Upon hearing this, Zhou Mu rushed over, flung open the door, and yelled, "Don't use me as a cover! If you're going to stand by and watch me die, I'm not going to school anymore!"
No sooner had he finished speaking than Zhou's father, enraged, slapped Zhou Mu across the face, causing him to stumble back several steps.
Jian Changnian rushed over and helped the person up: "Are you alright...?"
Zhou Mu started crying. Seeing her daughter being wronged, Zhou's mother couldn't stand it anymore and started hitting him hard.
"Why are you hitting your daughter! Why are you hitting your daughter! You spineless coward, if you're angry, take it out on me!"
Exhausted, the place was a mess.
Jian Changnian couldn't stay a moment longer. She let go of Zhou Mu, bowed to Zhou's parents with guilt, and then quietly left, wiping away tears as she went.
Before I had gone far, a familiar call came from the country road.
She turned around and saw Zhou Mu catching up, panting, with a handprint on his face, shoving the plastic bag into her arms.
"Here you go. It's not much, but it's the most we can afford right now."
Inside the plastic bag were neatly arranged ten thousand yuan.
Jian Changnian's tears fell even harder: "Thank you... thank you... thank you uncle and aunt... I... I will definitely repay you in the future."
That day, Jian Changnian dragged her blistered feet to borrow money from house to house. People in the countryside were poor, but there were still people willing to help her. Some gave her a hundred, some gave her a hundred, and Jian Changnian didn't mind. She collected a plastic bag full of money.
Jian Changnian kept a clear record in her notebook of who borrowed money from her, when, and how much.
She got home after 3 p.m., and the town market was almost over; she couldn't afford to delay.
She didn't even have time to eat. She first put away the money, then hurriedly put the packed rice, side dishes, handmade insoles from her grandmother, and the chickens and ducks raised at home into cages, put them all on the flatbed cart, and pushed the cart back to town.
Because of the beautiful patterns and fine stitches, the handicrafts made by Grandma were the first to sell out. In the evening, after the crowds dispersed from the market, Jian Changnian pushed the unsold goods back home.
She needed to catch the last bus into the city to go to the hospital, so even though she hadn't eaten much all day and was starving, she didn't have time to cook a bowl of hot soup noodles. She quickly counted and organized the money she had earned that day, as well as the money she had borrowed, put it in her schoolbag, and left the hospital to catch the bus.
Upon arriving at the hospital payment counter, Jian Changnian handed in the form.
"Fang Huaiying, bed 15 in ICU, pay today's hospitalization fee."
The doctor glanced at it: "Bed 15, you've already paid today."
The cost of one night in the ICU is considerable, and the only person who could help her like this was Coach Yan.
Jian Changnian sniffed, put away the payment slip, and dragged her heavy steps toward the inpatient department.
When she walked to the nurses' station, someone called out to her; it was one of the nurses who had helped save her grandmother the day before.
"Hey, you must be the family member of bed 15, right? Your coach just came by. Here's something for you."
Jian Changnian walked over and saw that it was a cloth bag containing a lunchbox, with a note underneath.
"Take care of yourself, and we'll figure out the money later."
Jian Changnian held the warm boxed lunch in her hands, sat on a bench in the hospital corridor, and ate while shedding tears.
Chapter 31 Business
She hadn't even finished a few bites of her meal when the nurse came to call her, saying the patient had woken up and she could go in for a short visit.
Jian Changnian put the lunchbox on the chair, wiped her mouth, stood up, and ran over with the nurse.
After changing into her protective suit, she quietly walked to her grandmother's side, knelt down beside her bed, and held her grandmother's rough, chapped hands, which were calloused from years of farm work.
“Grandma…” Jian Changnian called softly.
Grandma Jane lay in bed, her body covered in tubes, unable to speak. Only her eyes moved, and tears rolled down her cheeks.
Jian Changnian gently wiped away her grandmother's tears, and then used a cotton swab dipped in water to moisten her dry, chapped lips.
Looking at her full head of silver hair and her aged face covered with age spots, Jian Changnian's hands trembled and tears streamed down her face.
"Grandma, you'll get better... Please hang in there. When you're better, I'll explain everything to you slowly. Whether you hit me or scold me then, I'll accept it. I'll do whatever you say. Please, hang in there..."
Tears fell drop by drop onto the spot where their hands were clasped together. Grandma seemed to sense it and moved her fingers slightly.
Jian Changnian cried tears of joy: "Grandma, Grandma, can you hear me? The doctor said that the patient's willpower is also very important. You must, you must, you must persevere. You are the only family I have left in this world."
"Visiting time is here," the nurse came in to urge.
Jian Changnian sniffed and stood up.
"Grandma, I'll be going now. I'll come to see you another day."
When I came out, I ran into the doctor who had treated my grandmother that day. He called me aside.
"How's your fundraising going?"
Jian Changnian shook his head, his expression somber.
The doctor was also extremely anxious: "Sigh! Let's hurry! A brain hemorrhage can't be delayed for even a second! If we miss the optimal time for surgery, even if the surgery is successful, the prognosis will be very poor!"
Jian Changnian's tears, which she had just stopped, were about to fall again, so she bowed deeply to the person.
"I understand, thank you, doctor. Before the surgery, please do everything you can to save my grandmother's life, no matter what it takes."
The doctor helped the person up and sighed deeply.
"Saving lives and healing the wounded is a doctor's duty. We will not give up as long as there is a glimmer of hope."
After everyone left, Jian Changnian finished her cold boxed lunch, pondering how to make money. Even with the money borrowed from villagers, Zhou Mu's parents, and from selling things at the market, she only had a paltry 15,000 yuan, a drop in the ocean, far from enough.
After thinking it over and over, she could only think of one name.
Jian Changnian stood up and walked towards the nurses' station.
"Sister, may I use your phone?"
The nurse, without looking up, wrote something down: "Okay, go ahead and do it."
Following her memory, Jian Changnian dialed the number, took a deep breath, and said, "Hello, Brother Cao, it's me... I... something happened at home, and I urgently need money. I... I wanted to ask you... if you know any quick ways to make money..."
Cao Rui dropped out of school early and started working in society. She has a lot of bad habits, but she has one good point: she is loyal. After hearing her story, I felt sorry for her. She is also Xie Shi'an's friend, so I should help her.
He thought for a moment and said, "There's a job I think I can do, but it might be a bit of a hassle for you..."
Jian Changnian covered the receiver and immediately said, "It's okay, it's okay. No matter what kind of work it is, as long as I can earn money, I don't feel wronged."
"Alright then, come to Lifeng Building at 10 a.m. tomorrow, and I'll take you to play ball."
The next morning, Jian Changnian was already waiting at the entrance of Lifeng Building. When Cao Rui arrived by car, it was still early.
He rolled down the car window and looked her up and down.
"Why did you come dressed like that?"
Jian Changnian stood awkwardly by the roadside, still wearing the clothes her grandmother wore before the accident, which hadn't been changed or washed for several days.
"I……"
Cao Rui took out some money from his wallet and said to the girl in the passenger seat, "There's a shopping mall across the street, why don't you take her to buy some clothes?"
She knew this girl too; she was a receptionist at the club and essentially his personal secretary.
The girl responded and got out of the car.
"Come on, I'll show you around."
Jian Changnian followed her into the mall with some unease, watching as the other woman would occasionally pick up bright and beautiful clothes from the shelves and compare them to her.
"What...what are we going to do?"
The girl picked out several crop tops and stuffed them all into her hands.
"It's just for playing ball. These are the only items you need. Why don't you try them on?"
When Jian Changnian came out of the fitting room, the girl's eyes lit up: "Not bad, try on this jacket and the skirt too."
Jian Changnian was manipulated like a puppet for a long time before finally settling on a baseball jacket, a cropped top, and a white sporty mini skirt. She even changed her shoes.
Jian Changnian looked at herself in the mirror and felt somewhat unfamiliar.
"Wear these. Wrap up all the old ones." The girl glanced at the old clothes lying on the sofa with some disdain, then instructed the shop assistant to wrap them all up. After paying, she pulled the person back to the car.
"Your hair... let me fix it for you. Goodness, it hasn't been washed in days..."
The two sat in the back seat, and the girl helped her tie her hair while complaining.
Cao Rui tapped his fingers on the steering wheel, glancing at his watch every now and then.
"Hurry up, they should be here soon."
After the girl finished tying her hair, she quickly applied foundation to her face and drew her eyebrows while saying something.
"When you see the boss later, don't look gloomy. Smile. If you play well and make the boss happy, you'll definitely get more money."
Upon hearing about money, Jian Changnian nodded. Even if she were asked to brave mountains of knives and seas of fire, she would jump in without a word.
As a stretched Mercedes drove into the underground parking garage, Cao Rui turned around and whistled, "They're here, let's go."
As the numbers on the elevator gradually changed, Jian Changnian remained somewhat nervous, silently swallowing her saliva.
Cao Rui glanced at her, knowing she was scared, and comforted her.
"Don't worry, it's not about asking you to drink with girls or anything. I'm a grown man, I don't do business by making girls drink. It's just that the boss I met today really likes playing badminton, especially against professional players. But his skills... well..."
Now that things had come to this, Jian Changnian understood why Cao Rui had said she might feel somewhat wronged.
The elevator bell rang; we had arrived at the top floor.
Jian Changnian took a deep breath and followed Cao Rui out of the elevator.
Between her professional beliefs and getting money to save her grandmother, she chose to screw her beliefs.
***
Jian Changnian still didn't come to training on the second day.
In the office.
Coach Liang: "The physical fitness test is tomorrow, and we haven't submitted our participant list yet. The organizing committee is urging us to submit it."
Hearing the slogans from the morning exercises outside, Yan Xinyuan put down his pen and rubbed his face: "Let me think about it some more."
Looking at the blank form in front of him, Coach Liang sighed deeply: "Why did it have to happen at this time..."