After escorting a patient back from a CT scan, Yao Ziye sat on the bench beside the bed to catch his breath.
A small hand slipped out from under the bedsheet, and he gently grasped it, intending to tuck it back under the cover.
As he turned the hand over, he saw her tender palm, pale-skinned and as transparent as cicada wings.
For a moment, as if controlled by something, he raised his finger and gently pressed in the center of her palm~
A bloom of red mist appeared suddenly in the pale space between her fingers, like ripples from a stone thrown into a lake, resembling a red plum blossom bud that had unexpectedly bloomed overnight, stunningly beautiful.
Shaken by this spectacle, he found himself holding onto her hand for a long while without letting go.
The tall and handsome Du Yu walked into the emergency room, pushing aside the curtain, and upon seeing him holding her hand, joked, “Big Boss Yao, do you find her too ugly?
Look at yourself now.”
He calmly placed her small hand back under the covers, then turned to Du Yu and neatly diverted the topic with a serious tone, “Weren’t you guys taken away by the doctors for questioning?
What did they say?”
“Lu Jun was threatened by the doctors into signing, and we don’t know when we’ll be able to contact the patient’s family.” As he said this, the tall and handsome Du Yu ran his fingers through his short buzz cut, sighing like a valiant warrior in the throes of autumn grief, “I think the 500 RMB we received is more trouble than it’s worth.”
The one sighing, of course, wasn’t himself, but Comrade Jun Ye.
Yao Ziye also felt it was funny, but he dared not truly laugh.
Seeing that Jun Ye had likely just been scolded by the doctors, he strode in with an extremely poor complexion.
The tall and handsome Du Yu immediately shut his mouth: Jun Ye’s expression at the moment was like King Yama’s.
“She’s asleep like this now, she may have to stay overnight, and the hospital won’t let us leave in case something happens to her and they can’t explain it,” said Lu Jun, emotionally yet not daring to neglect the slightest, “You guys go back in the car first.
I’ll stay here with her until her relatives come to pick her up.”
The tall and handsome Du Yu and Yao Ziye exchanged a look: they both agreed that the upcoming drama would definitely be worth watching, and there was no reason not to stay to see it unfold, just as the brothers in the car would surely think.
After all, they had finished their task and returning to school a night late didn’t matter.
Besides, if the school heard that they were acting in the spirit of Lei Feng, they’d definitely want them to stay.
Both publicly and privately, the consensus was to stay.
Representing all the lads in the car, the tall and handsome Du Yu nonchalantly slung his arm over Jun Ye’s shoulder, “We’re brothers who have faced life and death together, how could we possibly leave you here alone to fall in battle?”
Jun Ye lived up to his name, unfazed by the teasing, “If you want to stay, then stay.” Having said that, he went outside to find another place to spend the night.
The two who remained looked at each other.
“Big Boss Yao, you want to stay and keep the beauty company.
I’ll go keep Jun Ye company,” said the tall and handsome Du Yu, who wanted to stay for the drama, but not really to spend the night watching over a patient, planning to find a place for a nap instead.
“Don’t go too far in case I can’t reach you when I need you,” Yao Ziye instructed.
They couldn’t carry their personal phones on a mission.
“Sure,” Du Yu agreed without hesitation and dashed off to chat with others.
Looking back at the small face on the bed, unobscured by ugly glasses, he could see under the light how delicate her skin was and how exquisite her features; not the most beautiful proportions, but there was a different kind of captivating beauty.
Yao Ziye stared at this face as if to carve it into his memory.
——On the eve of a grand wedding night——
Manman slept deeply throughout the night, not feeling anything.
When she woke up, everything she could see was white, and she immediately guessed she was in a hospital.
What was different this time was the stark silence around her; nobody was with her, not even Chun Xia.
Thinking of what her father had cautioned her before she left, it really was such as soon as she went out of town, something happened, and now she was all alone without any relatives to turn to.
When Chun Xia had dragged her to chase the off-road vehicle, she had left in a hurry without taking anything with her, only a few hundred RMB stuffed in her pants pocket.
She thought about whether she should call Chun Xia but didn’t want to worry her father at home.
As she got up, she felt much better; her stomach wasn’t as uncomfortable as before, possibly because of the medication, or maybe sleeping after getting out of the car had refreshed her spirit.
A back of the hand hooked up to an IV, looking toward the metal pole where multiple bags of fluids hung, at least two or three.
Adhesive tape on her body connected three wires leading to a small machine resting on the bedside table.
Manman was startled.
Not by the fact that she looked seriously ill, but by her past experiences in hospitals, she knew these so-called monitors were adept at burning through patients’ money.
Just then, a nurse came over, saw that she was awake and asked how she was feeling, and took her temperature.
Manman asked, “How much money did I spend last night?”
“What?” The young nurse was taken aback at first, then realized she was asking about the medical expenses and said, “I’ll look it up on the computer for you.”
About ten minutes later, the nurse returned with the thermometer and casually gave her the total: “Up until this morning, over three thousand six hundred.” She didn’t forget to remind her, “You haven’t paid your hospitalization deposit.
In addition to settling the outstanding balance, you need to pay a five-thousand-yuan deposit.”
Over three thousand six hundred?
Just one night burned through over three thousand six hundred RMB?
How did that happen?
In the past, hanging on to an IV in the emergency room for three days didn’t even cost a thousand yuan.
She knew her own condition best; it definitely couldn’t have cost that much.
The shocking figure jammed Manman’s brain.
Seeing that the nurse’s white figure was about to drift out from behind the curtain, Manman called out, “I want to be discharged right now.”
The nurse swiftly turned around, glaring at her astonishingly, “Discharged?
You are a patient who has been issued a critical condition notice.
The hospital is not responsible if you leave now!”
They don’t allow a discharge?
Driver Wang’s words were all too true; the hospital is a cash-printing machine running all day, especially terrifying in this respect.
Making a split-second decision, Manman ripped off the wires attached to her body, pulled out the IV from the back of her hand, jumped off the bed, fortunately, the hospital staff hadn’t changed her clothes, so she still had her money in her pocket, grabbed her glasses from the bedside table, and put them back on her nose.
There happened to be a pen on the table, she found a cigarette pack on the floor, tore open the cardboard, wrote a line with her mobile number on it, stating that she wasn’t escaping without paying for the medication, that she was going out to get the money to pay, and left it under the monitor.
Taking advantage of the morning rush when the nurses were busy, Manman slipped out of the hospital.
She hailed a ride to drop her off at the nearest highway entrance and found a payphone to call Chun Xia, recounting last night’s events.
When Chun Xia learned that she had been sent to the hospital and had been “slaughtered” with a huge bill, she and Du Yu hurried to the location Manman told them.
However, the traffic jam was not fully cleared, and their little truck stopped and started, crawling toward Manman, which would take some time.
In the meantime, because Yao Ziye, who stayed to watch over the patient for Jun Ye, left to the restroom, he found upon his return that the patient was missing.
Consequently, the hospital turned into a madhouse.
And bad luck had it that the morning cleaner had swept away the note Manman left with the cigarette paper into a trash bag.
Patients running away without paying their medical bills had happened before, but three thousand six hundred was not a small amount.
A group of medical staff had no choice but to seize the gang that had brought the patient in, demanding they make an explanation.
Lu Jun’s mood, which had lightened up a bit in the middle of the night, turned sour again when he was woken up early in the morning with news that the patient had escaped and that he had to cover her debt; with the blame on his shoulders, he burst out in anger.
Now it wasn’t just Yao Ziye feeling the sting; all the brothers were unanimously convinced: taking that five hundred was far from a small loss.