1 The moment the crash happened, my husband, Ryan, was thrown clear by the massive truck, just as he pushed me out of its path. He was rushed into surgery, but I calmly opened a game on my phone. A few minutes later, Ryan's attending physician, Dr. Ava Hayes, rushed out, frantic. "Dr. Miller, your husband is brain-dead! You're the only one who can help him, please, you have to come with me!" Her eyes were wide with desperation as she looked at me. After all, I was the only doctor in the entire state who had successfully treated a brain-dead patient. I kept my eyes fixed on the game, my voice flat. "He's my spouse. Hospital policy prevents me from operating on immediate family." My mother-in-law, Susan, fell to her knees before me, bowing her head repeatedly, pleading. "Alex, please, save Ryan! He was hit trying to save you!" I dodged her grasp, revealing my swollen right wrist, and offered a faint smile. "Unfortunately, I accidentally severed the tendons in my hand today. I can't hold a scalpel." Blood streamed down my right wrist, glaringly red. Ryan's parents, David and Susan, immediately blanched. Susan’s face was ashen, her voice trembling. "Alex, you're a doctor. How could you 'accidentally' cut your own tendons?" Her eyes were filled with suspicion. "Are you afraid of losing your job, so you just faked an injury with some fake blood to fool us?" It was a logical thought, I suppose. The hospital had a strict rule against operating on immediate family members. And my position at the State Hospital? I’d worked my fingers to the bone for years, studying relentlessly, just to get it. Meeting her suspicious gaze, I extended my right wrist towards her. A deep, bone-visible gash snaked across my wrist. It was a real wound, impossible to fake. Susan peered closely at it, then burst into tears. "You… you can't do the surgery now. What will become of my son…?" "My poor, suffering boy, is he just meant to die now?" She wailed, pounding the ground with her hands, clearly on the verge of collapse. The deep bond between mother and son made passersby wince in sympathy. I merely smiled, my voice calm. "Then it must be Ryan's fate. There's nothing I can do." Then I lowered my head, staring intently at my phone screen. The battle onscreen was raging. I controlled my hero, crouched in the tall grass, waiting for an opponent to walk by for an instant kill. My teammates, however, were proving useless. In the few minutes we’d been talking, our team had already fallen behind. I frowned, concentrating on the chaotic fight. Seeing my indifferent expression, Ryan’s father, David Mitchell, paled, his body swaying unsteadily. The usually quiet and honest man, desperate for his son's life, had learned to humble himself. He wasn't one for many words, but he simply fell to his knees before me with a thud. The middle-aged man bent a back that had never bowed in his life, his eyes red, stumbling over his words as he pleaded. "Al-Alex, please, I'm begging you. Go help Ryan!" "He's your husband! You can't just watch him die!" "Even if your hand is injured and you can't hold a scalpel, maybe you could go in and advise them on what medication to use…" Almost all the onlookers couldn't bear to watch, and a few younger women were already tearing up. Dr. Ava Hayes, Ryan's attending physician, also frowned, looking at me with displeasure. "Dr. Miller, you're the only doctor in our hospital with experience saving brain-dead patients." "And for your own husband, is your job that important? Don't you care about losing it?!" "Besides, he was hit trying to save you! Saving lives is our duty as doctors, and that's your husband!" "Brain death has a ninety-nine percent mortality rate! Are you really going to disregard your own husband's life just for your job?!" Hearing that terrifying mortality rate, Susan and David’s faces turned ashen, like death itself. Immediately, they both practically trembled as they kowtowed to me, begging me to go in and save Ryan. But I remained fixated on my phone screen. "DEFEAT!" 2 The game over notification blared on my phone. I glared at the exploding crystal on the screen, annoyed, and slammed my phone down. "This is all your fault, constantly yelling! This was my promotion match!" "Buzzing around my ears like flies, it's so damn irritating." David knelt by my legs, trembling, looking up at me with a pleading face. "Alex, just save Ryan, and we'll give you whatever you want…" The onlookers, who had finally understood the situation, began to point and whisper about me, their expressions varied. A few older women even frowned, their gazes filled with disapproval. Before I could reply, a commotion erupted from inside the operating room. Then a young nurse rushed out, her face deathly pale. "Dr. Hayes, Dr. Hayes, the patient's blood pressure just plummeted! He's fading fast!" Her voice was shaking with tension. Dr. Ava Hayes glanced at her, a flicker of anxiety in her eyes, then turned back to me, her face grim. "Alex Miller, I'm asking you one last time. Are you sure you won't go in and see him?" I remained silent. The wound on my right wrist, stretched by the movement, began to bleed again, a horrific crimson. Under Dr. Ava Hayes's darkening, almost dripping gaze, I slowly but firmly nodded. Seeing this, David desperately grabbed at me, but Susan cut him off, wailing, "How can you be so heartless!" "Our Ryan dated you for seven years and never once looked down on your humble background!" "He's handsome, well-educated, and countless girls chased him, but he only ever saw you, dead set on marrying you!" "From the moment you two started dating, everything you ate, everything you wore, wasn't it my son who bought it for you?" "When you got married, you had no dowry, and your family was poor, but we didn't look down on you." "Even your tuition for your graduate and doctoral studies, it was all our Ryan who paid for it. Now he's hanging by a thread, and you, you actually…" Susan's words dripped with pain and sincerity, every single one from the bottom of her heart. By the end, she couldn't hold back anymore and broke into wrenching sobs. The onlookers finally couldn't take it anymore, stepping forward to criticize me vociferously. "Young lady, is a job really that important? You can always find another job, but you'll regret losing a husband for the rest of your life!" "Exactly! He was so good to you, so devoted. You can't be so ungrateful!" "This is about saving a life, and he was hit trying to save her! What is there to hesitate about?! I don't get it!" "This woman is just too cold-hearted…" The murmurs from the crowd grew louder. I pressed my lips together, sitting on the bench without a word. I felt like an unyielding stone. Seeing my lack of reaction, David, on the verge of collapse, tugged at my pant leg, pleading bitterly. "Alex, what if… what if you go in and save him?" "As a thank you, we'll transfer the house and car into your name…" At that, I finally lifted my eyes. Seeing my expression soften slightly, David was overjoyed, quickly patting his chest. "Alex, don't worry, I promise I'll do it! As long as you agree to save Ryan, I'll give you the house, the car, and all our savings!" A commotion broke out in the waiting room. Everyone was moved by this display of paternal love. I looked down at David, silently calculating. The house, car, and savings under his name combined had to be worth several million. Buying my job back that way… it wasn't a loss. But… I looked up again, softening my tone. "Alright, I can go in and save him, but…" Seeing me finally agree, David's face lit up with joy, his eyes filled with hope. I drew out my words, slowly. "But you have to sign a contract with me first. What if you don't keep your word later?" At my words, the smile on David's face froze, as if in disbelief. Susan couldn't hold back anymore, screaming excitedly. "Ryan's condition is critical! Who has time to wait around for a contract?" "My poor, unfortunate son, how did you marry such an ungrateful wretch!" I spread my hands in a helpless gesture, my voice firm. "No contract, no surgery." The onlookers began to clamor again, their words filled with accusations against me. A few hot-tempered individuals even looked ready to punch me out of sheer frustration. Just then, another nurse hurried out, her uniform stained with blood. Her voice was stunned, clearly terrified. "The patient just lost consciousness! Before he passed out, he told me to give you a message." "He said not to make things difficult for Dr. Miller, because he knows how hard Dr. Miller worked to get this job." 3 Hearing the news of Ryan losing consciousness, Susan immediately collapsed to the ground. Her face was deathly pale, trembling so hard she couldn't speak. David's eyes were red-rimmed with tears, and he hit his head against the ground a few more times, looking as if he might vomit blood. He squeezed out a few words through gritted teeth. "This is a matter of life and death. I swear I'll give you everything, just please, can you…?" Looking at the two old people, so worn and distraught, I hesitated for a moment. My parents died young, and I never felt much family warmth growing up. After I started dating Ryan, he quickly introduced me to his parents. The Mitchells were kind, humble, and incredibly thoughtful. They never once looked down on me for my humble background, instead treating me like their own child. The year I was studying for my master's, Ryan worried about me, so he and his parents would often bring me home-cooked meals. Four dishes and a soup, always a balanced mix of meat and vegetables. Susan even went out of her way to learn to cook my favorite dishes. They were kind and loving, genuinely good to me. When Ryan and I got married, I didn't even have a job yet. I had no car, no house, and even my tuition for school was paid by the Mitchell family. At the wedding, some of Ryan's relatives looked down on me, and a few distant cousins even made some sarcastic remarks. David and Susan immediately turned cold, announcing to everyone present, "Alex is a good child, and she is the daughter-in-law we, the Mitchell family, have chosen." "From now on, anyone who says hurtful things about Alex need not set foot in our home." At the time, I was young, insecure, and sensitive, and hearing those words moved me deeply. I swore then that I would be good to Ryan and to his parents for the rest of my life. I was grateful that they gave me a complete family, allowing me to experience a familial warmth I'd never known. And now… David and Susan, old and haggard, knelt before me, their eyes filled with desperate pleading. I silently lowered my gaze, unable to look anymore. A twisting pain shot through the wound on my right wrist. I felt like I was suffocating. Seeing the old couple kneeling and begging, Dr. Ava Hayes quickly moved to help them up. "Alex Miller, what are you doing? Not only are you refusing to save your husband, but you're trying to steal these old people's property too?" "For money and a job, you'd even abandon your conscience? You're truly disgusting!" She shot me a glance, then declared loudly and righteously, "There's no need to beg her! I, Dr. Ava Hayes, am willing to risk my job and reputation to do everything I can to save this patient, not only because I have a doctor's sense of responsibility, but because I have a conscience!" At her declaration, the surrounding onlookers immediately burst into applause. They praised her as a model doctor. By contrast, I looked even more selfish and cold-hearted. Seeing this, I offered a faint smile. Ignoring the pain in my right wrist, I even started to clap. "Then I wish you luck." Dr. Ava Hayes shot me a hateful glance, then turned and walked into the operating room. Not until her figure disappeared into the operating room and the door was closed by a nurse, did I slowly press my trembling hand to my wrist, cold sweat beading on my forehead. David and Susan had no time to worry about me. They helped each other up, scrambling to find money for Ryan's treatment. The crowd gradually dispersed. My vision blurred, and my consciousness slowly faded… This marks the billing point.
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