The Assistant's Big Mouth

At the airport security checkpoint, the security officer asked the routine question: Are you carrying any prohibited items?

I was about to shake my head when my assistant beside me raised her hand with an innocent expression on her face.

Do blades count? She's got dozens of them in her suitcase!

As soon as the words left her mouth, the entire area fell deathly silent. The security officer pressed her radio, and security personnel instantly surrounded us like an iron wall.

I broke out in a nervous sweat. "I'm a doctor! I'm going to the neighboring state for emergency surgery. My suitcase only contains medical instruments. I have the permits!"

"Open it." The security officer's face remained expressionless.

Inside the bag were neatly arranged surgical scalpels, hemostatic clamps, and a change of clothes.

While pointing out each item, I turned back and urged, "Did you bring the medical records?"

My assistant Bella kept her head down, her voice like a mosquito's hum. "I... I brought them."

"What's this bottle?" The security officer suddenly pointed at a shadow on the screen.

Before I could react, Bella spoke up with an innocent expression, shouting loudly:

"I already told you gasoline can't be brought on the plane. Why won't you listen? Are you planning to blow up the plane or something?"

The air froze once again.

The security officer's eyes shifted from suspicion to vigilance. "Please follow us both to the interrogation room."

Hearing this, my mind went blank with a buzzing sound.

The patient on the operating table had already been anesthetized, but the lead surgeon was being treated as a suspect at the airport because of her assistant's loose lips.

At this moment, there were eighteen minutes until the boarding gate closed.

"Officer, this is a misunderstanding!"

My voice cracked with urgency as my hands gripped the handle of my suitcase desperately.

"I'm Chloe, the chief physician at Hope Hospital. There's a critically ill seven-year-old child waiting for me to save their life!"

"There's absolutely no gasoline in my bag. She's lying!"

Several special police officers had already surrounded us. Although the dark muzzles of their guns weren't raised, the sense of oppression was suffocating.

"Whether it's a lie or not, anything involving flammable and explosive materials or terrorist statements must be investigated."

The security team leader's face was cold as he snatched away my boarding pass.

"Take them away!"

Two female security officers twisted my arms behind my back and forcibly pushed me toward the sealed interrogation room.

Looking back, Bella was leisurely following behind.

I was so angry my blood felt like it was flowing backward.

"Bella! Do you know what you're doing?!"

"That child has massive bleeding in the chest cavity. Every minute of delay could cost them their life!"

Bella rolled her eyes and examined her freshly done manicure.

"Chloe, aren't you being a bit overdramatic?"

"I was just trying to lighten the mood. How was I supposed to know these people can't take a joke?"

She pointed at the security officer with a grieved expression. "Besides, who told you to check so strictly? I casually mention gasoline and you believe it? No sense of humor at all."

The security team leader's face turned iron-blue.

"Sense of humor?"

"Miss, claiming to carry gasoline and blades at an airport constitutes fabricating false terrorist information. That's a crime!"

Bella scoffed.

"Stop trying to scare me. My relative is a leader at the Health Bureau. You dare arrest me?"

"Let us go quickly, or I'll file a complaint against you for violent law enforcement!"

Her reckless attitude completely enraged the police.

The interrogation room door slammed shut.

I glanced at the electronic clock on the wall.

Ten minutes until takeoff. If I didn't get on now, it would be too late!

I dropped to my knees with a thud.

"Officers, the liquid in the bag is just alcohol. I accept the penalty! Confiscate the alcohol, lock me up afterward if you want!"

"But can you please let me board the plane first? I'm a doctor. The neighboring state hospital urgently needs me for surgery. They're already calling me!"

"If you don't let me board, it'll be too late!!"

The police officer's eyes changed.

He immediately picked up his radio. "Command center, verify the suspect's identity. If this is a misunderstanding, requesting assistance..."

Hearing this, Bella sat in a chair to the side, crossed her legs, and laughed outright.

"Officer, let me tell you the truth. She's not going to the neighboring state for any emergency surgery. She's fleeing to escape punishment."

The officer's hand tightened on the radio, his eyes instantly becoming sharp.

"Fleeing? Explain yourself!"

Bella's face showed mockery.

"Chloe just killed someone on the operating table yesterday. The family members are causing a scene at the hospital right now."

"The hospital issued a notice this morningsuspended pending investigation, medical license to be revoked."

"She's afraid of going to jail, so she made up an excuse to run away to another place and lay low."

After speaking, she covered her mouth with exaggerated surprise as she looked at me.

"Chloe, I didn't want to expose you. After all, we've been colleagues. Several friends even specifically asked me to represent them in seeing you off this time."

"But you can't use these kind officers' goodwill as a tool."

As she finished, the security team leader's face instantly turned as black as the bottom of a pot.

"Is what she said true?"

Of course Bella was lying.

And it was the kind of outrageous lie that could destroy a doctor's entire career!

I stared hard at Bella's face, trembling with rage.

"Bella, I've always treated you wellhelped you publish papers, shielded you from complaints. Why are you trying to destroy me like this?!"

The smile vanished from Bella's face instantly.

She suddenly leaned close to me, grinding her teeth as she spoke in a low voice.

"Treated me well?"

"Chloe, stop pretending to be a saint!"

"Last week when that rich kid from the VIP ward added me on Twitter, why did you confiscate my phone in front of the head nurse?"

"And you called me out at the morning meeting, saying I dressed provocatively and didn't meet medical staff standards?"

"You made me lose face, made me unable to hold my head up in front of those interns!"

She grew more agitated as she spoke, the malice in her eyes almost overflowing.

"You're the director, so what? You're an expert, big deal?"

"Today I'm going to make sure you can't leave!"

So the reason was this absurd.

Simply because I stopped her from flirting with a patient's family member in a sterile ward, simply because I wanted to maintain departmental discipline.

She was willing to sacrifice a seven-year-old child's life at this critical moment!

I laughed bitterly, about to retort.

The security team leader's sharp shout interrupted our confrontation.

He had obviously been influenced by Bella's words, looking at me with eyes full of scrutiny.

"Enough! If this involves medical malpractice and fleeing, the situation has changed."

"Confiscate her bag, detain her first, and notify the district police station and Health Bureau to pick her up."

Two female officers immediately stepped forward, gripping my shoulders from left and right.

At that moment, the clock on the wall jumped forward.

Six minutes left. The boarding gate was about to close!

I was losing my mind.

Because once the gate closed, even if I could prove my innocence, I wouldn't make this flightthe only one available.

And that child couldn't wait for the next flight!

"I'm not lying! I didn't kill anyone!"

I struggled desperately. "I have evidence! I have proof!"

"Let me get my phone! Please let me get my phone!"

The security team leader frowned, seemingly impatient with my resistance.

"Settle down! You'll get your chance to talk at the police station!"

"There's no time! It's a life at stake!"

Tears and mucus covered my face. I had completely lost the dignity of a chief physician.

"I need my phone! Let me look at my phone! Just one look!"

"If it's fake, you can shoot me right here!"

Perhaps the desperation in my eyes was too real.

The young officer who had been observing me grabbed the team leader's arm.

"Team leader, let her."

"What if... what if it's true?"

The team leader was silent for two seconds, then snorted coldly and let go.

"Watch her. Don't let her delete anything."

With trembling hands, I pulled my phone from my pocket. As soon as the screen lit up, countless red notifications popped up.

All from the director of the neighboring state's Central Hospital.

I frantically opened the conversation and held the phone screen up to the officers.

"Look... please look!"

"This is the Twitter account of the neighboring state Central Hospital director!"

"This is the child's medical record!"

"These are real-time surveillance screenshots from their operating room!"

I cried while scrolling through the screen, my voice breaking.

The officer frowned, half-believing as he took the phone and randomly clicked on the most recent long voice message.

The next second, an elderly voice came through.

"Chloe! The child's heart rate has dropped to 40! Blood pressure can't be measured!"

"There's too much pleural effusion compressing the heart. We have to open the chest!"

"But no one dares to do this surgery except you! The blood vessels are too thin. One tremor and it's a massive hemorrhage!"

"All the hospital's experts are here watching, all waiting for you alone!"

"Chloe! I'm begging you! Please hurry!"

In the background, you could hear a nurse's anxious shouts: "Epinephrine injection complete! Heart rate still dropping!"

The voice message stopped. The entire interrogation room once again fell into dead silence.

But this time, it wasn't from suspicion.

The security team leader's expression changed. He instinctively looked at the clock on the wall.

Four minutes left. My eyes were red as I stared hard into the officer's eyes.

"Officer, this isn't a recording. This was sent twenty minutes ago."

"I'm not acting either. I'm begging you... let me go..."

The security team leader, who had been so firm just moments ago, moved his lips as if wanting to say something.

The suspicion in his eyes looking at me was rapidly fading.

However, just as I thought I could leave smoothly, Bella's shrill voice rang out again.

"Pfft."

She covered her mouth, laughing so hard she could barely stand.

"Chloe, you really went all out with this performance."

"Where did you hire this actor? The director? That old guy's voice imitation is pretty good."

"You even prepared background audio? Must have spent quite a bit of money."

She leisurely walked up to the officer, pointing at my phone with utter disdain.

"These days, fraud software is so advanced."

"You can buy a bunch of these voice generators online for a hundred bucks."

"The background audio is just downloaded material from the internet."

"If she was really so urgent, why didn't she show this earlier? Why wait until now?"

"She obviously just made this up on the spot, trying to fool you!"

"Besides, if the surgery was really this urgent, that hospital would have sent a helicopter by now. They wouldn't make her take a commercial flight, would they?"

"The logic doesn't even make sense. Only laypeople would fall for this."

Bella became more pleased with herself as she spoke. She turned to look at me, her eyes full of provocation.

"Chloe, to avoid responsibility for medical malpractice, you'd even fake a critical condition notice."

"Do you have any medical ethics left?"

"You're the scum of the medical profession!"

The security team leader, who had just been about to let go, became uncertain again because of these words.

He was getting annoyed and ordered directly:

"Continue interrogating both of them! Hurry up and verify Chloe's real identity!"

In the interrogation room, I stared hard at that exquisitely made-up face before me.

Bella was someone the director had forced on mesomeone with family connections.

Normally, I tolerated her slacking off during work and just clocking in and out.

When she handed me the wrong clamp in the operating room or wrote incorrect medical records, I covered for her too.

But I never imagined her humanity could be extinguished to this degree!

Originally, the hospital had planned to send a helicopter for this surgery, but somehow Bella had said something to the director, and the hospital changed it to having me take a commercial flight.

"Bella, that's a human life!"

"You studied medicine too. Did a dog eat your conscience?!"

"What exactly are you trying to do!"

Bella sneered and took out her compact to touch up her makeup.

"I'm just here to build my resume. In a couple years I'll be promoted to deputy director."

"Who's like you, stupidly risking your life? Now lookyou can't make the flight, right? Perfect. If I go back now, I can still make it to my date with my senior."

"Shopping and dating? Just because of this?"

I forced these words out through clenched teeth.

Bella nodded matter-of-factly and took out a mirror to check her eyeliner.

"What else! Some dead kid who's nothing to me, compared to my lifelong happinessI know which matters more."

She even winked at me. "Chloe, you should actually thank me."

"After all, that surgery only had a 20% success rate. Dying on the table and then having to write a reviewso unlucky."

I was about to retort angrily when I heard a loud "bang" as the interrogation room door was thrown open.

The person who entered was the criminal police captain. He turned to look at me, his tone somewhat gentler.

"Chloe, we've verified your identity. You are a national special subsidy expert, and you do have filing records for carrying surgical instruments."

A glimmer of hope lit in my eyes. "Can I leave now?"

The captain glanced at the clock on the wall, his eyes showing some reluctance.

"The tower just notified us that the flight to the neighboring state took off three minutes ago."

Hearing this news, my legs gave out and I collapsed into a chair.

Bella picked up her phone, brushed off the dust, her tone light.

"Chloe, now you can give up, right? Come on, let's go. I'll treat you to a spa to cool down your temper."

I ignored her. At the same time, my phone rang.

It was a video call request from the intensive care unit at the neighboring state hospital.

With trembling hands, I answered. On the screen was a panicked face.

"Chloe! Chloe, where are you?!"

The director on the other end was covered in sweat, his eyes bloodshot.

My eyes reddened too. I wanted to apologize, to say I couldn't make the flight, to say I was sorry.

But the words stuck in my throat. I couldn't get them out.

But the other end continued speaking.

The camera shifted to focus on the operating table. The director roared furiously:

"Chloe! You clearly said you could make it here for the surgery! Do you know that because of your delay, this child just had a massive hemorrhage and died!"

My head buzzed. My mouth hung open, my face covered in tears.

Five hundred miles, no planehow could I get there?!

Just then, Bella beside me suddenly spoke up:

"So noisy! It's just a dead kid! Is it worth dragging the whole hospital into mourning! People die on operating tables every day!"

The director looked at Bella furiously.

"Shut up! What are you to say such things!"

"This child was the long-lost grandson of a military region commander!"

"This time, everyone involved in this surgery won't escape consequences!"