Xu Qin clutches her hand tightly, she turns her head back: “Deputy Director Liu.”
Deputy Director Liu is handling the safeguard of the hospital. Everyday he always acts so friendly toward everyone. He introduces Xu Qin to Song Yan: “Xiao Xu ah, this is a firefighter captain at Shi Li Tai, Song Yan, Song Dui Zhang.”
Xu Qin nods and looks at Song Yan. He looks so handsome today.
“Song Dui Zhang, this is the youngest most promising surgeon in our hospital, Xu Qin, Xu Yi Sheng (Doctor Xu).”
“Em.” Song Yan answers it and nods. He looks at Xu QIn.
Xu Qin looks at his eyes. Then she looks away.
She stands there quietly, a second, two seconds, it’s so awkward.
Song Yan nods his head and says: “Hi.”
Xu Qin also looks at him again and nods: “Hi.”
She is clumsy is too obvious, Deputy Director Liu smiles and helps her to talk: “Our Xu Yi Sheng, has exquisite skills in medical expertise, but she is not good at communicating with others, she doesn’t like to talk. It’s the first time you guys meet, please look after her, Song Dui Zhang.”
Song Yan says: “I dare not.”
Xu Qin’s face blushes, she looks down and asks: “Song Yan, Dui Zhang, you come here to handle something?”
Song Yan’s eyes shows a cold smile;
Deputy Director Liu’s face changes, he looks at Song Yan awkwardly and pats Xu Qin’s shoulder. He smiles and says: “Xiao Xu ah, next weekend there’ll be fire drill at our hospital, last week I have sent the material to each departments.”
Xu Qin thinks about it: “No ah….”
Song Yan is calm, Deputy Director Liu is busy to stop a leak: “Xiao Xu ah, you should be very busy that you forget about it.”
Xu Qin: “……”
“So today Song Dui Zhang comes over to observe.” Deputy Director Liu says: “Xiao Xu, you could continue your business, we will leave first.” Then he leaves with Song Yan.
When he leaves, he passes by her shoulder.
Xu Qin walks two steps and looks back. Song Yan’s figure is so handsome and tall.
He almost reaches the corner, his side face is great.
He doesn’t look back.
Xu Qin places her hands inside her pocket and leaves. Her heart is calm.
She returns to the office room and hears the conversation between nurses. Xiao Xi says: “Don’t think about anymore, Xu Yi Sheng definitely would oppose it.”
Xu Qin goes inside the room and asks: “What is it?”
“Before there’s emergency notice, there would be fire drill at the hospital.” Xiao Bei says, “Everyone would use their own towel to cover their nose and run downstair. But Xu Yi Sheng, you are win a prize.”
Xu Qin: “Win a prize?”
“You are chosen to play a part of being locked inside.” Xiao Bei says. Xiao Xi addds: “moreover you are the left alone one after everyone is rescued.”
Xu Qin: “……..”
Xiao Dong: “Maybe because Xu Yi Sheng look like someone that could be left alone——“
Xiao Nan pokes her head, Xiao Dong just shuts up.
Xu Qin says: “Em, I would play that part.” Then she takes a look at the material.
Several nurses look at each other.
Xiao Dong lowers her voice: “Why do I think that Xu Yi Sheng seems happy with it ah.”
Xiao Bei: “Right, I also feel the same thing.”
Xiao Xi: “Whether she is happy or not, would it be the same?”
Everyone nods: “Oh.”
The next day, the north wind just blows away the haze. The sky is too bright and fine.
The time Xu Qin wakes up she goes to the balcony to open her window. She lets the wind gets inside the apartment.
She looks at the blue sky.
The blue sky persists till the fire drill day.
The drill ground is at the fifth to seventh floor of mixed wards. Hundreds of doctors, nurses and patients are preparing to act. Xu Qin acts a doctor who does her patrol around the patients’ room.
When it’s 03:30 p.m, the firefighter alarm suddenly rings. The heart surgeon, Doctor Zhu, yells: “There is fire!”
In a second, there’s a thick smoke filling the corridor. Everyone starts to move.
Someone calls to report to the firefighter department. There are people who runs downstair, there are people who taking wet towel to cover their nose. Someone is helping patients to go downstair.
Everything is clear and orderly. After all it’s only an act, there’s no sense of crisis. Everyone seems to be so calm. There’re even people who are still busy with their phone. There are also few people laughing and smiling for help.
According to the scenario, Xu Qin is locked inside the medicine room beside the nurses’ station.
She locks herself inside the medicine room, she looks around the room. Then she suddenly feels that scenario is a bit unreasonable. She is a doctor, how could she be locked inside the medicine room. This is obviously should be Xiao Nan, Xiao Bei’s role.
Forget it It’s okay for her to be alone.
After all, she feels that it’s much better to stay there then covering her nose and running downstair.
Xu Qin is so idle, she just takes something and reads it.
The time she reads the fourth prescription, then she hears a siren of the firefighters. Xu Qin is startled, this speed is too fast. She looks at her watch, then the fire alarm just rings for less than three minutes.
Xu Qin goes to the window and pushes open the window to look what happens in front. She couldn’t see the fire engine, she just hears the siren is ringing closer and closer. She watches cars around the hospital move away to let the fire engines pass.
Very quickly, from two sides, there are three fire engines coming over. Xu Qin remembers from the scenario. This time ‘firefighting’ operation would be done by Qi Feng Lu and Shi Li Tai’s two firefighters group. There are twenty firefighters coming to the fire drill ground.
The fire engines move forward and stops near the garden. Fully armed firefighters in an instant get off the car and surround their leader and instructor. Xu Qin notices Song Yan. He is wearing a dark uniform and standing in the middle of everyone. He is analyzing the circumstances and start to assign the duties.
After the order, everyone starts to disperse. Some of them go inside the ‘fire scene’, some of them start to turn on the high pressure sprinkler.
Xu Qin just realizes that during the fire drill, the real water would be sprayed too. Following that time, there’s a smoke coming out from the building.
Xu Qin doesn’t really value this kind of practice, she doesn’t even have her wet towel. Now when she knows there’s a smoke, she coughs and chokes.
She looks around and notices there’s a gauze roll and saline. She wets the gauze with the saline and covers her nose.
The water sprays around the room. ‘The left behind’ doctors and patients should yell for help and tell the firefighter about their location.
Xu Qin kneels down there for short moment. She hears hurried footsteps. She covers her nose and tays there. The firefighters are rescuing those ‘left behind’ doctors and patients.
It’s not her turn yet.
She closes the door and retreats, she continues to wait. After a while, she still couldn’t see who would come over to help her. The smoke starts to disperse. After all, it’s not a real fire. It wouldn’t persist for a long time.
Xu Qin waits for ten minutes more, yet still no one comes over. She gradually notices that she is forgotten. If there’s a real fire, supposedly she would be left out and died there.
Realizing this makes she frowns. She thought at first that ‘firefighter’ wouldn’t left her alone there. Her heart feels like it’s being stabbed. She decides to finish this boring acting. The time she is getting ready to stand up, someone comes over.
Song Yan pushes open the door and looks around. He notices that Xu Qin, who is covering her nose with the gauze.
Song Yan doesn’t feel surprised about this, he says: “What are you doing here?”
“Aren’t we having a fire drill? I am the one that is left behind.” Xu Qin puts down the gauze and stands up. She says without any polite remark: “If this a real fire scene, then supposedly now you would find me as a corpse.”
Song Yan turns silence for half second and asks: “You didn’t scream for help, who would know that you are here?”
Xu Qin: “……”
She says: “In the scenario, isn’t there written there’s someone left alone inside the medicine room?”
Song Yan looks at her: “No, we as firefighters don’t know anything about the detail.”
Xu Qin still tries to justify herself: “In the scenario, there is no word to let me scream——“ She finishes her words and just feels that her attitude is improper.
Song Yan looks at her with deep gaze, it’s like his soundless way of reprimanding her.
Xu Qin is silent and says nothing, she doesn’t talk back at him.
This time, there’re nurses coming over from the nurses’ station so it’s turns out few of them are hiding and discussing about where should they dine tonight.
Song Yan turns his head back and looks at those nurses. Those nurses are so shocked by his gaze and just leaves while holding hands.
Xu Qin feels that currently she is like a student who get caught for skipping the class.
Song Yan looks at Xu Qin with an alarming gaze and turns his body to leave. Looking at this Xu Qin also follows him out.
Song Yan stops: “Where are you going?”
Xu Qin: “You have found me, shouldn’t you save me?”
Song Yan doesn’t know whether she is joking or not. He just laughs: “The fire has been ignited for half an hour. No one could come to save you. Just wait here.”
Xu Qin hears that he is serious, so she stands there and asks: “Then how could I go out.”
Song Yan: “The time the fire engine lifts its stair.”
“………” Xu Qin turns silence and responds: “Then the crane like stair?”
Song Yan corrects her: “life-saving stair.”
Xu Qin feels helpless and just strokes her neck when she thinks how everyone would watch how she is put down that way. “Okay.”
Song Yan exits the medicine room and wants to close the door.
Suddenly the ground shakes without sign. The whole body starts to shake. The medicine inside the room starts to shake violently.
Both of them start to startle at the same time, they both look at each other. Xu Qin is at loss. Song Yan suddenly comes forward and holds her.
The bottles on the shelf start to shake and fall to the ground. It shatters everywhere.
Song Yan protects Xu Qin’s head and holds her shoulder. He takes her to the corner and let him lean on the floor. His tall body covers her closely.
It keeps on shaking; A lot of nurses start to scream outside. This time no one knows whether they are acting or not.
Xu Qin curls up at the corner, her heart beats so fast. The wall behind her is shaking too, but Song Yan, who is standing in front of her, could stand up steadily. His hand holds her back of head. The rough firefighter suit sticks close to her face and blocks her view. She couldn’t see anything or hear anything.
The earthquake continues for ten seconds and stops.
Song Yan keeps on maintaining his position and stands there for three seconds more. When he is sure that the earthquake has stopped, he lets her go.
Xu Qin’s breathing is cramped, she asks: “Is it an earthquake?”
“Em, it should be near the Di City.” Song Yan is serious, he goes to the window to look down. Yang Chi stands there with raising life-saving stair. He is holding the handle tightly. Supposedly the earthquake is so heavy.
Song Yan asks: “Are you okay?”
“I’m okay!” Yang Chi says.
Song Yan looks around his firefighters, he counts and realizes that someone is missing.
“Xiao Ge?”
“Here!” On the fourth floor, there’s a head extending out.
Song Yan: “Everyone, let’s return to our unit!”
Xu Qin doesn’t have time to say anything, SOng Yan already goes outside. When she just walks two steps, he looks back and takes a look at Xu Qin’s shoes. He then walks back to her side. He says nothing and suddenly just holds her waist. Then he holds her waist and carries her up.
Xu Qin suddenly holds his body, she feels her heart is unresolved.
He holds her to pass all the shattered glasses and pieces. When they are outside the room, he puts her down. He even doesn’t look back.
88tangeatdrinkread 
This book… so painful and bittersweet. My heart is in knots! Thank you for translating. Can’t wait to finish ❤
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