Chapter 17 017 Are all three children in the hospital?
There wasn't much in the small jar of orange preserves, so Song Xiaoli asked the nurse to bring a basin full of hot water. After heating the preserves, the three children quickly finished the soft, mushy oranges, taking turns eating them.
"It's so sweet!" my little cousin licked his lips. "These are much sweeter than the oranges in our yard. Are they made with sugar water?"
"Probably," Song Xiaoli replied casually, taking a few sips herself before handing the can to her younger cousin. "Brother, there's still so much syrup left. You drink half of it, and the rest is for your older brother."
Sugar is a quick way to replenish energy. My cousin has been feeling unwell since yesterday and hasn't eaten much until today. It's best for him to eat more energy-rich foods.
“Okay.” Song Shiyi glanced at the amount of syrup in the can, carefully controlled himself, and drank it sip by sip. He gave more than half of it to his older brother.
Perhaps it was the warm canned oranges that had whetted his appetite, or perhaps it was the effect of the medication, but after drinking the sugary water, my older cousin felt hungry instead, and his eyes involuntarily swept over the food laid out on the table and bed.
Song Xiaoli, who was idle, had been staring blankly at her older cousin. Following his gaze, she saw him looking at the food and asked, "Big brother, are you hungry?"
Song Shijia hesitated for a moment, then nodded. "This box of cookies is already opened, I'll eat a few more."
"Brother, why don't you try the sponge cake first!" Song Xiaoli thought that the fresh and soft sponge cake might be more suitable for the patient's appetite. "Biscuits can last a long time, but sponge cake will spoil very quickly."
There's no refrigerator or anything at home right now, so the sponge cake really can't be kept for long; I guess I'll have to eat it within three or four days.
Not wanting to waste food, Song Shijia went along with his sister's wishes and took the bag of sponge cakes, which was quite a lot. He ate them one after another with the half-jar of sugar water. Each sponge cake was the size of a baby's fist, and he actually ate five in one go, only stopping after letting out a burp.
He felt a little embarrassed that he had eaten so much of this delicious food all by himself in front of his younger siblings.
"Brother has eaten enough, you two can share this."
Song Xiaoli shook her head. The supply and marketing cooperative doesn't sell sponge cakes every day, and since it's rare for her older brother to like this kind of thing, she naturally wants him to have it first.
“My older brother is sick, he needs to eat more to get better faster. My younger brother and I aren’t craving it, I’ll ask my mom to buy it for us later.”
Song Xiaoli wasn't greedy at all. She had eaten much better cakes in her past life, and she wasn't so hungry that she would compete with patients for food.
But Song Shiyi was genuinely craving it; the smell of the steamed egg cake had made him secretly swallow his saliva several times. However, he was truly devoted to his older brother, suppressing his craving, keeping his head down and saying nothing. He took out the last boiled wild duck egg from his pocket, placed it in the still-warm basin of water, and said, "Brother, we've been catching so many wild duck eggs lately. My sister and I eat them every day, we're so tired of them. We brought a lot to give you, but we sold them all to your teacher this morning for eleven yuan, and then asked him to bring you to the hospital. I only have one left, I'll heat it up for you."
While soaking the eggs, Song Shiyi wiped the drool that was almost overflowing from the corner of his mouth, thinking: I must pester Mom to buy me a sponge cake sometime. This time, I'll let my older brother eat it all.
Song Xiaoli watched her cousin roll the small boiled egg in the water and suddenly remembered, "Brother, we haven't eaten the food we brought from home yet."
The meal included dried anchovies that Mom had specially fried, stir-fried long beans and eggplant with lots of oil, and a cold tomato salad.
Song Shiyi slapped his forehead, leaving a wet handprint on his bald head. "Oh dear, the fried fish must be all mushy now. But I don't know if my parents can come over tonight. If they can't, we still need to eat dinner. Let's eat dinner tonight."
"That makes sense." Song Xiaoli realized that she would have to wait for Uncle Hu to get off work before she could go to Songshan Commune to tell her family about it. Her family would need to gather money, ration coupons, and other things before they could come over. If it got dark and they didn't have any spare candles to use as lanterns, they might have to wait until early the next morning to go out.
As for the two children, regardless of whether the adults can get there before dark, they won't be able to go home that night, so the food will naturally have to be saved for dinner.
"Luckily, Uncle Hu brought us something to eat at noon."
"Yes, Uncle Hu is such a good person." It was rare for Song Shiyi to praise an adult.
Hu Lixin, who was absentmindedly grading homework when his attempt to reschedule his class failed and ended up having his second class in the afternoon was the last one, suddenly sneezed. "I'm a grown man, I shouldn't have caught a cold, right?" The question flashed through his mind.
He rubbed his nose and glanced at his watch, feeling that the afternoon was passing particularly slowly.
The Dahe Commune where he worked didn't have telephones, and he didn't know the phone number for Songshan Commune. He was essentially parachuted in as a math teacher at the town's middle school. He didn't look like a local, had an odd accent, didn't have any close relatives, and was usually quite taciturn. After being in his position for almost half a year, he hadn't even gotten to know his colleagues yet, so he couldn't ask anyone he knew for directions. Otherwise, it would have been much faster for him to just call Songshan Commune.
"I wonder how they are doing now?" When the bell rang, Hu Lixin, unusually anxious and eager for the get out of class to end, rushed to the classroom.
When he finally finished class, slung his bag over his shoulder, and rode his bicycle to the hospital, Song Shijia was being escorted to the toilet by his younger siblings, one on each side.
"What are you doing?" Hu Lixin asked, looking at the three of them walking around outside, unable to figure out their reason.
Song Shijia was a little embarrassed and explained, "I ate something and drank a lot of water this afternoon, and I need to go to the toilet again." And this time it seemed that he not only needed to pee, but also needed to poop.
“Let me help you. Those two kids don’t have the strength to carry you.” For the tall Hu Lixin, the twelve-year-old boy was easy to lift with one hand. He half-carried Song Shijia and sent the two younger children back to the ward, closing the door behind him. “I’ll take your brother to the toilet. You two stay in the ward and don’t run around.”
After everyone left, Song Shiyi stared blankly at the closed door for a long time before complaining, "But I also want to pee."
Shortly after sharing a can of food in the afternoon, Song Xiaoli felt that the food digested quite quickly. Since she and her cousin were both a little hungry, they warmed up another can and shared it with each other. They even asked the nurse to help clean the cans. They poured more than half a cup of hot water into the two cans and left them to cool. One can was still wrapped in plastic and was reserved for her older cousin. The other can was completely unwrapped and was temporarily shared by Song Xiaoli and Song Shiyi.
Canned food is essentially fruit soaked in sugar water. After digestion, it's basically all water. Not to mention Song Shiyi, even Song Xiaoli felt like she needed to pee right now.
However, there was only one toilet in the hospital, so the two of them had no choice but to wait obediently in the ward. After waiting for about ten minutes, Uncle Hu brought the older brother back and then suggested that they both need to go to the toilet.
Hu Lixin helped the two children relieve themselves, and then instructed them again not to run outside. He told them to eat biscuits and drink malted milk powder if they were hungry, and to call the on-duty nurse for help if they needed anything. Then he left in a hurry.
Most of the doctors and nurses in the hospital had gone off duty, leaving only three or four on duty, making the place seem even more deserted.
The older cousin wasn't hungry, but he was a bit sleepy. After talking to his younger siblings about the recent changes at home, he fell asleep. Song Xiaoli and Song Shiyi didn't dare disturb the patient's rest. They looked at each other and made a small gesture of covering their mouths, tacitly agreeing to remain quiet. Song Xiaoli tucked the blanket around the older cousin, then took the blanket she had brought from school out of her basket, gently patted off any bits of rice husk that stuck to it, and spread it on the empty hospital bed.
"Brother, if you're sleepy too, wrap yourself in this blanket and sleep for a while. We'll take turns watching over Big Brother," Song Xiaoli whispered in her cousin's ear.
Song Shiyi originally wanted to say that he wasn't sleepy, but since they had to take turns seeing the patients, he thought about it, nodded, crawled into the quilt, and quickly fell asleep.
As darkness fell, the ward had electric lights, which, even if not very bright, were still better than the kerosene lamps or candles that were needed at night in the commune—at least there was no smell. But her older and younger cousins were both fast asleep. Song Xiaoli thought for a moment, worried that the light would wake them, so she didn't turn on the lights. Instead, she gently reclined a wooden stool, adjusted it to a comfortable height, and sat down, gazing out the window in a daze.
Meanwhile, in Songshan Commune, Song Wanxia and her family were pacing anxiously at home.
Because Hu Lixin had come to the hospital after get off work, he went home first to explain the situation to his mother before arriving at Songshan Commune. At that time, the Song family was already frantically searching for the two children.
If Hu Lixin hadn't happened to bump into Song Dianchen, who was about to ride his bicycle to Dahe Commune, the two probably would have missed each other.
"Brother Song!" Hu Lixin had excellent eyesight and could make out Song Dianchen's figure even in the dim light of dusk. "Are you going to find your child?"
Song Dianchen was so anxious that his forehead and body were covered in sweat. He knew that his youngest son had taken his niece to play in Dahe Commune and wouldn't be back until evening. But when dinner was ready at home and the two children still hadn't arrived, he had no choice but to go out and look for them. That's when he discovered that his youngest son had lied. He had said that they had "hitched a ride with Uncle Hu," but in reality, Uncle Hu had said that he had gone to town to buy things and would be spending the night in Dahe Commune, with no intention of returning at all.
Based on his understanding of his mischievous youngest son, Song Dianchen vaguely guessed that he had run off to town to play. But the fact that the two children had run off to town and hadn't returned home by so late was really worrying. So he planned to go to Dahe Commune first, partly to look for the two children along the way, and partly to ask Brother Hu about the situation. If all else failed, he would have to go to town to look for them.
Unexpectedly, he had just pushed his bicycle to the foot of the commune and hadn't ridden far when he ran into Hu Lixin, who immediately asked about the child.
Song Dianchen quickly got off his bicycle and walked a few steps toward Hu Lixin before recognizing who it was. "It's Lixin! Have you seen my two children?" He didn't have time to argue with anyone right now; he just wanted to know how the children were doing.
"Yes, I just came back from town." Hu Lixin nodded. "All three of your children are at the town hospital."
Song Dianchen felt a sudden darkness engulf her, as if a bell had been struck her head and then struck hard. She was so dizzy she could barely stand. "W-how did I end up in the hospital?" Then she realized something was wrong. "Three children?"
He only has three children in his family, how come they are all in the hospital?
Hu Lixin then realized that his explanation had caused a misunderstanding, and quickly explained, "That's not how it is, Brother Song. Your eldest son, Song Shijia, is sick, and when the two younger children went to see him, they found out that their older brother was ill. They asked the teacher at the town's primary school to take Shijia to the hospital. However, they didn't know how to contact their family, so they could only ask me to come over after get off work and let them know. The two of them are still at the hospital taking care of their older brother."
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