When Lin Dan regained consciousness, he found himself sitting on the edge of a single bed. On the bed lay an old man with bronze complexion and gray hair. One of his feet was in a thick plaster cast, and the other foot was curled up uncomfortably. His breathing was a little weak, and his forehead and arms were covered with scars and bruises of varying sizes. There was a retention needle stuck in the back of his skinny hand.
Lin Dan immediately realized that this was a ward. Looking up, she found that there were two beds next to her. Lying on each bed was a middle-aged woman with her whole body in plaster and a young man with both hands in plaster. It was dark outside the window, and Lin Dan was the only family member accompanying him in the ward. It seemed very quiet.
Lin Dan looked up at the wall clock and found that it was already 2:30 in the evening. Normally, the hospital would not allow patients' families to stay overnight at this time. Lin Dan immediately stood up, gently pushed open the door, sat on the stool outside the corridor, and began to sort out the memories in his mind.
The original owner was also called Lin Dan. He was thirteen years old this year and was in the second grade of junior high school in a remote small town. His home was in Liuxing Village, an even more remote mountain village. His parents died when he was three years old and he was raised by his grandfather. He was a well-known poor household in the local area. That was why she was granted special permission to stay in the hospital ward, because she really had nowhere else to go in the city.
The original owner's grandfather was an honest and simple man. Apart from his physical strength, he had no other way to make money. In order to support his little granddaughter, he worked day and night, and with the help of government poverty relief funds, he barely managed to make ends meet.
However, just last year, things changed, and it all originated from the obsession of the original owner's grandfather, Lin Shuanzhu. When he was young, he fell in love with Jiao Xiao'e, the eldest daughter of a wealthy family in the village. However, the Jiao family looked down on him as a poor boy and married their daughter to another wealthy family in the same village. Afterwards, the original owner's grandfather Lin Shuanzhu gave up the idea and married another woman of equal status, who was the original owner's grandmother.
Some people have long forgotten their dreams from their youth, but Lin Shuanzhu always remembers them. The reason is that Jiao Xiao'e's husband Zhou Da is his neighbor. The two families live across a wall from each other and they see each other every day, so he can't forget them even if he wants to. But Lin Shuanzhu was an honest man. He couldn't forget it but just kept it in his heart. He didn't do anything out of line. However, he didn't expect that something unexpected would happen when he was old. First, his wife died of illness, and then Jiao Xiao'e's husband also died. One of them became a widower and the other a widow. They had had an affair when they were young. How could he not have some thoughts in his mind?
Lin Shuanzhui's mind became active again, but as for what Jiao Xiao'e was thinking, no one knew. She grew up in a well-off family and had never suffered any hardship. After she married Zhou Da, he loved her very much and never let her do any heavy work. With her mother-in-law to help her at home, she lived a very comfortable life. Now her husband and mother-in-law are gone, her son Zhou Cunzhi has gone to work in another province and only comes back once every two or three years, and her daughter-in-law has run away with someone, so her life has become difficult.
She had to work on the farm, do housework, and raise two grandsons. Her life was truly miserable. Lin Shuanzhui took the initiative to help her with work, gave her some money to spend from time to time, and took good care of his two grandsons. She tacitly agreed to this kind of relationship. Whenever there was work to do at home, she would stand at the door and shout, and Lin Shuanzhui would definitely appear.
The few acres of land in her family were all cultivated by Lin Shuanzhui, but the money earned from selling the crops was kept by Jiao Xiao'e. The original owner had to walk two hours on a mountain road to go to school, and had worn out the soles of several pairs of shoes. She asked her grandfather to buy her a bicycle, but her grandfather was reluctant to do so. However, Jiao Xiao'e's grandson Zhou Fang wanted a bicycle, so Lin Shuanzhu got him a speed bicycle the next day, which made the original owner so jealous that her eyes turned red.
Lin Shuanzhu was so kind to Jiao Xiao'e's family of three that he gradually forgot that his own granddaughter also needed care. Jiao Xiao'e played deaf and dumb, and just gave the delicious food and drinks to her two children. Even when she saw the original owner passing by the door and was so hungry that her chest was sticking to her back, she never called her in to eat. When Lin Shuanzhui came back in the evening, she complained to him, saying that the original owner was stubborn, had no manners, did not know how to respect her elders, and refused to help her with work. This made Lin Shuanzhui very angry, and he picked up a stick to beat the original owner.
Of course, this beating was not real, it was just to scare the original owner. After all, their relationship of relying on each other was not fake. Lin Shuanzhu worked outside all day, so how could he know how Jiao Xiao'e treated his granddaughter?
So the original owner hated Jiao Xiao'e's family. When he met Jiao Xiao'e's grandson Zhou Fang and granddaughter Zhou Cuicui, he would be very angry. Sometimes, when he was very angry, he would pick up a stone and smash Zhou Cuicui and Zhou Fang's heads.
Zhou Fang was also a cunning person. He never fought with the original owner. He just dragged his sister, whose head was bleeding, around the village. Whenever someone asked him about it, he would describe the original owner's terrible deeds, wiping his tears as he spoke, looking very pitiful.
Zhou Fang is very fair-skinned, with delicate features, good grades, and is a well-known good boy in the village. Naturally, everyone believed what he said. At night, Jiao Xiao'e came to Lin Shuanzhu's house and cried to him, which made Lin Shuanzhu furious. He chased the original owner around the village with a stick.
Over time, the original owner became a famous wild girl in Liuxing Village. Everyone said that if Lin Shuanzhu didn't discipline her, this girl would end up in jail sooner or later.
Life went on in a turbulent manner. Lin Shuanzhu was old after all, and his body could not handle working on the land of two families alone. He almost died of exhaustion in the fields during the double harvest this autumn. When he came back, he could barely drink a sip of water, and then he had to go to Jiao Xiao'e's house to help install glass and repair the roof.
He repeatedly asked Zhou Fang to help hold the ladder, but Zhou Fang hated him so much that he didn't listen to him at all and walked away when he climbed to the top. The dog in Jiao Xiao'e's house ran wildly around the yard, knocking the ladder over, causing Lin Shuanzhu to fall hard.
As people get older, their bones become brittle. Lin Shuanzhu's leg broke on the spot. The villagers rushed him to the city hospital. When Jiao Xiao'e heard that the treatment fee would be as high as 7,000 or 8,000 yuan, she turned around and left, saying that Lin Shuanzhu's injury had nothing to do with her. The villagers were unwilling to pay the money, so they left without a trace, leaving the original owner alone.
Fortunately, on the day of admission, a film crew from the province came, saying they were there to shoot a documentary. The hospital was afraid of a bad impact, so they did not send the grandfather and grandson away, but instead performed surgery on Lin Shuanzhu first. As the night wore on, the original owner felt more and more aggrieved and couldn't help crying. A debt of seven or eight thousand was an astronomical figure for a child from a poor mountain village, and she was so young, so where could she get the money?
The original owner was very desperate and was crying when Lin Dan came, but the house she took over was still a mess.
After sorting out his memories, Lin Dan couldn't help but wipe his face, but he didn't think too much about it. He returned to the ward, pulled out the folding chair, and fell asleep. No matter how big the problem is, we have to wait until dawn to deal with it. If you keep worrying and unable to sleep at night, and then exhaust your body, wouldn't it be a waste?
The next day, Lin Dan brought a basin of hot water for Lin Shuanzhu to wipe his face. The old man looked around and asked in a low voice, "Where's your grandmother Jiao?"
"She sent you to the hospital yesterday and said that your injury had nothing to do with her family and asked me not to ask her for money. Your hospital bills have not been paid yet." Lin Dan said expressionlessly.
"Your grandmother Jiao is not that kind of person." Lin Shuanzhu retorted subconsciously. He fainted from the pain before he even entered the hospital, so naturally he had no idea what happened next.
Lin Dan pursed her lips and said nothing. Anyway, when the doctor came to collect the fee later, the man would understand. Unexpectedly, the nurse was very cooperative. She pushed the door open and said loudly, "Family members of Lin Shuanzhu, please find a way to pay the surgery and hospitalization fees as soon as possible. We can only extend it for three days at most, otherwise it will be difficult to prescribe medicine for you in the future."
"Doctor, how much will the surgery and hospitalization cost?" Lin Dan asked politely.
"You'd better prepare 10,000 yuan, or at least 8,000 yuan. I know it's not easy for you, but our hospital is also short of funds." The nurse said as she handed medicine to Lin Shuanzhu.
"Okay, I'll pay the money as soon as possible, thank you, doctor."
"You're welcome. Your grandfather will have an anti-inflammatory injection later. Please buy him some breakfast to prevent him from getting dizzy from the injection." The nurse waved her hand and left with a very nice attitude.
Lin Dan then looked at Lin Shuanzhu, only to see that the other party's face was full of disbelief, his thin lips trembling, as if he was gritting his teeth and suppressing something.
Lin Dan continued: "Where is the passbook at home? What's the password? I'll go back to the village later." This trip is not easy. It requires several bus trips back and forth, and several hours of walking on the mountain road. It will take at least one or two days.
Lin Shuanzhu's eyes were red, and he said in a whisper, "The passbook is with your grandmother Jiao, and the password is your birthday."
"Her family has bought a lot of big items recently, including a washing machine, a color TV and a refrigerator. I'm afraid the money in your passbook has been almost used up?" Lin said calmly.
Lin Shuanzhu lowered his head deeply and couldn't utter a word. He tacitly allowed Jiao Xiao'e to buy these things because she said she wanted to live with him after the New Year.
Lin Dan stared at the old man's gray head and said calmly: "In order to ask the doctor to save you, I knelt in front of the hospital gate for half the afternoon yesterday and kowtowed hundreds of times." She didn't say a bad word about Jiao Xiao'e, but it was equivalent to saying everything. It's just a broken leg, not an incurable terminal illness. She is unwilling to pay for your medical expenses of seven or eight thousand yuan. Do you still expect her to live a peaceful life with you? But forget it!
Lin Shuanzhui's tears immediately fell and he said regretfully, "Dan, grandpa is so sorry for you! If I had known Jiao Xiao'e was that kind of person, I would not have given her a penny. What can we do now? Where can you get money at such a young age? We can't treat this leg. Let's be discharged from the hospital now." As he spoke, he was about to get out of bed, but he couldn't move.
"Just lie down and rest. I'll go ask Jiao Xiao'e for money. Do you have an account book at home?" People in the countryside live a hard life. Every household has an account book that records the income and expenditure for the whole year. Lin Shuanzhu should have one too. Lin Dan hasn't figured out how to get money out of Jiao Xiao'e's pocket yet, but having a proof is better than empty talk.
"Yes, yes, yes. It's in the box under my bed. You can go and look for it. Dan, if you don't get the money, you can ask your Uncle Fang to take me out of the hospital and we won't treat me anymore." Lin Shuanzhu burst into tears, regretting his decision.
Lin Dan waved her hand and said nothing. She went downstairs to buy breakfast for the old man, watched him finish the injection, taught him how to press the bell to call the nurse, and then left.
The middle-aged woman and the young man lying nearby heard the gossip, and after Lin Dan left, they said to Lin Shuanzhu: "You old man are really confused. How can you let outsiders take the passbook? In this world, who would take money out of their pockets? How old is your granddaughter? She is skinny and small. Is she twelve years old? Can she afford to offend the family? I think you will suffer a loss."
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