In the middle of the night, Li Xunli was worried about Shen Qingqing. When she got up to check on her, she found that Shen Qingqing's hands and feet were hot. She then took her forehead temperature by touching her head to hers before confirming that she really had a fever.

Unfortunately, there are two young children in the family, and it's impossible for two adults to leave them at home unattended.

Li Xunli filled a basin with water, wrung out a towel, and used it to cool down Shen Qingqing's fever. Then she remembered something: "Rongzhou! Call Dad! Dad has Uncle Binzhu's phone number! Have him bring his medical kit and come to the house to take a look at Qingqing!"

The village where the Shen family lives is at least an hour and a half away from the city hospital by motorcycle, but Shen Qingqing can't stand the wind at all now.

Fortunately, there are several private clinics and a health station in the village, all of which are not too far from the Shen family's home.

The doctor at the health station was an old acquaintance of Zhang Mingfang; he was a retired doctor who had served as a military doctor.

Shen Rongzhou quickly called his father-in-law.

Zhang Mingfang received a call from Shen Rongzhou in the middle of the night and immediately drove her motorcycle to Chen Binzhu's house to pick him up without saying a word.

Twenty minutes later, Chen Binzhu and Zhang Mingfang arrived at the Shen family's house together.

Shen Qingqing was already delirious with fever and started talking nonsense, which Mimi couldn't understand.

Chen Binzhu gave Li Xunli a mercury thermometer and asked her to place it under the child's armpit to check the temperature. He then took out a pulse pillow to take the child's pulse and used a stethoscope to listen to Shen Qingqing's heart and lungs.

After all that fuss, Shen Qingqing's thermometer showed it had reached 39.2 degrees Celsius.

After Chen Binzhu put away his things, he took out a few fever-reducing patches from his medical kit and handed them to Li Xunli. Then he began to write a prescription and reassured Li Xunli and the others: "It's nothing, it's just that you caught a cold and your body was weak and had internal heat, so it flared up."

After writing the prescription, he paused and asked, "Chinese medicine or Western medicine?"

"Let's take some Western medicine to bring the fever down first!" Li Xunli hugged Shen Qingqing and put a fever-reducing patch on her.

Chen Binzhu nodded, "Mingfang, come with me to get the medicine!"

“Okay, let’s go!” Zhang Mingfang felt bad looking at Shen Qingqing’s sickly appearance. Two years ago, before Li Xunli and Shen Rongzhou came back home to find work, he had raised Shen Qingqing from a little girl until she was about to start elementary school.

He wasn't as sexist as Li Yuxing, but he was too honest, and Li Yuxing was too domineering. When they were young, all he could do was comfort Li Xunli a little more; there was nothing else he could do.

After the two families had Shen Qingqing's first grandchild, Zhang Mingfang poured all the love she couldn't give Li Xunli into Shen Qingqing, showering her with affection.

After Zhang Mingfang retrieved the medicine, she simply stayed at the Shen family home to take care of Shen Qingqing and didn't go back.

After taking the fever-reducing medicine, Shen Qingqing's high fever finally turned into a low fever around 4 a.m., and her pajamas were soaked with sweat.

Li Xunli didn't dare to change her clothes, so she could only wipe her sweat with a tissue to prevent her from catching a cold again.

After Zhang Mingfang left, Shen Rongzhou was told to go to sleep. He had two more trips to make the next day, so he definitely couldn't stay awake.

Li Xunli wiped Shen Qingqing's sweat, made her a cup of warm water, and gave her a straw to drink from.

Shen Qingqing was in a daze, and would often only take a sip or two before falling silent again.

Li Xunli and Zhang Mingfang took turns holding her and feeding her water, but when Shen Rongzhou was about to go to work at around 7 o'clock, she developed a high fever again.

Shen Qingqing felt as if she was about to be burned to ashes. The large furnace that burned the bones seemed to reappear before her eyes, and the heat wave hit her face, making her sometimes conscious and sometimes completely dark.

The images of her parents lying side by side on the bed, their faces pale and bruised, facing death, alternated in front of Shen Qingqing, as did the image of them now living a vibrant and healthy life together.

She could hardly tell which one was real anymore.

She cried out "Dad, Mom!" but was too weak to make a sound, only able to whimper and sob softly.

Shen Rongzhou immediately asked Zhang Zeqin for leave and swapped his shift.

Shen Yangyang was taken to the master bedroom to sleep last night, so we didn't dare let her continue sleeping in the same room as Shen Qingqing.

Shen Qingqing seemed to feel someone calling her in her ear and something being put into her mouth, but she didn't know who it was or what it was. She didn't want to listen or eat.

But she had no strength to stop the sounds from drilling into her ears or the things from being put into her mouth.

"Qingqing, be good, take your medicine, take your medicine, you'll feel better after taking it..." Li Xunli hugged Shen Qingqing and kept coaxing her, calling her name repeatedly.

Li Xunli asked Shen Rongzhou to grind the antipyretic tablets into powder, dissolve them in water, and then give it to Shen Qingqing.

Shen Qingqing was jolted awake by the bitter taste that reached the back of her tongue, and her muddled consciousness cleared up a little.

She heard her mother calling and comforting her.

She is alive.

Her parents are also alive.

Shen Qingqing finally dispelled the nightmare-like images before her eyes, her consciousness returned, and she no longer resisted drinking water and taking medicine.

She struggled to open her eyes and glanced at them. After seeing that it was Li Xunli holding her, she fell back asleep peacefully.

The fever reducer took effect, and the fever stopped. Shen Qingqing also stopped sweating profusely and slept soundly until noon.

After Shen Qingqing's fever completely subsided, Zhang Mingfang was persuaded to go home by Li Xunli and Shen Rongzhou. The old lady was almost sixty years old, and she definitely couldn't take it after staying up all night.

At noon, Li Xunli cooked a pot of white porridge, added some soy sauce and mixed it in. She then told Shen Qingqing to get up, eat something, take her medicine, and then go back to sleep.

Shen Qingqing felt as if she had walked a very, very long road, and she was so tired that she had no strength left in her body and was in a lot of pain. She heard Li Xunli calling her, as if she wouldn't stop until she was woken up.

So she had to open her eyes, "Mom..."

Li Xunli looked at Shen Qingqing's chapped lips with heartache. "Mom's here. Come on, be good. Get up and eat your porridge. You can take your medicine after you're full."

Shen Qingqing is an adult at heart, and she has experienced the hardships of wearing masks for three years. She knows clearly that she cannot throw a tantrum at this time. Even though her bones are aching, she forced herself to sit up and eat the porridge and medicine.

However, she couldn't sleep after eating, and sat listlessly on the bed, lost in thought.

Suddenly, a nightmare from when she had a fever flashed through her mind, and she couldn't help but look outside. Her parents were sitting at the dining table eating with Shen Yangyang.

Shen Qingqing grew up in a materialistic and scientific worldview, but Chaocheng still retains some ancient folk customs, which she has been influenced by and cannot completely ignore.

At least this fever made her wonder if it meant that all the bad luck of the past had been burned away by that fire, and that the Shen family was about to embark on a bright future!