As midnight approached, two people drove to the hospital. Neon lights flickered along the way, and the night breeze brought a lingering coolness through the car window, brushing the cheeks of those inside the vehicle. A drizzle began to fall midway, seemingly due to a traffic accident ahead, causing Gao Chuan and Jiang An to be stuck on the overpass.
There was no communication between the two during the journey. The atmosphere in the car was heavy, with only the windshield wipers making a "thunking" sound as they swung back and forth. Gao Chuan, holding the steering wheel, had a grave expression on his face, his brows furrowed.
Jiang An had never seen the always calm and composed man show such emotion. In her mory, Dr. Gao was always unflappable, no matter what happened. She even felt that the Dr. Gao she saw at this mont was the truly authentic one.
Perhaps she could understand the man’s anxious feelings at this ti. Maybe, to Dr. Gao, the family was more important. As Jiang An thought this, the road ahead cleared up, and the man in the driver’s seat abruptly pressed the accelerator, speeding along.
By the ti the two arrived at the hospital, the grandmother had already been taken into the ergency room. Shen i and Gao Lin, who had received a phone call from the nanny, had arrived earlier. Since they didn’t have spare umbrellas in the car, both of them were soaked by the ti they hurried over from the parking lot.
Shen i, who was pacing back and forth in front of the operating room, couldn’t hold back anymore when she saw them and grabbed Jiang An’s hand. She wiped away her tears as she spoke, "You’re finally here."
The grandmother had been rushed to the hospital in the middle of the night, suddenly crying out with stomach pain. She had just completed her first round of chemotherapy and was already in a weak state; the pain was probably caused by the spread of cancer cells.
"Mum, don’t worry, grandma will be okay," Jiang An comforted Shen i, who was in tears, as they sat down. It was hard for anyone’s heart to bear when an elderly family mber suffered from such an illness.
At that mont, the lights in the operating room went out, and the head doctor ca out first. The family quickly gathered around to inquire about the grandmother’s condition, "The situation has stabilized for now, but we need to keep her in the hospital for further observation."
"Dr. Gao, co with for a mont," the doctor briefly explained the situation and then motioned for the man to follow him towards the office, leaving Jiang An and the Gao couple to care for the grandmother who had been wheeled out of the operating room.
The elderly lady with late-stage stomach cancer had already been suffering. Having just been pulled back from death’s door, her complexion was pale. Jiang An looked at the frail figure lying on the hospital bed, unable to imagine how the spirited and sturdy old lady had endured such pain.
Since the grandmother had always been receiving treatnt at this hospital where Gao Chuan worked, and the attending doctor knew him, Gao Chuan had an inkling of what the conversation was going to be about as they entered the office. It would likely be about the worsening of the grandmother’s condition.
"Given the elder’s current condition, she is not suitable for further chemotherapy. I suggest discontinuing the treatnt," the doctor said. These words were cruel to the family, but they had to be spoken.
The doctor took out the grandmother’s scans to show the spread of the cancer, stating that the situation was quite dire. Continuing chemotherapy was probably a futile effort.
As a doctor himself, Gao Chuan understood all too well the subtext of what the attending doctor was saying. He nodded silently in agreent. As an oncologist, he had long beco accustod to the sight of life and death, but this ti was different. The one struggling on the edge of death was the grandmother who had watched him grow up since childhood.
After leaving the office, Gao Chuan went alone to the hospital corridor. It was now midnight, and the rain outside had grown heavier. In the dimly lit corridor, only an orange light was emitting a feeble glow. The man crouched down, casting a long shadow.
mories flooded into his mind like a tide, and he still vividly rembered how his parents, Gao Lin and Shen i, were always busy with their careers when he was young, leaving his grandmother to raise him since childhood. Back then, there were all sorts of dical books in the house. His grandmother, who had already retired from the hospital, would still occasionally et with visiting students and help them with their problems without reservation.
At that ti, he was too young to understand the old lady’s sincere passion for her profession. It was only after the college entrance exams ended that he entered the dical College in a daze to fulfill her wish. People always said he followed the old lady’s will, but only now did he understand where that passion, which transcends life itself, ca from.
The man was alone with his thoughts for a long ti before the cellphone in his pocket vibrated a few tis, and ssages from Jiang An popped up.
Jiang An: Dr. Gao, grandma has settled down now.
Jiang An: I’ve sent my parents back ho. I’ll stay here to watch over her.
There was also a WeChat emoji of a hug that followed.
After sending the ssage to Gao Chuan, Jiang An sat down to keep watch over the still comatose grandmother, thinking to herself that Dr. Gao’s current mood must be similar to hers when she took care of her seriously ill mother.
In front of the reaper, they were all staking everything.
It was about half an hour later that Gao Chuan walked out of the dim hallway and into the patient room, he found the girl sitting in a chair, leaning over the side of the grandmother, as if she had fallen asleep. The still scene in the darkness flowed into the man’s pupils as he quietly approached the bedside. His gentle gaze settled on the girl already deep in slumber. The sound of the rain outside the window murmured, but it could not disturb the silence of the heart at this mont.
Unintentionally and silently, the man faintly tugged at the corner of his lip. He leaned over, intending to carry the sleeping girl to another bed in the ward. Just as he reached out to embrace her, the slender figure gently rubbed against his chest, and as he lowered his head, he t the girl’s dazzling eyes, bright as stars in the dark.
The girl with sleep-filled eyes blinked, and the vision that invaded her sight was of the man’s stunning jawline. Realizing she was being held by Gao Chuan, she asked without a mont’s reaction, "Is grandma awake?"
Gao Chuan looked down at the girl’s blurred face in the darkness and softly replied, "No."
While speaking, he had already carried the girl into another bed in the ward. Watching the girl too tired to keep her eyes open, he said warmly, "Get so sleep first, I’ll keep watch."
After hearing the man say this, Jiang An’s face relaxed a bit, and she slowly closed her eyelids, turned over, and drifted off to sleep.
The night deepened, and fine rain continued to drift outside the window. Gao Chuan sat in the dark, watching the girl’s peaceful sleeping face, her delicate little face partially covered by hair resting on her cheek, as serene as a painting.
It seed that in this encounter, he was the lucky one.
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