Chapter 100: A House Full of Filial

When they got to the town hospital, the doctor took an X-ray and said the thigh bone was broken, so she had to go to the city for surgery.

The surgery was a bit difficult, so she had to go to a top-tier hospital to be safe. It's just that the reimbursement ratio at top-tier hospitals isn't high, and the old lady had some other minor health issues. After reimbursement, it would probably cost ten or twenty thousand yuan.

They were just arranging to send her to the city when the children finally found time to call.

As soon as the eldest son got through, he started scolding his mother:

"... You don't know how to enjoy life! You have food and drink, why did you have to go up the mountain?"

The second son also called, complaining:

"Mom, don't you know how important my work is? The children's schooling is so urgent, can't you let us rest for a while?"

The daughter came in person, but once she arrived, she complained: "There's a hospital in town, why stay here? I could bring you food every day. If you stay in the city, I have to accompany you in the hospital. Hospital beds are so tight, I don't even have a place to sleep at night..."

The old lady wasn't good at speaking anyway. She listened silently, tears welling up, and in the end, she didn't say anything.

When the children found out about the medical expenses, they were even less happy.

According to village rules, daughters need to provide care, but they don't need to pay money.

That is to say, the two sons' families had to come up with ten thousand yuan each.

The eldest sighed, and the three siblings started a group call. The sister simply put it on speaker:

The eldest talked about how much money the children's tutoring classes cost, how nervous the family is when the children have a fever, and how difficult life is with the current market...

The second also sighed, saying that usually the eldest is responsible for providing for the elderly. I have a filial heart and don't care about these things, but with so much medical expense, isn't it unreasonable?

This top-tier hospital is just ripping people off. We have to find a designated hospital! Higher reimbursement!

The sister sneered and said to her parents: "Mom, see that? It's not that I don't want to take care of you, but if I take care of you every day, my shop business is delayed. Do you think my brother will compensate me for that?"

How much business could there be in the shop? Isn't it just a small grocery store in town? A family of three guards it, and if a mahjong table comes, it's as noisy as gongs and drums.

The call ended, and the three siblings didn't mention whether to send her to the city.

Zhang Wang was shaking with rage. He stared fiercely at the phone: "The doctor said it! There's a risk in surgery at this age! The central hospital is the only safe one. Do you three want your mother to die on the operating table before you're satisfied?"

"A bunch of wolf-hearted and dog-lunged things, I have money. I don't need you!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the two sons also exploded:

"Dad! Who said that, who said that? Isn't it that you don't enjoy life at home and just find trouble for us?"

The daughter also hung up the phone, her face ugly: "Dad, your grandson's kindergarten tuition is three thousand yuan. You weren't even willing to support a little bit! Now you have money?"

She turned and left.

The doctor was still persuading them on the side, saying hurry up, the old lady is so old, doesn't her leg hurt? It's so much suffering.

As for the money, it was just an estimate. Maybe they could apply for more reimbursement later.

Zhang Wang also comforted Aunt Zhang, saying it's okay, we've saved over forty thousand yuan for medical treatment, it's more than enough.

Aunt Zhang didn't speak at the time, just kept pinching the old man's hand, saying let's go home, tears streaming down her face.

How could they go home like this?

But Aunt Zhang had been stubborn her whole life. This was the first time she had cried like this, so Zhang Wang softened and said okay.

Anyway, he had to go home to get the bankbook. Stumbling, he asked someone in the same ward to help call a one-stop transport service, negotiated the price, and for one hundred yuan, they were sent from town to home.

Zhang Wang, who had been frugal his whole life, had never been so generous. But he didn't expect that while he was turning over the bankbook and checking the chickens and ducks, the old lady had used her belt to hang herself from the porch, kneeling as she did it.

Speaking of this, everyone cursed: "Bah! You bastards, you don't do human things!"

Another was also sad: "Raised three white-eyed wolves. With such a big thing as a broken leg, they were still there bickering..."

He added: "Enjoy life? Aren't we rural people destined to scratch a living from the soil? If you don't work at home, can you be served like a landlord? Did the rice, flour, and grain come from the northwest wind?"

"It's all bullshit!"

"Exactly! You know the personalities of Aunt Zhang and Zhang Wang. They'd rather suffer and be tired than be bullied. Was it easy to raise three children by scratching a living from the soil? Now that they're old, they end up like this..."

"You say, I don't know how these turtle grandsons were taught..."

"What do you mean how they were taught? Sometimes it has to do with education, sometimes it has nothing to do with it! They're just rotten at the root! People say bad bamboo produces good shoots, but good bamboo often produces bad shoots too!"

Song Youde took a puff of his dry tobacco and sighed: "Sancheng, their family is their family's business. You know how stubborn Zhang Wang is. Be angry if you want, but you can't just come back. Go, you should still go help out, and let Aunt Zhang leave with dignity."

"What dignity!"

Is Song Sancheng the kind of person who turns back regardless?

"They had a falling out on the spot!"

"The three little rabbits went home to tidy up the old lady's things. Zhang Wang dragged a cardboard box out of the utility room, opened the plastic bag inside, and it was full of money!"

"Dad, do you remember those small bills from when I was little? One-cent, ten-cent, and later fifty-cent, the largest being two-yuan bills, all tied neatly with rubber bands!"

Some of these bills had started to mold and rot, some had been gnawed at the edges by mice, and some were stuck together, only showing blurred colors...

But this was truly money, a box of money spanning decades of bitterness.

Zhang Wang opened the box for everyone to see and asked a few aunts nearby to help count. The children were also dumbfounded, standing there, quite uncomfortable, saying to him:

"Dad, look at you, if you had this money, why didn't you say so earlier! Now there are people who recycle these old bills, and they give quite a lot of money."

"If you had given it to me earlier, I would have helped you sell it, and Mom wouldn't have died because she couldn't bear to spend the money..."

As he spoke, he reached out to touch it, but with a roar, Zhang Wang swung a hoe at him, nearly breaking his arm!

"Did your mother die because she couldn't bear to spend money? She was suffocated and angered to death by you!"

She worked hard her whole life, and in the end, she couldn't get over it! Just for that twenty thousand yuan, you could disregard your mother's life. How could she get over it!

When the eldest son got married, he borrowed fifteen thousand yuan to buy a unit in the city.

The second son married late, and it was the same, scraping together eighty thousand yuan for a house... no way, house prices had risen.

When it was the daughter's turn, the ten thousand yuan bride price sent over was supplemented by another thirty thousand by her parents, along with newly made furniture and dowry.

The couple returned to a state of extreme poverty and debt, only paying off the debts in the last few years.

This couple, in their whole life, never shortchanged their children!

———Author's Note———

One more update.

Am I super hardworking today?

Monthly tickets, give me more!

7017k ===== CHAPTER 101 =====