Su Qingrou's Emergency Appendectomy

Su Qingrou's Emergency Appendectomy begins as an ordinary medical emergency and expands into a volatile confrontation involving Su Xiangwan, Bian Jiang, Lin Yanche, and Lu Xun. Su Qingrou's acute appendicitis requires immediate surgery, but the hospital episode quickly becomes significant for what follows: concern over her engagement, Lin Yanche's theatrical control of the ward, and the violent removal of people who challenge his authority. The operation therefore functions not only as treatment for a physical crisis, but also as a pressure point revealing the relationships and power struggles surrounding Su Qingrou.

Causes and Medical Crisis

Su Qingrou's condition is discovered when Bian Jiang enters her room and sees that her face is abnormal. Medical examination identifies acute appendicitis, and he arranges for her to undergo an appendectomy. The evidence presents the diagnosis through the observations of a worried companion rather than through a detached medical report: the first sign is the change in her appearance, followed by examination and surgery. This sequence gives the illness a concrete bodily reality before the surrounding drama begins to overwhelm it.

The timing makes the crisis especially disruptive. Su Qingrou's engagement ceremony is about to begin, so Su Xiangwan immediately worries that the event will have to be postponed because her sister is in the hospital. The appendectomy thus affects more than Su Qingrou's health. It threatens the public schedule and ceremonial expectations attached to her engagement, placing medical necessity against the social demand that the planned event proceed. Lin Yanche's mocking response makes clear that the engagement itself is already unstable, even apart from the operation.

The Hospital Becomes a Controlled Space

The hospital does not remain a neutral place of care. Lin Yanche arrives with bodyguards and orders them to clean up the people around him. His men then swarm over Su Xiangwan and Bian Jiang, drag them outside, and leave them struggling to understand what he intends to do. Their removal transforms the hospital from a place where Su Qingrou should receive treatment into a space governed by Lin Yanche's private command.

Lin Yanche's control becomes even more conspicuous when Lu Xun carries Su Xiangwan toward Su Qingrou's ward. Bodyguards stand in orderly rows, the entire department has been reserved, and all the doctors and nurses have been assigned to Su Qingrou's care. The scale of the arrangement is so disproportionate to an appendectomy that nurses compare the spectacle to a large American movie. The contrast is revealing: the procedure is medically familiar, while the security cordon and exclusive occupation of the department display Lin Yanche's wealth, possessiveness, and need to control access to Su Qingrou.

Family Concern and Romantic Stakes

Su Xiangwan responds to the operation first as a sister. She goes to the hospital after learning that Su Qingrou has been admitted, asks Bian Jiang what happened, and worries aloud about the engagement ceremony. Her concern links Su Qingrou's physical vulnerability with the wider consequences for the family and for the marriage arrangement being prepared around her.

Lu Xun's presence adds another layer to the episode. A later message informs Su Xiangwan that Lin Yanche is hospitalized and that Lu Xun will wait at the hospital so they can take Grandfather home together. In the hospital confrontation, Lu Xun is injured, with blood still trickling from the corner of his mouth, yet his immediate priority remains Su Xiangwan's safety. When she is frightened, he embraces and reassures her, telling her not to be afraid because he is there. The episode consequently places Su Qingrou's surgery within a larger network of protective gestures, in which illness and violence repeatedly force characters to declare whom they will protect and at what cost.

Consequences and Aftermath

The appendectomy does not resolve the tensions surrounding Su Qingrou. Instead, it intensifies them. Lin Yanche's decision to expel Su Xiangwan and Bian Jiang suggests that access to Su Qingrou has become a matter of authority rather than simple family visitation. His conduct also confirms the instability already visible in his relationship with the people around him: the hospital is organized with extreme care for Su Qingrou, yet that care is accompanied by intimidation and violence toward others.

The episode also foreshadows the broader medical narratives that shape the novel. Lu Xun's illness can suddenly recur, requiring him to take a pill and spray medicine into his mouth before recovering after several deep breaths. Su Xiangwan is portrayed as physically fragile enough to collapse at an elevator, burning with fever and losing consciousness, while Lin Yanche is later revealed to have liver cancer and to be waiting for a suitable liver source, with death presented as the alternative. Against these conditions, Su Qingrou's appendectomy is comparatively acute and treatable, but it belongs to the same pattern: disease repeatedly changes who can act, who must be cared for, and who gains control over another person's body.

Narrative Significance

Su Qingrou's Emergency Appendectomy is important because it converts a routine operation into a concentrated image of the novel's medical and relational politics. The surgery establishes genuine vulnerability, while the reserved hospital department and armed bodyguards turn treatment into spectacle. Su Xiangwan's anxious family response preserves the event's emotional center, but Lin Yanche's reaction overwhelms that center with coercive power. The result is an episode in which care and control appear side by side: Su Qingrou is surrounded by doctors and protection, yet the same protective arrangement excludes others and produces violence. The appendectomy therefore advances both the immediate hospital plot and the novel's recurring concern with how sickness exposes, rearranges, and sometimes distorts intimate bonds.