Chapter 10: Face in the Dark
No fat doctor?
I asked hurriedly, is it the fat one who slapped the old man just now?
The doctors all looked at me strangely.
"Xiaotian, have you done something stupid? How could we, as doctors, dare to hit a patient? Even if they are patients in Building D, we still have to be cautious and tread on thin ice, not to mention hitting them." One of the doctors said impatiently.
They ignored him and just left.
I stood there, stunned.
My mind went blank...
Why?
Am I hallucinating?
I clearly saw that fat doctor hitting the old man just now, and when I went to question him, his attitude was very arrogant.
Now, everyone says they didn’t see it?
Are they playing a trick on me, or am I really stupid as the doctor said?
I rubbed my temples and felt an inexplicable chill in the soles of my feet.
This Building D is really full of weirdness.
…
When I came outside to get some fresh air, I found that the young couple had not left yet. They seemed to be arguing about something. As they were arguing, the man suddenly started crying and the woman hurried to comfort him.
"What's wrong?" I walked over and asked curiously.
"No...it's okay." The man wiped his tears and forced a smile. "Are you a staff member of Building D?"
"Well, I'm the night watchman here."
I chatted with them for a while and learned that these two people were the old man's son and daughter-in-law. The old man was seriously ill and had been in the hospital for two months. The little money in the family was almost drained by the medical expenses. The son had no choice but to sell the house, but the daughter-in-law refused to agree. If he sold it, she would divorce him. After a quarrel, the husband compromised. Thinking of his father's miserable life in the future, he couldn't help crying.
I felt sad, but I didn't blame his wife because the old man's illness was a bottomless pit. No matter how much money he spent, it would only prolong his life for a while, but it would bring bankruptcy to the young people.
In fact, this happens in hospitals every day, and every patient's family is making a decision.
Should you do everything you can to increase the chances of your loved ones' survival, or extend their lingering time, or give up and take your loved ones back to spend their final moments together.
I'm afraid many ordinary people will choose the latter.
Building D exists for the latter.
At least when they were sent here, there were some simple medical equipment and medicines, so they could barely survive.
As for how long you live, that's up to fate.
…
At ten o'clock in the evening, I watched some TV and left the lounge to patrol.
Building D has a total of five floors. The first four floors are for patients to live in. The fifth floor is said to be a conference room, but few people come there and the door is locked, so I don’t know what it looks like.
I walked around the fourth floor and was about to go back to the lounge when I heard shouting and cursing coming from Ward 403.
I walked over and saw that it turned out to be the old man who had just been sent in, arguing with the patient.
I roughly understood that several people were fighting over the TV.
The old man wanted to watch the anti-Japanese TV series "Drawing Sword", while the other patients in Room 403 were relatively young and insisted on watching the recently popular plagiarized sitcom "Fancy Apartment". A few people got into an argument and the old man got angry and stood in front of the TV, shouting angrily, "I have to watch this TV, if you dare, kill me!"
If this happened outside, ordinary people would be really scared, but where is Building D ?
We are all short-lived, so why would we be afraid of an old man like you?
They all got out of bed and surrounded the old man, scolding him, as if they were about to start a fight if they disagreed.
When I saw that something was not right, I quickly pulled the old man to the door and said I wanted to talk to him.
"What the hell, if you pull me again, I'll beat you up, believe it or not?"
The old man rolled his eyes and said angrily.
I quickly let go of his hand, smiled kindly, and asked him to go out with me and talk.
The old man snorted and followed me out of the ward.
Before I could say anything, the old man spoke first and said, "Looking at your age, you should still be a student, right?"
I nodded and said yes. The old man snorted and said, "You are so young, why don't you study hard in school and run to this remote place to be a security guard? You are really useless. What will your parents think if they know?"
My eyes darkened and I said bitterly, "My father is dead, and my mother is sick, lying in this hospital."
The old man was stunned, obviously a little surprised, and asked: "Is the illness serious?"
"She's only half dead . Do you think that's serious? I have no choice but to come here to work. To be honest, the price the hospital gave me is high. If I just keep working hard, I can even get some medical expenses waived. Do you think I have any choice? As long as there's a glimmer of hope, I'm not willing to give up. I don't want my mother to be sent to Building D one day. I..."
Halfway through his speech, he saw that the old man looked strange, and suddenly realized that he had said the wrong thing, so he quickly shut his mouth.
The old man didn't blame me. Instead, he patted my shoulder and sighed, "Good boy, I wronged you... Alas, actually, I also know that the two people at home had no choice but to send me here... I'm not angry with them, but with myself. When I was young, I fought the Japanese devils and my body was so strong. Now, after so many years, I still thought I was young. I heard them calling me old man and master all the time and even stayed in the hospital. I'm not reconciled. Why am I an old man at the age of 80? Give me a gun now, and I still dare to go to the front line to fight the Japanese devils. It's better to die on the battlefield than to die in such a remote place."
I wanted to laugh when I heard this. It's a peaceful time now, so where are the Japs? But I also secretly admired him in my heart, because it turned out that this old man was a veteran anti-Japanese fighter.
For such a person, who has been a hero all his life, the blow of the disease is obviously huge.
Living in Building D and waiting to die is an unspeakable torture.
I suddenly understood him a little.
I chatted with the old man for a while and asked him to take more care of the patients in Room 403. They are old patients in Building D and have bad tempers... If you want to watch "Bright Sword" in the future, you can come to my lounge to watch it.
The old man was very happy and said, let’s find some time to have a drink.
I didn't know whether to laugh or cry, thinking, he's so sick, and he's still drinking? But I didn't say that, after all, the old man was in such a state, he could live one more day, if he didn't drink some wine, he wouldn't have much chance in the future.
After saying goodbye to the old man, I went back to the lounge.
…
I played with my phone for a while and before I knew it, it was almost two o'clock.
Although I didn't feel like urinating, I was worried about what I would do if I needed to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night.
Looking at the pile of Pulse pills on the bedside opposite me, I felt annoyed and decided to do something drastic. I took a big bag, put all the Pulse pills in it, then left the lounge and went outside to find a trash can to dump them.
When the pulse fell, my heart felt empty, as if I had said goodbye to Liu Bin forever.
I looked at the time and it was already 1:58.
I hurriedly seized the opportunity and ran to the public restroom on the first floor, unzipped my pants and urinated. Halfway through, I suddenly felt a chill on the back of my head, as if someone was blowing air from behind.
I shivered, put on my pants, turned around, and suddenly I was face to face with a dark face!
That face was also looking at me, with messy hair, sunken eye sockets and bloodshot eyes.
My head buzzed as if something had exploded, and I screamed in a trembling voice of terror:
"Liu...Brother Liu?"
