Chapter 15 015 Uncle Hu Lixin, who is dark-skinned
Song Shijia was awakened by the urge to urinate, after all, the doctor had given him three IV drips while he was unconscious.
However, after waking up, he looked at the completely unfamiliar environment and the strange little girl who was snoring softly while clinging to his arm. He couldn't tell if he was dreaming or what.
He gently nudged Song Xiaoli, but she was too tired and sleepy, and was fast asleep. He couldn't wake her up no matter how much he nudged or called out to her.
"Is anyone there?" Song Shijia asked, then was startled by his own hoarse voice. He coughed a few times and felt a strange discomfort in his lower chest. He lay there for a while longer, but couldn't hold his urine any longer, so he tried to get up to find a toilet. However, with one arm held by Song Xiaoli, he could only support himself on the bed with his other hand, and his body was sore and weak that he couldn't get up at all.
Fortunately, his younger brother, Song Shiyi, arrived shortly afterward with a familiar-looking adult.
When Song Shiyi left the hospital alone earlier, it was almost 10:30. He wasn't very familiar with the town, but luckily it wasn't big. He asked around and found the town's middle school in no time. However, he couldn't recall the name of the teacher he was looking for, and he didn't know anyone else working there, so the gatekeeper wouldn't let him in.
He had no choice but to wait at the middle school gate for their students to get out of school in the morning.
After school, some students from the town would go home for dinner, and the gatekeeper had to open the gate to let them in. Song Shiyi took advantage of that time to sneak in.
But after school, most of the middle school teachers had gone to eat or prepare for their lunch break. Song Shiyi first looked around the teachers' office to make sure he didn't see the person he recognized, and then went to the middle school cafeteria to look for the person he remembered among the people queuing for food.
The male teacher Song Shiyi was looking for had actually only returned from a coastal military dependents' area last year. His father had died in the line of duty, and since he hadn't joined the army, he and his mother had no reason to stay in the military dependents' area. After his father's superior gave them the compensation, he arranged for him to work back home, which allowed him to secure a stable job at the town's middle school at a young age.
After returning last year, the first thing he did was visit Song Xiaoli's maternal grandfather, because his father and Song Xiaoli's maternal grandfather were comrades-in-arms and had a good relationship back then.
Song Shiyi was short and stood out among the group of middle school students; the person he was looking for, having grown up in a coastal military dependents' area, had a darker complexion than everyone around him, making him quite noticeable as well. The two of them, strangely, locked eyes across the crowd and both recalled their last meeting.
"Hey!" Song Shiyi didn't know the person's name, so he could only grin foolishly, raise his hand high, and greet him like this.
The man gave up queuing, took his lunchbox, walked through the crowd, and squatted down in front of Song Shiyi. "Are you Uncle Song's little grandson?"
"Yes, my grandfather's name is Song Mingyi! My name is Song Shiyi!" Song Shiyi replied excitedly, then couldn't help but tug at the sleeve of the person in front of him, "Uncle, I have something urgent I need your help with!"
Hu Lixin had striking features and a dark complexion that made his teeth appear exceptionally white. Having grown up in a military dependents' area, he was kind-hearted. When the boy said he had urgent business with him, he didn't take it lightly. Instead, he picked up Song Shiyi and led him outside from the somewhat noisy canteen to talk.
"Song Shiyi...may I call you Xiaoyi?"
"Sure, but at home everyone calls me Shiyi, so you can call me whatever you want, Uncle."
"Oh, then I'll call you Shiyi too. My surname is Hu, so you can just call me Uncle Hu." Hu Lixin seemed to take this five-year-old child quite seriously. "You said you needed to talk to me, what is it?"
When the topic turned to business, Song Shiyi's smile vanished, and his eyes reddened again. "Today, I actually secretly took my sister to town to play and visit my older brother. But my brother is sick, and we can't tell our family. Uncle Hu, after you get off work, could you please tell my grandpa and the others that my brother is sick and hospitalized, and my sister and I are taking care of him at the hospital?"
Hu Lixin frowned.
The child in front of me is clearly not even six years old, and his sister must be even younger. How can two such young children take care of a patient? Moreover, the child certainly can't explain what illness his brother has or how serious it is.
Hu Lixin thought for a moment, "How about I go to the hospital with you first to check on your brother's condition? Otherwise, I won't be able to explain things to your family."
"Okay!" As long as this uncle was willing to help, Song Shiyi was relieved. He was about to take the uncle directly to the hospital, but then he remembered that the uncle hadn't eaten yet, so he let go of his hand apologetically, "Uncle Hu, you go and eat first."
Hu Lixin was actually more worried about Song Shiyi's older brother. He was an adult, and missing one meal wouldn't be a big deal. But then he heard Song Shiyi's stomach rumbling. "Shiyi, haven't you had lunch yet either?"
Song Shiyi pressed his unruly stomach, his face flushed, and said, "My sister and I brought some food, which is still at the hospital. I'll eat with my sister later."
The food brought from home would definitely be cold by now. In the hospital, they can only reheat it with hot water, which takes a long time. Hu Lixin is a rare only child in this era, and now he lives with his mother. They don't have any close relatives, so how could they bear to let such a young child go hungry?
He picked up Song Shiyi and said, "I'll go back to my office to get something first, and then I'll buy some steamed buns from the restaurant to take to the hospital."
He said he was just buying a few steamed buns, but Hu Lixin actually brought a lot of money and coupons. He bought all the remaining dozen or so meat buns at the restaurant, and then went to the supply and marketing cooperative to buy a box of biscuits and a can of malted milk powder.
He carried a bulging military green bag, holding Song Shiyi in his arms, and strode along. When they arrived at the hospital, Baozi was still warm.
Upon entering, they encountered Song Shijia in the awkward situation of wanting to go to the toilet in bed, but feeling dizzy, lightheaded, and weak and unable to move.
"Brother, you're awake!" Song Shiyi struggled to get out of Hu Lixin's arms and rushed to his older brother's bedside, tears that he had been holding back rolling down his cheeks like soybeans. "Waaah, I was so scared when I couldn't wake you up before!"
"What's going on?" Song Shijia was still confused.
Song Shiyi wiped away his tears and recounted how he had secretly brought his younger sister to town to deliver something, only to find Song Shijia unconscious with a high fever, and how he had asked his teacher to take him to the hospital.
“I originally planned to visit my brother and then take my sister home in the afternoon so that the family wouldn’t find out we’ve been wandering around. But since you’re sick, we have to tell Grandpa and the others, so I’ll stay here with you while I go find Uncle Hu.”
At this point, Song Shiyi saw his younger sister sleeping soundly next to him, scratched his bald head and said, "My sister was running around with me all morning and even helped watch my IV drip. She must have been too tired to climb into bed and sleep."
Only then did Song Shijia realize that this unfamiliar little girl was actually his cousin. He looked at the tiny child with a pang of heartache; a three-year-old child must have been exhausted from running all the way from the commune to the town and then following the adults around.
"Sigh, why did you take your little sister to town? She's so young. Aren't you afraid your aunt will feel sorry for her?" Song Shijia couldn't help but scold her younger brother.
Song Shiyi's tears fell again. "If we hadn't come to see you, brother, no one would have known you were lying in bed, delirious from the fever!"
That's true. Song Shijia couldn't refute it, so he could only touch his younger brother's bald head.
Then, a sudden urge to urinate made its presence known again, and Song Shijia blushed and whispered, "Um, I need to pee."
Hu Lixin chuckled as he helped Song Xiaoli adjust his sleeping position, then picked up Song Shijia and took him to the toilet behind the hospital so that he could finally expel the excess water from his body.
This urination took more than a minute to finish.
After Hu Lixin washed Song Shijia's hands and carried him back to the ward, he discovered that Song Shiyi had also climbed onto the bed and fallen asleep with Song Xiaoli. Even while asleep, the two children's tummy gurgled and rumbled.
Hu Lixin had no choice but to place Song Shijia on another empty hospital bed and make him sit down. "I bought meat buns, biscuits, and malted milk powder. Take whichever you want to eat."
As he spoke, he took out all the food. He had prepared a full container of malted milk powder in his own lunchbox.
Song Shijia had no appetite. He took a bite of the meat bun, but found it too greasy and felt a little nauseous. He had no choice but to put the remaining half of the bun on the lid of his lunchbox. He ate a few biscuits and drank a few sips of malted milk powder, and then he didn't want to eat anymore.
“I don’t think you can eat anything too oily right now, so let’s just have biscuits for now.” Hu Lixin patted Song Shijia’s head. “It’s okay if you can’t eat right now, you can eat more when you get hungry.”
After saying that, he picked up the two sleeping children, one in each arm, and shook them to wake them up.
"Come on, let's eat something before we go to sleep, okay? Your stomachs are growling."
Hu Lixin himself hasn't even started dating yet, but today he felt like he was a father of several children, which was quite a novel experience.
"Hello, Uncle," Song Xiaoli yawned and leaned on Hu Lixin's shoulder. It took her a while to come to her senses and realize that this was the helper her brother had called. She greeted him softly.
Song Shiyi hadn't slept for long, but he was very sleepy. "I really want to keep sleeping."
He had run an unknown distance all morning without eating or drinking, and was somewhat overexerted.
Hu Lixin made them sit side by side on the hospital bed. "You two need to eat something before you can sleep, otherwise you'll starve. Don't you want some delicious meat buns?"
Meat buns are very expensive. If Hu Lixin didn't only have to support himself and his mother, he wouldn't be able to be so generous as to buy more than a dozen meat buns for his children.
Song Xiaoli blinked, thinking that this uncle was almost too kind to the point of being silly. However, good people are always better than bad people, and she would find a way to repay his kindness in the future.
"Thank you, Uncle!" Song Xiaoli was indeed hungry, so she didn't stand on ceremony and took two steamed buns, one in each hand. She took a bite from the left and a bite from the right. The flour and the juicy meat filling quickly made Song Xiaoli feel full. She saw that there was still some hot malted milk powder on the table, so she asked Uncle Hu and found out that she could drink it. With his help, she drank quite a bit. "Thank you, Uncle, I'm full!"
"Are you only eating two steamed buns?" Hu Lixin didn't know the normal amount of food a three-year-old child should eat.
Song Xiaoli patted her belly and nodded vigorously, "I'm really full." She didn't eat much to begin with.
As for Song Shiyi, he ate four meat buns in big bites, and then gulped down the rest of the malted milk powder before he felt full.
Song Shijia leaned against the hospital bed next to her, watching her younger siblings eat and drink, her eyes filled with gentle and loving light.
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