Lu Heng was the chief pediatric surgeon at Hong Ji Hospital, where his father, Lu Yaosong, served as the director. Since childhood, Lu Heng had frequently visited the hospital to find his father, which is how he became familiar with the hospital’s structure and many medical concepts. He had watched countless surgeries performed by his father, Director Lu, and even assisted him as an intern during his medical rotations. He had seen numerous patients and their families tearfully thanking his father for successful treatments. Even as a young boy, witnessing those scenes stirred something in his chest, filling him with warmth and excitement. From a young age, he aspired to study, heal, and save lives, just like his father. He eventually fulfilled that dream, becoming a pediatric surgeon at Hong Ji Hospital after returning from studying abroad, a perfect fit for someone who loved children.
Lu Heng and Bai Cheng were childhood sweethearts.
Their fathers, Lu Yaosong and Bai Zhanming, had been university and graduate school classmates. After graduation, Lu Yaosong went on to work at the hospital, while Bai Zhanming entered the pharmaceutical industry. As they both found success in their careers, they bought homes in the same neighborhood, directly across from each other.
They had witnessed each other’s childhoods, school days, and were each other’s first love. They had decided to spend their lives together, hand in hand, through the years ahead.
They were about to get married.
But on that day, a drug dealer known as “Muddy Eel” was caught by Luo Tian and his team in an undercover bust at the park. In his panic, Muddy Eel tried to escape and was hit by a car while crossing the street, suffering from a fractured sternum and going into shock. He was rushed to the nearest hospital—Hong Ji Hospital—for treatment. After regaining consciousness, Muddy Eel seized the opportunity to yank out his IV and fled for his life inside the hospital, grabbing two surgical scalpels from a tray carried by a passing nurse.
With the scalpels in hand, Muddy Eel rampaged through the hospital until he was cornered by Luo Tian and his team in the pediatric ward. Desperate, he grabbed a little girl who had just walked out of a room, holding a scalpel to her neck as a hostage.
“Hurry, give me a car, parked right outside! Move, or I’ll take her down with me!” Muddy Eel snarled viciously, pressing the scalpel harder against the girl’s neck, his voice filled with pain and desperation.
“Okay, don’t do anything rash. We’ll arrange the car right away. Just don’t hurt the hostage,” Luo Tian said calmly, speaking into his walkie-talkie to arrange for a car to be brought to the hospital entrance.
Hearing the car being arranged, Muddy Eel exhaled in relief, but quickly regained his fierce expression. He slowly backed toward the elevator, shouting as he moved, “Step back, all of you. Step back!”
Luo Tian and his team had no choice but to comply. Suddenly, the little girl’s breathing became rapid, and she started gasping for air, her face turning pale. Both Muddy Eel and Luo Tian’s team were thrown into confusion by her sudden change in condition. At that moment, Lu Heng pushed through the crowd and came to the front, speaking to Muddy Eel while facing the tip of the scalpel.
“I’m her attending physician. This little girl has congenital asthma, and she’s having an attack. She needs her inhaler.”
“Well, what are you standing around for? Go get it!” Muddy Eel shouted anxiously.
“Xiao Zhang, go get the asthma inhaler, and bring several bottles,” Lu Heng called to a nurse standing in the crowd behind him. The nurse hesitated for a moment before dashing off to fetch the inhalers. When she returned with them, Muddy Eel ordered Lu Heng to toss them over from a distance. Lu Heng did as instructed, rolling several inhalers to Muddy Eel’s feet. Muddy Eel only picked up one, hastily opened it, and roughly administered a few puffs to the little girl.
The girl’s breathing finally stabilized, and her face regained some color. Muddy Eel, still holding the girl hostage, staggered into the elevator and made his way to the hospital entrance. Standing by the road, he shouted to Luo Tian and his team, “Where’s the car? Get the car here, now!”
Luo Tian, trying to buy time, put on a show of arranging the vehicle, but he knew that Muddy Eel’s injuries wouldn’t allow him to hold out much longer. He had only ordered the police vehicle to be stationed a few dozen meters away to stall for time.
Muddy Eel pointed at Lu Heng and said, “You, throw your phone over here.”
Lu Heng responded, “I’ll give you my phone, but let the girl go. Take me as a hostage instead.”
“You think you can negotiate with me? I’m wounded, not stupid. Throw the phone!”
Lu Heng obediently tossed his phone over. As he stepped back, he whispered to Luo Tian, “You can’t let him take the child. One inhaler won’t be enough.”
Luo Tian nodded subtly.
Muddy Eel picked up the phone from the ground and fiddled with it briefly before stuffing it into his pocket.
More than half an hour had passed, and Muddy Eel’s wounds had begun to bleed again. The summer sun was making him feel dizzy. He shook his head, trying to stay conscious. Luo Tian felt a flicker of hope: “He’s reaching his limit.”
Just then, the little girl’s asthma flared up again. Muddy Eel, now desperate, screamed at Luo Tian’s team, “Where’s the car? Stop stalling! If the car doesn’t get here, I won’t give her the inhaler! If I die, she dies too!”
Seeing no other option, Luo Tian finally ordered his team to bring the car closer. The car pulled up next to Muddy Eel, who continued to drag the girl toward it.
“Give her the inhaler!” Lu Heng urged.
But Muddy Eel ignored him, forcing the girl into the car. Just as Muddy Eel turned to get in, both Lu Heng and Luo Tian made their move. Lu Heng was the first to reach him, using his left hand to seize Muddy Eel’s right hand, which held the scalpel. He then wrapped his right arm around the girl and passed her to Luo Tian, who was only a step behind.
As Luo Tian took the girl, he saw Muddy Eel pull another scalpel—one no one had known about—from his pocket with his left hand and thrust it toward Lu Heng’s neck.
Luo Tian reached out to block the blade, but it was too late. He watched helplessly as a bright red stream of blood spurted from Lu Heng’s neck. Lu Heng collapsed slowly, his grip on Muddy Eel’s left hand weakening as Muddy Eel threw him off and quickly retreated into the car, slamming the door and speeding away.
“Proceed with the original plan. Block the suspect’s vehicle at the intersection,” Luo Tian commanded into his walkie-talkie. He handed the child to waiting paramedics and then led his team in pursuit of Muddy Eel.
He didn’t see what happened next.
Just a few meters behind him, Bai Cheng, who had been tightly held back by Lu Yaosong, broke free the moment she saw Lu Heng fall. She stumbled and crawled to Lu Heng’s side.
Lu Heng, a doctor to the core, instinctively pressed his hand against his carotid artery, but blood still flowed through his fingers like a small stream. Bai Cheng, in a panic, pressed her hands over his, trying to stop the bleeding with all her strength.
The paramedics arrived with a stretcher in no time. They lifted Lu Heng onto the stretcher, but Bai Cheng’s hands never left his. She ran alongside them toward the ICU.
As she ran, she kept saying, “Lu Heng, hold on.”
“Lu Heng, you’re going to be okay. You can’t die.”
“Lu Heng, what will I do if you die? What will your parents do?”
“Lu Heng, how will I live without you?”
Lu Heng lay on the stretcher, feeling his blood drain from his body, his temperature plummeting. He felt cold all over, even the blood flowing from his neck seemed cold. The only warmth he felt came from Bai Cheng’s hands pressing over his own. He wanted to reach out with his other hand to hold hers, but he found himself too weak. All he could do was slowly, feebly extend his pinky finger to hook hers.
Bai Cheng felt his movement and pressed down even harder on his carotid artery.
“Lu Heng, just hold on a little longer. The ICU is right in front of us. You’ll be fine.”
Lu Heng’s vision blurred, Bai Cheng’s face growing harder to see. He used the last of his strength to focus, wanting to see her face one more time.
Finally, he saw her tear-streaked face, smeared with blood and sorrow.
He used all his remaining energy to give her a small, faint smile. Then, the hand he had been using to press against his artery went limp and slipped out of Bai Cheng’s grasp.
Bai Cheng tried to catch his hand, but she couldn’t move her hands away from his artery. She could only press down harder, crying even more desperately.
Lu Heng’s eyes slowly closed. The paramedics carrying the stretcher came to a halt—just meters from the ICU.
As a doctor herself, Bai Cheng knew what had happened. She collapsed to the ground, sobbing uncontrollably, her hands still instinctively pressing on Lu Heng’s artery. She didn’t let go until everyone rushed forward, pulling her away from Lu Heng.
And then, she lost consciousness.
