Chapter 77 - 65: Fragile Life

As Shen Shikun fell to the floor, a commotion erupted throughout the office. Everyone craned their necks and started gathering around Chen Jue’s workstation.

"Quick!"

"Hurry, call an ambulance!"

As the team leader, Li Mo was slightly older and clearly had experience with such situations. The moment he saw Shen Shikun was in trouble, he rushed over.

He and Chen Jue first rolled the over-200-jin Fatty Bai onto his back. He patted Shen Shikun’s face and, seeing no reaction, felt for a pulse in his neck and leaned down to listen for breathing.

"He’s not breathing and has no heartbeat! It’s a heart attack!" Li Mo announced after a quick check, his face instantly turning pale with tension.

"A heart attack?" Chen Jue’s expression changed as well upon hearing this.

It was known as the number one killer among office workers, often claiming a life within minutes of an attack.

Chen Jue had heard about a worker at Huaye Park who had died suddenly from a heart attack before. The news had caused a huge stir in the WeChat groups at the time.

’I can’t believe I’m running into an emergency like this in just my second week at Hengtong Group!’

"I’ll start CPR on him. The rest of you, call an ambulance now!"

With a life on the line, Li Mo couldn’t be bothered with formalities. He had Chen Jue rip open Shen Shikun’s shirt and loosen his belt, then placed his interlocked hands on the man’s chest and began forceful compressions.

The colleagues watching were either calling for an ambulance or asking the front desk for the first-aid kit.

By the time the young woman from the front desk rushed upstairs with a security guard, carrying the first-aid kit, Li Mo was already drenched in sweat. Yet, there was still no sign of breathing or a heartbeat from Shen Shikun.

"Let me take over!"

Chen Jue had been watching anxiously from the side and offered to take over so Li Mo could rest.

After observing for the past few minutes, he had already grasped the CPR compression technique. Besides, his hands had been specially trained; both his Strength and endurance were far superior to that of an ordinary person like Li Mo.

"Okay... you take over compressions... I’ll monitor his pulse and breathing..." Li Mo said, panting heavily as he let Chen Jue take his place.

As for the first-aid kit, it contained nothing but standard gauze, bandages, anti-inflammatory cream, and burn ointment. There wasn’t a single thing inside that could help with a heart attack.

"There’s no AED?" Li Mo asked, his eyes filling with helplessness and despair as he rummaged through the kit.

An AED, or Automated External Defibrillator, is a portable, user-friendly medical device designed specifically to deliver an electric shock to defibrillate the heart of a patient in cardiac arrest.

This device can be crucial in preventing sudden death during the "golden four minutes"—the optimal window for rescue.

They are standard equipment in many large public places like train stations and airports.

’I can’t believe a huge company like Hengtong doesn’t even have an AED!’

Evidently, the logistics department had never considered such an emergency and hadn’t budgeted for one in advance.

After taking over, Chen Jue pressed relentlessly on Shen Shikun’s chest. His mind went blank, his thoughts ground to a halt, focused on the singular goal of restarting Shen Shikun’s heart and breathing.

About seven or eight minutes later, an ambulance from the nearest hospital arrived at Hengtong Mansion. Several medical personnel in white coats took the elevator and rushed up to the 17th floor.

The young doctor in charge had a nurse take over CPR from Chen Jue, then took out a portable defibrillator and began to administer shocks right there.

But upon seeing that Shen Shikun’s pupils had already started to dilate, the young, masked doctor shook his head and sighed. "The patient probably isn’t going to make it. Your company should notify his family right away."

He then had the security guards who were maintaining order help lift the man onto a gurney, and they rushed Shen Shikun to the hospital.

’Not going to make it?’

The words made Chen Jue’s mind buzz. Feeling utterly drained, he got up from the floor and collapsed into the chair at his workstation. He looked up and watched as an anxious-looking Li Mo followed the swarm of medical personnel out of the office.

He had only been doing chest compressions for a short time after taking over from Li Mo, just seven or eight minutes. For someone like Chen Jue, who had trained his hands, it wasn’t physically difficult.

But in those brief seven or eight minutes, Chen Jue felt as if time had frozen, every second dragging on for an eternity.

It was an awful feeling, like a novice learning to swim, flailing in the water, choking and suffocating.

He was utterly helpless, able to do nothing but numbly repeat the compressions, forced to watch as a vibrant life slipped away right before his eyes.

...

The ambulance left with Shen Shikun and team leader Li Mo. After some placating words from Director Luo of the Risk Control department, who had hurried to the scene, the chaotic 17th-floor office area returned to its usual quiet.

However, the hushed whispers between cubicles and the "99+" notifications lighting up various WeChat groups proved the incident was far from over.

Chen Jue recovered slightly. After sitting at his desk and drinking some water, his emotions were still a tangled mess. With his mind in turmoil, he kept pulling out his phone, constantly refreshing the Group Five chat log.

But aside from an early message from Li Mo saying, "We’re at the hospital, they’ve taken him to the emergency room," the chat was filled with nothing but a long string of praying emojis from their colleagues.

It was like a stone dropped into a pond, followed by nothing but silence.

The atmosphere in Group Five’s section of the office was similarly frozen. Aside from the sounds of breathing, coughing, and people getting up to use the restroom, there was complete silence.

It wasn’t until after lunchtime that the team leader, Li Mo, finally sent a message in the group: "Everyone, Shikun is gone. His family is at the hospital now, making arrangements."

Seeing this message, all the colleagues in Risk Control Group Five fell silent.

A few who were particularly close to Shen Shikun broke down crying at their desks.

Colleagues from other teams who heard the news came over to offer sighs of sympathy and comfort their friends.

As for Chen Jue, after confirming that his neighboring coworker, Fatty Bai, had indeed died from a sudden heart attack, he felt as if his very soul had been sucked out of him. He slumped listlessly in his chair.

On the computer screen in front of him, rows of text detailed information about "acute myocardial infarction," "sudden death," "CPR," and "the golden hour for rescue."

’Gone... just like that?’

Chen Jue pressed his throbbing temples.

He had only known Shen Shikun for a week, but given the man’s easygoing and humorous personality, plus their shared passion for slacking off at work, he had already mentally filed Fatty Bai away as a potential friend.

’I just never imagined life could be so cruel.’

Just last Friday, they had been celebrating Chen Jue’s official onboarding. Now, after a single weekend, the man was gone.

Most importantly, Chen Jue had witnessed the man’s sudden death from beginning to end.

Witnessing a life extinguish before his very eyes had dealt Chen Jue an immense spiritual blow.

His chest felt tight and heavy, and the discomfort was so great he couldn’t speak a word.

He stood up from his desk and slowly walked over to the cold, floor-to-ceiling window. Gazing at the setting sun in the distance and hearing the hushed discussions from the risk control area behind him, Chen Jue took a deep breath.

He reached into the inner pocket of his suit jacket. His fingers, feeling weak and unsteady, pulled out a crumpled blue pack of cigarettes with only two left.

He pulled one out and put it between his lips. CLICK. The lighter flickered to life, and the long-absent scent of tobacco smoke filled his nostrils.

He hoped the nicotine would numb him.

But as he stood by the glass curtain wall, exhaling clouds of smoke and watching the sun slowly descend, Chen Jue felt his eyes begin to moisten from the sting of the fading sunlight. "People..." he muttered, "are so damn fragile sometimes."

But then, unexpectedly, the Attribute panel in his vision chose this inopportune moment to display a notification:

——————

[Ding~]

[You have experienced a major emotional upheaval. Your amygdala, hypothalamus, and hippocampus have undergone complex stimulation. Willpower has increased.]

[Spirit Attribute +0.01]