Chapter 26 Who would check lung capacity by touching the chest?
Following Gao Xing's suggestion, Shen Xingjian went for a full physical examination. After the report came out, she specially took some time to help him read it before going to work in the morning.
"The doctor said that apart from the atrophy of the muscles in my legs from long-term use of a wheelchair, there are no other major problems." Shen Xingjian said while eating breakfast.
Gao Xing carefully looked through each of his reports and checked them one by one. There was indeed no major problem, except that the data from the lung function test was indeed a bit low.
"Your lung capacity is so poor?" She stood up and reached across the dining table to press her hand on his chest.
When the warm touch came against him unexpectedly, Shen Xingjian's mind buzzed. His Adam's apple rolled unconsciously, and his breathing stopped, leaving a vacuum. The spot on his chest felt like burning charcoal, numbing his spine, yet he dared not move an inch.
"I……"
"Don't talk!" Gao Xing interrupted him, "Listen to my command. I tell you to exhale, and you exhale again. Now, inhale——"
Shen Xingjian froze in place, feeling as if the air in his lungs was being sucked out. He tried to follow her instructions, but couldn't hold on for even a second.
“Cough cough cough——”
He couldn't help coughing violently, turned his face away and leaned on the table, his ears and neck turned red.
Gao Xing hadn't expected him to be so clueless, so he quickly came over to pat his back to help him breathe. "I told you to breathe in, not hold your breath. Why are you holding it in?"
Shen Xingjian really died unjustly. Who would check lung capacity like this? They just touch the chest!
Gao Xing thought that Shen Xingjian had been in a car accident before, and his heart and lungs might have been injured at that time. In addition, he had been in a wheelchair for so many years and had not trained. It was reasonable that his cardiopulmonary function was weaker than that of ordinary people.
After finally catching his breath, Shen Xingjian said weakly: “I think it’s highly likely that I didn’t die because of this…”
"That's hard to say!" Gao Xing let him go, returned to his seat, and stuffed a bun into his mouth. "Anyway, just be careful. I won't tell you anymore. I'm going to be late!"
Before she finished speaking, she had already thrown her canvas bag and ran out. Shen Xingjian wanted to remind her to eat slowly and not choke, but she didn't hear him.
After Gao Xing left, the room became quiet. Shen Xingjian ate breakfast alone. For a while, the only sound in the air was the sound of him chewing.
As usual, he went to read after breakfast, turned two pages, but couldn't calm down.
I don’t know when it started, but the insects and birds outside started chirping again, making a "chirping" sound that inexplicably made me feel annoyed.
Although Gao Xing always slept upstairs at this time in the past, and it made no difference whether she was there or not, it was still a little different when he knew clearly that she was not at home.
At first, Shen Xingjian thought this idea was ridiculous. He had lived alone for three years, so how could he not be able to bear it in just over two months?
But the loss in my heart cannot be deceived.
The nursing home starts work at 7:30 every morning, and Gao Xing has to go out at 7:00. Whenever this happens, Shen Xingjian always looks out from the entrance door to the yard, watching her disappear over and over again at the boundary of overlapping time and space.
That feeling is not good at all.
Shen Xingjian raised his head and looked at the house in front of him where he had lived since he was born. Even this place would no longer belong to him.
Can he really... change?
…
Gao Xing was on his way to work. He had just gotten off the bus and before he left the station, when he saw a group of people holding their cell phones gathered on the side of the road ahead.
She was a little curious, so she went over to check and found that two people were fighting.
To be precise, one party was unilaterally beaten by the other party.
A delivery boy in a yellow uniform was holding his head as a drunk man in his fifties or sixties rode on him and beat him with a bottle, leaving his head bloody. Even after the bottle broke, the drunk refused to stop, swearing and waving his fists drunkenly.
Everyone around was holding up their cell phones and saying they had called the police and that they would be here soon, but no one stepped forward to stop it.
Gao Xing looked at the amount of blood on the delivery boy's body on the ground, worried that if he was a little late, someone might die. In a hurry, he quickly glanced around and took out a long shovel from the sanitation worker's garbage truck not far away.
"Let him go!" While ensuring her own safety, she kept her distance and pointed a shovel at the drunk man to warn him.
The drunk was already drunk, and the stimulation of violence made him even more excited. He cursed dirty words and waved the glass fragments on the ground at Gao Xing, threatening her not to come over.
Gao Xing's original intention was to buy time. To avoid angering him, she pretended to persuade him, "The police will be here soon. If you let him go now, it would at most be considered assault and injury. What if he bleeds to death? That would be murder, and you don't want to go to jail, do you?"
When the drunk heard he was going to jail, he got scared. He stopped beating her but still refused to let go of the glass, shouting, "Get out! Get out!"
"That fucking bastard almost hit me! He's lucky I didn't beat him to death! When I was hanging around on this street, you little bastards were still around..." The rest of the words were unbearable to hear.
As they spoke, a police car was already speeding in the distance. Gao Xing deliberately drew the drunk's attention to herself, waving the shovel in front of him, both as a warning and to attract his attention.
Soon, the police came from behind the drunk man. Several of them rushed over and pinned him to the ground, confiscated the glass fragments, and handcuffed him.
Gao Xing quickly dropped his shovel and went to check on the injured. The drunk had hit the delivery guy on the head with a bottle, and blood was flowing from his forehead, all over his face.
Gao Xing immediately asked and checked if there were any other wounds on his head. Fortunately, he held his head to protect it when the drunk man beat him.
After using the delivery guy's clothes to press on his wound to stop the bleeding, the onlookers said they had called 120. They were happy to see that he was still conscious, so they told him not to move and to wait for 120 to arrive.
The delivery guy's lips were pale as he thanked me repeatedly.
After calming down, Gao Xing saw that he was about 30 or 40 years old, with dark skin and a strong body. How could he not be defeated by a drunkard in his 50s or 60s who couldn't even stand steadily?
The delivery guy was quite helpless and embarrassed when he heard this, saying, "If I fight back, it will turn into a fight, and then I will be detained for another ten days or half a month."
Even though they were beaten to a pulp, they were worried about losing their jobs and income. Gao Xing thought he was stupid, but at the same time, he understood his choice. There was a time when he, too, washed dishes in a restaurant kitchen day and night, despite a high fever, just for a little overtime pay.
There are many kinds of happiness in this world, but the sufferings are mostly similar.
Gao Xing sighed inwardly, and when he looked up, he suddenly felt that he looked familiar?
"Are... your name Zhang Wei?" she asked tentatively.
Zhang Wei's head was still dizzy and aching. When he heard her say his name, he was stunned: "Do you know me?"
He had just suffered a heavy blow to the head, and when he moved his head it suddenly felt like needles were pricking him. He covered his head in pain and almost fell down.
Gao Xing hurriedly supported him to prevent him from moving around and hurting the wound. Fortunately, the ambulance arrived at this time and lifted him into the ambulance in time.
After the ambulance lights came on, a policeman accompanied me to the hospital. Looking at the ambulance gradually disappearing from my sight, I couldn't help but feel happy but also mixed.
She didn’t expect that this takeaway boy was actually the one who came to Shen Xingjian with gifts that day, and she didn’t know what he had experienced in the past ten years.
Perhaps time does not always bring good results, and the same is true for people's circumstances.
At noon, Gao Xing was eating in the nursing home cafeteria as usual when the head nurse unexpectedly approached with a tray of food. Gao Xing, a new temporary worker who hadn't yet established herself at the workplace, had been eating alone. When she saw the head nurse take the initiative and sit across from her, she felt a little unsure what to do.
The head nurse seemed to notice her uneasiness and explained, "I saw the video of you bravely doing something righteous on the roadside this morning. You handled the situation very well and have strong adaptability."
Now is the era of short videos, and information spreads very quickly. The content just uploaded by a user here may be seen by people on the other side of the ocean in the next second.
Gao Xing put down his chopsticks and curled his lips uncomfortably, "Thank you, Teacher Zhang."
The head nurse picked up a bowl of soup and drank it, motioning her to relax and continue eating. She said, "I won't hide it from you. The delivery man you saved is my cousin."
Happy and surprised.
The delivery man the head nurse mentioned...is he Zhang Wei?
Speaking of this, the head nurse sighed, "My cousin has a truly miserable life. Ten years ago, he was diagnosed with a congenital heart disease right after he was born. The surgery alone cost nearly a million. We borrowed from every possible friend and relative, and in the end, we had to borrow 800,000 from his boss to come up with the money."
She shook her head, her voice lowering. "But who would have thought... the child would develop serious complications after surgery and ultimately die. His wife couldn't handle the blow and jumped off the building not long after."
"His parents' health has been declining over the years. We all advised him to find another partner, but he said that in his current state, getting married would only be a burden to others. He's alone, working odd jobs and delivering food during the day, and taking care of the elderly at night..."
“Sometimes I wonder, why is God so unfair?”
The head nurse sighed repeatedly, realizing that she had said too much. She stopped thinking about it and raised her head and said, "Xiao Gao, you are quite capable. Work hard."
Gao Xing nodded politely.
After the head nurse left, he came out of the cafeteria and happily recalled Zhang Wei in Villa No. 1 that day.
Eight hundred thousand is not a small number, was it Shen Xingjian who lent it to him later?
Gao Xing had no intention of telling Shen Xingjian about meeting Zhang Wei ten years later at the entrance of the sanatorium. She thought he probably had enough troubles right now, and even if she knew, it would only add to his troubles.
However, when she pushed open the door and came back, she heard the sound of intense gaming coming from the living room. She put down her bag and saw Shen Xingjian sitting on the sofa, his fingers operating the game controller quickly, and light and shadow flickered on the screen.
"Off duty?" he called without looking up. "Come on! Just in time for a two-player game with me!"
Gao Xing stood at the entrance, speechless for a moment. The person who had just a few days ago been depressed by the news of his own death was now playing games with great energy?
Shen Xingjian patted the place beside him: "Why are you standing there? Come on!"
Gao Xing walked over, looked at the rather old game cards on the coffee table in front of him, and said, "I don't know how."
"Oh, you'll get it after playing a few times!" Shen Xingjian pulled her over.
"Let's play a simple one first, Super Mario. You know how to play Super Mario, right?" After sitting on the sofa, Shen Xingjian handed her the controller and picked up a little man in overalls to show her.
Gao Xing looked at the bearded little man and shook his head honestly: "No."
"Then let's change to another one, King of Fighters! Do you know King of Fighters?" Shen Xingjian took out another game card with an Afro character printed on the cover and showed it to her.
Gao Xing still shook his head: "I don't know."
Shen Xingjian didn't believe it and rummaged through the pile of game cards. Finally, he confidently picked out a yellow bear: "Little Bear! You must have heard of this, right?"
Gao Xing: "...I've only heard of Big Bear and Little Bear."
Shen Xingjian choked: “…”
For the first time, he realized that there was a huge generation gap between them, ten years apart!
Gao Xing put down the controller and couldn't help asking, "Are you... okay?"
Shen Xingjian also put down the handle, glanced sideways, and raised a bright smile at the corner of his mouth: “Didn’t you say that? You want me to live a decent life.”
His gaze traced Gao Xing's worried brows, and he reached out to gently smooth out the wrinkles there. "I've figured it out. If fate can really be changed, that would be great. But if it can't be changed..."
As he spoke, the character on the screen suddenly unleashed a magnificent special move, and the special effects reflected on his face. "It's not in vain that I came to this world."
I was happy to look at his bright profile and see the light from the screen reflected in his eyes, as if they were filled with the entire galaxy.
She suddenly felt that perhaps courage should be handled with ease.
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