Waiting for You in a City

Xu Qin clutched the surgical cap in her hand, turned her head, and passed over Song Yan’s face: “Deputy Director Liu.”

Deputy Director Liu was in charge of logistics support. He was usually a warm and friendly person, with a smile in his eyes when he spoke. He immediately introduced Xu Qin with a smile: “Xiao Xu, this is Song Yan from Shi Li Tai Fire Squadron, Captain Song.”

Xu Qin nodded and looked at Song Yan. Under the military cap, his face was heroic.

“Captain Song, this is the youngest and most promising surgeon in our hospital, Xu Qin, Doctor Xu.”

“En.” Song Yan responded, nodded, and looked at Xu Qin.

When Xu Qin met his dark and heavy eyes, her heart skipped a beat, but she didn’t look away.

She stood opposite to him in silence, one second, two seconds, when it was about to turn into embarrassment, Song Yan nodded slightly at her and said: “Hello.”

Xu Qin looked up at him hastily, nodded and said: “Hello.”

Her clumsiness was too obvious, Deputy Director Liu smiled and helped: “Our doctor Xu is superb in medical skills, but she is not sociable and doesn’t like to talk. This is the first time we’ve met, we will be in Captain Song’s care.”

Song Yan said: “You flatter me.”

Xu Qin’s face was slightly hot, and her gaze dropped slightly. Looking at the three stars on his shoulder badge, she raised her eyes again after half a second, and asked, “Song Yan, Captain, are you here to do business in the hospital?”

Before the words finished, a cold smile flashed in Song Yan’s eyes;

Deputy Director Liu’s expression also changed, he looked at Song Yan in embarrassment, then immediately patted Xu Qin on the shoulder, and said with a smile: “Xiao Xu, our hospital will conduct a fire drill next week, the documents were distributed to all the departments last week.”

Xu Qin recalled: “I don’t think so……”

Song Yan’s expression was calm, and Deputy Director Liu was busy making up for the omission: “Xiao Xu, you must have been too busy, and forgot.”

Xu Qin: “……”

“See, Captain Song is here today to go over the drill.” Deputy Director Liu said, “Xiao Xu, you are busy, we’ll go first.” He then led Song Yan away.

In a hurry, she looked at him again, but the next moment they brushed shoulders, and his epaulets flashed past.

Xu Qin took two steps, and looking back, Song Yan’s figure was unusually handsome and slender.

He quickly walked around the corner of the hallway, his side profile became more handsome, but it was fleeting.

He didn’t look back.

Xu Qin put her hands in her pockets, turned and left, feeling very calm in her heart.

Returning back to her office, she heard several nurses’ discussion before entering the door, Xiao Xi said: “Don’t even think about it, Doctor Xu will definitely object.”

Xu Qin walked in and asked, “Object to what?”

“The emergency notice was issued just now, there will be a fire drill in the courtyard.” Xiao Bei said, “Everyone just needs to cover their noses with towels and run downstairs while bending over. But Doctor Xu, you have been selected.”

Xu Qin: “Selected?”

“Play the role of trapped medical staff and patients.” Xiao Bei said. Xiao Xi added: “And one who was left alone after rescuing the trapped people.”

Xu Qin: “……”

Xiao Dong: “Perhaps Doctor Xu looks the most like the one who will be alone—”

Xiao Nan nudged her, and Xiao Dong shut up.

Xu Qin said: “En, I’ll play this role.” As she spoke, she took the detailed procedure book for the fire drill and read it carefully.

Several nurses looked at each other.

Xiao Dong said in a low voice: “Why do I feel that Doctor Xu doesn’t seem to be unhappy.”

Xiao Bei: “That’s right, I have the same impression.”

Xiao Xi: “Whether she’s happy or not, isn’t it all the same?”

Everyone shook their head: “No.”

The next day, the north wind blew away the smog, the sky was blue and clear.

When Xu Qin got up early, she went to the balcony and opened the floor-to-ceiling windows to ventilate the room. She saw the busy scene of Wu Fang Street downstairs. At this time, the shops should be busy opening; the CBD area in the east was full of cars and people, and the white-collar workers were walking fast, rushing to work.

Looking up, the sky was vast.

Such blue skies lasted until Thursday of the week after, which was the day of the hospital fire drill.

The practice drill was set on the 5th to 7th floors of the comprehensive ward building. Nearly a hundred medical staff and patients were ready for the exercise. Xu Qin played the role of a doctor patrolling the ward in the hallway.

When the clock pointed to 3:30, the fire alarm in the corridor suddenly sounded, and Doctor Zhu from the Cardiac Surgery Department yelled: “It’s on fire!”

In an instant, thick smoke filled the corridor, and everyone took action.

Some called to report the fire, some ran downstairs quickly, some covered their mouth and nose with a wet towel, and some helped the patients go downstairs.

Everything was in order. After all, it was a drill, and without a sense of crisis, everyone took it easy, some were still playing with their phones, and some seemed to find it funny and shouted for help, help.

According to the script, Xu Qin was trapped in the dispensing room next to the nurse’s station.

After she locked herself in the pharmacy room, she looked at the shelves full of bottles and cans, and suddenly realized that the script was unreasonable. How could she, a doctor, come to the pharmacy room? This was obviously a role for Xiao Nan, Xiao Bei, and the others.

Nevermind, just be the one left out.

Compared to running down with everyone else while covering their noses, she stayed here alone, but ended up in peace.

Xu Qin had nothing to do, casually flipped through the prescription list on the shelf, and guessed what disease the patient had and what surgery he had.

After reading the fourth dispensing list, the sound of fire sirens pierced through the air in the distance. Xu Qin was taken aback, the speed was too fast. Looking at her watch, it had been less than three minutes since the alarm went off.

Xu Qin walked to the window, opened it and looked out, but did not see the truck, only heard the sound of the siren getting closer, and the vehicles on the street hurriedly avoided it to give way.

Soon, three fire trucks drove from two directions. Xu Qin remembered that it was written in the exercise notice issued by the hospital that this time the “firefighting” operation would mobilize two fire squadrons, Qi Feng Road and Shi Li Tai, with more than 20 firefighters present at the scene.

The fire truck drove into the courtyard and stopped, the fully armed fire officers and soldiers quickly jumped out of the truck and surrounded the team leader and instructor. Xu Qin saw Song Yan at a glance. He was wearing a dark blue firefighting suit, standing in the center of the crowd, analyzing the situation with those around him and arranging tasks.

After the order was issued, the crowd quickly dispersed, some directly entered the “fire site”, and some began to set up high-pressure water cannons.

It was only then that Xu Qin realized that the fire drill really required spraying water, and as time passed, the smoke on the floor became thicker.

Xu Qin didn’t pay much attention to this exercise, and didn’t bring a wet cloth. Now, thick smoke poured in from the window through the door, choking her to cough.

She rummaged through the medicine box and found a roll of medical gauze and a bottle of normal saline. After knocking it open, and wetting the gauze, she covered her nose squatted down to lower her center of gravity.

The high-pressure water gun from outside continued to spray water into the room. There was the sound of water rushing in the ward, corridor, and stairwell. The “trapped” medical staff shouted for help and reported their location to the firefighters.

Xu Qin squatted indoors for a while, when she heard hurried footsteps outside, she clutched her nose and ducked to the door, opened a crack and looked out. The hallways were full of water stains and smoke, and firefighters were rescuing “trapped” medical staff and patients.

It wasn’t her turn yet.

Xu Qin closed the door, stepped back, and continued to wait. After waiting for a long time, no one came to rescue her, but the smoke gradually dissipated. After all, there was no real fire, and a large amount of smoke could not be released continuously for a long time.

Xu Qin waited for more than ten minutes, but still no one came. Gradually she realized that she had been forgotten, and that if there had been a real fire, she would have already been burned to death.

This realization caused her to frown slightly. She had thought that at least one of the firefighters would not leave her behind. With a stab in her heart, she decided to end this boring role-playing immediately, and just as she was about to get up, someone walked up.

Song Yan pushed open the door of the dispensing room, glanced around the room, and saw Xu Qin squatting on the ground covering her mouth and nose with gauze.

Song Yan didn’t look surprised, and asked: “What are you doing here?”

“Isn’t it a fire drill? I’m the one who was left alone.” Xu Qin took off the gauze, stood up, and said unceremoniously, “If it was an actual situation, what you found just now is a corpse.”

Song Yan was silent for half a second, and asked: “If you don’t call for help, who would know you’re here?”

Xu Qin: “……”

She said: “Isn’t it written in the exercise plan that one person was left alone and locked in the dispensing room?”

Song Yan looked into her eyes: “No. We don’t know the exact location on our end.”

Xu Qin tried to defend herself: “The exercise plan didn’t say that I should call for help—” After finishing speaking, even she felt that her own attitude was not correct.

Song Yan stared at her deeply, as a silent admonition.

Xu Qin remained silent and stopped being stubborn.

At this moment, a few nurses from the nurses’ station came over. They were people who sneaked away from the drill, and they were still discussing what to have for dinner later.

Song Yan turned his head slightly, glanced over his shoulder, and quietly looked at the nurses. The nurses were startled by his gaze, and quickly left hand in hand.

Xu Qin stood in the dispensing room, feeling that she was a student skipping class who had been caught and made an example of by the homeroom teacher.

But the homeroom teacher obviously disdained to talk to her.

Song Yan gave Xu Qin a warning look, turned around and left. Seeing this, Xu Qin followed and walked out.

Song Yan stopped: “Where are you going?”

Xu Qin: “You found me, shouldn’t you rescue me?”

Song Yan didn’t know if he thought she was ridiculous, so he laughed: “The fire has been burning for almost half an hour, and no one can come up to save you. Stay right here for me.”

Xu Qin could hear that he was serious, so she stood still and asked in a low voice: “Then how do I get out?”

Song Yan: “Wait for the fire truck to be raised.”

“……” Xu Qin was silent for a while, before realizing, “Is that the metal platform that looks like a crane?”

Song Yan corrected her description: “Lifesaving platform.”

Xu Qin felt helpless when she imagined that she was going to be transported down like a load of goods under everyone’s watchful eyes. She lowered her head and rubbed her neck: “Okay.”

Song Yan walked out of the dispensing room and was about to close the door.

Suddenly, the floor under his feet shook, and without warning, the whole building began to vibrate, and the bottles and cans filled with liquid medicine in the dispensing room shook violently, bing-bing-bang-bang.

The two were stunned at the same time, their eyes immediately found each other. Xu Qin was still in a daze, but Song Yan suddenly rushed towards her with big strides.

The bottles on the medicine racks on both sides crashed down and smashed onto the ground, splashing glass pieces and medicine in all directions.

Song Yan protected Xu Qin’s head, held her shoulders and quickly pushed her to the corner. His tall body shielded her in the corner, covering her tightly.

The building was still shaking, and the medicine bottles were smashed onto the ground, like water balloons exploding one after another; several nurses outside the dispensing room screamed for help, this time they knew it was not a drill.

Xu Qin huddled in the corner, her heart thudding. The wall behind her was shaking, but his body in front of her was extremely firm and stable, his palm was still pressing tightly on the back of her head. The rough fabric of the firefighting suit rubbed against her face, her sight was blocked, she couldn’t see or hear anything, only the sound of her heartbeat in this corner. Exceptionally safe.

The vibration lasted for nearly ten seconds and then stopped.

Song Yan stood in his original position for another two or three seconds, making sure everything was all right, and quickly let go of her.

Xu Qin was still short of breath and asked, “Is it an earthquake?”

“En, it should be near Di City.” Song Yan looked stern, and walked to the window to look down. Yang Chi was standing on the lifting platform raised by the fire truck, clutching the railing tightly, it probably shaking a lot just now.

Song Yan asked: “Are you okay?”

“I’m okay!” Yang Chi replied.

Song Yan glanced at his team members in the courtyard, counted the number of people, there was only one missing.

“Where’s Xiao Ge?”

“Here!” A head protruded from the window on the fourth floor.

Song Yan: “All return to the team!”

Before Xu Qin had time to say anything, Song Yan turned around and walked out, stepping on the shards of glass all over the floor. After taking two steps, he realized something, looked back at the shoes on the soles of Xu Qin’s feet, and walked back to Xu Qin’s side. Without warning, he suddenly wrapped his arm around her waist and picked her up with one hand.

Xu Qin hung onto him abruptly, her heart hanging in the air along with her body.

He carried her, stepped on the glass shards and medicine stains, went out the door, put her down, and walked away without looking back.