Chapter 45 Little Fish, Little Fish, Bravely Charge!
Chapter 44
The two silently finished selecting the remaining items, and just as they returned to the hospital, Song Yue's test results came out.
The result wasn't too bad; the tumor was benign, ruling out cervical cancer. However, chemotherapy was still necessary. The hospital suggested going to the provincial capital or the northern part of the city, as larger cities have more advanced medical equipment. In addition, Song Yue's fracture was not severe, and she could undergo laser treatment after plaster immobilization.
When Xia Zhiyu heard the doctor say it was a benign tumor, she felt a sense of relief. Then, the experts from Beicheng who conducted the online consultation said that for cases like Xia Zhiyu's mother's, as long as the doctor's advice was followed, the cure rate at their hospital was over 80%.
Hearing the expert say that, Xia Zhiyu felt as if she had been given a second chance at life. Even her pores relaxed, and she could finally breathe freely again.
She immediately decided, "Then let's go to Beicheng to govern."
After discussing it for a while, the family of three decided that Lao Xia would take a week off to accompany Song Yue to Beicheng for treatment. Xia Zhiyu would then take over Lao Xia's work after she finished handling the legal aid case this week.
Xia Zhiyu was a little worried. It wasn't that she didn't trust Lao Xia, but rather that many medical appointments now required being done on a mobile phone. Lao Xia couldn't even understand most of the apps on a phone, and he was also highly myopic. How could she feel at ease?
Her idea was that the three of them could go directly to Beicheng, and when she needed to attend court, she could fly back to Chuancheng, so that neither trip would be delayed. Old Xia, however, felt that this was just making things difficult for his daughter for nothing. He didn't want Xia Zhiyu to run around, and Song Yue felt the same way, preferring to stay in the hospital in their hometown rather than bother Xia Zhiyu.
The two men's stubbornness and refusal to listen to reason made Xia Zhiyu's temper rise rapidly.
A knock suddenly sounded at the door, and Ren Yu lifted the door and poked half of his body in, carrying a large wooden lunchbox in his hand.
Jiang Zhiyan finally found out who Xia Zhiyu had been texting before going to the supermarket, and his expression unconsciously darkened.
As soon as they entered the house, Ren Yu and Jiang Zhiyan's eyes met in mid-air. They looked at each other like tigers and wolves facing each other, each finding the other extremely offensive.
Ren Yu glanced coldly at Jiang Zhiyan, but when she faced Xia Zhiyu, she immediately put on a smiling face again, "Why didn't you tell me about such a big thing this morning? I would have gone to the hospital with you and Auntie."
This time, we really owe it to Jiang Zhiyan.
Before she could finish the rest of her sentence, Song Yue, lying on the hospital bed, interrupted her with a snap. She greeted Ren Yu in an unusually warm tone, "I'm fine, but you little rascal, why are you only wearing two layers of clothes? It's winter, aren't you afraid of getting cold wearing just two layers?"
While speaking, she held Ren Yu's hand and asked her several questions in detail, such as how her work was going lately, whether she was busy, and whether she wanted to go out and play with Yu Yu for a couple of days during the winter vacation.
Song Yue's passionate attitude towards Ren Yu startled Xia Zhiyu.
Her mother did like Ren Yu before, but not to this extent; she looked at Ren Yu as if he were her own son.
"Alright, alright, Mom, stop talking so much. Don't get too excited and accidentally hurt your leg. I'll raise the headboard for you. If you feel uncomfortable anywhere, just tell me."
Ren Yu, quick-witted as ever, took over the task, shaking Song Yue and asking if she was feeling unwell. Xia Zhiyu carefully moved the pole with the medicine hanging on it, while Old Xia placed the porridge and side dishes that Ren Yu had brought on the small table, preparing to carry them to Song Yue's hospital bed later.
To an outsider, it would look like a happy family of four.
Jiang Zhiyan stood out from the crowd by the window. He stood alone in the corner of the ward, his stiff body like a withered tree trunk, as if mushrooms would sprout from under his expensive, custom-made leather shoes at any moment.
He watched as Ren Yu effortlessly helped Xia Zhiyu, who was wearing gloves and peeling shrimp, tuck up her loose hair. The two sat close together, their eyes and actions so intimate that it seemed as if they could be drawn together.
Song Yue looked at Xia Zhiyu and Ren Yu with a smile, his eyes full of satisfaction. Even Old Xia, who had been exceptionally warm to him before, was unusually indifferent at this moment.
Jiang Zhiyan suddenly felt like the most superfluous grain of sand stuck in the soft flesh of a seashell, as if no matter how hard he tried, it was all in vain.
The Alipay account contained 3,000 yuan that Lao Xia had just transferred to him, with a note saying that he had helped him contact a doctor in Beicheng. He was so valuable; a few phone calls had earned him half a month's salary from Lao Xia.
I spent a full three thousand yuan just to sever ties with him and not owe him any favors.
Jiang Zhiyan knew why, of course. It was precisely because he was aware of how unforgivable his actions were to Xia Zhiyu's parents that his pain seemed all the more profound at this moment.
So what if he's powerful? Even if he seizes the Jiang family's assets and becomes one of the wealthiest people in Beicheng and even the whole country, what difference does it make? In Xia Zhiyu's family's eyes, he will never be as good as Ren Yu, who has never said a harsh word to Xia Zhiyu.
Jiang Zhiyan suddenly began to empathize with Xia Zhiyu from the past. What kind of perseverance did she have to endure the ridicule and sarcasm from her colleagues and Jiang Jing to stay at Huawan and stay by his side?
Images flashed through her mind: Xia Zhiyu angrily questioning him in the parking lot, "Didn't he know anything about how his colleagues were mocking her?"
What was his reply at the time?
Jiang Zhiyan closed her eyes tightly, her heart aching with each beat.
At this moment, that once weary and irritating reply pierced his heart like a sharp boomerang.
'Xia Zhiyu, can you please stop fooling around? Is it really that fun to keep doing this?'
A sharp pain spread through Jiang Zhiyan's heart. He repeatedly chewed on the sentence as if torturing himself, letting himself fall into the hell of heartbreak.
Heartbroken people always need to find a corner to lick their wounds alone.
Jiang Zhiyan said goodbye to Xia Zhiyu's parents. Song Yue pretended not to hear and didn't want to talk to him at all. Old Xia nodded indifferently, stopped Xia Zhiyu who was about to see him off, and turned around and went downstairs with Jiang Zhiyan.
At the top of the stairs, Old Xia spoke to Jiang Zhiyan in a cold tone:
“We are a small family in a small town. My wife and I only have this one precious child. She can’t afford to marry someone as high up as you.”
Jiang Zhiyan felt extremely guilty. The usually eloquent lawyer opened his mouth, but couldn't utter a single word.
"I had Ren Yu put the gift you brought with your assistant. Don't come to our house again."
Old Xia left those words behind without even glancing at Jiang Zhiyan a second time, then turned and went back to the ward.
Jiang Zhiyan walked to the garage in a daze, just in time to find Assistant Song sweating profusely as he guarded the trunk of Moutai worth hundreds of thousands of yuan, looking flustered and helpless.
His voice grew softer and softer until it disappeared into the air. Assistant Song looked at Jiang Zhiyan's pale and gloomy face, and swallowed all the words he wanted to say.
"Send it."
Jiang Zhiyan leaned back in the back seat for a long while, then suddenly said:
"None of those dishes included her favorite stir-fried green beans and Sichuan peppercorn chicken."
Which dishes? Assistant Song had a question mark on his head. He was about to turn around and ask Jiang Zhiyan when he glanced up and saw in the rearview mirror that Jiang Zhiyan's tired expression revealed a determination to break with the old and establish the new.
I won't ask anymore.
Whatever the boss says goes.
He's a perfectly normal wage slave who never utters a word.
In the hospital ward.
Xia Zhiyu successfully persuaded Lao Xia and Song Yue with her persuasive skills honed over the years with Jiang Zhiyan. The family of three decided that after the transfer procedures were completed, Xia Zhiyu would go to Beicheng first to prepare, and Lao Xia would go to Beicheng with Song Yue after she was ready.
After Song Yue went back into the examination room, Old Xia and Xia Zhiyu sat in the ward. He suddenly spoke:
"Why did you suddenly pin a message on your Xiaohongshu account saying you wouldn't be updating for a while and that future updates would be up to you? Is it because of family matters?"
Indeed, some fans asked in the pinned post before. Xia Zhiyu felt sorry for the fans, so she explained honestly that due to the pressure of reality, she decided to find a job with a stable income.
A warm breath brushed against Xia Zhiyu's cheeks. She turned her head in disbelief, a hint of barely perceptible panic in her expression.
"Dad, how did you know my account number? Did Jiang Zhiyan tell you?"
She understands her parents; in their eyes, working in social media is synonymous with instability and a complete waste of time. Just like when Xia Zhiyu was a child, she wasn't allowed to watch Detective Conan or Charlie IX.
Old Xia laughed, raising his eyebrows with a hint of pride. "No need for him to say that. I was one of your earliest die-hard fans. I always commented, liked, and favorited your posts. I even 'charged' your Bilibili channel. Your mom and I watch the 'Little Fish, Little Fish, Forward' account every day."
When Xia Zhiyu heard the ID, she immediately remembered that it belonged to one of her early die-hard fans. She used to think that the ID was changed by fans to support her, but she never expected that the person behind the ID was actually her parents.
She mentioned that her dad had suddenly changed his WeChat name from "Go Forward Bravely" to "Little Fish Bravely Charges Forward," implying that he was hinting at something to her.
Old Xia patted the back of her hand, his tone relaxed, as if he were joking, "Is it because you've been feeling pressured by your parents' frugal lifestyle lately? Or is it because of your mother's health that you feel we're a burden to you?"
Her eyes quickly welled up with tears, and Xia Zhiyu gripped Lao Xia's dry hand, which was calloused from handling chalk for so long, and hurriedly explained:
"No, Dad, I feel like I didn't work hard enough. I had so many opportunities in Beicheng before, but I didn't seize them. I was about to be able to work independently and earn money, and I just gave up like that..."
Xia Zhiyu's voice choked, as if there was a wad of cotton stuck in her throat.
Old Xia's eyes were filled with heartache, making the lines at the corners of his eyes even more pronounced, giving him a visibly poignant sense of vicissitude. Xia Zhiyu's tears fell in a steady stream.
Why are my parents aging so fast? Why couldn't we wait a few more years for them? Why is life so cruel to them? It's as if they've been put on an accelerator after they turn fifty.
“Son, do you know how much money your father and mother have saved? We have 800,000 in our bank account and another 300,000 in a savings account. Your father has been saving this for you since you were born, and we plan to use it as your dowry.”
Old Xia squinted and tapped on his mobile banking app. Xia Zhiyu was stunned by the string of zeros in her account. "Does our family have this much money?"
“Yes,” Old Xia nodded with a smile, calculating for Xia Zhiyu point by point, “Your mother and I both pay the maximum social security contributions, and we’ve been paying for over ten years. Your mother gets four thousand a month in pension, and your father gets six thousand. We also have the critical illness insurance you bought. And we still have an old house in our hometown. It’s being redeveloped there now, and the house can be rented out. Each room can fetch five hundred a month.”
This was the first time in Xia Zhiyu's life that she had learned so much about her family's financial situation. It was as if a huge pie had fallen from the sky and hit Xia Zhiyu, leaving her dizzy with shock.
"Mom and Dad, don't worry about us. We have money to take good care of ourselves. Our only wish now is for you to be able to do what you want to do happily. Don't carry your parents' burdens on your back. You're not a camel, how can you bear so much?"
Old Xia handed a tissue to Xia Zhiyu, whose face was covered in tears and snot. "If you're really too tired and feel like you can't make it out there anymore, just come home. These days, stay-at-home dads are all the rage online. If you come home, Dad will give you 5,000 yuan a month as a salary. Just stay home and happily make videos, and consider it as spending time with Mom and Dad."
"Your parents have money, so don't feel so much pressure. We're not a burden to you; we're here to support you."
Old Xia's tone was extremely gentle, like a hot spring soaking into her body, making all the fatigue of the past few days seem to disappear.
She cried pitifully, and in Old Xia's eyes, it was as if he could see Xia Zhiyu again, who was twelve years old and cried loudly because her grades dropped five places in a final exam. At that time, she felt that her father had stayed up late every day to tutor her for this exam and sacrificed his weekends to help her with her studies, so why did she still not get first place? She was so sad that she cried at home for three days and three nights, and she cried even under the covers at night.
During those days, Xia Zhiyu's three-year-old brother, who couldn't control his chopsticks well, learned to control his mouth first. He dared not cry out loud, because if he provoked his sister to cry, he would get another beating.
"Everyone has their share of hurdles in life. Your father had to apply for a professional title several times before he finally got it. You've already achieved a lot. It's all because of you that your father and mother were able to see what the best universities in the country look like and learn that there are even corporate law firms. Don't be fooled by your aunt's constant teasing of your mother. In fact, everyone can see that she envies your mother for having such a capable daughter like you."
"You've done very well, little girl. Now, Mom and Dad just hope that you can do what you want to do happily and safely."
For some reason, his little girl is always incredibly competitive. Perhaps it's because her mother loved to praise her to others since she was little, or perhaps it's because as the eldest granddaughter of the great-grandchildren in the family, Xia Zhiyu is always the one on whom everyone places high hopes.
Over time, she developed this personality, always demanding of herself to achieve worldly success and to become strong enough to hold an umbrella for others.
But who will hold an umbrella for his little girl in the heavy rain?
Xia Zhiyu, her eyes blurry with tears, watched as the faint wrinkles at the corners of Old Xia's eyes faded, and he playfully gave her a thumbs-up.
"Little fish, little fish, charge forward bravely, okay?"
His tone was one of understanding and comfort, just like when she was twelve years old, and Old Xia repeatedly comforted her when she was crying uncontrollably.
"With Dad here, Dad will teach you, and I guarantee that our Yu Yu will definitely get first place next time."
-----------------------
Author's Note: I almost cried while writing this.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com