Chapter 41: Poop, Pee, and Farts
Chapter 41: Poop, Pee, and Farts
The solar-powered street lights emit such weak light that they can't illuminate the darkness further away. But hospitals are places where, even if the power goes out everywhere else, they might not lose power. So, the outlets still have electricity, and the bottle warmer can still be used.
Once the saline solution in the baby bottle warms to the appropriate temperature, Anran picks up a can of domestic baby formula from the counter, carefully checks the ratio, scoops the formula out with a spoon, and pours it into the bottle.
The milk made with saline naturally isn't as good as milk made with purified water. Anran isn't sure if Chen Jiao's son will get diarrhea from it, and she feels a bit guilty, but she can't think of a better solution.
Standing in the lounge, she struggles with how to transport a newborn, who could cry at any moment, from the neonatal department on the fifth floor to the obstetrics department on the fourth, just so Chen Jiao’s son can have some breast milk.
Before long, Chen Jiao’s son wakes up and, after his brief nap, begins to wail, filling his diaper with an enormous amount of poop.
"Oh my god!"
Anran helplessly lets go of Chen Jiao’s son’s feet, and his poop-covered bottom ends up sticking to the bedsheet. She groans in frustration, picks up Doll, lifts her shirt with one hand, and starts breastfeeding her, finally silencing her wails.
"Are you on a timer or something? Waking up every hour—are you trying to drive me crazy?"
Anran helplessly let go of Chen Jiao’s son’s feet, and his poop-covered bottom ended up sticking to the bedsheet. She groaned in frustration, picked up Doll, lifted her shirt with one hand, and started breastfeeding her, finally silencing her wails.
Then, still holding the nursing baby, Anran grabs the baby bottle that has been kept warm in the operating room and returns to the break room, sticking the bottle's nipple into Chen Jiao's son's mouth. The piercing cries finally cease, and she lets out a sigh of relief.
There’s no time to clean up the mess on the bed just yet. After Doll and Chen Jiao’s son finish feeding, Anran wipes Chen Jiao’s son's bottom with some tissues and puts on a fresh diaper.
As for the poop smeared on the bedsheet, Anran doesn’t have the energy to care for both babies and change the sheet. She just wipes the soiled part with some tissue and collapses onto the bed, deciding to leave it be.
Over time, Anran gots used to the babies constant routine of poop, pee, and farts that it doesn't faze her anymore.
By now, Anran figures out the pattern with these two babies: they wake up about every hour, and when they wake, they want to eat. She also has to check if they need a diaper change. In other words, the babies, both Doll and Chen Jiao’s son, have only a few basic needs: they are either hungry, need to pee or poop, or are uncomfortable for some reason.
Having mastered this routine makes things easier for Anran when she goes out to explore. Once both babies are asleep, she takes a light nap, and as soon as she feels a bit better, she leaves them on the bed and starts wandering the hallways. Occasionally, she even ends up in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).
The back door is always easier to access than the front. In the NICU, there are a few zombies that were once medical staff, but no babies that are still alive. After dealing with the zombie medical staff with her now completely dulled fruit knife, Anran knows it won’t be long before the knife reaches the end of its life.