289: Chapter 289 Where did you go?

"The baby is fine," Xu Zhixia began. "There was no external impact, and the uterus wasn't injured."

Lin Fan breathed a sigh of relief.

"But her current state isn't very good," Xu Zhixia lowered her voice. "With the stress response and already unstable hormone levels during pregnancy, if we don't intervene, it might trigger contractions."

"Abnormal contractions—to put it simply, a miscarriage warning."

Lin Fan clenched his back teeth.

A miscarriage, on this godforsaken Deserted Island. Without any first-aid equipment, without an operating table.

Once something goes wrong, it could mean two lives.

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Xu Zhixia walked out, grabbed a few kinds of plants, crushed a dark green leaf with her fingers, and brought it under Su Qingxue's nose.

A bitter, grassy, fishy scent permeated the air.

Su Qingxue's trembling visibly weakened.

Her breathing frequency slowly dropped from its earlier rapidity, and her unfocused pupils slowly contracted, refocusing once again.

Xu Zhixia put away the crushed leaves and switched to a narrow-leafed plant with fine fuzz, rubbed it up, and applied it to Su Qingxue's temples and behind her ears.

"Qingxue," Xu Zhixia's voice was steady. "Look at me."

Su Qingxue slowly turned her gaze over.

"Take a deep breath, follow my rhythm. In… Out…"

One, two, three.

Su Qingxue's shoulders dropped little by little, her fingers relaxed from Lin Fan's clothes, and she gently touched her own abdomen.

"The baby is here," Xu Zhixia said. "You can feel it, right? It's still here, perfectly fine."

A choked sob squeezed out of Su Qingxue's throat.

It wasn't fear, but the breakdown of surviving a catastrophe.

"Yes, you can cry," Xu Zhixia continued, her palm covering Su Qingxue's back and rhythmically patting it. "It'll be fine once you cry it out."

Su Qingxue buried her face in her knees, her shoulders heaving.

Xu Zhixia didn't stop the whole time.

Soothing palms, steady breathing guidance, and herbal assistance—three methods applied simultaneously.

Lin Fan stood to the side, watching this scene.

He had to admit, this woman really had some tricks up her sleeve.

A dozen minutes later, Su Qingxue's crying gradually weakened.

Xu Zhixia fetched another plant once again.

She stacked two leaves together, placed them on a stone slab, crushed them with the bottom of a bottle, and the squeezed-out juice was light purple.

"It calms the mind and aids sleep," Xu Zhixia explained without raising her head. "Natural plant, no effect on the fetus."

She applied the juice to Su Qingxue's temples and had Su Qingxue smell the crushed leaves.

In less than two minutes, Su Qingxue's eyelids began to droop.

After struggling a few times, they finally closed.

Su Qingxue's breathing became long and steady. Xu Zhixia stood up, moving her squat-numbed knees.

Lin Fan covered Su Qingxue and followed Xu Zhixia outside the cave.

The sea breeze blew in from outside, carrying dampness and coolness, and the sky was pitch black.

"Dr. Xu."

Lin Fan poured water for Xu Zhixia to wash her hands. "Did you see the face of that thing clearly?"

Xu Zhixia's hands paused for a beat, then she shook her head.

"No, by the time I reacted, I had already been thrown out, I only saw the side profile…"

"Long arms, arched back, all four limbs on the ground."

"Like a monkey?"

Before Xu Zhixia could reply, Zhou Kai chimed in from the side.

"Brother Fan, I think that thing looks a bit like a gorilla."

"I watched animal documentaries when I was a kid, silverback gorillas walk in that exact posture. Forelimbs supporting the ground, back arched, shoulder blades shrugged high."

"But it's thinner than a gorilla, and way too fast."

Lin Fan didn't take up the conversation.

Gorilla or monkey, that thing knew how to use human flesh shields and calculate the timing of its escape. Based on that alone, it wasn't an ordinary animal.

"Yo…"

A drawn-out ending note drifted over from the cave wall.

She leaned against the stone wall. "I just want to ask one question."

Liu Feifei tilted her head, her gaze making a circle on Lin Fan.

"Lin Fan, just now when President Su was grabbed by that thing, where the hell were you?"

The cave went quiet for an instant.

"President Su is pregnant, with such a big belly, you let a pregnant woman and a female doctor take a walk on the beach alone?"

She smacked her lips. "Where did you run off to by yourself?"

Liu Feifei's gaze drifted to Song Ya, then drifted back. The path of that glance was understood by everyone.

Xu Zhixia's hand-wiping motion stopped.

She didn't speak, but she turned around and looked at Lin Fan.

There was no Liu Feifei-style sarcasm in those eyes, but rather full questioning.

Lin Fan's temples throbbed.

A glance swept past.

Zhou Kai understood in a second.

"Liu Feifei, shut your mouth," Zhou Kai spoke directly, his voice lowered. "Does Brother Fan need to report to you where he goes?"

Liu Feifei was choked up for a second, turned her head and rolled her eyes, her mouth moved, but in the end she didn't make a peep again.

But Xu Zhixia wasn't brushed off.

She raised her body and looked at Lin Fan. "Lin Fan."

"Liu Feifei's mouth is indeed annoying, and normally I wouldn't pay attention to her."

"But today, for this question, I'm also quite curious."

"I've seen your speed, from here to the beach is at most ten seconds."

"Yet how long did you take today?"

"If you had rushed down the moment you heard my first cry, Qingxue wouldn't have been snatched away by that thing at all."

"Where the hell did you go?"

"If its movements were a bit bigger today, the baby inside would be gone. Under these conditions, heavy bleeding, no hemostatics, no surgical conditions."

"Qingxue might not be able to be saved either."

As these words landed, the air in the cave froze.

Song Ya stood up in the dark, her lips moving as if wanting to say something.

Lin Fan caught her out of the corner of his eye.

He had known Xu Zhixia for a month.

This woman could drug people, use seduction, wage psychological warfare, play innocent, save lives, and even pin him to the ground to interrogate him about chest sizes.

For a month, he simply hadn't figured out which of her words were true and which were false.

At this moment she stood in front of him, arms crossed, waiting for his answer.

If Song Ya spoke up, what would happen if Xu Zhixia schemed against Song Ya?

"I took Song Ya to the upper area to pick firewood," Lin Fan spoke, his tone completely flat without a trace of fluctuation. "Any problems?"

Xu Zhixia's gaze moved away from his face.

It fell onto Song Ya.

It paused for two seconds.

Then she pulled it back.

In those two seconds, she swept over Song Ya's misbuttoned collar, Song Ya's reddened eye rims, and the crushed grass leaves stained on Song Ya's trouser legs.

Xu Zhixia withdrew her gaze, the corners of her mouth straight.

"No problem."

After saying that, she turned and walked away.

But the moment she passed by Song Ya's side, there was an extremely short pause in her footsteps…