It's been an hour and a half since Chen Mu had last step foot into Susu's room. Currently, everyone was dead quiet while looking after Susu. Whenever the machines beeped, they would stand up and focus on her to make sure she was alright. There were many false alarms that occurred, but never once did anyone take it lightly.
Beep Beep
Once again, the machine released the weird chiming sound that scared the crap out of everyone in the room. As their eyes followed the pattern of her heart rate to her unconscious body, they noticed a slight movement from her fingers. Zi Yan was the first to detect this movement since she was holding onto her hand.
"Susu? Susu?" She called and leaned forward with a hopeful smile. Chen Nan heard the anticipation in her voice and made everyone spread out to give Susu space. When he saw her eyes rolling behind her eyelids and her eyelashes fluttering slowly, he shouted, "call them and tell them to come. She's waking up!"
Quickly, Lily and Ariana dialed their phones to reach the guys who were finishing up with the lab. Chen Nan started chanting Susu's name and took out his medical pen flashlight to give her some basic body checks. When her eyelids lifted up, it took her multiple blinks to adapt to the room lightings. Everyone could finally breathe and settle the heavy weights on their chest.
At the same time, Chen Mu raced out of the lab and rushed to see Susu when he heard from Ariana that she was awake. Lin Que decided to stay in the lab to wait for the drug results. Normally, the results don't take that long, but this drug was more complicated than they thought. The drug consists of many substances that shouldn't be combined together, and many of these mixtures would cause serious threats to a patient's life.
In order to ensure the accuracy of the drug results, they've spent the past hours conducting different experiments with what they have access to. When Ariana called his phone, Chen Mu had finished reviewing the results of a few identification reports that did not look optimistic. The moment he heard that Susu was awake, he felt so relieved that his eyes turned instantly red.
He kept pulling and pushing the door to get out of the lab. Lin Que sighed and reminded him, "Chen Mu, password."
"Oh.. right! P..password!" Since this was one of the specialized labs that not many people could gain access to, the doors required passwords to enter and exit the lab. Chen Mu wiped away his tears as he felt his lively heart beating again. The stabbing pain in his chest slowly faded as his legs brought him closer to Susu.
He entered the room and met his girl's gaze. Finally, he felt that his world was filled with light again. He smiled and joined Chen Nan in performing body examinations on her. Everyone else had to leave the room as they checked her condition.
After going through some basics, Chen Mu closed his eyes and placed his forehead onto hers, "thank goodness you're awake. Thank goodness, you're alright now. I was so scared to lose you for these few hours. I love you so much."
Although she felt like she only took a short nap, she knew that she had a ventilator to keep her breathing steady. She observed his worried expression and the small traces of tears on his eyelashes.
Chen Nan patted Chen Mu's back, "let's get her off the ventilator. She's steady now, and we should check to make sure she is alright with other follow up exams."
Chen Mu nodded and kissed her forehead, "everything will be okay. I promise."
She nodded and obediently laid in bed while the guys did what they needed to do for her. They carefully removed the ventilator and made sure she could breathe regularly on her own before putting it away.
"Susu, are you doing alright without the ventilator?" Chen Mu asked to triple check even though it was obvious that she was doing fine without the machine. She nodded.
"Is there anywhere that feels bad? Pain? Numb?" he asked.
Her left hand pointed to her throat and then the water filled pitcher. "You want water?" Chen Mu grabbed a clean cup and rinsed it before pouring her a warm cup of water. Chen Nan adjusted her bed to make it more comfortable for her to drink water without choking.
As she chugged down the water, Chen Mu brought the pitcher over to refill the cup for her. Her throat was very dry, and she felt like she hadn't had any fluids or food for days. Finally, she stopped holding out the empty cup for water after the finishing her fifth round. She coughed a little while Chen Mu soothed her back for her.
Chen Nan waited for her to take a few deep breaths before asking, "other than feeling thirsty, are there any other discomforts?"
"My right arm...is numb. I can't move it." Her voice was lower than usual and sounded fragile as if one winter breeze could cut her voice off.
"Here, let me see." Chen Mu took her pulse and pressed on different acupuncture points to see if there were any blood flow irregularities going on in her body. He asked her to try lifting her arm and moving her fingers, but her body wasn't responding to her commands.
He took out a push pin and said, "sweetie, I want you to look at Chen Nan and tell me what you feel when I ask you okay? Either tell me, flat or sharp. Can you do that for me? It'll feel something like this." He reached for her left had and poked her skin slightly using the pin in his hand.
Immediately, he noticed that the nerves on her left hand were fine compared to her right arm. "Okay." She said as she looked towards the other side of the room where Chen Nan waved his fingers in the air at her.
Chen Mu took a deep breath and placed the flat size of the pin against her hand, "what do you feel now?"
"Nothing." She said.
He tightened his grip and gently poked her using the sharp tip, "now?"
"Nothing.." she started getting worried as her voice stuttered.
He repeated this test a few times on different areas of her arm to make sure it wasn't a mistake. After he had finished, she turned her head to look at him, "what's wrong with my right arm?" she nervously bit on her lower lip as she reached for his sleeves using her left hand. He said, "It's alright. We'll do more tests on you. Maybe you just woke up, and you'll get your senses back soon. Okay? Baby, it's alright."
He hugged her close and rubbed her head while whispering comfort words that wouldn't even be convincing to him if someone said it. A part of him was burning inside when he thought of the possibility of her arm staying numb like this. She grew tired of physical exams and her energy drained within half an hour of staying awake.
Soon, she closed her eyes to rest, and they exited the room to discuss about her condition. Everyone surrounded her when they stepped out. Chen Mu sighed, "that unknown drug that Lin Que and I are trying to figure out may have damaged her nerves when she had the allergy reaction earlier. If that's the case, there is a chance that her arm may never function the way it did before. I'm going to head back to the lab and identify the damn drug to see what I could do."
It took a while for everyone to process his words, but at least for now, she is considered in a stable condition. Chen Mu took a few steps forward to head towards the lab when the doors swung opened and Lin Que rushed out anxiously. "Chen Mu, I need you in the lab now. It's worse than we assumed."