Cheng Su didn’t know whether she had seen it wrong, but she noticed a small bruise at the bend of Chen Shouwang’s arm. It looked like the kind formed after a blood draw. Had there been blood drawn in the military?
Cheng Su was about to ask Hualing, who was a nurse and should be most familiar with whether it was from a blood draw or not.
Just as she was about to ask, Qi Taiguo came back leading the military doctor and said, "The doctor is here, everyone out, let him see what’s going on."
Cheng Su then pulled Qi Taiguo out into the hall and asked, "Has there been any blood drawing in your unit lately?"
"Blood drawing?" Qi Taiguo was dumbfounded.
Seeing his expression, Cheng Su was somewhat puzzled. That was clearly an expression of surprise, right?
Cheng Su tugged at him again and whispered, "I saw a bruise on Platoon Leader Chen’s arm. If I am not mistaken, that should be from a blood draw. Do you think it’s possible that Platoon Leader Chen fainted due to anemia?"
Qi Taiguo was shocked by her reasoning, pushed her aside, and wanted to take a look. In the room, the voice of the military doctor was heard.
"... Shock from excessive blood loss. Go get some sugar dissolved in water for him to drink, and let him eat something to replenish his blood."
Excessive blood loss? Shock?
Qi Taiguo and Cheng Su exchanged looks, both seeing surprise in each other’s eyes. Cheng Su said, "So it was really anemia?"
No, anemia should not be like this. Such a big man, how could he be reduced to this by anemia? Moreover, the military doctor had said, it was excessive blood loss?
Without a wound, not bleeding from the head, where could there be excessive blood loss, and it’s not like women who have those few days each month!
"Maybe there really was a blood draw," Cheng Su said. "To faint from shock, that must have been a lot of blood, right?"
Qi Taiguo pursed his lips, a bad premonition flickering through his mind.
"How could there be excessive blood loss? Could you have diagnosed wrongly? He had no tears, no open wounds; where could the blood loss have come from?" Hualing asked shrilly, clearly skeptical of the military doctor’s diagnosis.
Then Military Doctor Xie said, "Whether it is shock from blood loss or not, you are a nurse yourself, you should know. Look here, what is this if not a needle mark? This bruise is obviously caused by post-blood drawing, you should be the clearest about this."
Cheng Su and Qi Taiguo both looked over to where the military doctor was pointing at Chen Shouwang’s arm.
It really was a needle mark, she had not seen it wrong, Cheng Su thought. How much blood had actually been taken?
"Hey, what do you say... Is something wrong?" Cheng Su was about to ask Qi Taiguo, but she saw that his face looked extremely unpleasant and couldn’t help but be puzzled.
Qi Taiguo glanced at her and said, "We’ll talk when we get back."
"What is this blood drawing for? He was fine, why draw blood for no reason?" Hualing also noticed the needle mark and bruise and couldn’t help but be puzzled as well.
"The sugar water is ready!" Guiying came in with a bowl of sugar water.
Everyone made way again, letting Hualing feed him. A bowl of sugar water was half spilled, half swallowed, but in a short while, Chen Shouwang’s eyelids began to twitch.
"He’s waking up, he’s waking up," Chunhua was the first to exclaim.
"Old Chen, Chen Shouwang, wake up," Hualing gently patted Chen Shouwang’s cheek.
Chen Shouwang’s eyelids slowly opened, with a moment of confusion. As he turned his head, he saw the silhouettes of people around him, and was a bit slow to respond
"What happened to me?" He seemed to have been about to get some water to drink; how had he ended up in bed?
"What happened, I should be asking you that. What’s wrong with your health? Why did you have blood drawn, and even go into shock?" Hualing shouted, "Chen Shouwang, what exactly are you hiding from me?"