Chapter 28: Indignant at the World and Disgusted with Society
After walking to the side door with Qin Ke in a difficult manner, I stopped a taxi and helped Qin Ke get on. When the driver asked where to go, I hesitated. If it were normal circumstances, I would have told the driver without hesitation that we were going to Ha Medical University No. 2 Hospital, but considering the recent scandal of "sky-high medical bills" at the hospital, I had to be cautious.
I recall a recent TV interview with a leader of this hospital, who claimed with great fanfare: "Our hospital is a good one that serves the poor and lower-middle-class farmers, there's nothing to be suspicious about!" Listening to her words made me feel an unspeakable sadness; when noble doctrines and principles serve filthy self-interest, those doctrines crumble, and principles are reduced to ashes. When someone in a sacred profession tells lies, their face is even more shameless than ordinary liars. They not only expose their own stench but also tarnish the sacred nature of that profession. For the sake of saving face, for the sake of their official hats, they refuse to acknowledge their mistakes, and lack the courage to stand up again, covering their eyes and continuing to crawl or even remaining motionless, which will inevitably lead to being swept away by the surging tide.
After a fierce ideological struggle, I finally chose the Second Hospital of Medical University. Even if I made many mistakes and lost a lot of money, after all, it is a hospital with real strength and close to our school.
After arriving at the hospital, I helped Qin Keyi sit down on a chair in the corridor and went to queue up for registration. There didn't seem to be many people coming to see the doctor today, so after queuing for less than a minute, I got two numbers and then accompanied Qin Keyi to get medicine and an IV drip. Although Qin Keyi was extremely unwilling, she still went with me to the fever clinic.
The doctor saw Qin Kaiyi coughing violently as soon as he entered the door, and quickly put on a mask. Then, he asked Qin Kaiyi to sit down and asked in a tense tone if he had recently been in contact with birds or poultry. After getting my negative answer, the doctor let out a deep sigh of relief.
"Hey! Did you feed the pigeons today?" Qin Ke suddenly turned his head and said to me. At this time, the doctor heard Qin Ke's words and became tense again, and I also quickly reacted to Qin Ke's purpose.
"Doctor, don't mind her, we didn't raise pigeons at home. She definitely doesn't have bird flu, just a normal fever and cold." I said sincerely to the doctor, but he was half-believing and half-doubting, insisting on doing N tests to prove it. At this time, Qin Ke also smiled apologetically and stuck out her tongue at the doctor. In the end, under the doctor's strong request, I accompanied Qin Ke to do a blood test. Qin Ke was regretful of her foolish behavior, while I was slightly angry that Qin Ke had given the doctor an excuse to scold us.
After getting Qin Ke Yi's blood test results, I accompanied her to the doctor's office again with great difficulty. The doctor looked at the test results for a long time and gave his opinion that it was "possibly just a common cold". He then prescribed a large number of colorful medicines. When I held the prescription worth 178 yuan for treating a common cold, I deeply felt the benefits brought to us by medical reform. I went to the pharmacy to pick up the medicine and accompanied Qin Ke Yi to the infusion room for an IV drip. Just as I helped Qin Ke Yi onto the bed, the nurse came in with this bottle of medicine. Looking at this small bottle worth 178 yuan, my heart was bleeding.
The nurse skillfully applied alcohol to Qin Ke Yi's hand, then tied a tourniquet around her wrist, preparing to insert the needle into her artery. At this moment, Qin Ke Yi suddenly grasped my hand tightly, closed her eyes, like a lamb waiting to be slaughtered. As the needle slowly pierced Qin Ke Yi's skin, her fingernails also tried to dig slowly into the skin of my hand. I don't know how strong Qin Ke Yi's pain was, but I can confirm it wasn't as strong as mine, so I pitifully begged the nurse, "Nurse, please be gentle!"
"Ouch! You're still quite concerned about your girlfriend, aren't you?" The nurse said with a smile.
"It's not that! He's heartbroken for himself!" Qin Ke suddenly opened his eyes and said, then grasped my hand and lifted it up to show the nurse, who was left crying with laughter.
The process of getting an IV drip is a long one, and I sat on the edge of the bed staring blankly at the ceiling, yawning repeatedly. Meanwhile, Qin Ke had pulled out a book called "Drinking Coffee with xxx" from her bag as soon as the IV started, and was reading it with great interest. The book was beautifully packaged but empty in content, full of petty-bourgeois sentimentality, and she didn't care at all about how bored I was, making me wonder if she had been prepared to come get an IV with me from the start. So I decided to go out to the newspaper stand by the door and buy a copy of the "xx Report" to read. According to the publisher's boasts, the "xx Report" is the daily newspaper with the largest circulation in Ha City, but in my eyes, this newspaper was almost entirely filled with old news that had already been published by other media outlets, except for half of it being advertisements for virility and kidney supplements; violent, yellow journalism dominated the limited space available, catering to the lowbrow tastes of most readers. Occasionally, a few articles with some new ideas would appear, but even those were taken up by sycophantic writing that occupied three-quarters of the space. I have always believed that as a young person, if you want to keep your mind active, it's best not to read these local newspapers that stifle thought; they should be left for people over 40. In my memory, this was only the second time I had bought one, except for once when I took a bus and didn't have any change, so I reluctantly bought a copy out of necessity.
When I returned to the ward, Qin Ke Yi was still leaning on the bed looking at a weak-minded book, so I sat down beside her bed again, helplessly looking at this newspaper in my hand that led the masses to take the low road.
"Let me see that!" Qin Ke suddenly said behind me, showing interest in the newspaper in my hand.
"Which one?" I said to Qin Ke, holding up a stack of newspapers.
"It's that Andy Lau news!" Before handing it over to Qin Ke, I was curious and took a look at what the news was that had attracted her so much. The news wasn't new, and it didn't surprise me that it appeared here. It was about one of Andy Lau's die-hard fans who had been chasing him for 12 years, to the point of bankruptcy, and just when she was about to give up hope, CCTV and many other well-known media outlets expressed sympathy and lent a helping hand, going all out to help this woman complete her foolish act. What I found even more unbelievable was that many journalists from media outlets across the country also said that in order to fulfill this woman's wish to meet Andy Lau, they were willing to jointly send a "petition" to Andy Lau himself.
This makes me very suspicious that the food in the canteen of news media units is not good, otherwise they would not do such a "full and silly" thing. A so-called "star chaser", with its abnormal and unhealthy behavior, can actually get the support of CCTV and some media, competing to report, making me worry about the fate of this country. At the same time, I also deeply sympathize with Andy Lau, who encountered such an "incorrect, abnormal, unhealthy, and unfilial" fan, followed by a large group of weak-minded media chasing after him, which is probably the most bizarre thing he has ever seen in his life.
I have always looked down on star chasers with disdain, and never bothered to read any reports about them. But when I saw this woman's behavior, I couldn't help but "deeply admire" her. She had a good life, but for the sake of chasing an entertainment star, she ended up in a desperate situation, even dragging her whole family down with her. Her foolish father even wanted to sell his kidney to support her. Isn't this just making trouble? People say that heaven's wrath can be avoided, but human-made calamity cannot be escaped. For people like this, all we can do is show them contempt and advise them to go to a hospital specializing in mental illnesses for treatment, and check if they have any family history of genetic diseases. There's no other way.
I handed the newspaper to Qin Ke Yi with an excited heart, and out of consideration for my heart's endurance, I secretly made up my mind that unless one day toilet paper disappears from the world, I would consider buying this newspaper to replace toilet paper, but on the condition that I don't have hemorrhoids.
