Entrust My Life To You - Chapter 8
March 15, 2009
The ward was extremely quiet today, a group of ward-mates gathered together and talked about this early morning’s chaos. When I met Xiao Du in the pantry, he was moping the floor.
“Sister, is your face going to leave a scar?”
I couldn’t help to smile bitterly: “Is there any poison in her nail?”
“Tsk tsk, don’t worry, if your face marred by the scar, let Doctor Gu takes responsibility.”
Xiao Du’s parents divorced when he was 11 and given to his mother. At 13, his mother married to another country and had to live far away. She left him to stay with his grandparents. His grandpa’s retirement wages were low, and his Grandma worked in the hospital as a cleaner to subsidize the family. Xiao Du’s naughty attitude didn’t affect the old couple’s love for him. That little guy was reckless until he was 18; his Grandma had a cerebral hemorrhage and passed away. At that time, he found out that his college entrance exam grade was terrible. After the funeral, he came to the hospital to clean up the belongings. The nurse who was familiar with him, came to ask him, “Xiao Du, what are you going to do next?”
“Looking for a job! Making money!” The 18-years-old’s frivolous young fellow felt that the world was so big and he could dig up gold wherever he goes.
“Go to school, it is your best way to make money.” A harmonious yet indifferent voice passed through.
“Qi, what’s so great thing about getting a Ph.D.!” Xiao Du knew this person, his Grandma always mentioned about him at home.
“At least you would know the first-aid methods for cerebral hemorrhage, also the daily care.”
Xiao Du’s Grandma passed away quickly. When she passed away, she didn’t even have time to say her last words, she left him and his unhealthy grandpa.
“You still have a grandfather. If I were you, I would go to school.” The other party calmly drew out the medical record and left the nurses’ station.
Faced by a man who was ten years older than him, Xiao Du found out that he had no right to talk back. No one knows what happened later between them, but soon after that, Xiao Du took over his grandmother’s job. He cleaned the ward twice a day, at five o’clock in the morning and six o’clock in the evening, coming to the ward every day even on weekends to help, earning subsidies and studying at the same time. Initially, he wasn’t a child with a bad attitude, he still understands the principal, and now he naturally became more sensible. These were all mentioned by the head nurse when they chatted: “Gu Wei has taught him about being obedient, and now he rarely runs into problems.”
At that time, I still thought, people who finished the N-year college entrance exam could remember the exam materials in middle school?
“I remember!” Two hours later, Xiao Du rushed into the balcony, where I was re-examining my lesson, and he shook his physics test paper in front of me. “Sister, did you study physics?”
I sweated, leaned over strangely on the balcony handrail. While drawing the analysis diagram in my hand, I cursed silently. Doctor Gu, that’s so kind of you! You’ve kept teaching biology all the time, but I didn’t even touch physics for years!
March 16, 2009
At 07:20, when Doctor Gu appeared on time in the Doctor’s office, it surprised me. I didn’t see him yesterday. I thought it would be just like in the TV dramas, after that chaotic night, he would be expelled and sent home to get punishment….. TV dramas are all lies!
At eight o’clock, a group of doctors came to do their rounds, and Teacher Lin was able to remove his stitches. When leaving the ward, Doctor Gu stayed behind, he looked at me and nodded his head.
My mother, who stood on my side, glanced at me sharply: “What happened?”
“No.” I really couldn’t tell her that he only checked if my face had a scar or not.
At eleven o’clock, Doctor Gu carried a stainless steel bowl and came in: “Bed 39, remove stitches.”
When I was a kid, I heard my grandmother say that everyone had a marriage line tied on their fingers, so I liked to observe men’s hands more than their faces. Well, this pair of hands was entirely in line with my aesthetic, clean, slender, knuckle, left-handed tweezers, right-hand scissors, flexible to picked up, cut, pulled out. In less than two minutes, half of the thread dismantled: “I only removed half for today, the other half will be tomorrow.”
“After all the stitches are removed, I can go home.” Teacher Lin was very excited
“Why? Are you homesick?”
“I will come and see you again later.”
I felt embarrassed on his side, Teacher Lin, what are you saying…..
Doctor Gu chuckled: “I wish that you would never have to come and see me again. But, your wife just signed the post-surgery chemotherapy. You will come back here after 21 days.”
As he spoke, Xiao Du had his head lowered while reading a book in his hand at the ward door. I walked through the door, the Doctor on my side also nodded to say goodbye. Xiao Du saw that we were walking up to him at the same time: “Ai? Ai? Would you two like to start a tutoring class together?”
Special Dialog:
Doctor: I didn’t tell people you were good at physics; it was the head nurse!