The patient's mother had been asking the same question over and over for the past few minutes. But it
was understandable given what had happened. The young lady held her shivering mother in her arms.
She felt helpless and pathetic seeing her mother like this.
The doctor that approached them this time looked more experienced than the one before. Why were
there two doctors taking care of the patient? Did the situation get worse?
Rachel didn't have time to pay attention to the patient until she was finished with her other patients.
She swung by the ICU to check on the patient before she got off duty. They told her that the patient
was in a stable condition now.
Rachel took a look at the medical record and prescription prepared by Kevin. When she spotted
something, she furrowed her eyebrows.
As soon as Rachel left the ward, the young lady from earlier had bought some food from outside.
When she saw Rachel, she was a little surprised. "Hello, doctor," said the sweet young lady. She tried
to put on a brave smile for Rachel.
Rachel put her hands in her pockets and nodded at her. She looked at the bags that girl was carrying.
"Did you go to buy dinner?"
The young lady nodded at Rachel and smiled sheepishly. "Have you eaten yet, doctor?"
"Not yet, I'm about to get off work," said Rachel. "I just checked on your sister, she's going to be fine."
Rachel saw how the young lady's mood changed. She even wept tears of joy. "Thank you so much,
doctor!" she said as she wiped away her tears.
"You're welcome. Actually, I'm not her attending doctor."
The woman was confused and asked,
"Then who's my sister's attending doctor?"
"Your sister's attending doctor is Kevin Lin.
You should've met him before," answered Rachel.
"Oh, so he's the one in charge of my sister."
After saying goodbye to the woman, Rachel went back to her office. She decided to go to Kevin when
she had time.
She had some problem with some prescribed medicine for the patient, and needed to discuss it with
him.
He was the one in charge of the patient after all, not her.
The weather had been getting warmer lately as it was almost summer.
The twilight scenery of the Seaside Bridge was especially beautiful. From the bridge you could see a
perfect view of the horizon where the sky and sea met in perfect harmony. The sunset dyed the
heavens with a tinge of red and orange. It was a scenery that you would only see in oil paintings.
The scenery could have been perfect, if only there was no traffic jam, and it looked like it won't ease up
anytime soon.
Summer had almost arrived. A cool breeze blew from the sea, and carried with it a faint salty smell that
was oddly refreshing.
Jack rolled down his windows and saw a flock of birds gliding above the cars. He heard a woman's
voice coming from the car next to his. "It's so beautiful!"
The roof of the car beside Jack's car slowly opened. There was a woman wearing a short top adorned
by flowers. Her belly button was exposed. She raised her left hand and kept cheering. Her hair danced
freely with the wind.
"Quick! Give me my camera, I want to take a picture of this!" she said to her companions.
Jack looked away. He had no interest in women like her, especially those with hairs dyed with crazy
colors.
Jack had been stuck in traffic for half an hour already. He didn't know how much longer it would take
until this traffic jam was over. He looked at the time and it was almost time for Rachel to get off work.
Jack decided to send her a message, in case he wouldn't be able to make it in time to pick her up.
But before he could've sent her a message, his phone rang. Rachel was calling him.
"Where are you now?" she asked.
"I'm on the Seaside Bridge."
Rachel was a little surprised. "That's still pretty far from here. What happened?"
"I'm stuck in traffic. But the view here is majestic!" Jack glanced and the clouds and thought that Rachel
might appreciate it. "Do you want to see it?"
Rachel was a little curious about the "majestic view" that made Jack so calm in a situation that usually
pisses him off. "Sure, let's see it," she said as she was fiddling with her pen to distract her from the
slow passing of time.
It seemed as though Jack wouldn't be able to make it in time. It would take him a little less than hour to
get to the hospital from the Seaside Bridge.
"Hang on," Jack snickered He hung up and began taking pictures.
He tried his best to capture the scenic view where birds could be seen gliding across the horizon. Their
silhouettes painted the now orange sky, and the sun had almost set. Jack smiled at the beautiful
scenery before him. "Rachel is going to love this," he muttered.
After a while, a message popped up, and a picture appeared on Rachel's phone.
She clicked on the photo and saw what Jack had sent her.
Her eyes widened. She saw the rosy clouds that littered across the orange sky. There were birds roving
towards the setting sun. And the sea...it was nothing short of majestic.
Jack sent her another message. It read, "So, what do you think? I told you it was majestic."
Jack acted like he was showing off a precious gem that he found inside a cave. Rachel could almost
imagine his animated expression, and it did not suit him well.
She couldn't hold back herself from bursting into laughter when she read his message.
After what felt like an eternity of laughing her arms off, she sent him a reply. A simple "Yes."
Jack's enthusiasm died down when he read her reply. It was much too plain than he expected. Did she
not like the photo?
He waited for a few more minutes, expecting another message from Rachel, but she didn't reply
anymore.
Perhaps Rachel didn't like the view as much as he thought she would.
Jack turned his attention to the girl with the colorful hair, and saw how much she enjoyed the view
before them. He sighed and wished Rachel could be a little more appreciative.
Since Jack wouldn't be able to arrive until a little bit later, Rachel took Mendes to have dinner first.
When they came back from dinner, something had happened.
It was related to the patient that had been sent to the emergency department earlier today.
Rachel felt a pit in her stomach when she heard what they said. They were arguing outside of the ICU.
Rachel didn't know the reason, but she felt a little nervous when she heard that they were having a
conflict amongst themselves. She didn't know why she suddenly thought of the dead Wendy. She
asked someone to look after Mendes and hurried to the ICU.
When she got close, she saw the lounge door. It was surrounded by a crowd of onlookers.
The security guards were trying to evacuate the crowd. Some families and patients came to see what
was happening.
Some of them even sat on wheelchairs and peered inside, wondering what had happened.
The security guards couldn't control the crowd anymore. There were far too many people to shoo away.
If they shooed them away one by one, they would just put themselves at risk of arguing with the crowd.
Seeing all these people annoyed Rachel. Where did they all come from, and why were they all
gathered in front of the ICU?
As she strode forward, the administrators of the hospital arrived and began to disperse the crowd.
Rachel waited until the crowd had been fully dispersed before she approached the ICU.
As administrators of the hospital, they were afraid of anyone causing trouble in the hospital.
Rachel wasn't sure what had happened, but she felt relieved when she found out that it was just an
argument about their personal relationship rather than a medical dispute.
One of the administrators saw her and raised his hand to call her attention. "Hi Rachel! You should go
inside to check what's going on first.
I'll handle this," he said.
Rachel nodded and elbowed her way through the crowd.
There were only four of them inside.
The patient's mother and daughter, and a woman and a man who seemed to be a couple.
The man seemed as though he was normally calm and gentle, but the buttons on his shirt had been
torn apart. It looked like he just had a fight a while ago.
Rachel also noticed the scratches on his face and arms. Some of his wounds were still bleeding.
She also looked at the woman who seemed to be the man's wife. Rachel noticed that her hair was a
mess. Her face was also red, presumably caused by a slap.
She was like a female leopard that had just left the battle field, her eyes filled with aggressiveness.
She had such a ferocious look on her face as she stared at the mother and daughter sitting across the
room.
Rachel wondered the woman must really hate the mother and daughter.
The mother was so frightened by the woman that she was shivering in fear.
Her daughter was comforting her by stroking her hair. It looked like a fight had just happened here.
Rachel wanted to find out what was going on, so she approached the mother and daughter.
"What happened here?" she asked them.
Sheila Lin, the daughter, was comforting her frightened mother, she heard Rachel's voice and looked
up. When she saw it was the female doctor, she felt embarrassed.
She glanced at the man, and her expression was full of embarrassment.
"A little conflict..." she said in a soft but bitter voice.
When Rachel came in, she closed the door behind her. No matter how soft they all spoke, they would
be able to hear each other clearly.
Sheila wasn't even done talking when the woman sitting across the room jumped up. If the man next to
her had not stopped her almost immediately, she would've tried to scratch Sheila's face.
Rachel was in disbelief of what she had just witnessed. She had never seen such a hysterical scene in
reality before. This kind of thing only happens in soap operas.
The wild woman groaned like a beast and pointed at Sheila.
Sheila was so scared that she was inching closer to the wall while embracing her mother. On the other
hand, guilt and shame were written all over the man's face as he tried to comfort the woman.
Rachel didn't know how to handle this kind of situation. Should she try to help them make amends or
separate them? If she chose poorly, things are bound to get worse. She couldn't figure out what kind of
misunderstanding or conflict they could have had to drive a woman so mad that she had almost turned
into a wild animal.
The crazy woman suddenly spoke and gave Rachel a vague idea of the situation.
The woman struggled and broke free from the man's grip. She pointed at his nose and cursed, "Jason
Shi, you son of a bitch!" She swung her arm at Jason but he was able to grab ahold of her wrist. "How
dare you! Your son is fighting for his life right now, and you have the fucking audacity to send money to
your first love?" The woman threw her hand to release it from Jason's grip. "How could you?" she
screamed. She started crying hysterically. She was wailing like a banshee. Her cries resounded across
the room, and Rachel felt the tension rise. "It's like you want him to die, you callous bastard!" Jason
tried to embrace her, but the woman pushed him away and cried in the corner.
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