Chi Mu lifted her head and found herself in Nie Yijun’s office. On the computer screen was a very detailed work schedule for the following day.
She glanced at the time in the bottom right corner of the monitor: 9:40 PM.
Exactly forty-eight hours.
While she was still in a daze, the phone in her pocket—Nie Yijun’s phone began to flash with her own number.
She answered immediately.
“Forty-eight hours,” Nie Yijun said. They were thinking exactly the same thing.
“Yeah.” Chi Mu felt a sense of unreality.
Did this mean they would continue to swap back and forth like this indefinitely?
“Let’s meet,” Nie Yijun said. “We really need to take this seriously now.”
“Mhm.” Chi Mu agreed completely.
“At my place,” Nie Yijun said.
Chi Mu shut down the computer, took off the white coat, and slung Nie Yijun’s bag over her shoulder. Just as she was about to leave, the landline on the desk rang.
“Hello?” Chi Mu picked up.
“Dr. Nie! There’s a young Omega patient in the ER with a ruptured gland! Get down here quickly!”
“Wait, what?” Chi Mu panicked instantly, but the line had already gone dead.
The ER? This was a matter of life and death!
Chi Mu dialed Nie Yijun back. “Don’t go to your house! Get to the hospital right now! The ER said a little Omega kid has a ruptured gland. What am I supposed to do!?”
“Go to the ER first!” Nie Yijun’s voice was remarkably calm. “Put on your earbuds. Don’t panic. I’m on my way.”
Chi Mu threw the white coat back on, yanked open a drawer, and put in her wireless earbuds. “How can I not panic? What do I do and where even is the ER!?”
“The first building by the East Gate is the Emergency Building,” Nie Yijun said. “Chi Mu, in this situation, you have to stay steady. Don’t lose it. Think back to the first aid knowledge you learned in school.”
“How long has it been? How am I supposed to remember that!” Chi Mu sprinted toward the Emergency Building, her whole body trembling. To hell with this soul-swapping, why give her such a critical task at a moment like this?
“You can do it!” Nie Yijun soothed her. “Back then, your technical knowledge was on par with mine. Chi Mu, I believe in you.”
“Well, I don’t believe in myself!” Chi Mu was in a full-out sprint.
“I’m here with you. Just see what the situation is first.”
Chi Mu ran with the speed of her hundred-meter dashes from her school days. The Emergency Building was massive; she lost her bearings the moment she stepped inside.
“Ask a nurse. Ask where the patient who just called you is,” Nie Yijun instructed.
Chi Mu ran to the nursing station. “Where is the child with the ruptured gland?”
“ER 3E, west side of the first floor,” the nurse said.
Chi Mu immediately bolted west. “3E, what does 3E mean?”
“The ER room number,” Nie Yijun said. “It’s on the door frame.”
Finding 3E, Chi Mu panted, “How much longer until you’re here?”
“I’m going as fast as I can. No more than twenty minutes!”
Chi Mu burst into 3E. It was a small room. A young girl was lying face down on an exam table. Chi Mu saw the blood on her gland immediately.
Two residents were already examining the girl. At the sight of the blood, Chi Mu’s legs went weak.
“What’s the patient’s status?” Nie Yijun asked through the earbud.
“The gland is bleeding,” Chi Mu whispered, swallowing hard.
“And? Is she conscious? Why is it bleeding—was it an impact, or an injury from a sharp object?”
Chi Mu’s vision swam. A nurse spotted her and called out, “Dr. Nie, hurry!”
“Go look, quickly,” Nie Yijun urged.
Chi Mu didn’t want to. The little girl on the bed had her eyes half-open and happened to look over. She managed a faint, gentle smile at Chi Mu.
“Doctor sister, save me.”
Chi Mu’s heart tightened. Seeing her hesitate, the nurse reached out, grabbed Chi Mu’s hand, and pulled her to the side of the table.
“Struck by a falling chandelier,” the resident said. “Visually, the base is still there, but the extent of the damage is unclear.”
The resident was inexperienced and clearly unsure of himself. He asked, “Dr. Nie, what now? Surgery?”
“Yes!” Nie Yijun said in her ear.
Chi Mu repeated the word. “Yes.”
She sounded entirely unconvinced. Surgery? Who would be the lead surgeon?
“Then arrange for surgery immediately,” the nurse said. “Her mother is waiting outside; I’ll go inform the family.”
“Chi Mu,” Nie Yijun’s voice rang out again. “Clean the wound first. Stop the bleeding.”
“Stop the bleeding?” Chi Mu’s voice shook.
“Yes. You must stop the bleeding.”
Chi Mu couldn’t do it. She grabbed the resident. “Stop the bleeding for her.”
The resident immediately began the procedure. Chi Mu took a step back, unable to watch.
“Check if the bone is exposed,” Nie Yiyun said.
Chi Mu was forced to take another step forward. Suddenly, her fingers were gripped by a small force.
It was the child’s small hand.
“Doctor sister, is the surgery expensive?”
“It’s not expensive,” Chi Mu said.
“That’s good, ow, it hurts.”
“Be gentle,” Chi Mu snapped at the resident.
The resident softened his movements, but the little girl still gripped Chi Mu’s hand tightly, letting out pained whimpers.
“It’s okay,” Chi Mu knelt to comfort her. “You’ll be fine. Don’t be afraid.”
“Mm,” the little girl’s features were contorted in pain, yet she still forced a smile. “I’m not afraid. Sister, I’ve seen you before.”
“Where did you see me?”
“On TV.” The girl looked at the name on her white coat and whispered, “Sister Nie.”
“Ah,” Chi Mu stroked her cheek. “What’s your name?”
“Guo’er.”
“That’s a lovely name.”
“Stop chatting and look at the wound,” Nie Yijun interrupted.
Chi Mu looked. The sight nearly made her scream. The blood had been mostly cleared away, and the bone was visible in the wound.
Nausea surged in her stomach, but she forced herself to keep it down.
“Is the bone exposed?” Nie Yijun asked.
“Yeah.” Chi Mu’s voice trembled.
For the next few minutes, Chi Mu felt like she was in a dream. The child’s mother came in, saw the wound, and said a great deal to Chi Mu through her tears. Chi Mu couldn’t process any of it; she just wanted Nie Yijun to get there.
“I’m here,” Nie Yijun’s voice finally came through the earbud. “Come out.”
Chi Mu felt like she’d found her savior. Claiming she needed the restroom, she fled the ER. Outside 3E stood Nie Yijun.
Nie Yijun grabbed Chi Mu’s wrist, pulled her down the hallway, and into the restroom.
She shoved Chi Mu into a stall, closed the door, and pressed her lips against Chi Mu’s. The sequence was so fast Chi Mu couldn’t even react; she only felt her lips being kissed with intense force.
Nie Yijun watched the timer on her watch as they kissed. She held it for a full forty seconds before letting go and staring intently at Chi Mu.
The wait was agonizing for Nie Yijun, but after more than a minute, they still hadn’t swapped back.
Nie Yijun didn’t care about anything else and kissed her again, this time for over sixty seconds.
Still, nothing happened.
She pulled the phone out of Chi Mu’s pocket, dialed a number, and held it to Chi Mu’s ear. “Tell Dr. Dai to come and lead the surgery. Now.”
The moment the call connected, Dai Yin’s annoying voice answered, “Well, well, Dr. Nie, what made you think of me so late at night?”
“Get to the ER. There’s a surgery,” Chi Mu said.
As annoying as Dai Yin was, he was reliable when it came to professional matters. He said immediately, “Which ER? I’m on my way.”
“3E,” Chi Mu said.
Nie Yijun hung up. “Do you have a phobia of blood?”
“Yeah.” Chi Mu hadn’t recovered yet; her voice was low and shaky.
“Follow me.” Nie Yijun grabbed her wrist again, led her out of the restroom, down the hall, and into ER A1.
A1 was a massive ward. It was crowded, and everyone was moving at a breakneck pace. Patients were wailing in pain. On the bed closest to Chi Mu, a patient was covered in blood from head to toe.
Chi Mu wanted to leave, but her legs were leaden.
“What are you doing!?”
Nie Yijun pulled her toward the blood-soaked patient and said, “Look at him.”
Chi Mu turned her head away, refusing to look.
Nie Yijun forced her face back around. “Desensitization. Do you understand?”
“Why do I need to be desensitized?” Chi Mu snapped. “I’m not a doct—ah!”
Before she could finish, the patient grabbed her white coat. “Doctor, save me.”
His hand left dark red bloodstains on Chi Mu’s coat. Panicking, she gripped Nie Yijun’s hand, searching for help.
Nie Yijun separated her from the patient and called out, “Someone check the patient in Bed 12!”
Since she wasn’t in her own body, Nie Yijun was an outsider to the hospital staff. After shouting the order, she pulled Chi Mu out of the Emergency Building.
The moment they hit the fresh air, Chi Mu’s legs gave out, and she collapsed onto the grass in front of the building.
“Are you insane?” Chi Mu cursed between dry heaves. “I’m not a doctor!”
“But you’re in my body right now!” Nie Yijun looked down at her. “You saw it yourself, we didn’t swap back just now. There will be many more emergencies like this in the future. Are you just going to keep shrinking back? This isn’t a joke; you are facing a human life!”
Chi Mu knew she had handled things poorly today. In a life-and-death situation, her behavior had been dangerously unreliable.
“But I’m still not a doctor!” Chi Mu turned her head away, her tone remaining stubborn. “I can’t do it!”
Nie Yijun knelt down. “Chi Mu, you studied medicine too. Your grades back then weren’t inferior to mine. If it were anyone else, I wouldn’t ask for much, but you have the foundation. I’m not asking you to suddenly become a lead surgeon overnight, that’s unrealistic but you have to know the basics. You must overcome your phobia of blood.”
Chi Mu sat on the ground, panting. She was the type who could be reasoned with but never coerced; Nie Yijun’s shift to a logical explanation helped the words sink in, especially given how dangerous tonight’s situation had been.
Nie Yijun suddenly got up and walked away, returning a few minutes later with a bottle of water.
“Drink some water and calm down,” Nie Yijun said, twisting the cap open for her. “I apologize for being reckless just now. I rarely handle my work carelessly; I was just so panicked that I dragged you into Room A.”
Chi Mu took the water and downed half the bottle. Wiping her mouth, she asked, “Is there a gentler way? Desensitization therapy is terrifying.”
“No,” Nie Yijun said coldly. “A doctor must face blood. Desensitization is the only way, and it’s the fastest.”
Chi Mu wanted to swing the bottle at her face, but she restrained herself for the sake of her own body.
Once they had composed themselves, Chi Mu and Nie Yijun waited outside the ER operating room. Guo’er’s surgery lasted about two hours.
When Guo’er was finally wheeled out, Nie Yijun was the first to approach. The little girl was lying face down, her wound already wrapped in gauze, and her vital signs were stable.
Nie Yijun knew then that the surgery was a success.
“It worked,” Nie Yijun said, sitting back down on the bench.
Chi Mu felt utterly drained as she watched the hospital bed being pushed past. Guo’er’s eyes were tightly shut; her obedient, quiet appearance made Chi Mu’s heart soften.
“Let’s go,” Chi Mu said, standing up.
“Dr. Nie!” someone called from behind.
Both Chi Mu and Nie Yijun turned around. It was Dai Yin, just emerging from the operating room.
“A simple gland suturing surgery,” Dai Yin said, walking toward them with a smug, breezy smile. “Surely Dr. Nie hasn’t forgotten how to do that?”
Chi Mu wasn’t in the mood to deal with him tonight. She grabbed Nie Yijun’s wrist. “We’re leaving.”
Dai Yin followed them. “It’s fine if Dr. Nie doesn’t know how; after all, you’re young. We can take it slow. How about next time I have a surgery, I bring you along as my assistant so you can learn a thing or two?”
Nie Yijun didn’t feel much of anything hearing this. Since she knew she was capable, she didn’t care what others said.
Chi Mu, however, couldn’t let it slide. Since she was currently wearing Nie Yijun’s skin, Dai Yin’s insults felt personal.
“How old are you, Dr. Dai?” Chi Mu asked.
Dai Yin blinked, surprised. “Thirty-seven.”
“Oh,” Chi Mu held up eight fingers. “I’m eight years younger than you. If you’re really that brilliant, why are we at the same professional level?”
At those words, Chi Mu clearly saw Dai Yin’s smirk falter. He managed to regain his composure quickly, but his voice tightened. “Don’t be too confident, Dr. Nie. There are still four months left until this year’s evaluations.”