Confrontation At The ICU

    A pretty young  nurse wipes Rui’s forehead as he finishes the operation. She looks up at him adoringly, “Dr. Qiao you are amazing.” Everyone participating in the surgery never thought the woman, let alone the baby would survive.

  “Thank you, but the surgery was a team effort. Take the patient to the ICU and tell them to carefully monitor her condition. The next twenty four hours will be crucial to the patient’s recovery.”

  The assisting doctor walks next to Rui, “Dr. Qiao, your technique was brilliant enabling you to stop the bleeding as you repaired the severed artery.”

  Rui was surprised also because the damage to the woman’s face and chest all the way to her abdomen was severe. “ The probability of both the mother and fetus surviving was slim. I would say now she has a seventy-five per cent chance of survival.”

  He walks to the sink and takes off the surgical gloves then washes his hands. The operation took longer than anticipated. I wonder what LiMei is doing?

   When he leaves the operating room Gunnar Hedwig approaches Rui.  He has been pacing up and down the hallway wringing his hands waiting. Gunnar Hedwig’s face is extremely pale, his eyes are bloodshot and his hair is messily hanging down on his forehead. He sounds panicked,“How is Ning’er? The baby?”

  “For now they are alive. The next twenty four hours will determine their fate.”

  “What do you mean?”

   “The operation was a success but the woman lost a great deal of blood. She was severely weakened..there are several factors that could cause her condition to deteriorate.”

  “You gave Ning the blood, right? The blood the nurse specifically brought?”

   “Yes.”

  “Good. Good. Can I go see Ning’er?”

  “You can see the patient from outside the ICU. You can’t enter.”

   Rui walks to the elevator anxious to see LiMei.

   Downstairs in LiMei’s room Dr. Barrow after his examination comes to the conclusion LiMei is unconscious but not in a coma. He gave her an infusion to stabilize her condition. Hak Byung-Soo nervously asks, “When will Miss Feng wake up?”

   “Hard to say. She is stable but her body is weak.”

  Rui enters his office and walks to the resting room. Where is LiMei? He calls her phone and when she doesn’t answer he calls Hak Byung-Soo. He sounds angry, “Where are you? Why isn’t LiMei answering the phone?”

  “A nurse came to your office and told Miss Feng that you requested her to give blood. She is resting in Room 458.”

    Rui abruptly hangs up. Hak Byung-Soo warns Dr. Barrow, “If you want to live you better say Miss Feng just fell asleep. I don’t know what the fuck you and that nurse were talking about but something shady is going on. If he finds out, you are fucking dead and I don’t mean that figuratively!”

    Dr. Barrow breaks out into a cold sweat. He has heard about Rui’s temper but never seen it first hand. He is shaking and he confesses, “I had nothing to do with it…the nurse took too much blood.”

   Hak Byung-Soo doesn’t want to cover up the situation but doesn’t want to be held responsible either. FUCK! I will wait and see if I need to be forthcoming with that information.

   The doctor tries to leave and Big Gu blocks the door, “You aren’t going anywhere.”

   Rui rushes into the room and over to the bed. LiMei is pale and her lips are dry. He lifts her eyelids and is relieved to see she isn’t in a coma. He takes two long strides across the room to Dr. Barrow. Rui’s eyes look like a bottomless abyss as he growls, “Who told you to take blood from Miss Feng?”

  “Dr. Qiao, I had nothing to do with it.” Dr. Barrow feels like he is suffocating from Rui’s oppressive aura, he coughs trying to catch his breath then chokes out, “A nurse called me to the room when..well… called me afterwards.”

   Rui’s pitch black eyes are filled with hostility as he glares at him. He grabs his collar and his murderous expression is terrifying, “What nurse? What was her name?”

    “I don’t know. The nurse rushed out saying the blood was needed urgently for a patient in surgery. Miss Feng…I gave her an infusion.”

    Rui is trying his best to control his rage so he can think clearly to understand the situation. He turns towards Hak Byung-Soo, “Why did you allow Feng LiMei to give blood?”

   “Boss, I tried to stop Miss Feng! I told her I needed to verify that you asked for her to donate blood. She insisted that she wanted to help because she saw all the accident victims in the Emergency Room.”

   “The nurse said I was the one who wanted LiMei to donate blood?”

   “Yeah. She said it was urgent or the patient could die. You know Miss Feng, she has a big heart. When the nurse said that Miss Feng told me, “ Better to save one life than build a seven-storied pagoda.”

  Rui thinks about the expression on Gunnar Hedwig’s face when he asked about the blood. He clenches his fists at his side. Bastard! 

  “Barrow, if I find out you had anything to do with this you won’t be able to practice medicine anywhere! Monitor Feng LiMei. here until I return. If she wakes up call me.”

  Rui rushes to the elevator and presses the button impatiently. Hedwig! You will pay for this! 

   Gunnar Hedwig is looking through the glass at Fu Ning when Rui grabs him from the back and spins him around, “You Motherf****r!” He punches him in the face before Gunnar Hedwig’s four bodyguards restrain him. Gunnar Hedwig wipes the blood from his split lip and has a smug expression. “ I am not going to apologize for what I did. So Feng LiMei donated blood. It didn’t break our arrangement.”

  Rui struggles to get out of the bodyguard’s hold. He angrily spits out,  “Bastard. This is my hospital. I can end your fucking bitch’s life right now by pulling one plug.”

     When a nurse sees the scene outside the ICU she alerts security. The woman is trembling, “Hurry. Some gangsters are holding Dr. Qiao outside the ICU!”

    Gunnar Hedwig smirks, “You won’t. Why? Because if you do, your little girlfriend dies too.”

    “What do you mean?”

  “First, I want to say don’t act like you wouldn’t do the same thing to save your woman and child. “

    Several men in uniforms come rushing down the hallway, “Let Dr. Qiao go.”

   Gunnar Hedwig motions for his men to unhand Rui then says, “I am not a person who leaves anything to fate. I saw a chance to improve Ning and the baby’s chance for survival and I didn’t hesitate to take it. Tell your men to leave unless you don’t mind having them hear what I am about to say.”

     Rui tells the security guards to wait at the end of the hallway. When they leave he says, ‘What do you have to say?”

   “Before I got interrupted I was going to tell you. I knew when you found out you would of course be angered so I took the precaution of poisoning your little sweetheart.”

   Rui clenches his fists at his side, “You are bluffing.”

  “Maybe I am, maybe I’m not. Can you take the chance I am bluffing? I’m telling you if Ning dies, so does Feng LiMei.”

  “ You are insane! I told you the chance of the patient surviving has many variables. The woman was severely injured. ”

  “Then you should be happy Feng LiMei donated blood. It definitely increases the odds in Ning’s favor.”

    Rui heart is pounding and he feels like he is going to explode, “Hedwig, if anything happens to LiMei I am warning you, no one in your entire world will survive.”

   Gunnar Hedwig peers into the ICU at Fu Ning. “Then we are on the same page.”