Finally, Lu Yuan squeezed through the crowd, but he almost stepped in a pile of excrement. The Sun couple behind him had their feet covered in feces.
Lu Yuan frowned, but still glanced at the child, who was still crying incessantly.
At this moment, the child seemed to feel very uncomfortable, his whole body trembled violently, and a foul stench emanated from Sun Zhe's arms.
"Oh no! The baby has started having diarrhea! Lu Yuan, you have to save the baby!" Sun Zhe was in a panic, ignoring the stench on his clothes, and tried to pull Lu Yuan out.
Lu Yuan quickly grabbed his arm and said, "You guys wait here first, I'll go register!"
Sun Tiantian had already rushed over to join the queue, but Lu Yuan felt somewhat powerless when he saw the endless line.
"This won't do. If we keep queuing like this, the child probably won't be able to hold on."
"Then...what should we do?" Sun Tiantian asked, sobbing uncontrollably.
Clearly, this young couple were first-time parents with absolutely no experience in raising children, and they didn't even know some of the rules in the hospital.
Lu Yuan sighed and said, "I'll go see if there's any way."
After saying that, Lu Yuan walked over to see if he could pay some money to cut in line, but after looking around, he felt that everyone's illness was very serious, so he was too embarrassed to ask to cut in line.
At that moment, a man stopped him and asked him in a low voice.
"Hey bro, wanna take the number up ahead?"
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"It's a scalper ticket! As long as you pay, I can sell you a front-row ticket!" The other person lowered the brim of his hat and then pulled out a ticket number 35 from his pocket.
Lu Yuan stared in disbelief. He hadn't expected that these scalpers would expand their business to hospitals. Although he had seen reports of scalpers buying tickets and reselling them at high prices online before, he never imagined that he would actually encounter this situation himself.
But looking at the room full of patients, and seeing that this person was doing such a thing, if Lu Yuan hadn't been mindful that this was a hospital, he would have immediately wanted to beat the guy up. His opportunistic behavior was simply murder for money!
But now there are unemployed people everywhere. People who can't make a living will always think of all sorts of ways to survive, but these people are really despicable.
However, seeing the several people nearby holding Lu Yuan hostage, he immediately understood that this was a gang. They had obviously been taking turns committing crimes here for a long time, and no one nearby had reacted.
With a sigh, Lu Yuan waved to Sun Zhe, and the couple immediately came over carrying the child.
“He has a number here, but it’s a scalped ticket,” Lu Yuan said, pointing to the scalper next to him.
Without any hesitation, the couple nodded repeatedly and said, "Great! How much? We'll buy it!"
The other person took out a stack of tickets from their pocket, then pointed to the scrolling list on the wall and said, "It's number five now. I have numbers eight, twelve, nineteen, twenty-two, and thirty-five here. Which one do you want?"
Without any hesitation, Sun Zhe said, "Number eight! I want number eight!"
The other party nodded and said, "Okay, number eight, thirty thousand!"
The couple and Lu Yuan were stunned as soon as the other party finished speaking. They knew that scalped tickets were expensive, but the other party was asking for 30,000 yuan, which was indeed beyond their expectations.
"This...this is way too expensive! Can you make it cheaper?"
"Hehe! No bargaining. If you want something cheaper, I have some here too. The 12th is 20,000, the 19th is 8,000, and the 35th is only 2,000." The other party seemed indifferent, as if he didn't care whether he bought it or not.
Lu Yuan finally couldn't hold back any longer. He stepped forward, grabbed the man's collar, and cursed, "I don't care if you're making money, but these are all human lives at stake! You're murdering people for money!"
Then, the instant he made his move, several people immediately surrounded him.
"Let go! Or I'll make sure he can't get medical treatment, you believe me!" The man wasn't afraid at all; clearly, this wasn't the first time Lu Yuan had made such a threat. A mocking expression flashed in his eyes.
"Let me tell you, we have connections at several hospitals around here. If you mess with me, you might never be able to see a doctor at a hospital again!"
Sun Zhe stopped Lu Yuan from speaking and said, "Lu Yuan, thank you, we'll take the money."
Then the other party took out their phone, scanned the QR code hanging on the other person's chest, and transferred 30,000 yuan directly to the other party.
Lu Yuan sighed. Everyone else was like them, and no one dared to say a word, which emboldened them to act so recklessly and further fueled their arrogance.
The couple, who had successfully bought scalped tickets, finally got their number and headed straight to the third floor of the hospital. However, when they arrived on the third floor, they were dumbfounded.
The clinic on the third floor, which specializes in treating rat bites, was already overcrowded, with long queues of people, many of whom had collapsed unconscious on either side of the aisle.
Another long line was for the toilets next door. Many people were clutching their stomachs with pained expressions on their faces, and some had even relieved themselves in flower pots because they couldn't hold it in any longer.
The entire hallway was filled with an unpleasant smell, and Lu Yuan felt his stomach churning.
The sounds of children crying, adults arguing, and doctors scolding mingled together, leaving Lu Yuan's mind in a state of confusion.
At this moment, Sun Tiantian squeezed through the crowd with her ticket and found a doctor. This doctor was there to check the condition of the people queuing for treatment and rule out some less serious cases.
Led by Sun Tiantian, the doctor walked over and, upon seeing the child's condition, immediately performed some routine examinations.
After bustling around taking his temperature, feeling his pulse, and listening to his heartbeat for less than two minutes, she removed the stethoscope, sighed, and said, "The child was brought in a bit late. The virus has already invaded his lungs and will soon reach his brain. The child is too young. Go and get some antibiotics to keep him alive!"
After speaking, the other person stood up and walked towards the next person. Sun Zhe wanted to ask what "maintaining the status quo" meant, but the doctor had already put on a stethoscope and was examining the people behind them.
Sun Tiantian immediately felt dizzy and then slipped and fell to the ground.
Ignoring his own disgust, Lu Yuan took the baby covered in poop and held him in his arms. Sun Zhe squatted down and started pinching Sun Tiantian's philtrum and rubbing her back. After a while, she finally woke up.
Sun Tiantian woke up and started crying loudly. The couple hugged each other and cried bitterly, but their crying did not elicit any response from the doctor.
Looking at the two of them, Lu Yuan immediately thought of Xiao Shan. They had survived one disaster after another, but in the end, Lu Yuan still saw Xiao Shan dying in their small house a few years later.
Back then, Lu Yuan cried his heart out, just like Sun Zhe, unwilling to accept this reality. So in this life, he decided to protect his woman and not let the tragic events in his dream happen.
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