Chapter 1342: Does This Count as Trading One Life for Another?

Staying in the living room with Yin Shixiu was none other than Xiao Anhe, the busy man who seemed to want to eat and sleep at Anhe Hospital 24 hours a day. Surprisingly, he had time today to accompany Yin Shixiu for tea, which Xiao Yan couldn’t quite comprehend.

Xiao Anhe saw Xiao Yan and Pu Yang return together and waved excitedly, “Come over quickly, let me introduce you. This is Yin Shixiu, an old friend I saved from the brink of death!”

“…” Yin Shixiu’s many identities weren’t mentioned; instead, he emphasized a “self-praising” identity.

Yin Shixiu stood up, nodding slightly to Xiao Yan and Pu Yang, “We’ve met before, not strangers.”

“Mr. Yin, hello.”

Pu Yang was the first to greet Yin Shixiu, deliberately maintaining a distance in his greeting.

Xiao Yan also responded with a slight nod.

“Dad, why did you come back so early today?”

Xiao Yan removed his coat and hung it on the coat rack beside him, directly asking Xiao Anhe.

“There are no patients at the hospital, and Shixiu happened to be passing nearby, suggesting we sit together for tea and chat. This busy man, even busier than me, whose time is more precious, invited me for tea; how could I refuse?”

Xiao Anhe joked,

“Little Yan, come sit. Shixiu is older than you. Whenever you have the chance, you can get together, have tea and chat. It’s all good.”

Xiao Yan came over and sat on a single-armchair beside them.

“Just like when you and Pu Yang took Xiao Ang, Xiao Meng, and that girl named Shuangshuang to the amusement park together, it was really nice.”

Xiao Yan nodded,

“If Mr. Yin is available, arranging an outing together for both families indeed sounds like a good idea, just unsure if Mr. Yin has the time.”

“Invited by Young Master Xiao, I certainly cannot refuse. Raising a child on your own to this age is truly admirable. When Xiao Meng first told me about it, I didn’t believe it.”

Yin Shixiu spoke, lifting his teacup and taking a sip, glancing at Xiao Yan.

“It’s nothing special; Mr. Yin is also a father. Once you have children, you must do what needs to be done. What you don’t know, you must learn.”

“The child came to find me.”

Yin Shixiu looked at Xiao Yan.

Xiao Yan couldn’t articulate the source of his agitation. If Yin Shixiu already knew Xiao Xiaoang was his son, he shouldn’t be as calm and collected as if he knew nothing.

Perhaps…

This person fundamentally differs from Su Xiaomeng, carrying an inherent sense of danger from the moment he appeared.

He dared to let Su Xiaomeng and Xiao Xiaoang dine and play together but panicked instantly upon learning that Xiao Ang and Yin Shixiu had genuine contact.

He had never interacted with Yin Shixiu but clearly remembered that not a word heard outside his grandfather’s study over five and a half years ago didn’t involve Yin Shixiu’s perceptiveness. Any slight carelessness could ruin his grandfather’s life achievements and that of the Great Master of the Yin Family.

He didn’t understand why his grandfather would collude with Yin Shiqing, nor why a lifelong healer with surgical skills would let his hands be stained with unclean blood in his twilight years.

A knife can kill or heal. From grandfather to father, even though their philosophies as doctors differed, their actions were the same.

Back then, Xiao Yan couldn’t comprehend…

He only knew the man from the Yin Family, named Yin Shiqing, was terrifying, possessing a demon-like heart, only knowing that Yin Shixiu was considered a thorn in his side, a sworn enemy.

He had often stopped himself from asking his grandfather why he colluded with Yin Shiqing to harm and plot murder. Yet, every time the words reached his lips, he couldn’t bring himself to utter them.

Because he wasn’t sure if his grandfather really complied with Yin Shiqing. What he overheard, the deepest content of his grandfather’s conversation with Yin Shiqing.

Since then, he paid close attention to the surgical situations in the hospital. He didn’t know how Yin Shiqing planned to act nor had he thought of preventing anything but hadn’t anticipated that day’s swift occurrence. Although stringent confidentiality was maintained at the hospital, a surgery brought together the most authoritative doctors, primarily from the obstetrics and gynecology department, with the director unusually cautious and solemn.

The lower-level doctors and nurses might not know who was brought into the hospital, but Xiao Yan had an inkling.

Xiao Yan was a person lacking in planning. He always thought of letting nature take its course and felt convinced things would sort themselves out.

When events unfolded, his thoughts inadvertently became thorough.

He donned surgical attire, infiltrated the operation room, masked, assisting the operating director during surgery, with an obstetrics doctor by his side.

At that time, Su Xiaomeng’s life signs were already in critical condition. The director made a decisive use of the not widely available medical technology at the time, temporarily stabilizing Su Xiaomeng’s heartbeat.

The task of delivering the child was the job of the obstetrician. The director had just stepped out of the operating room to say a few words to the family, when the obstetrician had already removed the child. The baby made no crying sound, but Xiao Yan saw clearly that the child was breathing. If resuscitated in time, the baby might survive.

But the doctor didn’t do that, instead putting the baby aside, as if treating a stillborn child.

Xiao Yan opened his mouth to speak, but the doctor directly said, “Bring the hemostat over, it’s crucial to save the adult, or else we’ll all be taking off these white coats!”

Xiao Yan understood, this was key.

No one knew that he secretly administered an injection to the child, who still showed faint breathing, but was treated as a stillborn. It was a solution Shen Huan learned about during an internship at a medical research institute in the United States, which could put someone into rapid freeze mode, intended to buy time for those on the brink of death who suffered fatal injuries and couldn’t be treated in time.

But the value of this solution was too high, and the process of development was too complex, making its market appearance impossible for at least the next ten years.

At most, it might be carried by the highest-ranking officers in the U.S. during war.

Thus, Shen Huan couldn’t possibly produce such a thing herself, but why did she have it…

“Fortune and misfortune are unpredictable; knowing its existence, I must find a way to get some!”

“… A person like you, when will you start respecting the law? This is theft! And theft from a research institute in the U.S.! It’s a crime against the country, do you understand?”

“I stole it for personal use; I’m not turning it over to the country. Although we often say we’re willing to sacrifice for scientific research, once you truly sacrifice, few remember your contributions! If you don’t plan for yourself, who will plan for you?”

Xiao Yan recalls Shen Huan showing off her “criminal behavior” like it was treasure right after returning from the U.S. He was shocked at heart, yet Shen Huan was quite smug.

“I’m part of a high-risk group dealing with biological viruses in the lab daily. If I ever get infected with something that has no treatment yet, I’ll use this to freeze myself, and you keep me well-preserved. Once a treatment is found, revive me, ha!”

After hearing Shen Huan’s words, Xiao Yan couldn’t help but pull her into his embrace.

Perhaps Shen Huan was the kind of person he envied the most; she was like a smart, free bird not swayed by anyone.

Her life never had boundaries, and the laws and rules binding ordinary civilians are what she uses to find loopholes for fun.

Xiao Yan thought, at least she was pure-hearted. If she had malicious intent, she wouldn’t be a high IQ technological talent but a high-IQ criminal.

She was right, fortune and misfortune are unpredictable; no one knows if disaster will strike the next second.

When Xiao Yan shared his troubles with Shen Huan, she handed him the solution without hesitation, “If you don’t need it, return it to me; hopefully, you’ll never need it.”

Xiao Yan froze.

“Even if my grandfather indeed teamed up with someone to hurt others, those people have nothing to do with you, and we don’t know if the other side is good or bad. Wouldn’t it be a pity if you really use it…”

“I don’t think the old director is a bad person, but the Yin someone you mentioned seems truly bad; if such a bad person wants to harm others, the other party must be a good person. Using it on a good person wouldn’t be a pity.”

“…”

“But I feel like it’s unlikely you’ll use it. If you do, consider it as me, your prospective granddaughter-in-law, accumulating merit for your prospective grandfather!”

She said playfully with a smile, hands in the pockets of her lab coat, speaking with an air of ease and spontaneity.

“Hopefully, I won’t need it.”

Xiao Yan accepted the vial of solution.

There’s much in the field of biopharmaceuticals that ordinary people are unaware of, and it’s not just ordinary people; even surgeons in hospitals may not understand.

Things that seem miraculous and beyond human understanding in American sci-fi films aren’t entirely the wild imaginations of authors and screenwriters; some are indeed being researched and developed where we don’t know.

For instance, this solution that can put people into rapid freeze mode.

Xiao Yan quickly wrapped the child, and under the chief surgeon’s orders, he took the baby out to show Yin Shixiu, falsely reporting the gender as he remembered there was a premature mother in the hospital just last night, whose newborn girl didn’t survive an hour.

The stillborn was sent to the morgue.

And the child in his hand at that time was also to be sent to the morgue. Xiao Yan placed the child in the incubator and left the hospital swiftly.

No one expected that afterward, fate was capricious, and Shen Huan indeed fell victim to something… truly incurable.

On her deathbed, she asked, “Does this… count as a kind of… life exchange?”