Both his grandmother and the nurses took very good care of him, and he almost didn't develop bedsores. In the doctor's words, except for his inability to wake up, his other vital signs were basically normal.
But this is a huge medical expense, and it is all shared by our family and my uncle's family.
With a creak, the door opened.
Grandma came in with a bottle of boiled water.
"Grandma." I stood up and called her.
"You're here." She glanced at me.
"Let me carry it for you." I took the thermos from her hand.
"Your mother was here just now. You and your mother are really something. Either you are nowhere to be seen, or you are always together," she said.
My grandma has never gotten along with my mom. Since I am a girl, she has never liked me since I was a child, and now she gets annoyed every time she sees me.
I said, "There's a prisoner hospitalized here, and she came to see me."
Grandma snorted coldly, "I know. She's on the third floor, and she's wearing handcuffs. When she came up just now, people acted as if she was seeing something strange. I heard that the prisoner's husband left with another woman, and gave their son away. When the female prisoner heard the news, she couldn't figure it out for a moment, so she wanted to hang herself with a bed sheet in the cell."
"I see.
"This woman is really something. If she had known this would happen, why would she have done it in the first place..."
I really didn't like listening to her blabbering on about someone, so I stood up and said, "I'll go to the third floor to take a look."
At the door of the most secluded single room on the third floor, I saw two policemen sitting at the door. I knew one of them, Aunt Wang.
"Isn't this Tongtong?" Aunt Wang called me sharply.
I walked over to greet her and curiously peeked into the ward. The door was so narrow that I could only see the woman below her knees. Her pants were light blue. I had seen their prison uniforms on TV. They were light blue with white stripes on the shoulders and back. Her right ankle was handcuffed to the iron railing of the bed, and my mother was standing next to her.
"Why are you here?" She saw me.
"Grandma said you were here, I came to check it out."
She came out and Aunt Wang went in.
"Aren't you supposed to report to the department at 7 o'clock? Why don't you go back to school?" She asked me as she turned around and cautiously closed the door of the ward so that I could no longer see what was going on inside.
She has always been like this, deliberately keeping me away from her work and preventing me from coming into contact with prisoners.
I said, "Our department hasn't had a check for half a year."
However, I don't think she heard this at all, because at the same time, the nurse at the nurse station was shouting: "Officer Tong! Doctor Zhu, please come over here."
I glanced at her and turned and went downstairs.
It's hard at home, I know.
My grandfather is in the intensive care unit, and the monthly medical expenses are a lot of money. My mother's job sounds good, but in fact, the salary is just that little.
She used to give me 400 yuan a month, which is more than 10 yuan a day. Later, when prices went up, she gave me an extra 100 yuan. I actually saved most of the money and didn't touch it much, unless I didn't have much income from tutoring that month, then I would take some out for emergencies.
I went back to school, had lunch, and then went to study with Bai Lin. We came out at nine o'clock. I was a little hungry, so I went to the canteen's snack bar to see if there was anything to eat.
There are several TVs hanging in the cafeteria hall.
After 7:30, the TV signal in the dormitory was cut off, and some people went to the cafeteria to watch TV.
In fact, the only TV channel to watch was the provincial channel, but everyone still looked up and watched with great interest. At this time, the provincial satellite channel was broadcasting the weekly legal channel.
I glanced at the TV.
The scene was under a high wall, where many female prisoners were standing in an open space, doing mental health exercises such as "Thankful Heart" in unison. Then the camera cut to the side, where a female police officer was standing in front and being interviewed.
Wearing a police hat and a neat navy blue police uniform, he looks capable and energetic.
The reporter asked: "Director Tong, last year you were named one of the 'Top Ten Prison Policemen in China' by the Ministry of Justice and were awarded the second-class individual merit. Do you feel any pressure?"
The female police officer smiled and said, "There is definitely pressure, but pressure and motivation coexist. Besides, these honors do not belong to me alone, but are the result of the joint efforts of my colleagues in the entire prison area."
Bai Lin opened his mouth in surprise, staring at the screen, then stopped and said, "Xiaotong, isn't that your mom? She's on TV again."
Her voice wasn't loud, but it sounded so powerful in the empty cafeteria after dinner time.
As soon as I finished speaking, everyone's eyes were focused on me.
I suddenly pulled Bai Lin away.
Yes, that policewoman is my mother.
When she first appeared on TV, my dad and I had been waiting in front of the TV for a long time. At that time, there were no popular video equipment on the market, so we could only record the sound with a tape recorder and reminisce about it every time during the solar terms.
Later, there were more and more programs of this kind, so many that I was too lazy to ask anymore.
She's a good cop, really.
She used her sincerity and meticulous sense of responsibility to penetrate the hearts of many inmates. She valued them and her work, but she didn't care about me.
On Friday, I received another call from Peng Yu, who said, "Teacher Xue, there will be a large aviation model exhibition at the Science and Technology Museum tomorrow. I have a few tickets, so I specially invite you to go with me."
"Oh. Are you not going to give extra lessons?" Another loss of income.
"Sunday, okay?"
"good."
"Can you give me Teacher Mu's phone number?"
"Mu Chenghe? What do you want to see him for?"
"He seems to be a fan of model airplanes, too. I want to invite him as well. Thank him for treating us to dinner last time."
I said "oh", thought about it and asked again: "What did you say you wanted to see?"
“Aeromodel.”
"What's so good about a model?" I think sometimes boys' interests and hobbies are really hard to understand.
No one knew whether it was because Mu Chenghe was too free, or he had a good impression of Peng Yu, or he was really interested in that thing, but he readily agreed as soon as he received the call.
Wearing a dark brown scarf, she appeared at the entrance of the Science and Technology Museum on time to meet us.
As expected, the Science and Technology Museum was holding an event, which seemed to be one of the series of arrangements for Russian Aviation Month organized by the government.
This time, the models of Russian aircraft of various generations are only for young enthusiasts. There will also be aviation flight performances and corresponding academic exchanges.
This provincial science and technology museum was quite old when I was in middle school. I heard it became much more interesting after the renovation. There are digital simulations of Jurassic and Cretaceous scenes. The aviation hall was always empty, but now it is suddenly filled with many airplane models.
Most of the visitors are boys and their accompanying parents.
The models in the museum are divided into five categories: fighters, bombers, transport planes, helicopters and other aircraft. Each model has an aircraft model logo in front.
Peng Yu actually took out a small notebook and read and wrote down what he had written. I guess he wanted to show off to his classmates when he got back to school.
I couldn't find any joy in life among those rows of realistic models.
In my opinion, there are two types of aircraft, one with propellers is called a helicopter, and the other without propellers and with two large wings is called an airplane. Or among the two with two wings, the white one is a passenger plane, and the gray one is a fighter jet
I dare not express this feeling casually in a place like this, for fear of being despised.
I was bored and looked at the words Su-27, Su-47, Su-30, so I asked casually: "Su? Does it mean the Soviet Union?"
Unexpectedly, this attracted the ridicule of Peng Yu, who pointed to the "An-22" and "An-70" over there and said, "Su is the Soviet Union, so could the word An at the beginning mean Allianz?"
I frowned and glared at Peng Yu: "I thought it was interesting."
"It's just a model. What's the point of it?"
Mu Chenghe smiled, "It actually does have a meaning. But the 'Su' doesn't mean the Soviet Union, but refers to the fact that its designer is the Sukhoi Design Bureau, which is abbreviated in Russian as Су, and pronounced as 'Su'. Whether it is the Soviet Union or the current Russia, the aircraft are named after the abbreviations of their own design bureaus. For example, the abbreviation of the Mikoyan Design Bureau, МГ, is pronounced exactly as MiG, and all aircraft produced by the Tupolev Design Bureau will start with the word 'Tu'."
"Are there many design bureaus?" Peng Yu looked at Mu Chenghe with sharp eyes.
"There were about a dozen in the Soviet Union's heyday."
“So many.”
"Each design bureau has a different research direction. Kamov is good at helicopters, MiG is good at bombers, and Tupolev is good at transport aircraft."
Peng Yu nodded in admiration.
"In addition to the first word, the Arabic numerals at the end are also particular. Fighter aircraft use odd numbers, while other bombers and transport aircraft use even numbers."
After listening to Mu Chenghe's remarks, my first feeling was dizziness. My second feeling was that he was probably a child at heart. Otherwise, how could he describe the model so vividly to a half-grown child
Later I saw a plump orange helicopter model with Mi-26 on the front, and I was no longer confused. I knew in my heart that this must be the aircraft of the Mil Design Institute.
When I thought about it this way, I suddenly found these things interesting, so I continued to look for aircraft with the letter "M" at the beginning of their names, and sure enough, most of them were helicopters.
I was very happy and had an inexplicable sense of accomplishment.
Just as he was about to turn around and show off, someone unexpectedly came over and called out, "Chenghe..."
He was an elegant middle-aged man with a work badge hanging on his chest.
"Director Qin." Mu Chenghe stretched out his hand to shake his hand.
I took a look and luckily Mu Chenghe stretched out his right hand, otherwise the two of them would have collided.
"How come you have time to come to our place?"
Mu Chenghe said: "I'll bring the two children to see it."
Then, the two of them went aside to chat.
Coming out of the Science and Technology Museum, the sky was very gloomy, and Mu Chenghe drove Peng Yu home early.
As we were driving back, he asked, "Where are you going?"
I chuckled: "Why? Teacher, are you going to treat me to dinner again?"
He glanced at me in the rearview mirror and asked, "What do you want to eat?"
Seeing how honest he was, I felt embarrassed. I scratched the back of my head and said to him politely, "I'd better go back to school and eat by myself."
He turned on the turn signal, turned left and said, "Do you know the best delicacy in Russia?"
"What?"
“Black caviar from the Caspian Sea.”
When he said that, I remembered: "Black caviar, is there also red one?"
"Well, black ones are sturgeons, and red ones are other fish."
“Very expensive?”
"Yes, his nickname is Black Gold."
"Have you ever eaten it? Is it delicious?"
I'm starting to feel a little hungry.
"It's not delicious." He frowned when he answered me, and the expression was quite childish, "But I heard from them that it tastes better with vodka."
"Then you definitely didn't drink vodka." Speaking of vodka, I became more interested. "Teacher, do you think vodka is really that addictive?"
He smiled: "I don't know."
"have no idea?"
"I'm not very good at drinking strong alcohol, so I haven't tried it."
Hearing what he said, I heaved a long sigh. Moreover, the alcohol bug and the greed bug in my stomach were somewhat revived.
My conscience decided to obey my stomach, so I changed the subject and asked, "What do you want to treat me to? Black caviar?"
"I can't afford that." He raised the corner of his lips.
Later, Mu Chenghe took me to a Hunan restaurant and had a big meal.
When I came out of the restaurant, I found it was snowing.
This year's first snow fell without any warning.
As the lights come on, the tiny snowflakes are clearly visible against the orange-red light.
I cupped my hands and blew out a ball of hot air.
Mu Chenghe went to get the car. He took a few steps but turned back. He walked over to me, took off his scarf and put it around my neck. He said, "It's very cold. Don't get cold."
I was stunned for a moment, and didn't come back to my senses until he walked away.
Over the years, few people have cared about me so much. My mother only knew that I was a tutor outside, but she never asked me if it was difficult or tiring. I even stayed up all night alone during the Spring Festival this year.
Among the teachers in the college, Chen Ting also cares about me, but the feeling is different from that of Mu Chenghe.
He asked me if I had any difficulties in life and if I was tired of working part-time.
Despite the freezing cold weather, he drove to the police station late at night to pick up Bai Lin and me.
He just told me that it’s very cold and I should not catch a cold.
I wrapped the camel-colored scarf around my neck again. I lowered my face and gently stroked the velvet surface. It was very warm, even with the remaining body temperature from him. The scent of pine wood lingered in my nose, sometimes faintly.
The white car honked at me, and I ran over with a silly smile. The ground was wet with snow, and I slipped without noticing, and fell flat on my face.
I climbed up with a grin on my face and gave him a silly smile.
Back in the dormitory, Bai Lin looked at me and asked, "What's wrong? You went out to look at airplane models and you became a silly girl? What are you so happy about?"
She circled around me and asked, "Did you meet a rich guy who gave you a private jet?"
"Go! Go! Go."
Before turning off the lights, under Bai Lin's questioning, I finally told the three of them about Mu Chenghe.
Zhao Xiaotang said bluntly: "He definitely has that intention towards you."
Bai Lin agreed: "And it was love at first sight."
Song Qiqi was calmer than the other two: "No way. This is no joke."
Bai Lin said: "Why not? If not, why would you care about her so much? Mu Chenghe treats her very specially in many things. And that time in the office, they..." He vomited a little and stopped.
"They?" The sensitive Zhao Xiaotang immediately lifted her ears and asked back.
Bai Lin said: "They were in the office, face to face." It seemed that they endured it again and again.
"He taught me how to pronounce it!" I feigned anger.
Zhao Xiaotang slammed the table and said, "Xiaotong, this is reliable. Identity is not a problem, and age is not a distance."
At night, I got up to go to the bathroom. I walked to the balcony and saw the snowflakes outside were getting bigger and bigger, covering the treetops with a thin layer of white.