Chapter 12: Getting Through the Crisis

Finally, after Su Ruo didn't know how many times she had pressed, a date pit spat out from the boy's mouth, and immediately the whole carriage echoed with the child's loud crying.

Upon hearing the child's cry, Su Ruo felt completely relieved; she released the boy and nearly collapsed to the ground, as if those few minutes had exhausted all her strength.

Su Ruo experienced for the first time what it felt like to race against the Death God.

Su Ruo carefully examined the child's condition, and only after confirming he was fine did she relax; at the same time, she also received the system notification that points had been credited.

The old grandmother beside her, seeing her grandson unharmed, snatched the little boy into her arms, patting his back while saying, "Good child! You scared grandma to death!"

Su Ruo stood aside, watching the scene; she knew perhaps her rescue act just now had been too impulsive, but if given another chance, she would still do the same.

Su Ruo was no saint, and she never considered herself a good person, but as a person's conscience, she couldn't stand by and watch a young life disappear before her eyes when she knew how to save it.

The train attendant only then arrived belatedly; after learning what had happened, she expressed gratitude to Su Ruo.

The people around, their gazes toward Su Ruo also changed, filled with curiosity, surprise, and mostly kindness, after all, in these times there are still many good people.

But Su Ruo did not miss the jealousy and venom in Li Shirou's eyes, although it was only a fleeting glance.

From childhood, Li Shirou had always been the focus of everyone's attention; she was beautiful, excelled in studies, came from a good family, and everyone around her envied and liked her.

But ever since meeting Su Ruo, she seemed to have started encountering misfortune, giving Li Shirou a vague feeling that Su Ruo was born her nemesis, destined to take away everything that originally belonged to her.

Su Ruo merely glanced at Li Shirou and then withdrew her gaze; she knew that between her and Li Shirou, this life was destined to be a deadly feud.

She wanted to see, in this life without her this foolish helper who toiled uncomplainingly for Li Shirou, whether Li Shirou in the countryside could still live as comfortably as in her previous life!

Su Ruo returned to her seat and sat down; this time Li Shirou did not block her as before, and after Su Ruo sat down, she whispered:

"Sorry, I didn't know you knew medical skills; I only stopped you just now, please don't be angry."

Su Ruo disliked Li Shirou's pretentious demeanor, and said coldly, "You should apologize not to me, but to the little boy and his grandmother; because of your ignorance, you might have delayed the child's best chance for treatment."

Li Shirou's eyes turned red; she hadn't expected that even after she had apologized, the other party would still not let go.

"Sorry, I didn't know."

Li Zeyu, unable to bear seeing his sister bullied, shouted loudly, "My sister has already apologized; what more do you want?"

Su Ruo's gaze grew colder: "A human life, in your eyes, can it really be settled by just an apology?"

Li Zeyu wanted to say: that child hadn't died, but upon seeing the boy's grandmother approach, he swallowed his words again.

The old grandmother's mood had now calmed; she held her little grandson with one hand and firmly grasped Su Ruo's hand with the other, unable to stop thanking her.

Su Ruo hurriedly comforted the grandmother, saying it was nothing, just a trivial effort; anyone encountering the situation would do the same.

But the grandmother kept thanking her; from her words, Su Ruo learned that she was taking the train to bring her grandson home after visiting relatives at the unit, and hadn't expected to encounter such an incident.

Moreover, what a coincidence—the grandmother's home also happened to be in Da Qing Shan, the same place where Su Ruo was sent down to the countryside.

Upon hearing this, some distant memories slowly resurfaced for Su Ruo; in her previous life, after going to the toilet and returning, she heard Li Shirou say that a little boy had choked, and the train attendant had taken him away.

Because it was merely an incident, at the time nobody paid much attention; later, when she arrived at Da Qing Shan, she heard that a child on the train had choked on something and died, and his grandmother, unable to bear the blow, overly self-reproaching, after the child's death, her emotions collapsed and she lay on the tracks to commit suicide.

Now thinking about it, that grandmother and grandson pair are exactly the two people before her; Su Ruo never imagined that her unintentional action had actually saved two lives, and her mood instantly became somewhat complex.

The grandmother didn't notice Su Ruo's absentmindedness, and continued holding her hand, saying, "Dear girl! Thank you so much just now; our family has passed down a single line for three generations, I have only this one grandson, if anything happened to Xiao Bao, this old woman probably couldn't go on living."

After saying that, the grandmother shoved the bundle in her hands into Su Ruo's embrace, not knowing what heavy things were inside.

Su Ruo knew that in these times, everyone's life is hard, so she naturally couldn't accept this, and hurriedly pushed it back.

But the grandmother immediately put on a stern face: "These are all homegrown, not anything valuable; just treat them as snacks. If you refuse, it means you look down on me, young lady—you saved my Xiao Bao's life, I don't know how to thank you, so please don't disdain this little thing."

Seeing the grandmother's firm attitude, Su Ruo couldn't easily refuse; she took out several large meat buns from her backpack as a return gift: "Grandma, take these buns back, give them to Xiao Bao to nourish him; he just got frightened and was also stuck by a date pit—these days feed him something soft, like porridge, and avoid hard foods."

The grandmother originally didn't want to accept, but upon hearing it was good for her grandson, she also took it.

"Girl, if you ever come to Da Qing Shan in the future, come find me for anything; as long as I can help, this old woman will surely assist."

Su Ruo also didn't stand on ceremony, saying, "All right, Grandma, I will surely need to trouble you from now on."

The grandmother smiled and nodded; ever since learning that Su Ruo was sent down to the countryside in Da Qing Shan, she had felt relieved.

What she feared most in this life was owing others favors, let alone a life-saving debt.

After the grandmother left, Su Ruo opened the bundle and saw it was filled with large dates, walnuts, and raisins, big and round, amounting to at least five or six catties.

Although Su Ruo hadn't expected any reward when saving the person, upon seeing these items her eyes involuntarily brightened, after all, in these times of scarce supplies, these are all good things.

Li Shirou beside her, upon seeing these, directly turned red with jealousy.

If it were before, she would surely have looked down on these things, but now on the train with nothing to eat, her mouth was parched, and she just wanted to eat something to quell her hunger.

But she was proud; even if she wanted to eat, she couldn't bring herself to lower her face and beg others for food—she simply couldn't do it, though someone else could.

Chen Wei, sitting by the aisle, looked at Su Ruo with a face full of envy and said, "Wow, that's so much, you definitely can't finish it all! Why not share some with everyone?"

(End of chapter)