After following the Wang couple to the Caritas Hospital near So Uk Estate, the nurse quickly took the three of them to a ward.
"Mother-in-law." Su Yun walked over and called softly.
No matter if she had promised her original self that she would take care of Grandma Su, or she was grateful for Grandma Su's sleepless care when she was still sick and in a daze a few days ago, Su Yun's cry was very sincere.
"Su, SuSu? Grandma...it's nothing...cough..." It looked like Grandma Su wanted to comfort Su Yun, but as soon as she opened her mouth, she started to cough dryly.
"What's wrong with her?" Su Yun picked up the hot water kettle on the bedside table and poured water for Grandma Su while looking at the doctor and nurse beside her.
"Don't worry, little sister. The doctor will explain everything to you slowly." The nurse comforted Su Yun softly.
"Are you her family?" The doctor walked forward with a folder in his hand and looked at the Wang couple.
"She only has Su Su as her granddaughter..." Mrs. Wang was silent for a moment, then stood up again in her husband's eyes of approval, "We have been neighbors for many years. If there is anything, it's the same if you talk to us."
"Yes, doctor, please tell me, what happened to my mother-in-law?" Su Yun also hurriedly asked.
The doctor looked at Grandma Su on the bed and Su Yun beside her with pity, and after sighing for the poor old and young, he slowly explained: "You see, she has a relatively obvious tumor here. You can feel the swelling and deformation of the bone when you touch it. Generally speaking, this is a typical manifestation of bone tumor..."
"Bone tumors can be divided into benign and malignant. Benign tumors are easy to cure and have a good prognosis. If there are no symptoms that affect your life, you can even ignore it. But malignant tumors develop rapidly and are very dangerous. Surgery is required as soon as possible." The doctor paused when he said this, and added in the puzzled eyes of the Wang couple, "It is commonly known as bone cancer."
As soon as the last two words came out, it was obvious that the Wang couple took a breath of cold air in shock.
Regardless of the era, most people are afraid of cancer.
"Have you confirmed? My mother-in-law is really..." Su Yun asked.
"The current test report is highly suspicious, but no matter whether it is benign or malignant, her condition has affected her daily life, and surgical removal is necessary," the doctor replied.
"Well, how much will the operation cost, doctor?" asked Mrs. Wang.
The doctor thought for a moment and replied, "If it is a benign tumor, a simple excision surgery and recovery treatment will cost at most a little over two thousand. But if it is confirmed to be malignant, it will not only be a matter of one or two surgeries. There will be many recovery treatments and other experimental treatments to follow. Twenty or thirty thousand is just the beginning... You should be mentally prepared."
After listening to the doctor's explanation of the treatment costs, everyone present was choked.
"Forget it, I'm already old..." After a while, Grandma Su was the first to speak, breaking the dead silence.
"Auntie, how can you say that!" Wang's father immediately became anxious, "You have been watching me grow up since I was a child, and I have always regarded you as my family..."
"That's right. Our two families have always been like one family. Now that something has happened to you, old man, there is no way we will just ignore it!" Mrs. Wang also expressed her opinion hastily.
"How much money do we have left at home?" Father Wang looked at Aunt Wang.
"We should be able to scrape together another five or six hundred." Mrs. Wang thought for a moment and answered.
Knowing that the Wangs were just workers, they didn’t earn much, and they had many children and high expenses… So Granny Su shook her head and said, “I know you have good intentions, but…”
"Auntie, don't be sad. Didn't the doctor just say that your health is too poor and you can't have surgery right away? Anyway, you should just relax and take good care of yourself. We will find a way to get the money!" Father Wang gritted his teeth and made the decision.
Su Yun, in her current childish state, could not have a say in such a matter involving human life, so she could only follow the Wang couple and reluctantly leave the ward.
When they returned to So Uk Estate, the elevator and staircase doors were already locked. Since their home was on the third floor anyway, Wang's father was too lazy to wake up the sleepy watchman, so he took Wang's wife and Su Yun upstairs directly and shouted softly twice to the corridor on the second floor.
The local security in the housing estate is poor. A few days ago, a gangster injured people in a nearby housing estate. The gangster's method was to pretend to be a passerby or visitor and take the elevator with the residents at night. Then, when the elevator started and there was no rescue, he suddenly jumped up and grabbed the residents' necks, performing a "neck robbery" to steal money.
Its nature is so vile that there have even been precedents of people being killed.
At that time, most of the Royal Police were paid but did not do any work. Therefore, as long as the criminals were not caught, everyone in the housing estate would be in danger.
The residents of So Uk Estate took this into consideration and spontaneously formed a mutual committee in the estate. Every night after dark, they not only locked the elevators, but also arranged two people to patrol the corridors with long bamboo poles to maintain law and order.
After the two patrolmen finish their first round of inspection, they will lock the hollow iron doors on each floor and then sit down in the corridor on the second floor to rest, making it convenient for residents who return home late at night.
"Hey, you're back so late?" Two men patrolling the corridor heard the voice and quickly came over with the key to open the door. "I heard that Grandma Su on the third floor is in the hospital?"
That's how it is in a housing estate. If something happens to one house, the news will spread not only to that building but also to several nearby buildings within a day.
The Wang couple briefly explained Grandma Su's condition. The two men sighed for a while, and then their eyes turned softer when they looked at Su Yun.
"You've been out for so long, Su Su must be hungry, right? Here, uncle will give you a small cake!" One of the men saw Su Yun lowering her head and not saying anything, so he immediately took out a small package of cake from his pocket and handed it to her.
"I also have a can of Coke here. I was planning to drink it while patrolling tonight. Come on, Susu, I'll give it to you." Another man also brought a can of Coke.
Both of them were clumsily trying to divert Su Yun's attention with hard-to-get snacks and drinks: I don't know whether this child understands this or not, but looking at the way she lowered her head, it seems that she understands it to some extent.
Back then, Su Yun's mother, Su Qing, was a beauty in Camellia House. Unexpectedly, she met the wrong man and had a hard life. Not only was the child left to depend on Grandma Su, but within a few years, Grandma Su also had an accident...
"Thank you, uncle." Su Yun thanked the two for their kindness, and then held snacks and drinks while watching the two men complain to the Wang couple, "Oh, by the way, Jiaju and Jiaxiang, the annoying couple, probably worried about Su Su, so they just tried to run through the stair railing and were caught by us and sent back..."
Su Yun subconsciously glanced at the stairs: between the stairs were iron railings and hollow iron doors welded with steel wires. Some naughty children who couldn't sleep at night would use their short bodies to pass through the gaps in the steel wires and run to other floors to play with their friends.
"We got it. Thanks for the reminder." After saying goodbye to the two men who were on night watch, the Wang couple took Su Yun to the third floor.
As soon as they opened the door, they saw the two brothers Wang Jiaju and Wang Jiaxiang squatting at the door, watching eagerly. However, since such an incident had happened today, the Wang couple had no intention of dealing with them as they had to go to work tomorrow. They just packed their things tiredly and prepared to wash up and go to bed.
"Su Su, what's wrong with you?" Seeing Su Yun lowering her head and not saying anything, Wang Jiaxiang hurried over and asked.
"I'm thinking about how to make money so that I can pay for my mother-in-law's medical expenses." Su Yun raised his head in thought.
If it was 1972, she probably knew of an opportunity to get rich quickly - the Hong Kong stock market crash in 1973.
This was the largest stock market crash in the history of Hong Kong stock market.
Before that, the Hong Kong stock market had experienced a long "bull market", and 1974 happened to be the "Year of the Ox". As the saying goes, good things come on top of good things. All the people in Hong Kong were immersed in the dream of getting rich by speculating in the stock market. No one was spared, from high-ranking officials to peddlers and hawkers. Many people even quit their jobs to devote themselves to the "gold mine" of the stock market to make money by speculating in stocks.
How crazy was the national stock market craze at that time?
In addition to those people who became rich overnight and spent large sums of money casually, they made possible such extravagant behaviors as shark fin rice, abalone porridge, fish balls made with grouper, and brandy mouthwash; in order to show off their wealth, some people in high positions would take out large denomination bills of 500 yuan, commonly known as "big bulls", and compete to use them as fuel to light cigarettes.
After a long time, there was even a joke that a stock exchange was set up in Qingshan Mental Hospital specifically for those mentally ill patients who went crazy from stock speculation...
As expected, this phenomenon of national madness was hit hard by the stock market bubble.
After the stock market crash, tens of thousands of investors lost everything in an instant. Many people even chose to commit suicide because they could not bear the outcome of seeing their dreams of wealth shattered.
This unforgettable stock market crash has become the subject of many film and television programs in later generations.
The TV series "Big Generation", which is set against the backdrop of this stock market crash, is one of the best examples: in the play, the protagonist's father picked up a poor little boy who was left aside and almost encountered a stampede. After shouting several times and no one came to claim the child, he finally pulled out the fire hose in anger and poured cold water on the crazy stock investors in the aisle of the trading hall who cared about nothing but stock trading.
But the scene of crazy stock investors remaining unmoved is simply shocking.
This also prompted Su Yun, who watched the TV series that year, to collect some relevant information with interest. After watching the legendary "Landmark Milk" century acquisition war and the black humor of "Hong Kong Skyline", she couldn't help but sigh that reality is even more absurd than drama.
But even though she knew that she could make a fortune from stocks by the end of the year, there were still two problems: one was that she did not have the capital and trading account needed for stock trading, and the other was... Grandma Su was not sure if she could hold on until that time.
Obviously, her thoughts were just childish fantasies in the eyes of the adults. Mrs. Wang and the two Wang sisters came over to comfort her: "Be good, we know you are sensible, but we adults will find a way to deal with this matter. Just relax and go to school, the final exam is coming soon."
The speaker may not mean it, but the listener may take it seriously.
Caritas Hospital is not far from where they live, and it only takes about ten minutes to walk there. Yesterday, the Wang couple took them to find out the way. The next day, after Su Yun went to the hospital to send Grandma Su for a check-up, she took advantage of the time when school was over and ran back to Camellia House in So Uk Estate.
"Hurry! Jiaxiang has gone to the office to pester Sir Zheng as you requested. Come with me!" Wang Jiaju's voice is really loud. You can hear him shouting from far away across the street.
Not far from Camellia House is the So Uk Bus Terminal. After passing Cheung Fat Street and walking a little further, they arrived at the Xinhui Chamber of Commerce School of the Hong Kong Four Districts Chamber of Commerce and Industry where they studied.
The name sounds a bit weird, so it is usually not called by its full name, but is abbreviated as Xinhui Chamber of Commerce School.
The reason for such a long list of school names is because of Hong Kong's school classification system.
Primary schools in Hong Kong are generally divided into four categories: fee-paying direct subsidy primary schools and private primary schools, which account for about 10% of the total number of primary schools; the rest are free government primary schools and aided primary schools, which account for about 90% of the total number of primary schools.
Direct Subsidy Primary Schools enjoy partial government subsidies and have medium tuition fees. Their biggest feature is that they have a one-stop service from primary school to secondary school, and the secondary schools they connect to are also well-known secondary schools such as St. Paul's Co-educational College and Diocesan Girls' School. As for private primary schools, they do not receive any government subsidies at all, so the tuition fees charged are relatively high, but most of them are also directly affiliated or affiliated with corresponding one-stop prestigious secondary schools.
It can be said that after entering these two types of primary schools, apart from the high cost, there is basically no need to worry about entering secondary school. Therefore, they are the first choice of many middle- and upper-class families.
As for government primary schools and aided primary schools, since most of the school funding is government subsidies, the places are allocated according to the region. Although most of the students are from lower-middle class families, there are enough of them and there are also famous primary schools with high admission rates. Those who cannot squeeze into private and direct subsidy schools will choose to attend famous primary schools with high admission rates.
Government primary schools are public primary schools managed by the Education Bureau, so the school names are mostly "XX Government Primary School".
The last type of primary school is also known as subsidized primary school. It is the most common type of primary school in Hong Kong, accounting for about 80% of the number of primary schools. Most of them are run by school-running groups that apply to the government for school-running subsidies and appoint a school board to manage the school.
Since the school buildings of subsidized primary schools are built by the school-running groups, they have the right to name the schools. The "Xinhui Chamber of Commerce School" where Su Yun studied is a typical subsidized primary school.
Of course, it is also a typical garbage school with a small campus, small buildings, small classrooms, and few students. There are only two classes in one grade, with about 50 students in each class. Among them, the number of students who can be admitted to famous middle schools or well-known alumni can be counted on one hand.
When I followed Wang Jiaju to the office, besides Wang Jiaxiang who was pretending to ask questions with a bitter face, there were also two students, a boy and a girl, who were obviously older than him.
"According to the rules, the fourth, fifth, and sixth grades each select one person to participate in the team competition. I understand your anxiety right now, but the original candidate for the fourth grade is sick, and I can't find anyone else for a while..."
The school system in Hong Kong during this era followed the British education system, and the grade division and naming were different from those in mainland China. Primary school was divided into Grade 1 to Grade 6, and secondary school was not divided into junior high school and senior high school, but only Form 1 to Form 5.
Generally speaking, most people of this era would go abroad for further studies or enter the workforce after completing Form 5 and the Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination, which is similar in nature to the National College Entrance Examination. If they wanted to enter university, they would continue to study in Form 6 and Form 7, which are two years of preparatory courses.
Summer vacation is approaching, and although it is said to be for grades 4, 5, and 6, it is actually the current grades 3, 4, and 5. Most of the students in grade 6 are busy preparing for the high school entrance exam or looking for a way out, and it is impossible for them to find time to participate in the competition, so they are postponed to the next grade.
Anyway, the finals will be held in mid-August, so it's fine to call them fourth, fifth, and sixth grades.
It was for this reason that Su Yun, who was in the third grade and about to enter the fourth grade, managed to catch the last train.
"Sir Zheng! Su Su said she has recovered from her illness and wants to participate in that 18 districts competition in Hong Kong!" Fearing that Su Yun's spot would be taken by someone else, Wang Jia suddenly started yelling at the door.
"It's an inter-school knowledge competition for primary school students in the 18 districts of Hong Kong." The standing boy turned around and saw that it was the notorious gangster in the class pulling a sickly-looking skinny little girl behind him. His face suddenly turned a little bad.