Chapter 158: Life Experience (1/2)

College entrance exams, in the examination room.

The moment Tang Jinyu sat down, his mind was highly concentrated, with only the test paper in his eyes, he lowered his heart to answer every question seriously.

In the two days of the exam, he completed it smoothly.

The head teacher was worried about these top students. He called a few good students in the class to give them the correct answers. After assessing the score, he was relieved. This time the question was relatively more difficult, but Tang Jinyu and the others answered a few of them right. Tang Jinyu was the only one who got them all right, especially for the last two big questions.

The head teacher said to him: ”Relax, your grades should be good. After three years of hard work, you can completely relax and take a good rest during this time.”

Tang Jinyu nodded, but after packing up his things and returning home, he did not rest.

Grandpa Tang’s body weakened day by day. Tang Jinyu finished his college entrance exams, and it seemed like that the string supporting the old man was stretched to the extreme. He uttered a single word before it broke apart. However, within two or three days, his condition worsened a lot, and went into a coma once.

Tang Jinyu panicked. He stayed in the hospital with his grandfather, and waited at the door of the treatment room. The attending doctor came out wearing a mask and didn't talk to him. The doctor had been treating the old man for several years, and there was really no way at the moment. He patted the boy on the arm for comfort, ”When he wakes up, pay more attention to it in the future, there is no other way.”

Tang Jinyu refused to let him go. He grabbed the doctor's sleeve and begged him, ”Isn’t there always medicine available? I beg you, give my grandpa some medicine or do some other treatment… I can’t just give up like this, please!”

The doctor said: ”If I found out a few years earlier, I would’ve had some certainty of treatment. Now… your grandpa can last so long, it's already very powerful, stay with him more, time may be running out.”

Tang Jinyu stood there in a daze, and it took a while to realize the meaning of this sentence, closing his eyes, moving his throat a few times to suppress the sob.

He went to the bathroom and washed his face with cold water for a while, practiced the way he laughed in the mirror for a long time, felt better, and then went back to see the old man.

Grandpa Tang has been sent back to the ward. He looked very tired. He has two pillows behind him and laid halfway there with his eyes closed to rest. Recently, he hasn't been able to lay down. When he lays down, he feels chest tightness and feels breathlessness, but he refuses to get an oxygen inhalation, which was too expensive, and was not willing to spend more money on himself in the end.

Tang Jinyu used to sit on the stool next to the bed and gently shake the old man's hand, but in just one month, the old man lost a lot of weight, and his eyes were sunken and a little disshaped. As soon as he touched his hand, the old man woke up. The eyes looking at him were still peaceful and loving. Tang Jinyu carefully put his hand on his cheek. The old man touched his face and said with a smile: ”You're on vacation, don’t stay here all the time. I can’t run, so go out to play with your classmates. Grandpa still has five dollars in his pocket. You can buy popsicles to eat. The weather is too hot, so don’t get heatstroke.”

Tang Jinyu shook his head and refused to go.

He stayed with his grandfather in the hospital and bought immunoglobulin for injections for the elderly. The price of one was 1,500 yuan. Because nutrients improve immunity, Grandpa Tang looks a little bit more energetic. But this kind of acupuncture is not covered by the medical insurance reimbursement. The money they have on hand is about to bottom out. Grandpa Tang refuses to get a second injection. Tang Jinyu goes out to work during the day and comes back to accompany him at night. He made money everywhere to save the cost of medicine, and tried to improve the old man's immunity and to make him feel better.

He actually knew that this medicine would not cure the disease, but he just wanted to make the old man feel better, even if it improved a good night's sleep.

Tang Jinyu thought of a lot of ways. He only had the money he earned when he was a tutor. This was far from enough. He tried to contact Song Yi, who had previously awarded him a scholarship, through the school, and wanted to ask for help, but he passed it on layer by layer. It will take some time for the news to pass. His college entrance examination scores have not yet come down, and there are few people looking for him to take over tutoring, and he has not given up. He went to be interviewed wherever he could go, and even went to the piano shop. Fortunately, he has spent more than ten years in the book. He is not unfamiliar with the skill of playing the piano. After running around few times, he is very smooth.

The person in charge of the music store admired him very much and offered a high salary price, but he had to wait for the boss to come and then interview and appraise him, saying that he would be informed next week.

”Don't go to other music shops during this period. We can pay you 1,000 yuan in advance. Our boss Guo cherishes talents. Although our music shop is newly opened, it is also the largest in the city. I dare to guaranteed that no one will be better than the conditions we have given.”

Tang Jinyu accepted the money, simply signed a two-month contract, and agreed to the other party.

He pooled up the remaining supplementary tuition in his pocket with these, and handed them all to the hospital for the old man.

There are still two weeks to show results. During this time, Tang Jinyu found another part-time job on the construction site. Although it was hard work, the salary was settled daily. Sometimes he could come back early after only one afternoon, and could go to the hospital to take care of his grandfather.

The old man saw that his grandson had lost weight and got tanned in the past two days. He was very distressed. Although Tang Jinyu said that he went out to play basketball with his classmates. Although Grandpa Tang was old, how could he not be able to tell that he was obviously tired.

Sometimes the old man feels distressed, so he gets down by himself and insists on letting him sleep in the single bed.

Tang Jinyu refused: ”Grandpa, I am in good health, so you only need to rest.”

Grandpa Tang said with a stern face: ”I lie down all day long and feel uncomfortable. Go up and sleep for a while and let me come down and rest.”

Neither of them could persuade anyone. In the end, Grandpa Tang gave in and said, ”Then I will sit and you will come up, sleep by my feet. We can both lie down.”

Tang Jinyu hesitated, seeing the old man about to lift the quilt down again, he immediately laid down obediently.

He worked on the construction site last night until more than three in the morning, carrying a lot of paving slabs, one weighing 20 or 30 catties, three pieces on his shoulders, it was really hard. The old man gave him a pillow, and Tang Jinyu fell asleep shortly after touching the pillow.

Grandpa Tang took off his socks and rubbed his feet for a while. Hearing that the child fell asleep, he got off the hospital bed gently, and took a cup of water to give him a cup of warm water.

The old man walked slowly, holding on to the wall and walking back to the ward little by little. As soon as he arrived at the door, he heard the voice of a nurse scolding inside.

”What bed number are you from? Where is your escort? I don’t know where the patient has gone, and you are still sleeping here…”

The old man heard this, and he walked a few steps quickly, and when he went in, he saw Tang Jinyu putting on shoes panickedly, with an anxious expression. When he saw him, he didn't have time to put on his shoes. He stepped over and picked up the glass of water while saying: ”Grandpa, you can call me to drink water, I'll fetch water.”

The little nurse is new here, and she was still angry when she saw this: ”You are taking care of this now, what were you doing just now?”

The old man looked after his grandson and was a little anxious for the first time: ”Girl, don't talk about him, my grandson is already very tired. You let him rest. I just slept for a few minutes just now.”

The little nurse looked puzzled. After checking the bed and delivering the medicine, she went back to the nurse station and talked to the head nurse. She was still surprised, ”How strange is the grandfather of bed 5? The grandson sleeps in the hospital bed, he spoils the child too much…”

The head nurse knew a lot about the grandfather and grandson, and talked to her in a low voice, without exaggerating or saying much, just a few words made the new nurse's face flushed, and then listened with her eyes turning red.

In the evening, Tang Jinyu served the old man’s meal. After returning, he saw two oranges in the small cabinet next to the hospital bed.

He wondered: ”Grandpa, where did the oranges come from?”

Grandpa Tang smiled and said, ”That little nurse brought it here, saying that she was too fierce during the day, and wanted to make up for it with the oranges.”

Tang Jinyu thought for a while before remembering this, he had forgotten this already.

Grandpa Tang was in poor health and ate too little. He ate a small portion and gave the rest to Tang Jinyu.

Tang Jinyu ate slowly. When he was young, he liked oranges the most, but he ate very little with his grandfather. Whenever he was there, his parents would feel distressed and buy more. Uncle Xia next door often prepared small oranges. As long as he walked by the wall and knocked on the door, the other party would carry him into the room and reward him with a small orange.

In the winter, Uncle Xia was afraid that his stomach would hurt if he ate them cold, so he would put the oranges on the radiator to heat them up a little bit before giving them to him. In fact, the oranges are not very tasty when they are warm, they are a little sour, and sometimes they would have a little bitterness, but he never said that, and he ate happily every time. The whole family saw him eating happily, and they were also happy.

Tang Jinyu finished eating the last orange, and was silent for a while, got up and cleaned up the orange peel.

The old man had a bad cough during the day and night. Tang Jinyu stopped doing odd jobs and stayed in the hospital to take care of him.

Grandpa Tang was helped by him and fed him a little water. He sat there and sighed, ”It's really useless once you're old.”

Tang Jinyu said, ”Don’t say that. I asked the doctor, they said slow treatment is better. Now that a new medicine is released, it will be better after a few injections. You also got a shot before, weren’t you able to walk for two whole laps? Won’t it be cured.” He didn't know if the last sentence was for the old man or for himself, his words were very heavy.

Grandpa Tang laughed, nodded, and said nothing.

After a while, Grandpa Tang said again: ”Everything is fine in the hospital, but there is no TV, Xiaoyu, why don't you go back and see for me at night, and tell me tomorrow? I was looking at one before I came to the hospital, and I have been thinking about it all the time, and I can't let it go.”

Tang Jinyu knew that the old man was worried that he would not have a good rest here, and felt sorry for him, so he asked him to go home to rest.

He agreed, but instead of going back to rest, he bought a second-hand smartphone. The boy in his class who sold his mobile phone was the one who bought pancakes for Tang Jinyu before. The relationship between the boy and Tang Jinyu has been very good. After the college entrance exams, his family rewarded him with a new mobile phone. He went to the store to buy a mobile phone case and bumped into Tang Jinyu. He immediately pulled him out, took out his old phone, removed the sim card and handed it to him: ”Squad leader, this is for you. I was just going replace it with a new one. If you don't dislike it, use this one!”

Tang Jinyu refused to take it for nothing, so the boy just collected two hundred yuan.

Tang Jinyu stopped being polite with him, slapped him on the arm, and said, ”Thank you.” He would remember this person's goodness, he would definitely find a chance to return.

He took his cell phone back to the hospital and found the mediation program online to show his grandpa. The old man had never used a smartphone before. After seeing it, he felt that it was very novel. After talking to Tang Jinyu, he saw his grandson and found out the show he had watched half of the time. After a while, he looked with relish.

Tang Jinyu was with him. The old man watched intermittently, and his body would be tired easily. It took several days for a program to be watched.

This time the program is a family mediation. It is about a woman who was almost beaten to death by her husband's family. Her husband and his family favored sons and not only beat her, but also her daughter. A seven or eight-year-old girl was thrown over by her grandmother. One of the bowls cut her forehead, and started bleeding out. This moment also made the woman sober, she decided to stop tolerating this, and insisted on divorcing.

The TV station who came to mediate originally thought it was just a conflict between husband and wife. After they went there, they saw the misery of the mother and daughter and couldn't mediate anymore, so they took them to a lawyer for consultation. The husband was reluctant to give in, and had a contemptuous attitude towards the mother and daughter, and even insulted them several times, and did not care about family affection.

As Grandpa Tang listened, he sighed and said, ”This person is going to be punished sooner or later. He doesn't know how many people have no children at home, how they can be willing to beat a child… Listen, he beats a woman, it's a brute.”