Chapter 74: Going to the Hospital

Hearing the voice, Chen Liyang turned around and saw Zhou Chengbei being supported by a man. The boy seemed to be in a dazed, drowsy state, his eyes unfocused and his face looking terrible.

His heart instantly sank. Releasing Wanning’s hand, he hurried over to Chengbei’s side and pulled him into his arms. “Xiaobei, what’s wrong?”

Feeling himself gathered into a warm embrace, Zhou Chengbei felt much more at ease, and then passed out completely.

“Eldest, take your brother and sister home. I’m taking Xiaobei to the hospital.” After speaking to the eldest, Chen Liyang scooped up the fourth child and sprinted out frantically.

In the taxi, Chen Liyang looked at Chengbei’s pale little face, consumed with self-reproach. He had noticed something was off with Chengbei early on.

How could he have dismissed his doubts just because the boy patted his belly and acted like nothing was wrong!

The fact that the boy hadn’t mentioned feeling unwell was almost certainly because he was afraid of being scolded.

Had the changes he made recently still not been enough for the boy to trust him?

If Chengbei was fine, that was one thing, but if something happened, he would never forgive himself for his carelessness.

“Eldest Brother, Xiaobei will be okay, right?” Zhou Chengxi asked, deeply worried as he recalled how Chengbei had collapsed.

“Xiaobei will definitely be fine. Don’t worry, any of you.” Zhou Chengdong’s voice was low, carrying a strange reassurance, though in reality his own heart was filled with anxiety.

He was a terrible eldest brother. He hadn’t even noticed his younger brother was feeling unwell.

“So what do we do now? Go home and wait, or what?” Zhou Chengnan asked.

If he wasn’t mistaken, Xiaobei’s collapse was probably related to overeating.

Had he known, he shouldn’t have let Xiaobei keep eating with them.

But it was too late for regrets now. All they could hope was that Xiaobei would be out of danger.

Watching the taxi carrying Chen Liyang disappear from sight, Zhou Chengdong let out a sigh. “We don’t know which hospital he took Xiaobei to either. Let’s just go home and wait for news!”

“Driver, can you go any faster?” All along the way, Chen Liyang kept urging the taxi driver.

Seeing the unconscious child and the anxious adult, the driver didn’t get annoyed. Instead, he stepped hard on the gas pedal.

Without running any red lights, he brought Chen Liyang to the nearby Third Hospital within ten minutes.

Chen Liyang scanned the driver’s payment QR code in advance. Paying the twelve Yuan, he gathered up the unconscious Chengbei and rushed into the hospital.

“Doctor, doctor, please save my son!” His voice was loud, carrying a slight, trembling edge. In that moment, he was like a solitary, helpless warrior.

Holding Zhou Chengbei, his back had somehow stooped without him realizing it.

Hearing his pleas for help, a nurse quickly pushed a gurney over, asking about the child’s condition while wheeling him into the emergency room.

Learning that the child had fainted after eating at a buffet, the doctor immediately began a series of examinations.

Chen Liyang knew nothing about medicine and could only stand helplessly to the side, watching the doctor at work.

His mind was completely blank. To think that a child who was lively and energetic just before dinner was now lying on a cold hospital bed, his fate unknown.

Only now did he deeply grasp the fragility of life. If Xiaobei truly died, he would be the main culprit, because if he hadn’t transmigrated here, Xiaobei would have lived until at least thirty-seven or thirty-eight.

But right now, Xiaobei was only seven years old. He had so much time ahead of him.

“Sir… Sir…” As the doctor kept calling out to him, Chen Liyang finally snapped back to reality. Looking at the doctor in front of him, he hurriedly grabbed the doctor’s hands and asked anxiously, “Doctor, is my son okay? He just ate at a buffet, why did he faint?”

The doctor was long accustomed to parents losing their composure when something happened to their children. He tried to calm Chen Liyang down, saying, “Don’t worry. We’ve already found the cause of your son’s collapse.

“He fainted due to unbearable abdominal pain caused by tears in his stomach wall tissue after his stomach overfilled and ruptured.

“Right now, the patient’s condition isn’t very optimistic. We need to perform surgery as soon as possible to clear out the leaked stomach acid and repair the damaged stomach wall.

“If you have no objections, you need to sign the surgical consent form.”

Hearing that Xiaobei had indeed collapsed from overeating,

Chen Liyang found it hard to accept. Xiaobei wasn’t a fool; he knew what feeling full meant.

So why had he still allowed himself to eat to the point of rupturing his stomach? That process was undoubtedly agonizing.

Was it really just out of fear of wasting food and being scolded by him?

Had the changes he made during this period still not been enough for the boy to trust him?

He had explicitly told them that if they couldn’t finish, they didn’t have to eat it, and it didn’t matter if money got deducted.

But dwelling on this now was useless. Looking at the pale child who had already been fitted with an oxygen mask, Chen Liyang nodded without hesitation. “Alright, I’ll sign. Doctor, please make sure to cure my son.”

“Rest assured, we will do our absolute best with this surgery. You don’t need to worry too much, either. Your son was brought in promptly, so the success rate of the operation is quite high.”

Hearing the doctor say this, Chen Liyang finally relaxed a bit.

Before long, a nurse came over with a stack of forms and asked Chen Liyang to pay the fees while the doctor arranged for the operating room.

Taking the forms, Chen Liyang went straight to the window to pay. Since surgery meant he would need to be admitted to the hospital, he paid twenty thousand Yuan to start with, knowing he would have to pay more later if that wasn’t enough.

Spending so much money all at once left Chen Liyang’s savings stretched extremely thin.

But he didn’t feel any sting over the money; nothing was more important than the fourth child’s safety.

Money could be earned again if lost, but if a person was gone, then everything was truly gone.

Before the operation, the nurse asked Chen Liyang about Zhou Chengbei’s personal details, such as whether he had any drug allergies, had suffered any major illnesses before, or had undergone any surgeries. Chen Liyang needed to report all of this truthfully and in full detail.

But how could Chen Liyang possibly know? The book hadn’t mentioned whether the fourth child had any allergies.

As for whether he had undergone surgery before, he had no way of knowing that either.

“Aren’t you the child’s father? How can you know nothing at all? You’re far too irresponsible as a parent!”

“If you really don’t know, then call the child’s mother.” Seeing Chen Liyang completely clueless, the nurse’s brows immediately knit in frustration.

At first, seeing how much Chen Liyang cared about the child, she had thought he was a responsible father. Who would have guessed…

Chen Liyang had no intention of telling the nurse that he was the child’s stepfather.

As for calling the child’s mother, that was even less realistic. Not only did he lack her phone number, but even if he had it, she was currently suffering from amnesia, so calling her would be a complete waste of time.

The only ones who knew about Chengbei’s medical history were Zhou Chengdong and his two brothers. He wondered if they had made it home yet.

Thinking of this, Chen Liyang couldn’t care about anything else. He immediately pulled out his phone and called Aunt Zhao, asking her to hand the phone to the children.

Yet just as the call connected, an incredibly familiar voice rang out: “My brother has no drug allergies and has never had surgery, but he was hospitalized for a week for pneumonia when he was two.”

The boy who spoke was drenched in sweat, hands resting on his knees as he panted heavily from exhaustion.

His voice wasn’t loud, yet it reached everyone’s ears with crystal clarity.