Zhao Baojia's face was deathly pale, devoid of any color, and upon closer inspection, his lips were trembling.
Li Weidong was terrified.
My third uncle is not young this year either. The old man just got discharged from the hospital. I hope we don't have another patient coming in!
Zhao Baojia pressed his hand down and shook his head, saying, "I...I'm fine. I just feel sad because I heard that your grandfather spent so much money!"
More than six thousand yuan!
He really couldn't accept spending so much money all at once.
Li Weidong laughed: "What's there to be sad about? My grandpa's fine, so the money was well spent!"
"Money can be earned back, but once a person is gone, they're truly gone!"
He sighed and reassured her, "Third Uncle, don't worry about it. I have money. This little bit of money is nothing to me."
Zhao Baojia forced out a smile that looked more like a grimace: "No matter how much money you have, it's all earned through hard work. Now that your grandfather is in trouble, it's our responsibility as his children to provide the money."
“Your uncles are heartless; they’ve made you, the younger generation, suffer.”
As he said this, he shakily unbuttoned his trousers and pulled out a red cloth bag.
Li Weidong was stunned for a moment.
When he saw his third uncle come to the hospital in the morning, he noticed that his pants were bulging, and he suspected that something had been put in them!
Zhao Baojia's hands trembled slightly as he carefully peeled back the layers of red cloth, revealing the banknotes inside.
Most of the money was in ten or twenty yuan notes, along with a lot of loose bills and a few hundred yuan notes. Although they were all old, each one was smoothed out.
"Wei Dong, here's over 1,300 yuan. Take it."
Zhao Baojia stuffed the red cloth bag into Li Weidong's hand: "Your uncle and aunt are unwilling to contribute money, but I can't be an ingrate."
"Logically speaking, I should contribute three thousand yuan to split the cost with you, but my uncle is incapable of doing so."
He sighed, "Take this money first, and I'll make it up to you later when I earn more. I won't let you suffer any losses."
In his view, there was no point in making a fuss if Zhao Baoguo and the others were unwilling to contribute money.
He couldn't let Zhao Xiulian's family pay the more than 6,000 yuan for the surgery, so he planned to split the cost equally.
But all he could come up with was a little over a thousand yuan.
Li Weidong was startled and quickly tried to explain, "Third Uncle, what are you doing!"
"I already told you I paid for my grandfather's surgery, you don't need to pay for it, but you still want to give me money, isn't that embarrassing me?"
He feigned anger and said, "What? As a grandson, I'm not qualified to be filial to my maternal grandfather?"
Zhao Baojia refused to accept the money and insisted on stuffing it into his hands: "Your grandfather had an accident, and you ran around doing everything you could, even doing favors for him, and you've been taking care of him for days. How can that not be considered filial piety?"
"I can't let you pay for the medical expenses alone, take it now!"
Li Weidong firmly shook his head: "No, I said I'll pay, so you can take the money back!"
My third uncle never married and had no skills. He relied on the crops in his fields to make a living all year round. Only when the harvest was good could he sell some vegetables and grains and save a little money.
This thousand-plus yuan is probably all the money he has left, how could he possibly accept it!
Seeing that Li Weidong refused to accept the money, Zhao Baojia said, "Weidong, do you feel sorry for me and that's why you won't take my money?"
"If you don't like me, just say so!"
That's a very serious statement.
Li Weidong had no choice but to sigh and take the money: "Alright, I'll take the money then."
"But let me make this clear first: now that you've paid this money, you probably don't have much savings left. So if you ever need money in the future, don't treat your nephew like an outsider!"
Zhao Baojia handed over the money and immediately smiled, "I still have money, don't worry!"
Then he added, "Now that you've paid, hurry back home. Your grandpa's been wanting to go home for ages!"
Li Weidong sighed heavily, looking at his third uncle's slightly hunched back, when suddenly a brilliant idea struck him.
How come you left your third uncle behind when you led so many people to grow mushrooms?!
Growing mushrooms is not tiring, and you can earn much more money than farming.
As long as my third uncle can get the hang of it, will we still have to worry about not having money in the future?
He hadn't mentioned it before because he was scared by Tiger's family, but after his grandfather's hospitalization, he finally understood.
My third uncle is definitely not the kind of ungrateful person!
Li Weidong became increasingly excited and quickly called out to Zhao Baojia, "Third Uncle, do you want to grow mushrooms with me?"
Zhao Baojia was stunned, somewhat incredulous: "Weidong, you...you're going to take me with you to grow mushrooms?!"
He had actually thought about working with Li Weidong for a long time, but he couldn't bring himself to do it before, and after what happened at Hu Zi's house, he couldn't bring himself to say it.
Unexpectedly, Li Weidong brought it up himself.
Li Weidong nodded and said, "As long as you're willing to grow them, I'll guide you! I'll help you build the shed and buy the mushroom spawn. You just need to take good care of the mushrooms. The purchase price and everything else will be shared by everyone."
Zhao Baojia was so excited that he nodded repeatedly: "Yes, yes! I've wanted to grow mushrooms with you for a long time, but I was afraid you'd think I was like Hu Zi's family..."
"Not everyone is as ungrateful as his family."
Li Weidong said with some emotion, "Third Uncle, I believe you can definitely grow mushrooms well. When you make money, you can repair the house and get married!"
Zhao Baojia's dark face flushed slightly: "I'm already this old, why would I want to get married? I'll just make some money to support myself in my old age."
Li Weidong didn't say much, only instructing, "Then come to my house when you have some free time, and I'll make arrangements for you."
"Okay, okay!"
Zhao Baojia was so happy he couldn't stop smiling.
The uncle and nephew completed the discharge procedures before returning to the ward to pick up the old man.
Zhao Xiulian had already packed her things. Seeing Zhao Baojia's overjoyed expression, she was taken aback: "Third Brother, did you find some money? You seem so happy."
Zhao Baojia scratched the back of his head and looked at Li Weidong.
Li Weidong explained, "I told my third uncle to come to our house in a few days, and I'll help him grow mushrooms!"
Zhao Xiulian's expression froze for a moment.
Zhao Baojia immediately said, "Third Sister, don't worry. I'll just grow mushrooms to earn some money for my retirement. I definitely won't be as ungrateful as Tiger's family!"
He spoke with trepidation.
Zhao Xiulian snapped out of her daze and quickly said, "It's not that I'm worried about that. I was just thinking that when I had Weidong take my brother's family to grow mushrooms, it would have been better to have you take them instead!"
Li Weidong laughed: "It's not too late now. Let's work hard together this year and have a prosperous New Year!"
Everyone laughed.
After packing their things, the family helped the old man out of the hospital.
"Let's take a tricycle back!"
Zhao Baojia had been using Li Weidong's tricycle for the past few days, and he drove it over early this morning to wait at the hospital entrance.
The old man immediately tried to climb up.
Li Weidong panicked: "Grandpa, you've just been discharged from the hospital, how can you sit on this!"
"You wait, I'll take care of it!"
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