Out of Control

"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 wha

……