"Don't explain, it's a big deal. This is all our child. It's yours, and it's mine."
As she spoke, Jinzi wrapped her arm around Director Zhao's neck again, pressed his head against hers, and cried out, "And Director, don't let his usual appearance fool you, he knew that Xiaoyu's matter was related to the developer of the cultural town, and he contacted them for me immediately."
“You are all my family. If it weren’t for you, I would have jumped out of the hospital window several times.”
"Hospital fees are so high, and Xiaoyu is now unemployed. No company wants pregnant women these days."
"It's too hard... living is too hard... all we want is a child."
Jinzi, a strong man, suddenly started crying like a three-year-old child. Xiaoyu listened to his drunken rant and initially chuckled, because the windows in the hospital room were too small for Jinzi to fit in. But as she laughed, her eyes unknowingly reddened as well.
Director Zhao was reluctant to get close to Jin Zhenliang, finding his face oily and unhygienic. However, after hearing his story about wanting to jump off a building, his attitude softened. He put his arm around Jin's shoulder and patted him heavily, saying, "Little Jin, I understand you. I thought about dying when I was young too. I failed the civil service exam and didn't dare tell my family. I hid in an internet cafe to check my results, and I felt the same way you did when I saw I failed. When I got back to my semi-basement apartment, a thief broke in and stole my only two hundred yuan for living expenses. When I went home to ask for money for food, my dad slapped me three times across the face."
He said that he had never respected me in his life, that my education was a waste of my talents, and that I should just go back to farming.
Perhaps because he was reminded of the days when he had to break instant noodles in half to eat in his rented room, Director Zhao began to sob after he finished speaking.
“I am the only graduate student in our village, and I have a heavy responsibility on my shoulders.”
Ha Yue lowered her head, her ears filled with the sobs of two men.
She was somewhat drunk, because the voices in front of her were very close, but when they reached her eardrums, they sounded blurry, as if they were coming through frosted glass. She couldn't understand what Jinzi was saying at all, nor did she know why Xue Jing was in such a hurry to explain that he hadn't done anything good.
Ha Yue lowered her eyes, her upturned nose tingling, and her cheeks flushed red. For some reason, she could see her own eyelashes, which had been invisible for more than twenty years, in her vision. She blinked again to dispel the dappled shadows. Ha Yue stared blankly and persistently at the unfolded ultrasound report on the table, her eyebrows furrowed. She looked at it for a long time but still couldn't understand the patterns and white dots on it.
Looking at her, it was like trying to thread a needle but not finding the eye of the needle; she was a little anxious.
So he turned around, grabbed Xue Jing's wrist, and asked him to watch with him.
The voice was puzzled and unclear, "Xue Jing, where are all our children? Why is this piece of paper waving around? I can't understand it."
There wasn't a breath of wind in the room, so the paper wasn't swaying. What was swaying was Ha Yue's shoulders and her neck, which kept drooping downwards.
Fortunately, this wasn't the first time Xue Jing had seen a fetal ultrasound. During his first year of graduate school, due to the professional needs of a character in his book, he specifically paid a medical student to supplement his medical imaging for two months on weekends.
So, with practiced ease, Xue Jing steadied Ha Yue's body, intertwined his fingers with hers, and guided her index finger to point on the small black and white image, explaining it to her in detail.
"These are the hands, these are the feet, and this round one is the head."
"See the glowing area here? That's a strong echo from the baby's heart. But it's okay, the test results are still very good. More than 95% of bright spots in the heart disappear in late pregnancy. It doesn't mean anything."
"It seems their persistence was right; luck does indeed happen. The one who was wrong was me."
"Wow."
"How amazing."
"Very healthy? That's wonderful, really wonderful."
As Xue Jing explained, Ha Yue's brows relaxed, and she raised the corners of her lips in a soft gasp. This was the first time she had seen the fetus's form; the little thing at fourteen weeks already had complete fingers and toes.
She said "that's great" many times because there were no other words that could adequately express her feelings.
It's hard to imagine that Xiaoyu still looks like the same Xiaoyu from last year, yet now two different heartbeats are sprouting within her body. Moreover, after all the suffering she endured, being able to bring new life into the world and have her wish fulfilled is like spring flowers blooming, filling her with a strange sense of emotion.
Moreover, in Jinzi's words, this child was "rescued" by everyone together.
Across from them, Jinzi and Director Zhao were still crying their eyes out. Jinzi talked about everything from medical expenses to baby formula costs, while Director Zhao talked about the difficulty young people face in finding jobs and the hidden discrimination against women in the workplace. One was talking about ordinary people's daily lives, and the other was talking about broader social phenomena. They seemed to be having a lively conversation, but in reality, there was absolutely no interaction; they were completely talking past each other.
Ha Yue listened to their crying and shouting, but she didn't find it noisy. Instead, she felt an urge to join in.
Staring intently at the ultrasound report in front of her, she suddenly looked up and asked Xiaoyu, "Xiaoyu, does the baby already have a name?"
Xiaoyu nodded, then touched her belly shyly and said, "When I was in the hospital, I did nothing but eat and sleep all day. I searched online for a long time, and in the end, Jinzi and I decided to name her Jin Jinning. It will work for both boys and girls."
Although Yihua still knows what her child looks like and what his personality is, they only hope that their child will be healthy and well for the rest of his life.
This is their biggest wish at this stage.
"Jinning".
Ha Yue gently chewed the two words between her teeth. Then, on a whim, she took advantage of the alcohol and handed the paper back to Jinzi, slurring her words as she comforted him, "Jinzi, I'm going to sell Chunni's convenience store soon. Isn't Xiaoyu having trouble finding a job? Why don't you take over the store?"
Xiaoyu can't handle everything by herself, so Aunt Siqin can help out. As for Jinzi, he can continue to be her driver.
This gave the neighbor's family another source of income. Although it wasn't a huge sum, it was more than enough to raise a child in Suicheng. Over the years, when she returned to Suicheng, Zhao Chunni was very grateful for the help from Aunt Siqin; otherwise, she wouldn't have been able to survive until now.
She desperately wanted to repay this kindness in full, and now that a good opportunity had presented itself, she couldn't afford to miss it.
"You don't need to rush to give me the money. Just pay it back as you earn it. I might need to trouble you a lot more in the future."
For example, she needed to arrange her funeral and erect a new grave. Roughly speaking, she should have enough money to avoid being criticized after her death. She planned to leave this world cleanly and didn't want to cause any unnecessary trouble for anyone.
"And what about you? What are you going to do with the convenience store, sis? You'll need money to find someone to take care of Aunt Zhao, won't you?"
"Me?" Ha Yue paused for a few seconds. At first, because Xue Jing was there, she found it difficult to speak. But soon, she thought that she was going to die anyway, so it didn't matter if she told another lie. So she relaxed and showed a calm and open-minded expression: "It's okay. I'll take my mother away next spring. You all know her condition is getting worse and worse. I probably can't take care of her by myself."
Ha Yue's words were full of suggestive ambiguity.
Xiaoyu's eyes darted between Ha Yue and Xue Jing, her excitement outweighing her worry. She naturally expressed her envy: "Sister, are you going back to Jicheng with Teacher Xue? Well, the facilities at the sanatorium there are definitely better than here. Aunt Zhao is really enjoying herself."
"Mm." This time, Ha Yue didn't turn around to see Xue Jing's reaction; she just smiled brightly and nodded vigorously. "Yes!"
"Good news, good news."
"Sister, you must come back to visit often in the future, don't forget us."
"good."
Five minutes later, Ha Yue, who needed to urinate urgently, was half-carried and helped upstairs by Xue Jing.
The first-floor restroom was so dirty and messy that it was unusable. After secretly paying the bill, Xue Jing made a special trip to the second-floor restroom with the owner.
After wiping the handles clean with disinfectant wipes, Xue Jing borrowed a mop to clean the stains on the tiles. After cleaning the bathroom, Xue Jing squeezed into the small cubicle with Ha Yue, preparing to help her with the next step.
Ha Yue leaned against the partition with her eyes open. Just a few minutes ago, she looked at him with trust and was very obedient. But when he ordered her to hug his neck, bent down and pulled up the hem of her shirt, and his fingers just touched her belly, which was swollen from the alcohol, Ha Yue grabbed his hair as if she had been electrocuted and cried out in embarrassment, "I'm not drunk! Don't touch me!"
"I can do it myself!"
With his hair being pulled, Xue Jing had no choice but to give up helping her unbutton her pants and pleaded with her to let go of his head first. Although he had a lot of hair, it couldn't withstand being pulled like that.
Ha Yue thought for a moment, then finally let go of him. Before Xue Jing could speak again, she turned around and used the Tathagata Palm to push him out of the cubicle, then quickly closed the door.
Xue Jing's chest turned red from her slap, his hair disheveled. He found Ha Yue's drunken attempt to save face amusing. He haphazardly combed his hair, told her several times outside the door to call for his help if she couldn't stand up, and then turned back to wait in the corridor.
Downstairs, Jinzi and his wife were paying their bill and getting dressed, preparing to take Director Zhao, who had fainted from crying again, home first. Since they had already tacitly accepted that Ha Yue and Xue Jing were in a close romantic relationship, their conversation drifted down the stairs to Xue Jing's ears without any precautions.
"Do you think Aunt Zhao's illness can be cured in Jicheng? I heard from Mom that Alzheimer's disease is incurable, isn't it?"
Xue Jing's eyebrows twitched, and he glanced sideways in the direction of the women's restroom. Soon, Jinzi's voice, tinged with regret, reached his ears again.
"Sigh, there's no cure, but we can't just let Aunt Zhao die like this, can we? This afternoon, Mom said she went to her house and saw that Aunt Zhao's window had a big hole in it, all the mirrors were covered with newspapers, and the room was a mess. In this cold weather, I don't know how the two of them have survived this month."
Xiaoyu sighed, but her tone was still full of hope, "Things will get better soon. Anyway, Teacher Xue has plenty of money, so he can definitely take good care of them in Jicheng. Sister Hayue is really lucky. Wasn't he supposed to be her ex-boyfriend? Seeing how lovey-dovey they were at night, it wasn't just a little crush. Teacher Xue must like her a lot too, right?"
Jinzi hesitated for a moment, then touched his wife's face, as if regaining some of his senses from his drunkenness. "But we're not husband and wife after all. How long can this kind of help last just because we like each other? This isn't as simple as lending money for medical treatment."
"Why think so much? This is how life is for us small business owners. If you help me and I help you, we'll get through this. If you keep worrying about the future, how can we survive? You'll be worried to death."
"Maybe they'll get along well and get married? Stop worrying. Aren't they both smarter than you?"
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