Chapter 42: Lie Down When You're Sad
He Xiaolan was sleeping soundly when she suddenly felt someone pushing her. She sat up in a daze, thinking there was an earthquake, and wanted to run out while holding Yueyue.
"Why are you holding the child? Put her down first." Wang Qingwei took Yueyue from He Xiaolan's arms, and seeing that she was still asleep, he slowly put her back on the bed.
Hearing Wang Qingwei's voice, she finally woke up. "What's wrong? Why are you so surprised so early in the morning? Did your mom catch your dad cheating on you?" The morning sun was really dazzling. She had been having a nice dream and was about to move into Guangqu Jinmao Mansion, but she was suddenly woken up. She was really annoyed. But what Wang Qingwei was going to say next would make her even more annoyed.
"My dad was hit by a car and was taken to the hospital."
Without asking for details, the couple changed their clothes and ran out. Yueyue still needed someone to look after her, so they didn't tell He Lianhua the actual situation. They just said Wang Yunfu had sprained his ankle and was in the hospital for a checkup. He Lianhua had been angry with Wang Yunfu for the past few days, so she didn't hesitate to ask for details.
When they saw Wang Yunfu in the emergency room, he was lying on the bed, groaning in pain. The traffic police and the other party involved in the accident were sitting nearby, waiting for He Xiaolan and her husband to arrive.
Wang Qingwei was a little anxious. He took a step forward and almost threw himself into the arms of the traffic policeman, "What happened to my dad? Why was he hit by a car?"
The big brother next to him spoke slowly, trying his best to suppress his anger. He Xiaolan stood aside and observed the situation. She always felt that this incident was not necessarily the responsibility of the big brother who hit the person. "Your father ran a red light and didn't use the sidewalk. Fortunately, I drove slowly, otherwise he would still have the energy to groan in bed at this time."
Wang Yunfu didn't think he was wrong. He was in so much pain that he didn't even have the energy to speak, but he still kept grabbing the other person and said, "How could I have run a red light? There was no light there. I didn't see it."
"You are so funny. If you didn't see it, then it didn't exist. Our traffic police comrades are standing here. Someone will give us justice."
The traffic police quickly made a judgment and put the video of Wang Yunfu running a red light in front of the father and son. "You are definitely fully responsible for this. It's very generous of them not to ask you for the money to repair the car. Uncle, please look at the traffic lights when you drive in the future. Fortunately, nothing serious happened today."
He Xiaolan came to Wang Qingwei's side to admire Wang Yunfu's great feat. There were quite a few cars on the road early in the morning, and the red light on the opposite side had already turned on. The old man looked around and found that there were no cars, so he walked across the road. There was a crosswalk next to him, but he acted as if he didn't see it.
There is no need to think about it. It must be all the responsibility of his family. Wang Qingwei had nothing to say after watching the video. He looked at Wang Yunfu with some anger.
"What did you do so early in the morning?"
"What for? To buy breakfast for your family, otherwise why would I go out?"
"There's a breakfast stall downstairs, why do you have to run so far?"
"Why should you, a son, care what I do?"
The father and son started arguing louder and louder, and the nurse who was giving someone an injection next to them became a little impatient and said, "This is a hospital, why are you arguing here? If you have something to say, go outside and talk."
He Xiaolan hurried over and said, "Thank you both for sending him to the hospital. The old man is old, his eyesight is not good and his mind is confused. I'm sorry to trouble you both, running back and forth so early in the morning."
He Xiaolan accompanied the traffic police and the older brother who was driving all the way to the hospital entrance. After the traffic police left, He Xiaolan took out her cell phone and said, "Brother, I see you are older than me, so I call you brother. Although you don't want the money for repairing the car, it is indeed our family's responsibility. It's quite unlucky to encounter such a thing so early in the morning. I will transfer one thousand yuan to you. Our family conditions are not very good. This is our way of apologizing to you. Please don't think it's too little."
The other party took the money, and on the north wind drifted a farewell, "You're the only one in your family who can get things done." He Xiaolan stood outside the emergency room. Some people hurried in, some hurried out. An elderly woman came out of the emergency room, wiping tears. She stood beside He Xiaolan, her hands trembling, trying to make a phone call. Listening to her struggling to hold back her tears, He Xiaolan thought she saw Ms. Zhang Xinrong standing beside her. She pulled a pack of tissues from her bag and handed it to her. She said nothing, asked no questions, and simply walked away silently. That was enough.
The doctor diagnosed Wang Yunfu with three broken ribs and a clavicle, necessitating surgery and hospitalization. However, because he was fully responsible for the traffic accident, his medical insurance wouldn't cover the cost, forcing him to pay for everything out of his own pocket. The couple sat outside the operating room, neither wanting to talk, feeling empty both in their hearts and their wallets.
"I gave the driver one thousand yuan. This is our fault anyway." He Xiaolan said this purely to inform Wang Qingwei. After all, in Wang Qingwei's mind, this money should not be spent if possible. However, in today's society where relationships are important, many things cannot be simply judged by right or wrong.
She could understand Wang Qingwei. After all, he had joined Tao Lin's company right after graduation, spending his days in front of a computer, interacting with a limited number of people, and his simple social connections had shaped his simple personality. He Xiaolan was different. In fact, right after graduation, she interned at a small company with only five people, doing odd jobs there, euphemistically called an administrative assistant.
The smaller the temple, the stronger the demons. Even the five of them had to follow seniority. During New Year's Eve, He Xiaolan caught up with the company's team-building event, and the five of them went to the World Trade Center to eat at Golden Leopard. He Xiaolan had only heard of it before, but never seen it. In her mind, it was a top-notch buffet. As soon as He Xiaolan picked up her plate and poured herself a glass of water, she was scolded by her boss, who asked why she only took food for herself and had to give it to the boss first. By the time He Xiaolan had served each "boss," the buffet timer was almost up, so she ended her Golden Leopard experience with a couple of bites of pasta.
After being repeatedly asked to work overtime and shoulder tasks that weren't her responsibility, He Xiaolan resigned, no longer willing to endure the humiliation. Even at her current company, the situation remains volatile. Throughout her career, He Xiaolan has learned through trial and error. No one told her what to do. She once described herself to Qin Tiantian as "Lin Daiyu entering the Grand View Garden, starting by watching people gargle."
Giving him a thousand yuan today would have eliminated most of the potential problems. If Big Brother returned home and started to think things were wrong, and returned to the hospital to argue, they, already at a disadvantage, would likely pay even more. Wang Yunfu's medical expenses would have been at least twenty or thirty thousand yuan, plus the subsequent recovery costs. He would have forgotten about ballroom dancing. Seeing Wang Yunfu lying in bed, bound and tied up, He Lianhua felt a little gloomy. "Don't go out and have fun this time. If you keep thinking about him, he won't come to see you."
With Wang Yunfu's illness, He Lianhua had to focus most of her attention on the hospital. Hiring a caregiver cost over 300 yuan a day, which was a huge expense. The most difficult question now became who would take care of Yueyue. Initially, He Lianhua said she could definitely handle both. But one evening, as He Xiaolan was about to leave work at 8 p.m., she received a call from Yueyue, saying she was scared and alone at home, and hadn't eaten dinner.
Without any time to prepare, He Xiaolan shot back to Tianjin like an arrow. When she got home, Yueyue had already eaten two bags of potato chips and a bag of biscuits. After hurriedly ordering takeout, the mother and daughter ate their meal. Only then did He Xiaolan finally feel relieved.
He Lianhua hurried in and breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that the mother and daughter had finished their meal. Even if she was angry at this moment, she dared not to lose her temper and could only hold it in. "Mom, is Dad okay?"
The smell of disinfectant on He Lianhua's body had not yet dissipated. "It's okay. They said there was a slight bleeding behind the brain. I had several tests today, and I don't know yet whether I need surgery."
"Have you eaten yet?" He Xiaolan moved her buttocks and made room on the sofa for He Lianhua to eat.
"You guys eat it, I ate a few bites in the hospital."
"Um".
Given the current situation at home, He Lianhua definitely couldn't handle it all on her own. She had to send Zhang Xinrong to Tianjin. There was no place to live, and she couldn't have her parents-in-law and her mother squeezed in together; it wouldn't be convenient for anyone. Wang Qingwei's work schedule was extremely irregular, and it was the probation period for his new company. If he didn't perform well, he could be fired at any time. The last resort was for He Xiaolan to split her time between Beijing and Tianjin, truly living a dual-city life. He Xiaolan usually took the last high-speed train back to Tianjin, and by the time she got home, she was practically exhausted, let alone helping Yueyue with her homework or playing with her.
They all went to eat at noon. Li Yueling basically never went out to eat. She always brought prepared meals from home. Sometimes she would bring a little extra and eat with He Xiaolan.
He Xiaolan opened the calculator on her phone and kept scratching her head while Li Yueling stood behind her, chewing a cucumber and watching.
"What do you mean by this?"
"The transportation fee is 109 yuan a day for running between Beijing and Tianjin every day. There is one high-speed train in the morning and one in the evening. This does not include the cost of subway, takeout and sometimes I have to take a taxi if it is late."
"Your calculation is quite scary. It's nearly 200 yuan a day. If you have to spend a hundred days to recover from the injury, that's 6,000 yuan a month. That's enough to rent a house in Beijing, let alone Tianjin." Li Lingyue casually opened the apartment rental app for He Xiaolan to see.
"Let my mother go to Tianjin and rent a house for her. I can save myself the worry and money."
"You should have done this a long time ago."
He Xiaolan looked out the window, her eyes passing over one tall building and then another. The sky outside was gray and it looked like it was going to snow.
"Sister Li, have you got Lin Lele's physical examination report?"
"The new intern brought it here. I checked it and found no problem. I put it in the file."
He Xiaolan looked at Li Lingyue gratefully and almost went up to hug her, "What would I do if you hadn't come? There is no one in our family who can give me peace of mind."
He Xiaolan is very proactive and she gets things done as soon as she says she will. She finished all the things in one day. Ms. Zhang Xinrong has always looked down on Wang Qingwei's parents. "Your parents-in-law are really something. Why did you ask them to come here? Now it's clear who will take care of whom."
He Xiaolan was driving the car and worriedly told her mother, "When you see my mother-in-law, say less. It's better not to meet her at all. She is not happy right now."
"How much is the rent in Tianjin?" Ms. Zhang Xinrong glanced at the scenery outside, then at her daughter sitting next to her. He Xiaolan usually bought things, but she had lived in her house for almost a month and hadn't seen her buy many express deliveries. She probably was short on money.
"It's not a big deal, just a place to stay." He Xiaolan didn't want to tell her mother about her predicament. "Wang Qingwei and I both have jobs, so why are you worried?"
"I'm not worried about you, I'm worried about Yueyue. I pay the rent in Tianjin myself, and I have some money left after selling the house. I also have a pension, so you don't have to worry about anything in Tianjin."
"It would be nice if you could keep that little bit of money for yourself or save it to buy some jewelry or clothes. Look at the ring my aunt bought for you last time. Isn't it very beautiful? I'll take you to the mall one day and we'll buy you one too."
When she was little, Ms. Zhang Xinrong was He Xiaolan's mountain. She was attached to the mountain, yet somewhat loathed it. It wasn't until now, standing on the mountaintop, that she turned around and realized her mother was actually such a short, thin mountaintop.
"Mom is still useful, Xiaolan. I'm not old enough to need your care. I'm happy to help you with some of the burdens. Don't feel guilty," Zhang Xinrong soothed her softly. She rarely spoke to He Xiaolan so tenderly. They used to need brute force to break free from their stagnant lives, from the jokes and the harsh words. Now, in the cold winter, they huddled together in this old, earth-brown car, letting the wind howl outside.
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