New Year's Eve (Part 2)

"Professor Yang, you can walk now?"

Hearing Xu Yun's words,

Yang Kaiqu, supported on either side by Yuan Guoliang and Zhou Kaida, slowly nodded. He showed Xu Yun the cane in his hand and said,

"Thanks to you, Little Xu, I can just about manage without a wheelchair. But I have to rest after walking a few steps, so I'm still a long way from being properly back on my feet."

Looking at Yang Kaiqu's somewhat regretful expression, Xu Yun felt not sorrow but joy.

As mentioned earlier,

the Staff Hospital had only two special-care rooms—or, to be precise, three sets of cardiac monitors.

Xu Yun and Yang Kaiqu shared one room. The other was occupied by Wang Liming, an engineer and the husband of Xia Min, director of the Seventeenth Branch Factory.

Wang Liming had been seriously injured in an explosives accident, and physician Lin Yu had amputated his left leg.

For a long time, Wang Liming had remained unconscious and in critical condition. He had also developed an infection after surgery, and could stop breathing at any moment.

Fortunately,

about a month earlier,

Wang Liming had made it through the crisis and regained consciousness.

So, after a few days of observation, he was moved out of the special-care room.

Naturally, the now-vacant room was assigned to Yang Kaiqu by the organization.

After all, although having Xu Yun and Yang Kaiqu share a room meant someone would notice if an emergency occurred, most of the time they simply disturbed each other.

For instance, sometimes Xu Yun stayed up late discussing matters with other project teams the night before and needed to catch up on sleep the next day.

But Yang Kaiqu had to go in for his Paclitaxel injection every morning, and he needed help getting out of bed.