"Dad, I’m doing very well." A parent’s worry for their child never ended, even if they lived to be a hundred. No matter how much hardship or exhaustion they endured, their children were always the ones weighing heaviest on their minds.
"The kids are filial, and we don’t have to worry about food or clothes. Look, I’ve even gained some weight." Bai Jiu picked up the cup by the bed, intending to pour a glass of hot water, only to realize there wasn’t any. Setting down the thermos, she turned to Zhengyang. "Zhengyang, tell Uncle Xingguo to hurry up and boil some water." Touching Father Bai’s hand, she could feel he was burning up with a high fever. If she didn’t get the medicine into him soon, the fever might cause brain damage.
She knew the town hospital well—they genuinely had no fever-reducing medication. Nowadays, hospitals just had patients chew on some herbal roots. If it worked, great. If not, there was nothing they could do.
"Okay, Mom." Zhengyang could tell his grandpa was sick and needed medicine, just like when he and Xiuxiu had fallen ill. He didn’t dare delay; he remembered how his mother had cried for days back then.
Seeing her brother run out, Xiuxiu stepped closer to her mother. "Mom, Grandpa will get better." It was the first time she had seen her mother cry since their family had separated from the main household.
"Good girl, Xiuxiu. Come, say hello to Grandpa." Without water, Bai Jiu couldn’t administer the medicine and had no choice but to wait. She struck up a conversation with Father Bai instead. "Dad, look who this is. It’s your granddaughter, Xiuxiu. She’s grown so much." She gently pushed Xiuxiu forward so he could see her clearly.
Xiuxiu was very obedient, calling out in a sweet, soft voice, "Grandpa."
Father Bai thought he was dreaming and smiled brightly. "She’s grown so much," he whispered. He tried to raise his hand to pat the child’s head, but unfortunately, he had no strength left.
Being a sensible child, Xiuxiu immediately stepped forward, took his hand, and placed it on top of her head. "Grandpa, pat." She knew that adults loved petting children like this.
"Good girl."
Outside, Bai Xingguo was quick. Since he hadn’t boiled much water, it was done fast, and he hurried back in with a large enamel mug full of water.
"Dad’s awake?" he asked as he rushed in.
"Yeah. Give me the water, Xingguo, then go get some cold boiled water. I have medicine here. Dad’s running a fever; he needs to take it right away." Bai Jiu didn’t waste any words and immediately started giving instructions.
After a short while, she finally managed to feed him the medicine.
Father Bai was reluctant to sleep, wanting to chat with Bai Jiu and his grandchildren, but he couldn’t fight off the medicine’s effects and soon dozed off.
"Xingguo, let’s go talk outside," Bai Jiu said, letting out a sigh of relief as her father fell asleep.
The two children stayed in the room. Mother Bai was a stickler for cleanliness; even with a sick patient inside, the house was kept spotless without a hint of any foul odor.
"Keep an eye on Grandpa. If he wakes up or if there’s any movement, yell for me. Uncle Xingguo and I are going out to talk," Bai Jiu instructed the children.
"Okay, we got it. Go ahead, Mom, we’ll watch Grandpa," Zhengyang said, acting like a little grown-up as he took the seat his mother had just vacated.
Patting his head, Bai Jiu felt reassured and walked out.
In the outer room, Bai Jiu began asking about the events of the past few years.
"Why didn’t you send Dad to the hospital?" Bai Jiu had wanted to ask this the entire way here, but it hadn’t been appropriate to bring it up in front of outsiders.
"We did, but the hospital didn’t have any medicine. We heard someone else had some and was selling it, but by the time we went looking for them, they had already left. So, we had no choice but to bring Dad back." Bai Xingguo’s face was full of remorse. Why couldn’t he have moved just a little faster? Why had he listened to their father and delayed sending him to the hospital for so long?
Only then did Bai Jiu realize that the day she returned home was the exact same day Father Bai had been admitted to the hospital. She had been back for several days, which meant Father Bai had been suffering from this high fever for just as long. It had never broken.
"Our youngest brother and I originally wanted to take him to the county hospital, but our work unit refused to write us a travel permit, so we couldn’t go." Speaking of this, Bai Xingguo was so furious he could commit murder. However, due to his class background, he didn’t dare make a scene. If something went wrong, he wouldn’t be the only one to suffer. Many people already disliked them. Because their family used to be landlords, and had now been reclassified as middle peasants, those people were resentful and dissatisfied.
Listening to her brother recount these events, Bai Jiu was so enraged she wanted to commit murder herself.
"Then what about Dad’s job?" He had been sick for nearly a month and hadn’t gone to work in all that time. She had a sinking feeling about his position.
"Sigh." Mentioning this made Bai Xingguo want to cry. As a grown man, he felt completely powerless. "Dad’s leader offered twenty yuan to buy it." After saying this, all the strength drained from Bai Xingguo’s bones.
Bai Jiu understood immediately; they were being unfairly targeted.
"Bullshit! Twenty yuan? Why doesn’t he just rob us? Xingguo, you absolutely cannot agree to this." Bai Jiu knew very well how precious jobs were these days. Any random position would sell for at least two hundred yuan, not to mention the extra grain quotas the buyer would have to throw in. Otherwise, who would willingly sell a city job? Twenty yuan? That was pure bullying!
How could Bai Xingguo not know this? But he had nowhere to turn for justice.
However, the change in his sister’s temperament gave him quite a shock.
Seeing the surprise in her older brother’s eyes, Bai Jiu had no intention of hiding her true nature. "Don’t be surprised, Xingguo. If I hadn’t toughened up, the kids and I would have been eaten alive by now." No matter the era, one could only stand tall by having a backbone. So what if they were middle peasants? That class status was a certificate of good standing issued by the country itself. Who dared to badmouth a middle peasant? Hmph, she refused to believe those people would actually dare to rob them in broad daylight.
"Leave this to me, Xingguo. I’d like to see what kind of monsters dare to open their maws so wide. Aren’t they afraid of choking to death?" Bai Jiu said fiercely.
Bai Xingguo stared at his younger sister, and as he looked at her, tears began to fall. Perhaps he had been so terrified over the years that he had truly lost the backbone of the Bai Family.
"It’s fine. I know what to do now. Bai Jiu, I’ll have to trouble you to take care of Dad at home for the next few days. But don’t worry, our youngest brother will be here to help you. I have to go to work tomorrow, but he’ll be back."