After hearing this, Auntie first wiped away her tears while sobbing, then sat down next to Liu Yue with a sullen face. Uncle also found a stool and sat down immediately afterward.
About ten minutes later, a car horn blared into the courtyard.
The second child is back!
Just by hearing the horn, Grandpa knew who had returned.
He stood up shakily and was the first to leave the house, followed closely by the others.
When the light in the room shone on the visitor's face, everyone's hearts sank.
Chen Bing's second uncle, carrying his maternal grandmother on his back, looked at his maternal grandfather without saying a word.
"Oh dear, you're back! What did the doctor say?" An impatient relative asked hastily when he saw him just sitting there with a sullen face and not saying a word.
"The doctor said there was no hope, and then told me to come back."
"So you came back!" Grandpa, who had been silent all along, suddenly roared at him, his voice so loud it seemed to swallow him whole. "Even if he said there was no hope, you would have knelt down and begged him to save you! How dare you just say you won't save him like that!"
As he spoke, Grandpa grabbed a stick from the side and started hitting my second uncle with it.
"Hey, hey, Uncle, don't hit me! My second brother is still carrying my aunt on his back!"
A group of people stepped forward and persuaded the grandfather to stop, and then a reasonable person came and asked the second uncle, "Can the hospital just say it won't treat him?"
"My mother said she was coming back." Seeing that his father had been stopped, the second uncle quickly explained to everyone, and then briefly recounted what had happened.
It turned out that after he and his second uncle's brothers took his grandmother to the hospital, the doctor examined her briefly and said that she had some kind of illness that their town hospital couldn't treat. They would have to go to a big hospital in the city to treat her, and even then, there was a high probability that she wouldn't be cured. Even if she was cured, she would probably be paralyzed.
They then asked about the treatment costs, and the doctor said that even a conservative estimate would be around that amount.
Just then, Grandma woke up and overheard what the doctor said. That much money was beyond their means; even if they sold everything they owned, they couldn't raise it, and even if they did, there was no guarantee of a cure. So she started insisting on going home, saying she didn't want further treatment.
After discussing it, the two brothers brought her back.
On the way back, Grandma fainted again.
Upon hearing this, everyone forgot to scold him and hurriedly carried his grandmother to the bed, and then began to check on her condition.
He seemed to be on his last breath, unable to speak or open his eyes. I guess if he could speak in the hospital, it would be a last gasp of life.
"My mother, my mother, can you hear me?"
Grandma merely raised her eyelids slightly, glanced at the person speaking in front of her, and then closed her eyes again.
Seeing this, everyone felt that she might die at any time. While she was still conscious and could hear people speaking, they all stepped forward to offer words of comfort or to give her last instructions.
Liu Yue squeezed on the outer edge of the crowd, crying and unable to speak.
At this moment, Liu Jing leaned close to the bedside and cried, "My mother, Xiaoxiao will give birth in six months. I asked someone at the hospital to check recently, and it's a girl. We've already chosen a name, Xiaoxiao. Mother, please open your eyes and hold on for a few more years to see your granddaughter born..."
As Liu Jing spoke, she burst into tears and could no longer speak, only repeatedly saying "Mother, Mother."
Just then, Grandma miraculously opened her eyes and placed her hand on Liu Jing's stomach to touch it.
Upon witnessing this touching scene, the neighbors and relatives gathered outside all expressed their admiration, saying that the grandmother was blessed to have such filial children.
They were either sighing or crying sadly. Chen Bing watched all of this silently with her small eyes, feeling very depressed.
After Liu Jing and her grandmother had been cuddling for a while, Liu Yue hugged herself and came to her grandmother.
"Mother, open your eyes and look at your grandson. Look how adorable he is! His eyes and eyebrows are just like yours... Mother, open your eyes and look..."
Grandma's cloudy eyes gradually opened. What kind of eyes were they? Gone was her usual shrewdness; they looked lifeless, like water in a muddy puddle after rain, slowly waiting for the end of her life.
At the same time, Chen Bing saw the same doting look in those eyes as always, the kind of look that only appeared when she saw her grandchildren.
Perhaps Chen Bing realized what she could do for her grandmother.
Just as Liu Yue was about to carry her away, and just as her grandmother was slowly closing her eyes to fall asleep, Chen Bing opened her little mouth slightly and stammered, "Grandma, Grandma... Grandma."
His voice, though soft, clearly reached the entire house and everyone's ears.
"Okay, okay, good child, what did you just say? Say it again! Quickly, say it again!"
Under the expectant gazes of everyone, including her grandmother, Chen Bing opened her mouth again and said loudly, "Grandma!"
For Grandma, whose life was on the verge of drying up, Chen Bing's words were like a gentle drizzle on a sunny day, rekindling a new flame in her dying life.
Chen Bing saw hot tears streaming from her cloudy eyes. She desperately reached out and pinched her cheek. Then, with great effort, she opened her mouth and replied, word by word, "My dear grandson, Grandma... Grandma can't bear to part with you..."
After calling out "Grandma" a few more times, Chen Bing left the room with her mother and the others, leaving her maternal grandfather alone with her grandmother. Perhaps this was the local custom, or perhaps her grandfather wanted to do it this way. In any case, the two of them were now alone.
My mother told me that my maternal grandparents grew up in the same village, and their houses were even across from each other. One day, my grandfather got drunk and went to my grandmother's house alone, carrying his half-empty bottle of wine, to propose marriage. My grandmother's father told him to get lost and come back the next day when he was sober. And so, my grandfather became my grandfather, and my grandmother became my grandmother. After they got married, they had four children, and after retiring, they didn't live with any of their children, but just the two of them lived together in the small mud house they had built when they got married.
For over sixty years, they had never missed a single moment of each other's lives. But now, they are about to part forever.
Half an hour later, Grandpa lowered his head and pushed open the door alone.
It was exactly five o'clock in the morning in August, just as dawn was breaking. The chirping of birds and the morning light dappled his aged face. When he emerged, everyone present fixed their gaze on him.
Grandpa looked silently at himself, then at his eldest daughter who was holding him, and said slowly, "Your mother is getting old."
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