The pitter-patter of raindrops that crashed against the eaves sang throughout the night.
The summer heat that had accumulated for an entire day was washed away without a trace, and the wind sneaked in from the gap in the window, bringing a nice chill into the room.
It should be a perfect time to have a good dream.
But in the middle of the night, Liu Yan was suddenly awakened by the sound of someone throwing up in the opposite room.
She immediately rushed out of her room in a panic and hurriedly opened the next room door.
As soon as she stepped into the room, she saw Baobao lying on the edge of the bed and vomiting. Her face was white as a paper sheet.
Seeing her aunt coming in, the little girl's eyes shimmered in tears, blinked repeatedly, and the tears in the corner of her eyes fell just like the downpour outside.
"Uuuuuuuuurgghh..."
After wailing, Baobao threw up again.
Liu Yan suddenly felt her head buzzing, the shadow of her sickly sister somehow overlapped with Baobao's figure, waking up the fear buried deep in her heart.
In a rush of panic, she quickly grabbed his ID card and mobile phone, carried the little girl in her arms and rushed down.
Rummaging through the counter frantically, she grabbed some paper bags before picking up the car keys and hurriedly going to her car.
Despite feeling uncomfortable inside, Baobao didn't cry or make trouble. She just looked at her aunt pitifully with a pale face.
"Auntie, am I going to follow mom?"
"Don't talk nonsense!" Liu Yan quickly tied her to the safety seat.
The little girl hummed weakly before opening her mouth, but before she could utter any word, she had another round of vomiting.
Her stomach seemed to be empty after puking several times in her room upstairs, and now only water was coming out of her body.
Liu Yan became more and more distressed.
What happened?
Why did she suddenly get sick?
"Don't be afraid; Auntie will take you to the hospital. You'll be fine soon, you'll be fine soon..."
When Liu Yan touched the steering wheel, she realized that a layer of cold, sticky sweat had already oozed out of her palm.
She didn't even know whether those words were spoken to the little girl or to herself.
The road from the shop to the hospital was extraordinarily long that night.
Liu Yan even felt that the traffic lights along the way were conspiring against her.
She never felt so helpless and fearful, not even when she knew that she had a little time to live or when she heard about her sister's death.
When she caught a glimpse of Baobao's grimacing expression in the rear-view mirror, she felt her heart nearly crumbling.
Stomping the gas pedal hard, the car accelerated through the road at an alarming rate, blowing through several red lights in the process.
It was the first time a law-abiding citizen like Liu Yan had violated the traffic laws, but she couldn't care less about it.
The only thing on her mind right now was how to quickly bring Baobao to the hospital.
The little girl slumped weakly on the child seat, her hair wet with cold sweat, sticking to her pale cheeks.
Her eyes were half closed, and like a wilting sunflower, she huddled in the safety seat. When Liu Yan picked her up, she apologized with a weeping voice, "I'm sorry auntie, Baobao stained the chair."
Liu Yan felt like her heart was stabbed a thousand times. It was so painful she couldn't breathe.
After entering the emergency room, she looked around, and a question popped into her mind.
'Why are there so many people in the hospital in the early morning?'
A nurse quickly noticed the young lady who came in with a kid in her arms and took the initiative to help, "What's wrong with the kid?"
Liu Yan felt irritated for a moment. If she knew what happened to Baobao, did she need to be so flustered?!
But it was just a fleeting thought and she quickly adjusted her mood, then shook her head helplessly.
The nurse nodded and motioned her to follow her.
Liu Yan was like a walking corpse, mechanically and nervously following the nurse's instructions to fill in the registration form.
Not long after, a doctor in a white robe came over and carefully diagnosed the little girl.
"She suffers from acute gastroenteritis, maybe a little heatstroke." The doctor quickly wrote the medical record, glanced at Liu Yan from the top of the glasses, and found that her face was no better than the small patient in her arms. The doctor gave her words of comfort, "You don't need to be overly worried. It's quite normal for children to get sick in this kind of weather. Children generally have weak spleens and stomachs and are prone to having stomach diseases."
"Did the food cause it? I just gave her cold noodles today."
The doctor paused when he wrote in the medical record, "Cold noodles? How cold?"
Liu Yan recalled carefully, "The kind that is not hot."
She didn't dare give the little girl food that was too cold in fear of something like this happening. She just ran the noodles under the cold water once and that was it.
The doctor smiled and said, "It's okay. The main reason is that the little girl's digestive function is not very good. Recently, it's been hot and rainy, and it's a little heatstroke. It's cold and painful tonight. When it got cold, the heat and cold came back all of a sudden.
Eat something light and easy to digest for the next few days, and not greasy for 24 hours.
In addition, there has been a lot of rain recently and the temperature difference is large, so be careful not to freeze your child's stomach."
After listening to the diagnosis, Liu Yan finally let out a sigh of relief.
She had taken care of many children in orphanages, many of whom had been sick, but she had never been so flustered as she was currently.
Perhaps, this was what it meant to be "blood is thicker than water."
The number of nighttime emergency departments in paediatric hospitals exceeded her expectations.
Liu Yan took Baobao to pay the bill first, and then came to the infusion hall all the way to inquire.
Along the way, she saw all the joys and sorrows of life.
This place was a maternity and child health care hospital. There were both newly born babies and children who were suffering from severe illness...
Ecstasy, despair; joy, sadness...
The two extreme emotions on the opposite spectrum were intertwined, like a thick cloud.
Under the exposure to so many high-intensity feelings at one time, Liu Yan suffocated for a moment.
Out of habit, she instinctively stretched her hands and opened and closed her palm repeatedly to collect a lot of emotional fruits.
The dark despair, the pure white newborn, fell into her palm with clear boundaries, but there seemed to be interrelation between them, just like the dualities of yin and yang.
So shocking.
A flash of inspiration surged in her mind. She decided to use the newly obtained fruits to brew a special wine, which she would name Life and Death.
The infusion center was packed with people.
The room was actually quite spacious, but compared to the number of people inside, it wasn't strange that it felt a little bit crowded.
When children fell sick, it was a common sight for not only their parents to accompany them, but also other family members, like their aunt, uncle, or even grandparents.
Even if it was clearly stated that only two people were allowed to be in, the hospital staff were also helpless to block it if another family member insisted on following. After all, they couldn't keep them in check all the time.
Many elderly people couldn't bear it, but they had to occupy a few seats to rest.
The broadcast reminded the parents from time to time to leave as soon as possible, but with little to no result.
Eventually, they gave up and let them be.
Liu Yan turned her head and looked around a few times, and found that all the positions were occupied, so she simply continued to hold on.
After a while, the little girl threw up again.
Liu Yan didn't know what else she could do to ease Baobao's pain, so she could only pat her back lightly over and over again.
After an unknown period of time, a nurse called out, "No. 38, No. 38, where is Liu Bao?"
Liu Yan immediately raised her arm, "Here!"
The nurse came over with the drip bottle, first scanned the barcode on the little girl's wrist, and checked the identity with Liu Yan again before saying, "I'm going to put the drip. Where do you want to place it?"
Liu Yan vaguely heard an aunt next to her say, "We're about to finish. Just hang it here!"
Not to mention the seat, even the drip rack has to be shared by several people.
Liu Yan thanked her and went over with the little girl in her arms.
The nurse quickly put a rubber band on the little girl, disinfected, patted the blood vessels, and prepared to puncture the needle.
The girl shuddered and instinctively shrank into Liu Yan's arms.
She didn't cry out loud, but she retched while crying silently, looking very pitiful.
Liu Yan rubbed her head with her chin, "Don't be afraid, it's fine, it's fine. It'll be quick."
Baobao choked and hummed, her other small hand tightly wrapped around Liu Yan's neck.
Baobao was a brave child.
The nurse's movements were very quick, and the blood flowed back immediately after the needle was placed.
The nurse was a little surprised that the little girl didn't make a fuss.
"This child is so good, she doesn't cry or make trouble."
Nowadays, most children are so spoiled that they cry and throw tantrums at the slightest disturbance. She hadn't seen such a well-behaved child in some days.
Liu Yan was silent.
Most children act on instinct.
They were well behaved because they understood that even if they cried and acted like a spoiled child, there would be no one to comfort and love...
When she was still a child, she also envied the countless children outside the orphanage who could cry loudly without restraint.
Through the fence, she saw those children being pampered by their parents, crying and making noise...
She did not have such a childhood.
And Baobao might feel the same.
The nurse quickly took notes without raising her head, "Sometimes later, someone will come to change the medicine, but parents themselves better pay attention..."
After all, there were too many people.
She had probably been working too long, her voice was hoarse, and there was obvious fatigue on her face.
Liu Yan asked how long it would take to get a bottle of medicine, and immediately took out her mobile phone to set an alarm clock.
Then she said to the little girl, "Just a little bit more and we can go home. Auntie will cook something delicious for Baobao after we go back. So hold on just a bit longer, okay?"
The little girl nodded weakly in response.
The nurse took time to remind, "There are still two bottles. She vomited too much and sweated too much. She has mild dehydration symptoms and needs a lot of rehydration."
Just as she was talking, someone rang the bell over there to call someone. The nurse gave a quick glance, left some words behind, and left.
After the nurse disappeared, the aunt who called them over just now said, "A lot of children have this problem during this time, and they'll be fine after an infusion. You are her..."
The two look alike, and the age difference was also apparent.
The middle-aged lady guessed that they were siblings, but she also couldn't rule out that they were mother and daughter.
Liu Yan replied softly, "She is my niece."
The aunt couldn't help but wonder, "What about her parents?"
Why was the aunt here instead of her parents?
Liu Yan concentrated on wiping the little girl's sweat without making a sound.
Seeing her reaction, the aunt vaguely guessed something, felt a little regretful and sympathetic, and wanted to say something to make up for it.
"Young lady, are you coming back? Summer and winter are the peak times for children to get sick. It's best to bring a small bench when you come. It's convenient when you line up or have no place to sit."
She pointed to the small stool she was sitting on.
Liu Yan thanked her and saw her take out her mobile phone, "Do you want to join my group chat?"
"What group chat?" Liu Yan was perplexed by the sudden offer.
"Parenting group chat!"
The middle-aged lady quickly opened a certain page on her mobile phone, and showed a QR code, "Come and scan, I will invite you in. The group owner used to be a consultation specialist in a large hospital, and often came in to give good advice."
Is there such a group?
Liu Yan felt that tonight she experienced many ups and downs.
She scanned the code with a solemn face, and after a while, a message "Miaomiao's mother invites you into "happy parenting groups"" popped up.
There were already more than 100 members in it, and more than 90% of the profile pictures were of children in many kinds of poses.
Their nicknames were also nearly identical, as if there was a rule specifying how to make a nickname.
XX's mom, XX's dad, XX's grandma...
Liu Yan's perfunctory profile picture seemed to be a bit out of place.
She frowned, hesitated for a moment, and quickly changed "Liu Yan" to "Baobao's Auntie" and changed her profile picture to one of Baobao's cute photos when she played in the rain.
She scrolled through the member list up and down, scanned their profile pictures, and nodded in satisfaction.
Baobao was still the cutest.
Tonight's experience had opened up a new and unfamiliar world for her, filled with many unknowns.
It gave a novel feeling, even if a little bit bizarre.
"There are a lot of group announcements, group files, and so on. You can download and take a look when you have time. There are many guides and tips for raising children. Many novice parents are here to find them..."
This auntie was obviously a warm-hearted person, and she unhesitatingly passed on her valuable experience to Liu Yan.
Staring at the dizzying stacks of documents, Liu Yan looked diligently for knowledge, and it took a long time to say "OK".
The aunt thought to herself that the young lady was quite pretty, but unfortunately, she was half-witted...
Liu Yan wouldn't know whether to cry or laugh if she knew what the middle-aged lady thought of her.
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