She knelt beside Duoduo, looking around desperately at the crowd.
“Can someone who runs fast go get a doctor for us? Please, I’m begging you!”
Several soldiers who had just finished training saw the situation and immediately sprinted toward the military hospital.
“They already went! They already went!” One of the wives who was close to Sister Cao was anxious too. She turned to Tang Ruoqi. “Nurse Tang, can you do anything to stabilize Duoduo for now?”
“I… I really can’t.” Tang Ruoqi’s face turned pale. “I saw a case like this at the hospital before. The child was brought in with a purple face and barely breathing, just like Duoduo… In the end, they couldn’t save him.”
Even though Tang Ruoqi looked down on these “country people,” this was still a human life. If she could save the child, she wouldn’t hesitate.
But she was only a nurse aide.
At the hospital, her usual duties were delivering medical records and lab samples, taking temperatures and blood pressure, or cleaning wards and offices. If even the doctors couldn’t save someone in this condition, how could she?
Hearing that, despair spread across Chen Jianshe and his wife’s faces.
But they didn’t dare move the child. The doctor hadn’t arrived yet, and they had no idea what to do. The helplessness was driving them insane.
The people in the family compound were equally anxious. No matter how much they argued normally, this involved a child’s life.
Shen Ruanruan rushed over just in time to hear those words, and her heart sank.
“Lu Mingye! Wen Yan! Clear a path for me!”
“Got it!”
Lu Mingye and Wen Yan immediately pushed the crowd aside for her.
She ran in, took one look at Duoduo’s condition, and her expression darkened. She shoved Tang Ruoqi aside.
“Who are you—”
Tang Ruoqi was already in a bad mood and got irritated from being pulled. When she saw it was Shen Ruanruan, she became even angrier.
“Mrs. Lu, this isn’t a place for you to play around! Don’t you see we’re trying to save someone?”
Shen Ruanruan ignored her completely.
The cheerful, soft girl everyone in the compound was used to seeing suddenly looked like a completely different person.
She crouched beside Duoduo, checking her pulse, feeling for breathing, then lowering her head against the child’s chest to listen to her heartbeat.
The surroundings were chaotic, and someone kept standing over her criticizing her.
Annoyed, Shen Ruanruan suddenly shouted coldly:
“Everyone shut up!”
Strangely enough, everyone actually fell silent.
Including Tang Ruoqi.
Shen Ruanruan lifted Duoduo’s eyelids and checked inside her mouth. A slight relief flickered across her face.
“Lu Mingye, come here!”
Lu Mingye immediately stepped forward.
“Tell me what to do.”
Without needing further explanation, he understood her meaning from a single look.
Shen Ruanruan felt something indescribable in her chest, but now wasn’t the time for that.
“Commander Chen, help hold the child’s legs apart and keep her standing steadily. Lean her slightly forward.”
“Lu Mingye, stand behind her and wrap your arms around here. Make a fist with your left hand, press your thumb against this spot, then use your right hand to push inward and upward quickly and forcefully. It has to be fast. Understand?”
Whatever she said, Lu Mingye did exactly.
Chen Jianshe cooperated without hesitation.
As a regiment commander, he trusted his own judgment. His wife had spoken highly of Shen Ruanruan before. She wasn’t the kind of person who would waste time if she wasn’t confident.
Besides, Tang Ruoqi had already said Duoduo’s condition was critical.
To be blunt…
At this point, they might as well try anything.
Following Shen Ruanruan’s instructions, Chen Jianshe supported Duoduo while Lu Mingye wrapped his arms around her abdomen, placing his fist against the center of her upper stomach and thrusting hard.
“What? You actually believe her?” Tang Ruoqi blurted anxiously. “Commander Chen, you don’t even know her background! How can you let her randomly treat the child? What if she hurts Duoduo even more—”
Chen Jianshe was already frantic, and this woman kept saying things that sounded like curses toward his daughter.
Just as he was about to snap—
“Don’t stop! Ignore her! Lu Mingye, harder!”
Lu Mingye obeyed immediately and increased the force.
“See? I told you it wouldn’t work! You should hurry to the hospital while there’s still—”
Tang Ruoqi never finished her sentence.
Pfft—!
A peanut shot out of Duoduo’s mouth.
Tang Ruoqi froze as if someone had grabbed her throat.
The crowd stared in shock.
Shen Ruanruan finally relaxed slightly—but it still wasn’t over.
After coughing the obstruction out, Duoduo coughed several more times and slowly regained consciousness.
“Mama…”
“Good girl, don’t talk yet,” Shen Ruanruan said gently, softening her voice as much as possible.
Duoduo still didn’t fully understand what had happened.
She had only secretly eaten a peanut. Somehow it got stuck in her throat. She couldn’t cough it out, and her chest felt tighter and tighter. She’d thought she was going to die.
But when she opened her eyes, she saw a beautiful older sister.
Had she already gone to the heaven her mother talked about?
“Your name is Duoduo, right? Listen to big sister now. Open your mouth.”
Duoduo’s brain hadn’t caught up yet, but her mouth obediently opened first.
Shen Ruanruan checked her throat.
“Does anyone have a pen?”
There weren’t many educated people in the compound, and even fewer carried pens around. At that moment, Tang Ruoqi silently handed one over.
Without even noticing who it was, Shen Ruanruan took it and gently pressed Duoduo’s tongue down, checking for peanut fragments or scratches inside the throat.
…The problem wasn’t serious.
“Duoduo, slowly take a deep breath. That’s right, just like that.”
Duoduo obediently followed along.
After finishing the examination, Shen Ruanruan finally relaxed. Her body, tense from stress the entire time, suddenly gave out, and she collapsed onto the ground.
Lu Mingye hurried over in panic to hold her.
“I’m fine,” Shen Ruanruan said quickly.
Just then, the doctor finally arrived.
She immediately began explaining Duoduo’s condition.
The doctor was still dazed.
He’d practically been dragged here at full speed by several soldiers before he could even catch his breath, only to arrive and hear Shen Ruanruan calmly giving a professional medical report.
W-what exactly was going on?
Wasn’t this supposed to be a critical choking emergency?
He looked down at the supposedly dying child, who was now wide-eyed and staring brightly at Shen Ruanruan without any sign of imminent death.
He was dumbfounded.
Were they messing with him?
“Did you remember everything?” Shen Ruanruan asked automatically, subconsciously treating him like one of the junior doctors she used to supervise.
Only after speaking did she realize herself, awkwardly rubbing her nose.
“But please hurry and take her to the hospital for observation overnight,” she added. “In case she develops a fever tonight.”
“Oh—right, yes, of course.”
Everything she said was completely correct, and the doctor instinctively nodded along.
Tang Ruoqi watched the usually stern and intimidating doctor treat Shen Ruanruan with obvious respect, and an indescribable feeling rose in her chest.
“Sister… our Duoduo… she’s really okay now, right?”
Sister Cao tightly gripped Shen Ruanruan’s arm like she was clutching the last lifeline she had.
When Tang Ruoqi had declared Duoduo beyond saving, she’d fallen into complete despair.
Her daughter was only five years old.
A child who sweetly called her “Mama” every day.
Watching her suffer like that, Sister Cao had wished she could take her place.
And it was Shen Ruanruan—
Shen Ruanruan had saved their entire family.