area51novel Chapter 273 Sickness
Chapter 273 Sickness
A girl with pigtails, wrapped in a cotton coat, also came to the toilet. When she saw Banggeng, she was obviously stunned for a moment, lowered her head and walked past quickly.
Bang Geng was so angry that he suddenly tripped her. The girl screamed and almost fell down, and the enamel pot in her hand fell to the ground with a "clang".
"You!" The girl was shaking with anger, "I'm going to tell the team leader!"
Bang Geng shrugged nonchalantly: "Who saw it? You were just walking without paying attention."
The girl ran back to the carriage with tears in her eyes. Banggeng smiled triumphantly, but he didn't know how much trouble this action would bring to his upcoming life as an educated youth...
After a day and a night, the train broadcast sounded: "Dear passengers, please note that the next stop is the final stop of this train - Harbin Station..."
Bang Geng looked at the vast expanse of snow outside the window and suddenly felt a sense of panic. But soon, this panic was replaced by resentment - it was all those people in the courtyard and those nosy guys in the car that put him in this situation!
He gnashed his teeth and thought: "Just wait, sooner or later, I will make you all pay the price!"
In the carriage, other educated youth had already started packing their luggage and were helping each other carry their belongings. No one looked at Banggeng, as if he didn't exist.
The train slowly pulled into the station, and Banggeng stood alone on the platform carrying his thin luggage.
The biting cold wind made Banggen wrap his cotton jacket tightly around him, and he followed the other educated youths to stumble off the truck. The cold wind from the northeast pierced into his bones like a knife, and his lips turned purple from the cold, and his fingers had lost all feeling.
"People from Huachuan County, gather here!" a corps cadre wearing a military coat shouted while standing in the snow.
Banggeng stumbled over, dragging his luggage, his cotton shoes creaking on the snow with every step.
"Are you Jia Geng?" The corps cadre glanced at him and frowned, "It's cold, right? It's even colder in Huachuan than here. Can your body handle it?"
Bang Geng wanted to talk back, but as soon as he opened his mouth, his teeth couldn't help but chatter: "N-None of your business..."
The Corps cadre snorted coldly, "Okay, you're pretty tough." He turned to the person next to him and said, "Lao Liu, the people from Huachuan should follow us. We will pick them up when we get there. When they first come to our place tonight, we will let them stay in the big bunk bed at the educated youth camp."
The so-called "big bunk bed" was actually a warehouse with leaks on all sides, with straw mats on the ground, and dozens of people slept together. Banggeng was assigned to the position closest to the door, with cold wind blowing in.
He had just spread out his quilt when a dark-faced young man next to him kicked his bedding away and said, "There's someone here, get out of here."
Bang Geng stood up and said, "You want to be beaten, right?"
The black-faced young man grinned, revealing a mouthful of yellow teeth: "What's the matter? Want to practice?" Behind him, three or four sturdy educated youth also stood up and stared at Bang Geng with ill intentions.
Banggeng then realized that those people were the ones he had offended on the train. He swallowed his saliva and moved to the corner with his blanket in his arms, facing the leaky window.
Late at night, the cold wind blew into the house. Banggeng curled up in the quilt, shivering with cold.
The next morning, the girl with pigtails who was tripped by him on the train during the day, now a medical worker in the Corps, was distributing cold medicine to the educated youth one by one.
When it was Banggeng's turn, the girl deliberately skipped over him.
"Hey! Where is my medicine?" Banggeng shouted hoarsely.
The girl didn't even turn her head: "Aren't you capable? Just carry it yourself."
There was a burst of laughter all around. Bang Geng was so angry that his eyes went dark. He suddenly started coughing violently, as if his lungs were about to explode. He touched his forehead and it was burning hot.
Bang Geng had a high fever and was in a coma. Seeing this, the Corps cadres had no choice but to send him to the Corps Hospital by horse-drawn carriage.
"This kid is such a hassle," the cadre complained, "he fell ill before he even got to the place."
The carriage was moving forward with difficulty in the snow. Bang Geng was dazed and heard the driver chatting with others:
"Life in Huachuan is tough. Two educated youth froze to death last year..."
"It's unlikely that this sick seedling will survive the spring..."
Banggeng wanted to curse, but his throat hurt as if it had been burned by a branding iron. He looked at the gray sky and felt despair for the first time.
"Mom..." he shouted silently, and his tears turned into ice as soon as they flowed out.
Banggeng was lying on the bed, with a fever-reducing patch on his forehead and his lips chapped and bleeding. The ward was filled with the smell of disinfectant, and outside the window was the dazzling snow light unique to the Northeast.
"Awake?" A female doctor in a white coat came over and pressed a stethoscope on his chest. "There's still a murmur in your lungs, but the fever is gone. You're lucky. If you'd been brought here a little later, I'm afraid it would have turned into pneumonia."
Banggeng wanted to speak, but his throat was too hoarse to make any sound. He could only glare at the doctor.
The doctor was not surprised. He turned to the nurse and said, "Has the Huachuan person arrived? Take him away quickly. We are short of beds here."
As he was talking, the door of the ward was pushed open. A middle-aged man wrapped in an old military coat, his face red from the cold, walked in, holding a crumpled list in his hand.
"Jia Geng, right?" The man frowned and looked at Bang Geng. "I'm Lao Ma, the accountant of Hongxing Commune in Huachuan County. Look at you, you lie down before you even get to the place, and you're just causing trouble for others!"
Bang Geng wanted to argue, but could only make hoarse "ho ho" sounds.
The Corps cadre stuffed Banggeng's file bag to Lao Ma with a sigh of relief: "Accountant Ma, I'm leaving him to you! We've paid for his medical expenses. Here are his medical records and medicines. Just take them according to the instructions."
Old Ma took the file bag reluctantly: "Captain Wang, I have to say that you are too irresponsible. You are pushing the disease to us before you are fully recovered..."
"What are you talking about!" Captain Wang immediately waved his hands, "It was you from Huachuan who asked us to temporarily pick him up! Besides, this kid was causing trouble on the train, and when he got off the train, he stabbed our people and fought with other educated youth who were arranging accommodation - we are lucky that we didn't pursue him for destroying the unity of the educated youth!"
Old Ma sighed, turned his head to look at Bang Geng who was shivering in the carriage, and asked in a low voice: "Who is this kid...?"
"I heard he's a troublemaker in a courtyard house in Beijing. The subdistrict office couldn't handle him, so they sent him to the Northeast." Captain Wang pouted, "Accountant Ma, I have to remind you that this guy is not a good person. You have to keep a close eye on him when he gets to your place."
On the snowy road leading to Huachuan, Lao Ma drove the carriage, and Bang Geng, wrapped in his own blanket, curled up in the carriage. Every time the carriage bumped, his chest ached like a needle.
"Listen carefully, kid." Old Ma said without turning his head. "When you arrive at the Red Star Commune, the first thing you should do is to pay a visit to the Party Secretary. In your situation, you will probably be assigned to the most remote village - no production team wants a sickly person anyway."
Bang Geng clutched the quilt tightly, his heart filled with hatred - he hated the people in the courtyard, hated the educated youth on the train, hated the cadres of the Corps, and now even hated the coachman.