Outside the emergency operating room at Xiangzhou People's Hospital.
The sunset hung like smoke, red and hazy.
Xiang Yaojun's face was flushed dark red; he clenched his teeth, forcing down his emotions: "Dr. Du, if my son's going to have his leg amputated, we could've just had the surgery done back in the county."
"We rushed here all the way from Tongren. It's been a long trip."
"And it was our county's Director Qiu who said,"
"that over here you could save the limb."
Tongren is in the neighboring Guizhou Province; it borders Ji City in western Xiangxi, but it's still some distance away.
Du Hua'an reached out his hand, his expression calm: "We know you came all the way from the neighboring province. It's especially hard."
"But Director Lu isn't on duty today, and for the moment no one in our hospital can do this kind of surgery."
"The injury has already been dragged out long enough… If we still don't amputate, it's going to become life‑threatening…"
