Song gently shook her head. "No, it's my younger brother who's sick."
"What's wrong? Where are you hospitalized? I'd like to come and see you."
Song looked up at Zhang Heping. There was no mockery or gloating in Zhang Heping's eyes, only sincerity and concern.
"good!"
Song Qingqing hadn't been cared for in a long time. The pressure she was under recently almost crushed her. When she finally ran into an acquaintance, she felt a slight urge to confide in him.
Zhang Heping followed Song Qingqing toward the dialysis room, only then learning that Song Qingqing's younger brother, Song Longlong, had contracted a blood parasitic disease.
"He didn't have any symptoms initially, but then..."
Song Qingqing looked at the tiny worm that had been extracted and was still moving, and turned her head away in unbearable pain.
Zhang Heping frowned. Usually, parasitic diseases can be treated with some medicine, but Song Longlong's symptoms were obviously not mild, otherwise he wouldn't have come for dialysis to remove these little worms.
"Sister, sister, I'm scared!" Song Longlong cried out in his hoarse voice as he looked at Song Qingqing.
"You've learned your lesson from eating and drinking whatever you want!" Song Qingqing said with exasperation.
Song Longlong looked at Song Qingqing with teary eyes. Song Qingqing felt she couldn't take it anymore, so she got up and left the dialysis room.
Zhang Heping followed Song Qingqing out the door, then leaned against the window to listen to Song Qingqing recount the events of the past year.
“After you kicked our family out, we moved into a hotel designated by Qinghe Alliance. On the day of check-in, my family had a fight with the front desk over the price, which made us a laughing stock among the other guests.”
Song Qingqing recounted with bitterness and helplessness, "Maybe it's karma. We spend our days in the hotel watching TV dramas and playing games. No one pays attention to the news, and no one checks Weibo or WeChat Moments. We just eat, sleep, and play when we wake up."
Can you imagine that our family missed such a long period of energy rain without anyone reminding us?
It wasn't until a few days before the energy rain ended, when my dad went out to find something to eat because he was hungry, that he saw groups of people rushing out of the hotel.
My dad stopped one of them and asked him why everyone was out in the middle of the night, especially since it was raining outside.
The man looked at my dad with disbelief and asked, "Don't you know it's raining energy outside? Don't you know everyone's undergoing body modifications outside every night? Dude, are you living in ancient times?!"
My dad was stunned when he heard this. Then he followed everyone out of the hotel and saw a group of people standing in the rain, looking up at the sky like pilgrims. Only then did he realize that we might have missed a tremendous opportunity.
Later, my father rushed back and called us out of the room. At that time, some relatives even said that my father had gone crazy and actually believed such nonsense. But when everyone came into contact with the energy rain, their regret was beyond measure.
It was too late to say anything, so we could only hurry up and enjoy the upcoming rain. Seeing everyone else carrying basins to collect the rain, my family bought a lot of basins the next day, thinking that we might need some rainwater someday.
Unfortunately, it was too late. We only collected energy rainwater for two or three days before the rainy season was over, and all of us only managed to collect 2 liters of energy rainwater.
Song turned her head and glanced at Zhang Heping. Seeing that he was still listening attentively without the slightest impatience, she continued her story.
"Later, it was the dry season. Because we missed the news about the energy rain, we have been following the official Weibo account of Qinghe Alliance ever since."
However, we were a step too late. We had stored up a lot of water, but as for food, since we didn't grow our own vegetables, we could only go to the mountains to find some edible mushrooms, wood ear fungus, ferns, and the like before the drought started.
Longlong didn't want to suffer with us, so he stayed home to watch the house every day. But little did we know, he actually went to the river to catch snails and crayfish with the boys in the village.
A group of teenagers couldn't tell the difference between snails and common snails, and just kept stuffing them into their mouths. By the time we got home, they had already wiped them all out, and we had no idea that such a thing existed.
Later, the dry season finally passed. On the day it rained, the family thought there would be another rain of energy, so they rushed outside immediately, but unfortunately, there was nothing.
None of us in this large family can endure hardship, so we were lucky, because after being soaked in the cold rain for a while, we all went home, thus escaping the clutches of Unknown No. 1.
"And then what?"
"While we were relieved to have escaped Unknown One, the news said that energy rain is a raw material for making special medicine. We all know that energy rain is a good thing, and we have been hiding it and have not dared to touch it. Now we are even more certain that this thing can save our lives in critical moments."
Ever since the dry season began, Longlong has often complained that he has no energy. At that time, we just thought he was being lazy and didn't take it seriously.
But after Longlong learned that the energy rainwater could be used as medicine, he secretly drank two sips while we were out. Unexpectedly, that very night he felt unwell all over.
Zhang Heping frowned. He clearly remembered that Old Master Lin had also drunk the energy rainwater and there was nothing wrong with it. Moreover, Old Master Lin's body seemed to have been rejuvenated. How come it was different for Song Longlong?
Looking at the expression on Zhang Heping's face, Song Qingqing could roughly guess what he was thinking. "You must be wondering why Longlong felt unwell after drinking the energy rainwater, right?"
Zhang Heping nodded, "Because an elder also drank it, and he didn't have any health problems."
“Then he’s very lucky!” Song Qingqing said.
"After Longlong fell ill, we went to many places, but at first we couldn't find the cause. It wasn't until a doctor guided Longlong to talk about the random things he had eaten that we had a direction."
Upon examination, it was indeed found that his blood contained many parasites, and these parasites were larger than usual, multiplied quickly, and were particularly stubborn.
Longlong took a lot of medicine, but the parasites just wouldn't die. The doctor guessed that the energy rain might have enhanced the parasites' vitality, which was why they were so difficult to eradicate. There was no other way but to perform hemodialysis.
The doctor also said that if the energy rain hadn't also improved Longlong's physical condition, he might have already died from the parasites.
Zhang Heping sighed deeply after hearing this; it truly was a brush with death. "Then, how could you..."
Song Qingqing sensed Zhang Heping's unspoken meaning and smiled, "The food wasn't good during the dry season either. After signing up to be a laborer, the work was very heavy every day. Excessive fatigue probably makes people look old."
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