Chapter 43 : Could it be that he was stimulated?

Thinking of yesterday’s terrifying experience, Xiao Cui’s eyes turned red again.  

She nodded vigorously. “Yes! You’re still alive!”  

“It’s all thanks to our family’s savior that you were able to survive!”  

Xiaojun turned his head to look at Song Shiwei, who was lying on the bed next to him. The moment he saw her, a flash of memory rushed through his mind, and he suddenly remembered everything.  

Trembling, he tried to sit up.  

“Thank you so much for saving me!”  

Seeing this, Song Shiwei quickly gestured for Zhou Tingyue to help the child lie back down, stopping him from exerting himself now that he was just starting to recover.  

“It’s okay, it’s okay, just lie down,” she reassured him. “You’ve just gotten better, so you need to take care of yourself! From now on, don’t go to the beach on rainy days, and don’t get too close to the sea. You must have been caught in a rip current yesterday and got pulled in!”  

Xiaojun immediately nodded. “Yes! Yesterday, I suddenly felt a huge wave come in, and it dragged me straight into the sea. No matter how hard I struggled, I couldn’t get out!”  

Why had he dared to go to the beach alone? It was because he was a good swimmer. After all, which child growing up by the sea didn’t know how to swim?  

It was precisely because of this confidence that he never took these things seriously.  

But unexpectedly, he had almost lost his life because of it.  

It was just a shame… He had gone into the water because he spotted a huge eel in the sea, bigger than the clay pot at home.  

If he could have caught that eel, he might have been able to exchange it for a lot of medicine from Doctor Sun in the village!  

Doctor Sun wasn’t from the health clinic. He was an old Chinese medicine doctor, and it was said that his great-grandfather had been an imperial physician in the palace.  

His medical skills were indeed excellent, but due to the country’s planned economy, his clinic had been shut down.  

Still, whenever villagers had a headache or fever, they would go to him for medicine.  

His grandparents also sought his treatment, and sometimes, when they really had no money, he would allow them to owe him first.  

As for where his medicinal herbs came from, the villagers said some were gathered from the mountains, while others were bought from the inland. No one knew exactly where, but since he had been practicing Chinese medicine all his life, he must have had his own connections.  

His grandparents had already owed him money for several rounds of medicine, so when Xiaojun saw that big eel, he had panicked.  

Thinking about how he had almost lost his life because of it, a deep fear settled in his heart.  

Xiao Cui, worried that the food would get cold, handed him the two white buns in her hand.  

“Brother, are you hungry? Come eat!”  

Only then did Xiaojun notice the lunch boxes beside their beds, with steaming, fragrant food inside.  

Especially the scrambled eggs with tomatoes, he couldn’t even remember the last time they had eaten eggs at home.  

And those soft, white flour buns… Ever since he could remember, his family had never had white flour.  

His sister didn’t have the money to buy it. If they had money, they would have used it to pay back Doctor Sun for the medicine first.  

Even though he was practically drooling at the sight of the food, he still stubbornly pushed the steamed buns and dishes away.  

“I’m not hungry. I don’t want to eat. Sister, you eat it!”  

Anyone could tell he was lying. From the way he kept swallowing his saliva, it was obvious he wanted to eat badly.  

But in order to give the food to his sister, he insisted that he wasn’t hungry.  

Watching this, Zhou Cheng suddenly felt a pang of sadness. He had almost forgotten that his family had struggled when he was a child too. Back then, when his parents were still alive, they would always save the best food for him and his younger siblings, even if it meant going hungry themselves.

Over the years, Zhou Tingyue had taken such good care of him that he had gradually forgotten what it felt like to be poor.  

Seeing the siblings still hesitating and pushing the food back and forth, he stood up and handed his steamed bun to Xiaojun.  

“I’m full. Here, take this! Otherwise, it’ll just go to waste.”  

After saying that, he left the ward without looking back, and no one knew where he went.  

Song Shiwei was a little surprised, Zhou Cheng was indeed different from before.  

Zhou Tingyue curled the corners of his lips slightly. He hadn’t expected that this brother and sister would teach the boy such a lesson today.  

He ignored him and gestured for Song Shiwei to continue eating.  

Xiaojun and Xiao Cui stared in the direction Zhou Cheng had left for a long time, still in shock.  

Finally, Xiao Cui gave both white flour buns in her hand to her younger brother and ate just one herself.  

The two of them ate carefully, afraid to let even a single crumb fall, as if losing any bit of food would be heartbreaking.  

If even a tiny piece of bread fell, they quickly picked it up and ate it.  

This breakfast was the best meal they had ever had in their lives.  

After eating, Xiao Cui took the initiative to wash the lunch boxes.  

The doctor came to check on them. Seeing the conditions of Song Shiwei and Xiaojun, he let out a relieved sigh.  

“You two are lucky. You’ve survived a near-death experience. As long as you rest and take care of yourselves, you’ll be fully recovered in about a week!”  

Zhou Tingyue was also pleased to hear this.  

“Thank you, Director Wang!”  

Since there was nothing serious, Xiaojun insisted on being discharged in the afternoon. How could their family afford to stay in the hospital?  

All of the hospital expenses had been paid in advance by Zhou Tingyue.  

Song Shiwei was worried that Xiaojun hadn’t fully recovered and wanted him to stay for two more days to receive injections, but he refused.  

While Song Shiwei was taking a nap, he and his sister quietly packed up and went home.  

When Song Shiwei woke up, the two siblings were already gone.  

She sighed. “These two children are so sensible it makes my heart ache.”  

Originally, Song Shiwei had planned to stay in the hospital for two more days before being discharged, but Zhou Tingyue refused and insisted she stay longer.  

After that day, Zhou Cheng started acting strangely. Other than bringing them food, he was rarely seen.  

At first, Song Shiwei thought he had gone home to take care of his younger siblings, but when she was finally discharged and returned home, she asked Zhou Lin and found out that the boy never came home during the day, only showing up to sleep at night.  

This made Song Shiwei curious.  

“Where has he been going? Did something happen to him?”  

Zhou Tingyue frowned. “It should be fine. This is the army, he wouldn’t be able to get into trouble.”  

Song Shiwei knew the boy had his own thoughts and personality, so she didn’t press the issue.  

Zhou Xinxin and Zhou Wei had visited her at the hospital once before with their second brother. Later, when they wanted to visit again, their second brother wouldn’t let them, saying he didn’t want them to disturb their mother’s rest.  

Now that she was finally back, the two children were overjoyed.  

Xinxin ran straight into her arms, hugging her tightly. “Mom, I missed you so much…”  

Song Shiwei rubbed her daughter’s messy braids and smiled. “Mom missed you too!”  

Zhou Lin glanced at his sister’s uneven braids and blushed. “I’ve been making sure they brush their teeth and wash their faces every day, but… I’m not very good at braiding hair!”  

In the past, their eldest brother had always been the one to braid Xinxin’s hair. But he wasn’t very skilled, and he was too rough he would tug too hard, making Xinxin cry in pain.  

With no other choice, he had simply tied her hair into a few small buns.