Hearing that the hotel had been booked, Du Heng slightly tilted his head. "Which one is it?"

Wu Shengnan pouted and said, "Don’t worry, my brother booked a hotel in Shanghu District. He said it would be more convenient for your relatives and friends there."

Du Heng softly uttered an "oh," then hesitated for a moment before saying, "I’ve been thinking about something. Will anyone from Uncle’s side come? I mean his colleagues. Do you know what I mean?"

Wu Shengnan gently nodded. "They should come." But her expression was somewhat uncertain. "Last time when my brother got married, all of my dad’s former colleagues came. I just don’t know if his current ones will."

Du Heng pursed his lips. "How do we arrange this? It’s a bit inconvenient."

Wu Shengnan suddenly laughed softly. "Don’t worry, my brother is best at handling this kind of thing. He’ll definitely arrange it properly."

Her words seemed reasonable. After all, over the past six months, their brother-in-law hardly seemed like a policeman anymore, instead thriving in the social circle.

But Du Heng still couldn’t put his mind at ease and decided to find an opportunity to have a good talk with his brother-in-law.

Time went by quietly as the two conversed warmly. By the time Du Heng opened his eyes again, Wu Shengnan had already gone to work.

Without Wu Shengnan at home, Du Heng managed for only one day before going to work on the second.

After arriving at the office, he sat there all morning without finishing the accumulated work. In the afternoon, Du Heng began to feel a stifling discomfort in his waist.

"PHEW..." Du Heng let out a long breath, gently massaging his waist. Feeling only slightly better, he got up and left his office.

Wandering aimlessly in the hospital for a while, he unwittingly arrived at the hospital’s Outpatient Hall.

At this time, the Outpatient Hall had many more patients than when he first arrived. Even in the afternoon, many people were constantly coming and going.

Following the recent online celebrity incident, all the hospital security guards had been replaced with middle-aged men in their forties and fifties. As for the guards over sixty, Du Heng had firmly dismissed them.

Even though one of them was the Vice Dean’s father, he couldn’t give in on this matter.

The hospital’s security guards not only served a security role but also occasionally assisted patients with mobility issues or those with acute diseases.

And with those older guards, Du Heng was genuinely worried that they wouldn’t fulfill their security functions and might even cause trouble for the patients, which would be a joke.

At first, Du Heng thought about raising the salary by a few hundred yuan and hiring security guards in their thirties, who would be strong and intimidating.

But he had overestimated the situation. Not only was the hospital’s salary structure unsupportive, but there also seemed to be considerable resistance. So in the end, this age group was a compromise for everyone.

After wandering around aimlessly, Du Heng was quite satisfied, whether it was because the staff recognized him or simply due to their work attitude.

Not to say that their work was flawless, but as long as the general direction was correct, Du Heng could accept it and consider them good employees.

For those small details, there were specialized departments and responsible personnel to handle them. If Du Heng interfered, the result might not necessarily be better than saying nothing.

In the Maternal and Child Hospital, what was the most common sound?

It was the sound of children crying.

This was usually a normal occurrence, but at this moment in the hall, one child’s crying stood out. This child’s cry wasn’t robust like that of healthy children; it was quite weak, fading in and out.

Moreover, Du Heng felt that from the moment he entered the Outpatient Hall, the child’s crying had lingered in his ears, causing him palpitations.

Du Heng looked around and finally located the source of the crying in a corner.

At that spot, the security guards and nurses from the guidance counter were all gathered, but strangely, Du Heng didn’t see any parental figures among them.

"What’s going on?" Du Heng approached and saw a four or five-year-old child crying nonstop in a nurse’s arms, unable to be comforted.

The security guards and nurses made way. One nurse said, "We’re not sure either."

"Where are the child’s parents?" Du Heng asked with a frown.

Upon hearing Du Heng’s question, everyone shook their heads. The same nurse spoke again, "This child has been crying for ten minutes, but the parents haven’t appeared. Besides this pile of the child’s clothes, there’s nothing else here."

The nurse timidly glanced at Du Heng. "It might be... might be..."

Du Heng looked at the nurse. "What might it be? Just say it."

"The child might have been abandoned," the nurse mustered the courage to blurt out.

"Abandoned?" Du Heng’s eyebrows twitched; this was the first time he’d encountered such a thing. He immediately turned to ask the nurse, "Has this happened before?"

The nurse sighed. "I’ve seen two cases since I started working here."

Du Heng looked at the crying child, still finding it a bit unbelievable, and said, "Even if they wanted to abandon the child, they should have taken him to an orphanage or a welfare home. Why would they abandon him in a hospital?"

The nurse stared silently at the child, speaking softly, "Children abandoned in hospitals are all sick, and their families can’t afford the medical treatment. By abandoning the child in a hospital, they hope that the hospital and society can find a way to save them."

The nurse turned her head and glanced around the hall, then sighed softly and said, "If the child was abandoned, there should be some information left by their parents in his clothes or this bundle."

After observing the child for a short while, Du Heng noticed that the child had a sallow, puffy complexion, his lips and fingertips were as white as hemp paper, and his crying was weak and feeble. Upon hearing the nurse’s explanation, he urged her, "Hurry up and look. See if there are any of the things you mentioned."

The nurse hesitated for a moment. "What if the child’s parents come back..."

Du Heng frowned slightly. "Don’t hesitate. Look for it. I’ll take responsibility if anything happens."

With Du Heng’s promise, the nurse no longer hesitated and began searching. Eventually, she found a piece of paper in the child’s pocket.

There weren’t many words, but it revealed a lot of information.

First, the child had indeed been abandoned. The note mentioned many unavoidable circumstances, emphasizing their severe lack of money, and hoped that the hospital could save the child.

Second, the child was indeed sick, suffering from acute granulocytic leukemia.

As Du Heng read the information on the note, the child’s cries gradually subsided, but he seemed even more listless.

Du Heng had never encountered such a situation before and didn’t know how to deal with it right then. Seeing the child’s condition, he knew prioritizing treatment was essential.

"Stop looking. Send the child to the TCM Hospitalization Department."

"Dean, how should we handle the hospitalization procedures for this child?"

Du Heng frowned, thought for a moment, and said, "Never mind. Let’s just admit him for now. I’ll handle the formalities."

Since Du Heng had said so, the two nurses didn’t ask further questions and, with the help of the security guard, quickly placed the child on a gurney and wheeled him away.

Du Heng followed them. After walking a few steps, he took out his cell phone to call Lu Guangying.

In a short while, Du Heng and Lu Guangying held a small meeting in the TCM Hospitalization Department office.

After explaining the basic situation, Du Heng asked Lu Guangying, "Deputy Dean Lu, how did our hospital deal with such situations in the past?"

Lu Guangying frowned. "According to the normal procedure, we would contact the welfare home to take the child. However, they don’t accept sick children, especially those who are currently ill, unless they have first been treated and their condition stabilized.

"In the past, because our hospital’s actual capabilities were a bit... unsatisfactory, when we encountered such cases, we used to contact the Provincial Women and Children’s Hospital or the Provincial First Hospital for transfer."

"If we can treat them, how do we handle the paperwork? Should we treat them as aid recipients with no identity?" Du Heng asked a critical question.

Lu Guangying shook his head directly. "The admission of aid recipients with no identity is for patients with critical illnesses. This pediatric patient has been abandoned, so we can’t use this method."

"So, what should we do?" Du Heng was a little puzzled.

"Follow the normal treatment process, with the hospital bearing the costs. In the end, we can negotiate with the relevant departments of the Municipal Government. If we’re lucky, we might be able to recover some of the expenses.

"However, in most cases, we won’t be able to get the money back and will have to bear the costs ourselves."

Du Heng nodded as he listened to Lu Guangying’s words. "That’s to be expected. As a public hospital, we must take on some social aid responsibilities." He sighed deeply. "Let’s make arrangements then."

Just as Du Heng was about to go to the ward, he suddenly asked, "Can we find the child’s family?"

Lu Guangying hesitated for a moment before answering, "If we really make an effort, of course we can find them. But we don’t have the time, and even if we do find them, what’s the use?

"Parents who abandon their children have made a very difficult decision. Most of these abandonments are due to financial difficulties and an inability to continue medical treatment, or because the child is already in a critical condition, and the parents want to take a chance with us and society to save them.

"So even if we find these parents, we would either hand over a dead body or they would have to return to their previous state, watching helplessly, unable to do anything."

As he spoke, Lu Guangying sighed. "Actually, some parents don’t go far after abandoning their children in the hospital. They squat and wait nearby, keeping an eye on their child the whole time.

"So, there’s really no need to look for them, because even if we did, they would most likely not take the child back."

This was the first time since Du Heng had arrived at the Municipal Maternal and Child Health Hospital, progressing from small hospitals to larger ones, that he’d encountered such a suffocating situation. Even terminal cancer patients hadn’t caused him such a heavy feeling.

After listening to Lu Guangying’s words, Du Heng suddenly felt that his charity fund should perhaps target these specific aid recipients, to make such tragedies occur a little less frequently.