Chapter 1524: Just This Once, Never Again

Only, none of the three people inside the room recognised the person standing outside.

Fu Yan Cheng frowned and stood up unhappily: "Who are you? What do you want?"

The woman standing outside the door now also felt she had been too rash: "Um, could you do me a favour?"

Mother Fu glanced at her grandson and granddaughter on the bed — fortunately the little ones hadn't been disturbed by the commotion just now — but she was genuinely a little displeased.

She reached out and tugged at her son, who was about to head for the door, and went over herself: "What kind of help do you need?"

Only when she drew closer did she notice the woman was also holding a child in her arms — probably afraid the child would catch cold, wrapped right inside her padded jacket: "What's this about?"

The woman said pitifully: "Auntie, I, I, um, could you give this child a little something to eat?"

Mother Fu took one look at her expression and took an inexplicable dislike to her: "My daughter-in-law hasn't even started producing milk yet, I can't help you — go ask someone else."

It wasn't that she lacked kindness; after working at the union for so many years, she had seen every kind of person there was. That woman's eyes weren't right, and she had no wish to bring trouble on herself.

The woman probably hadn't expected that, pitiful as she was, Mother Fu would refuse her outright: "Auntie, this child can hardly eat a few bites. I heard the people in the ward say your family feeds the babies formula — please, save my daughter."

Mother Fu saw this woman was trying to latch onto her family: "Where are your family members?"

The woman glanced toward the stairwell: "They went out to handle some things."

Mother Fu looked at the child in her arms, reached out and gestured for the woman to step back a pace, and seeing Head Nurse Gu heading this way, raised her hand and called out: "Head Nurse Gu, could you come over a moment?"

The head nurse, giving instructions to the nurses beside her as she came, reached the door and saw the woman standing there: "Why aren't you staying properly in your ward? What are you out here for?"

The woman said with a pitiful look: "I, I, the baby's hungry, I have no milk, I came over to borrow a little something to feed the child."

At that moment, a family member of another mother who'd just given birth, from the same ward as this woman, came out and happened to overhear her words: "Sounds nice, doesn't it — borrow. Have you ever thought about paying it back?

You just want to play pitiful and fish for sympathy, then get other people's things for free. Shameless."

Hearing those words, the woman jerked her head up, her eyes brimming with tears: "I wasn't borrowing from you — are you trying to force me and my daughter to our deaths?"

Fu Yan Cheng pulled his own mother back behind him, not wanting the situation to escalate any further — after all, his wife had just given birth and needed quiet rest — but he didn't feel the slightest goodwill toward this woman: "Enough. I can understand why you're making this scene, but I don't approve. After all, the things in my home didn't blow in on the wind either. Just this once, and never again."

He turned, went back inside, and brought out the bag of formula: "Go get a bowl."

The woman could spare no thought for anything else now — all she wanted was for her daughter to survive. She pushed past the onlookers behind her, rushed back to her own bed, snatched up her old tea cup and hurried over.

Fu Yan Cheng was a father now himself, and in the end his heart softened. He poured in enough formula for the child to have two feeds: "This was prepared by my wife for our triplets. This is all we can do for you."

Saying that, he pulled his mother back inside: "Mom, hurry up and eat — it'll get cold if you don't."

Liu Chuxue naturally understood why Fu Yan Cheng had done it. This was, after all, a military hospital — if he refused to lend a thing in front of so many people, his reputation would be done for. But that didn't mean they should be taken for suckers.

After today's little scene, that woman would likely lose face to come borrow again; even if she really did come and they refused, they needn't fear anyone writing an article about it — after all, they weren't saviours.