Chapter 5 is called Wenjing, but it is not quiet at all

After a long day of running around, Li Wenjing developed a fever, which suddenly worsened into jaundice, turning her body yellow. She passed out, refusing to respond to anyone's calls.

"She worked late into the night? Her fever just subsided, but it could easily come back. Why didn't you two try to persuade her? She went to check out the venue early the next morning. Do you really want to take care of your health?"

Gu Weiyi's condition took a turn for the worse, and his mind was in a mess. He spoke much more harshly than usual, mostly blaming Li Wenjing. He clenched his fists, digging his nails into the flesh of his palms, forcing himself to calm down.

"She's the most stubborn! If we don't let her work, she'll blame us for not paying her. Wenjing doesn't sound gentle at all," said Zhang Gong. "Brother Oxford, you have to think of a way to save Wenjing. She's a 20-something, unmarried woman. It would be tragic if she died out there."

"She doesn't care about herself anymore, how can I..." Gu Weiyi took a deep breath and swallowed the angry words, "I will do my best."

Zhang Zhaochuan shed two tears and choked up, saying, "Engineering is usually done by men. Wen Jing is from my hometown and a junior of mine. She's close to my wife. I didn't want to hire her at first. Her family wasn't well off, and she simply said she needed money and would do any job. I hired her because she could endure hardships, and now it's like this! Doctor Gu, you don't know, according to our customs, if an unmarried girl dies outside, she can't be buried in the ancestral tomb. Her soul will wander around the outside, and there will be no one to burn paper for her."

Gu Weiyi was stunned, staring at her withered face, haggard and bloodless, as yellow as the dead grass on the grassland. A sour feeling surged in his heart, and he couldn't say any words of blame.

Zhao Haoran was also very anxious and said, "Brother Chuan, let's drive back overnight and transfer to the big hospital in Mombasa."

"You send it and I send it. Do you know more than an Oxford doctor?"

"Oxford brother? What should I do?"

Zhao Haoran called him twice and patted the back of his hand. When he came to his senses, he realized that he was being called.

"Don't turn around. I used to be a doctor in Mombasa. Besides, it's even more dangerous to travel on the bumpy roads," Gu Weiyi said. "She had malaria once before, so she might have developed drug resistance. Plus, she didn't get enough rest during her period, which made her condition worse. I'm prescribing her new medication, it should be effective, don't worry."

Gu Weiyi knew that those words were meant to comfort them, and were also spoken to himself. When he gave her the injection, his fingers trembled slightly.

After everyone left, he stayed in the room to take care of her, his heart in turmoil, holding the cross necklace hanging from his neck and praying. He actually didn't believe in Christ, and the necklace was a gift from the priest, who insisted that he wear it as a talisman to ward off those invisible demons. At this moment, it felt like he had grabbed a lifeline, and only prayer could bring peace of mind.

"Merciful God, Heavenly Father, please forgive me, forgive the sins of the world, please let this poor girl live. If she dies here, she won't even be able to return home. Please don't be so cruel, she hasn't done anything bad..."

After reciting it several times without any meaning, Li Wenjing suddenly regained consciousness on the bed. After "humming" a few times, she straightened her chest and trembled, saying many words that he could not understand, probably in dialect. He could only understand the words "Dad, Mom".

With the last words, she called for the doctor.

"I am here."

He took off the cross necklace, reached into the mosquito net and placed the necklace in her palm. She held his hand tightly and refused to let go, with tears falling from the corners of her eyes.

"Mom, Dad, I want to go to the zoo. I want to see the lions. Can you take me with you?"

Another strange statement.

"There are no lions here. You need to drive to Tsavo, Amboseli, and Masai Mara National Parks. You can see the snow on Kilimanjaro and see not only lions, but also leopards, elephants, zebras, and many wildebeest migrating across the river. It's spectacular. There are also many crocodiles squatting in the river, waiting to eat the animals that cross the river. In Kenya, whether it's death or life, there is an endless hope. Do you want to go and see it?"

"I just saw everything." Li Wenjing opened her eyes slightly and blinked twice. "Doctor, am I going to die?"

Gu Weiyi said: "From a scientific point of view, as long as you are alive, you will die. Every bite of food you take, every breath of air you breathe, every sip of water you take accelerates oxidation, and every second you are slowly poisoning yourself."

She started vomiting again. Gu Weiyi patted her back. Her stomach was empty and she could only dry heave, crying and vomiting. Only Gu Weiyi was by her side. She looked into his eyes. His eyelashes blinked, as if an angel was flapping its wings, casting a faint shadow on his face.

"I've always had a very difficult life, growing up. People like me, who were born into hardship... I'm a joke. People always say girls shouldn't go too far, shouldn't go out..."

"Stop talking, you need to rest."

"No..." Her nails dug into his arm, sending waves of fine pain throughout his body. "You're the only one who listens to me. I feel so dizzy. I'm really going to die. Please, don't send my ashes back. I don't want to go back."

"Where do you want to go?"

"The sea can reach the whole world."

"I want to, but not today," he said. "I promise you, you won't die. Tomorrow when you open your eyes and the sun comes out, I'll still be by your side."

"But I'm tired."

"Rest if you're tired. Today is the weekend and the Grim Reaper doesn't work."

She tilted her head, as if she had exhausted her last bit of strength, and her whole body fell limply into his arms, trembling. His heart was beating heavily, pounding against her chest. He wiped her tears, helped her to sleep on the bed, and after covering her with a thin blanket, he also shed two lines of tears, which fell on the quilt.

Li Wenjing's breathing was sometimes rapid and sometimes slow. Hearing her rapid breathing suddenly weaken, he looked over with a hanging heart. Under his gaze, her breathing calmed down and did not continue.

He didn't sleep all night, his prayers becoming increasingly absent-minded, ending with a simple "Amen." His mind was completely focused on what Zhang Zhaochuan had said: it was a terrible thing for a girl not to be buried at her ancestral grave, and she clearly didn't want to go back. Why? This question lingered in his mind.

Naturally, Gu Weiyi thought of his mother, who died in the sea and said the same words to him the day before her death.

"I'm tired."

He asked her why she didn't go home and rest if she was tired. She said she had never found happiness at home.

"What is happiness?" he asked his mother.

"What do you like to do?"

"Have a meal."

"That means having a happy meal with the one you love for the rest of your life."

He realized that his mother did not love him, she went to the sea like that and would not eat with him anymore.