Chapter 100: 100. Laughter fills the hall with great “filial piety” (2)_1
By the time they reached the town hospital, the doctor said after taking an x-ray that her thigh bone was broken and she needed surgery in the city.
The surgery was somewhat complicated and had to be done at a top-tier hospital to be safe. The problem was that the reimbursement rate at a top-tier hospital was not high, and the old lady had some other minor issues as well. After reimbursement, the estimated expenses would still be around ten to twenty thousand yuan.
Just as they were arranging to send her to the city quickly, the children finally had time to make phone calls.
When the eldest son got on the phone, he started by complaining about his mother:
“…She just can’t enjoy the good life! With food and drink aplenty, why did she have to go up the mountain?”
The second son also made a call, grumbling:
“Mom, don’t you realize how important my job is right now? How crucial it is for the kids to go to school? Can’t you just give us a break?”
The daughter, on the other hand, came in person and began to complain as soon as she arrived: “If you stayed in the town hospital, I could bring you meals every day. If you stay in the city hospital, not only do I have to keep you company, but the hospital beds are so scarce, I won’t even have a place to sleep at night…”
The old lady was not good at speaking to start with, and now she just listened silently, her eyes brimming with tears, until in the end she didn’t say a word.
The children were even less willing when they found out about the medical expenses.
In the village, it was customary for daughters to take care of their parents but not to contribute financially.
Meaning, the two sons would each have to come up with around ten thousand yuan.
The eldest sighed, and the three siblings started a group call, with the sister turning her voice on speaker:
The eldest explained how much money was needed for the children’s tutoring classes, how tense it was at home when the kids were sick, and how tough life was given the current market conditions…
The second son also sighed, saying everyone else had the eldest take care of the parents, and that he didn’t mind that, out of filial piety. But for medical expenses to be so high, wasn’t that unreasonable?
“These top-tier hospitals are just scamming us; we should find a designated hospital instead! The reimbursement is better!”
The sister let out a cold laugh, telling her parents, “Mom, you see? It’s not that I don’t want to take care of you, but if I do it every day, it’ll affect the business in the store. Do you think my brother will compensate me?”
How much business could her store possibly have? It was just a small shop in the town where the family of three would stay all day long, sometimes setting up a mahjong table, making as much noise as a marching band.
After hanging up the phone, the three siblings didn’t even bring up the matter of sending her to the city.
Zhang Wang was trembling as he listened, glaring fiercely at his phone: “The doctor said surgery at her age is risky! It’s only safe at the central hospital. You three, do you want to see your mother die on the operating table before you’re satisfied?”
“A pack of ungrateful brutes, I have money. I don’t need yours!”
No sooner had he spoken than the two sons exploded:
“Dad! Who said that? Who said that? Isn’t it you who can’t enjoy a quiet life at home, causing us all this trouble?”
The daughter had also hung up the phone, her face looking terrible: “Dad, it costs three thousand yuan for your grandson’s kindergarten fees, and you were reluctant to help out! Now you suddenly have money?”
And with a slap on the back, she walked out.
The doctor kept advising them to hurry, saying that at the old lady’s age, her leg must be in pain and enduring so much suffering.
As for the money, it was just a rough estimate; they could always apply later, who knows, they might get more reimbursed.
Zhang Wang was trying to comfort Mrs. Zhang, insisting it was alright as they had saved up over forty thousand yuan for medical treatment, which should be more than enough.
Mrs. Zhang didn’t say a word at the time; she just kept clutching her husband’s hand, insisting on going home, tears falling drop by drop.
How could she go home ?
But Zhang Wang’s wife had been stubborn all her life, and this time was the first she had cried , so Zhang Wang’s heart softened and he agreed.
Anyway, he was going to go home to fetch the savings book. After some difficulty, he asked someone from the same ward to help make a phone call for a “one dragon” shuttle service, discussed the price, and got offered a ride from the town to home for one hundred yuan.
The always frugal Zhang Wang had never been so lavish. Yet, to his surprise, while he was busy flipping the savings book thinking about encircling chickens and ducks, the old lady hanged herself on the porch with her belt, kneeling down and ending her life.
Upon this part of the story, everyone was cursing, “Bah! What a bastard who doesn’t act human!”
Another one, feeling emotional, said, “To have raised three ingrates, and with such a serious issue as a broken leg, they still quibbled…”
Someone else added, “Enjoying good fortune? Aren’t we country people destined to scratch a living from the soil our whole lives? Without working at home, could we be waited on like a landlord, as if food and grain come from the northwest wind blowing them in?”
“That’s all nonsense!”
“Exactly! You know what Zhang Wang and his wife are like. They would rather endure hardship than take insults. Was it easy raising three children by scratching a living from the soil? Now when they’re old, this is what they end up with…”
“Can you believe how this rotten grandson was taught…?”
“What about being taught? Sometimes it’s related to upbringing, but sometimes it has nothing to do with it at all! He’s just rotten from the roots! People always say bad bamboo produces good shoots, but good bamboo can easily produce bad shoots too!”
Song Youde took a puff of his dry tobacco pipe and sighed, “Sancheng, their family’s issues are their own, you know how stubborn Zhang Wang is. Anger aside, you can’t just come back . Look, you should lend a hand when it’s needed, let’s send Zhang Wang’s wife off with dignity.”
Was Song Sancheng the kind of person who would just turn around and leave things unattended?
“It all fell apart right there!”
“The three sorry sons came home to sort through the old lady’s belongings, and Zhang Wang directly dragged out a cardboard box from the storeroom, opened the plastic bag inside, and it was all money!”
“Dad, do you remember those old bills from my childhood? The one-point and one-cent ones, later the fifty-cent ones, the biggest being two yuan, all neatly tied up with rubber bands!”
Some of the money had started to mold and rot, some had been nibbled on the edges by mice and weren’t complete anymore, and some were stuck together, leaving only a blur of colors…
But this was indeed all money, a box full of decades of hard-earned money.
Zhang Wang opened this box of money for everyone to see, calling several sisters-in-law from around to help count, leaving his children dumbfounded. They stood there, rather uncomfortably, saying to him:
“Dad, look at you, if you had this money, why didn’t you say so! There are people who collect these old bills now, and they offer good money for them.”
“Give them to me earlier, I could have sold them for you. Mom wouldn’t have… not wanting to spend the money to…”
As they reached out to touch the money, suddenly, a hoe swung by Zhang Wang almost broke an arm with a whoosh!
“Did your mom die because she didn’t want to spend the money? She was literally suffocated and angered to death by you all!”
They had worked hard all their lives, and in the end, they couldn’t get over this one breath! For that twenty thousand yuan, they were willing to disregard the lives of their parents. How could she accept that!
The eldest son got married years ago, and they begged and borrowed fifteen thousand yuan for him to buy a public-funded apartment in the city.
The second son married late, but it was the same routine, scraping together eighty thousand yuan for an apartment… There was no choice; housing prices had risen.
When it was their daughter’s turn, they supplemented the ten thousand yuan dowry they received with another thirty thousand, along with the new furniture they provided as part of her wedding gift.
The couple returned to their debt-ridden state of poverty, and it was only in recent years that they had gradually cleared their debts.
In their lifetime, the couple never wronged their children!