Chapter One: 12:44 A.M.

“It has been forty minutes.” Xiao Qiao, the resident beside me, was trembling. The old woman's son dropped to his knees beyond the glass. I saw someone else kneeling outside another resuscitation room three years ago—me. My mother had been on the bed, and I had been one of the doctors trying to save her. I kept pressing, as though the past could not repeat itself while my hands remained in motion. At 12:17, He Yuanshan stepped around me and pronounced the patient dead. He removed his gloves and said, within earshot of the family and our entire team, “A senior physician needs judgment, not a savior complex. Dr. Su's mental state has been unstable lately. I'll authorize all decisions for the rest of the night.”