Someone hurriedly went to Qiao Zhuang’s house to inform them and the entire family rushed out. When Wang Qin and Jiang Ye arrived, they vomited when they saw the scene in front of them. They had never seen anyone injured so badly.
“My son! What happened to you!” Qiao Zhuang crouched over Qiao Fu and cried his heart out.
Their entire family knew that Qiao Fu had gone to ambush Qiao Qiang and Qiao Mei today. They had thought that the news coming from the village would be bad news about Qiao Mei, but they did not expect it to be about Qiao Fu.
“Uncle Qiao Zhuang, don’t cry. The most pressing issue now is whether we should bring him to the county city hospital for treatment,” Zhao Liang asked anxiously.
Zhao Liang was just a village official and could not make this decision for the family as it involved payment. Even then, money was the smaller issue. It was truly a matter of life and death. If Qiao Fu died on the way, and then Qiao Zhuang’s family tried to extort money from the villager office, he would get into trouble even though he had been kind enough to help.
“Yes, yes, yes! Let’s go!” Qiao Zhuang quickly agreed. If Qiao Fu died, there would be one less person in the family who could earn money. If they sent him for treatment, they could still ask Qiao Qiang’s family for a sum of money! This matter definitely had something to do with them!
Zhao Liang made arrangements for two horse carriages, one for Qiao Fu and one for the family members. They all reached the county city hospital not long after.
By the time they reached the county city hospital, Qiao Qiang had already finished his checkup.
Qiao Qiang’s injuries were not serious. After the doctor did a general review, the doctor said that he would be fine after recuperating at home for a period of time. Qiao Qiang had osteoporosis since he was already elderly and this time, there were no broken bones, only a few hairline fractures.
However, even if it was only a slight hairline fracture, it was not something minor. After all, at Qiao Qiang’s age, if he continued to do tiring work and the injuries could not heal, it could drag on to a stage until it was beyond treatment. Qiao Mei even asked the doctor to give Qiao Qiang a referral for a gastric checkup, so that Qiao Qiang could get his old ailment looked at.
“Look, I told you I’m fine. You guys insist on bringing me to the hospital. I won’t go for another checkup. Let’s go home,” Qiao Qiang muttered softly.
Qiao Mei had been holding back her anger all this while. This was the hospital and she could not make any loud noises in the corridor. She suppressed her annoyance and settled Qiao Qiang down in the lounge first.
“You still say you’re fine! You’re already old, yet you still think you’re young! You’re so infuriating!” Qiao Mei said as she stood opposite Qiao Qiang with her hands on her hips.
“I know my own body! What illness can I have! Stop making a fuss…” Qiao Qiang said impatiently.
Qiao Mei was so angry that her eyes were filled with tears. She had no other relatives in this world except Qiao Qiang and Li Gui. If anything happened to Qiao Qiang, how could she live?
“Even if you don’t do it for yourself, you have to do it for us children. Zhang Wei and I can’t lose you,” Qiao Mei said as she sat at the side and wept in a fit of pique.
This time, Zhang Wei did not side with Qiao Qiang anymore. This time, he also supported Qiao Mei.
“Grandfather, elder sister is right. You have to listen to us!” Zhang Wei said stubbornly.
Qiao Qiang sighed. As one got older, one would become muddle-headed. Qiao Mei was pregnant and if anything happened to her because she got too worked up, he would feel even more guilty. The days now were different from the past. Qiao Mei had made a lot of money and they would never be able to spend all that money in their lives. They should look after themselves better and live longer.
“I’ll listen to you. Let’s go and do the checkup,” Qiao Qiang said as he patted Qiao Mei’s hand.
Qiao Mei and Zhang Wei stood on either side of Qiao Qiang and slowly led him towards the room for his gastric checkup appointment. There were not many wheelchairs available in even the big hospitals in the capital, let alone in their small county city.
As soon as they left the lounge, they saw a group of doctors surrounding Qiao Fu, seemingly at a loss. They had never seen such serious injuries at the county city hospital. They had given Qiao Fu an infusion of drugs to keep him alive and asked the family to send him to the hospital in the provincial city for treatment. The doctors there should be able to treat him in time if they sped up.
Qiao Mei originally thought that Qiao Fu deserved to die, but when she saw him in such a miserable state, she could not bear it. While Qiao Zhuang’s family went to make payment, she dripped two drops of 100-year-old ginseng juice into Qiao Fu’s mouth to keep him alive.
Otherwise, with such a long journey ahead, Qiao Fu would die before he could make it to the provincial city.
After absorbing the 100-year-old ginseng juice, Qiao Fu’s face quickly showed signs of rosiness. Under normal circumstances, such concentrated ginseng juice could only be drunk by mixing it with water. However, Qiao Fu was already seriously injured and drinking it directly was not too much for him.