The Scorching Sun - 46
Yan Lie always seemed to have a few unexpected tricks up his sleeve.
When Fang Zhuo saw the woven straw craft again the next day, it had been completely transformed.
The crooked, sticking-out edges had been trimmed smooth. The original wings had been wrapped with inconspicuous copper wire and reshaped into arms and legs. With just a few strokes of a black marker, Yan Lie had drawn a face on its head, simple but perfectly placed. Most striking were the thick eyebrows slanting sharply upward, giving it the look of an angry teenage boy going through an especially dramatic phase.
As if that weren't enough, he'd given it a red cape and a pair of blue pants. It looked every bit like a guardian of the fields.
Yan Lie stuck it into the succulent's pot and even thoughtfully placed a little sign beside it. "Little Yan Lie" and “Little Fang Zhuo" were written on the sign, with arrows pointing respectively to the scarecrow and the wildly growing succulent.
Fang Zhuo bent over the windowsill to study it for a long while. Yan Lie came in from outside the classroom carrying a small brown earthenware pot.
Seeing how captivated she was by his handiwork, he grinned proudly. "Well? Pretty good job as the flower guardian, right?"
Fang Zhuo slowly straightened and gave a quiet, "Mm."
Who would've thought that although he had terrible taste, he was actually pretty good at giving things a complete makeover?
Yan Lie said excitedly, "I'm going to put it in a proper flowerpot and move it somewhere with the most sunlight!"
Fang Zhuo thought, Here we go again. He's started making a fuss over it. He'll probably take this little thing home with him after graduation. Sure enough, Yan Lie continued planning aloud, "Once I graduate, I'll steal it."
...This guy was incredibly easy to read.
Fang Zhuo corrected him. "I found it and planted it. Taking it away isn't stealing."
And so, on the last section of windowsill in the classroom, in a spot where the sunlight could reach it, a little flowerpot sat neatly in place.
Every time Fang Zhuo turned her head, she could see the straw figure with its bright, lively expression, arms spread wide, red cape draped around its body as it stood guard over the succulent. For half the day, sunlight would fall directly across it.
By the time the marker lines on its face began to fade and needed to be redrawn, March had already passed.
For a long time after the new semester began, temperatures in A City refused to rise. Sometimes it would warm slightly, only for a bout of spring rain to send the temperature plunging back into the cold.
The sudden shifts in temperature made things even more treacherous, catching countless students off guard and leaving them with colds.
This wave of flu came on fiercely, battering the already overstrained bodies of the senior-year students. Not long after Shen Mushi had recovered, his illness flared up again, and he promptly passed it on to both his deskmate and his dormmate, Class Monitor. All three were picked up by their parents to receive IV drips.
This sort of thing could happen every year when the seasons changed, the school went on high alert. Teachers were instructed to take the students' temperatures every morning before early study, and the morning group exercises were canceled.
The chilblains on Fang Zhuo's hands had flared up again, too. Her fingers were red, swollen, and burning hot, to the point that she could barely keep a firm grip on her pen.
It was an old problem she'd had for years. Washing clothes in cold water could make it flare up at any time. Things had actually been much better this year, but she hadn't expected them to worsen again once spring arrived.
For some reason, Fang Zhuo had a vague sense that something was wrong. Her intuition about such things was always unusually accurate, and unfortunately, this time it proved right.
Just before that happened, she'd called Ye Yuncheng and told him not to get up too early to set up the stall, to wear an extra couple of pairs of socks when he went out, or to buy a few of the heat patches Yan Lie had recommended.
From the sound of Ye Yuncheng's voice, he hadn't taken her words particularly seriously. Perhaps he was simply exhausted. He didn't sound very energetic, either. After only a few words, he hung up.
Fang Zhuo decided that she'd go over on the weekend and make them take a full day off while she watched the stall for them.
It was around six in the morning on a Wednesday, a workday, with a light rain giving way to overcast skies.
Xiao Mu was fully dressed, his newly bought yellow bag strapped across his back, waiting by the door for Ye Yuncheng to come out.
Ye Yuncheng was moving especially slowly that morning. He'd gone to bed early the night before, yet it took several calls before he finally got up.
Xiao Mu waited patiently and didn't rush him.
Ye Yuncheng took a couple of steps with his crutches before stopping in the living room. His head hung low as he said softly, "Xiao Mu, I don't feel very well."
"What's wrong?" Xiao Mu asked. "Do you want some water?"
Ye Yuncheng's lips moved, but no answer came. A moment later, he shakily lowered himself to the floor, clutching his abdomen, and lost consciousness.
Xiao Mu stepped forward and pushed at him, but there was no response. He touched Ye Yuncheng's forehead and only then realized that he was burning with fever.
He put his yellow bag on the floor, took Ye Yuncheng's phone from his clothes, and dialed 120.
When the gentle woman's voice came through the phone, he could no longer hold himself together and burst into frightened tears.
"Please save him!" he sobbed. "He can't talk anymore!"
At eight-thirty, after a burst of commotion, A High School had settled down again for the first morning class.
The security guard was sitting in the reception room, yawning as he used up all his lives in a game of Candy Crush. When he looked up, he saw a tall young man pacing across the road.
The young man's expression was frantic. He wandered around the school entrance like a headless fly twice before suddenly charging straight inside.
The security guard watched him for a moment, then immediately went over to stop him.
The young man simply treated him like an obstacle and walked straight around him. In desperation, the security guard grabbed his clothes, nearly tearing the zipper, and was dragged two steps along with him.
Seeing that the young man was charging ahead like some foolish bull and refusing to listen, the security guard hurriedly shouted, "Hey! What's wrong with you? Even parents have to register before going inside! What are you trying to do? If you keep this up, I'm going to have to stop you!"
Xiao Mu finally stopped and whipped around.
Only then did the security guard notice that his whole body was trembling. Sweat beaded on his forehead, and his expression looked as though he was about to cry. The guard loosened his grip a little.
Then he heard Xiao Mu say urgently, "I'm looking for someone!"
"Who are you looking for?"
"Zhuo Zhuo! Zhuo Zhuo!" Xiao Mu shouted twice at the top of his lungs before trying to rush inside again.
The security guard grabbed him by the arm. "Stop! How are you supposed to find anyone like this?"
Xiao Mu shuddered, his already pale face draining of what little color remained.
The security guard softened his voice and held firmly onto his arm. "Come with me."
The little room was much warmer. The security guard had him stand in the corner, then took out his phone and began confirming the details with him.
"What class is she in?"
Xiao Mu shook his head.
The security guard looked as though he wanted to say something, then took a deep breath and settled for, "Then what grade is she in?"
Xiao Mu shook his head again.
"Calm down," the security guard said. "Think carefully. How am I supposed to find her if you can't tell me anything?"
"She's about to go to university," Xiao Mu said hoarsely. "A really good university."
"So she's a senior? Anything else you can tell me?"
Xiao Mu slipped his hands into his pockets. After a moment, he pulled out an identity card. The name on it was "Ye Yuncheng," and the address was "Li Village."
The security guard vaguely recognized the name. There had once been a letter left with them for several days bearing it.
He pulled out the contact list and called the homeroom teacher of Class 1.
The homeroom teacher was teaching next door. Just as she was discussing the theme of an article, the vibration of her phone interrupted her. She knew that if it wasn't important, the security guard would simply text her, so she told the students what was happening and stepped into the hallway to answer.
"Hello, Teacher Gao. Could you check with the office and see if there's a senior named Zhuo Zhuo who knows someone named Ye Yuncheng?"
The homeroom teacher turned around and looked toward the door of Class 1. "She's my student. What happened?"
The security guard glanced at Xiao Mu and spoke vaguely. "There's someone at the school gate looking for her. It seems pretty urgent... But he isn't able to explain himself very clearly, so I think it'd be better if you had your student come over."
"I'm an idiot." Xiao Mu stood against the wall, clutching his hair with both hands and repeating over and over, "I'm an idiot!"
The security guard hurriedly said, "Please come quickly! It looks pretty serious. He's crying here right now."
"All right," the homeroom teacher said. "I'll let her know."
When Fang Zhuo received the message and ran to the school gate, Xiao Mu immediately broke down sobbing.
He covered his face and wailed uncontrollably, his distress throwing Fang Zhuo into a panic of her own.
Her throat was painfully dry from running. Fang Zhuo swallowed hard and asked, "What happened?"
Xiao Mu wiped his face and spoke in broken fragments. "They told me to come find you."
Fang Zhuo patiently asked, "Who?"
"Nurses, doctors, lots of people." Xiao Mu's memories sent the world spinning. There had been too many people, too much chaos. He'd held Ye Yuncheng's hand tightly and remembered what they'd told him to do. "He can't talk anymore. They told me to get you to the hospital as fast as possible."
Fang Zhuo's hands and feet went ice-cold. The air she drew into her lungs felt like a high-pressure bomb exploding inside her chest, over and over. Bang. Bang. Bang. Each beat was so loud that she couldn't think, and she didn't dare imagine what his words actually meant.
It wasn't until the security guard shook her shoulders that she realized the sound was coming from her own heartbeat.
"I called a taxi for you," the security guard shouted. "It's the one right outside the gate. Go, hurry!" With that, he shoved a hundred yuan into her hand.
Fang Zhuo's head was already spinning. Forcing herself to stay calm, she took two steps before remembering to thank him. She turned around and bowed deeply to the older man.
Xiao Mu led Fang Zhuo quickly through the hospital corridors, murmuring numbers under his breath.
Before leaving, he'd memorized every turn and every path, afraid he wouldn't be able to find his way back.
Halfway there, a nurse stopped him.
"Didn't I tell you to go back and get an adult? Where are they?"
Xiao Mu recognized her, turned around, and pointed at Fang Zhuo.
Fang Zhuo hurriedly said, "I'm Ye Yuncheng's parent... No, I'm his family."
The nurse took in her school uniform and looked pained. "Is there really no one else in your family? I told him to go back and get an adult."
Fang Zhuo shook her head.
The nurse hesitated, then said, "All right. Go find the doctor first."
"Acute cholecystitis. He needs surgery."
Of everything the doctor said, only those two phrases registered through the buzzing in Fang Zhuo's ears. She held her breath until he finished, then asked, "Is it dangerous?"
The doctor across from her was fairly young, wearing glasses and carrying himself with a kind, knowledgeable air. "Any surgery carries some risk, but gallbladder removal is one of the most common operations in surgery. There's no need to worry too much."
Fang Zhuo said stiffly, "But Xiao Mu said he was in terrible pain, and he had a fever."
"That's exactly what acute cholecystitis can look like. It can be a very miserable illness. But the patient was brought in fairly quickly. It's been less than twenty-four hours since the onset, the inflammation and swelling haven't fully developed yet. That makes surgery relatively straightforward. Once we've finished arranging everything on our end, we can take him in." The doctor looked at her and spoke gently. "Don't be afraid."
When Fang Zhuo heard those three words, her limbs, which had felt weightless until then, finally seemed to regain some substance.
The doctor typed something into the computer before handing her the medical record card. When Fang Zhuo reached out to take it, she realized that her hand was shaking violently. She quickly gripped her wrist with her left hand.
"The risk isn't high. Go pay the hospital admission fee first."
Fang Zhuo remained standing there. She looked down at the card in her hand and asked softly, "Doctor, how much will the surgery cost? How much will insurance cover? Can we pay in installments?"
The doctor looked up at her again and pushed his glasses higher on his nose. "Is there no one else in your family?"
Fang Zhuo shook her head. She fought to keep her expression under control, refusing to let the panic show. She made herself look like a mature, dependable young woman.
"I'll pay for it. Could you please operate on him first? And give him the better medicine, too... I'm still young. I'll pay you back."
The doctor was silent for a moment before saying, "We still have a few test results that haven't come back. Once we've confirmed that he can undergo surgery, we'll arrange the operating room and take him in. For now, go talk to the nurses and find out what you need to prepare, all right?”
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