Chapter 101 Thank you for supporting me. "I'll support you for the rest of your life..."
Li Leshan didn't let Jiang Yueming see him off again. As they parted, both of their eyes were red and they looked at each other in silence. Neither of them spoke. Li Leshan waved first, then turned back. He walked into the Third Alley step by step. Jiang Yueming watched his back as it got further and further away until it disappeared from sight.
The motion-activated lights in the hallway were repaired a while ago and worked fine for a period of time, but then they started malfunctioning again and are now flickering.
Li Leshan reached into his pocket for his keys. Holding the flowers, he slowly made his way upstairs. As he walked, he thought: he'd won eight hundred yuan in the city's first-prize competition, spent three hundred on test papers for Jiang Yueming, and would give the rest to his grandmother. He also planned to find some time to make another walking stick, and then ask Uncle Li for one…
As he walked up to the fourth floor, the light from the upstairs room slanted in and stung Li Leshan's eyes, causing him to involuntarily close them.
Light?
wrong!
Li Leshan suddenly looked up and, through the small gap between the stairs, saw that the door to his house was wide open. Normally, no matter what, his grandmother would only leave it slightly ajar.
His thoughts raced, and he sensed something was wrong. His breath caught in his throat, and his mind went blank. Li Leshan could only rely on his body's reflexes to rush upstairs. Upon seeing the chaotic scene inside, the flowers in his hand slipped from his grasp and fell to the ground.
grandmother!
Li Leshan stumbled into his grandmother's room, where she lay unconscious on the floor.
Damn it... Li Yong...!
Li Leshan had no time to care about Li Yong at this moment. He suppressed his anger and rushed forward to check on his grandmother. He heard her murmuring to herself. Without hesitation, Li Leshan picked her up and ran to the nearby clinic.
Along the way, he didn't even know how long or how far he had run; he only knew he couldn't stop. When he finally reached the health center, he couldn't utter a single word. Fortunately, the receptionist nurse saw this and quickly called a doctor, who took his grandmother to the emergency room.
The corridor was dimly lit. There were not many patients left in the lobby at this moment. It was late at night, and only the nurses on duty and a few scattered family members of patients were present.
Li Leshan sat on the cold bench, his back sweating profusely, and his palms were also sweating.
His mind was a mess, even a little sore. He hadn't recovered from what had just happened, and in a daze, he arrived at the clinic and sat down here.
What exactly happened?
Has Li Yong been found?
He hadn't even noticed when they found him! All this talk of keeping quiet was actually waiting for him here.
Li Leshan covered his face with trembling hands, each second agonizingly passing. If it had been half an hour earlier, or an hour earlier, could he have stopped all of this from happening? Even if it meant fighting to the death with Li Yong, he didn't want things to turn out like this… He… couldn't bear the consequences.
After an unknown amount of time, the emergency room sign finally went dark. Seeing the doctor walking towards him, Li Leshan quickly stood up, walked up to the doctor, raised his hand, then lowered it, then raised it again, "My...my grandma, is she alright?"
“Family member, family member,” the doctor gestured for him to calm down and control his emotions. “Don’t get agitated. Is that your grandmother inside? She fainted from the shock, but she’s out of danger now. We’ll arrange for her to be admitted to the hospital for treatment soon. But what’s wrong with you children? You know she’s too young to handle any shocks. You need to be more careful next time…”
Li Leshan was confused when he heard this. He rushed to check on his grandmother and realized that she was still lying peacefully in front of him. Only then did his anxiety subside a little.
He texted Zhang Fang to ask for leave, only saying there was something going on at home, and Li Leshan didn't want to elaborate. Surprisingly, she replied quickly, perhaps she was just about to go to sleep. She asked if he needed help, when he would be back, and that the joint entrance exam was in a few days.
Looking at the words "Joint Entrance Examination," Li Leshan felt inexplicably short of breath. He looked down at his phone, editing a message, deleting and rewriting as he typed: Thank you, teacher. No need for help. I don't know when it will be, at least three days.
Exams, exams... Does he even have the mind to think about exams? In his current state, living in constant fear and anxiety, can he... or rather, does he even have the right to think about that vague and uncertain future?
Thinking of this, he quickly found Liu Yang's contact information. He was in such a hurry that he almost forgot about the job. Before his grandmother was discharged from the hospital, he needed to stay at the hospital to take care of her, so he definitely wouldn't have time to go to work.
besides……
Li Leshan stared at the unfamiliar yet glaring phone number on the screen, opened the chat history, and found the conversation to be extremely brief, containing only a bank card number and a message confirming timely payments. Li Leshan didn't reply with anything further, simply answering with "I understand."
He suddenly felt an urge to grab Li Yong by the collar and ask him why, why he never respected him, why he never treated him like a human being, why he was so evil, why he came back, why he was still alive...
Why is he able to live so comfortably, while leaving all the suffering and torment to himself?
What gives him the right? Just because he's his father? Just because he's nominally his father?!
His knuckles cracked from his grip. Li Leshan took a deep breath, feeling utterly exhausted. His gaze slowly fell on his grandmother, looking at her increasingly thin face. He had carried her all the way from the Third Alley to the clinic today, yet he hadn't felt tired at all. She was so light, so thin, as light as a withered blade of grass that might break at any moment in his arms.
He hadn't slept a wink all night, and it wasn't until the morning sunlight pierced his eyes that Li Leshan felt his eyes sting and a wave of exhaustion wash over him. He hadn't eaten much the day before, but he felt inexplicably nauseous. Suppressing the nausea in his stomach, he forced himself to go and check on his grandmother.
Grandma was still asleep, so he sat back down.
The doctor came by once, checked on him, and explained some things. Li Leshan nodded at everything, including follow-up payments and treatment. He wanted to ask when his grandmother would wake up, but when he raised his hand halfway, he realized that no one here could understand what he was saying, so he lowered his hand again.
He bought some porridge for lunch and ate a few bites, which made do for his meals that day. Around midnight, Li Leshan vaguely heard some noises.
He regained his senses, and everything before him became clear. His grandmother had woken up; the old woman was holding his hand, tears streaming down her face.
"Leshan..." Grandma called his name softly, her voice filled with endless sorrow.
Because of prolonged mental stress and lack of sleep, Li Leshan experienced tinnitus. He tightened his grip on his grandmother's hand, as if to tell her that he was there.
"What a tragedy," Grandma patted Li Leshan's hand, staring up at the ceiling. She murmured something about "God," as if questioning a non-existent God, asking why all the suffering had been inflicted upon them. "Why are our lives so miserable? Your father is back. He owes money outside. The debt collectors came to our house, a whole bunch of them, smashing things, throwing things away, Leshan..."
Owe money?
Li Leshan's pupils dilated. "How much does he owe?"
He was getting anxious. No wonder Li Yong had disappeared recently and was pressing for money more frequently. So he was hiding from his debts and had also brought his family into the mess.
He should have known better! That man would never stay still for even a day!
"Leshan, Grandma is so sorry..." Grandma said with a heavy heart, "You haven't enjoyed a single day of happiness since you were born. Grandma still can't forget it. Every day there was arguing, fighting, and hitting. There wasn't a single day of peace. You don't know how much suffering you've endured..."
Li Leshan choked up, feeling a sharp pain in his stomach. To this day, he could not forget how his grandmother carried him around, burning incense and praying to Buddha for him to be able to speak. He could not forget the times when she held him in her arms. Those days were painful and torturous, and now, thinking back on them, he didn't know how he survived.
"Grandma is sorry, Grandma has been a burden to you..."
"Don't say that," Li Leshan leaned closer to her, managing to force a smile, and could only gesture as best he could, "You haven't wronged me."
"I can't live without you."
If it weren't for his grandmother, he would have been beaten to death by Li Yong long ago. He would have died on a cold winter night just like his mother. He wouldn't be here today; how could he have survived to this day?
Grandma couldn't understand many words in sign language, and Li Leshan couldn't speak either. So they could only proceed little by little, writing on their palms and gesturing, "I'll go find Li Yong. Don't worry about the money."
So she could only vaguely make out a few words. Realizing what Li Leshan was about to do, her eyes widened in terror, and she grabbed Li Leshan's wrist tightly. "Leshan! You can't go to him! He's capable of anything. Grandma can't live without you! Grandma can't live without you..."
Li Leshan shook his head, calmed his grandmother down, and continued gesturing: "Don't worry. I'm all grown up now, I'm not afraid of him anymore."
The little boy who once nestled in his grandmother's arms is now completely different. He's grown taller and stronger; if you looked back at that child, you probably wouldn't recognize him. He can't possibly live his whole life curled up in his grandmother's arms.
Li Yong was wrong back then. His smug boast, "Your life, Li Leshan's, belongs to me," was completely wrong.
Li Leshan's life never belonged to Li Yong. He didn't owe Li Yong anything either. If he owed anything in this life, he only owed his grandmother and Jiang Yueming.
His life belonged to his grandmother and Jiang Yueming.
"Grandma," Li Leshan's eyes filled with tears, which dripped hot onto the sheets. He grinned at the old woman, "Thank you for taking care of me."
He looked at his grandmother with pleading eyes, as if seeking some kind of approval, even though he knew she might not understand what he was saying. "You raised me very well, didn't you?"
"I'm tall, my grades are okay, and I can earn money too."
"I'll take care of you for the rest of your life."
“Five years, ten years, twenty years... I can support it.”
"I definitely can."
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