Disobedience To Control chapter 41
Lead
“No, the heart rate is still too high,” the doctor shook his head repeatedly.
“Lidocaine!”
The nurse snapped open a transparent vial, drew out the liquid, and quickly administered it into Yang Xiaobei’s arm.
Yang Xiaobei’s breathing mask was covered in mist, but his eyes remained tightly shut, his brows furrowed in pain.
“No, no, the heart rate is dropping again.”
The room was filled with chaotic voices.
Song Siheng stood behind the crowd, watching as Yang Xiaobei’s hoodie was pulled open, emergency doctors and nurses doing everything they could, yet the waveform on the electrocardiogram monitor still hadn’t returned to normal.
It wasn’t until the last injection was administered.
Yang Xiaobei seemed to exhale a long sigh, the frequency of his chest rising and falling became steady, and he fell into a deep sleep. With a drip sound, the waveform gradually returned to its normal rhythm.
The doctors and nurses breathed a sigh of relief, and the tense atmosphere began to dissipate slightly.
The nurse’s back was covered in sweat, half of her clothes soaked through.
Song Siheng hurried over, his voice trembling slightly, “How is he? Is he out of danger?”
The nurse calmed her breath, looking at him, wiping the sweat off her forehead with the back of her hand, “We can only say he’s temporarily safe.”
“The family can stay here, and the doctor will prescribe medication. Keep an eye on the patient’s condition at all times.”
Song Siheng mechanically nodded, leaning against the railing beside the hospital bed, looking at Yang Xiaobei’s sleeping face, unable to speak for a moment.
At two in the morning, Li Ke received a call from Song Siheng.
When he arrived at the hospital, he saw the young man on the bed and then looked at Song Siheng. Without asking much, Li Ke went straight to complete all the procedures and transferred Yang Xiaobei to a spacious and private ward on the top floor.
“Do you want me to take you home?” Li Ke asked Song Siheng after everything was done.
“No need. You go back.” Song Siheng instructed him, “I have two meetings in the morning. Help me attend one. Jin Shuming’s side isn’t urgent for now; you can put it off for a while.”
“Got it. Don’t worry.” Li Ke said, turning to glance at the two of them before leaving.
The moon rose and fell, casting cold white moonlight through the blinds into the ward.
Song Siheng hadn’t slept all night, sitting quietly in a chair, watching Yang Xiaobei. After the rescue, he was changed into a blue and white hospital gown, leaving bruises on his chest from the compressions. His face was pale without a trace of color. Song Siheng felt that he looked very unfamiliar like this.
At seven thirty in the morning, after the doctor finished rounds, he called Song Siheng to the office downstairs.
“What does this mean?” Song Siheng listened to the doctor in front of him for a long time but still couldn’t understand.
“We’ve obtained his past medical records.” The doctor opened the system page in front of him. “He had been to our hospital before and reported having heart surgery at the age of fifteen. We now suspect that the previous surgery was not done properly, leading to the recurrence of heart problems due to poisoning and hypoxia.”
“He had surgery at the age of fifteen?” Song Siheng suddenly remembered something and hurriedly asked, “Where is the usual incision for this kind of heart surgery?”
“He should have had minimally invasive surgery. At his age back then, it would have been either under one armpit or in the middle of the chest ribs. It depends on the patient’s specific physical condition.”
Song Siheng forgot to breathe for a few seconds.
The scar between Yang Xiaobei’s sternum, it wasn’t some washed-off tattoo at all.
“When did he come to the hospital?” Song Siheng asked.
“He came last year, and then he came for follow-ups twice.” The doctor pointed to three dates on the screen.
Song Siheng surprisingly remembered those dates. He stood still, motionless.
Yang Xiaobei’s disappearances… Song Siheng dared not think further.
After closing his eyes for several seconds, he still couldn’t believe it, “But he had a medical check-up last year, and there were no problems at that time.”
“We’ve indeed checked him at our medical center last year, but only for four infectious diseases. Heart problems can’t be detected through infectious disease tests.”
“But I’ve seen his medical report, and I believe more than just infectious diseases were checked.” Song Siheng tried to recall the stack of medical reports, but found his memory extremely fuzzy.
“We don’t know about other tests. But if he has been taking medication continuously or deliberately hiding it from you…” The doctor stopped there, not saying anything further.
Song Siheng remained silent for a moment before asking, “Can you find out his medication history?”
“I can only check the medication list issued by our hospital recently.”
Soon, several lines of text appeared on the screen.
Song Siheng leaned over to take a look, seeing several strings of extremely complex drug names.
He frowned, “Can you explain these? What are the effects of these drugs?”
“These two are imported drugs, and they are quite expensive. A course of treatment costs at least tens of thousands. For athletes like him, these drugs are very effective in controlling symptoms without affecting daily life. But they also have side effects.”
“What side effects?” Song Siheng suddenly lifted his head.
“Long-term use of medication can actually increase the burden on the heart.”
Song Siheng took a deep breath and rubbed the sore corners of his eyes with his thumb joint.
“How could this happen so suddenly… He seemed perfectly normal usually, and he often swam. Why…”
“Heart problems are very complicated and involve many factors. It’s even harder to judge if he’s an athlete. With intense daily training, discomfort in the heart might be confused with respiratory issues after overexertion. In his case, if he had surgery as a child but it wasn’t done properly, it’s like implanting a time bomb in his body. No one knows when that fuse will be detonated.”
The doctor paused for a moment, then added, “But I asked the doctor who treated him yesterday. The doctor said that when he came for his second follow-up, he was advised to undergo surgery again as soon as possible. But he refused. If he had undergone surgery at that time, the situation wouldn’t be so bad now.”
Song Siheng suddenly looked up, “He refused? Did he give a reason for refusing surgery?”
The doctor sighed, “I don’t know about that. Maybe you should ask him yourself when he wakes up.”
Song Siheng took the elevator back to the ward.
After the emergency rescue last night, Yang Xiaobei’s life was saved, but the situation was still unstable. He still relied on continuous medication input to maintain his vital signs.
Song Siheng stood at the door of the ward but hesitated to push it open. For some reason, he felt a bit afraid to see the weak Yang Xiaobei.
The corridor was long, with only two or three wards on the entire top floor. Their room was at the deepest part, extremely quiet all around, so quiet that even the sound of the wind gently tapping against the window at the end of the corridor could be clearly heard.
Even blinking seemed a bit difficult for Song Siheng now. His once clear eyes were now bloodshot.
He suddenly felt how ridiculous their so-called sponsorship agreement was. He had set so many rules, not wanting Yang Xiaobei to know any of his privacy. In the end, he was the ignorant fool.
In the morning, after Li Ke had properly arranged everything that Song Siheng needed to attend, he drove to the hospital again.
As the elevator doors on the top floor opened, Li Ke looked up to see Song Siheng standing at the end of the corridor. The hospital windows were all reinforced, allowing only a slight opening of less than 30 degrees.
The spring breeze blew in from the lower edge of the window, gently lifting Song Siheng’s hair. Yet he remained motionless.
“How is he?” Li Ke lightly tapped his shoulder from behind.
Song Siheng turned around, his eyes vacant. Even on the day when the supplier was taken away by Xu Lang, Li Ke had never seen this expression on his face.
After several seconds of silence, Song Siheng finally spoke, “Not particularly good. The doctor said they need to continue observing.”
“What… happened?” Li Ke asked softly.
Last night, the situation was urgent, and Li Ke rushed over without knowing what had happened.
Song Siheng looked at him, speaking softly, “Song Qin wanted to kill him.”
Just six words, but Li Ke froze in place.
After a while, Li Ke managed to suppress the trembling in his voice, “Why? Why would he do that?”
Song Siheng shook his head without answering.
Li Ke’s breathing became unstable. He covered his eyes with the back of his hand, tilting his head up in silence. It wasn’t until two minutes later that he removed his hand.
“Siheng, why did it end up like this…” Li Ke stood with him in the draft, “I don’t understand. I really don’t understand.”
Song Siheng remained silent. Perhaps the answer was hidden in this early spring breeze, but he couldn’t grasp it, nor did he want to chase after it.
Two minutes later, Song Siheng opened his phone and sent Li Ke an address, then continued, “Song Qin is already being investigated by the police, but there’s no direct evidence yet to prove it was him. He wasn’t at the scene when the accident happened; he was at the garden villa in the evening and at school during the day, and there are witnesses. So, you should privately investigate any suspicious individuals who have been around this address in the past two days.”
Li Ke opened the message and saw it was an address in Binjiang District. He nodded, understanding Song Siheng’s meaning.
As he turned to leave for the elevator, Li Ke suddenly began to doubt whether the past ten years had all been a dream. All the tenderness, persistence, and heartbeat seemed like a mistaken journey into a dream.
He still remembered the day ten years ago when they returned from camping by the sea, and Song Qin invited them to the movies. They watched a Hollywood movie that was popular at the time together.
At the end of the movie, a spinning top kept spinning on the table tirelessly, never stopping.
At this moment, Li Ke also wanted to find a spinning top, to see where was reality and where was the dream.
Li Ke helped settle everything in the hospital before leaving alone.
Song Siheng pushed open the door to the ward. The door of the private ward had a soundproof device installed, so he entered quietly.
Yang Xiaobei had already changed into a blue and white hospital gown, the fabric thin, with two buttons undone on his chest, and electrodes from the monitor stuck to his chest.
His breathing still seemed a bit difficult, his chest rising and falling slightly.
Song Siheng stood by the bedside, lifted his right hand, and rubbed the two-inch scar between his sternum through the fabric.
Yang Xiaobei suddenly frowned, and Song Siheng thought he was waking up, quickly releasing his right hand.
But Yang Xiaobei’s eyelashes trembled slightly, and his lips moved under the oxygen mask for a moment, as if struggling in a nightmare.
Song Siheng finally realized that the signs he had observed before weren’t his imagination. Yang Xiaobei had indeed been gradually losing weight, even his eye sockets slightly sunken. They didn’t meet frequently, but looking back now, Yang Xiaobei seemed to have already revealed his true colors long ago. He just hadn’t noticed.
Yang Xiaobei’s right hand was pierced with a catheter. His once warm and large palm was now dry and cold. Song Siheng gently touched his hand along the white adhesive tape.
If it were in the past, Yang Xiaobei would definitely have grabbed his hand back firmly and then pressed him down with his body, saying some endless vulgar words.
But now, he just slept like that, without any resistance.
Song Siheng’s eyes couldn’t help but become hot. He avoided eye contact and walked to the window of the ward. The weather outside was getting dark, and the wind was getting stronger.
The trees in the courtyard below swayed in the wind, and the just-blooming early cherry blossoms scattered in the wind, finally falling to the ground, mercilessly crushed by the passing garbage truck.
Song Siheng’s thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door.
He turned around, and the attending doctor pushed open the door and walked in.
The doctor glanced at the records by the bedside, then gestured for Song Siheng to come over.
Song Siheng walked over to the doctor, but found his throat dry and hoarse as he spoke, “Doctor, what’s the matter?”
The doctor cleared his throat and looked at him, “We discussed with the cardiology specialist this afternoon. His condition is quite special, and conservative treatment is no longer meaningful.”
Song Siheng could only nod silently, “So, what do we do now?”
“We are in agreement. Let’s transfer his file to the cardiac surgery department directly. He needs to undergo open-heart surgery.”
Song Siheng froze at the words, “Open-heart surgery?”
“Yes,” the doctor nodded, “This is the only way to thoroughly resolve his cardiac risks. Otherwise, even daily activities will be affected in the future.”
“When can the surgery be performed?” Song Siheng asked.
“Currently, he hasn’t fully regained consciousness yet. The surgery can only be done when he’s in a better condition.”
“Once he wakes up, can the surgery be arranged?” Song Siheng was getting anxious.
The doctor looked troubled, pausing for a few seconds before continuing, “I have to make this clear to you in advance. The cardiothoracic surgeon evaluated it, and this surgery is very difficult. There are very few doctors in Jiangcheng who can perform this level of surgery. Even if he wakes up, it’s not certain that he’ll be able to get the surgery quickly.”
Song Siheng became impatient, “How can we get him the surgery as soon as possible? Money is not a problem. I can hire any doctor.”
The doctor took out a notebook from his pocket, “Money is not the issue here. We only have one doctor who is confident in performing this surgery.”
Song Siheng asked, “Who?”
The doctor wrote down a name on the notebook and handed it to Song Siheng, “Dr. Fu Xuehua from the Cardiothoracic Surgery Department.”