In the early winter of Binhai, it was nearly six in the morning, and the sky was just beginning to lighten.
Located at the intersection of University Road and Renmin Road, Binhai University Affiliated Hospital was the best and largest general hospital in Binhai.
The hospital never slept, and from time to time, an ambulance would come screaming through its gates...
With a soft DING, the elevator doors on the seventeenth floor of Inpatient Building Five at the Affiliated Hospital slowly opened.
The doors had barely opened a foot when a slender figure squeezed out from inside.
She was a woman in her late twenties, her forehead beaded with fine sweat, her features delicate and beautiful.
She had choppy hair that barely covered her ears, and it was a complete mess.
It was hard to tell if it had been tousled by the cold wind or if she had simply scrambled out of bed without bothering to comb it.
Judging by her clothes, it was likely the latter.
She wore plaid cotton pajamas, with only a plain, knee-length down jacket thrown haphazardly over them. On her feet were a pair of cotton slippers.
Dressed this way, the woman ran toward Room 12, her breath coming in hurried white puffs, her face a mask of anxiety.
She shoved the door open, then froze as if struck by lightning.
The hospital bed right next to the door was empty.
The person who was supposed to be lying there was gone.
Not only that, but the sheets on the bed were perfectly smooth, and the quilt was folded into a neat square.
In an instant, it was as if all the bones had been pulled from her body. She went limp against the doorframe, slowly sliding down.
Large tears welled up in the corners of her eyes.
"Feifan... Feifan..."
Just as the woman was about to collapse to the floor, a nurse on duty who had heard the commotion rushed over and caught her.
"Yan Ziruo, Mr. Yan was sent to the ICU on the third floor..."
The words were like a shot of adrenaline. Yan Ziruo shot back to her feet.
"My brother's not dead?"
"Third floor, ICU..."
Yan Ziruo hurried to the ICU on the third floor and saw a man in his fifties standing in front of a room window. He was slightly heavyset, with short, salt-and-pepper hair, and wore a white coat.
She ran over to him.
Through the large window, Yan Ziruo saw a tall, thin man lying on the hospital bed, his face drained of color.
She recognized him at a glance.
It was her younger brother, Yan Feifan.
Seeing her brother on a ventilator, with numerous monitors connected to his head and body, Yan Ziruo asked through her tears, "Mr. Liu, Feifan's condition... how did it worsen so suddenly?"
The doctor, Mr. Liu, sighed softly. "At 4:10 this morning, the monitor showed his blood oxygen saturation had dropped to ninety and sounded an alarm."
"The doctor on duty found that Feifan's breathing was weak, so he was intubated immediately."
"Upon further examination..."
Mr. Liu paused, then sighed. "Feifan's brain activity has dropped to a level nearing brain death..."
"Impossible. That's impossible."
Yan Ziruo interrupted in disbelief, "For the entire year he's been in a coma, his brain waves have always been very active."
"Didn't you all say his brain activity was even higher than a conscious, healthy person's?"
"How could he suddenly become brain-dead?"
Mr. Liu pointed to the EEG monitor inside the room.
Yan Ziruo looked at the display and saw an almost perfectly flat line.
The sight plunged Yan Ziruo's heart into an icy abyss. A cold numbness spread through her, her mind went blank, and even Mr. Liu's voice seemed to fade into the distance.
"Feifan's brain has always been unusually active. We were all so hopeful that tomorrow, or perhaps someday, he would wake up."
Mr. Liu's voice was heavy as he said, "We held onto that hope, waiting day after day, month after month."
"And now, a year and three months have passed..."
Mr. Liu turned to the tear-streaked Yan Ziruo and said painfully, "Ziruo, we have to accept reality."
"Feifan... his lamp has run out of oil. He isn't going to wake up."
Mr. Liu paused again, then steeled himself and said, "Ziruo, as you know, Feifan signed an organ donation agreement before."
"Before he joined the medical team for the earthquake relief mission in Chuanxi, Feifan specifically designated you in the agreement as his sole guardian in case of an accident."
"Ziruo, this organ donation... it still requires your consent..."
Mr. Liu reached out to steady the wavering Yan Ziruo and continued, "I know what I'm saying is cruel."
"But there's no chance of Feifan waking up now."
Mr. Liu continued to persuade her gently. "There are twenty-one patients across the country who are a match for Feifan's organs."
"Among these twenty-one, there's a professor from a renowned university, a boy of only fourteen, a gifted young man recognized as one of the city's Ten Outstanding Youths, and..."
"Mr. Liu, please stop..."
Yan Ziruo covered her mouth, sobbing uncontrollably. "Feifan talked to me about this before... about the organ donation..."
"I... I..."
Yan Ziruo recalled the moment her brother had told her about it, his tone light and joking.
She just never imagined this day would actually come.
"...I agree."
As the word, heavy as a mountain, escaped her trembling lips, Yan Ziruo's body slumped powerlessly against the window pane. She stared blankly at her brother, lying so still on the bed.
Suddenly, she straightened up again.
"Mr. Liu, give me an hour. I want to say a proper goodbye to my brother..."
Yan Ziruo entered the room and sat on the edge of the bed next to Yan Feifan, taking his gaunt, cold hand in hers.
"Feifan, did you know?"
"Even though we always bickered and fought growing up, in my heart, you've always been my greatest pride."
"Three years of elementary school, two years of middle school, two years of high school... and you finished the eight-year clinical medicine program in just six years."
"Every time I heard people call you a genius, I can't even begin to tell you how proud I was..."
Yan Ziruo wiped the tears from her face with the back of her hand and murmured, "You said that after you got back from the earthquake relief in Chuanxi, you'd be promoted from resident to attending physician in no time..."
At this, Yan Ziruo broke down completely, collapsing over Yan Feifan's body and sobbing, "If I had known this would happen, I would have broken your legs to stop you from going!"
"Little brother, I'm begging you, please wake up."
"If you don't wake up soon, you'll..."
Watching silently from outside the window, Mr. Liu's eyes reddened as well.
As his most outstanding student, he had placed so much hope in Yan Feifan.
But now...
'One could only say that fate was cruel, and heaven was jealous of geniuses.'
Just then, Mr. Liu heard the sound of a gurney.
He turned to see Mr. Liang, the head of cardiac surgery, hurrying over with two assistants, pushing a surgical gurney.
Mr. Liu's expression darkened, and he said with displeasure, "Mr. Liang, aren't you a little too eager?"
"You can't even wait one hour?"
Mr. Liang said awkwardly, "My patient with severe heart failure from an acute viral infection is in critical condition and could crash at any moment."
"I'm just here to get things ready..."
He glanced through the window and saw Yan Ziruo sobbing inconsolably. He, too, let out a long, sympathetic sigh.
"You two, stand back a bit..."
Mr. Liu waved a hand at Mr. Liang's two assistants.
Once the two had moved further away and were out of earshot, Mr. Liu stared at Mr. Liang and said with utmost seriousness, "Mr. Liang, be honest with me..."
"Last night at 11:10, were you the one who accessed the hospital's internal network to check Yan Feifan's heart transplant matching data?"
Mr. Liang was startled and hurriedly explained, "I was at home resting then. How could I have accessed the hospital's internal network?"
"Besides, back then, Feifan still had a chance of waking up. His organ transplant matching data was still confidential."
"I don't have the clearance..."
He suddenly realized, "Mr. Liu, are you saying...?"
Mr. Liu said coldly, "Someone checked the data in the middle of the night, and then at four in the morning, Yan Feifan inexplicably entered a state of brain death!"
"I don't believe in that kind of coincidence."
Anger appeared on Mr. Liang's face. "That's completely lawless."
"Mr. Liu, then what about this heart transplant surgery?"
Mr. Liu said thoughtfully, "We have no proof right now, and the surgery can't be delayed. We have no choice but to proceed and investigate later."
He sighed again. "I just hope this 'Outstanding Youth' doesn't waste Feifan's brilliant heart..."
Just then, a cry of joyful surprise, so loud it seemed to pass right through the walls, reached the ears of Mr. Liu and Mr. Liang.
"It moved... It moved... Feifan's finger moved..."
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