Zhou Xiu ran to the hospital in a hurry, and fell heavily when she ran up the stairs. It was Xie Cheng who helped her up.

"Don't worry, walk slowly. Uncle is waiting for you."

Zhou Xiu crawled and ran to the door of the emergency room, and Liu Mei handed her daughter a critical illness notice with sweaty palms.

Liu Mei was illiterate, but she still struggled to sign her crooked name on the critical illness notice. When Zhou Xiu came, she seemed to have found her backbone.

"Xiu'er, look at this, the doctor just gave me--"

Zhou Xiu glanced at Zhou Cheng's critical illness notice, "The patient's life may be in danger at any time... Despite this, we will still take effective measures to actively treat him."

Unexpectedly, the situation was even more dangerous than imagined, and Zhou Cheng was still trying to rescue him inside. Zhou Xiu's head buzzed and he felt as if the world was turning upside down. The scenery before him seemed to be covered with a layer of gray.

The corridor was quiet. Liu Mei said with tears in her eyes, "The doctor said there was a tumor in his brain. Your father often told me that he was very tired and couldn't sleep. I should have thought of it earlier - I should have thought of it earlier!"

Zhou Cheng has been in poor health since childhood and cannot do physical work. His hands and feet are not very nimble and he occasionally falls and hits his head. But Zhou Cheng was very hard-working and did every job carefully. Liu Mei just thought that he didn't eat well since childhood and lacked nutrition, which led to his poor health. No one expected that he had a tumor in his brain!

Liu Mei thought about the last time he broke his leg and was hospitalized. She should have given him a full body check-up that time! But he cheerfully refused the check-up, fearing that it would delay his work and he wanted to be discharged from the hospital as soon as his leg healed.

Zhou Xiu held the critical illness notice in her hand and understood everything.

So that's how it is! In his previous life, Zhou Cheng did not die from falling off a mountain, but from brain cancer. In the dream, Zhou Xiu's parents in the countryside often asked him for money. After a while, they were unwilling to ask anymore. Then Zhou Xiu heard the news of Zhou Cheng's death. He no longer wanted to receive treatment, so he stopped asking "Zhou Xiu" for money.

Zhou Xiu bit her lip tightly, trying her best to stay calm. She stretched out her hand and placed it on Liu Mei's head. "Mom, don't cry. Dad is still waiting for us inside."

Liu Mei's hands and feet were icy and cold, and finally she leaned on Zhou Xiu's shoulder and cried. More than ten years passed, and Zhou Xiu was already half a head taller than her. She trembled as she absorbed her daughter's warmth.

Xie Cheng stood at the corridor and comforted him softly, "Uncle must be blessed by heaven."

Zhou Xiu and Liu Mei waited at the door of the operating room for two hours. When they were tired of standing, they sat on a chair for a while. The hospital was a bit cold, so Xie Cheng took off his coat and put it on Zhou Xiu.

He walked to the other end of the corridor and turned on his cell phone, and a bunch of messages came in.

After missing a whole morning of classes, Xie Cheng’s phone was flooded with calls. Two top students disappeared inexplicably, and the teachers were very worried. But I felt relieved when I thought that these two people were usually well-behaved and were not naughty students. Most of the students who called Xie Cheng were from the Rocket Class and Class 24.

Xie Cheng asked for leave from his class teacher and also asked for leave for Zhou Xiu.

Three hours later, the door of the operating room opened and the doctor walked out. He looked at Zhou Xiu and Liu Mei and nodded, motioning them to go to the office to talk.

The doctor said to Liu Mei and Zhou Xiu, "There are slightly higher-density lesions and calcifications on the edge of Mr. Liu's CT scan, which is diagnosed as a meningioma. There is edema around the meningioma, and changes in intracranial pressure can cause headaches and fainting. We just performed surgery to remove part of his tumor... But the situation is not very good, his tumor has spread a lot."

Doctor Liu asked sternly, "His condition is very critical and should have been there for a long time. Why did he only come to the hospital now?"

Zhou Cheng was used to living in poverty. After coming to the big city, the pressure of life suddenly increased. He just wanted to work hard to earn more money. Zhou Cheng has been taking medicine since he was a child and he avoids going to the hospital for fear of wasting money and burdening his family. Just endure any headache or fever and go to the hospital only when you really can't take it anymore.

Zhou Xiu listened to every word the doctor said over and over again, feeling heartbroken.

It was hard for her to imagine how Zhou Cheng could endure day after day until today when he could no longer bear it and was sent to the hospital? When meningioma develops to the point where dizziness and fainting occur, it is already in the middle to late stages, and every day feels like a year!

The doctor looked at the heartbroken mother and daughter. As he was used to seeing this kind of scene, he had no way to comfort them and could only sigh heavily.

The nurse came over to inform Liu Mei, "Family members of the patient, the patient will be kept in the intensive care unit for three days for observation. Please go to the payment office and pay the fee first."

Liu Mei gritted her teeth and said, "This disease will cost a lot of money... Doctor, we are not afraid of spending money. We must do our best to save him and use the best medicine."

She planned to sell the house to pay for Zhou Cheng's medical treatment.

Zhou Xiu went to the payment office to pay the medical bills and received a thick stack of bills. Surgery fees, medicine fees, nutrition fees, hospitalization fees... all added up to more than 60,000 yuan. After swiping the card, a text message popped up saying the fee was deducted. Zhou Xiu glanced at the card and saw that there was not much balance left. The ICU fee was 20,000 yuan a night.

Zhou Xiu didn't have much money left, so during the summer vacation she donated her savings to Xiushui Primary School to buy books. Fortunately, she had the award from the IELTS competition, which temporarily solved her urgent problem. But this money is far from enough to treat Zhou Cheng.

Reality comes so fiercely and cruelly that it catches people off guard.

After Xie Cheng finished the call, he went to the bill payment office to look for Zhou Xiu, but he didn't find her there. Instead, he found her in the stairwell. He quickly understood when he saw her frowning slightly as she held the bill.

Xie Cheng secretly deposited 200,000 yuan for Zhou Cheng's medical expenses and used up all the pocket money in his card.

After swiping the card, he found Zhou Xiu and asked, "Zhou Xiu, do you need anything? I'll get it for you at school."

Zhou Xiu shook her head and nodded. She remembered the set of extremely difficult competition papers that Lao Wang had given her. "There is a set of 10 papers from Lao Wang in my bookcase. I have only written on one paper. I know where the behind-the-scenes photos are. Please bring them to me after school this afternoon. Thank you, Xie Cheng."

This is the test paper that Zhou Xiu couldn't write last year... She racked her brains to write it, but only got 30% correct.

The system said at the time, "If you complete Mr. Wang's Olympic test paper with an accuracy rate of 80%, you can get 30,000 RMB." 】

[Complete Mr. Wang's Mathematical Olympiad test paper with a 90% accuracy rate and receive 100,000 RMB]

[Complete Mr. Wang's Olympic test paper with 100% accuracy and you can get 500,000 RMB]

Xie Cheng quickly went to the school to pick up Zhou Xiu's schoolbag and test papers, and bought two hot lunch boxes on the way. Zhou Xiu unexpectedly took the schoolbag and a full stack of test papers.

Xie Cheng's gaze stayed on Zhou Xiu for a moment, and after a long while he comforted her, "Zhou Xiu, don't be sad."

In just a few hours, Zhou Xiu had already experienced the feeling of falling from heaven to hell. She forced herself to smile and said softly, "Thank you, Xie Cheng."

Zhou Xiu is not sad. How could Zhou Xiu not be sad?

She came to the outside of the ICU ward and looked at Zhou Cheng who had just undergone surgery.

She looked through the transparent glass window at Zhou Cheng, whose body was filled with tubes, and tears gradually welled up in her eyes. Zhou Xiu recalled that brief dream over and over again, and never imagined that Zhou Cheng actually died of cancer.

"Zhou Xiu" must have felt helpless and blamed himself at that time.

…

Jiang family.

After Jiang Jiajun returned to City B, Jiang Dongxue told Mrs. Jiang that he had asked Gu Mingxi to help Zhou Xiu apply to Harvard, and accused him of being disloyal. "Jia Jun is so abominable. I want to go to Harvard, and he never told Brother Mingxi about it!"

Jiang Jiajun said: "If you want, I can also help you talk to him."

People are different. When Jiang Jiajun and Zhou Xiu competed on the same field, he felt like he was being hung up and beaten hard by her, and his IQ was being rubbed on the floor. Although the audience only found it interesting when watching from the audience, only the actual contestants knew how terrifying she was.

Gu Mingxi persuaded the elders to help Zhou Xiu apply for school because she had the ability. If Jiang Jiajun were to apply, no one would probably bother to pay attention. Not to mention Jiang Dongxue. Besides...Gu Mingxi has a good impression of Zhou Xiu.

After hearing her daughter's accusation, Mrs. Jiang said, "Jia Jun owes Ming Xi a big favor by troubling him like this. Don't bother your senior so easily in the future."

Jiang Jiajun said happily: "I told my father about this matter, and he approves of my behavior. I was able to win the gold medal this time, and the senior sister helped me a lot."

Jiang Huai is actually willing to use up his favor and let Jiang Jiajun act recklessly? Mrs. Jiang was a little surprised.

The other side.

Jiang Huai was the first to receive the news that Zhou Xiu's adoptive father was ill and hospitalized, and was considering going to City C to visit Zhou Xiu.

Seventeen years ago, the Jiang family lost a child and couldn't find him after searching for a long time. Jiang Huai only found Zhou Xiu recently. It has not been easy for Zhou Cheng to raise Zhou Xiu over the years. Without them, Zhou Xiu would probably have died long ago.

After finding Zhou Xiu, he notified his parents immediately. "The child has been found. She is studying in City C. You should prepare to go and bring her back. She is almost an adult. It's okay if she doesn't want to come back. I respect her wishes."

Grandpa Jiang and Grandma Jiang were surprised for a long time when they heard the news, but when they heard that their granddaughter grew up in the countryside, they both became puzzled. The education in the countryside is so poor, you can imagine what she is like now. In rural areas in the mountains, if you get married early, you may be married at the age of seventeen.

"We have to consider Dongxue and Jiajun's feelings," said Grandma Jiang.

As for the child Jiang Huai mentioned who might not want to come back, they completely ignored the fact that the Jiang family could provide her with the best conditions and environment, so how could she not want to come back?

The two elders of the Jiang family and Jiang Huai set out together to City C to find Zhou Xiu.

…

The First People's Hospital of the city.

The behind-the-scenes footage arrived at the hospital in the evening. Although Xie Cheng went back to school during the day to help Zhou Xiu get something, he did not reveal a word.

But when Huaxu went to the office to hand in his homework, he secretly heard Miss Li and other teachers discussing Zhou Xiu's leave with regret. Only then did she realize that Uncle Zhou was ill and very seriously ill. Zhou Xiu did not tell anyone about this, fearing that

So she brought the books Zhou Xiu often read to the hospital. When she arrived at the hospital, she was surprised to find that Zhou Cheng was in the intensive care unit.

Huaxu hugged Zhou Xiu, patted her shoulder gently and said seriously, "If you have any difficulties, please tell me as soon as possible."

She emphasized two certainties. Zhou Xiu finally smiled for the first time today.

She shook her head and said, "I'm very happy that you came to see me. I don't have any difficulties. The monthly exam is coming soon. I'll be even happier if Xuxu can get into the top three. Go back, study hard, and don't worry about me."

What Zhou Xiu lacks most now is money, but what he lacks least is also money. Because her friends are all very good friends, Xie Cheng secretly deposited 200,000 yuan for her father's medical expenses. Huaxu rushed to the hospital as soon as she learned about the situation. Zhou Xiu believed that she was also someone who was willing to help with all her heart.

The incandescent lights in the hospital corridor illuminated Zhou Xiu's snow-white face, her plain makeup, and her dark eyes, as if washed by snow. There is a kind of fragile and ethereal beauty.

The system had been silent today. It comforted Zhou Xiu with pleasure, but also looked at her with distress as she took out the math materials and started flipping through them while sitting on a chair in the corridor.

Zhou Xiu took out a test paper and worked on it until one in the morning. After finishing, she checked the answers and corrected them. The accuracy rate was 67%.

At the same time, a message popped up on my mobile bank card indicating that RMB 10,000 had been deposited into my account. The system seemed to have been muted today, and there was no notification sound when the reward was sent. Zhou Xiu put his phone back into his pocket, took out his iPad and concentrated on reading the math materials that Lao Wang had given him.

Liu Mei was so sleepy that she dozed off in the lounge, while Zhou Xiu was flipping through pages of mathematical literature.

The intensive care unit does not require family members to accompany them, so late at night they can only go to the family lounge to rest for a while. This small lounge is filled with all kinds of human life.

There were children crying silently, old people crying bitterly because they had just seen off their loved ones, and women with tired and numb faces. The sounds of idle chatter, complaining conversations, bored music, the sounds of TV dramas playing, and even the harsh sounds of quarrels and fights between family members.

Only Zhou Xiu, who was calculating with a pile of scratch paper, looked so different.

Liu Mei woke up in the middle of the night and found her daughter still doing math, so she advised her to go to bed early. Her pair of black eyes were slightly red from staying up late, but her look was full of incomparable determination. Liu Mei swallowed her words again and just touched Zhou Xiu's head.

Everyone in the village said that Zhou Xiu was too handsome, unlike her and Zhou Cheng, but Zhou Xiu's stubborn character was very much like Zhou Cheng, and once he made up his mind, no one could change his mind.

Her back was straight and her hands were constantly flipping through documents. There was a bright red 67 on the test paper, and the paper was covered with corrections and revisions.

Zhou Xiu wrote it again, but the accuracy was still far from 90%. For the first time ever, she felt that her IQ was not enough. She held the iPad with the behind-the-scenes footage in a daze. She felt so frustrated that she didn't know what she was doing.

At three o'clock in the morning, Gu Mingxi, who was already on the other side of the ocean, found that Zhou Xiu's profile picture was still lit, and sent a message to ask: "Zhou Xiu, are you still online so late?"

Zhou Xiu didn't say anything, but just took a photo of the test paper and sent it to Gu Mingxi.

The sky seemed to be getting brighter, the faint light drove away the chaos and darkness, and the rays of the rising sun pierced the sky through the thick clouds. Zhou Xiu sent a message to Lao Wang, "Good morning, Teacher Wang, how can I get these exams right?"

Lao Wang is old and wakes up very early. After he washed up and turned on his mobile phone, Zhou Xiu's message immediately popped up.

He squinted his eyes and looked at the test paper Zhou Xiu took. He got 67 points. He was furious at first, but when he looked closely, he realized that it was a set of papers that he had given to Zhou Xiu a long time ago.

Lao Wang's anger subsided strangely, and was instantly soothed gently by a spring breeze.

He typed a line of words in a daze and said carelessly: "It's okay, Zhou Xiu, don't worry about it."

“It wasn’t written for you.”

Because...even the students who won gold medals might not be able to pass the exam, and he never intended to let students write these papers when he first made them! How can we make a group of arrogant and smart students learn with an open mind and understand their own capabilities? So Lao Wang sent each of them a set of very obscure and profound competition questions.

After Lao Wang finished his meal, he glanced at the time when Zhou Xiu sent the message. It was five in the morning.

Zhou Xiu was already writing the test paper at five o'clock. Lao Wang was both surprised and moved.

He wrote a line of words, "Probably work hard, use your intelligence, and love mathematics as much as you can. Treat mathematics with your heart, and mathematics will give you the same reward."

Hospital, family lounge.

There are only seven out of ten test papers left, and there are fewer and fewer opportunities for trial and error. Zhou Xiu had tried to do it twice before when she was young and ignorant, once for about thirty points, once for about forty points, and this time for about sixty points.

Zhou Xiu's phone vibrated as she saw a message from Lao Wang, "Take math seriously, and math will give you the same in return."

At the same time, Gu Mingxi took a picture of the test paper he had written and sent it to him. The score was 81. "It was very difficult. I finished it overtime."

Zhou Xiu's heart suddenly moved, and she stared at the line of words on the screen for a long time.

…

In the morning, Zhou Cheng woke up after the operation and called for his daughter and wife in a weak voice.

Zhou Xiu finally had the opportunity to visit her father in the intensive care unit. Zhou Cheng's head was wrapped in layers of gauze, and his hair, which used to be mixed with silver threads, was shaved cleanly, revealing his scalp.

Zhou Cheng said cheerfully, "Where is this? We've wasted money coming to the hospital again. I'm fine, everything is fine. Why waste money? When can we go home?"

He had never stayed in an intensive care unit, but it felt different from the room he stayed in last time. It must be quite expensive. He felt so sorry for the money, and his words revealed deep heartache.

Liu Mei told Zhou Cheng about his condition in a rambling manner, hiding the fact that he had cancer. "The doctor said that there was something growing in your brain, so we cut it off. Can you stay for a few more days and go back after it's fully healed?"

Zhou Cheng nodded and urged Zhou Xiu to go to school. "Xiu'er, it's already so bright outside. It's getting late. You should go to school quickly. There's a math competition next month!"

"Oh, I slept very deeply, and I didn't feel well at all. I can't even remember what day it was. Why are you guys looking at me like this?"

Zhou Xiu had been crying the whole day yesterday. When she heard Zhou Cheng say this, her eyes ached so much that she couldn't help but burst into tears.

Zhou Cheng is a very strong man. I have never seen him complain about being tired or in pain. He has been carrying the load by himself for so long without ever complaining about pain. But today he said he was not feeling well and wanted to go home.

Zhou Xiu forced back her tears, touched his cold hand and said, "The grade gave us contestants a few days off, and let us prepare for the exams on our own. I have finished reviewing all the content for the senior year, can I accompany Dad these few days? Dad, if you feel any pain, don't bear it, tell us."

Liu Mei kept shedding tears behind him, trying hard to hold back her tears, and said in her usual proud tone, "Yes, you don't know how smart our Xiu'er is. She has already finished all the content in her second year of high school. It doesn't matter if she misses a few days of classes, just consider it as accompanying us."

Zhou Cheng has always been optimistic. He showed his snow-white teeth through the respirator and grinned foolishly.

Zhou Xiu couldn't bear to see him smiling, as she couldn't hold back her tears.

How wonderful it would be if there was no cancer in the world. For the first time in her life, this thought crossed her mind.

She felt so sorry for her father that her whole heart ached.