Three minutes passed, and after Xiong Yibai took the latte, she quickly headed toward the innermost area on the right side of the bookstore.
She pretended to browse the shelves, but in reality, she used her peripheral vision to secretly glance at the counter.
Seeing that the other woman had lowered her head again and was focused on the book in her hands, she quietly let out a sigh of relief.
She randomly pulled out a copy of Practical Techniques for Trauma Orthopedic Surgery and sat down in the corner farthest from the counter.
Time slowly ticked by.
Finally, Xiong Yibai felt that the “cooldown period” was over. She closed the book and decided to leave this place that had caused her social death.
She walked to the counter with the book.
Hearing the footsteps, Feng Miwan looked up. Seeing it was her, a warm smile tinged with a hint of pity appeared on her face again.
Xiong Yibai: “…” She struggled to maintain her composure.
Feng Miwan quickly scanned the code, processed the payment—the entire process was silent.
Finally, she even tried again, gesturing to Xiong Yibai with a somewhat clumsy but roughly meaning “thank you for your patronage.” Her eyes were still full of friendly encouragement.
The corner of Xiong Yibai’s mouth twitched slightly.
She barely managed a smile, nodded, snatched the bagged book, and pushed open the bookstore’s glass door as she turned.
The afternoon sunlight and fresh air outside hit her face, and Xiong Yibai finally let out a long breath,
feeling like she had regained the language function she’d lost in the bookstore.
“My god…”
She muttered softly, rubbing her brow,
“that experience was way too bizarre.”
She pulled out her phone, wanting to vent to her good friend—who also happened to be the only emergency department doctor who could understand her various bizarre encounters—Ren Queyue about the magical events of those few minutes.
The phone rang “beep beep” several times before it was answered. Ren Queyue’s voice came through at breakneck speed, with alarm sirens and noisy voices in the background:
“Hey, Yibai? What’s up? Make it quick—I just got the order to head out!”
Xiong Yibai’s flood of words got stuck, so she could only say:
“…Never mind, it’s not important. You go ahead and handle it. We’ll talk when you’re done.”
“Got it! Hanging up now! Talk later!”
It sounded like someone was already urging Ren Queyue on her end, and the phone filled with the clanging of equipment.
“Mm, stay safe,” Xiong Yibai reminded her.
The call ended.
Xiong Yibai helplessly put her phone back in her pocket, already used to this.
As an emergency department doctor, Ren Queyue was always like a loaded bullet, ready to be fired off by the alarm of life at any moment.
Meanwhile, at the hospital’s emergency department entrance.
Ren Queyue had just hung up and shoved her phone into her pocket. While striding quickly toward the waiting ambulance, she instructed the nearby nurse:
“Xiao Liu, hurry! Double-check the defibrillator and the emergency kit, especially the epinephrine and dopamine!”
“Got it, Doctor Ren! All checked!”
Nurse Xiao Liu grabbed the emergency kit and jogged to keep up.
The two pulled open the ambulance’s back door and climbed in.
Ren Queyue shouted to the driver:
“Zhang Shifu, we’re all set—let’s go!”
Driver Zhang Shifu was an experienced veteran. He nodded and said:
“Alright, buckle up.”
However, just as he was about to start the engine, his brows furrowed. He raised one hand and pressed it to his chest.
In that instant, he suddenly felt a dull stuffiness in his chest, a vague sense of oppression.
But the alarm was blaring overhead, the mission orders clear and urgent—no time for delay.
Zhang Shifu took a deep breath, suppressing the discomfort, thinking to himself:
Maybe it’s low blood sugar from skipping breakfast.
He thought no more of it, shifted gears smoothly, hit the gas, sounded the siren, and merged into traffic, speeding toward the life in need of rescue.
However, on Xiong Yibai’s side, she had walked less than ten meters toward home when she heard shouts from the sidewalk ahead:
“Is there a doctor?! Anyone a doctor here?! Help! Someone’s collapsed!”
Xiong Yibai’s heart tightened. All stray thoughts vanished instantly, and professional instinct drove her without hesitation. She bolted toward the source of the voice, raising her hand high and shouting:
“I’m a doctor! Let me through! I’m a doctor!”
The crowd, hearing her, quickly parted to form a path.
Xiong Yibai rushed to the center of the crowd and saw a middle-aged man in his fifties lying flat on his back. His face was ashen, lips cyanotic, one hand clutching his chest tightly, and his breathing so faint that no chest rise was visible.
“Step back! Everyone step back! Keep the air clear!”
Xiong Yibai issued rapid orders to the surrounding crowd while kneeling beside the patient.
She quickly checked his consciousness, breathing, and carotid pulse.
“Sir? Sir? Can you hear me?” she called, but there was no response.
Under her touch, the carotid pulse was gone—cardiac and respiratory arrest!
“Someone call 120! Tell them suspected acute myocardial infarction, cardiac and respiratory arrest!”
She shouted without looking up, while laying the patient flat, loosening his collar, interlocking her fingers and placing the heels of her hands on the lower half of the sternum with arms straight, and began rhythmic chest compressions.
“01, 02, 03, 04…”
She silently counted the compressions in her mind, putting her full force into each one.
Sweat soon beaded on her forehead, but she didn’t dare stop.
The golden four minutes—every second was critical.
The crowd had already called 120. They held their breath, watching the professional female doctor intently, praying the patient would pull through.
Soon, the wail of an ambulance siren approached from afar.
It grew closer and closer until, with a screech, the ambulance pulled up to the curb.
The back door slid open with a whoosh. A figure in a blue emergency uniform, with a head of curly short hair, leapt out agilely, emergency kit in hand.
“What’s the situation? How’s the patient?”
Ren Queyue asked, scanning the scene.
But when she clearly saw the side profile of the rescuer kneeling on the ground, her words caught in her throat, and her eyes widened:
“Yibai?! How is it you?!”
Xiong Yibai looked up, saw her friend, and was equally stunned, but her hands didn’t stop compressing as she replied:
“Queyue! Hurry! Suspected massive MI causing ventricular fibrillation—cardiac arrest! Need defibrillation now!”
The brief shock faded, and Ren Queyue’s professional instincts took over.
She quickly crouched down, took over the compressions from Xiong Yibai, and shouted to the nurse behind her:
“Hurry! Defibrillator! Prep 1mg epinephrine!”
