Chapter 5: High School
Nie Qiu looked at the middle-aged woman who claimed to be her mother, “You are my mom?”
At Nie Qiu’s question, the middle-aged woman’s face became even more grief-stricken. She nodded tearfully and said to Nie Qiu, “Yes, I am your mom.”
Nie Qiu nodded, then spoke, “Then… Mom, can I not get treatment?” She knew her own body well. If there were any injuries, it would only be physical ones. A problem with her head? No, impossible. She remembered quadratic functions, she remembered calculus. How could her head be problematic? Her mind was perfectly clear.
The problem was that she had appeared here, becoming a young girl.
“Why not get treatment?” The middle-aged woman brushed aside Nie Qiu’s bangs from her forehead and asked, “Qiu Qiu, are you worried that we don’t have money? It’s okay, tomorrow morning Mom will go borrow some money from your uncle. Your uncle will lend you two thousand yuan.”
But in this situation, how could money alone fix it? Nie Qiu wished that after the examination, she would return to her own body and continue to attend seminars in Germany, continue to be invited to give speeches at various universities, and continue to lecture her students in the elite tutoring class she had opened. But how was that possible? An examination would cost over two thousand yuan, and who knew how much treatment would cost! This was a bottomless pit.
Perhaps two thousand yuan was nothing to her, but for this family, it might be everything.
Besides, she was sure she wasn’t the Qiu Qiu this woman was talking about. In such a situation, how could any doctor possibly cure it? If they called monks or Taoists, she might think it was possible. But what could she say? That she wasn’t Qiu Qiu? What would these people think of her? A demon, a ghost, or someone with a nervous disorder?
Therefore, the only way was not to get treatment! She knew she wasn’t sick, so why get treated?
“Mom, I’m not getting treatment!” Nie Qiu looked at the middle-aged woman and said firmly, “I’m not getting treatment. I know my own body. Can I not get treatment? I know myself whether my head is injured or not.”
Hearing Nie Qiu’s words, the middle-aged woman instantly burst into tears. Before she could even speak, she covered her face in shame, saying, “Qiu Qiu, it’s all my fault, it’s all my fault for being useless, I’m sorry… I’m sorry…” Tears flowed from between her dark fingers, and her dark hands were instantly wet.
Nie Qiu sighed, “Mom, I’ve just lost my memory! You can tell me about my past!”
The middle-aged woman looked up at Nie Qiu and, after a moment of silence, said, “Okay, I’ll tell you.”
So, she had agreed with Nie Qiu’s wishes and decided not to proceed with the treatment.
Three days later, Nie Qiu was discharged from the hospital. Yes, the body’s name was also Nie Qiu, which surprised and relieved Nie Qiu greatly. If she had to adapt to a new name, it might have taken a long time, after all, she had been called Nie Qiu for thirty-eight years. If someone suddenly called her by another name, she might have thought they were calling someone else. During these three days, Nie Qiu’s Mom, Nie Aifang, had to face the accusations and scornful glances from all the doctors and nurses at this small town hospital. Nie Qiu knew Nie Aifang was deeply hurt but didn’t know how to comfort her.
These things were unavoidable. Just as Nie Qiu used to instinctively avoid dirty things that were not clean, if it were her in the past, seeing a woman not giving her daughter treatment because she didn’t have money, she would have also criticized that person.
