Outskirts of G province: 22nd of September, 2012.
The heavy downpour met a labouring young woman in an abandoned, old mansion at the outskirts of G province. Due to the general poor condition of the building, she wasn't spared by the torrential pellets of water and the harsh wind that attacked her as she tried to struggle to her feet from the knelt position she was currently in.
Her phone, which had been thrown out of reach, buzzed once again and she struggled to reach it. She knew she had to pick it up and connect with whoever was trying to reach her if she wanted to survive the night, but the acute pain in her lower abdomen seemed to be in disagreement.
With the little shred of self-preservation remaining in her, she resumed her hold of the nearby pillar for support and focused on delivering herself of the baby that seemed to be impatient on getting out. The damp and dirty ground, deserted and freezing ambience was not a conducive environment to deliver a baby, much less with no one close by to help, but she knew she had to try. She wasn't left with any other choice as it was.
After several agonised cries and pushes, at the exact moment a frightening clap of thunder resounded throughout the entire city, a baby slipped into the world.
The young woman sighed in relief and exhaustion, then she took a moment to catch her breath before reaching to pick up the baby from the dirt but it seemed fate wasn't done with her yet as a sharp pain made her double over. Apparently, another baby was on its way.
She let out a painful, frustrated cry that echoed throughout what was left of the dilapidated building and took several deep breaths before struggling once more to resume the hold of her only support. Then the young woman began another journey through the path of brain-numbing pain to deliver her other baby.
Fortunately, the torrents had reduced to a drizzle by the time the other baby decided to take mercy on her.
Zhen Wuxia was quick to recover from fatigue this time as she knew it wasn't advisable to leave her crying babies on the wet ground. However, there was only little she could do before exhaustion took over. She was in the middle of cleaning the dirt and blood off one of her babies when she suddenly fell unconscious, dropping the baby as a result.
From the corner of her eyes, before total darkness took over, she saw the screen of her phone light up once again and her fingers twitched to reach it, but it was just a futile attempt...
She was too weak to move.
***
Regardless of the chilly air he was averse to, Li Jie rummaged through the abandoned house in a frenzy, the sense of dread gradually crawling up his mind with every passing second. Tracking down the Xiaoxiao's phone to this location had been tasking enough, he didn't appreciate the additional torment of having to find her in the deathly silent building he was currently in.
He dreaded that he would be too late, like he'd been too late all those years ago;
Like he'd been too late to save his Qiao Qiao.
He shoved the ridiculous thoughts to the back of his mind and focused on the immediate problem.
As if on cue, one of the numerous paramedics in which he'd arrived with called his attention to something. He rushed over to the location in which the voice had come from immediately, hoping to all that was pure that everything was alright with whoever it was that the caller had found.
A disturbing sight greeted Li Jie's eyes on getting there. Apparently, not one, but three people had been discovered. Two were still linked via their umbilical cords to their placenta and the third was their mother, his Wuxia; they were all lying in blood and the dirty water that'd probably pooled from the rain, looking tattered and battered. But all these suddenly didn't matter to him anymore when he realised something very important;
All three of them were unmoving, perfectly still. Stiff even. It looked as if life had slipped out of their grasps a long time ago.
He stiffened.
When he realised that nobody was doing anything about the situation as well, he suddenly sprung into action and bent low to gather the unconscious woman into his arms, yelling at the paramedics authoritatively, while at it, to snap them all out of their dazes. Before long, the ambulance was being occupied with Zhen Wuxia and her babies and on its way to one of the city's finest hospitals.
*
If the manner at which Li Jie kept raking his hands through his hair, pacing and fidgeting in front of the entrance of the intensive care unit was anything to go by, then it was safe to say that his current wait was the longest and most frustrating one of his life. He kept hoping and praying that all was well, at the same time cursing himself for letting her out of his sight earlier that day.
As he restlessly perched his butt on the metal bench in the near empty hallway with his hands entwined into his hair, he couldn't help but regret his earlier words;
They had engaged in a heated argument in which she wanted to stay in the country while Li Jie thought that laying low until everything was settled would be better for her. Keeping his big mouth shut during an argument wasn't exactly his forte so he'd mistakenly blurted that she deserved what she got and she had stormed off afterwards, leading to the result was currently lying in the room at the other side of the door. Probably in a critical condition.
Probably dead.
He muttered even more curses under his breath and stood up to resume his pacing. He needed a distraction from all the thoughts that were beginning to drive him insane. The sudden appearance of the doctor through the open doors of the ICU was a welcomed one.
The fleshy, middle aged man, still dressed in surgical gear, started walking over to where he stood but Li Jie met him halfway.
"How is she doctor Si? Please tell me she's going to be fine," Li Jie enquired long before he made it to a close range with the doctor.
The man, Si Cheng was a well known surgeon and a good friend to the Li family so he wasn't formal with Li Jie when he spoke;
"Do you know this lady Jiejie? Where did you find her?" Doctor Si was very curious so he had to ask, much to the discomfort of the young man his question was directed at.
"I'll tell you later Doctor Si, for now I really need to know if she's fine or not. How is she?" Li Jie didn't try to keep the agitation he felt out of this voice this time and that increased Si Cheng's curiosity without his knowledge.
Doctor Si regarded him with silence and a raised brow for a few moments before finally speaking up;
"The girl is lucky son. It was a miracle how she was able to survive and be stable considering the condition in which she was brought in. We'll be transferring her to a new ward very soon and it's possible that she will regain consciousness in a few hours…"
Relief washed over Li Jie and he crushed the doctor into a bone crushing hug to portray how 'high over the moon' he was at that moment.
Xiaoxiao was safe. He could breath now. He wasn't too late this time around, he was grateful for that.
"Thank you so much Doctor Si, thank you!" He raved happily in reply after he released the poor man from his vice like grip.
"There's something I think you should know son." Doctor Si interrupted the rest of what he was about to say, the conflicted expression on his face announced that there was a lot about the story that hadn't been told yet;
And from the looks of it, it wasn't exactly an exciting one.
"Due to the poor conditions in which the babies were born, we lost a baby girl of the twin"
That was it. The bombshell. The twist to the tale of happiness.
"Our theory was that the baby was dropped," Doctor Si continued, "and due to the fragility of her body, her brain was damaged when her head hit something hard. The baby didn't make it to the hospital. She died on the way. I'm sorry"
Li Jie's heart sank further at the analysis the doctor took his sweet time sharing but he shook his head to acknowledge doctor Si when the man finally informed him to take heart.