Life Plan

Chapter 35, The Envelope

When Jiang Xiaonv visited again, she was accompanied by two people. The younger girl was supporting her, and the other was a much older woman with gray hair that reached her ears and was held back with a hairband.

Liu Chichi had seen the photo and knew that the young girl was her only daughter, Sun Zhixiao, but she had never met the older one.

Sun Zhixiao glanced down at Liu Chichi's employee badge and gave her a cautious yet ingratiating smile.

In that instant, Liu Chichi seemed to see herself a year ago, and now she stood here calmly. She recalled the first time she met Shen Shuyi. Her gaze unconsciously fell on the glass behind her, and she couldn't help but wonder, did she look like Shen Shuyi now?

When Jiang Xiaonv entered the examination room, Sun Zhixiao walked up to her, nervously clasping her hands together: "Dr. Liu, I..."

"I'm not a doctor." Liu Chichi didn't mean to interrupt her, but pretending to be a medical professional would only earn her an eye roll from Shen Shuyi.

She thought of Shen Shuyi again. She had been out of contact for a month.

Sun Zhixiao spoke again: "Sister, this is Aunt Zhang." She pointed to the elderly woman, "Aunt Zhang's illness is very similar to my mother's. Can she take this medicine?"

Aunt Zhang, wearing a purplish-red short jacket and brown cotton trousers, looked at Liu Chichi with a somewhat timid expression, her eyes filled with both fear and anticipation. The years had caused her eye sockets to become sunken, her eyelids to droop, and her dark pupils to appear exceptionally large.

Feeling helpless under those eyes.

Judging from her appearance alone, Aunt Zhang may be over sixty years old, which is not the age to participate in the experiment. Older people also have a higher probability of having underlying diseases.

Liu Chichi's silence made Aunt Zhang blink rapidly in fear. Her somewhat withered lips parted, as if she wanted to say something, but she hesitated. Finally, she looked at Sun Zhixiao, tugged at her sleeve, and said in a hoarse voice, "Xiaoxiao, what should I do?"

The young girl, barely an adult, became their sole representative. Sun Zhixiao then looked at her: "Sister Liu, Aunt Zhang's child has gone abroad and only comes back once every few years. The next time he comes back will be two years later. I don't know if we'll be able to meet again. The doctor said that surgery is not recommended at her age because the prognosis is very poor. She can only receive conservative treatment. Could she try the new drug? She can pay for it herself."

"This isn't about the money." Liu hesitated to speak. Jiang Xiaonv's self-report indicated that she felt better and her pain had lessened, but according to the test results, her "improved feeling" might be due to the painkillers. "The potential effects of drugs in the research and development stage on the human body are unknown."

"Please, sister, Aunt Zhang is a very good person. No matter what the outcome, she won't cause trouble. She's our landlord. She kicked out the neighbors who harassed me before, and she hasn't raised our rent in all these years. Even now," Sun Zhixiao paused, "she hasn't kicked us out even after such a big thing happened."

Liu Chichi understood her unspoken meaning almost instantly. What Jiang Xiaonv had been so carefully trying to hide might never have been hidden from this girl at all. In today's world of advanced social media, a "murder case" is still a rare social hot topic, and even Jiang Xiaonv, as a boarding student, couldn't possibly have been unaware of it.

For those familiar with her, the snippets of information in the news and the incompletely blurred video were enough for her to guess the location of the incident, the relationship between the person involved and herself, and even her classmates. Sun Zhixiao had her hair tied in a low ponytail, her eyes were dark and gray, and she looked tired. It seemed that she hadn't been having a good time lately, and she had to pretend not to know anything in front of her mother.

Liu Chichi's gaze fell on Aunt Zhang, who was clutching a slightly grayish white plastic bag and timidly hiding next to Sun Zhixiao. When she saw Liu Chichi looking at her, she quickly took a step forward, as if afraid of missing something.

Liu Chichi glanced at the information desk. If she remembered correctly, Dr. Li still had available appointments for this afternoon. She didn't have the authority to decide on trial enrollment; the only thing she could do was—"Did you bring your social security card?"

"I brought it." Aunt Zhang took out her social security card from the plastic bag, and Liu Chichi saw the dark red passbook inside.

"I'm not in a position to decide whether you can take the medication. Can I make an appointment with the doctor for you and check on your condition?"

"well."

When she saw the registration slip printed out, Sun Zhixiao took out a large yellow bag from her backpack, which contained a stack of scattered reports and videos. She hurriedly handed it to Liu Chichi: "These are the X-rays and medical records that Aunt Zhang had taken before."

Liu Chichi glanced at it; the top left corner showed the names of the Central Hospital and the Eighth Hospital. The Eighth Hospital was near the old street where they lived. "No need, it's been too long."

"If the test is done today, will the video printouts only be available tomorrow?"

Liu Chichi subconsciously replied, "Log in to the hospital's internet system; you can see the images on your phone faster."

For a moment, both Sun Zhixiao and Aunt Zhang looked confused. They exchanged glances, and Sun Zhixiao asked somewhat embarrassedly, "What is an internet hospital?"

Liu Chichi blushed. She naturally put herself in the shoes of the elderly, even forgetting that they were students and seniors in front of her. "If it's convenient for you, you can follow the hospital's official WeChat account, log in, and bind your patient information after identity verification. You can see the results faster that way. Printing takes longer, but the doctor will see the image sooner. If you don't need anything else, you don't have to print the video."

While the rapid development of society brings convenience, it also leaves behind some people who are slower to move forward. Liu Chichi recalled that in the past, the test images had to be picked up the next day and handed over to the doctor for a follow-up examination. Now, it is almost possible to send them to the doctor immediately after the examination.

Aunt Zhang's registration form required her to sign in and wait in line. Sun Zhixiao stayed with her while she waited, and Liu Chichi took Jiang Xiaonv to other examination windows.

When changing the diary card, Jiang Xiaonv suddenly stuffed an envelope into Liu Chichi's white coat pocket. Liu Chichi's mind went blank for a second, and she immediately took a big step back. She seemed to hear the sound of her career collapsing at the very beginning.

The loosely sealed envelope fell to the ground. Liu Chichi's mind raced and scrambled, even contemplating the speed at which it fell. She thought that even if it contained a lot of money, it probably wasn't much, and that her career might still be salvageable.

Jiang Xiaonv squatted down to pick up the envelope and then walked towards Liu Chichi. Liu Chichi suddenly jumped up and leaped to the best spot in the surveillance camera's view, waving her hands frantically as if facing a formidable enemy: "Don't come any closer! Don't give it to me!"

Liu Chichi only saw Jiang Xiaonv blushing and gesturing with her hands to say something, but unfortunately Liu Chichi couldn't understand it, and Jiang Xiaonv couldn't say it.

The former was so anxious he wanted to crawl into the monitor, while the latter was so anxious he wanted to speak.

It wasn't until Jiang Xiaonv opened the envelope and took out a piece of paper that Liu Chichi's tense, which had been running like crazy, subsided somewhat. She reached out and took the paper, then opened the envelope and faced the monitor, mouthing exaggeratedly as she spoke: "This is a letter, just a piece of paper."

Jiang Xiaonv felt a little embarrassed seeing her like this, and turned away while she was facing the camera.

When Liu Chichi turned around again, all that remained was an empty office piled high with documents. The paper was cold in the winter air, and the edges of the old, red-lined letter paper were sharp. She took two more steps toward the warm air vent, and when she unfolded it, she saw five neatly written words that looked like they had been deliberately copied: Thank you for saving me.

The air conditioner was blowing too strong, making her eyes sting.

She still remembers the lab report. More than five hours after the first dose of medication that morning, the drug concentration had reached its peak, but Jiang Xiaonv's white blood cell count remained high.

There was no improvement whatsoever.

Liu slowly resealed the letter.

She suddenly remembered a rumor she had heard in the cafeteria: when choosing a hospital site, a feng shui master would be consulted, and medical staff would not stop patients' families from placing pendants and talismans obtained through prayers in the wards.

Even today, she doesn't dare to shatter the bright hope in Jiang Xiaonv's eyes.

After get off work, Dr. Li didn't send her any messages about Aunt Zhang. She knew that no result was also a result, and there were too few curable diseases in this world.