Chapter 102
Chapter 102: He Touched Something He Shouldn’t Have
At this time, Du An Rao still had no idea what was happening upstairs. She was chewing on the little pastries her Fourth Sister had brought over and drinking the fresh juice her Second Brother had poured for her, happily enjoying a relaxed late-night snack. Now and then she chatted a bit with relatives who came up to greet her, so she was not too bored.
Du An Rao had lived up in the mountains for more than ten years. All the people she had ever met added together were fewer than the people here today. But she seemed to be born especially sensitive to other people’s goodwill and malice. Most of the time, she could sense at a glance whether the person in front of her liked her or disliked her.
Du An Rao could feel that there were many guests present, but at least the relatives who took the initiative to greet her basically had no bad intentions toward her. To be exact, most of them were just curious.
That was easy to understand. A completely unfamiliar face had suddenly appeared among the relatives. On top of that, she was someone who had been lost for more than ten years and then found again. If it were her, she would be curious too.
Because she did not feel any malice coming from these people, Du An Rao accepted this overly lively birthday party quite well. She even had the leisure to quietly take a look at each relative who came to say hello, checking their recent career luck and whether they faced good fortune or disaster.
Most of them did not have any real problems. Even if they were going to have bad luck, it was just something small, like going out and getting bird poop on their heads.
The relative who was about to have bird poop dropped on his head: “…”
No, no, no. That was not a small problem at all. It was a huge problem. He had a cleanliness obsession!
The moment he thought he might get hit by bird droppings if he went out, this young man, who already had a bit of a shut-in personality, immediately decided to stay at home for the next few days and not let any bird get within five meters of him.
But in a big crowd, it was still normal to run into one or two people with serious problems. For example, there had been Ruan Xiu Ru just now, and now there were the two people standing in front of her.
“This is your uncle and your cousin. Their family lives in City B. This time they flew back especially for you. Oh right, why didn’t your aunt and You Nian come with you? Ru Ning just went upstairs for something. I’ll have someone go up and ask her to come down.”
“No, no need.” Jiang Wen Tao’s face looked haggard to the naked eye. He waved his hand and said: “You go on and do what you need to do. We’ll leave after a while. You are An Rao, right? This is the birthday present your aunt prepared for you. She and your second cousin had something to do and couldn’t come in person, so she asked us to bring the gift over. You and Yu Xi are both good kids. You must have suffered a lot in the ten-plus years you were away from home. Now that you’re back, everything will get better.”
Father Du had known this brother-in-law for at least twenty or thirty years. This was the first time he had ever seen him look so worn out and defeated.
Before Du An Rao could speak, he frowned and asked first: “What happened? You and Chang Bin… and your wife and You Nian…”
“I should be the one to say it.” Jiang Chang Bin pushed up his glasses on the bridge of his nose and said: “About half a month ago, You Nian suddenly fainted in the study. We sent him to the hospital and did all kinds of tests, but they couldn’t find anything.”
You Nian was Du An Rao’s second cousin and Jiang Wen Tao’s younger son.
The Du family members were all shocked to hear this news: “Then how is You Nian now…?”
Jiang Chang Bin shook his head in a tired way: “At first we also thought it was nothing. But in this half month, You Nian’s body has gotten weaker and weaker. His face looks worse and worse. No matter how many tests we run, we still can’t find the cause. These past few days, we have almost run through every hospital in City B, but we still haven’t found a single solution.”
Father Du’s face also looked very bad when he heard this. In his mind, the words “terminal illness” flashed by, out of his control.
“Something this serious, why are you only telling us now?”
The father and son of the Jiang family showed bitter smiles. At first, they had never thought it would become this serious. By the time they realized something was wrong, things were already out of control, and they also panicked.
If they had not suddenly received Mother Du’s message inviting them to come to the birthday party for Du An Rao and her sister, they would probably still be rushing from hospital to hospital right now. Only then did they remember that their brother-in-law’s business seemed to be linked to hospitals. Maybe he knew some more powerful doctors who could save their child.
So the two of them bought the earliest plane tickets they could and rushed over in a hurry. Coming for the birthday party of the two girls was just an excuse. Asking Father Du to help save their child was the real reason.
“We really had no other choice. If you can at least find the cause of the illness, that would be something. But right now we do not even know what disease it is. Even if the doctors want to treat it, they have no way. Your sister-in-law and I already talked it over. First we want to ask if there is any hospital here that has any ideas. If possible, we want to transfer You Nian here to take another look. If that doesn’t work, we’ll have to go abroad and try our luck.”
Since it was a human life, Father Du did not dare to delay. He nodded and said: “I’ll call Director Qiao in a while and ask him. We’ll give you an answer as soon as possible.”
Only then did the faces of Jiang Wen Tao and his son look a bit better. They knew that talking about such things at a child’s birthday party was unlucky, but they had really run out of options. They could only treat a dead horse like a living one and hope for the best.
While the older men were talking about serious matters, Du An Rao did not feel it was her place to interrupt. She hid behind Father Du, lost in thought.
[The way second cousin is right now doesn’t sound much like he’s sick. It sounds more like he touched some dirty thing he shouldn’t have.]
The father and son of the Jiang family froze and turned to look at each other by instinct. Shock filled both of their eyes. They had never even thought of that!
But it was hard to blame them. When an ordinary person faints for no reason and their body grows weaker for no reason, the first reaction is to think of illness. Who would think of that other kind of thing?
Du An Rao did not know that the person involved had heard her little mutter in her heart word for word. She quietly leaned out from behind Father Du and stared at Jiang Wen Tao and Jiang Chang Bin for a few seconds.
[Looking closely, both Uncle and big cousin have yellow hanging over their foreheads right now, and the color is quite deep. That means it’s not just second cousin. The two of them also have some health problems at the moment. It’s just that theirs are not as serious as second cousin’s.]
The hearts of Jiang Wen Tao and his son gave a hard thump. Their hands hanging by their sides even began to tremble slightly. So it was not only You Nian. They also…
[Huh? Did I see that wrong? Why is there a wisp of black yin energy on big cousin’s left arm?]
Jiang Chang Bin’s whole body went stiff. He almost could not stop himself from crying out. Yin energy? What was that? How could something like that be on his body?
He was in a panic when someone suddenly grabbed his hand. Startled, he looked up and met his father’s serious gaze.
“Before we came, your mom said that You Nian’s condition got worse today. When you carried him to get his tests done this morning, did you feel anything strange?”
Jiang Chang Bin’s pupils shrank. He understood his father’s meaning in an instant.
Since yesterday, Jiang You Nian had already been so weak that he could not even get out of bed. This morning, he himself had carried him into the wheelchair and pushed him to the testing room.
Could it be that this so-called yin energy had gotten on him at that time? Then didn’t that mean that You Nian…
Reminded by accident, Du An Rao also suddenly understood.
[He carried second cousin? Then it must be right. With yin energy that heavy, even short contact is enough to stain you. Just what kind of dead thing did my second cousin touch, for it to be this vicious?]