77 | A Tale of Two Cities (4)
Pang Pang, we’ll have a chance to meet.

A pot of soup was boiling on the stove, the liquid nearly gone. The vegetables already turned yellow. Gu Mingxi lifted his foot and turned off the fire. Then he kneeled down next to Li Han and called to her, “Mom! Mom!”

He leaned over and bit the back of Li Han’s s.h.i.+rt collar. Her whole body was soft and she didn’t have a response.

“Mom! Mom, wake up!” Gu Mingxi cried out again. Li Han still didn’t move. He was in a panic, but he didn’t want to keep randomly pus.h.i.+ng at his mother. He ran back to the living room and found his phone to dial 120 (ambulance).

When he was giving them the address, Gu Mingxi’s eyes were watery and his voice was trembling, but he did his best to stop his tears from falling. He knew that at this moment, crying was the most useless thing to do. No matter what happened to Li Han, he was her only son and she was the closest person he had. What he needed to do was definitely not cry, but rather to take care of matters in a composed manner.

As he waited for the ambulance to arrive, Gu Mingxi quickly emptied his backpack and put in Li Han’s ID card, patient record card, wallet, etc. After a moment, he decided to call Li Mu. When he heard what happened, he became anxious and immediately said, “Don’t worry, I’ll be right over!”

A few minutes later, the ambulance came. The medical staff came to check Li Han and confirmed that she was unconscious. Then they lifted her out on a stretcher.

Li Mu hurried over on his motorbike and took Gu Mingxi to the hospital.

In the hospital’s emergency room, the doctor asked about Li Han’s condition in the past few days. Gu Mingxi said that she was often fatigued and her face was jaundiced. She would also throw up whatever she ate. A few days ago, she kept saying that her stomach felt bloated and it hurt. She also had a fever. After she took some fever medication, she slept and then seemed better. Neither of them felt anything was strange.

The doctor asked, “Has the patient ever suffered from a long-term illness?”

Gu Mingxi signaled for Li Mu to give the doctor Li Han’s patient card. He replied, “Eleven or twelve years ago, she suffered from Hepat.i.tis A, but she recovered.”

The doctor nodded, “Alright, we’ll see.”

Two hours later, they received the results from the CT. The doctor called Gu Mingxi and Li Mu over with a somber expression. He told them that after initial testing, Li Han was found to have a tumor in her liver. It wasn’t yet clear whether this was benign or malignant. They would have to cut out a section for further testing. As it stands, it’s more likely to be malignant, and the doctor told them it would be best for the family to be mentally prepared. Based on the size of the tumor, if it was found to be malignant, this would be the intermediate stage of liver cancer.”

Gu Mingxi and Li Mu didn’t sleep at all that night. They waited in the hospital, but Li Han still didn’t wake. When the sky brightened, Li Chun rushed over from the neighboring district. She was a woman, so she was much more careful with taking care of Li Han than Li Mu. Gu Mingxi remained at his mother’s side, his head empty, feeling that this reality was too unreal.

Cancer– He’d never linked together that word with his mother before. Li Han looked very healthy. She was just 46 years old. If she dressed up a bit, she still looked like a dignified and beautiful middle-aged woman.

Gu Mingxi had even joked with her before, that if she wanted to find a boyfriend when they got to Z City, he wouldn’t mind.

“Just let me see if he’s a good person or not.” At the time, he and his mother were standing together, looking into the mirror. Once, he had to look up towards his mother, but now, her head was only as tall as his chin. He said, “Mom, you’re still very pretty.”

At the time, Li Han’s cheeks flushed and she grabbed her son’s waist. “I’m already old. Finding a boyfriend? My only wish is for you to graduate college well. The best would be if you went on to post-graduate studies and then find a good job, marry a good woman, and have a baby for me to help take care of.”

Everyone says that good things happen to good people. Li Han was definitely a good person. She was kind, gentle, and generous. As a woman, as a mother, as a sister, she was so good there were no words to describe it. When she used to work for the metals company, she was also pretty popular. When Gu Guoxiang had his affair, all the employees backed Li Han, and for that time, Gu Guoxiang was greatly criticized. In the end, Li Han had looked at the big picture and peacefully divorced. She left many women exasperated, but the men all gave her a thumb’s up for being so daring. Things would definitely go well for her in the end.

Gu Mingxi always felt that Li Han would find happiness in the end, that she would find a good partner and grow old in this little town. He never thought that death was already creeping up on her.

Li finally woke up in the afternoon. Seeing her sister and brother’s grave expressions, she had an idea already. When she found a chance, she and Gu Mingxi had a chat by themselves. She told her son not to hide it from her, to tell her what illness she had.

Gu Mingxi said, “Mom, they’re still testing. The results will be out in two days.”

“Is it cancer?” Li Han asked.

“Not necessarily.”

Seeing Gu Mingxi’s languished face, Li Han reached out to stroke his cheek. She smiled and said, “Don’t worry. I won’t die so easily. If I die, what will you do?”

Two days later, Li Han’s liver sample returned. It was malignant.

Li Chun and Li Mu discussed and decided to move Li Han to Z City’s best hospital for further diagnosis. The result was the same.

 

Those days, Gu Mingxi spent his days and nights with Li Han in the hospital. When the cla.s.s head called him, he just said that his mother was sick in the hospital and he couldn’t go to cla.s.s.

When Li Chun found out about this, she pleaded with Gu Mingxi to go to cla.s.s. In her eyes, Gu Mingxi was still a child. When an adult was sick, what could a child do about it?

She said, “Your uncle and I (and our husband/wife) will take turns staying with her in the hospital. And there’s the hospital staff. You don’t have to worry.

In the end, it was Li Han who persuaded him to return to school. She said that it was almost time for final exams. She didn’t want to see him fail his cla.s.ses again.

Gu Mingxi spent his time going between school, the rental house, and the hospital. He explain his family situation to his counselor and she arranged for some of the students in his cla.s.s to help him with things, like the washroom and getting food.

After cla.s.ses, Gu Mingxi hurried over to the hospital and stayed with his mother until visitation hours were over. Then he would return back to the rental.

Every evening, he would stay in the rental house alone. Gu Mingxi washed and dried his own clothes, boiled his own water, and occasionally cleaned up the washroom.

Living on his own, he inevitably came across difficulties. For example, the after boiling water, the kettle is very hot. Gu Mingxi had to sit in a chair and raise up his legs to pour the water into a thermos. One time, after he scalded his toes on the kettle, the full pot of hot water fell over. And although Gu Mingxi’s reactions were quick and he jumped away immediately, his foot was still burned by the spilling water, and several large blisters appeared on his foot.

He didn’t tell anyone else about this. He just popped the blisters and went to the pharmacy for burn medication.

After discussion with the doctor, the best route was surgical removal of the tumor. But her current situation was suitable for a surgery. She needed to undergo chemotherapy treatment first.

When her health improved a bit, they started chemotherapy. Li Han’s response to the treatment was very severe. She couldn’t eat anything, and she was dizzy, nauseous, and fatigued. After three days, she lost a lot of weight and her eyes sunk into her face.

At the same time, the money for her treatment fees were flowing out. Li Han’s retirement and insurance plan were tied to E City. When she went to Z City for treatment, she had to pay the full treatment amount first, and then she had to apply for reimburs.e.m.e.nt back in E City. Her bank card was with Gu Mingxi, and Li Mu kept urging Gu Mingxi to get the reimburs.e.m.e.nt taken care of since there wasn’t enough money to pay for Li Han’s treatment.

Li Han asked Li Mu if he could return a bit of the 50 thousand first. Li Mu spread his hands. All the money had been used to setup his new house. And he had a wife and son at home. He had to keep a bit in his savings.

Li Chun gave Gu Mingxi 10 thousand dollars, and some of Li Han’s old friends and relatives saw her and all helped with the financial need. If they gave less, it was one thousand, if they gave more, it was five thousand. In the end, they scrambled up another 20 thousand dollars.

Li Mu felt a bit troubled by it, so he immediately called for his wife to take care of Li Han. Since Huang Lingli didn’t work anyway, it would be like having a free caretaker.

And so, when Gu Mingxi went to visit his mother in the hospital, he often saw Huang Lingli eating things that were given by visitors – fruit, cakes, health products. If she didn’t finish eating them, she took them home. When she saw Gu Mingxi, she didn’t try to evade him, but said, “Your mom doesn’t have an appet.i.te. If I don’t eat it, it will just go bad.”

She asked Gu Mingxi for money. She said it so pleasantly, that she would make Li Han chicken or fish soup. But in the end, all of that food ended up down into her and Li s.h.i.+yu’s stomachs.

“Your mom doesn’t have an appet.i.te. She said she couldn’t eat it,” she said.

Seeing that Huang Lingli was personally taking care of Li Han, Gu Mingxi clenched his teeth and endured. Li Han was in the hospital for half a month when the doctor said she could go home. Then after a bit of time, she would return to the hospital for a checkup to see if she could have the surgery.

Gu Mingxi brought it up to Li Mu, about whether or not Li Han could stay in the new house. The rental house was really just too lousy, it wasn’t suitable for a sick person to live there. Li Mu said that it was possible. Li Han could stay in Gu Mingxi’s room, and then his family and Gu Mingxi could stay in the living room.

He pretended to be ignorant and refused to put out the money to rent a place. Gu Mingxi couldn’t argue with him about it, so he just brought his mom back to that rental house.

He felt that he was very useless, a good for nothing. Really. He never knew that he was so incompetent before. That was his mother’s house. There was a comfortable bed that they’d picked out after going through one after another at the furniture mart. The new house was bright and clean, and the air was fresh. But he couldn’t bring his mother back there to recover. Just because there were a lot of things that he needed Li Mu’s help with. Gu Mingxi didn’t have arms. After he left school, he realized that there were a lot of things in the world that were very inconvenient for him to do. A lot of the things related with the hospital were taken care of by Li Mu, Li Chun, and Huang Lingli. Even when Li Han was tired of laying down and wanted to sit up, Gu Mingxi was unable to help.

When they returned to the rental, Gu Mingxi had Li Han sleep on his bed. Huang Lingli came over during the days to take care of Li Han, and Gu Mingxi stayed with her at night.

Under these circ.u.mstances, Gu Mingxi really couldn’t concentrate during cla.s.s. He simply couldn’t look at the books. When he went to the computer room, he just stared blankly at the screen.

He also hadn’t checked his phone in a long time. Every once in a while, he would turn it on and he’d received more than a hundred messages. Most of them were from Pang Qian.

Gu Mingxi was mentally and physically fatigued, but he bit onto his pen and replied back, “Pang Pang, don’t come up over the summer. My mom’s not well recently, so we’ll probably go somewhere else for her to see a doctor.”

Pang Qian immediately called.

She asked, “Gu Mingxi, is Auntie sick?”

He answered, “Mm.”

“What is it?”

“Nothing major, don’t worry.”

“I can go and visit her.”

“No need, really. It’s so far away, and if you come up, I won’t be able to hang out with you. Moreover, we really are going to go somewhere for a bit.” He patiently persuaded her. “Pang Pang, we’ll have a chance to meet.”

Pang Qian was silent for awhile, and then she finally agreed. She thought that if she really went over at this time, it would just be more trouble. She asked, “Gu Mingxi, why has your phone been off all this time?”

“I don’t usually have much free time. I’m either busy or out. Whenever my phone rings, I can’t immediately answer it. Don’t even mention replying to messages. Whenever the phone vibrates in my pocket, it really bothers me, so I don’t carry it around with me. You can understand, right?”

He sounded very sincere. Pang Qian quieted and finally said, “Yes.”

Gu Mingxi sighed, “Mm, that’s good then.”

After the final exams concluded, Gu Mingxi, once again, failed several courses. When his counselor came to talk to him, he finally said, “Teacher, I want to take a year off.”

Over summer break, Li Chun went along with Li Han and Gu Mingxi to the province’s capital, S City. Li Han was admitted to the province’s best hospital to prepare for surgery to remove her tumor.

Li Chun and Li Mu both needed to work. The half month before Li Han’s surgery, Huang Lingli went to the hospital to take care of her. After a bit of rest following the surgery, she returned to Z City.

During that time, there was only Gu Mingxi to stay with Li Han.

They rented a small place near the hospital. Li Han slept on her bed and Gu Mingxi slept on the floor.

Many years later, Gu Mingxi would recall this period of time, as if it had all been a dream. It was during that time that he learned to cut vegetables, cook, and wash dishes.

With his backpack on, he would go to the market, and when he saw something he wanted to buy, he’d ask the boss to weigh some into a plastic bag and put it into his backpack. He also hung a string around his neck to carry his wallet. Gu Mingxi let the bosses take out the money themselves and put in any change. No one would cheat him. Towards this kind of boy, most people would lend a helping hand. The boss who sold shrimp would always give him a bit of extra shrimp. The boss who sold vegetables would always give him an extra bunch.

When he returned home, Gu Mingxi started to wash the vegetables and cut them up with his two legs.

At first, he wasn’t very good at cutting things with his toes. In fact, he nearly cut off his toes. But after doing it many times, he gradually became familiar with it, and now, he did a pretty decent job cutting.

Cooking wasn’t hard. The hard part was serving the food after it was cooked. Gu Mingxi could never figure out a way, and always had to ask Li Han to get up and help him.

A month after the surgery, Li Han had to undergo another two weeks of chemotherapy. So they never returned to Z City. From August to September, Li Chun, Li Mu, and Huang Lingli would come by every once in awhile to take care of Li Han. When Gu Mingxi was tidying up the hospital invoice, he realized that they’d already spent 250 thousand dollars.

They’d nearly used up his mother’s treatment money, but there were still follow-up treatments and medicine was expensive. Gu Mingxi decided he needed to figure something out.

After discussing with Li Chun, he packed up a bag and boarded a train back to E City. He wanted to go to the insurance to reimburse some of the costs of treatment, but he also wanted to go ask Gu Guoxiang for help.