0090 During and After the Dressing Change

No matter how furious he was, he still could not ignore his health, so Hou Rui forced himself into the car, turned it around, and drove toward the hospital. More than twenty minutes later, he was sitting in the outpatient lobby.

Crying infants, stooped old men and women, middle-aged people coughing now and then or wearing pained expressions—this was the scene around Hou Rui at the moment. After he gave up his seat to an elderly woman who had come for an IV drip, he could not help returning once more to the nurses’ station to ask, “Excuse me, how much longer before it’s my turn? Number 142 for a dressing change.”

“Just wait to be called. Nagging me won’t help. Can’t you see how many people are in line?” said a nurse whose waist was wider than Hou Rui’s chest, and after saying it in a flash, she left him standing there alone.

There was nowhere to sit if he went back now, so Hou Rui began to wander slowly along the hospital corridor, trying to pass the time that way.

After making two rounds back and forth, he heard the public address system in the outpatient hall announce, “Number 89, patient number 89, please go to Treatment Room 2.”

Good grief. They had only just called number 89, so wouldn’t he, number 142, have to wait another hour at least? At the thought, Hou Rui’s face nearly twisted out of shape, but he could not argue with the hospital, because it would be utterly useless. In the end, he began strolling aimlessly about. He went from the first floor up to the second, and before he knew it, he had even wandered to the inpatient ward on the third floor.

In room after room, all kinds of patients and relatives flickered past Hou Rui’s eyes. Suddenly, in a ward housing four patients, he caught sight of a familiar figure—the female doctor who had cried inconsolably when she watched the victim die in the car accident.

“Grandma, swallow slowly. There’s still more here. Right, right, swallow that first, then have another spoonful.” At that moment, the female doctor was holding a bowl of millet porridge and feeding it to an old woman with a head of white hair, one spoonful at a time.

Though he had only glanced once, Hou Rui had already seen that the old woman’s eyes were fixed and vacant, likely because of some serious illness. She would only open her mouth mechanically when the female doctor brought the spoon to her lips, but once she began to swallow, most of the millet porridge and saliva would spill out from the corners of her mouth.

Faced with such a troublesome old woman, the female doctor showed not the slightest trace of impatience. She simply used the apron tied around the old woman’s neck to wipe her mouth clean, then continued feeding her the next spoonful.

“Dr. Su is really a good person. She comes every day to take care of Old Lady Wang. Even her own children probably couldn’t do more than this.”

“What? Dr. Su isn’t Old Lady Wang’s daughter? I always thought they were family!”

“Tch. If they were family, why would we even say anything? Old Lady Wang is a widow living alone. Dr. Su is just helping out of kindness. She’s the real white-robed angel in this hospital. All of us old neighbors living nearby know about it.”

Several patients and family members in the ward were whispering among themselves, their voices full of respect and admiration for the female doctor. Hearing this, Hou Rui’s admiration for her rose even higher. If that fat nurse downstairs had even half this doctor’s compassion and sense of responsibility, he probably would not be wandering around the hospital in circles now.

Suddenly, the female doctor’s phone rang. She set the bowl of millet porridge aside, helped the old woman lie down, nodded to the patients and relatives in acknowledgment, and then walked out of the ward, standing some thirty-four meters from Hou Rui as she answered the call.

He could not make out what the other party was saying, but when the female doctor lowered her phone and turned back toward the ward, Hou Rui was astonished to find that her gaze had changed. The kindness and warmth that had just been radiating from within her were replaced by coldness and numbness. If he had not trusted his own eyes completely, that one glance alone would have made him think these were two entirely different people, impossible to inhabit the same body.

What was going on? Had she heard some terrible news? Hou Rui was guessing to himself. Just as he was about to step closer to take a better look at this mysterious female doctor, an old man wearing a security guard’s red armband appeared out of nowhere. The old fellow looked at Hou Rui and asked, “Young man, what are you craning your neck for?”

“Nothing, sir. I’m here for a dressing change.” Hou Rui could not afford to offend ordinary people in the capital, especially not when they were organized, so he quickly explained. To make his words more convincing, he even took out the numbered ticket and showed it to the old man.

“Dressing changes are on the first-floor outpatient side. This is the inpatient area on the third floor. If there’s nothing going on, don’t wander around and disturb other people’s rest.” At last the old man believed him. As he handed the ticket back, he did not forget to give a few more instructions.

“All right, I’ll leave right away.” With that, Hou Rui had no choice but to return to the first floor, still puzzled. But soon he put the little episode out of his mind. After the dressing change, he left the outpatient hall. Just as he was about to head for the parking lot to get his car, a patrol police cruiser suddenly appeared.

“Pedestrian ahead, please stop and cooperate with our work.”

The loudspeaker on top of the police car blared, and Hou Rui immediately stopped. Under his bewildered gaze, a tall officer and a fat one got out of the car and walked toward him.

“Officers, are you calling me?” Hou Rui looked at the two grim-faced men approaching him and felt very uneasy, but he still managed to ask in a calm voice.

“Be serious. Who are you calling officers? What are you doing here so late at night?” The tall one looked at Hou Rui with obvious hostility, and his tone was harsh to the extreme.

“I came to see a doctor.” Since they would not allow any familiar banter, Hou Rui had no choice but to slowly suppress his smile.

“Show me your ID card.” The fat officer’s tone was even more commanding, leaving no room for argument.

Faced with official questioning, Hou Rui, whose heart already felt guilty for no reason, could only obediently hand over his ID card and stand there looking honest and well-behaved, as if he were a model citizen.

“Hou Rui, from Ice City, huh!” The fat officer glanced at Hou Rui’s ID card and curled his lip in disdain. Before Hou Rui could answer, the bloated man continued in a sly, sarcastic tone, “Show me your temporary residence permit.”

“I’m still a student. I live in the school dormitory.”

“Then that means you don’t have one!”

Hou Rui was defeated by such miraculous logic. Just as he was preparing to explain properly, the tall officer suddenly seized his arm and said with extreme impatience, “Why waste words? Just take him back to the station and sort it out there!”

“No, why are you arresting me? What did I do?” Even as slow as he was, Hou Rui could tell something was wrong now. He shouted his protests aloud, but in his mind a fierce struggle had already begun. If they truly wanted to arrest him, should he resist? And if he did resist, would that mean becoming a fugitive? Would the organization simply stand by and let him be hunted down? What about Jin Shanshan?

One question after another, Hou Rui had no answers. But unanswered questions were often easier to handle; the solution, in this case, was to take things one step at a time. Thinking that way, the police matter became simpler. He did not resist, and instead prepared himself to follow them obediently.

“What are you yelling about? Who said anything about arresting you? We’re asking you to assist with our work.” As the fat officer spoke, he took a step forward as well, tightly gripping Hou Rui’s other arm with both hands. Then, with the two officers working in tandem, they shoved Hou Rui into the police car without further explanation.

The patrol car quickly left the hospital parking lot and drove north for more than two hours before finally stopping in front of a police station on the outskirts of the city.

By then, Hou Rui could already be certain that intercepting him in the hospital parking lot had been a trap—an obvious, clumsy trap aimed at him. These two officers definitely had not come looking for him on official business. Otherwise, they would never have bothered to haul him all the way to such a remote police station. He could only assume that, next, these two men in black uniforms were not going to make things easy for him.

Unfortunately, although the trap was crude, it was very effective. For an ordinary person, resisting or not resisting would both lead to no good outcome.

As soon as they entered, the two officers took Hou Rui into an interrogation room. Then, as if a dozen tired movie and television cliches had suddenly come to life, the fat one with the sleazy grin took out a transparent packet of white powder from his pocket and slapped it onto the table in front of Hou Rui.

“Explain this. What is it?”

“I don’t know. I’ve never seen it.”

“Be honest. This was found on you, and you still say you’ve never seen it?”

“I really haven’t. Where this stuff came from, shouldn’t you know better than I do?” Hou Rui had barely finished speaking when the fat officer slapped him hard across the face. Hou Rui dodged quickly, but the officer’s fingers still raked viciously across his cheek, leaving two red marks at once.

With a whoosh, the enraged Hou Rui stood up. The fat officer in front of him even involuntarily stepped back half a pace in fright.

“What are you doing? Are you trying to assault a police officer?” the fat officer roared, pointing at Hou Rui’s nose.

“If you touch me again, I’ll make you regret it for the rest of your life.” The fury Hou Rui had been suppressing all this time finally erupted.

“You little bastard, still trying to act tough. Do you even know what place this is?” The tall officer behind Hou Rui cursed as he swung the rubber police baton in his hand hard toward Hou Rui’s knee.

Hou Rui lifted his left foot quickly to avoid the blow, then spun around and drove both hands hard into the tall officer’s chest, forcing him backward until he slammed into the wall of the interrogation room. Of course, this was already Hou Rui holding back; otherwise, with his strength, he could have shattered the tall officer’s ribs outright.