This week happened to be a long weekend, so we could take two days off. As soon as Li Chu got home from work on Friday afternoon, his whole family went to the sanatorium.
This alternating system of alternating workdays and weekends won't last much longer. Starting next month, May 1st, we will officially enter a 40-hour work week with weekends off.
On Saturday, Li Chu sat in the courtyard chatting with two old men, Mr. Wang and Mr. Wu.
Looking at the two old men, he couldn't help but feel a surge of emotion.
Over the years, he feels that the proudest thing he has done in his life is to ensure that several of his elderly comrades are still alive and healthy.
As for his contributions in other areas, he always felt they were negligible.
However, he was already quite satisfied with just being able to do that.
"I'm talking about our Director Li!" Old Wu took a sip of tea, turned his head to look at Li Chu, and said.
"Uncle, could you please stop teasing me? Please just call me Xiao Chu, it sounds better to me."
"Haha, you're already sixty, isn't it a bit inappropriate to still call you Little Chu?"
“There’s no such thing here. Even if I’m eighty years old, I’m still Xiao Chu in front of you guys, and I feel more comfortable hearing that.”
"Alright, alright, Xiao Chu it is then." Old Wu nodded with a smile.
"I heard there's going to be a conference next month on strengthening healthcare reform. Did you receive an invitation?"
"I received it. I don't quite understand why they dared to send me an invitation."
"Hehe, if you don't go, a lot of people will question it."
That's true. Li Chu is now an absolute pillar of the domestic medical industry. If he wasn't invited to such an important meeting, regardless of whether it's traditional Chinese medicine or Western medicine, many people would gossip.
"What's wrong with questioning? It's better than letting me ruin their little schemes, right?"
"What, you still don't agree with the complete liberalization of the medical industry?" Uncle Wang asked from the side.
"I have always held this view: the medical market can be opened up and private capital can be allowed to enter, but public hospitals cannot be profit-driven. They must ensure that ordinary people have access to medical care and can afford to receive it."
"But if this continues, local finances simply cannot support it."
"Hehe, Uncle, this insurance only covers the most basic medical services, such as outpatient services, regular inpatient treatment, and normal childbirth."
However, if you want to enjoy extra services, such as needing imported medicine or a private room at the hospital, then you should indeed spend more money, which is perfectly reasonable.
Moreover, these are issues that the government should consider. I don't think that, under any circumstances, this expense should be passed on to ordinary people. I'll say it again: if people can't get even the most basic treatment because they don't have enough money, that's the real tragedy.
After hearing this, the two elders fell silent for a moment.
That's right. It's normal for ordinary people to have the right to health, and it's also right to guarantee the most basic free medical care.
It is wrong to try to make the public shoulder all the burden just because the burden is heavy.
Li Chu picked up the cup in front of him, took a sip of water, thought for a moment, and continued, "Actually, I think this meeting was completely unnecessary. Opening up should indeed be carried out, but it should be done after the medical insurance system is implemented. Only then can it be deepened. What we are talking about now are all superficial things."
He had addressed these issues before, and this repeated familiar topic prompted the two veteran comrades to nod in agreement.
"Okay, I understand what you've said. I'll think about it and then." Old Wu said after thinking for a while.
Although these older comrades have retired, they still have channels to raise issues.
The three of them stopped talking about those things and started chatting about other things.
Just as lunchtime was approaching, the mischievous little monkeys who had run off to play returned: Chou Bao, Er Guai, San Guai, Mao Dan from Wen Hui's family, and Er Ya from Wang Jun's family.
Even though Er Ya is of a higher generation, she's the craziest. She's not like a girl at all. Following these little gourds, she climbs trees to steal bird nests and catches fish by the lake. There's nothing she wouldn't dare to do.
When the little ones came in, Li Chu felt it was simply unbearable to look at. The clothes they wore in the morning were clean, but by the morning they were filthy.
Those hands and faces, good heavens, these guys must have been playing in the mud.
Before he could say anything, Wang Yueyue came out of the house and kicked each of them in the backside, sparing no one.
The few people who had originally intended to sneak inside obediently went to the sink to wash their hands and faces.
"Wang Yueting, you're their aunt, how can you just take them out to play like this?"
Er Ya, who was washing her hands, rolled her eyes upon hearing this, thinking resentfully: She didn't want to be this aunt at all.
However, she dared not say that, because her older sister could really hit her sometimes, and was much more formidable than her parents.
"Take off your coats and trousers and throw them in the basin. I just changed into these clothes this morning. Look what you've done to them."
No one dared to talk back to Wang Yueyue; they did whatever she said.
The two elders sat to one side, watching with smiles and saying nothing. Whenever these little rascals came, it was their happiest time.
After lunch, Uncle Wu and Aunt Wu prepared to go back to their own yard to rest. Little Choubao obediently followed them. Erguai and Sanguai wanted to go with their brother, but their mother silenced them with a single look.
These two little ones are even more mischievous than Xingjian. If they follow along, Uncle Wu and his wife won't be able to rest at noon today.
Looking at her two sons playing and fighting on the bed in the second-floor bedroom, Wang Yueyue had a terrible headache. She really couldn't understand how she could have given birth to such two things.
The two brothers look so alike that the only noticeable difference is that the second brother has a black mole on his ankle.
But when recognizing a person, you can't exactly roll up the child's pants and pull down their socks to look, can you?
In order to make it easier for Wang Yueyue, the mother, to recognize the two of them, she had to do something to their hair.
When I went to get a haircut, I specifically asked for a different hairstyle and bought different clothes for me. But after putting on the school uniform and hat, I was dumbfounded.
"Can you two stop fooling around and rest for a while? When your brother wakes up and comes back, you can continue playing."
"Mom, guess who is who between us. If you guess right, we'll go to sleep."
Looking at her two sons who had wrapped their heads in pillowcases, Wang Yueyue covered her eyes in anguish. Although their coats were different, they always wore the same thermal underwear underneath. How could she possibly guess?
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"I don't want to guess. You guys go to sleep, or I'll go downstairs and call your dad to come up and guess."
"Tch, Mom is so boring. She won't even play a little game with us. Humph, I'm not playing with you anymore."
"Go to sleep quickly, don't make me angry." She had no other choice but to resort to this tactic.
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