Pastoral Daily Life

“Dr. Liu, the patient has lost his vital signs.”

“Prepare for electroshock.”

“Wait, the vital signs have reappeared.”

“Beep… beep… beep…”

“What’s the blood pressure?”

“80.”

“What’s the pulse?”

“60.”

“The patient has been stabilised, continue the operation.”

The strange dialogue sounded vaguely in his ears, and Lu Lingxi opened his hazy eyes, seeing in a daze the dazzling light above his head. He moved his head slightly; it was so heavy that he could only tilt it in small increments, indistinctly seeing the overlapping figures around him.

Where is this?

Lu Lingxi thought blankly, struggling to open his eyes to see his surroundings clearly. His vision was blurred and he strained to blink his eyes as bits of memory flashed back; yes, this was a hospital. He was undergoing surgery; his brother’s health had gone wrong again. The doctor said his brother had acute kidney failure and he, as his brother’s HLA match, was the best candidate for transplantation.

Lu Lingxi closed his eyes, and the image of his mother clutching his hand and crying seemed to be right in front of him.

“Xiao Xi, your brother’s condition is getting worse. You are the only one who can save him, you will save him, won’t you?”

His father stood behind his mother, the expression on his face obscure and complicated. He looked at his father and then at his mother and nodded obediently.

“Good boy! Good boy!”

There was a sudden glint in his mother’s eyes and she hugged him as hard as a drowning man clinging to the last piece of driftwood. He nestled quietly in his mother’s arms, as he had every time in the past when his brother’s health had gone wrong and he had been required to lie on the operating table. He was the good boy his mother said he was; the reason he existed was for his brother, and he had always known it.

Lu Lingxi was born into the Lu family in Zhongjing eighteen years ago. His father, Lu Guangjing, was the youngest son of the Lu family, and his mother, Li Caiying, was the eldest daughter of the Li family. The two were talented and beautiful, and countless people were envious of the marriage between the Lu and the Li families. But how could there be perfection in this world? Lu Wei’an, the first child of Lu Guangjing and Li Caiying, was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukaemia when he was seven years old. When the initial test results came back, Lu Wei’an’s condition was still in the chronic stage. Lu Guangjing and Li Caiying took Lu Wei’an to doctors all over the world, but the only treatment available was allogeneic transplantation.

The chronic phase of myeloid leukaemia had a duration of 3-4 years, which was enough time for the Lu family to find a suitable donor for Lu Wei’an. However, instead of a blood unrelated donor, the doctor suggested that Lu Guangjing and Li Caiying should have another child and use the newborn’s umbilical cord blood to extract stem cells to help Lu Wei’an. What the doctor said was very practical. Even if Lu Wei’an’s transplantation was successful, there was no guarantee that he would not relapse in the future. The relapse rate of leukaemia after successful transplantation was very high, and instead of having to search for a suitable donor every time, taking into account that such a donor might happen not to be found, it was the best option for them to have another child. On the advice of the doctor, Lu Guangjing and Li Caiying used a sophisticated gene matching technology to conceive and give birth to Lu Lingxi, a perfect genetic match for Lu Wei’an.

From the day he was born, Lu Lingxi lived for his brother Lu Wei’an. He was his brother’s shadow, his brother’s “medicine reserve bank”, umbilical cord blood, stem cells, bone marrow… as long as his brother needed it, he would quietly lie on the operating table. Until this time…

“Xiao Xi, this is the last time, I promise.”

On the night that Lu Lingxi agreed to donate, Lu Guangjing appeared in his room alone. Unlike Li Caiying, whose whole heart was on the ailing Lu Wei’an, Lu Guangjing tried his best to treat Lu Wei’an and Lu Lingxi equally.

Looking at his son, who had been well-behaved and obedient since childhood, Lu Guangjing made this promise with difficulty. Lu Lingxi didn’t say anything, just opened a pair of dark eyes and looked at Lu Guangjing steadily.

Lu Guangjing could not see any emotion in Lu Lingxi’s eyes; neither was he happy nor unhappy. He wanted Lu Lingxi to say something, but Lu Lingxi only looked at him in silence… Lu Guangjing averted his eyes in embarrassment and carefully stroked Lu Lingxi’s soft hair, as if to assure and promise: “Xiao Xi, after this operation, Father will send you to study abroad.”

Study abroad? To Lu Lingxi, this was too distant a dream. After the car accident in his third year of elementary school, his mother refused to let him out of her sight again. She hired a tutor for him and arranged for him to take classes at home. He understood that his mother was worried about him but was more convinced that she was worried that in case something happened to him, it would be too late to have another child to save his brother.

“Lu Lingxi, you are not anyone’s appendage, you deserve a life of your own.”

“Xiao Xi, this is the last time, I promise.”

Dr. Su’s words and his father’s words alternated in his mind. Lu Lingxi slowly closed his eyes and once again felt the heavy exhaustion flooding from the bottom of his heart. It would be great if this was really the last time…

“Doctor, why is my son still not awake? Didn’t you say he would wake up in a day or two after the surgery? It’s been almost a week, is your hospital trying to charge more money?”

“Family member, the patient’s surgery was very successful. The current coma is the body’s self-healing. He should wake up soon, please wait patiently.”

“Wait, how can I wait? Do you know how much it costs to stay in the hospital for one day? Your hospital is so shady, my son has not woken up, are you going to give me an explanation?”

“Family member…”

In the inpatient department of Fengcheng No. 1 Hospital, the doctor looked helplessly at the woman making a fuss in front of him, feeling a terrible headache. The woman in front of him was called Wang Shuxiu, the mother of the patient in Bed 20, and from the time the patient was hospitalised until today, there wasn’t a single day that Wang Shuxiu didn’t make a scene. Either she disliked the nurse’s bad attitude and wanted to complain, or she questioned the hospital for overcharging. The nurses and doctors in charge of Bed 20 were all in distress from her agitation. Fortunately, she only appeared every day in the afternoon and disappeared as soon as the evening came, so they had to endure her only for an hour or two.

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“Doctor, tell me, why is my son still not awake?” Wang Shuxiu raised her eyebrows and grabbed the doctor to prevent him from leaving.

The doctor awkwardly tried to free himself from Wang Shuxiu, but did not dare to move too much. It was because Wang Shuxiu was wearing too little, a black low-cut hip-hugging dress, and the doctor felt that if he struggled a little, he might be called a scoundrel.

None of the other family members in the same ward came forward to stop them, all watching the show with interest. The patient in Bed 20 was an eighteen year old boy. He was Wang Shuxiu’s son but she really didn’t look like a mother of such a big son.

They say that even if a beauty makes an unreasonable scene, she can be forgiven. Wang Shuxiu was such a beauty. She was forty-two years old, but looked completely in her early thirties. With her willowy eyebrows, phoenix eyes and tall, voluptuous figure, her every move was full of charm as long as she didn’t open her mouth; it was a pity that her essence was revealed when she did. She had obviously experienced vicissitudes of life, and although the family members of the patients in the same ward were willing to give her another look, they were not willing to deal with her.

While Wang Shuxiu and the doctor were tugging, the patient in Bed 20 slowly started to move.

Lu Lingxi’s eyes were closed and he felt the buzzing noise in his ears. He didn’t know if it was the after-effects of the operation, but his head felt like it was sawed from side to side with a dull saw, aching vaguely. Lu Lingxi struggled to lift his hands, but his limbs didn’t seem to obey him much, and with all the strength he could muster he could only move his index finger slightly.

“It’s so noisy!” Lu Lingxi tried to speak, but his throat seemed to be blocked by something and he couldn’t make a sound.

“Hey, he’s moving, he’s moving!” Someone shouted loudly.

“Wang Shuxiu, your son has moved.” Another voice reminded.

Wang Shuxiu, who was pulling the doctor, let go of the doctor’s hand quickly and rushed to the hospital bed.

“Lu Lingxi, you little bastard, you were born to piss off your mom, weren’t you?”

“Lu Lingxi, Lu Lingxi!”

Wang Shuxiu shouted twice in a row, but the person on the bed still did not move. She immediately looked around in discontent and crossed her arms, saying loudly, “Which asshole said my son was awake? You guys come and take a look, where the hell is he awake?”

The two people who had spoken out before wanted to say something, but they were afraid of Wang Shuxiu’s cursing skills, so they reluctantly confessed. Wang Shuxiu turned her head, saw that the doctor had already taken advantage of this opportunity to leave and became even more dissatisfied. She felt that they were fooling her in order to please the doctor, and immediately opened her mouth to curse.

“So noisy!” Lu Lingxi finally uttered after numerous efforts. He thought he was very loud, but to the ears of the people around him it was nothing more than a whisper. Luckily, no one was talking in the ward at this time, so Wang Shuxiu heard him and immediately leaned down to him.

“Son, son, Lu Lingxi, little bastard!”

After a series of shouts the young man on the hospital bed finally opened his eyes.

Wang Shuxiu laughed happily, “Little bastard, you are in a hurry to kill your old mom, aren’t you?”

Lu Lingxi blinked blankly; what appeared before him was an unfamiliar face. He recognised the voice, it was the same voice that had been making noise in his ears.

When Wang Shuxiu saw Lu Lingxi wake up, her heart finally settled. She said excitedly to Lu Lingxi, “Little bastard, they all said you won’t make it, but I didn’t believe them, and look, you’ve been saved, haven’t you? Your old lady raised you for so long and hasn’t enjoyed your blessings for a single day. If you had died, I would have lost money for all these years. Your dead old man, I don’t know where he’s gone again, he hasn’t shown his face these days. Remember, you’ve been in the hospital for so many days, and it’s my hard-earned money that you’ve spent.”

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The woman in front of him kept on talking, and Lu Lingxi understood every word she said, but all together, he had no idea what the other party meant. He watched as the woman’s mouth opened and closed, and finally took advantage of the gap to ask his question with an effort.

“Who are you? Where’s Father and Mother?”

“What did you say, you little bastard! What Father and Mother, are you trying to lie to your old mom again?” Wang Shuxiu raised her willow eyebrows and slapped Lu Lingxi’s head.

“You can’t hit the head!” The nurse who came in with the medicine shouted urgently, but unfortunately she was a step too late.

Wang Shuxiu slapped him, and a few minutes after Lu Lingxi opened his eyes, he was once again plunged into darkness.

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