Chapter 94: Seek Help
Time flies like a white horse passing through a chink, fleeting by in a hurry, as if in the blink of an eye half a month has passed.
These twenty-odd days, Su Ning has lived very fulfillingly. During the day, she goes to the factory to work or to the nearby county town to complete purchasing tasks. In the evening, when she returns home, she immerses herself in studying carving.
After wasting all the material left by Mom through practice, she moved out quite a bit more from the rosewood box in the cave.
Until now, simple flowers and plants pose no pressure when she picks them up. More complex zodiac animals, though not so lifelike, can at least look somewhat decent, avoiding the embarrassment of the initial red peanut one.
Zhang Ze and Mao Jinqian have each completed their entry procedures. Now, with Zhang Ze accompanying her to and from work every day, it’s safe and she no longer has to worry.
With Tan Dafeng’s help in Hongqi Commune Team One, Mao Jinqian has at least initially stood firm on his feet.
Mom lives with the Zhang Family, with people to help and chat with her busily. Mao Jinqian has nothing to worry about.
As for He Yue, who showed up once last time and hasn’t appeared since, who knows what big move she’s holding back.
……
Sitting in the courtyard watching the drizzling rain that has continued for about a week, Su Ning withdrew her wandering thoughts.
Looking down at the jade tokens and pendants separately packed in little boxes, these are all the Mid-Autumn gifts she prepared for her closest family and friends.
After these days of experimenting, pondering, or lucky coincidences, she has finally figured out the effects of all kinds of jadeite from the bottom of the spring.
Blue jadeite for scar removal, purple jadeite for luck, ink jade for warding off evil and averting disaster to ensure safety.
Green for beauty and skincare, yellow for calming the mind and soothing the spirit, red symbolizing romance. As for the final green jadeite, most unexpectedly, it turns out to be… for granting children.
Fortunately, after leaving the nourishment of the spring water, some jade’s special functions become ‘one-time use.’ Unless soaked back in the spring water, once used, they are just ordinary jadeite that’s a bit prettier.
For example, ink jade’s disaster aversion is only three times, purple jade’s luck lasts only seventy-two hours, green jade indeed grants one child, and afterward either shatters or turns into ordinary jade.
So based on the different effects of the jadeite, she selected ones suitable to give and carved them according to each person’s needs.
Grandpa Fu and the Ying Ying brother-sister pair, as well as Brother Zhang and Brother Mao, naturally all get ink jade for warding off disaster and ensuring safety.
Auntie Hehua has always regretted only giving birth to Ying Ying and Tingzi before her health failed, so she made a pair of mandarin duck jade pendants carved from the same kind of green jade for the couple.
For Xi You, the red jadeite this time is truly a grape bracelet.
Fu Jiaming and Yan Bei both get yellow jade pendants for calming the mind and soothing the spirit, one carved as a gentleman orchid and the other as Guanyin bamboo.
As for the Luo Family, Yan family, Tan family, Qu family residence, the Zhang Family in Shanghai City, and the relatives of Brother Zhang and Brother Mao living in the courtyard, she only prepared other festival gifts and has no intention of giving them jade.
“Woof woof woof~”
Hmm? Someone’s here?
She had just packed the several little boxes to be sent to the Fu Family in Beijing City, stored them in the space, when she heard Little Round Circle barking at the gate.
Putting all the remaining ones that could be delivered in person into the canvas bag in one go, Su Ning quickly stood up, grabbed the umbrella under the eaves, and jogged over.
Sure enough, in the pouring rain, the knocking sound was completely drowned out. If not for Little Round Circle barking loudly, she really wouldn’t have heard it clearly.
Praising the little guy, she held the umbrella in one hand and opened the tightly shut gate.
Outside the door, a teenager with only a broken feed bag on his head to block the wind stood there, his whole body soaked by the heavy rain, shivering uncontrollably.
Gu Zi, with an anxious expression, saw the finally opened gate and that figure from his memory, and in an instant his eyes turned red. With a thud, he heavily knelt down in the rain.
“Sister Ning, I beg you, please save Little Pumpkin, save my little sister… I beg you…”
“Gu Zi, what are you doing? Get up quickly! What’s wrong with Little Pumpkin?”
She yanked the person up. In just this brief moment of contact, Su Ning understood why this somewhat stubborn teenager was like this.
Thinking of the innocent and cute Little Pumpkin that night, lying motionless in the glimpsed future scene without opening her eyes again, a dull pain surged in her heart.
“My little sister is sick, very seriously ill. I… I have no way, Sister Ning…”
With so many days of continuous heavy rain, their room leaks everywhere, and even sleeping has no dry place.
He had always vaguely worried that his younger siblings would catch cold from the rain and get sick again. Even though he secretly took some things from other homes to block it, the youngest Little Pumpkin still fell ill.
At first it was just dizziness and weakness, then high fever that wouldn’t go down, even developing chills.
“Where is Little Pumpkin now? Has she been taken to the hospital?”
Wiping his face, unsure if it was tears or rainwater, Yu Gu nodded and quickly replied, “At the hospital. I had Winter Melon and Gourd stay there with her…”
But penniless as they are, they can’t afford treatment. Without the brigade’s admission proof and without urban household registration, even the doctor’s kind suggestion of putting it on account couldn’t be done.
Desperate, he remembered what Su Ning said that morning and could only pin that sliver of faint hope on this person he had only met once.
“Gu Zi, wait for me a moment!”
Without saying more, Su Ning quickly turned back to the courtyard, picked up the canvas bag, and took out spare money and ration coupons from the iron box in the space bedroom, stuffing them into the bag.
Only then did she push the bicycle out of the courtyard, soothed Little Round Circle with a few words to guard the house at home, locked the gate, and took Gu Zi rushing to the hospital in the heavy rain.
By the time the two arrived at the hospital, Winter Melon and Gourd were helplessly hugging Little Pumpkin tightly, crying heartbrokenly.
Ignoring her soaked clothes, she bent down, rubbed her hands vigorously a couple of times, then picked up the little girl who had fallen into a coma and was still having chills from time to time.
“Doctor, doctor! Save her quickly!”
……
After one fever-reducing injection, Little Pumpkin’s high fever finally broke not long after, but because of the long delay, it had turned into pneumonia requiring several days of hospitalization with IV fluids and medication.
After paying the fees, Su Ning let out a long breath and looked at the person beside her who was clenching his fists, lost in thought, “Gu Zi?”
“Ah, Sister Ning…”
“I prepaid some. Take good care of the receipts.”
While speaking, she pulled out ten yuan and a few ration coupons from the bag, “Take these too. Little Pumpkin had such a serious illness; she needs nutritious food to recover well. And you three brothers should take the chance to nourish yourselves too.”
“Sister Ning… I’ll pay you back… I’ll work hard…”
Lifting her hand to gently pat the teenager’s skinny shoulder, Su Ning’s smile was clean and warm, “I believe you. Now take good care of your younger siblings and yourself.”
The composure and strength he had been forcing all along crumbled instantly after her words.
To support his younger brother and sisters, he had to force himself to grow up quickly. He too gets lost, scared, and feels crushed by life’s burdens to the point of not wanting to live.
But what can he do?
Without parents who saw him as their child, all he has left is the identity of big brother.
Gu Zi cried until he could hardly catch his breath, venting thoroughly for the first time since his parents passed away one after another.
Su Ning knew he didn’t need words of comfort right now; silently accompanying him was enough.
……
After crying enough and regaining his senses, Yu Gu thought of his earlier tear-and-snot-streaked face and couldn’t help covering his face.
He sniffed hard. Fortunately, his dark skin hid the embarrassed flush on his face.
After this thorough venting, both body and mind felt rarely relaxed.
Newly composed, Yu Gu solemnly bowed to her, “Thank you, Sister Ning.”
“As long as you don’t kneel to me again, I’ll accept this thanks.”
“Hehe~”
Scratching his head embarrassedly, Yu Gu silently noted it in his heart.
“By the way, Gu Zi, how old are you this year?”
“Fifteen. After Mid-Autumn Festival, I’ll be sixteen.”
Fifteen or sixteen isn’t too young or too old. Su Ning nodded and continued asking, “Have you gone to school?”
“Yes, up to the first year of junior high.”
Yu family’s parents were both educated people, and naturally placed more emphasis on educating their first child.
Little Yu Gu didn’t disappoint his parents’ expectations; he was smart and eager to learn, starting school earlier than peers and even skipping a grade, smoothly attending the best middle school there.
If not for the accident with his parents and evil relatives at home…
“Gu Zi, I have a work quota on hand. Since you’re still a junior high student, that’s even less of a problem.”
As long as he has a work receiving unit, then Yu Gu can go to the neighborhood committee to get a proof reissued. With the proof, he can register household for himself and his younger siblings.
This was something he had always wanted but could never manage to do!
