Chapter 26 Little Liar

When Ji Shu arrived at the orthopedics department of Xishui First People’s Hospital, Ye Xiaoyang had already finished his X-rays.

Beside him was a short-haired girl with red eyes. She had clearly just been crying.

Ji Shu recognized her as Ye Xiaoyang’s classmate, the niece of her husband’s colleague.

The doctor looked at the film and said, “Fracture of the right wrist.”

Ji Shu’s head went “boom.” Her legs went soft. She almost couldn’t stay standing.

Ye Xiaoyang had been mischievous now and then as a child. For a boy, bumps and scrapes were everyday things. But a fracture this serious was the first time.

Ye Xiaoyang didn’t cry to heaven and earth, but the tightly pressed corner of his mouth and the furrowed brows showed how much pain he was enduring.

Luo Yi’s tears came up again. On the way to the hospital she had been crying the whole time.

The one who was injured was Ye Xiaoyang, yet Ye Xiaoyang still had to turn around and comfort her.

“What do we do?” Luo Yi murmured. She sniffed, her tone thick with tears. “Will it affect him later?”

“Doctor, will it leave a lasting problem?” Ji Shu was anxious. She only had this one precious son. A fracture in such a key place as the right hand—no parent could accept it.

The doctor adjusted his gold-rimmed glasses and said, “How old is he? He’s still growing. A fracture like this will heal in two or three months. Don’t look like he’s dying. Even a patient who’s fine would be scared half to death by you.”

“He’s not seventy or eighty. One fall and it won’t heal.” The doctor had seen plenty of difficult cases. Something like Ye Xiaoyang’s was one of the lightest conditions in orthopedics. “After a fall you can’t brace yourself with your palm. Eight out of ten wrist fractures happen like this.”

Hearing the doctor say that, Luo Yi’s suspended heart finally settled a little.

But when she thought that the recovery period would be three months and Ye Xiaoyang wouldn’t be able to use his right hand, guilt rose in her chest.

“Then he won’t be able to do homework, will he?” Luo Yi asked.

“Of course not. And don’t use the right hand to eat either.” The doctor wrote up the case notes, gave a few more reminders, and sent Ye Xiaoyang to have the injured limb treated.

He needed a cast. It could only be removed after six weeks. After removal, it still had to be fixed with a splint for about a month and a half before it fully healed.

In other words, Ye Xiaoyang would have to rest and recover until before the autumn term started.

Ji Shu kept asking Ye Xiaoyang what had happened. He had been fine in the morning. How had he fractured his wrist by evening?

Ye Xiaoyang only said he had been knocked down by a vehicle on the road. Ji Shu broke out in a cold sweat, then suddenly felt lucky that Ye Xiaoyang had only fractured a bone and not something worse.

Thinking of this, Ji Shu pulled tissues from her bag and wiped her tears.

She took out her phone and called Ye Rongcheng. “Hello? What are you doing? A dinner?”

“You still have the mood to eat. Come to First Hospital right now. Your son almost got killed by a car.” She hung up as soon as she finished.

Ye Xiaoyang: “…”

This was a bit too exaggerated, wasn’t it?

Seeing these two women, one big and one small, crying over him, Ye Xiaoyang felt uneasy.

He said, “It was only an electric bike.”

Ji Shu sobbed, “You’re really going to scare Mom to death… If something happened to you, how would I go on living?”

That phone call scared Ye Rongcheng badly. Once a man reached middle age, everything else was empty. Children were what mattered most.

He arrived at First Hospital in less than fifteen minutes. He came in and saw Ye Xiaoyang sitting there perfectly fine.

If the doctor hadn’t been treating the injured limb, he wouldn’t have been able to tell where Ye Xiaoyang was hurt.

“What’s going on?” Ye Rongcheng asked.

“Right hand, fractured!” Ji Shu stuffed the X-ray into Ye Rongcheng’s hands.

Speaking of it, this matter could be big or small.

It was just that on the way Ye Rongcheng had been imagining his son lying unconscious in the hospital, flesh and blood a blur. So now, seeing it was only a fracture, he almost wanted to beat drums and gongs in celebration.

“Aiya, only a fracture. Look how scared you got.” Ye Rongcheng looked at the film and let out a breath.

“Only a fracture?” Ji Shu crumpled the wet tissue in her hand. “So this isn’t your son?”

“A real man. It’s only a fracture. Don’t cry like he has a terminal illness.” Ye Rongcheng said.

Although Ye Rongcheng said this with his mouth, in his heart he still ached for his son.

He was only afraid Ji Shu would worry too much. He couldn’t also make a fuss with her.

Luo Yi had been standing quietly beside Ye Xiaoyang the whole time. Seeing his parents care for him like this, a thread of envy rose in her.

In her eyes, this way of husband and wife getting along wasn’t bad. It was better than her having lost her mother when she was small.

Seeing Ye Xiaoyang’s facial muscles twitch and his face go pale, Luo Yi couldn’t help asking, “Does it hurt?”

Ye Xiaoyang had wanted to say “It doesn’t.” But seeing her tense and worried look, the words turned on the tip of his tongue and became, “It hurts a lot.”

Who would have thought that the moment these words came out, Luo Yi’s tears fell again like beads off a broken string.

“Wu… what do we do if it hurts?” Luo Yi asked the doctor. “Can you give him painkillers?”

Her heart hurt so much, as if thousands of ants were biting it.

Ye Xiaoyang’s hand really did hurt badly. But the moment he saw Luo Yi crying for him, somehow a thread of comfort rose in his heart.

She still cared about him, didn’t she? Otherwise why would she cry this hard? Both eyes had turned red like a little rabbit’s.

Seeing the two children exchanging glances, the doctor sighed inwardly. Medical dogs didn’t deserve love. 🙂

Night duty was already miserable enough, and now he had to eat high school dog food. Truly enough.

After the doctor finished treating Ye Xiaoyang’s injured limb, he said, “Come back in a day or two for the cast.”

Ji Shu asked, “He doesn’t need to stay in the hospital?”

First Hospital’s beds were that tight. There really wasn’t extra space for a wrist-fracture patient.

The doctor said, “Beds are for people who can’t get out of bed. A wrist fracture doesn’t need hospitalization.”

Ji Shu nudged Ye Rongcheng. “Hurry and call your friend. How can he not stay? If he goes home and something else happens, what if the bone shifts?”

Ye Rongcheng didn’t argue with Ji Shu. On this point he agreed.

One phone call later, the hospital leadership quickly gave instructions and arranged Ye Xiaoyang into a VIP ward, with dedicated care.

Ye Xiaoyang saw it was already almost ten. Luo Yi was still at the hospital, so he said, “Mom, can I ask you to drive her back?”

Only then did Ji Shu have the mind to pay attention to this girl. Strange to say—when Ye Xiaoyang had the accident, he had been with her? Where were the other classmates? Weren’t they around? Had the two of them been alone?

Luo Yi was just about to speak when a wave of dizziness hit her. Her vision went black. She almost collapsed.

Ye Xiaoyang instinctively wanted to support her again, but the moment he moved, his right hand hurt badly.

Ji Shu quickly caught her arm and asked, “What’s wrong?”

Luo Yi took a good while to come back to herself. She said dully, “I’m a bit dizzy.”

Ji Shu reached out and touched her forehead, then jumped. “Why is it so hot? Do you have a fever?”

Hearing this, the doctor came over at once. Just now everyone’s attention had been on the boy. No one had realized the girl’s condition.

“This fever isn’t light. She probably caught a chill,” the doctor said.

Ye Xiaoyang was faintly surprised. On the way Luo Yi had been concerned about him the whole time and hadn’t even told him she had a fever.

How could she be this silly?

Ji Shu called Luo Xueqing and said her niece had a fever and was at the hospital, telling her to come take a look.

Luo Xueqing didn’t dare delay and arrived quickly.

Speaking reasonably, an ordinary person with a cold and fever only needed medicine, hot water, and a sweat to get better.

But Luo Yi’s constitution was weak. Her immunity wasn’t good. Medicine alone was useless. She had to be paired with other supporting treatment, such as an IV drip.

Before Luo Hengzhou went abroad he had repeatedly told Luo Xueqing to take good care of Luo Yi. Nothing else mattered. Her health had to stay good.

Luo Xueqing knew this little niece was her brother’s heart’s flesh. Her health had been poor since she was small and had cost her brother no small amount of worry. He was afraid she would be like her mother and be gone while still young.

Luo Xueqing explained Luo Yi’s situation to the doctor, including her medical history. The doctor also shook his head again and again after hearing it.

With this, Luo Yi had to hang several bottles of saline tonight, or the fever wouldn’t go down.

Over there Ji Shu had just requested three days of leave for Ye Xiaoyang. Over here Luo Xueqing’s call also arrived.

Luo Yi was sick with a fever. Three days of leave.

Ji Changming was still puzzled. In the short span of one weekend, how had two patients appeared in his class?

Luo Yi was originally going to the infusion room for the drip. But sitting in the infusion room late at night, she wouldn’t rest well either. It would drag on until midnight. Ye Xiaoyang was very worried about her.

Ye Xiaoyang said, “Why don’t you come to my ward for the drip? Have the hospital add a bed so you can rest.”

First Hospital’s VIP wards were like deluxe hotel rooms. All kinds of facilities were there.

It was just that the whole hospital only had a few wards like this, and most were reserved for leaders.

Luo Yi wanted to say there was no need, but Ji Shu said yes.

Luo Xueqing had originally wanted to decline. Seeing Ji Shu agree, she didn’t say more.

If someone was willing to do you a favor, don’t be tactless.

So the two of them were both sent into the VIP ward. The hospital added a small bed beside the large one, just enough for Luo Yi to lie down.

She changed into a blue-striped hospital gown, lay on the bed, and waited for the nurse to start her drip.

Ye Xiaoyang lay on the other bed. His right hand couldn’t move. He turned his head and looked toward Luo Yi on the other side.

Luo Yi was afraid of pain. When the nurse inserted the needle she didn’t even dare look.

She turned her head away and happened to meet Ye Xiaoyang’s gaze. She slowly lowered her eyelashes, her cheeks scarlet.

Once everything was settled, the three parents sat in the chairs in the ward and chatted.

“Children are hard to raise. You have to worry about studies and also worry about health,” Ji Shu said.

“Sister Shu, with your son’s studies, do you still need to worry?” Luo Xueqing said.

“Ai, really. After tonight, I have no other requirements for my son. Peace and safety are enough.”

“Your thinking is the same as Luo Yi’s dad’s,” Luo Xueqing sighed. “This child’s mother left early. Her health isn’t good either. My brother only asks that she be healthy. He doesn’t want anything else.”

The two children lying on the hospital beds heard seven or eight parts of the adults’ conversation.

Ye Xiaoyang hadn’t expected that Luo Yi’s mother actually…

People said a child without a mother was like a blade of grass. Her dad was still mining in Africa. No wonder she was always so cautious on ordinary days.

“Oh, your brother?” Ye Rongcheng seemed to remember something. “Is it that Luo Hengzhou?”

“Yes.” Luo Xueqing nodded.

“Who? How come I’ve never heard you mention him?” Ji Shu asked.

“The boss of Tongyang Mining. A VIP client of our bank,” Ye Rongcheng explained.

Ji Shu had more or less heard of the rich people in all of Xishui. She said in surprise, “Ah, so she’s his daughter? You really can’t tell.”

“My brother went to Africa to develop a copper mine, so he sent her to Xishui for school,” Luo Xueqing said. “Before he left he asked me to take care of her.”

“With that much money, why go suffer in Africa?” Ji Shu didn’t understand.

“Hai, businessmen. Saving a bit more family foundation isn’t a bad thing,” Luo Xueqing smiled. “My brother can’t bear to part with his daughter. He used to tell me that if Luo Yi gets married later, he must take in a live-in son-in-law, so the family business can be inherited.”

Ye Xiaoyang: “…”

He looked toward Luo Yi. The two of them were a meter apart, lying on two separate beds.

She was curled in the quilt, showing two round black eyes.

So… her dad was a famous big boss in Tongze?

Ye Xiaoyang felt a bit depressed.

He would rather her dad were a miner. Something like becoming a live-in son-in-law—even if it killed his old man, he probably wouldn’t be allowed to go.

“Hey,” Ye Xiaoyang opened his mouth. “Why did you lie to me?”

“What did I lie to you about?” Luo Yi’s voice was very small.

“Didn’t you say your dad was a miner?”

Luo Yi was extremely innocent. “He is.”

Like hell he was. Little liar.