Ever since Ji Jing and Madam Chu had moved into the courtyard next door to Zhou Yu’s, Ji Jing had voluntarily taken over all of Lu Cheng’s school drop-off and pick-up duties, morning, noon, and evening.
Zhou Yu had no objections to this arrangement. It gave her a little more time each day to devote to her studies.
Because Ji Jing handled Lu Cheng’s school commute every day, Zhou Yu had not been to his school for quite some time.
However, on Children’s Day, June 1st, she had no choice but to make an appearance.
The reason was simple: Lu Cheng’s school was holding a parent-child activity day.
Following the teachers’ recommendation, the school hoped that if possible, both parents would attend.
Although Zhou Yu’s days were packed with study plans, she was hardly so busy that she could not spare a single day for an event at her son’s school.
Besides, Lu Cheng had privately sought her out and told her that he wanted both his mom and dad to attend.
As a result, on the morning of June 1st, Zhou Yu went to Lu Cheng’s school together with Ji Jing and Lu Cheng.
The parent-child event was mainly intended to encourage communication and interaction between parents and their children.
As someone from the twenty-first century who had transmigrated into a novel, Zhou Yu felt that schools organizing activities like this was perfectly normal.
For people living in the 1980s, however, it was something quite novel.
Even so, although the parents found the event unusual, they wanted to support the teachers and the school’s arrangements. As a result, nearly every student’s parents had come to participate.
The primary school was not particularly large to begin with, and with so many parents flooding in that day, the campus felt almost overcrowded.
The event was being held on the school’s athletic field.
Participants were divided into groups according to grade level. Since Lu Cheng was in first grade, Zhou Yu and the others were naturally assigned to the first-grade group.
Within each group, parents, teachers, and children participated together in a variety of simple games.
Everything had been proceeding in an orderly fashion.
Then suddenly, a commotion broke out in a crowd not far from Zhou Yu.
A little girl’s face abruptly turned bright red. She clutched at her throat with both hands and appeared to be struggling to breathe.
The mechanical voice of System 088 suddenly rang out in Zhou Yu’s mind for the first time in quite a while.
【Emergency Mission: Classmate of Lu Cheng has a foreign object lodged in her throat. Please provide treatment within five minutes. Mission completion reward…】
Before System 088 could finish speaking, Zhou Yu had already gotten to her feet and was hurrying toward the little girl whose face had turned an alarming color.
The girl was one of Lu Cheng’s classmates and appeared to be only five or six years old.
Judging from her symptoms, it was clearly a case of airway obstruction caused by a foreign object.
A lodged foreign object in the throat was one of the most common emergencies seen in ENT clinics. In severe cases, it could lead to suffocation and death within a very short period of time.
For many choking incidents, the golden window for emergency treatment was only a matter of minutes.
Moreover, the longer the oxygen deprivation lasted, the greater the damage inflicted on the brain.
Zhou Yu had no time to respond to the system.
Saving Lu Cheng’s classmate as quickly as possible was what mattered most right now.
“Everyone, please step back a little. I know first aid!”
Seeing the crowd growing increasingly packed, Zhou Yu no longer had the luxury of worrying about anything else and immediately raised her voice.
Back in the modern world, Zhou Yu had been an outstanding medical university student. After transmigrating into the novel, she had also spent a long time studying medical knowledge through the system.
As a result, she had long since memorized the proper emergency procedures for choking incidents. She did not even need to refer to the instructional video the system was projecting in her mind. Her movements were already precise and textbook-perfect.
The most effective first-aid treatment for choking was the Heimlich maneuver.
Before performing it, however, the first priority was calming the child down as quickly as possible and preventing excessive crying, since that could worsen the airway obstruction.
“Sweetheart, Auntie is going to save you. Don’t cry. Relax your body.”
While speaking, Zhou Yu signaled to the girl’s parents with her eyes, telling them not to keep forcefully patting the child. At the same time, she gently reassured the girl and encouraged her to stop crying.
Looking at the kind and gentle woman in front of her, the girl’s panic quickly eased.
Once the child’s emotions had gradually stabilized, Zhou Yu immediately began administering first aid.
Supporting the girl’s body with her forearm and positioning her face downward, Zhou Yu delivered several firm blows to the middle of the girl’s back with the heel of her palm.
After several dozen seconds, a piece of candy about the size of a coin finally shot out of the girl’s mouth.
After the foreign object was expelled, the girl’s face, which had been flushed red from lack of oxygen, quickly returned to a normal complexion. Her breathing also gradually normalized.
The crisis had finally been averted.
Zhou Yu let out a long sigh of relief.
Although she had thoroughly mastered the theory behind the procedure, this was actually the first time she had used it to save someone in a real-life situation.
Fortunately, nothing had gone wrong.
Because of the sudden incident, the school’s parent-child event had to be temporarily suspended.
The primary school’s principal, Lu Cheng’s homeroom teacher, and the little girl’s parents all came over to Zhou Yu and repeatedly thanked her.
“You’re Lu Cheng’s mother, right? Thank you so much for saving my child,” the girl’s mother said emotionally.
“You’re welcome.”
Zhou Yu accepted their verbal expressions of gratitude, but she declined all the gifts and monetary rewards they tried to offer her.
“Lu Cheng’s parent, we’re truly fortunate that you were here today. Otherwise, it’s hard to imagine what would have happened if that student hadn’t received treatment in time…”
After praising Zhou Yu for a while, the principal continued, “I actually have a favor to ask. Since all the parents are here today, would you be willing to teach everyone the emergency procedure you just used?”
“A few years ago, a parent told me that their child choked on a foreign object and didn’t receive treatment in time. The child suffocated to death just a few minutes later.” The principal sighed regretfully. “It’s such a shame. The child was so young and adorable…”
“Lu Cheng’s mom is amazing…”
“That’s right! Lu Cheng’s mother, please teach us that first-aid technique!”
“Yes, yes! I’d like to learn it too!”
The surrounding parents had all witnessed Zhou Yu’s rescue firsthand.
The way she handled the situation had appeared both skilled and professional. Wanting to be prepared in case something similar ever happened to their own children, they eagerly began asking her for instruction.
“Of course.”
Zhou Yu nodded and raised her voice.
“Everyone, please quiet down and listen. The medical name for this emergency procedure is the Heimlich maneuver. It is commonly used when a child is choking on a foreign object. First…”
Zhou Yu carefully explained the rescue procedure she had just used on the little girl. Whenever a parent failed to understand part of it, she patiently went over it again until they did.
“One thing everyone should keep in mind is that although this emergency technique can produce results quickly after a choking incident, it does have certain limitations…” Zhou Yu reminded them after finishing her explanation.
“Because the method relies primarily on air pressure to force the foreign object out, its effectiveness is extremely limited when dealing with very small objects or objects with a sticky texture. In such cases, the patient should be taken to a hospital for treatment as quickly as possible. Do not delay.”
Before their deaths, both of Zhou Yu’s parents had been professors at a medical university.
Perhaps because she had grown up under their influence, she sounded exceptionally professional whenever she taught medical knowledge. It was something she herself had never noticed.
Zhou Yu’s clothing was very plain.
Standing among a crowd dressed in colorful outfits, she seemed somewhat out of place. Earlier, Lu Cheng had even felt a little embarrassed that his mother dressed so simply.
But now, watching her speak confidently before the crowd, he felt an indescribable sense of pride.
He had heard what everyone was saying about his mother.
They all said she was amazing.
And Lu Cheng thought they were absolutely right.
His mother really was amazing.
Ji Jing had witnessed everything from the sidelines as well.
He felt that when Zhou Yu was saving lives or speaking about medical knowledge, she radiated a kind of beauty that made it impossible to look away.
Earlier, the little girl had eaten a piece of candy before participating in the activities. Then she had accidentally fallen while running around, causing the candy to become lodged in her throat.
Fortunately, Zhou Yu had intervened in time, so there were no lasting complications.
However, because of the incident, the principal was worried that another accident might occur. As a result, after Zhou Yu finished introducing several first-aid techniques and safety precautions, the school only organized a few simple activities before bringing the event to an early conclusion.
The parent-child event had originally been scheduled to last the entire day.
Instead, it ended after only half a day.
The school then gave the children the afternoon off.
Zhou Yu, Ji Jing, and Lu Cheng returned home together.
After preparing a simple lunch and finishing their meal, Zhou Yu followed her usual routine. She planned to take a midday nap and then continue studying medical knowledge with the system throughout the afternoon.
【Host, today’s mission has been completed. The reward is one hundred yuan in cash.】
The mechanical voice of the Life-Saving and Healing System 088 sounded in Zhou Yu’s mind once again just as she stepped into her room.
At the same time, a one-hundred-yuan banknote suddenly appeared in her hand.
Zhou Yu put the one hundred yuan that had suddenly appeared in her hand into the cloth pouch where she normally kept her money. Then she walked over to the bed, intending to take her usual midday nap.
Just then, the somewhat excited voice of System 088 rang out in her mind again.
【Host, after completing another two or three missions, the Life-Saving and Healing System will be able to upgrade! When that happens, many new functions will become available!】
Hearing the system’s announcement, Zhou Yu showed little reaction.
She simply replied in her mind, “Oh, got it. Next time, say everything at once. I’m going to take a nap now. Don’t make any more noise.”
The moment System 088 heard what sounded suspiciously like a warning, it instantly fell silent.
Privately, however, it could not help grumbling to itself.
Other systems had always told it that their hosts were friendly and highly dependent on them.
So why was it that with its own host, Zhou Yu only wanted to interact with it when she was studying materials? Most of the time, she seemed to be telling it to shut up.
System 088 could not understand it.
Still, it did not dare ask.
At the very least, its host was highly motivated and eager to improve herself, and that alone was enough to satisfy it.
‘As long as the host diligently completes her missions, that’s enough. I can’t ask for everything.’ System 088 comforted itself with that thought.