Chapter 64
A hundred days to recover from injured muscles and bones. Even if he could be treated, recuperation would still take some effort. On top of that, they were already advanced in age. Their children could not stay by their sides, so they could only help one another, but conditions were limited.
Although Jiang Qingyu had only chatted and played ball with them yesterday afternoon, he really liked this group of old men and aunties. Since he had a way to help, if he turned a blind eye, he would feel uneasy.
The young man thought he had agreed to send the old man to the hospital and thanked him repeatedly, trudging back through the snow with one deep step and one shallow step. Not long after, they carried out a simple stretcher. Fu Jingqiu got down to help support it.
The furnishings and space inside the RV had already returned to their simplest state. The bedroom area was the medical pod. After they placed the old man in the living area, the young man restrained himself from looking around and rubbed his hands as he said, “We’re really troubling you. I don’t even know whether the road will be easy to drive out on.”
Jiang Qingyu bent down to check the old man’s condition and asked the young man where he had fallen and what symptoms he had.
To be honest, when he got serious, he was quite convincing. Add Fu Jingqiu standing beside him, and the effect became greater than the sum of its parts. The other person hesitated a little. “Did you study medicine?”
Jiang Qingyu coughed. “Mm, yes, that’s right.” Then he secretly glanced at Fu Jingqiu and braced himself. “I’ll give the old man a basic examination first.”
“Oh!” The young man suddenly understood. “I get it. Did you study traditional Chinese medicine? Can you set bones? Can you do that… joint reduction thing?”
Jiang Qingyu became even more embarrassed. While keeping a calm face and pretending to stay composed, he used the angle to create the illusion that he was examining the old man’s injury. Then he frowned and said to Fu Jingqiu, “Let’s carry him inside first.”
Then he turned to look at the young man. “Don’t worry yet. The space inside is small. My… my brother and I will be enough. You wait outside first.”
He paused, then added, “To be safe, you can clear the snow in the courtyard first and leave a path. If the situation is serious, we’ll go to the hospital. Also, contact the hospital and see if anyone is on duty over there.”
The young man slapped his forehead. “Right! How did I forget that!”
He was only confused because he was worried.
The old man lay on the stretcher groaning, clearly in great discomfort. Jiang Qingyu and Fu Jingqiu carried him into the room with the medical pod. Everything inside had been cleared in advance, so it looked like a very ordinary small room.
Jiang Qingyu had seen this old man yesterday afternoon and had some impression of him. His personality was very stubborn, and he refused to admit defeat. If he kept failing to win, he would keep dragging people into playing with him. In the end, Jiang Qingyu had deliberately let him win twice, and only then did the old man leave the table satisfied.
During the mid-game break, someone had secretly told Jiang Qingyu that this old fellow just had that kind of temper. Everyone in the activity center was used to it. Win against him twice first, then deliberately lose to him, and everyone would be happy.
Facing him now, Jiang Qingyu felt both helpless and amused. “Sir, it’s dozens of degrees below zero outside, and the snow is that heavy. What were you going out for? Is the activity center not big enough for you to walk around in?”
The old man was still groaning. “Can outside and inside be the same? I wanted to go out and breathe some fresh air!”
Jiang Qingyu said irritably, “Were you also planning to do a set of tai chi?”
The old man said, “I’m still in the middle of learning it.”
Jiang Qingyu: “…”
This little old man!
He gave Fu Jingqiu a look. The latter received his signal and began advising the old man.
When Fu Jingqiu got serious, even Jiang Qingyu could not withstand his whole set of reasoning. Usually, when bickering with him, Fu Jingqiu stayed silent, but when it came to serious matters, he was completely impartial and unyielding. He quoted examples, cited principles, and elevated the issue until the old man was rendered speechless and had no choice but to pretend to groan in pain to escape Fu Jingqiu’s lecture.
Jiang Qingyu held back his laughter. “Sir, you don’t have a fracture. Don’t worry.”
The old man shouted, “Nonsense! It must be a comminuted fracture. I can feel it!”
Jiang Qingyu said, “Then your words are more useful than a doctor’s.” He rolled up his sleeves, looking like he was about to do something big. “At most, it’s just a dislocation. I’m good at this. Don’t worry. In a bit, you’ll be jumping around again. You could even do a set of tai chi.”
Seeing Jiang Qingyu’s tender face, the old man already did not believe him. Then, seeing Jiang Qingyu looking so excited, he immediately felt like retreating. He hesitated. “Wait a minute. I’m in so much pain. How could it just be a dislocation? You… are you mentally normal? Why are you so excited? Don’t tell me you’re some third-rate medical student planning to use me for practice?”
Jiang Qingyu laughed and did not take up his words. He instructed Fu Jingqiu, “The old man is timid. Later, don’t let him see me reduce the joint. Brother, get him an eye mask or a towel to block his eyes.”
Fu Jingqiu said, “Okay.”
The old man stretched his neck. “Okay what! I won’t do it. I want to get off! No, take me to the hospital!”
Jiang Qingyu pretended not to hear him. While pulling restraint straps out from under the bed and fastening them around the old man, he said to Fu Jingqiu, “Um, my strength is a little weak, so I’ll need some tools. Do you know where our wrench is? Help me get it.”
The old man’s eyes widened. A wrench?!
He looked at Fu Jingqiu in terror. Just now, he had thought the other man was strict like an instructor, but now his eyes were full of pleading: hurry up and stop him! Isn’t he about to take me apart?
Fu Jingqiu pretended not to see it. “I know. I’ll get it for you.”
“No! Wait!” The old man struggled to climb up, but the leg he had injured really did hurt terribly. He also did not know whether he should take painkillers, so now he just happened to lose because of this. Otherwise, even if it cost him his old life, he would have crawled up and run away!
Seeing Jiang Qingyu and Fu Jingqiu cooperate so smoothly, one finding the murder weapon and the other preparing to commit the crime, both completely ignoring his protests, the old man panicked even more. He began regretting why he had insisted on going out for a walk. Wouldn’t it have been better to stay in the activity center and play table tennis with those defeated subordinates?
Jiang Qingyu even found a pair of medical gloves and put them on. A mask covered most of his face, leaving only a pair of eyes exposed, shining with excitement. The old man grew even more panicked and actually began yelling for help at the top of his voice. “Xiao Li! Come save me—! These two are going to use me for human experiments! Help!!”
Jiang Qingyu raised his hand and expressionlessly tugged at the surgical glove. His voice somehow sounded a little sinister. “Sir, you even know about human experiments? How learned. Don’t worry. The soundproofing in our RV is excellent. Even if you scream yourself hoarse, no one will hear you.”
As soon as he finished speaking, the eye mask Fu Jingqiu brought covered the old man’s eyes. The moment he sank into darkness, the old man screamed and then fell unconscious.
Luckily, the medical pod had an “anesthesia” function that could temporarily make the injured patient receiving treatment lose consciousness. Otherwise, Jiang Qingyu would still have had to pretend to twist him around a couple of times.
The little old man had already fallen quite badly. He really could not withstand being tossed around like that.
Jiang Qingyu took off the mask and gloves and started operating the medical pod. He had to give the old man an examination first, then treat him. The process would not last too long, which would also keep people from becoming suspicious.
“If we don’t scare him a little, he’ll turn around and think it doesn’t matter if he falls. At worst, it’s just a dislocation, and then he’ll run out for walks every day. Right now, it’s weather cold enough for dripping water to freeze. It’s completely unsuitable for going outside.”
Jiang Qingyu said, “I asked that… What did the old man call him just now?”
Fu Jingqiu said, “Xiao Li.”
Jiang Qingyu said, “Right, Xiao Li. I told him to clear out a path. One reason was to send him away. The other was that if they sensed something was wrong, we could immediately leave. How was that? Wasn’t my reaction quick?”
When he said this, he raised his chin a little, his expression faintly proud. Fu Jingqiu could not help laughing when he saw it. He touched Jiang Qingyu’s head and coaxed him like a child. “So smart, and calm in a crisis. Your arrangements just now were excellent. Even I was fooled.”
He praised him so seriously that Jiang Qingyu became embarrassed instead. He pretended to clear his throat. “It was… it was all right.”
Then, as if guilty, he subconsciously touched the ends of his hair and did not quite dare look at Fu Jingqiu. He pretended to be very busy as he went to fiddle with the medical pod.
Seeing him like this, if the occasion were not inappropriate, Fu Jingqiu really wanted to pull him into his arms and kiss him, hugging him hard enough that he would hit and bite.
The medical pod finished its examination and quickly gave the results. Jiang Qingyu leaned down to look and laughed. “Hey, the old man actually guessed right. It really is a comminuted fracture.”
And he was still making trouble, refusing to let anyone put something on him to immobilize it, practically wanting to walk to the hospital by himself.
Who knew whether this incident would teach him a lesson?
A little over ten minutes later, the medical pod finished operating, and the room returned to normal. The old man slowly woke up. As soon as he opened his eyes, he saw Jiang Qingyu standing beside him with his arms crossed, smiling at him. He was so frightened that he shouted and got off the bed, ready to run outside.
But just as he reached the door, he seemed to feel something was wrong and immediately stopped. He turned to look at the two young men leaning against the cabinet without moving and said hesitantly, “Just now… did I get off the bed directly?”
Jiang Qingyu raised an eyebrow. “Yes, sir. You really are full of life. There are two pieces of news now, one good and one bad. Which do you want to hear?”
The old man had already realized that Jiang Qingyu had not been joking earlier and had actually healed his leg. No matter what, this was a favor. Although the little old man was stubborn, he still understood certain things very clearly.
He hesitated for a few seconds, then gritted his teeth. “I want to hear the good one first!”
Jiang Qingyu smiled. “The good news is, your leg is fine now. I already reduced it for you. You were even able to climb down from the bed yourself just now. There’s no need to go to the hospital. Isn’t that good news?”
Wasn’t that obvious? He was already standing here! The old man asked urgently, “Then what’s the bad news?”
Jiang Qingyu instantly put away his smile. “The bad news is, because you fell so hard this time, there’s a high chance you’ll have habitual dislocations in the future. So morning exercise indoors is fine, simple exercise is fine, but going outdoors to walk in the snow is absolutely not allowed.”
The old man’s face fell. “I’ll be careful…”
Jiang Qingyu said, “If you fall again, you won’t have such good luck as today. At that time, they really will be driving steel pins into your bones. From the way you acted just now, sir, it doesn’t seem like you could endure that.”
The old man fell silent. Awkward and reluctant, he still did not quite want to admit his mistake today. Jiang Qingyu had dealt with old men like this plenty of times before. They simply cared about face. In their hearts, they actually knew they should not have done it. If one forced them too hard, they would instead get fired up.
Jiang Qingyu patted his shoulder. “All right, tidy yourself up and go back. The road outside is slippery. We’ll help you inside.”
Seeing that Jiang Qingyu did not keep holding onto the matter, the old man immediately became cheerful. “Young man, you really have skill! When I played ball with you yesterday, I already felt you weren’t simple. Now look, sure enough, heroes come from the young!”
Jiang Qingyu kept trying to hold back laughter, amused to no end by this very old-fashioned praise. Just now, the old man had called him a third-rate doctor, and now he was praising him again.
Xiao Li and the others had just finished clearing the road when they saw the old man return cheerfully and smugly, moving freely, without any sign that he had been injured from a fall. They were instantly shocked and rushed over to pull him up and down, checking and asking questions, all looking utterly incredulous.
Fu Jingqiu reminded them from the side, “All right, go inside first. It’s so cold outside.”
Only then did everyone cluster around them and head indoors. At first, when Jiang Qingyu said the situation might not be that serious, Xiao Li had not believed him. After all, the ground was so slippery, and the old man was old. It was very easy for one fall to become serious. But unexpectedly, after being taken up for a few moments, he had actually recovered?
Thank heaven. Luckily, they had kept these two here last night. Otherwise, who knew how much trouble today would have brought!
Jiang Qingyu listened to their repeated thanks and sighs, and his heart felt as warm as the heating inside the room. While no one was paying attention, he secretly held Fu Jingqiu’s hand and squeezed it firmly.
The other man looked over at him, his features soft, a faint smile in his eyes, and rubbed the back of Jiang Qingyu’s hand with his thumb.
For things like this, whether or not there were points, whether or not the system judged it worthy, Jiang Qingyu was willing to do it.
