Chapter Thirty-five: My Miserable Child

Lu Feng let out a soft sigh and didn't continue to ask. After putting away the tools, he waved his hand and said, "Go and sit outside! Enjoy the sunshine."

Li Xiaohu turned to look at his mother who was still unconscious on the hospital bed, and silently shook his head, saying, "Big Brother Lu, you go! I want to take care of my mother here. If I go outside and she wakes up and doesn't see me, she will definitely be worried!"

What a sensible child!

Lu Feng thought that when he was at Li Xiaohu's age, he hadn't been as sensible as him.

However, children from poor families take on responsibilities earlier. Although his own family was also quite poor, compared with Li Xiaohu, it was much better. At least, his parents were in good health.

Children who have gone through a lot of hardships will have a more mature mindset. Now, Li Xiaohu is obviously much stronger mentally than his peers.

Throughout the whole afternoon, Lu Feng held a medical book and studied beside the door of the medical clinic while recovering his consumed mental energy. And Li Xiaohu stayed by his mother's side without leaving for a moment.

In the evening, just as Shang Wende was considering whether to take this middle-aged woman back to his home and let the mother and son stay there first, the middle-aged woman who had been unconscious finally woke up faintly.

Her blurred vision gradually became clear. Sensing her own physical condition, which was much better than usual, the middle-aged woman felt a surge of excitement in her heart. However, the strange environment made her slightly stunned. Smelling the scent of medicinal herbs in the air, she quickly struggled to sit up from the hospital bed.

"Mom, you're awake?"

Li Xiaohu looked at his mother, who was struggling to sit up, with expression and shouted loudly.

The middle-aged woman felt a flash of excitement when she saw her son. She was really afraid that when she sometimes fell into a coma, she would never wake up again and never be able to take a look at this filial and sensible son.

"Xiaohu, why am I here? Where is this place?"

A bright smile appeared on Li Xiaohu's face. Looking at his mother's slightly ruddy face, her complexion was much better than before. He silently thanked Shang Wende and Lu Feng in his heart and smiled, saying, "Mom, this is the medical clinic I told you about. Dr. Shang and Big Brother Lu treated you! Do you feel that your body is much better?"

A trace of excitement flashed in the middle-aged woman's eyes, and then her expression dimmed. However, at this moment, she indeed felt much more comfortable. In the past, when she opened her eyes, she would feel her throat itchy and keep coughing. This time, although her throat was still a little itchy, she could hold back from coughing.

Li Xiaohu's excited cry made Lu Feng, who was reading a book at the diagnosis table, and Shang Wende in the inner room come over quickly. Shang Wende smiled at the emaciated middle-aged woman and said, "It's good that you're awake. I'm the Dr. Shang that Xiaohu mentioned. Stretch out your arm, and I'll check your pulse."

There was a look of surprise and doubt in the middle-aged woman's eyes. She didn't understand how her son had brought her here from under the bridge cave, and she didn't understand why this Dr. Shang would treat her. You know, she and her son were an orphan and widow, and they had begged all the way here. Where did they have the money for treatment? However, she still suppressed the questions in her heart, glanced at her son standing by the edge of the hospital bed, and stretched out her slender arm.

Shang Wende placed his fingers on the middle-aged woman's pulse, closed his eyes slightly, and slowly opened them after a minute. The traces left by the years on his face slightly relaxed when a smile appeared on his face. With a hint of satisfaction, he said, "Not bad. After two acupuncture treatments, the condition has been controlled, and there is no immediate danger for now. However, this illness requires long-term treatment. Especially in the next few days, it must be treated with acupuncture, and the medicine must be taken on time."

The middle-aged woman was actually less than fifty years old, but being tortured by the illness made her look like she was in her fifties or sixties. Hearing Shang Wende's words, a bitter smile appeared on her slightly aged face, and she waved her hand, saying, "Shang... You are Dr. Shang, right? You don't need to lie to me. I know my own illness. Many big hospitals have already concluded that my illness can't be cured. At most, it can only delay my physical condition for a little longer."

After pausing for a moment, she continued with a sigh, "What's more, even if it can be cured, so what? My son and I don't even have the money for food and drinks, which Xiaohu has begged for. Where else do we have the money for treatment?"

Li Xiaohu, who was beside the middle-aged woman, quickly said, "Mom, Dr. Shang said that he will treat you for free."

The middle-aged woman was slightly stunned, and then she smiled bitterly, "There's no such thing as a free lunch in the world. We've been through so many things in the past few years. Don't you understand that yet? Xiaohu, Mom knows that you said this to make me happy, but Mom already feels it's worth it to have such a filial and sensible son like you. Even if I die, I can rest in peace. Let's forget about the treatment. Mom really can't drag you down any more. The only thing Mom can't rest assured about now is you."

Li Xiaohu frowned slightly, glanced at Shang Wende and Lu Feng, and then said seriously, "Mom, I'm not lying to you. Dr. Shang really said he will treat you for free. Even if there's no such thing as a free lunch in the world, and even if Dr. Shang asks me to do something, as long as it can cure your illness, I'm willing to do it. If you die, what's the point of me living alone and miserably?"

The middle-aged woman didn't say anything more. Instead, the tears in her eyes fell down her rough cheeks, and she shook her head vigorously.

Seeing that his mother didn't believe him, a look of anxiety immediately appeared in Li Xiaohu's eyes. He quickly grabbed his mother's arm, looked up at Shang Wende and Lu Feng, and his eyes were full of pleading.

Shang Wende let out a soft sigh. He understood that the hardships of these years had probably made this middle-aged woman no longer believe that there were any good people. That's why she said the words "There's no such thing as a free lunch in the world."

Life can destroy people's will and erase the purity in their hearts.

Perhaps in the past, the middle-aged woman would have believed that the world was full of love and that the taste of happiness was everywhere. But during the past few years when her son had taken her on the journey to seek medical treatment, she had seen clearly the warmth and coldness of human relationships. Even if there were some kind-hearted people, what they gave was only small favors. How could it compare to the great thing of treating a patient without asking for anything in return?

The big hospitals she had sought treatment in before, those people who wore the of angels but had the stingy heart of the God of Wealth, had almost made her despair.

And those two sons who were like beasts...

Hope was long gone, and how could she still dare to hope that something good would happen to her?

Looking at the middle-aged woman with tears in her eyes, Shang Wende said softly, "Don't worry! I can't guarantee for other doctors, but when you see a doctor here, I won't charge you any money, and I don't want any kind of return from you. There's no such thing as a free lunch in the world, but you should be grateful to have a filial son who carried you on his back all the way to seek medical treatment, suffering a lot on the way. Just because of his heart, I can't charge you any money no matter what."

Lu Feng, who was touched in his heart, couldn't hold back his words after Shang Wende finished speaking. He said, "Yes! Xiaohu is a filial child, and we are all touched by his filial piety. Perhaps you don't know, but he told us himself that along the way, he used the money he begged for to buy food for you, while he himself begged for leftover food and even fought with stray dogs for food in the trash can. Auntie, perhaps you don't know that when I met him in the morning, he was being beaten by three hooligans, and he held on tightly to the cloth bag in his hand. Why? For the money he begged for, those bits of money like ten cents, twenty cents, one yuan, and two yuan. He was willing to be beaten to death rather than let go of the money so that he could use it to find us to treat you. You may have seen the wound on his head. Although I can see that you didn't ask, you must be feeling puzzled and in your heart, right? He got that wound from being beaten by those three hooligans!"

"I brought him to the medical clinic. Just when he saw the sign of the medical clinic that he had searched so hard for, he suddenly fainted. Why? He wasn't knocked out. He was fainted from hunger! These days, he hasn't eaten a thing, all to save money for your treatment, for you, his mother."

"Auntie, I've never seen a child like him who can struggle on the edge of life and death for his mother. He has suffered a lot, but he has a firm heart to save his mother and such filial piety."

Having said this, Lu Feng couldn't hold back his tears and continued, "Do you know? There was a sentence he said that made my heart feel so sour and painful. Perhaps he said it unintentionally, but it made my heart ache like being stabbed by a needle. He said, 'I haven't had a hot meal for a long time.' He's still a child, a child who is still growing. He chews on cold and dirty steamed buns to satisfy his hunger every day and drinks cold water to quench his thirst. The life he lives is perhaps not even as good as that of a stray dog. At least, a dog can pick up some bones that people throw away after eating meat."

Tears sparkled in Shang Wende's eyes. He silently turned his head to the side. Taking advantage of no one noticing, he quickly wiped his eyes with his sleeve, and then pulled Lu Feng to stop him from continuing. This wasn't the time to say these things.

The middle-aged woman, on the other hand, was now in floods of tears. Her desolate expression was extremely heartbreaking.

"My poor child, you've suffered so much..."

With her emaciated body, she hugged Li Xiaohu tightly and held him in her arms, crying loudly.

Yes, she didn't know!

She didn't know that her son had secretly suffered so much while carrying her.

In the past, every time her son came back with a smile, and every time she picked up the hot meal and asked her son why he didn't eat with her, her son would always smile and say, "I've already eaten outside, and I'm really full."

It turned out that her son wasn't really full. He had saved the money to buy food for her while enduring the torture of hunger himself and had never had a hot meal!

Her heart was broken, and she was in great pain. The excruciating pain was like a poisonous snake constantly biting at her heart.