Embarrassing past
Against a grayish-white backdrop, in a seemingly endless corridor, a frail young man, wearing an ill-fitting, loose-fitting shirt, stood in a corner, leaning on a cane. His slender, fragile neck tilted slightly forward, revealing a white bandage beneath his collar.
Her overly long black hair hung on her shoulders, covering her dead eyes. Her face was pale, as if blending into the white wall. She looked fragile and helpless, as if she would disappear in the next second.
Fang Henian did tell the truth, but out of selfish motives he concealed a lot.
Fang Huai, suffering severe burns on his back, was rushed to the hospital. Initially, his adoptive parents, overcome with guilt and worry, borrowed money from everywhere to pay for his treatment. Fang Henian, suffering only minor burns on his arm, cried and raged daily. While in the intensive care unit, his injuries worsened. The money they had finally managed to raise and sent to the bill payer was gone within a few days.
The couple was extremely busy. After Fang Huai's condition finally stabilized, he needed a high surgery fee. The huge surgery fees made He Lijun and her husband breathless.
The two people, exhausted both physically and mentally, kept going back and forth between the hospital and home. They couldn't vent their anger on their children.
The way they vented their emotions became monotonous - countless quarrels and fights, blaming each other, cursing each other with the most vicious words, and covering up the bruises the next day and carrying a thermos to the hospital.
Mr. Fang was fired, which completely crushed the family.
After his private work was exposed, the school's attitude towards him was very ambiguous. In addition, he had been taking leave one after another during this period, so the upper management decided to fire him.
Since Fang Sijie violated school regulations, the school did not need to pay compensation, but only paid him his last month's salary.
After countless quarrels, they started blaming each other and then blaming their own families. In the end, the malice in their hearts was magnified countless times. Their guilt towards Fang Huai fermented into hypocritical complaints under their despicable thoughts.
Mai Yuan wondered why he didn't take his brother away from the dangerous place, didn't keep an eye on his brother, and didn't protect himself.
After countless complaints, the topic always ended up being: If Fang Sijie had not stubbornly kept Fang Huai and adopted him, none of this would have happened.
Unable to afford the high medical expenses, they ignored the doctor's advice and discharged Fang Huai from the hospital to recuperate at home.
Whenever the elders quarreled, Fang Henan would curl up on Fang Huai's bed, helplessly holding Fang Huai's hand.
His gaze towards his brother became increasingly complex, and he began to blame Fang Huai, following his parents' lead. If his brother had truly disappeared, would his father not have been fired, would the family not be broke, and would his parents not have argued every day?
It was raining heavily that day, and a fierce quarrel broke out at home again. Fang Huai stood at the door with a black garbage bag in his hand, his arms were pale and his forehead was hot.
Fang Henian looked at his feverish brother, his face showing no signs of excitement, and his tone was filled with excitement: "Brother, are you coming back?"
Fang Huai touched his burning forehead with the back of his cold hand. His voice was hoarse. He lowered his eyes to look at Fang Henan, then turned and walked out.
He did not answer Fang Henian, but his lonely back gave Fang Henian the answer.
He could see that his brother wanted him to leave the house. The quarrel behind the closed door came to an abrupt end after Fang Henian asked the question. In fact, they all got the answer.
After Fang Huai left that door, he didn't set foot in the Fang family again for several years.
He dragged his feverish body, threw the garbage into the trash can, and like an abandoned cat, went to the security booth to answer the phone. He wiped his fingers wrinkled by the rain and trembled uncontrollably while dialing the number.
"Brother Li Xuan, help me."
"Brother Li Xuan, save me."
Every time Fang Huai got into trouble, Li Xuan would pull him out of the mud like a compassionate king.
Fang Huai left the Fang family in embarrassment again and returned to Li Xuan.
They put aside their previous unpleasantness and tacitly agreed not to mention the last incident again. The adoptive parents contacted Fang Huai, and they chatted indifferently on the phone, trying to gloss over the situation.
Fang Huai didn't hear any more information about Kong Lingyu. The last separation was too undignified, and he realized that the relationship between them had gone beyond the scope of normal friends.
He decisively deleted Kong Lingyu's contact information, blocked him, and developed an avoidance mentality.
Even though Kong Lingyu tried to contact him in various ways later, he no longer responded.
Li Xuan was very satisfied with Fang Huai's behavior. He used his limited vacation time to take care of Fang Huai every step of the way. Whenever Fang Huai was in a bad mood, he would take him to the hospital for a check-up.
After Fang Huai's repeated assurances, he was no longer so nervous.
The two were taking a walk in a nearby park when they met a cute Labrador. Its owner was chasing it on the leash. The Labrador ran towards Fang Huai and the others. Fortunately, Li Xuan protected Fang Huai in time, so he was not pushed down by the chubby little dog.
The owner was a young man. He put the dog on a leash while panting and bowed repeatedly to apologize.
Fang Huai rubbed the puppy's face and said with a smile, "It's okay."
After the others took the dog away, looking at Fang Huai's reluctant eyes, Li Xuan suddenly said, "After we live together, let's get a puppy too."
He held Fang Huai's hand and smiled gently.
Fang Huai met Li Xuan's gaze but did not answer. He felt Li Xuan holding his hand a little tighter.
He turned his head and changed the subject: "Let's go over there and take a look."
Just as he was about to take a step, Li Xuan pulled him back.
Fang Huai turned back in confusion, and Li Xuan looked at him seriously, "Xiao Huai, I was happy when I received your call."
Li Xuan loosened his grip, revealing his inner feelings without concealing them. He smiled bitterly, "I know my emotions were inappropriate in that situation."
"When you encounter difficulties again, the first person you choose to rely on is me." He touched Fang Huai's head and continued, "Maybe this is despicable, but I'm very happy that you rely on me."
Fang Huai raised his eyes and looked at himself in Li Xuan's eyes. He was a weak eaglet whose wings had not yet grown fully, and he was the eaglet's guardian.
At this moment, Fang Huai deeply realized that he and Li Xuan were not on an equal footing.
Li Xuan's gaze was always filled with love, care, and even indulgence, but she never regarded him as a lover of equal status.
Is this what love is like?
Maybe it is like this, maybe?
Fang Huai looked dazed. He didn't know how he responded to Li Xuan. He only remembered that neither of them said a word on the way home.
In Li Xuan's heart, he is still a lover who cannot stand on his own.
*
"Doctor Fang, it's time to go to the ward for rounds together."
The colleague knocked on the table, pulling Fang Huai back to his senses. "Okay."
"I heard that you have received a special patient. You have to be careful." A colleague kindly reminded Fang Huai, but he didn't understand.
There was another knock on the door. Three new faces were standing outside the door, looking around. When they saw Fang Huai, they turned around and said with a grin, "Good morning, teacher."
Fang Huai and his colleague exchanged a glance, then replied, "Good morning."
After parting with his colleagues, Fang Huai took his three interns to make ward rounds. When they arrived at the bedside of a patient named Ding Ling, he checked the patient's information and said, "Ding Ling."
The little girl agreed crisply: "Yes."
The patient my colleague was talking about was the girl in front of me, who had severe burns. She was a bit shy, and the nurse always looked at her with tenderness and care.
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