro his grasp. But I could not move.

My grievances and depression piled up and I started crying, big fat teardrops rolling down my face

I woke up suddenly. I touched my face and realised my eyes were wet. In the process, I nearly managed t scratch my eyes with the diamond in my engagement ring

Suddenly, I remembered something important.

About two weeks ago, a family member of a patient had gone berserk and I had to forcibly ush him away. In the process, my watch hit an iron frame and the glass casing was smashed.

I took the watch to a repair shop, The repairman said the internal mechanism had also been damaged and they had no spare parts. He asked me to go to the manufacturer.

When I went to the Seagull store, the clerk was very surprised and told me that they had never sold a watch like this.

I told her that the watch was very important to me and I would be willing to spend whatever was required to get it back in working condition

She promised to send it to the factory and asked me to come back after fifteen days.

********** **********

I quickly walked to the seagull shop in the mall and asked the salesman, “ Was the watch fixed?”

“ Which one are you talking about?”

“ A white watch. Fifteen days ago, you said you would send it to te factory..”

The staff remembered.

“ Please wait.”

Not long after, the manager came with a nice box.

“ Is it fixed?”

“ We’re sorry” , the manager returned the watch to me, “ our factory does not have spare parts.”

I didnt understand, “ Isnt this watch a genuine Seagull?”

“ The manufacturer said that the watch was designed by theor CEO for a very picky customer. He wanted this done in a hurry so apart from the shell and the casings, all other parts were actually taken from Jaegar, an expensive swiss brand.”

No wonder when the glass casing was smashed, only the casing had a Seagull logo.

“ Sorry”, the manager apologised again.

“ We cant repair this. This is one of a kind. We dont have the spare parts.”

“I understand” , I said, “what if I am willing to pay?”

“ Jaegar has the highest precision mechanism. It is very expensive. If this watch has sentimental value, it is better to keep this as a memento.”

I smiled wryly. Why was nothing ever simple with him ? Even this watch was actually a Jaegar covered in a cheap casing. This was completely ridiculous!

As I walkd outside, I went to the trash bin and looked at the watch in my hands

I said to myself, “ I can do this, Even without him, I will get married have children..”

With this, I threw the watch in the dustbin. In a blink, a thing of high sentimental value, a watch that I had continuously worn for the last three years was gone from my life.

He had told me , “ Apart from you, there are many other gorls called Bo Bing. But there is only one ‘girl’in this whole world. My girl.”

Now this one of a kind watch belonging to the one of a kind girl was gone.

I no longer had anything to do with him

In front of me , I subconsciously registered the blur of a white car. When I focused, I realised this was the same SUV I had seen yesterday, with the same white license plates

Remembering that arrogant man, I could not help but start walking quickly. He might run me over !

…… …

Many years later, one day, a certain person told me , “ Yes, at that point, I really did feel like running over you. Hit you with a car so that you become bedridden!”

I asked, “ Why did you hate me so much? You didnt want me to live?”

He said, “ It’s not hate, It’s love. That night at the hospital ward, I said to myself, this woman is mine. No matter what method I need to use, even if it is only an empty shell, I will capture this woman and get her back by my side…”

If any other man had said this to me , I would have smirked, “ Dream on!”

But from Ye Zhengchen, this sentence had a completely different connotation.

He was my doom

******* *******

Fate would never allow me to rest peacefully. Even if I chose the safest of harbours ,  a storm would come and destry my harbour

Because of the corruption investigation, the special task forces uncovered huge sums of money and took away Zhong Tian. I heard the news when I had just come out after operating on a patient.

I did not believe the news at all. Zhong Tian was a cautious person. He would never amass huge quantities of money. Moreover, if he had so much money, why were we trying to save every penny to buy a house?

Whatever were the facts in front of me, I refused to believe this

I tried every means to inquire about him. But no one knew where he was taken or what was happening to him

For three consecutive days, my father forgot to take his medicines. Every day, he would sit next to the phone , waiting to hear some news.

My mother cried silently. Although she never cried in front of me, I could see that her eyes were swollen.

Yin Zhong Tian’s parents had aged rapidly in the last three days. I saw their tears. I wanted to tell them , “ Zhong Tian has been framed He will never be corrupt. I will think of ways to save him .”

It was in this precarious time that I received a phone call from a friend, He told me that he had just received the news that Zhong Tian had been arrested for corruption and that he was most likely to face the death penalty

Before I disconnected the line, my mother pulled my hand anxiously, “ What did your friend say/”

I looked at her and my father who had just entered the room. Both of them were holding their breath, waiting for an answer

I smiled and said, “It’s nothing. Zhong Tian will be released soon.”

My father relaxed. “ Lets tell his parents. Oh, I’ll do it. You go to sleep now.”

“Ok”

Once I  was back in the room, I locked the door and wiped off the smile on my face

How long could I keep deceiving them?

I had seen too many deaths, too many families sundered apart. I was willing to pay any price if I could save Zhong Tian, including going to bed with a stranger

With the most hated man in my life, I completed a dirty transaction

No matter how much water I used to wash myself, I felt like that mark would never wash off

As I stood at the window of my flat, I could feel the dry wind. The Hummer under the Elm tree was still parked there. I could see wisps of smoke coming out of the exhaust pipe and vanish

I closed the window and drew the curtains across

I called my parents.

“ Please don’t believe all the rumours outside. They are all talking nonsense. My friends in Beijing said that the task force is focusing on people at the top. Zhong Tian is only helping the investigation.”

As I hung up the phone, I realised I had received a text.

“ I’m really hungry. I would like to eat a bowl of noodles cooked by you.”

I deleted the text and saved the phone number.

********* *********

I waited for three days. Finally , there was some news. The task force had identified an unknown mayor who was implicated in the corruption racket. They were interrogating the deputy mayor when he had a sudden heart attack and had to be rushed to the hospital. Currently, he was in a critical condition

Now the people in Nanzhou were panicked, Everybody was at risk

The situation made me more anxious. I wasn’t sure whether the current situation was favourable for Zhong Tian or whether it was making his case worse.

Moreover, Ye Zhengchen was just a doctor in Japan. How much power did he really have ?

I asked my Beijing contact but he just asked me to wait patiently. But how could I? My anxiety only increased after my conversation. A taxi stopped in front of me and asked me where I wanted to go.

On an impulse, I said , “ ** committee”

I wanted to see if there was any possibility of a petition to the committee if I went there in person. When I reached the building, I looked at the solemn looking gate and the serious countenance of the guards.

I was hovering near the gate, wondering on my next step of action wen a black hummer stopped at the gate, not far from where I was standing

One of the armed policemen at the gate saw the licence plate and immediately marched over, a respect usually reserved for senior officials in the military

The door of the car opened and a young soldier alighted. He bowed, then opened the door at the back and placed his palm on the roof…

Someone slowly came down from the car

I had seen a lot of soldiers, but  I had never seen  one so imposing.  There was no need of any posturing, his normal gestures were that of a natural born leader.

The armed guard stepped back and gave him a military salute. Then he indicated that he could move ahead

The man did not move ahead but turned back and looked at me..

In front of the imposing gates of the ** Committe, as he turned, the last rays of the dying sun shone a golden light on him

I took a few steps back. For a moment, I thought that the sun was dazzling my vision

The reflection of light  on the golden buttons on the dark green army uniform  made me close my eyes…