24 Pity
Yang Xiao stayed in Luzhen for a few days, then packed up her belongings and hurried back to the city. By the time she arrived at the hospital with her luggage, it was Zhou Daye's visiting time. Zhou Daye's speech system had almost completely collapsed, sometimes lucid, sometimes confused. One corner of his mouth was still crooked, and his eyes had become cloudy and difficult to focus.
She stood by, talking to Zhou Daye. "Uncle Zhou, I'm about to start school. I'm in my second year of high school. By the time you're better, who knows if the college entrance exam will be over? Or even sooner? The exam starts tomorrow, and I'm a little nervous. You should get some rest. I'll come back to see you in a few days. Let Zhou Qi come in and talk to you." Yang Xiao's voice, hidden behind the mask, was even softer, as if she was coaxing a child. After speaking, she waved to Zhou Qi behind the glass and went out to let Zhou Qi in.
Zhou Qi nodded and also came in wearing an isolation suit. He stood at the place where Yang Xiao had just stood, a little distance away from Zhou Daye, and called him dad. Zhou Daye seemed to be awake and made some inaudible sounds with effort.
Zhou Qi turned his head to the side, paused for a moment, and then spoke again: "Dad, does it hurt? Hang on a little longer, then we'll take you home. Your chess friends couldn't find you these past few days, so they called me. They're all looking forward to your return. Don't worry about Yang Xiao, I can take care of her too."
Zhou Daye heard it, but couldn't utter a complete sentence. He spoke intermittently, mumbling something like, "No... no... treatment..." Zhou Qi half guessed at his vague words, and his chest felt even more aching. "Dad, it needs to be treated. After it's cured, let's go buy some nougat. Do you remember nougat? It's sweet, with lots of peanuts in it. Now I'm going to be a doctor, and we have money to see a doctor. Don't say those things. I'll come see you next time, okay?"
Zhou Qi didn't stay any longer. Looking at Zhou Daye, dying and stricken by illness, he felt a wave of reluctance, heartache, pain, and fear. But even more so, a sense of exhaustion at having staked himself out, and the prospect of unfathomable humiliation ahead. He feared that Zhou Daye and Yang Xiao would despise him if they learned the truth; his "sacrifice" was shameful.
Leaving the hospital building, he felt a bit dazed. In just one month, he felt a sense of time had passed. He remembered when he first started interning in this building, he was filled with ambition, wanting to be a responsible and conscientious doctor. But now, he, too, felt tainted by the grayness of compromise and political maneuvering.
"Zhou Qi?" Yang Xiao waved her hand in front of him. Why was Zhou Qi so absent-minded lately? Was he worried that Uncle Zhou wasn't getting enough rest? Yang Xiao's voice was filled with worry. "I'll take you to school." Zhou Qi once again avoided Yang Xiao's gaze. He didn't know why he was afraid of seeing such pure eyes.
"It's okay, I'm familiar with the road now. If you're tired, go back and rest." Yang Xiao bent down, ready to pick up the luggage under the reception desk and go out to take the bus. Zhou Qi quickly took her things and said, "Let's go, I'll take you there."
Just like usual, he still sent Yang Xiao to the school gate and left after watching her disappear from his sight. But this time, Yang Xiao hid behind the plaque and saw him turn to leave. She gritted her teeth and ran out, panting and catching up with him: "Zhou Qi!"
"Yang Xiao? Why are you out again?" Zhou Qi turned around and looked at the person who had just disappeared in front of him and appeared in front of him again, a little bit unbelievable. "Zhou Qi, I'm a little worried about you. You didn't tell me anything."
As Yang Xiao said this, raindrops slowly floated down from the sky, gently landing on the shoulders and eyelashes of the two people.
Zhou Qi almost subconsciously reached out to shield her from the rain, his hand resting on Yang Xiao's forehead. A few soft tufts of hair on her forehead brushed against his palm. Yang Xiao held her breath, her eyes filled with worry and a hint of girlish shyness, but she hadn't yet asked the answers to those questions.
"Those experts, and the cost of treatment... I can also take a break from school for a while to help you share some of the burden." Yang Xiao raised her head and looked at Zhou Qi's nose and eyebrows, which looked even colder in the rain, and his clear and gentle eyes.
"Yang Xiao, eat well and study well, so you can help me share the burden, okay?" After Zhou Qi said that, he couldn't help but sneeze.
"Do you have a cold? I have the medicine you bought for me in my dormitory. I'll get it for you. Wait for me."
The rain gradually got heavier, and the thin threads that had originally fallen on the shoulders and disappeared turned into dense beads of rain that fell to the ground.
Zhou Qi grabbed her, then immediately let go, "Don't bother. Go inside quickly, the rain is getting heavy."
...
Zhou Qi lay on his bed in the dormitory, a cold sweat breaking out before a fever set in. His entire body burned, and he half-dazedly dreamed of Zhou Daye again. He smiled, picked up the piece of nougat from the ground, and told Zhou Qi to open it and taste it.
Just as he was about to take the candy, the biting dog from his childhood rushed out again. Its body grew bigger and bigger, and it had a bloody mouth. It swallowed Zhou Daye in front of him in one gulp.
Zhou Qi woke with a start, beads of sweat on his head, his lips dry and flaky from burning, his body a puddle of mud, completely drained of energy. His roommate kindly poured him a pot of hot water and a box of fever-reducing medicine, which he placed on the table. He slowly got out of bed, thanked his roommate, paid for the medicine, and took half a day off for his internship.
The next morning, his fever subsided, and Zhou Qi rushed to the hospital without stopping. He finished his ward rounds with Professor Ke Li and reviewed medical records. Then, feeling his stomach ache, he said goodbye to the professor and took his card to the hospital cafeteria to buy a bowl of porridge.
After breakfast, the cafeteria was deserted and only bowls of packaged purple rice porridge were left at the porridge window.
Zhou Qi had no choice but to grab his bowl of purple rice porridge and find a seat nearby. Before he even reached his seat, the bag and the porridge spilled out of the bottom. He grabbed the plastic bag by both ears, feeling like misfortune was about to come singly.
"Oh my, why is it leaking again? A few days ago, a little girl came to buy something, and the porridge she just filled up spilled all over her trouser legs. Doctor Zhou, yours is better, it didn't get on your clothes." Seeing this, the aunt at the window pushed open the small door from the side and came out to get the mop next to the sink.
"Let me do it, Auntie." Zhou Qi walked over quickly, rinsed the purple rice off his hands, took the mop from Auntie, and cleaned up the stains on the floor. He couldn't drink the porridge anymore, so he bought a cup of coffee from the coffee machine in the lobby and went upstairs to finish his medical records.
Over here, Yang Xiao still had English to take at the start of the semester. She had no intention of comparing her answers to the morning's science exam with Wang Ruopeng, so the two of them ate in silence in the cafeteria. Wang Ruopeng knew something had happened at home, so he lost interest in joking with her. He took advantage of her moment of daze to put some more braised pork he had brought from home into her bowl.
"Thank you, Maomao." Yang Xiao looked down and saw the pile of braised pork in her bowl, and she was deeply moved.
"Xiaoxiao, if you need any help at home, you can call me. Look at you now, you don't eat well, and you don't sleep well either. I heard you tossing and turning last night." Wang Ruopeng looked at her and asked worriedly.
"It's okay, cat." Yang Xiao forced a smile and took a big mouthful of rice in front of Wang Ruopeng. "Uncle's cooking skills are really good. This braised pork is really delicious." After that, she stuffed two more pieces of braised pork into her mouth.
Seeing her like this, Wang Ruopeng felt sad and powerless. Apart from asking her father to make some delicious food and send it to her, she could not help Yang Xiao in any way. She could only sigh softly. Xiaoxiao had been living such a hard life. Why couldn't God be nicer to her?
On the day the opening exam results came out, Yang Xiao took half a day off to visit Zhou Daye in the hospital. By the time she hurried back to school, Ji Yao had already finished her intensive course with Yue Ting and Lin Menghui, leaving her behind. Ji Yao left her a set of exam papers and told her to find some extra time to work on them. If she had any questions, she could come to his office. She nodded.
As soon as I returned to the classroom, I heard a few boys making a fuss: "Chen Zhi finally turned the tables and sang this time, otherwise she would have been suppressed by Yang Xiao in every exam, and now she has come to this day." The male protagonist in the topic just shook his head shyly and said that it was luck, when he saw Yang Xiao walking towards the seat, and immediately pulled a few boys who were watching the fun to sit down, and booed them one after another.
Yang Xiao was now certain that she had failed the entrance exam.
Before she even sat back down in her seat, she saw her report card on the table. She'd fallen out of the top 20 this time, dropping to around 40th. No wonder the boys had been looking at her like she was a monkey the moment she walked in. Before she could even finish sorting out the papers on the table, Wang Ruopeng plopped down next to her.
"Xiaoxiao, don't be sad. What's the big deal about the opening exam? Those boys just have foul mouths." After Wang Ruopeng said this, he looked at the group of outspoken boys opposite him with a provocative look.
"Well, it's okay, Cat. I really haven't reviewed well, so it's normal to have questions." Yang Xiao has never cared about other people's opinions. Now that Zhou Daye is in trouble, she has no time or energy to deal with them.
During Zhou Daye's critical illness, Yang Xiao was busy running back and forth between the hospital and school. She fell behind in her intensive classes, and her grades gradually declined. Ji Yao repeatedly sought her out, but she remained indifferent, staring at the clock above her office, her face filled with anxiety.
Ji Yao didn't know what to say. Even when she called Zhou Qi during the break between evening self-study classes, her phone was often turned off or busy. This morning, after finishing her class, she rushed back to the office and finally got through to Zhou Qi.
"Hello, are you Yang Xiao's brother? I finally got through to you. I'm Yang Xiao's class teacher, and I spoke to you before. I've also heard about what's going on in your family recently. It's not easy for both you and Yang Xiao. You should know that she has been taking leave to go to the hospital a lot recently. It's a good thing that the child is filial and obedient. But it's a pity to sacrifice Yang Xiao's studies. She is a very smart and hardworking child. With her previous enthusiasm, she would have been able to get into the strong foundation of Tsinghua University or Peking University, or even the ordinary batch. But now...ah." Ji Yao held the phone, looked at Yang Xiao's grades and rankings in the past period, and sighed again.
"Thank you Teacher Ji for your concern and reminder. I will talk to Yang Xiao about this. I'm sorry for your worry. She has troubled you during this period of time." Zhou Qi put the phone to his ear and took off the gloves he had just used to change the patient's dressing.
Hearing the heavy noise on his end, Ji Yao gave him a few more instructions and hung up the phone first.
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