Chapter 192: 192 Poor Person
The sunlight on his face was blinding and extremely uncomfortable.
Du Heng turned over, burying his face in his pillow. He felt his brain still ached, so he didn't want to get up.
By yesterday afternoon, all the students had basically recovered, except for those hospitalized. The rest had all returned to school.
But the people in their meeting were still arguing endlessly in the conference room. In fact, later on, it was mainly the Education Bureau and the Township Government that were quarreling, while the other departments had already withdrawn from the battle. The main issue was who should be the scapegoat. If a certain leader in the city hadn't made a direct phone call after dark to sort things out, the issue might have dragged on even to today without a resolution.
Du Heng was exhausted. The meeting had gone on for five or six hours without yielding a solution or any measures to eliminate the impact of the spreading video. They had simply let the matter continue to ferment. But once the call from the city ended, a solution was found within ten minutes.
Ah, how painful.
After the meeting, Du Heng found no respite. Together with Lu Zhongjiang, who had rushed over after receiving the news, he began to deal with the remaining mess. Medication for several hundred people, whether Chinese herbal medicine or Western medicine, had to be reimbursed by a workplace. In the end, the two unanimously decided to take the bill to the school; the school had to cover the costs.
The bill was sorted out and the accounts cleared. By the time they were done, it was already evening. Du Heng went home without eating dinner and had slept straight through until then.
He had wanted to sleep a little longer, but Du Xuejing wouldn't allow it. She was singing, dancing, and shouting loudly, like someone with a mental illness, determined not to let Du Heng sleep.
"Little Uncle, you promised! You said you'd take me to my little aunt's place today! Hurry up and get up!"
"AAAAAAAGH! Get up!"
...
Du Heng felt like he was going mad. He had no choice but to get up. Looking helplessly at Du Xuejing, he pointed to the door. "Out. I need to change."
"Okay, Little Uncle!" Du Xuejing's change in demeanor was remarkably fast.
After taking Du Xuejing to the rental house, Du Heng drove back to the Health Clinic.
However, just as he arrived at the Health Clinic, he saw Wang Shizhen and Wang Juguo again.
"Why are you two here again?"
"The villagers wanted to express their gratitude. They pooled some money and prepared some food, asking us to bring it over." Wang Shizhen showed Du Heng the large and small bags in his hand. "You go on with your work; we'll take these things up to them."
Hearing this, Du Heng paid them no further mind. He took the bill he had calculated last night and headed to the middle school again.
He had anticipated some wrangling with the school principal, but the newly arrived female principal was surprisingly straightforward. She readily accepted the list of expenses Du Heng presented and very agreeably instructed the school finance department to transfer the money.
The ease with which it was resolved made Du Heng wonder if it was real. It was only after he returned to the Health Clinic and confirmed with Wang Zhenzhen that the money had been received that he finally felt at ease.
Now, he was heading to his second assigned family.
「In the afternoon, Zojiwa Village.」
Du Heng and Zhao Bin, the village doctor from Zojiwa, walked towards the designated family.
Zhao Bin was two years younger than Du Heng but possessed a sharp business acumen. Not only did his clinic flourish, but he had also started a chicken farm, raising thousands of chickens. The daily income from selling eggs alone was considerable.
At that moment, however, Zhao Bin was frowning slightly. Although he walked with Du Heng, his expression was clearly reluctant.
"President Du, why bother with him? He's a rotten person, can't tell good from bad," Zhao Bin couldn't help but grumble.
"Zhao Qiang is still your kinsman. How can you say that?" Du Heng said, unconcerned, thinking there might be some conflict between the two.
When Zhao Bin heard Zhao Qiang's name, he looked utterly contemptuous. His dislike was plain to see.
"President Du, it's not that I'm petty, or that I'm deliberately trying to pick a fight with him; it's just that this guy truly doesn't appreciate kindness." Zhao Bin took two quick steps forward to walk beside Du Heng. "When he fell from the high platform, his skull fractured and he was unconscious. It was his cousin and I who took him to the hospital, and we paid for his emergency treatment.
"Later, we all tried to persuade him not to leave the hospital, urging him to have his boss ensure his illness was treated first. But he didn't listen. His boss secretly came to him, gave him 10,000 yuan, and he discharged himself. Now, half of his skull is gone, and even talking makes his brain hurt.
"He regrets it now and wants to be hospitalized again for skull repair, but his boss won't acknowledge it. He tried the police, and the courts, but nothing worked because he'd personally agreed to the settlement and had already taken the compensation."
This information was all in Du Heng's materials. Since he hadn't been there at the time, he didn't know the specifics and thus found it difficult to evaluate the person. He ventured, trying to persuade Zhao Bin, "Perhaps he was deceived and didn't fully understand the implications back then."
"He wasn't deceived; he's just stupid, a complete fool! It's like he's missing a screw. He didn't trust his own kin but believed an outsider, making it seem like we were out to harm him. Half his skull is gone, and for 10,000 yuan, he discharged himself immediately. If that isn't a sign of a mental problem, what is?"
Zhao Bin was full of resentment as he spoke. "Now, he can't do any physical labor, nor can he do his welding job. The slightest exertion, and the headache becomes unbearable.
"If he can't do heavy work, surely he could manage something light, right? I thought, after all, we're related; I should help if I can. So, I kindly offered him a job at my chicken farm—just feeding the chickens and collecting eggs each day.
"But what does he do? He doesn't take it seriously. He sleeps until noon before showing up, and by three or four in the afternoon, he's vanished. When I finally track him down, he's gone home to sleep. And if you ask him why, he just says his brain hurts.
"President Du, you have no idea how disgusted I was. It was like grabbing a handful of dog shit; it made me want to vomit."
"Perhaps his brain really does hurt. After all, without a skull, only a layer of scalp protects his brain; it's hardly different from being directly exposed." Du Heng said this, but even he felt his words rang somewhat hollow.
Still, headaches and attitude were two different things. According to Zhao Bin's account, it was unlikely Zhao Qiang only had two or three headache-free hours a day, was it?
So Du Heng quickly asked, "Hasn't he tried to find a way to get treatment himself?"
"What could he do? He went to the hospital to ask. To repair the missing part of his skull, even with the cheapest materials, would cost at least 150,000 yuan. That includes surgery, hospitalization, material fees, and treatment for potential complications like epilepsy and infection.
"My Dad initially discussed it with me, suggesting we cover the costs for him first to get him treated. Once he recovered, he could pay us back slowly." As he spoke, Zhao Bin suddenly sighed, his entire demeanor deflating. "But then, something else happened that completely made us give up on that idea. We just decided to let him be, whether he lives or dies."