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Chapter 386: Chapter 376 Sister, don’t cry, I’m back
Qiu Shuping saw that all three people were looking at her waiting for her explanation and hesitantly said, "Well, Xianglian is in the hospital, if we go there, bumping into her wouldn’t be good."
Li Hongjun frowned. What was his eldest sister doing in the hospital?
"Has Jiajia’s illness not improved?" Old Li asked. 𝙣𝙤𝙫𝒑𝙪𝒃.𝒄𝒐𝙢
"Jiajia is ill? What illness?" Li Hongjun looked at Qiu Shuping and asked.
Seeing the expression on his mother’s face, Li Hongjun knew something was up, so he asked her directly.
Jiajia is Li Xianglian’s younger daughter, named Liu Jia. In Li Hongjun’s memory, she was a very timid girl who always liked to hide behind her big sister and sneak peeks at him.
"I heard, heard it’s meningitis," Qiu Shuping answered somewhat uneasily.
"What exactly happened, when did she get it, and how is she now?" Li Hongjun furrowed his brows and pressed on. Seeing that his mother was still hesitating, he shouted angrily, "Mother, can you please speak up?" What time is it now, and the old lady is actually still thinking about those irrelevant things. Meningitis is one of the diseases with the highest mortality rate nowadays, and many people who delay treatment, even if cured in the end, would be left with some sequelae.
"Why are you yelling at me? It’s not like I’m the one who caused her to get sick," Qiu Shuping retorted unwillingly.
"Shut up and speak up, what exactly happened?" Old Li was also anxious, "Last time Xianghe came and said the child was ill, and after that, she didn’t come by again. I thought she’d recovered. How come she’s in the hospital now?"
Qiu Shuping looked from one to another, while the young doctor just acted as if he were invisible, continuing with his own work as they discussed theirs.
"That time Xianghe came to borrow money, saying the child had a fever and needed to take her to the hospital for a check-up. After that visit to Hongjun, where did we have any extra money? I didn’t lend it to her and sent her away." This was a polite way of putting it; at the time, she had actually driven Li Xianglian away with harsh words.
"Later, your leg was hurt, and she came two more times, saying Liu Jia had meningitis and needed to be hospitalized. She didn’t have enough money on her own, so she came to borrow from me. Tell me, how many people with that illness can be cured? Why waste that money? Besides, you were also injured at that time, lying on the kang. That girl just glanced once and didn’t even let out a fart before fussing over her own kid..." She mumbled the rest under her breath, too softly for anyone to hear, but everyone understood the implication of her words.
Of course, she dared not mention the details of when Xianghe and her husband had come to plead with her, as she could see that they both thought she was in the wrong.
"You, you damn idiot, haven’t you any brains? Can’t you distinguish which is more serious, my leg injury or the child’s illness? When Xianghe came to you to borrow money, it must have been because she had no other options. How can you, as a mother, be so heartless? That’s your daughter, and the one sick is your granddaughter," Old Li, agitated, began coughing as he spoke.
Qiu Shuping didn’t feel she had done anything wrong at all. Being scolded by Old Li, she twisted her body and grumbled, "A daughter married off is like water splashed out. She’s Old Liu’s child now. If the child is sick, it should be Old Liu’s family who figures it out, why should I pay?"
"You, you, you..." Old Li was furious, "If something happens to Jiajia, how could you live with yourself? The child came seeking help from you, and you’re still so cold-blooded. Won’t you chill the hearts of the children? What good will it bring you?" He really didn’t understand what his wife was thinking. It was one thing for her to be foolish at times, since no one really took it seriously, knowing that whatever she did, she still prioritized the family. But now, it seemed she didn’t even care about her own daughter. Was she even human?
"I have my own son, I don’t depend on them, how they talk about me doesn’t matter," Qiu Shuping still refused to change her stubborn ways.
"All right, Dad, stop talking. I’ll take you to the county right now," Li Hongjun said after the young doctor had wrapped his father’s wound with fresh gauze as instructed. He bent down, hoisted his old man onto his back again, and prepared to set off for the county immediately.
He still didn’t know how his sister’s child was doing. He had to get there quickly to see if there was any way he could help. Thinking of his sister’s situation, he guessed that it was probably a time when she would need money the most. He needed to go there and give her some cash; her child’s treatment couldn’t be delayed because of a lack of funds.
"Let’s go, we’ll leave right now," said the old Li, not thinking about going to the hospital for his own injury but to see his eldest daughter and granddaughter. What his wife had done was simply inhuman.
"Hey, hey, where are you two going? Come back here," Qiu Shuping called after them as they were leaving, attempting to chase after them.
The young doctor quickly stopped her, fearing she would cause more trouble. He had heard every word they had said earlier, and he lost all sympathy for the old woman who only thought of herself and didn’t consider her daughter human.
"What do you want? You looking for a scratch or something?" Qiu Shuping glared at the young doctor.
"I don’t want anything; if you’re done with the treatment, you think you can just leave without paying? The total for the treatment and gauze comes to seventy cents," the young doctor said, no longer mincing his words.
"What? All you used was that bit of gauze and you’re asking for seventy cents? Why don’t you go rob someone..."
Li Hongjun carried the elder Li out of the clinic, ignoring Qiu Shuping, and made his way straight to the team headquarters. There, he borrowed a horse-drawn cart and hastened to the county.
By the time they reached the county hospital, it was past five o’clock. Li Hongjun thanked the driver and carried Elder Li into the hospital.
Once he found a doctor for old Li, he didn’t bother with him anymore and let him take care of himself. After ensuring he was seated outside on a bench, Li Hongjun went to find out on which floor his sister was hospitalized.
There was only one case of meningitis in the hospital at that time, so it was easy for Li Hongjun to find out where to go. He raced up a flight of stairs and quickly made his way to the ward.
Just as he reached the door to the ward, he saw Li Xianglian coming out. She looked up and saw her younger brother in his military uniform standing in the hallway.
Li Xianglian stared at her younger brother without moving, her eyes starting to moisten. The tears welled up, unable to be contained, and one fell, followed by an unstoppable flow. Her tears fell faster until they spattered onto the floor.
Seeing his older sister cry like that made Li Hongjun feel unbearably sad. He remembered that it was his sister who had raised him when he was little, the one who took him to school for the first time, the one who secretly saved her steamed buns for him. He remembered all of it.
"Hongjun..." Xianglian finally lost control and, after a few quick steps, threw herself into her younger brother’s embrace. "You’re finally back, you’re finally back, sob... Jiajia is sick, I didn’t know what to do, Jiajia is sick, and now you’re back..."
"Sis, don’t cry, I’m back," Li Hongjun consoled his sister, wrapping his arms around her and closing his eyes, hoping it wasn’t too late for him to return.
