Chapter 10
YAN JUN TRIED to stop him. “I can just borrow Chen Hong’s e-bike.”
“It’s too cold outside, and her fever will get worse in the wind.” Chang Jinxing headed upstairs. Yan Jun tried to yank him back, but he was already at Zhang Yuwen’s door. “Yuwen! Wake up! Yuwen!”
Chang Jinxing knocked on the door, but there was no response. He tried the doorknob—it wasn’t locked. Counting on his presumed familiarity with Zhang Yuwen, he went in and shook him awake.
Zhang Yuwen was hugging a pillow, deep in sleep. Startled awake, he sprang up, thinking there was a fire. He didn’t blame them when he found out what happened, though, and merely touched Xiao-Qi’s forehead. “Any convulsions?”
“No,” Yan Jun replied.
Zhang Yuwen went to get his car keys, and Chang Jinxing called out a reminder to him. “Yuwen, put more clothes on.”
“Yup, don’t worry,” Zhang Yuwen said. He headed to the garage to start the car and drive it out. “Which hospital?”
“The nearest.” Yan Jun showed him the navigation steps.
“I know how to get there.” It was the hospital Zhang Yuwen’s grandmother had worked at; he was familiar with the route.
The two of them fell silent. Yan Jun didn’t thank Zhang Yuwen, and Zhang Yuwen didn’t probe any further.
Yan Jun watched the night scene outside the window. The whole city was asleep, and the yellow streetlights looked lonely. Cold rain was still coming down outside, and the wipers kept in constant motion, creating a halo of lights on the windshield that made Yan Jun feel like he was in a dream.
“If you aren’t going to the children’s hospital, you have to go to the A&E department here,” Zhang Yuwen said when they arrived at the hospital’s back entrance. “You take her to register first. I’ll park the car.”
“Okay.” Yan Jun quickly got out.
“Just go through this corridor and you’ll see the A&E,” Zhang Yuwen added.
Zhang Yuwen parked the car and hurried over. It was flu season, and there were lots of patients at the hospital’s accident and emergency department. Some were lying down, receiving intravenous drips, while others were coughing. Hearing Xiao-Qi crying from one of the emergency rooms, Zhang Yuwen knocked and entered. A doctor he didn’t know was listening to her heartbeat.
Arriving at the hospital had alleviated Yan Jun’s anxiety, as if he received an “immunity to death” buff the moment he set foot inside.
“A viral cold,” the doctor said. “If you’re worried, we can do a blood test.”
Zhang Yuwen went to pay the fees while Yan Jun took Xiao-Qi to get her blood drawn. Xiao-Qi cried and, flustered, the two of them comforted her. Once that was done, they waited at the entrance for the test results.
Zhang Yuwen stopped an exhausted doctor who was passing by. “Can you give her something to bring her fever down?”
“If she’s still the same after taking medication, giving her more isn’t going to help. Besides, we can’t increase the dosage any further.” The doctor touched Xiao-Qi’s little hands, his heart aching for her. “Since she already has a fever relief patch on, we’ll just wait for her fever to subside.”
They sat in front of the emergency room together, awaiting the test results. Yan Jun, exhausted, looked down at Xiao-Qi in his arms. She was drifting in and out of sleep, the fever making her uncomfortable and restless.
Zhang Yuwen kept wanting to ask Yan Jun why he wasn’t notifying her parents, given how ill she was. Then he realized that Yan Jun had probably lied to him. Maybe there were no brother and sister-in-law, and Xiao-Qi was, in fact, his own daughter.
Zhang Yuwen was often deceived by sweet talk, but he rarely flew into a rage. Yes, some people were habitual liars, but he knew that the majority had their own difficulties, reasons to withhold the truth. Case in point: Yan Jun.
The test report came back: flu. The doctor sent them home with the advice to monitor Xiao-Qi and wait for the fever to subside naturally, although they would have to return if she worsened. If her fever was still over 100 degrees Fahrenheit tomorrow, they could give her an antipyretic injection, which was essentially a faster-acting version of the same medication Yan Jun gave her.
Zhang Yuwen knew the hospital’s modus operandi. As long as the patient wasn’t in critical condition (read: dying right now), the doctors remained calm. After all, there was always someone sicker than you, and infants’ illnesses were harder to treat. Experienced doctors generally believed that these newcomers to the world could rely on their own immune systems to overcome a virus.
“Do you want to go to the children’s hospital?” Zhang Yuwen asked.
“Nah,” Yan Jun said. “Let’s go home first. It’s easy for infections to spread, given how many sick people there are here. Besides, going there won’t immediately bring her fever down.”
“Looks like it’s gone down a little.” Zhang Yuwen touched Xiao-Qi’s neck. He wasn’t sure if it was due to the cold weather outside or the fever relief patch, but she wasn’t as hot to the touch.
Once they were home, Zhang Yuwen headed upstairs to go back to sleep. “Just come in and wake me if something crops up. My door’s open.”
“Thanks,” Yan Jun said.
“You’re welcome.” Zhang Yuwen yawned, returned to his room without looking back, and collapsed onto his bed.
It was an agonizing night for Yan Jun. Xiao-Qi had never been so sick. From parenting courses, he knew, roughly, that fevers were common in babies, most of whom would have one around the age of one. He just hadn’t expected it would come out of the blue like that, catching him off guard.
He measured Xiao-Qi’s temperature with an electronic thermometer every half hour: 104°F, 104°F, 103°F, 103.5°F, 104°C, 102°F… It left him utterly exhausted. At 5:40 in the morning, he finally couldn’t hold on anymore and fell asleep leaning against the headboard, Xiao-Qi in his arms.
Dawn came. Yan Jun heard someone talking outside.
Zhang Yuwen, who had already gotten up, was knocking on the door. “Yan Jun? Has Xiao-Qi’s fever gone down?”
Blearily, Yan Jun got up and touched Xiao-Qi. She must have still felt uncomfortable, because she started crying.
“I think it’s time for her medicine,” Zhang Yuwen said. Having washed his hands, he touched her to gauge her temperature. “Doesn’t seem to be as hot.” The temperature on the thermostat read 102°F.
“I’ll give her the medicine one more time,” Yan Jun said. “If it still doesn’t work, we’ll go to the children’s hospital.”
“Come out for a while,” Zhang Yuwen told him. “Let the housekeeper clean your room first.”
Yan Jun’s room was a mess and smelled of Xiao-Qi’s vomit from the night before, so he carried Xiao-Qi to the living room. The two housekeepers were already there for work.
“Oh!” Liu Jingfang exclaimed, surprised. “Whose little precious is this? Are you sick?”
“Can you take a look at her?” Zhang Yuwen asked Liu Jingfang.
She took Xiao-Qi into her arms. Raising two sons and two grandchildren had honed and deepened her parenting skills, and she’d also gleaned a lot of nursing knowledge from the Zhangs. Every time her children and grandchildren fell ill, she’d consulted Zhang Yuwen’s grandparents. Over time, she came to learn even more than Zhang Yuwen did.
As soon as Liu Jingfang took Xiao-Qi into her arms, she said, “She’s got a fever. I’ll give her a tuina massage, and the fever will go away. Give me a moment. You boys go make her some milk so you can give her the medicine later.”
It was the first time Yan Jun had heard about the mysterious powers of tuina massage, so he was inevitably nervous, but Liu Jingfang moved with such practiced ease it left no room for doubt. First, she undressed Xiao-Qi down to her diaper and sent the other housekeeper to wash her clothes. Then she spread out a towel on the sofa and massaged Xiao-Qi’s feverish body. After a full-body massage, she wrapped the baby in the towel and carried her face-down. Gently, she massaged the nape of her neck and the Fengfu acupoint at the back of her head.
Xiao-Qi’s loud cries gradually tapered off to soft sobs. Finally, they came to a stop.
Milk at the ready, Yan Jun waited off to the side. When he took her temperature again half an hour later, it had gone down to 100. With a sweet and doting smile, Liu Jingfang carried Xiao-Qi in her arms and fed her some milk, then burped her in one smooth motion.