Chapter 20. With Shen Yanzhou around, it seems there's nothing...
Chapter 20
During this time, the train stopped at several more stations. Each time it stopped, people carrying luggage got on, while others got off rubbing their backs.
The family of five opposite them had been replaced by two young people, each carrying a gourd-shaped object about half their height.
Later he learned that this thing was called a guitar.
Yu Pan leaned on Shen Yanzhou's shoulder. It was the first time she had seen this thing, and she was very curious, her eyes constantly glancing at it.
Afraid of being discovered, I only dared to steal a few glances, and after looking, I quickly lowered my head and pretended to be fiddling with the strap of the canvas bag.
Shen Yanzhou noticed his little action and quietly hooked his palm with her finger.
Finally, the announcement "Lanzhou Station has arrived" came over the loudspeaker.
Lanzhou was the final stop. Although Yu Pan couldn't hear, she saw everyone around her starting to pack their luggage, so she sat up straight as well.
Shen Yanzhou took the luggage bag off the shelf, and to avoid squeezing him, he waited until most of the people on the bus had left before leading him to the door.
Upon exiting the station, Lanzhou's square was much more bustling than Seoul's, with people everywhere holding signs to welcome people, and vendors pushing carts selling maps and bottled water.
Shen Yanzhou didn't rush to leave. He first found a station staff member in uniform and asked how to get to the First People's Hospital of Lanzhou City.
"Take bus number 221, it goes directly there. Just wait at the bus stop over there." The staff member pointed to the bus stop not far away, probably because he gets asked this question every day, and explained in great detail: "It runs every ten minutes, it's an eight-stop journey, just get off at the Renmin Road intersection."
Fearing that Shen Yanzhou might not remember, he took out a notebook, wrote down "Bus No. 221, get off at Renmin Road intersection," tore it off, and gave it to him, saying, "Take this, don't lose it."
"Thank you, Master." Shen Yanzhou thanked him and led Yu Pan toward the bus stop.
Next to the bus stop stood a green bus stop sign with several straight lines drawn on it, and small characters written vertically below the lines.
Yu Pan leaned closer to look, only to find her eyes blurry.
Shen Yanzhou watched for a while, then pointed to a slightly larger dot on the straight line 221, and gestured to Yu Pan: "We are here now."
Then, following the direction of the arrow, we stopped at a dot marked "Renmin Road Intersection." "We need to go here."
Yu Pan nodded, half understanding, and seemed to grasp the meaning.
Before long, a green No. 221 bus drove up, and as soon as it got close, you could see that the bus was full of people.
Shen Yanzhou first pushed Yu Pan into the car, then squeezed in himself, and the car door slammed shut.
The carriage reeked of sweat, and Yu Pan frowned deeply.
"Buy a ticket on the bus, 50 cents each! Show your monthly pass!"
The ticket seller, an older woman, carried a ticket holder and weaved through the crowd.
Shen Yanzhou laboriously pulled a dollar from his pocket, pointed at Yu Pan, and handed it over: "Two tickets."
The auntie quickly tore off two tickets for him and continued hawking her wares.
They initially stood at the front of the train, next to the driver. As the train stopped at various stations, people got on and off, and they were gradually squeezed to the back of the carriage.
Shen Yanzhou had Yu Pan stand with his back against the car window, while he faced him, the two of them close together. Shen Yanzhou held onto the railing with one hand and pressed down on the luggage bag standing at his feet with the other, like a fence, protecting Yu Pan in the middle and preventing passersby from crowding him.
Yu Pan leaned against the car window and could see the scenery outside. The bicycles on the road were lined up one after another, and the roads were much wider than those in Seoul. The one-way lanes were even wider than the two-way lanes in Seoul!
He also saw a very tall building, but before he could count how many floors it had, the car drove past, leaving only a blurry shadow.
Yu Pan couldn't help but tug at Chen Yanzhou's arm, pointed out the window, and looked on with curiosity.
Shen Yanzhou was too busy to free his hands, so he just glanced in the direction the man pointed and nodded with a smile.
After standing there for more than twenty minutes, the bus announced, "Renmin Road Intersection has arrived." The people on the bus rushed to the door again, and Shen Yanzhou also got off the bus with Yu Pan in his hand.
Standing by the roadside, Yu Pan immediately spotted the hospital across the street.
A tall, white building stands out from the surrounding buildings, with nine large red characters reading "Lanzhou City First People's Hospital" prominently displayed on its top.
As they entered the hospital, both of them were a little dazed.
The lobby was bustling with people. Shen Yanzhou, holding Yu Pan's hand, didn't dare to wander off. Seeing a cleaning lady nearby, he went over and asked, "Auntie, could you tell me where the ENT department is?"
The aunt stopped what she was doing and pointed to the registration hall not far away: "The ENT department is on the third floor. Go there and queue up to register first."
The best place they had ever gone for medical treatment was the clinic, where they could just queue up directly without having to make an appointment.
"Thank you, Auntie." Shen Yanzhou thanked her and led Yu Pan to the registration window to queue up.
The line at the registration desk wasn't long; most of the people were family members accompanying patients. Unlike others, Shen Yanzhou didn't make Yu Pan wait on a chair in the lobby.
Yu Pan is unable to hear or speak, and being alone in an unfamiliar environment must be incredibly frightening for her.
Registration is only required, and the queue moves very quickly.
"I'll get an appointment with Dr. Zhang Jinglin in the ENT department," Shen Yanzhou said.
"Two yuan for registration." The nurse at the window tore off a registration slip, scribbled a few lines on it, and handed it over, saying, "Wait on the third floor, your number will be called over the loudspeaker."
Shen Yanzhou paid the money and took the receipt, which had "Zhang Jinglin, Department of Otolaryngology" printed on it in black ink and the handwritten "37".
He folded the form and put it into the side pocket of Yu Pan's canvas bag, then led her towards the elevator.
A lot of people were standing in front of the elevator. As soon as the door opened, most of them rushed in. Shen Yanzhou glanced at the crowded elevator car, decided not to squeeze in with Yu Pan, and instead followed the signs on the wall to take the stairs.
There were quite a few people taking the stairs. Yu Pan walked slowly, so Shen Yanzhou slowed down and walked alongside him step by step.
The first few rows of seats in the ENT waiting room on the third floor were full, so they found seats in the back.
As soon as Yu Pan sat down, she gripped Shen Yanzhou's hand tightly and rested her head on his shoulder.
The pungent smell of disinfectant and the strangers coming and going made him feel uneasy.
Shen Yanzhou looked down at him and saw that his eyelashes were drooping and his fingers were digging into his palms. He knew that the man was afraid.
He turned Yu Pan's hand over and wrote in his palm, stroke by stroke, "Brother is here."
Yu Pan's hand trembled slightly, and he slowly nodded, snuggling closer to Shen Yanzhou's embrace. If it weren't for the armrest in the middle, he would have wanted to sit directly on Shen Yanzhou's lap.
Shen Yanzhou looked at the soft hair on Yu Pan's head and felt a sinking feeling in his heart.
Ever since he heard from the clinic that "it might be a neurological problem," he hadn't felt at ease. Now that he was at a big hospital, he was even more afraid of getting bad results.
The waiting room's loudspeaker announced numbers intermittently. There were sixteen people ahead of them. To keep Yu Pan from getting bored, Shen Yanzhou would occasionally use sign language and play a guessing game with her.
When he got tired of playing, he took out a piece of candy from his bag, unwrapped it, and put it in his mouth. Yu Pan ate it with great care, holding it in his mouth and letting it slowly melt.
After waiting for almost two hours, I finally heard their number.
The doctors' names were posted in the consultation rooms along one side of the corridor. Shen Yanzhou went to each one and found a sign that read "Zhang Jinglin" at the door of consultation room number 3. He gently knocked on the door.
"Come in."
Pushing open the door, I saw Dr. Zhang sitting behind the table looking at medical records. He had gray hair, wore gold-rimmed glasses, and looked very kind.
A chair was placed opposite the desk, and Shen Yanzhou asked Yu Pan to sit down.
"What's wrong?" Zhang Jinglin asked, looking at Yu Pan.
“I can’t hear.” Shen Yanzhou took out the medical record printed by the town doctor and handed it over. “Dr. Zhang, we came from Baixi. Dr. Ye mentioned it to you.”
Zhang Jinglin took the medical record, flipped through a couple of pages, and after seeing the name on it, said "Oh," "I remember, it said there was a child who suddenly became deaf and then started speaking."
He put down the medical record and asked the crucial question first: "Besides being unable to hear, has he been unable to speak at all?"
"Yes, he never spoke. Before he fainted, he called me 'brother' once. After that, he woke up unable to speak or hear anything."
Zhang Jinglin nodded thoughtfully, his gaze falling on Yu Pan, his tone softening: "When did you start losing your hearing? Have you experienced any trauma before? Like being frightened or anything like that?"
“Ten days ago,” Shen Yanzhou quickly replied, “there was a flood and a landslide in our area. He was terrified at the time. When he saw me, he called out to me and then fainted. When he woke up, he couldn’t hear me anymore.”
Yu Pan sat beside him, clutching Shen Yanzhou's trouser leg, obediently watching Zhang Jinglin, trying to guess what he meant from the gestures of his lips.
Occasionally, Dr. Zhang would look at him and ask, "Have your ears ever hurt?" "Do you have a headache? Do you have tinnitus?" Shen Yanzhou would then squat down and demonstrate for him.
Yu hopes for another response.
After asking about the situation, Zhang Jinglin took out a small silver otoscope, stood up and walked to Yu Pan's side, "Let me take a look inside your ear."
Shen Yanzhou patted him on the back. Yu Pan didn't flinch. Following Doctor Zhang's instructions, he turned his head to one side.
Zhang Jinglin inserted the otoscope into Yu Pan's ear, squinted for a while, and then switched to the other side.
“The external auditory canal is clean, there is no inflammation, the eardrum is not damaged, and there is no fluid accumulation.” He straightened up, returned to his seat, took out a metal tuning fork, and looked at Shen Yanzhou: “Tell him that I’m going to tap it in a bit, and if he can hear it, he should raise his hand.”
Shen Yanzhou relayed the message to Yu Pan, who looked at him and nodded earnestly.
Zhang Jinglin took the tuning fork and tapped it gently. The tuning fork emitted a long, resonant "hum" sound. He then slowly brought the tuning fork to Yu Pan's left ear.
Yu Pan's ears twitched, but she didn't raise her hand. Her eyes remained blank as she looked at Shen Yanzhou, clearly having heard nothing.
Zhang Jinglin struck the tuning fork again, this time attaching it to Yu Pan's skull.
This is a bone conduction test. Even if there is a problem with the external auditory canal, sound can still be transmitted to the inner ear through the skull.
Yu Pan still didn't react, only slightly frowning as the tuning fork vibrated, without raising her hand.
"Can't you hear anything at all?" Zhang Jinglin sat back in his chair, his tone becoming more serious.
Shen Yanzhou gestured to Yu Pan, who shook her head.
Zhang Jinglin put the tuning fork back in the box, picked up a pen and signed his name on the examination form, saying, "We need to check your ears first. Take this to the first floor to pay the fee, then go directly to the hearing examination room across the street to do three tests: pure tone, acoustic impedance, and brainstem response."
Shen Yanzhou took the examination form and led Yu Pan to the lobby on the first floor to pay the fees. This time, they took the elevator down.
The elevator doors shook slightly as they closed. It was Yu Pan's first time riding an elevator, and her eyes were wide open. She clung tightly to Shen Yanzhou's arm until the doors opened again, at which point she loosened her grip a little.
The line at the payment hall was shorter than the line at the registration desk, but it moved very slowly; it took more than ten minutes to get to them.
Yu Pan watched as Shen Yanzhou handed over the receipt, and as he took out his wallet, counted out eighty yuan, and handed it over, her heart ached and her flesh ached.
After receiving the examination form stamped with the payment seal, the two returned to the hearing test room on the third floor.
The doctor inside took the form, had Yu Pan sit on a chair covered with a blue cushion, and handed him a black headset and a white button: "Put on the headset. When you hear a sound, press this button. Press it as many times as you hear a sound, understand?"
Shen Yanzhou gestured as he translated the doctor's words to him.
Yu Pan nodded, carefully put on the headphones, and stared at the buttons in her hand, afraid of missing any sound.
The test began, and the doctor pressed a few buttons on the machine. Yu Pan remained motionless, her hand never pressing the button.
The doctor turned up the volume and tried several more times, but Yu Pan still didn't respond.
Finally, the doctor took off his headphones and wrote the results on the form.
Looking at the words "profound hearing loss" on the screen, Shen Yanzhou felt as if his heart was hanging in mid-air.
Next, an acoustic impedance test was performed. The doctor asked Shen Yanzhou to hold Yu Pan and keep him still, and then placed a small probe into Yu Pan's right ear.
The lines on the machine slowly jumped out as a wavy curve. The doctor looked at it for a while, then tested the left ear again, and finally wrote on the report: "No abnormalities were found in the middle ear sound transmission structure."
After the acoustic impedance test was completed, the doctor pointed to a small examination room next door with a blue curtain: "There's another auditory brainstem response test to do. You'll have to lie down. They'll check the neural pathways. It'll be quick."
Shen Yanzhou led Yu Pan over, where a narrow examination bed was placed, with a machine attached to the head of the bed.
The doctor took out several round electrode pads from the drawer and said to Shen Yanzhou, "Pull your hair back, and attach the electrodes behind your ears and on your forehead."
Shen Yanzhou brushed the stray hairs behind Yu Pan's ears to her face. When the cool, sticky, gelatinous liquid touched her skin, Yu Pan subconsciously shrank her neck.
After attaching the electrodes, the doctor put headphones on Yu Pan, adjusted the tightness, and told Shen Yanzhou, "Have him lie on the bed with his eyes closed and relax. He doesn't need to move when he hears the sound."
The machine makes a slight noise after starting.
Shen Yanzhou stood by the bed, his eyes fixed on the machine screen, where the waveforms jumped intermittently.
Yu Pan lay motionless on the bed, his chest rising and falling with his breath. He could feel a slight vibration in his ears, but he couldn't hear any specific sound.
In addition, the results of the two previous tests seemed to be not good, which made him increasingly anxious.
His hand was still gripping Shen Yanzhou's trouser leg, and occasionally when the machine stopped for adjustments, he would quietly open his eyes to peek.
Seeing that Shen Yanzhou was looking at her with gentle eyes, she smiled at him.
Yu Pan quickly closed her eyes again, feeling a little relieved.
With Shen Yanzhou around, I don't seem so afraid anymore.
A note from the author:
----------------------
Setting up a stall! ~ "My Childhood Sweetheart is My Wife"
Lively and cheerful uke vs. aloof and cool seme
In the summer when Lin Xinian was three years old, Grandpa Zhou, who lived next door, brought home a little boy.
The little boy was taciturn and aloof.
But Lin Xinian didn't care. He liked good-looking people and would run to them with candy in his pocket every day.
However, both sets of parents discovered—
The usually taciturn Zhou Cong followed Lin Xinian around all day, including but not limited to—
Lin Xinian got into a conflict with another child, and Zhou Cong stood in front to block him.
Lin Xinian climbed over the wall, with Zhou Cong acting as a human cushion underneath.
Lin Xinian didn't want to do his homework, so Zhou Cong did two copies without saying a word.
As a result, the teachers found out and called their parents.
Afterwards, Zhou Cong confessed: "It was my mistake. I will pay attention to my handwriting next time."
...
Because of his parents' neglect when he was young, Zhou Cong became indifferent and taciturn. His grandfather couldn't bear to see this and took him back to his hometown to raise him properly.
On the day he moved home, Zhou Cong saw Lin Xinian peeking at him through the gap in the railing.
Seeing him look over, Lin Xinian's eyes lit up, and he grinned at Zhou Cong.
Like a little sun, Zhou Cong thought.
...
They grew up together, went to school together, and were never separated.
Lin Xinian felt that he and Zhou Cong were the best of friends in the world.
It wasn't until one day, when he saw how his other childhood friends interacted, that he realized something was wrong.
Other childhood friends wouldn't help him put on his socks when he's still in bed.
Other childhood friends wouldn't blow-dry his hair after he washed it.
Other childhood friends would never put another cold hand on their stomach to warm it up in winter.
Lin Xinian scratched his head, looking at Zhou Cong who was helping him organize his notes. For the first time, he felt that the words "good buddy" and "childhood friend" couldn't quite encompass the two of them.
[Childhood Sweethearts/Daily Life/Starting from Childhood/Romance After Adulthood/]
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