Rebirth: Slice-of-life Cultivation-Chapter 96 - : Going Alone

Chapter 96: Chapter 96: Going Alone

Jiang Ning entered Room No. 5, holding a food container.

Xue Yuantong nestled beside Aunt Gu, her eyes filled with sadness.

“Have some food.”

Jiang Ning brought over two square stools, placed them between two hospital beds, joined them together, and then opened the bag.

Aunt Gu’s IV drip had finished, and now she could only use her left hand, which was quite inconvenient.

“Mom, let me feed you,” said Xue Yuantong. She had no appetite, but with her mother injured, she knew it was essential to replenish nutrients.

“No need, you eat yours,” Aunt Gu replied, clumsily using chopsticks with her left hand at first. After a few attempts, she managed to make do.

She noticed that the dishes Jiang Ning bought were all Tongtong’s favorites and felt even more satisfied with him, feeling as if even the pain in her right arm had somewhat eased.

Xue Yuantong insisted on feeding her mother, and Aunt Gu finally relented, putting down her chopsticks.

After finishing the meal, Jiang Ning went out to dispose of the trash.

Aunt Gu told Xue Yuantong to later give Jiang Ning money for the food to avoid always taking advantage of him.

She had learned earlier that Jiang Ning had meals with Tongtong and also took Tongtong to school.

She had decided to refund Jiang Ning’s rent or not charge him next year if he continued to lease, but she had been too busy recently to discuss it properly with him.

“Aunt Gu, give me the keys to your electric scooter. I’ll ride it home for you later; it’s not safe to leave it outside.”

Although the Spiritual Sense Imprint had been placed, preventing trouble is always better than dealing with it.

Many risks can be avoided beforehand, so there’s no need to unnecessarily seek trouble.

“It’s in my bag, Tongtong, hand it to him.”

“Mom, I can ride. I’ll ride it home,” Xue Yuantong said, unwilling to seem weak in front of Jiang Ning.

Aunt Gu knew her daughter’s thoughts well:

“Listen, let Jiang Ning ride it back.”

Jiang Ning took the keys: “I’ll come back later.”

“Thank you.”

“It’s no trouble.”

Jiang Ning rode the electric scooter back to the rental place and charged it.

Then he rode back.

Xue Yuantong was a bit surprised: “You came back so quickly?”

“You walk slower than I ride,” Jiang Ning said.

Xue Yuantong pouted; she was just too lazy to hurry, not that she was slow.

It was not yet one o’clock, and Jiang Ning asked:

“Aunt Gu, you’ll be staying here for a while, won’t you? Do you need anything?”

Staying in the hospital was definitely inconvenient, and Xue Yuantong would probably have to stay overnight to take care of her mother.

Sure enough, upon hearing this, Aunt Gu asked Xue Yuantong to go home and fetch some things.

The two left the hospital, and Xue Yuantong’s little face immediately drooped.

“Jiang Ning, I won’t go to school these next few days.” She needed to stay and take care of her mother.

Xue Yuantong went home, packed clothes and daily necessities, and then settled into the hospital room.

The weekend passed, and Jiang Ning went to school as usual. Every morning, he would go to the hospital, pick Xue Yuantong up, and after she cooked, she’d take a thermal container with food to the hospital.

At noon and in the evening, it was the same.

The swelling subsided after five days, and the chief surgeon came to check and determined the time for surgery, around twelve o’clock on Wednesday afternoon.

On Tuesday morning, Jiang Ning left school one period early. Shan Qingrong had no objections; he had been thinking of visiting the hospital these last few days.

Aunt Gu called several times to reassure him that everything was fine and dissuaded him from coming.

Jiang Ning rode, taking Xue Yuantong back home. By the dam, Xue Yuantong said:

“Today in the hospital room, I saw an old man who had broken his foot. The doctor was supposed to operate, but it required a payment of five thousand. The old man didn’t have the money, so he decided against the surgery and left limping.”

“It’s always like this,” Jiang Ning remarked.

Xue Yuantong felt sad as she thought of the elderly in their village. They were advanced in age, and her mother had not even informed them of her fracture to avoid worrying them.

From beginning to end, only Xue Yuantong was taking care of her mother.

‘And Jiang Ning,’ she thought.

Xue Yuantong decided to not dwell on the sadness and shared some amusing occurrences from the hospital:

“Today, the man in the bed diagonally opposite ours broke his collarbone. Guess how he did it?”

“Hmm?”

“He broke it while playing soccer.”

“And the uncle in the next bed jumped down from a platform half a meter high and broke his foot. He’s already had two surgeries, and apparently, they need to transplant bone from other parts of his body to his foot.”

“And then there’s the lady by the window, she usually exercises by swinging her arms and ended up needing surgery to drain fluid from her shoulder.”

With the pleasant warmth of the sun and a refreshing breeze, the bike moved between the river and the fields.

“And there’s more, there’s more!” Yuantong looked up with a small face, smiling brightly like the stars.

Jiang Ning heard the crisp sound in his ears, and he suddenly closed his eyes, letting his Spiritual Sense lazily spread out.

…

Yuantong, as always, was capable and carefully packed the cooked meal into a thermal lunch box.

She picked up the thermal lunch box, planning to eat lunch with her mom, worried her mom would feel lonely.

Yuantong ran to Jiang Ning’s room. It used to be Jiang Ning who took her to the hospital.

Jiang Ning was on the phone.

She quietly backed out.

Yuantong found the car keys, carefully placed the thermal lunch box, and pushed out the electric scooter.

She didn’t want to bother Jiang Ning anymore; he had his own things to keep busy with.

Yuantong twisted the handle, and the electric scooter zoomed out.

Today, she would go to the hospital by herself! Yuantong was full of fighting spirit!

Yuantong was carried by the scooter for several tens of meters, the scooter increasingly tilting, and with a ‘bang,’ it threw her onto the ground.

It didn’t hurt; she was always resilient to falls.

But this time, it felt as though her soul had been thrown out.

Yuantong sat on the ground, a dazed expression on her face, with the electric scooter pressing on her.

The thermal lunch box fell out; she stretched out her small hand to reach for it, missing by five centimeters, unable to touch it.

She suddenly felt very wronged.

That morning, Jiang Ning wasn’t there when the doctor came to the ward to sign the surgery consent form.

It was the first time Yuantong had to sign such a paper; the doctor warned her of various things to pay attention to, such as the possibility of heavy bleeding during the humerus steel plate insertion surgery which would require a blood transfusion.

The doctor said a lot, which made Yuantong feel anxious.

She was thinking, if something happened to her mom during the surgery, what would she do…

In fact, she had secretly cried once, afraid of losing her loved ones.

If her mom were gone, then she would be all alone in the world afterward.

Whenever Yuantong thought about that, she couldn’t help the tears from overflowing — she never used to cry before.

Yuantong stared hard, trying not to let the tears flow, keeping them swirling in her eyes.

The electric scooter was still pressing on her leg, and she stared angrily at it.

She was mad and kicked the electric scooter.

“It’s all your fault!”

It was because of the electric scooter that her mom had fractured her arm; otherwise, her mom would still be fine.

Yuantong raised her hand to hit the electric scooter: “Take that, for throwing me down; take that, for throwing mom down, woo woo Jiang Ning.”

Maybe it was the ferocity of her actions, but finally, the tears fell. She wiped her tears, furiously hitting the electric scooter:

“See, I’m making you cry.”

So, what Jiang Ning saw was this strange scene.

“What are you doing?”

Jiang Ning had just taken a call from Shao Shuangshuang, had his Spiritual Sense withdrawn, and he first heard Yuantong’s commotion, intending to end the call, but it had been less than a minute.

“Don’t you see I’m beating it up, woo woo woo.” Yuantong wiped her face again, her hand smeared with some mud, mixed with tears, smearing her cheeks in a slightly comical way.

“Don’t stop me, I want to make it cry.”

Jiang Ning couldn’t help but laugh a little.

Yuantong humphed forcefully, she stopped crying and stopped beating the electric scooter. She pushed it off, picked up the thermal lunch box, and held the handlebar, ready to ride to find her mom.

“Let me take you,” Jiang Ning said.

“I don’t need you to take me; I’m going to find mom myself, she must be hungry.” Yuantong turned around, showing the back of her head.

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She twisted the grip, but the electric scooter didn’t move, still slightly tilted.

Jiang Ning lifted the rear of the electric scooter, the wheels spinning in mid-air:

“Don’t ride anymore, you might fall again.”

“I won’t fall; let go.” Yuantong resisted.

Jiang Ning suddenly pinched Yuantong’s muddy face, leaned in close, looking at her tear-streaked appearance.

“You going to the hospital like this will definitely worry Aunt Gu, go wash your face, I’ll take you, be good.”

Yuantong and Jiang Ning looked at each other for two seconds, then Yuantong turned her gaze away.

She crossed her arms, emphasizing: “I’m not saying I can’t ride.”

“Okay, okay, Yuantong can ride,” Jiang Ning coaxed her while putting the seat back down.

Yuantong got off the electric scooter, pointed at it, and said angrily:

“I just beat it up, worried it might harm me later.”

“Jiang Ning, do you understand what I mean?”