c74: Too Late

Yan Feifan got out of the car to see the chubby boy had already slid off the hood and plopped onto the ground.

Xiao Man, thoroughly startled, got out of the car as well. She shouted, trying to sound tough, "Kid, I have a dashcam! Don’t even think about trying to scam me."

"You suddenly darted out from the side of the road, and I didn’t even hit you..."

"Mrs. Man, wait!"

Yan Feifan cut Xiao Man off.

He suddenly realized something was wrong with the chubby boy.

The boy’s face was grimy and covered in beads of sweat the size of peas. His Adidas tracksuit was completely soaked through.

Moreover, his clothes were stained with dirt and bits of leaves. He had clearly fallen down, and probably more than once.

He sat there, wheezing and panting, the sounds interspersed with dry heaves. His eyes were glazed over.

Yan Feifan determined that the boy’s condition wasn’t from fright, but from oxygen deprivation caused by strenuous exercise.

Someone who rarely exercises can easily experience dizziness, headaches, blurred or darkening vision, paleness, shortness of breath, nausea, vomiting, and muscle cramps after strenuous activity.

This happens when the respiratory system can’t keep up with the demands of intense physical exertion.

A few moments of rest are usually enough to recover as the body’s oxygen levels return to normal.

Yan Feifan knelt in front of the chubby boy, checking him for injuries as he asked, "What had you running in such a hurry?"

"Did you see a snake?"

"My sister..."

The chubby boy gasped for breath, then held out his scraped left hand. He struggled to point toward the woods he’d just burst out of, mumbling, "Save... my sister... bees..."

Yan Feifan understood at once.

His sister was still in the woods.

She must have been stung by bees, and it sounded serious.

"Mrs. Man, I’m going into the woods to check on his sister!"

With that, Yan Feifan got to his feet, leaped over the drainage ditch on the roadside, and dashed into the woods.

The woods were fairly sparse. A clear trail was still visible on the ground through the dirt, dead leaves, and wild grass.

’The chubby boy must have left it,’ Yan Feifan guessed.

"Little girl! Answer if you can hear me!"

Yan Feifan shouted as he ran, following the tracks deeper into the woods.

After searching for two or three hundred meters, a flash of pink among the trees ahead caught his eye.

Yan Feifan broke into a sprint.

When he was still a dozen meters away, he could see her clearly—it was a little girl in pink clothes.

When he saw the little girl lying motionless, Yan Feifan knew something was terribly wrong and ran even faster.

When he reached the little girl’s side, Yan Feifan’s heart sank.

The little girl had two swollen welts on her forehead, likely from bee stings.

’That alone wasn’t a major issue.’

The main problem was her face—especially her lips, which had already turned purple.

’This was an allergic reaction to the bee stings. It was causing laryngeal edema, leading to suffocation.’

Yan Feifan pried open the girl’s mouth and looked inside. Her throat was completely swollen shut, confirming his diagnosis.

Fortunately, he found that she still had a pulse. It was faint, but her heart was still beating.

’The priority now is to get her breathing again.’

’In a situation like this, CPR would be useless. The only option... is an emergency tracheotomy.’

’The problem was, when Yan Feifan searched his pockets...’

’They were completely empty.’

He quickly checked the girl’s pockets, but found nothing he could use.

Desperate, Yan Feifan had no other choice.

He grabbed a dead branch from the ground and snapped it several times until he had a piece with a sharp point.

Yan Feifan, an expert in human anatomy, acted with swift precision. He thrust the sharp point of the branch into the girl’s throat.

With a soft POP, the sharp branch pierced the girl’s skin and entered her trachea.

Immediately, Yan Feifan heard the faint HISS of air being drawn in.

Next, he pulled up a few blades of wild grass until he found a fresh, hollow stalk. He used it as a makeshift breathing tube, inserting it into the girl’s trachea as he removed the branch.

Once this was done, Yan Feifan noticed the purple color of her lips slowly beginning to recede.

He could also feel her heartbeat growing stronger.