Chen Lishu walked quickly to check the situation. Seeing the child's flushed cheeks, she reached out to feel his forehead. The heat made her instinctively withdraw her hand.
"Quick, Zhang Xue, help me carry the child on my back. We need to get him to the hospital immediately." A child having a fever and convulsions was no laughing matter.
"Oh, okay." Just as Zhang Xue was about to move, a man beside them stepped forward and scooped the child up. "There's a hospital nearby. The child is too heavy, let me carry him."
Soon, everyone had sent the child to the hospital. When the doctor saw the child's condition, he frowned severely.
"How can you adults let the child have such a high fever?"
"He never said anything before, so I thought it wasn't that serious," Zhang Qiaoyun replied perfunctorily.
"What medicine did he take before? Has he had similar situations? Does he have any drug allergies?" The child's condition didn't allow for allergy testing; he needed an IV drip immediately.
Ever since Rui Rui was sent to their welfare home, they had only given him An Jinn for minor colds and fevers, and An Tong Ding for more serious ones. When the doctor asked, Zhang Qiaoyun didn't know how to answer.
"Doctor, the child had a similar situation in May this year. The doctor gave him penicillin and a fever-reducing injection," Chen Lishu said without delay, quickly sharing what she knew.
From the moment Zhang Qiaoyun called out Rui Rui, Chen Lishu had already remembered. The little boy in front of her was none other than little Rui Rui, whom she had rescued from human traffickers before.
The doctor nodded upon hearing her words and turned to instruct a young nurse to prepare the medicine.
After little Rui Rui received the fever-reducing injection and was hooked up to the IV, his symptoms noticeably eased.
"That will be two yuan and forty cents. The family needs to pay." A young nurse came in to notify them about the payment.
Chen Lishu looked around and realized that Zhang Qiaoyun, who had been by the bedside, had disappeared at some point.
She told Zhang Xue to keep an eye on the child's IV drip and then got up to go downstairs with the nurse to pay the bill.
When she returned, she found that little Rui Rui in the bed had woken up. He was now looking at Chen Lishu with eyes like black grapes after a rain.
"How do you feel? Does anything feel uncomfortable?" Chen Lishu sat by the bed, reached out, and touched his forehead. Although it was still hot, it wasn't as scalding as before.
"Thank you, Auntie," Little Rui Rui said softly in his childish voice, looking at Zhang Xue and then at Chen Lishu. No one had ever spoken to him so gently.
"Why were you in the mall? Did Zhang Mama take you? Does she know you have a fever and are sick?"
Little Rui Rui's eyes dimmed for a moment.
"Zhang Mama said it was all my fault that the other children couldn't eat enough, so she sent me out to ask people for money. But it was too cold, and I couldn't help but go inside."
"On such a cold day, how old is he to be dressed so thinly and sent out to beg? Have their consciences been eaten by dogs!" Zhang Xue's heart ached as she listened to Rui Rui's words.
"Comrade, you are mistaken. We had no other choice."
A woman in her fifties suddenly entered from the doorway. As she approached, she first thanked the two, then touched Rui Rui's forehead, and then sighed, saying, "My surname is Zhu, and I am the director of the Xiangyang Welfare Home. We have over twenty children in our home, and the money allocated by the government each year is not enough for anything. Plus, Rui Rui's health is not good, and no one is willing to adopt him..."
Chen Lishu looked at Director Zhu and said, "Director Zhu, I don't think that can be an excuse for you to let a child with a fever beg on the street in this cold weather, can it?"
"You don't know anything, so why are you accusing us here? We can't ignore the other children just because of him, can we?"
Zhang Qiaoyun entered from the doorway, followed by two girls about seven or eight years old, also dressed thinly, with many patches on their clothes, standing timidly beside Zhang Qiaoyun.
"Comrade Zhang indeed did something wrong, but our welfare home's situation is always in deficit. People are mostly biased towards males, and when a child is born and it's a girl, they are directly abandoned. There are very few families willing to adopt, and we have no choice. Except for the older ones who make paper boxes and glue envelopes, the younger ones can only try to beg for food."
Chen Lishu and Zhang Xue fell silent for a moment upon hearing Director Zhu's words.
"Then what about Rui Rui?"
Director Zhu saw her softening and shook her head helplessly, "We can only hope he meets a good family. We have two children with congenital disabilities, we are truly at our wit's end."
Chen Lishu looked at Rui Rui on the bed and then at the two girls at the door. She was willing to adopt Rui Rui, but after all, he was a child, not a cat or dog that could be given away if one got tired of it. If she decided to adopt Rui Rui, she would have to be responsible for him for a lifetime.
Moreover, adopting a child was not just her decision; she had a family now and had to consider Gu Xingdong's feelings.
"Buy some warm clothes for the children." Although she knew the principle of helping the urgent but not the poor, Chen Lishu eventually left fifty yuan for Director Zhu, and then left with Zhang Xue.
Outside, the gloomy sky began to drift with snowflakes again, and the snow on the ground made a crunching sound under their feet.
"Sigh, why are people like this now? If they can give birth, why can't they raise them? Why give birth if they can't raise them? Just to make them suffer in this world."
Chen Lishu pursed her lips, thinking of little Rui Rui's tender and innocent eyes. Her heart felt as if it were stuffed with cotton, making her feel uncomfortable and闷.
She had rescued him from human traffickers, yet she couldn't protect him now.
The two returned to the school. After getting off the bus, they didn't enter the school gate directly but went to the house where Zhang Xue had inquired about someone who made cotton clothes. Both the cotton-padded jacket and pants were two yuan. They left the items first and would pay when picking them up.
...
"Sister, don't worry, I know I was wrong. I promise I won't associate with that surname Lu again. Besides, in this cold weather, can you bear to have my nephew go in and out? What if he catches a cold?"
After confining Lin Xiaohui for a few days, Lin Xiaoyue decided to let her go back to work, as a too-long leave would jeopardize her job.
However, she hadn't relaxed her vigilance. For the past two days, she had been taking the child with her to work and picking him up exactly on time.
Since it started snowing outside and the roads were slippery, Lin Xiaoyue was genuinely worried about the child getting hurt.
Now, hearing Lin Xiaohui's promise and seeing that she had been quite well-behaved these past few days, she thought about it and nodded in agreement.
"That surname Lu is really not someone you can entrust your life to. You have a job, and you're young and beautiful. If you really want to find a registered urban employee, I'll definitely find someone to introduce you to someone better."
Lin Xiaohui nodded, "Sister, I understand." Then she put on her hat and scarf and went out.