Carnation Nursing Home in City C.
Carnation Nursing Home, located outside the North Third Ring Road, was exceptionally lively today.
"Grandma Li, your daughter is here to pick you up to go home for the New Year~"
"Grandpa Jiang, your grandson is here to take you to Sanya for a vacation!"
The nursing home, usually quiet, was bustling with people today. Vehicles kept turning in from the main road outside, picking up their elderly residents to go home for the New Year according to appointments.
For every elderly person sent off, the caregivers would receive a red envelope of varying thickness. By the end of the day, even the caregivers who usually wore stern expressions couldn't help but smile.
However, the smiles on their faces vanished instantly when they saw the old woman, Luo Meihong, lying on the raised nursing bed.
Several burly caregivers in pink uniforms gathered together, eating their packed dinner and muttering:
"Ever since this old woman came to our nursing home, it seems no one has ever come to pick her up."
"With her personality? Hmph, I think it's good enough if her children visit. Pick her up? Wouldn't that shorten their own lives?"
"Sigh, who's supposed to feed her today again?"
As soon as these words were spoken, the several caregivers who had been eating together scattered like startled birds, leaving only Shi, the caregiver who had asked the question.
"Alright, I'll go this time. I'm not going next time!"
Putting away the food container, Shi picked up the meal tray and walked into the ward. As soon as she opened the ward door, the loud television sound filled the entire nursing home corridor outside.
Shi had to first place the meal tray on the nearest bedside table and then turn to close the ward door.
Just as she closed the ward door, the sound of a metal plate falling to the ground, "clang," came from behind her.
Turning around, she looked at the clean and tidy floor that had been mopped that morning, now splashed everywhere with soup and cooking oil.
Then she looked up at the old woman lying on the hospital bed with a defiant expression.
"Look at the dishes you've made! You're deliberately abusing me! I want braised pork, and fish soup, and more."
Before she could finish speaking, her mouth was stuffed with a piece of meat that had just fallen on the floor.
"Old lady, can't you eat obediently? Is that too difficult for you? It doesn't seem that difficult, does it?"
In the stark white ward, with the television blaring, Shi picked up all the meat that had fallen on the floor and stuffed it into the old woman's mouth, handful after handful.
At first, Luo Meihong spat out the handful of meat that was suddenly shoved into her mouth and flailed her hands wildly at the stout caregiver.
But she couldn't move her lower body, and she also forgot that she was no longer young enough to carry dozens of pounds of vegetables by herself.
She was old.
Shi easily grabbed her wrists as she flailed them and then held both wrists with one hand.
Luo Meihong's eyes, which had been smiling defiantly just moments ago, were now filled with fear as she looked at the stout caregiver's face.
"Eat obediently. I'll let go when you're done. Do you understand?"
Luo Meihong knew that even if she screamed her lungs out, no one outside the door would hear her. After some thought, she finally opened her mouth and ate the meat stuffed into it, bite by bite.
After Shi left, Luo Meihong quickly propped herself up and moved her upper body to the edge of the nursing bed. She gripped the bed rail with her right hand and inserted her left index finger into her mouth.
"Ugh!"
The meat she had just forced herself to swallow surged up her esophagus and was all vomited onto the floor, a white puddle that also carried a fishy smell.
After this ordeal, Luo Meihong herself was exhausted. She painstakingly hooked the remote control that the caregiver had placed on the bedside table and, as she moved it back to the bed, she broke out in a sweat all over.
She turned off the television.
Then she turned off the ward lights and looked at the moonlight filtering into the room from outside the window. Luo Meihong wanted to go home.
...
New Year's Eve morning.
At Carnation Nursing Home,
The cleaning lady responsible for cleaning couldn't help but frown when she opened Luo Meihong's ward.
While she worked hard to scrub away the greasy meat that had become somewhat stuck to the floor after a night, she couldn't help but mutter curses in dialect.
Luo Meihong, hidden under the quilt, could understand the dialect, but she was afraid.
She was afraid that if she cursed back, even the person cleaning the room would dare to bully her.
Just as Luo Meihong was worrying about how to get her son to pick her up and show that she didn't hold a grudge against Zhang Lili, Shi's voice came from outside the door.
"At eleven o'clock this noon, someone has an appointment to visit this room. Clean it up well."
The cleaning lady, who had been grumbling incessantly, finally stopped and instead began complaining that the nursing home should hire more people.
Luo Meihong, hiding in the quilt, dared not make a sound, but her eyes were wide open. She thought her son must be coming to see her. Hmph, that slut Zhang Lili had kept her son from visiting her for months.
Surely her son had seen through that woman and realized she was a slut, so he was coming to see me?
Thinking this, Luo Meihong felt completely energized. After the cleaning lady closed the door and left, she quickly poked her head out from under the quilt, took out a comb from under her pillow, meticulously combed her hair, and then sat waiting for her son's arrival.
...
Hu Min, who had just finished overtime and was rushing to the nursing home, couldn't help but yawn. She didn't know why, but for the past month, her waist had felt sore and swollen every time she finished work. She had wanted to get a check-up, but with the New Year approaching, only the emergency and inpatient departments were operating normally at the hospital, and check-ups were no longer accepting appointments. She had to let it go.
"Forget it. Anyway, the company is on holiday starting today. Chenchen, will you and your sister-in-law be home tomorrow? I want to bring Wang Dong to your place to pay New Year's greetings~" Hu Min said, adjusting her bag as she got out of the car, discussing with Liu Chen on the phone.
"Huh? Sister-in-law, are you going to your parents' house to play mahjong all night today? Ah, then you probably won't be able to wake up tomorrow. I'll bring Wang Dong over in a few days then. Okay, I've arrived. I'll hang up now. Bye-bye."
The nursing home was not large, an eight-story building with pink tiles on the exterior, plus a small garden behind it. Hu Min verified her appointment information at the front desk and then took the elevator to the sixth floor.
Similar to the exterior, the interior of the nursing home was mostly beige and light pink, a soft palette that made it feel less eerie and oppressive than other nursing homes.
This wasn't Hu Min's first time at the nursing home. In fact, according to the caregivers' feedback, she was likely the only one who had visited her mother.
Thinking of this, a hint of a sarcastic smile appeared on Hu Min's face.
She turned the doorknob and pushed the door open.
She saw Luo Meihong, who had neatly combed her hair and was leaning against the raised nursing bed, staring at her with wide eyes.
"Why is it you! Where is Xingfa?!"