Although schools reopened as normal, many students were missing from the classrooms, and everyone assumed that the floods had caused their delayed enrollment.
No one expected that it wasn't until a week after the start of the semester that they began to receive notifications that some of their classmates had become victims.
The roommates panicked. They all thought of Zhu Hongqi and Zhou Shengnan at the same time. Xiao Jiu even took their addresses and asked her second sister to send a telegram to ask about their situation.
But their efforts were like throwing stones into the sea, receiving no response. So one weekend, they decided to split into two groups and go to Hongqi's and Shengnan's houses respectively.
Gao Mingxia and Peng Juan were responsible for going to Zhu Hongqi's house, while Xiao Jiu and Pang Weiwei went to check on Zhou Shengnan.
Zhou Shengnan's family is in Ruyang County, so Xiao Jiu and the others had to obtain certificates from their respective street offices and schools to get the letters of introduction.
A letter of introduction was needed to buy a train ticket, which cost 55 cents. The journey took two to three hours. Xiao Jiu was prone to motion sickness, so as soon as she got on the train, she greeted Pang Weiwei, sat down by the window, and skillfully prepared a trash bag because she hadn't eaten anything all morning and was afraid of throwing up again.
As it turns out, this road was indeed difficult to travel. Even though the floods have been over for so long, there are still many places on the road that are impassable, and you have to take a detour. Today it's this place that's under repair, tomorrow it's that place, which makes it impossible for the driver to determine the road section. What should have been a three-hour journey took more than four hours.
It was already 1 p.m. when we arrived in the county town, and Xiao Jiu's legs were so weak that he could barely walk.
"Thank goodness we took the day off tomorrow. If we hadn't been able to find their place tonight, we would have had to find a guesthouse to stay in right away."
It was getting late, so the two quickly went into a state-run restaurant. The good dishes were all sold out, so they could only order two bowls of vegetarian noodles and two steamed buns, along with the restaurant's chili sauce, and ate their fill.
"Sister, could you please fill the kettle with boiling water for us?" Little Jiu sweetly handed a handful of candy to the waiter.
Upon seeing that there was candy to eat, and that the candies were beautifully packaged, he readily agreed.
"It's so hot today. We have mung bean water in the kitchen, and it's even chilled in the well. Shall I get you some mung bean water?"
Upon hearing this good news, Xiao Jiu immediately nodded vigorously, "Thank you, sister."
It was almost 2 p.m. when the two left the restaurant with their military water bottles. They took the address to the bus station, found a bus to the town, and took a bus for more than half an hour to reach the town. After asking around, they flagged down an oxcart that was passing through Zhou Shengnan's village and secretly slipped the driver a dime as fare, thus saving themselves the trouble of traveling.
Pang Weiwei had never suffered like this before. If Xiao Jiu hadn't kept asking around, she probably wouldn't have gotten home until it was dark.
After rushing for a while, they finally arrived at Zhou Shengnan's village around four o'clock in the afternoon.
Seeing that there was still water in the low-lying areas of the surrounding fields, and that people were replanting crops in the higher areas in the distance, and that the houses in the village were still relatively intact, the two breathed a sigh of relief and asked people for directions as they walked.
"Oh, you're looking for Shengnan? Shengnan is at the health center taking care of her mother. Her sister-in-law also had a baby, and her brother went to live with her at her parents' house. They haven't been back for a long time. There's only a younger brother and sister left at home. They can't do anything, and it's a mess. Nobody has cleaned it up yet!"
With just this one sentence, Pang Weiwei and Xiao Jiu were able to guess Zhou Shengnan's current predicament.
The two exchanged a glance, asked for the address of the health center, and headed straight back without even visiting their home. However, they weren't so lucky this time, as they didn't get a ride from an oxcart. It took them about an hour and a half to reach the township health center.
"Oh dear, I can't drink anymore. I'm exhausted. My feet are blistered and the soles hurt. If I really can't go on, look, there's a guesthouse here. Let's go rest for a while, eat something, and then go find Sister Shengnan."
The sun had already shifted and was about to set. The guesthouse in the village cost five cents per person, while a standard room with two beds and a bathroom cost 15 cents per room. They provided bath tickets so people could take a shower at the public bathhouse. Xiao Jiu didn't hesitate to pay 15 cents and booked a standard room.
When you go inside, you find that the toilet is just a squat toilet. The advantage is that it can be flushed and doesn't smell too bad, but you can't really say it's clean.
The two beds are adequate for sleeping, and there's a ceiling fan and an electric fan. For a place like this in the countryside, it's quite acceptable.
The two quickly changed their clothes and went to the public bathhouse for a hot shower. They also washed the clothes they had worn that day at the bathhouse, took them to their standard room, borrowed a few clothes hangers from the staff, and hung their clothes in a ventilated place. They only felt better after their hair had dried naturally.
There happened to be a canteen behind the guesthouse, so the two of them ate two bowls of boiled egg noodles. After they finished eating, they saw that it was getting late. It was 7 p.m., and the sky was just beginning to darken. The two of them walked to the health center, which was just across the street from them.
I only asked for her name at the front desk and quickly found Zhou Shengnan's ward. Actually, I didn't look for it intentionally; I was just attracted by her familiar loud voice.
"Mom, I beg you, please stop torturing me like this. Just focus on getting better, and we'll go back home. There's a ton of stuff waiting for me at home. Don't Xiaojun and Xiaoya need someone to take care of them? There's still so much mud in our yard that we haven't cleaned up yet. My brother doesn't care about anything. This family is counting on me. And you? You're always causing trouble at the hospital. Do you have to drive me crazy before you're satisfied?"
The woman being criticized by Zhou Shengnan sat blankly on the bed, staring vacantly out the window. She not only ignored her daughter's madness but also disregarded it. When the medicine was fed to her, she made no attempt to swallow, letting the liquid flow out. After this happened repeatedly, Zhou Shengnan ran out of patience, slammed the medicine bowl on the table, and shook her mother violently.
"I beg you, Mother. I know my father's death has shattered your world, but the living must live too. You have children to raise and granddaughters to care for. Don't you want to take care of any of them? You're ruining yourself like this every day. You've made yourself sick even if you weren't. You're malnourished. All our money has gone to your medical treatment, and we still owe the commune a lot of money. I have to go to work. I can't stay with you like this every day. Mother, I beg you, please spare me. Please, just save your poor daughter. I'll kowtow to you, I'll kowtow to you, okay?"
Xiao Jiu and Weiwei stood at the door listening for an unknown amount of time, so long that they didn't even realize when tears were streaming down their faces.
There are five beds in this ward, and the others are empty except for the one by the window where Zhou Shengnan and her daughter are staying. Judging from the indifferent attitude of the people around them, they are obviously used to the way the mother and daughter get along in this ward.
"Sister Shengnan?" The two men suppressed their heartache and gently called out to the pitiful girl who had long lost her former radiance and looked like a skeleton.
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