Su Qiaoqiao was so surprised her eyes almost popped out of her head: "You actually yelled at me?! Brother Zhong, you...you actually yelled at me?! You actually swore at me?!"

Zhong Misu gritted her teeth and said, "Su Qiaoqiao, please call me Comrade Zhong, or Zhong Zhiqing. I'm not your brother, we have absolutely no relationship!"

Su Qiaoqiao looked him over for a moment: "Are you angry? You're not really angry with me, are you? Brother Zhong, I didn't push you on purpose!"

Zhong Misu said coldly, "Su Qiaoqiao, please leave."

Su Qiaoqiao plopped down on the treatment bed: "I won't!"

She touched Zhong Misu's injured leg, causing him to grimace again.

Zhong Misu took a few breaths: "Su Qiaoqiao, I regret meeting you. Don't come looking for me anymore, and don't even say hello if we meet on the street. Have I made myself clear?"

Su Qiaoqiao burst into tears: "I don't understand! No! How could you do this?! You were so good to me before, and now you're so cold! I just pushed you a little, and you lost your balance and fell down, why blame me?"

Zhong Misu didn't want to say another word to her: "Get out."

Su Qiaoqiao's tone turned cold: "Zhong Misu, you've got some nerve, haven't you? Weren't you sent by Grandpa to take care of me? Do you believe I'll write a letter to Grandpa and tell him you cursed at me with foul language? I bet you also need something from my grandpa, right? Let me guess, is there a terminally ill patient in your family, or are you asking my grandpa for some benefit? You wouldn't happen to want the secret formula he has, would you?"

Zhong Misu sneered: "Go ahead and complain, but now get out of this room right now!"

Su Qiaoqiao stood up angrily and stomped her foot: "You surnamed Zhong! You'll regret this!"

With that, he turned and left.

Unexpectedly, he bumped into someone who was about to enter the house.

"Ah, it's so hot!" Su Qiaoqiao screamed.

It turned out that the person who came in was Shulan, who was carrying a lunchbox of thick porridge.

Everyone ate all the meat that Zhong Misu had paid for, and as the cook, Shulan felt she was partly to blame.

She took out the beef jerky Hu Zhenbo had given her, stewed a large bowl of meat porridge, and even poached an egg for him in it.

After ladling the porridge into a lunchbox, I quickly delivered it to Zhong Misu.

The two bumped into each other, and the lid of Shulan's lunchbox was knocked off, spilling a lot of the porridge, beef jerky, and scallions onto Su Qiaoqiao's hands and body.

Su Qiaoqiao glared at Shu Lan: "Are you blind?! This is a brand new outfit! You owe me my clothes!"

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to!"

Shulan's hands were also splattered with hot porridge. Ignoring her own injury, she quickly took out a handkerchief to wipe Su Qiaoqiao's hands.

Su Qiaoqiao stepped back, her suspicious gaze fixed on her: "Why did you bring food to my Brother Zhong? You've taken a liking to him, haven't you?"

Shulan's face flushed red: "I...I didn't!"

Su Qiaoqiao looked her over, then suddenly raised her hand, spilling the meat porridge that Shu Lan was holding in one hand onto the ground.

Shulan froze, staring at the beyond-recoverable meat porridge on the ground. Suddenly, she transformed into a raging lioness, roaring as she charged at Su Qiaoqiao: "Wasting food? You owe me porridge! You owe me meat porridge!! I put two ounces of beef jerky in it!!! And a whole fried egg!!!"

Su Qiaoqiao was tackled to the ground and her hair was grabbed.

Not to be outdone, she reached out and scratched Shulan's face.

The two of them rolled around in the thick porridge.

Zhong Misu sat up and stared blankly at the scene.

Jin Dachun, leaning on his cane, rushed over: "What are you two fighting about?! Two young ladies, rolling around in the mud like mud monkeys, what kind of behavior is this?! Shu Zhiqing, you're always so composed, why are you fighting too?"

Shulan looked up, her face streaked with tears: "Dr. Jin, she's wasting food!"

Jin Dachun said sternly, "She'll get her just desserts!"

Upon hearing this, Shulan instantly regained her composure. She stood up, straightened her clothes, picked up the empty lunchbox, and said to Zhong Misu, "Zhong Zhiqing, I'm sorry. The meat and bones you asked Sun Shengtian to buy were all devoured by everyone. I cooked you some beef porridge, but Su Qiaoqiao spilled it again..."

Zhong Misu said softly, "Thank you, Shu Zhiqing. I... I'm not hungry."

Upon hearing this, Shulan felt even more guilty: "Then... I'll bring you food again tomorrow morning."

"Wait!" Jin Dachun called out to Shu Lan, who was turning to leave. "Go find two male educated youths and carry this guy away! Otherwise, it would be bad luck if he died here in the middle of the night!"

Shulan nodded: "I understand, Dr. Jin."

After Shulan left, Su Qiaoqiao picked up a rag from the table in the treatment room and wiped her clothes.

“Those are used diapers,” Jin Dachun reminded her. “A child had diarrhea this morning…”

Su Qiaoqiao took the gauze up to the light and saw that, sure enough, it was covered with yellowish-green runny feces.

I also got quite a bit on myself.

She quickly threw the diaper on the ground and glared angrily at Jin Dachun: "Are you deliberately messing with me?! You're Su Ruyi's master, don't think I don't know!"

Jin Dachun nodded: "Yeah, if you don't get out of here, I guarantee you'll be eating shit within ten seconds!"

Su Qiaoqiao never expected to hear such a sentence. She looked at Zhong Misu, her eyes blurry with tears, and said, "Brother Zhong, don't you care where I'll stay tonight? Don't you really care about me?"

Zhong Misu only uttered one word: "Get lost!"

"Fine! You'll regret it!"

After uttering these harsh words, Su Qiaoqiao stomped her foot and ran away.

It was already completely dark when Su Qiaoqiao rushed out and realized that it was almost pitch black all around.

She panicked immediately, ran a few steps, and then stood there dumbfounded.

Behind the row of buildings housing the village clinic, a house had a light faintly shining from its yard.

Su Qiaoqiao walked over and saw that the courtyard gate was not closed. The window of the house reflected the figure of an aunt who was sewing shoe soles under the kerosene lamp.

She touched the last ten ten-yuan bills hidden in her close-fitting tank top, gritted her teeth, and knocked on her door.

"What? You're only asking us to stay for a few days and you're only paying us five yuan?" The woman's hair was gray, and her eyesight was failing. She rubbed her eyes, unable to believe what she had just heard.

"I'm an educated youth from Haicheng who was sent to the countryside. The people in the educated youth compound bullied me and kicked me out, sob sob sob..." Su Qiaoqiao cried, distorting the truth and exaggerating her experience.

The older woman let her in. It wasn't out of pity for her plight, but rather because the five yuan tempted her.

The older woman poured her a cup of hot water: "Don't cry, Su Zhiqing."

My name is Song Donghua, you can just call me Aunt Donghua!

I happen to have a spare room. My second son works at the commune and doesn't come home often, so you can stay in his room!

The bedding was all newly changed and was very clean.

Don't worry about the money! We can discuss that.