Chapter 177 Emergency
Outside the early childhood education center, a number of parents had already gathered to pick up their children.
Lin Fan didn't get out of the car to squeeze into the crowd; he simply rolled down the window and quietly looked at the stained-glass door.
A few minutes later, the glass door was pushed open, and a group of little ones dressed in matching cute school uniforms came out chattering, led by their parents.
Some children held the crafts they made that day in their hands, while others snuggled into their mothers' arms, begging for snacks.
Parents, holding their children's hands, chatted and laughed as they walked towards their cars.
However, five minutes passed.
Ten minutes have passed.
The crowd outside the early childhood education center gradually dispersed, and the once bustling street became empty again.
Only a few children remained, standing anxiously with their teachers inside the door, looking out.
Lin Fan frowned slightly.
Normally, Tuantuan would have rushed out by now. Why is she so slow today?
Was she kept behind by the teacher to play games, or was the little girl dawdling over packing up her paintbrushes again?
Lin Fan pushed open the car door, ready to go in and take a look for himself.
The moment his hand touched the handle of the glass door of the early childhood education center.
My phone suddenly started vibrating violently in my pocket.
Lin Fan took out his phone, and the screen displayed the number of Teacher Zhang, who was in charge of the class.
He pressed the answer button, but before he could even speak, he heard Teacher Zhang's voice, clearly choked with sobs and filled with extreme panic, coming through the receiver:
"Tuantuan's dad! Have you arrived yet? Come in quickly! Hurry up!"
Lin Fan's heart skipped a beat at that moment.
An extremely ominous premonition, like a cold snake, instantly crept up his spine.
"I'm here, what's wrong?" Lin Fan's voice remained calm, but his pace quickened instantly as he pushed open the door.
"Tuan Tuan... Tuan Tuan isn't going to wake up!"
Teacher Zhang couldn't hold back any longer on the other end of the phone; her voice was trembling.
"After her afternoon nap, she slept very soundly. I thought she was just sleepy like the previous two days, so I didn't force her to wake up."
"But after school just now, all the other kids had left, and no matter how I called her or shook her, she didn't respond at all! Tuantuan's dad, please come quickly, the child's complexion is off!"
"beep."
Lin Fan hung up the phone immediately.
He took very long strides, crossing the front yard in just a few steps and rushing straight into the afternoon rest room.
In the lunch break room, several teachers were gathered around a small blue bed, all looking anxious and at a loss.
Excuse me.
Lin Fan pushed through the crowd and went straight to the bedside.
Tuan Tuan lay quietly on the small bed.
She was still covered with that familiar thin blanket, her hands tightly gripping the corner of the blanket.
Her breathing was very steady, her chest rising and falling rhythmically, as if she were in a very deep and sweet dream.
However, when Lin Fan's gaze fell on her face, his pupils suddenly contracted.
Too white.
That kind of white wasn't the delicate white of a child's skin, but a bloodless, almost transparent paleness.
Even her usually rosy lips had lost their color.
"round and round."
Lin Fan squatted down and gently patted his daughter's cheek.
It felt slightly cool to the touch, but there was no fever.
But no matter how he patted her, or even squeezed her palm with slightly more force, the little girl didn't react at all; not even her eyelashes trembled.
They have completely lost their stress response to external stimuli.
"We've already called 120, the ambulance will be here soon..."
The kindergarten director, standing nearby, was sweating profusely, fearing that something might happen to the child in the park.
"I can't wait."
Without any hesitation, Lin Fan ripped off the thin blanket and picked his daughter up from the bed.
The movements were extremely fast, yet extremely steady.
He held Tuantuan tightly to his chest and strode out, shouting, "Which hospital is the nearest?"
"The First People's Hospital of the city! Just turn right after exiting the gate and it's two traffic lights away!" Teacher Zhang stammered as he followed behind.
Lin Fan did not reply.
He rushed out of the early education center with his daughter in his arms, opened the passenger door of the Wuling Hongguang, placed Tuantuan on the seat, and quickly fastened her seatbelt.
Get in the car, start the engine, shift gears, and floor the accelerator.
The dilapidated Wuling Hongguang let out a muffled roar, its tires screeching on the asphalt road, like a raging beast, as it charged directly into the evening rush hour traffic.
The carriage was deathly silent.
The only sound was the roar of the engine running under high load.
Lin Fan gripped the steering wheel tightly with both hands, his knuckles turning bluish-white from excessive force. His eyes were fixed on the road ahead, his gaze chillingly cold.
Whenever he encounters a red light, he immediately turns on his hazard lights, honks his horn, and cuts across the emergency lane without hesitation.
He didn't look at his daughter in the passenger seat.
He dared not look.
The fear that arose from the extreme unknown was something he had never experienced in the past five years, even when he was kicked out of the Su family and had only two hundred yuan left.
He managed to compress the ten-minute journey into four minutes.
"Sizzle—!"
The Wuling Hongguang braked suddenly and came to a stop at an angle outside the emergency department of the First Municipal Hospital.
Lin Fan didn't even take the car keys out of the ignition. He kicked open the car door, picked up Tuantuan, and rushed into the emergency room.
"Doctor! I need to go to the emergency room!"
Lin Fan's voice wasn't loud, but it pierced through the noisy emergency room lobby.
The nurse at the triage desk glanced at the pale, unconscious child in Lin Fan's arms and immediately realized something was wrong.
"This way! Follow me to the emergency room!"
The next half hour felt like an eternity to Lin Fan.
Blood test, laboratory tests, electroencephalogram (EEG), electrocardiogram (ECG), whole-body CT scan.
A series of examinations were quickly conducted in the emergency room.
Lin Fan stood by a chair in the corridor outside the emergency room.
He didn't sit down, but just leaned quietly against the wall.
The red "Resuscitation in Progress" indicator light on the emergency room door was so bright it made my eyes sting.
The corridor was filled with the smell of disinfectant, and occasionally a nurse would rush by pushing a stretcher.
He reached into his pockets, looking for a cigarette, but realized he had come in such a hurry that he hadn't brought anything with him.
Time passed by, second by second.
"Tap, tap, tap, tap..."
At the end of the corridor, a sudden, extremely rapid and chaotic sound of high heels clicking on the ground came from the end of the corridor.
Lin Fan raised his head slightly.
Shen Man, her face deathly pale, was seen running frantically toward them.
Behind her followed Qin Lang and Su Xiaoxiao, who were also covered in sweat.
Shen Man had just received the news and was at the store intending to have dinner there. Upon hearing the news, all three of them were stunned. They immediately locked the store door, and Qin Lang sped over, running three red lights.
"Lin Fan! Where's Tuan Tuan? What happened to Tuan Tuan?!"