CHAPTER 70: MUSHROOM VILLAGE 20

Fang Minglan stayed in the general shop, waiting for customers to come in.

But for some unknown reason, there seemed to be more telephone calls than usual that afternoon. When the telephone rang yet again, Fang Minglan had already grown so accustomed to it that she simply ignored it.

No one expected what happened next. A black cat suddenly darted into the store and leaped onto the counter. Acting almost like a person, it pawed at the telephone on the counter.

Before Fang Minglan could react, the speakerphone button had already been pressed.

With a beep, the call was connected.

"Hello? Hello—" an irritated voice came through the receiver.

"I’ve been calling you forever. Why are you only answering now? Mom, I’m not coming back this year. I heard the harvest’s been bad these past couple of years—there’s no point in me coming home."

Right after that, an old lady’s frail, quavering voice could be heard on the line. "Son... Mom’s hungry."

The man’s voice sounded impatient. "If you’re hungry, just eat something yourself. Alright, that’s it. Fangqing is taking Yueya to her parents’ house for dinner, and I have to go with them. I’m hanging up."

There was a clear sound of the man hanging up. But the old lady’s frail, weak voice didn’t disappear.

"Son, I’m hungry."

"Son, I’m hungry."

"Son, I’m hungry."

Those few words repeated over and over.

Fang Minglan was horrified to realize that the voice didn’t seem to be coming only from the telephone anymore—it was echoing through every corner of the shop.

From the walls, the wooden pillars, the counter, the beams overhead—everywhere seemed to be wrapped in that hungry cry, like a dense, suffocating web enclosing the entire shop.

.....

Wan Qian was walking down the road when she ran into the same little boy she’d met yesterday. It was perfect timing — she didn’t know the way, so she stepped forward and grabbed the boy by the arm.

"Hey, um... which way’s the health clinic?"

The boy turned around and froze when he saw her. Clutching the ball in his arms tighter, he looked aggrieved as he spoke.

"Didn’t I already take you there yesterday?"

Wan Qian scratched her cheek, a little embarrassed. After all, it was a bit humiliating for an adult to admit to a child that she had no sense of direction.

"Well, I just wanted to check in on the old lady from yesterday. Since we took her there together, it’d be better if we visited her together today too."

She awkwardly forced out an excuse for herself, silently giving herself a thumbs-up in her mind. When she looked at the boy again, she couldn’t help but smile a little.

Seeing the smile at the corner of Wan Qian’s mouth, the boy instinctively shrank his neck.

"Don’t hit me—I’ll take you, okay?" the boy said.

"...What?" Wan Qian was dumbfounded. She hadn’t even thought of hitting him. Then she looked at the boy’s dirty shirt and the way he cowered timidly—she understood.

This child was obviously from a left-behind family. His parents weren’t around, and he was probably bullied a lot by other kids.

"Don’t worry, I won’t hit you." Wan Qian gave the boy a gentle smile.

But in the boy’s eyes, that smile only made his shoulders tremble more violently.

The boy couldn’t help but think of the old lady at the clinic—one whole night had passed, and who knew if she was still in one piece.

The boy led Wan Qian to the clinic.

She pushed open the gate and saw that on the cleared ground in front of the clinic, little mushrooms were already poking up through the soil.

Wan Qian didn’t give them a second thought and headed straight down the corridor to the ward.

When she opened the door, she saw the old lady lying on the hospital bed, covered by a thick quilt.

The old lady’s face was deathly pale. Her chest didn’t even move up or down—she just stared blankly at the ceiling with wide, lifeless eyes.

"Granny, I came to see you." Wan Qian sat down by the bed. Seeing how frail the old lady looked, she felt a pang of guilt and forced a smile. "Granny, how are you feeling today?"

The old lady’s eyes finally shifted, glancing weakly at Wan Qian. She parted her parched lips with great effort. "Hoo... hoo..."

She was so weak that even after trying for a long while, she could only make a faint, hoarse sound.

Wan Qian leaned in closer, putting her ear near the old lady’s lips. "Take your time, Granny."

At last, she heard the old lady squeeze out a barely audible word. "Go..."

Wan Qian suddenly understood—Granny must be worrying about whether she’d be able to walk again after breaking her leg yesterday. Of course—anyone would worry about that.

Wan Qian looked around for a doctor but didn’t see one. Otherwise, she’d have asked about the old lady’s condition.

So she bent down again and comforted her gently. "Don’t worry, Granny. If you rest well here, you’ll definitely be able to walk again."

The boy, still hugging his ball by the door, could clearly see the glimmer of despair in the old lady’s eyes as Wan Qian spoke softly to her.

"Just focus on getting better here, Granny. Don’t worry about the medical bills—I’ll talk to the doctor and pay for everything myself when I see him."

After all, the steward had said the farm was making money now. Anyway, the old lady’s injuries were partly her responsibility too—it was only right that she paid for the treatment. Wan Qian wasn’t the kind of person to shirk responsibility.

"Alright then, Granny. Seeing that you’re being well taken care of, I feel much better. I’ll leave you to rest now—I’ll be going."

Wan Qian stood up and turned to leave the ward. The old lady watched her figure disappear through the door and her whole body began to tremble violently.

"No... take..." She forced out the broken, muffled words from her throat—but her voice was so faint that no one heard a thing.