Out of Control

Chapter 1

"out of control"

Chapter 1

To her surprise, after the heart transplant, she was no longer entirely herself—she kept hearing inexplicable voices calling to her, felt the presence of others in that heart, and involuntarily followed that heart forward.

one

As evening fell, Wu Bingbing gradually awoke, her consciousness rising like ice floes. Her mind was filled with a hazy, bright light, and she couldn't remember where she was. Nearby, someone was crying; it sounded like a woman.

Where am I? At school? At home? Or dead?

She struggled to open her eyes, and the previous fog instantly dissipated. The dazzling light, like the wings of a startled pigeon, fluttered against her aching eyeballs. She gasped for breath and it took her a long time to see clearly that she was in a hospital ward.

The crying came from next door. Through the glass partition, you could see part of a hospital bed; on it lay a dead body, its bare, slender feet bound with rope. A woman was sobbing against the headboard, her shoulders trembling with each sob. She wore a white dress, her long, disheveled hair was disheveled, and her back was thin…

Wu Bingbing sighed, pulled the sheet covering her tighter, and subconsciously reached her hand into her bosom. She felt something strange and suddenly pulled her hand back as if it were burning. She saw the newly added thin scar on her chest, clearly dotted with the spots of surgical suture holes on both sides—it was slightly pink because it had healed late.

—How did you get such a big wound? My God! Did they rip me open?

Amid her anxious cries, a nurse pushed open the door and entered.

"I want to know, regarding my surgery—did they give me a heart transplant?"

The nurse answered affirmatively, "Yes, you had a heart transplant. This is a special care ward, and I am the assigned nurse, temporarily assigned to take care of you."

"Then—who gave me this heart?"

"All I know is that it was a girl who died from a brain hemorrhage due to a car accident. With her family's consent, Dr. Meng donated her heart to you in the shortest possible time."

"How long have I been unconscious?"

"To be precise, it's a 15-day hibernation period."

"What if I don't wake up after such a long time?"

"No, Dr. Meng said that healing wounds in a prolonged state of rest is the most advanced rehabilitation therapy after heart surgery. From the observations these past few days, all your heart indicators are normal."

Wu Bingbing breathed a sigh of relief. "Why can't I feel a heartbeat... By the way, who lives next door? That woman keeps crying, who died? —Who's in her family?"

She turned her head and froze. The lights next door had been turned off sometime ago, and half of the curtains on the other side of the window were drawn. The woman was standing behind the curtains, staring motionless in their direction. All she could see was her white silhouette.

"There's no one next door." The nurse glanced in that direction.

"What? Nobody's here? That woman's still standing there!"

“There’s no one here!” The nurse walked straight over and pushed the glass in the middle to show that it was closed and couldn’t be opened.

Wu Bingbing saw that when the nurse opened the window, the woman standing behind the curtains quickly stepped aside and stretched out a thin, large hand to press against the glass, as if to prevent the nurse from opening it.

The nurse said, "No one will be there. That's a storage room, full of medical equipment—originally both rooms were like that, but this one was converted into a special care ward. So they crammed everything into that room, it's packed full."

Wu Bingbing said, "She's still there, but I can't see her face clearly. Why does she keep looking at me?"

The nurse was startled and hurriedly said, "Are you kidding me? There's no one here."

"Yes, besides the woman, there was also a dead body with its feet bound with rope."

The nurse shuddered, stepped forward, and pounded on the glass, calling out as if to bolster her courage, "Is anyone there? Is anyone there? Speak up!" Then she turned around, shrugged, and smiled at her, "See? No, nothing at all."

Wu Bingbing saw that the woman had disappeared in the blink of an eye, and the next room had become dark.

She muttered, puzzled, "What's going on? I clearly saw someone next door."

The nurse said anxiously, "It seems you need some sedatives. I'll inform Dr. Meng right away. He said to let him know as soon as you wake up, and he'll adjust your medication. You'll be fine."

After saying that, the nurse hurriedly left. Her steps were a little flustered as she walked away.

When Dr. Meng was led to the intensive care unit by a nurse, he discovered that Wu Bingbing was missing. They searched the entire nursing area, but to no avail. Then, they mobilized doctors and nurses to search every corner of the hospital, but still found nothing. This immediately created a tense and uneasy atmosphere throughout the hospital. Dr. Meng was the most anxious and worried.

two

Wu Bingbing's father and Dr. Meng met abroad. Her grandfather was a wealthy Chinese businessman in Southern California, and her father was an only child. Because her grandfather suffered from heart disease, doctors made appointments to visit him, which is how her father met Dr. Meng, a Chinese physician. Dr. Meng graduated from a medical university in China and went to the United States for further studies, earning a medical degree from Stanford University in California, becoming a renowned cardiothoracic surgeon. Later, both her father and Dr. Meng returned to China. Her father became the president of a bank in City E, and Dr. Meng, with the financial support of her father's bank, founded the Southern Rehabilitation Hospital. Wu Bingbing, suffering from congenital heart disease, became a regular and special patient at this hospital, further strengthening the bond between her father and Dr. Meng.

Wu Bingbing frequently experienced chest tightness and shortness of breath, her face turning bluish-purple during attacks… When medication could no longer sustain her, Dr. Meng began performing heart surgery on her, repeatedly performing arterial bypass grafts and laser perforations; her failing heart muscle was practically riddled with holes. No one could have imagined that the outwardly fresh, beautiful, quiet, and melancholic Wu Bingbing was enduring such immense pain and carrying such heavy pressure—yet, due to her strong will, she didn't neglect her studies and even gained admission to Southern University with excellent grades.

What Wu Bingbing didn't know was that her family and Dr. Meng had gone to great lengths to help her with her illness.

In her third year of university, Wu Bingbing suffered another heart attack. Although she was rescued in time, Dr. Meng and her family didn't tell her the full extent of the problem. While trying to comfort and encourage her with a facade of optimism, they urgently came up with an unquestionable plan: a heart transplant. Only a heart transplant could save and prolong her life. Surgical intervention and medication could only maintain her heart function for about a year at most.

The grandfather, who lived abroad, sold his villa and placed a reward notice in the newspaper, offering $2 million to find a heart donor for his granddaughter. The father and Dr. Meng worked tirelessly, searching far and wide for a suitable donor. Dr. Meng flew to various locations, conducting tests on dozens of donors each month. Over six months, they tested more than 500 donors from both domestic and international sources. Through blood type, cross-matching, and tissue matching tests, not a single donor was a match for Wu Bingbing.

This made her father and Dr. Meng very anxious.

Unexpectedly, Wu Bingbing's health deteriorated further. After finishing her first semester of senior year, there was a six-month internship left. The history department arranged for students to go to Shennongjia in Hubei Province for two months to study ancient fossils. When the list of accepted students came out, Wu Bingbing's name wasn't on it. The professor said she wasn't feeling well and couldn't go.

This made her very sad.

That evening, while her classmates were having a party, she wandered alone in the woods in a corner of the campus, feeling dejected. Just then, her phone rang. It was her father calling, asking her to take leave and go back for another surgery.

"Is it still Dr. Meng?" she asked, somewhat indifferently.

Dad said, "You believe he's a first-rate doctor."

"What are they going to do now—build a bridge?—drill holes?"

"This time, it's a little more complicated. You need to have confidence."

"It already has six bridges and eight arches... It's not that I lack confidence, it's that I'm worried—"

"Dr. Meng said he would give you a complete treatment."

"I—I'm afraid I won't be able to hold on..."

“You can do it, Bingbing,” her father said earnestly. “Dr. Meng said the purpose of this surgery is to help your heart function without medication. Throw away those pill bottles, and you will be completely cured.”

Throw away the medicine bottles? How wonderful it would be to throw away those medicine bottles she carried with her all the time! Since she could remember, she had never gone a day without medicine. Those pills of various shapes and colors were another kind of food for her, nourishing her life. The thought of taking handfuls of pills every day made her nauseous. But what could she do? She had to live. She often woke up in the middle of the night, repeatedly placing her hand on her chest, checking if her heart was still beating, wondering if it was growing tired and slowing down, like a hydrogen balloon deflating overnight.

When she rushed to the hospital that day, Dr. Meng was discussing something with her parents, surrounded by several doctors and nurses. She didn't have time to ask what had happened; she only drank a glass of water Dr. Meng offered, and after that, she knew nothing more…

It was like a dream. In the long dream, the surgery was completed, and even the wounds had healed. When she woke up, she discovered, thank God, that she was still alive, and that she had even received a heart transplant.

To her surprise, after the heart transplant, she was no longer the same person she used to be.

three

The hospital held an emergency meeting to report on the incident and discuss measures to locate the missing patient. The phone in the conference room and Dr. Meng's cell phone rang incessantly. The search teams reported their findings every few minutes, but none had found Wu Bingbing. Dr. Meng fidgeted anxiously, rubbing his glasses in frustration.

"Did something go wrong during the surgery?" the obese hospital director asked hesitantly.

“Impossible.” Dr. Meng shook his head arrogantly. “Among the 16 hospitals in the country that have performed heart transplants, our hospital has the best equipment, and this surgery was performed entirely according to the operating procedures.”

I've had 12 heart transplants before, and none of them have had any problems. This time, the matching and timing of the transplant were also perfectly timed.

A male doctor cautiously suggested, "The nurse said the patient was hallucinating; she mentioned seeing someone. Could it be due to the anesthesia... or an allergic reaction to some of the medications used for sedation, causing her to—"

“Absolutely not!” Dr. Meng interrupted him rudely. “Putting the patient into a state of sedation under anesthesia is a common practice in heart transplant hospitals across the United States. Heart transplants connect so many blood vessels; local or general anesthesia can only address issues during the surgical process. Putting the patient into sedation targets the central nervous system, keeping their thoughts and emotions in a prolonged state of dormancy, effectively controlling the pressure on the myocardium's blood supply, allowing the wound to heal smoothly, and also allowing the patient to overcome the pain of the healing period. Problems would arise if we didn't do this!”

A female doctor chimed in, "There won't be any problems. Dr. Meng's skills are among the best in the country. Maybe the patient went home, and someone asked her if she was home, or if there was any news from home."

Dr. Meng said coldly, "She didn't go home. I've already notified her father to come to the hospital."

Meanwhile, in the residential area behind the hospital building, in an alley just one block away from the hospital, Wu Bingbing, who had escaped, was walking like a lost soul. She was wearing a hospital gown and slippers, her body stiff, her eyes vacant, her elbows tucked in, and her head bowed as she walked straight ahead. A child rode out from around the corner on a bicycle and bumped into her unexpectedly. She stumbled, almost falling, but straightened up without glancing back and continued walking.

She walked into a cluttered courtyard with several old, dilapidated buildings. She paced back and forth in the open space in front of them, as if trying to recall something. Finally, she looked up and stared blankly at a balcony for a long time. Seeing clothes draped over a bamboo pole, a slight smile appeared on her lips. She nodded and walked towards the stairwell. Her steps were heavy as she climbed the stairs, as if she were pounding on them. Reaching the third floor, she glanced at a door and gently knocked. After a few knocks, the door opened, revealing a pale, petite woman with disheveled hair, standing frozen in the doorway.

She stood face to face with the woman, whose flat face and mole on her chin made her look like a cunning cat. She was clearly painting, a paintbrush in one hand. An easel stood near the balcony in the living room, the canvas covered in unfinished, graffiti-like scribbles, the colors a blood-red blob.

"Who are you looking for? Are you looking for me?" the short woman asked.

“Can’t find it—unreliable,” she muttered.

"Did you come to the wrong door?" the short woman asked.

Her eyes were fixed on the woman, and her tone suddenly changed: "I'm here to find you, you faithless little woman. I want to ask you, why did you betray me? You're untrustworthy. I won't forgive you! You owe me, you owe me back! —"

The short woman's face changed drastically, her eyes wide with terror as she stared at her. She didn't recognize the person in front of her, but she recognized the familiar voice. She retreated timidly, stammering, "Who are you? Who are you? Don't look for me! Don't!"

She gritted her teeth and approached her step by step: "Are you my friend? Why did you betray me?"

The short woman, distraught, scrambled to the corner, crying, "Don't come any closer! Don't!"

She lunged at her, baring her teeth, and the petite woman screamed as she ran to the balcony. Then, she cried for help and jumped from the third floor. She grabbed clothes from the bamboo pole and threw them down like scattering flowers.

As she went downstairs, she saw a crowd surrounding the petite woman. Standing on the periphery, she looked inside and heard the petite woman screaming hoarsely, "Call an ambulance... My head hurts so much!"

My eyes… Oh my god, I can’t see! Oh my god… Please help me! —“

Four

By nightfall, the people sent by the hospital still hadn't caught up with Wu Bingbing. She was currently walking westward into the city.

She walked slowly, her arms crossed and head down. She walked out of the main road in the west of the city, past the country lanes, and onto a dirt road, but she kept going straight ahead. It was as if something in the distance was attracting her, or calling her, like a child who had been bullied and was returning home in frustration. But what lay ahead?

The red dirt road narrowed and gradually stretched into the fields. On both sides were crops taller than a person, and large trees, scattered haphazardly along the edges of the fields, cast huge black shadows in the night. Not far away was a village, its lights twinkling like stars. You assumed she was going there, but she passed by the village and continued on her way.

It was completely dark, and the autumn night air was chilly. She was wearing a thin hospital gown, but seemed oblivious to the cold. Looking west, she saw no lights, only eerie fields of sorghum and corn. An old man tending the autumn crops approached, but only noticed her when he was right in front of him. Startled, he quickly hid to the side. She didn't glance at him, continuing on her way without a second thought.

The wilderness was so quiet in the darkness. Apart from the sound of her own footsteps, she could hear the chirping of toads, centipedes, and autumn insects. A motorcycle came from the opposite direction, and as it passed her, the bright headlights made her raise her hand to shield her eyes. She then heard a whistle as it sped past.

She walked a little further when the motorcycle suddenly turned back, caught up with her, and circled her twice. They called out, "Hey girl, where are you going? Did you have a fight with your family? Did you escape from a mental hospital?" She didn't look up at them, walking around the motorcycle and the people. They stopped, muttering to themselves, and followed. One of them jumped in front of her, blocking her way, while another grabbed her waist from behind, resting his head on her shoulder and saying, "Hey girl, don't go, don't go, okay? Have some fun with us, alright?"

I couldn't see her face clearly in the darkness, but I could hear her voice: "Let me go! Let me go!"

"What if I don't let you go?" a rude voice said. "Ouch, you hit me?"

"They're really going all out!" a shrill voice shouted. "Dude, take her down."

"Get away!" she yelled, fighting with the two men, but was quickly pinned to the ground. They heard her furious cries, "I'll kill you! Get away! I'll kill you!"

"Damn it!"

A scream rang out, and one person jumped up, clutching their head. The other released their grip and rushed to ask what was wrong. It was that shrill voice yelling, "Damn it, she bit me! Bit my ear—Oh my god, where's my ear?—It's gone?—She bit my ear off, oh my god! That damn bitch bit my ear off! Damn it! Damn it! Damn it! Turn on the headlights, find my ear!—"

Another man started his motorcycle, drove up, and shone his headlights on the woman. He saw her get up from the ground, wipe the blood from her mouth, and turn to leave. They didn't care about anything else; they searched everywhere on the ground and finally found half a mushroom-shaped object in the dust.

The shrill voice, clutching its bloodied ear, screamed even louder.

"Hurry! Drive me to the hospital quickly, or they won't be able to take on the patients. Hurry!"

The two men sped off on their motorcycle like madmen, groaning and cursing all the way...

five

In the hospital conference room, Dr. Meng and several doctors remained, awaiting feedback from the search team. Just then, a nurse rushed in and reported to one of the surgeons that an emergency patient had arrived—a man whose ear had been bitten off, allegedly by a female patient who had escaped from a mental hospital. Upon hearing this, Dr. Meng immediately asked where the female patient was.

Several cars carrying medical staff sped towards the western suburbs. About ten kilometers from the city, they found Wu Bingbing, dressed in a hospital gown. She was crouching by the roadside, huddled and trembling. When the headlights of the cars shone on her, her eyes revealed a look of terror and helplessness.

Under Dr. Meng's orders, several nurses surrounded Wu Bingbing, grabbed her arms and legs, and dragged her into the ambulance. Without a word, they strapped her to the stretcher. The car immediately started and drove towards the hospital.