The people around them heard the entire conversation and slowly started becoming unhappy after hearing the truth. They pointed and blamed Zhou Juan and Yin Qiang.

“What kind of parents are they? They actually beat their kid into the ICU?” 

“Sure enough, it’s hard for parents to love a child that isn’t their own! They definitely didn’t treat him well!”

“Tsk. They put their kid in the hospital, and now they don’t want to pay! Bah!”

Zhou Juan couldn’t take it anymore and hurriedly dragged Yin Qiang into the hospital. “Where’s Mingzheng? Let’s go and see him. We’ll discuss it more after seeing him.”

Shu Ning snorted and led the two of them to the inpatient department. They took the elevator to the operating room on the fifth floor. 

The three of them waited for a long time. Finally, a doctor exited the operating room. Shu Ning hurriedly rushed forward and asked, “Doctor, how did Yin Mingzheng’s surgery go?”

The doctor said, “Yin Mingzheng? The fourteen year old kid that was just brought in?”

Shu Ning nodded.

Zhou Juan and Yin Qiang also gathered around the doctor.

The doctor smiled and said, “Don’t worry. The operation went smoothly. Young people tend to heal quickly. He was also very lucky this time.”

Hearing this, Shu Ning’s legs finally found the strength to stand straight. It was as if a weight had been lifted from his body. The thing blocking his throat was plucked away, and his heart wasn’t as stuffy as before.

Zhou Juan also let out a sigh of relief. Although this wasn’t her biological child, he was still the kid that she had raised for fifteen years. Plus, this was the kid that she had deliberately switched with her own, so she felt a sense of guilt towards him.

“It’s just…” The doctor hesitated. 

Shu Ning felt as if his heart was being pinched. He asked, a little unable to breathe, “What is it?”

The doctor said, “To be honest, the blood clot in his brain has been removed, but the damage was from a long time ago. It’s hard to say whether or not he’ll wake up and what condition he’ll be in when he does.”

Shu Ning’s eyes widened, staring blankly at the doctor. He opened his mouth but found that he didn’t have the courage to keep asking.

Zhou Juan took a deep breath and asked, “Doctor, what do you mean? Speak clearly. One moment you say he’s okay, the next moment you say he won’t wake up. What exactly do you mean?” 

Faced with the patient’s family members, the doctor was also under a lot of pressure. He braced himself for their reaction and said, “It means that it’s possible he may never wake up and remain in a vegetative state. It’s also possible that he may wake up after a little while, but there’s definitely going to be some damage in the brain.”

Shu Ning suddenly felt as if his feet had left the ground. His head was dizzy and nauseous. It felt like someone had hit his chest with a hammer. He nearly fainted on the spot.

“So, you’re saying Yin Mingzheng will either become a human vegetable or an idiot?” Yin Qiang asked.

The doctor was worried that the parents wouldn’t be able to accept it. However, he found that the parents were in a good state of mind, so he no longer needed to mince his words. He nodded and replied, “Yes, that’s right.” 

“Then, what’s there for us to worry about?!” Yin Qiang said roughly, “He wasn’t our kid to begin with! Who gives a damn! Let’s go!”

Zhou Juan was still hesitating.

Yin Qiang pointed at her and said, “Zhou Juan, you better think clearly! A human vegetable! Are you gonna be able to take care of him? Didn’t you hear the doctor say that, even if he’s treated, he’s gonna be brain damaged? I don’t want to have to take care of an idiot!”

Zhou Juan’s expression changed slightly. The original feeling of guilt suddenly became insignificant under the heavy pressure of taking care of a handicapped person. 

The doctor was taken aback. He hadn’t expected that the parents would react like this. “Wait! There’s still quite a high probability of the patient waking up! It’s possible that the damage won’t be a problem for day to day life…”

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Shu Ning stood dumbly. It took a while for him to react. “No…”

The doctor rubbed the back of his head, distressed. “Not only did I do all that work for nothing, my bonus is gonna get deducted too…”

Every time a patient left without paying, it was the doctors and nurses who faced the consequences. 

It was hard and difficult work to help the dying and heal the injured. A single major surgery was very expensive. It could cost the hospital ten of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of yuan. If the patient ran off without paying, the doctors and nurses would have their pay deducted because they failed to supervise the patient.

“I already paid 20,000 yuan. As for the rest…I’ll collect it.” Shu Ning finally came back to his senses. He felt like something was stuck in his throat, and he spoke very slowly.

The doctor looked at him in surprise. Finally, he sighed and headed back into the operating room.

Shu Ning sat quietly on the plastic chair all the way until night started to fall. 

As the sky became darker and darker, it started drizzling in the hospital courtyard. Shu Ning’s phone rang.

Shu Ning stiffly lowered his head and took out his phone from his pants pocket.

“Shu Ning, where are you?” Mrs. Cai’s gentle voice rang out of the phone.

Shu Ning suddenly wanted to cry. He sniffled, and his eyes turned red. “Mom…” 

Tears suddenly welled up in his eyes.

Mrs. Cai was shocked. “What’s wrong? Why are you crying?”

Shu Ning wiped his tears and said, “I’m at Lanzhou Hospital…”

Half an hour later, Mrs. Cai arrived. She hugged Shu Ning and gently patted his back. “Don’t cry, don’t cry. It’s alright. It’ll definitely be alright.” 

Shu Ning wiped away his tears and murmured, “Cai Cai, can you lend me 80,000 yuan?”

Mrs. Cai was stunned. “Why do you need so much money?”

Shu Ning said, “Hospital fees.”

Cai Qin looked up at the operating room and immediately understood. “Yin Mingzheng’s hospital fees?” 

Shu Ning nodded. “Yes.”

Cai Qin sat next to him and asked, “Don’t you think it’s hard for Dad to earn money?”

Shu Ning nodded.

Cai Qin’s expression was calm. “Then, how could you ask us to pay 80,000 yuan for a classmate? His parents won’t take care of things, so you want your parents to take care of it?” 

Shu Ning was silent.

Cai Qin continued, “Your father earns about 200,000 to 300,000 yuan in a single year. My health isn’t good and I’m busy taking care of your grandmother, so I don’t work. We can’t just give away a third of our yearly income.”

Shu Ning’s face turned red, and his fists gradually tightened.

“Ning Ning, I’m not against you wanting to help people. In fact, I think that this is a very good thing, but there should be a limit. If it was you who was lying in the hospital, who would pay 80,000 yuan for you? Yin Mingzheng? Plus, if Yin Mingzheng’s condition isn’t good, the follow-up costs won’t be limited to just 80,000 yuan.” 

Shu Ning raised his head and opened his mouth to explain, but there was nothing he could say. He originally wanted to borrow the money and return it to her later, but there’s no way anyone would believe that a seventh grader would be able to return 80,000 yuan. Therefore, he understood why Mrs. Cai wasn’t willing to agree.

“I understand,” Shu Ning said.

“Come on. Let’s go home,” Cai Qin said.

Shu Ning responded, “I want to wait for Yin Mingzheng.” 

Cai Qin shook her head. “Ning Ning, everyone in the neighborhood knows now that Zhou Juan adopted Yin Mingzheng behind Yin Qiang’s back. He’s not Yin Qiang’s biological kid, nor is he Zhou Juan’s kid. They’ve already made it known that they’re not going to take care of it. Even if we were to pay the fees for them, no one’s going to pay us back.”

Cai Qin was objective and rational. “How about this, I’ll pay about 5,000 yuan of his medical fees, okay?”

Shu Ning took a deep breath and said, “Cai Cai, I understand. I know it’s not that you don’t want to but that we don’t have enough money. If we had the money, would you help him?”

Cai Qin rubbed his head. “If he was a friend of yours and we made 500,000 yuan a year, paying 80,000 yuan should be no problem.” 

Shu Ning felt much more relaxed. He said, “Cai Cai, I need your help with something.”

“What is it?”

“Can you start a donation fund in the neighborhood group chat? Yin Mingzheng’s condition is really dangerous right now, so everyone should be willing to help.”

Cai Qin was stunned. “Why didn’t I think of that!” 

However, she immediately changed her mind. She shook her head and said, “No, on second thought, it might not work.”

Shu Ning became anxious. “Why not?”

Cai Qin said, “Did you forget about that incident where Yin Mingzheng broke into someone’s house? It caused a huge commotion at the time. A lot of people don’t like him.”

“It wasn’t Mingzheng’s fault!” Shu Ning fumed. “Cai Cai, what was the name of that so-called victim?” 

“Chen Hui.”

“Yes, Chen Hui.” Shu Ning was also starting to remember. “I remember Dad told me to call him Uncle Chen. He’s actually a pervert! He was targeting Yin Mingzheng and secretly took photos of him, but Yin Mingzheng found out. That’s why Yin Mingzheng broke into his house to get rid of the photos.”

Cai Qin was utterly shocked. “Is that true? Do you have evidence?”

“I saw him harassing Yin Mingzheng twice and overheard some of what they said. That’s how I found out about what really happened back then! As for the evidence…” Shu Ning fiddled with his fingers. Then, he suddenly remembered something the man mentioned at the time. His eyes lit up. “He’s divorced! His wife must’ve divorced him after finding out about it! She also took her daughter away with her! If we can contact his ex-wife, we’ll definitely be able to find out more about it!” 

The expression on Cai Qin’s face was grave. “If that’s really the case, then Yin Mingzheng is really too pitiful. I’ll try to get in contact with Chen Hui’s ex-wife right away.”

The door of the operating room opened, and the doctor pushed Yin Mingzheng out.

Shu Ning quickly walked up to him. “Doctor, how is he?”

The doctor responded, “The operation went well. Now, it’s just a matter of when he’ll wake up. We’ll perform another examination then. He’ll be transferred to the ICU for now. Once his condition has stabilized, we’ll transfer him to the general ward.” 

“Alright.” Shu Ning said, “Doctor, don’t worry, we’ll find a way to get the medical fees paid for. The neighborhood and school have already been informed about it and are raising donations. Please make sure Yin Mingzheng is treated to the best of your ability.”

The doctor replied, “Don’t worry, that goes without saying.”

“Doctor, exactly how much will the medical costs be?” Cai Qin asked.

The doctor said, “It’s hard to say. In some cases, it’ll only cost tens of thousands of yuan for the patient to recover, and, in other cases, not even a million yuan will be able to save them. To be on the safe side, it would be best to collect around 500,000 yuan.” 

“Thank you, Doctor.”

Shu Ning and Cai Qin followed the doctor all the way to the ICU. Once they saw Yin Mingzheng being pushed in, they turned around and went downstairs.

“See? I told you it’d cost much more than 80,000 yuan,” Cai Qin sighed.

Shu Ning said, “I’ll get in contact with the school and see if we can organize donations there. We can also use donation platforms.” 

As for Yin Qiang and Zhou Juan.

Shu Ning gritted his teeth. He would let the two of them relax for a few days. He’ll settle accounts with them after collecting the money!

When the two returned home, Cai Qin started making calls in order to get in contact with Chen Hui’s ex-wife, An Ling. Shu Ning went back to his room to pick up a few more translating jobs. He also gave the homeroom teacher a call to discuss the possibility of organizing donations at school.

It would be best for the fundraising to be organized by the school. Otherwise, no one would donate. 

Half a million was not a small amount. Shu Ning didn’t know how much money they’d actually be able to raise, but anything was better than nothing.

Shu Ning frowned. If he wanted to raise as much money as possible, it would be best to publicize it, make it so that everyone knows about it. Plus, he would also be able to expose that disgusting couple. He’d like to see how they’ll be able to show their faces in public then!

As soon as the thought entered his mind, he decided to act. Shu Ning created a Weibo account and wrote a detailed account about the entire course of events, including the abuse and false accusations that Yin Mingzheng suffered from since he was young. Of course, in order to avoid trouble, he didn’t mention anything about the situation regarding the swapped kids. He was afraid that the post would get deleted right away if he included that. He was also worried that it would be too unbelievable and no one would donate.

After writing it up, he included his name and bank details and uploaded the post online. Then, he immersed himself in his translation work. 

Once he received 1,000 yuan from the translation job, he immediately contacted a verified account. After a bit of coaxing and pestering, he managed to get the advertising price lowered to 1,000 yuan.

The verified account told him that donations through the bank weren’t transparent, and not a lot of people would believe him. It would be better if he went through an intermediary platform.

Shu Ning expressed that he understood.

The next day, he asked for leave from school. At the hospital, he asked the nurse for Yin Mingzheng’s photo, medical records, an itemized receipt, etc. Then, he made an account on DiDiChou. DiDiChou’s verification speed was incredibly fast. That afternoon, a volunteer contacted Shu Ning and came to the hospital to check the situation. 

Because Shu Ning wasn’t Yin Mingzheng’s blood relative, the volunteer spent a long time verifying the situation. Shu Ning wasn’t very clear on how the process worked exactly. All of the follow-up procedures were handled by the enthusiastic volunteer.

Once the DiDiChou account was set up, he went home and posted the donation link on Weibo.

In the class group chat, Wang Shenshen and Long Qiao were very active, organizing classmates to make donation boxes and account books to keep track of donations.

Some students gave out red envelopes directly. Although it was only ten or twenty yuan, this was already quite a bit for seventh grade students. 

Shu Ning took screenshots of the messages and red envelopes, waiting to show Yin Mingzheng once he woke up. He wanted to tell him that, even if his parents had abandoned him, there were still many, many people who cared about him.

That’s why, you have to get better.