Chapter 1137

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Protagonist:

Li Xiulan

Time flew by and it was Saturday; Wang Xiaohua made a special trip from Beijing by plane back to Guangzhou to visit his sick father.

Wang Xiaohua called his eldest brother ahead of time, and his eldest brother asked him:

"What time do you roughly arrive at Baiyun Airport? I'll drive over to pick you up in advance."

But Wang Xiaohua said:

"No need. Once I get off the plane I'll just take a taxi straight to your place; it's too much trouble for you to make a round trip."

Wang Dashan felt Wang Xiaohua was being a bit distant, and suddenly asked:

"Third Brother, do you resent me in your heart?"

Wang Xiaohua was stunned; he completely hadn't expected Wang Dashan to ask such a question:

"Big Brother, how could that be? You've been running all over for Dad's treatment — Second Brother and I have seen it all."

Wang Dashan sighed instead:

"Dad's condition isn't too optimistic right now; the side effects of chemotherapy are too severe, and besides, he can't bring himself to be truly positive inside. I thought things were too simple at the start."

Witnessing his father's tragic deterioration these past few days made Wang Dashan start to wonder whether he had done wrong, whether good intentions had led to bad results.

So he actually felt quite guilty inside, always thinking: if he had listened to Third Brother's suggestion back then and not told Father the diagnosis, would things have turned out differently from how they are now?

"Let's not talk about this anymore. Since we've already chosen to treat Dad, let's just persist with the treatment. This matter actually has no right or wrong; we're all doing it for Dad's sake, just considering the problem from different angles."

Wang Xiaohua heard the guilt in Wang Dashan's heart, so he comforted him like that.

At the same time, he also inferred from Wang Dashan's words that the old man's condition was probably not optimistic.

Sure enough, when he took a taxi to Wang Dashan's villa and saw Wang Zhanggen, he almost didn't recognize this old man!

Wang Zhanggen at this moment had lost twenty or thirty jin, looked emaciated, his body hunched, face pale and bloodless; most of all, his eyes held not a trace of vitality, only fear of death.

Li Xiulan had been by Wang Zhanggen's side caring for him the whole time; she had been worn ragged these days, so she had aged a lot as well.

Only families that have had a patient like Wang Zhanggen would understand — this is not merely torture for the patient himself, but torture for the entire family.

"Aren't you in school? How come you ran over here?"

Wang Zhanggen saw Wang Xiaohua come to visit him and opened with this line.

"Dad, it's Saturday today; I specially took a plane over."

Wang Xiaohua looked at the man before him, feeling terrible inside.

All the past dissatisfaction and resentment vanished like smoke at this moment.

"You have a heart; still counts as having some filial piety. Raising you this big and putting you through so much schooling wasn't in vain after all."

Wang Zhanggen's breathing was coarse and panting, weak; he suddenly looked up at Wang Xiaohua and asked:

"Your education level is higher; don't lie to me. Tell me honestly — can my illness still be treated?"

Wang Xiaohua looked at him and answered seriously:

"I've read your inspection reports; it should still be treatable, but you must maintain a good mindset. Don't spend every day suspicious and terrified; if your mood is bad, it might affect the treatment outcome."

Wang Zhanggen sighed:

"I'm like this — how can I keep any damn good mood! Let me tell you, everyone I've seen with liver cancer, not a single one survived to the end. Liang Yuanchao, Liu Xiaoli, and other villagers — once they got liver cancer, they all passed away quickly……"

Wang Xiaohua comforted him:

"That's because you've seen too little. The reason they went so fast is they had no money for treatment. We're different — Big Brother has money. As long as you cooperate well with treatment, I think living another ten or eight years is no problem at all."

Wang Zhanggen's face was full of pitiful pleading as he asked:

"Really?"

His appearance was just like a helpless little child.

Wang Xiaohua nodded:

"Of course it's true; why would I lie to you?"

Wang Zhanggen sighed:

"I don't even hope to live another ten or eight years. Just let me live until my precious grandson can open his mouth and call me Grandpa. If I can live to see you and Erhai both have children, that would be even better."

Wang Xiaohua hurriedly said:

"Jianjia and I are already trying hard to make a baby, so you have to stay strong — you might really get to see our child born."

But Wang Zhanggen said:

"Don't lie to me. You and your wife — one in Beijing, one in Guangzhou — what baby are you making? Separated by thousands of kilometers, how can you make one?"

Wang Xiaohua said:

"Don't I come back to Guangzhou every few days? There's still time to make a baby."

Wang Zhanggen nodded:

"Then I'll look forward to you two having one soon."

As the two chatted, Wang Zhanggen's mood unknowingly eased a little.

Most importantly, he now had the belief to keep going.

Without that belief, he couldn't get past the barrier in his own heart — then no one could save him.

Past two in the afternoon, Wang Xiaohua said he was going to University Town to find Li Jianjia, and would bring her back in the evening so everyone could eat a meal together.

Du Xiaojuan had Wang Dashan drive Wang Xiaohua to the subway entrance; additionally she said she also wanted to go out for a breather, so she handed the child to Li Xiulan to watch, and got into Wang Dashan's car together.

The car had just pulled out of the garage when Du Xiaojuan, sitting in the passenger seat, said to Wang Dashan:

"From now on, whatever you have going on, you'd better discuss it more with your Third Brother before making decisions. With that head of yours, I'm not saying this to put you down, but you simply can't handle things that are too complicated!"

Du Xiaojuan spoke of Wang Dashan like this right in front of Wang Xiaohua, which made Wang Dashan feel he had lost face.

However, he couldn't very well refute anything.

He merely nodded expressionlessly: "Mm, I know."

Du Xiaojuan spoke again:

"This time you shouldn't have told your dad about his condition. I've only just come out of the postpartum center not long ago, taking care of the child is already enough to run us ragged, and now we still have to take care of your dad, and on top of that juggle work matters — even if you had three heads and six arms you couldn't keep up!"

Wang Dashan said impatiently:

"Things are already like this, can you just stop talking already?"

But Du Xiaojuan said:

"I'm reminding you — don't go making decisions on a whim again! Don't make the same mistake again!"

Then she said to Wang Xiaohua in the back seat:

"Xiao Hua, you say, am I right or not?"

Wang Xiaohua could only force a dry laugh and agree:

"Eldest Sister-in-law is right, Big Brother, from now on if you have anything, we can discuss it more."

Wang Xiaohua saw at a glance that Du Xiaojuan had deliberately come along to knock some sense into Wang Dashan in front of Wang Xiaohua; privately Wang Dashan might not listen, but pulling Wang Xiaohua in, maybe he would actually take it to heart.

Although after listening he might not be too happy, it's still better than letting him make the same mistake again later.

But looking at Wang Dashan's expression again, it was very obvious he was very displeased, very resistant to Du Xiaojuan knocking him like this.

After all, saying this about him in front of his own younger brother really made him, as the big brother, lose a lot of face.