C10 He Escaped the Hospital

"Dad! Mom! Did the Zhao family thugs do this to you?"

Shen Yong stood up, his voice thick with emotion, "I'm going to confront them right now!"

"No, no!"

Shen Wanshan quickly got to his feet, grasping Shen Yong to calm him, "Yong, don't rush into anything! It wasn't the Zhao brothers who hit me! They might cause trouble around the village, but they're usually not the type to get physical. They only slapped me today because it was an unusual situation, and I gave as good as I got!"

"Dad! What exactly happened? Tell me! Don't tell me you've been digging at that abandoned tunnel under Jin Feng on Peach Mountain again?"

Shen Yong pressed, urgency in his voice.

"No! I once aspired to embody the spirit of the legendary Mountain Mover, but looking back, I see how naive I was!"

Shen Wanshan sighed, "Ah, my leg! It got injured while I was unloading at the Canned Food Factory in the city."

Shen Yong had assumed his father's leg injury was from a rock, knowing how his father had always ignored advice, stubbornly determined to break through the half-finished tunnel.

He simply wanted to create a path from the village to the outside county.

Shen Wanshan had hoped his determination would inspire others in the village to join him in digging the tunnel.

But the villagers thought Shen Wanshan was out of his mind, paying him no heed and even ridiculing him.

Nearly all the young people had left to find work elsewhere, leaving only the elderly and children behind.

Some who had earned money outside chose to settle down and never returned to Mountain Peach Village.

No one was left to help Shen Wanshan with the tunnel.

Despite this, Shen Wanshan never gave up. Besides tending to his acres of mountain land, he dug at the tunnel whenever he found the time.

Sometimes he'd dig all day long, bringing his own lunch.

It wasn't until Shen Yong was brought back home that Shen Wanshan realized he couldn't keep digging tunnels. He needed to work outside the village to earn money for his son's medical treatment.

Despite knowing that Shen Yong's mental condition was nearly impossible to cure, Shen Wanshan clung to the slimmest thread of hope and refused to give up. When conventional hospitals failed to offer a cure, he scoured the countryside for traditional herbal remedies, sought out a shaman and a Taoist priest, and filled their home with an array of talismans and incantations.

Their life savings had been completely depleted, yet there was no improvement in Shen Yong's condition. Stubborn and steadfast, Shen Wanshan was determined not to rest until his son was healed.

To fund his son's ongoing medical expenses, Shen Wanshan joined the village chief and others to work as a temporary loader at the Honey Canned Food Factory in the county town. It seemed that when misfortune struck, even drinking cold water could choke you.

On his very first day, as they were unloading, the truck tipped over. Everyone else managed to escape, but Shen Wanshan, standing too close, couldn't get away in time and was crushed under the weight of the truck, severely injuring his right leg.

Afterward, the Honey Canned Food Factory denied any compensation, arguing that Shen Wanshan was only a temp and hadn't even completed a full day's work. This only added to the Shen family's already dire straits.

In desperation, Xie Yun borrowed from every friend and relative, even selling the family's old ox, Lao Huang, but it still wasn't enough to cover the medical bills. Left with no choice, they borrowed thirty thousand yuan from Zhao Erhu.

But the money was a drop in the bucket. In less than a week at the hospital, it was all gone. The so-called orthopedic experts not only failed to heal Shen Wanshan's leg but also diagnosed him with a slew of baffling new illnesses, claiming they were even more life-threatening than his leg injury and required immediate treatment.

Terrified by the specialists' dire warnings, Shen Wanshan hadn't yet witnessed his son's marriage or the birth of grandchildren. The thought of dying before these milestones was unbearable.

So, Shen Wanshan complied with the specialists' treatment regimen without question. But as the medications increased, the IV drips prolonged, and more tubes were inserted into his body, Shen Wanshan's health only deteriorated further.

Watching Shen Wanshan grow increasingly frail on the hospital bed each day, Xie Yun felt an unbearable weight on her heart, as if a thousand-kilogram stone was pressing down on her.

At first, it was only Wanshan who was sick, but soon after, Xie Yun succumbed to illness as well.

With their son bewildered and both parents ill, the hospital relentlessly pressured them for payment. But with things as they were, where could they possibly find the money? Who would be willing to lend to them? And even with borrowed funds, they couldn't sustain the exorbitant costs of hospital care.

The elderly couple conferred and reached a resolution: they would leave the hospital and return home. They were determined not to die within the sterile walls of a hospital; if they were to pass away, it would be in their own home.

So, seizing a moment when the nurse was distracted, they slipped away from the hospital. Back at home, they even prepared their burial shrouds, resigned to their fate.

But against all odds, they didn't die. Instead, their health began to improve with each passing day. Aside from Wanshan's injured right leg, all the other ailments that had been diagnosed seemed to vanish inexplicably.

It was as if the couple had taken a stroll to the very brink of the underworld and returned.

Surviving such an ordeal, they say, brings great fortune. The couple certainly felt it; they became more open-hearted, their spirits lifted, and they found themselves enjoying meals more heartily than before.

Taking to heart the lessons from their hospital ordeal, they stopped seeking outlandish remedies for Shen Yong and no longer consulted shamans or priests. They simply focused on living well with their son.

Though Shen Yong's mind was not entirely clear, his body was robust. The couple chose to treat him as they did when he was a child, allowing him to play freely. As long as the family was together and well, that was all that mattered.

Remarkably, once they stopped seeking treatment, Shen Yong's condition began to improve. How exactly he recovered, neither Shen Wanshan nor Xie Yun could say. They assumed it was as mysterious as their own inexplicable healing.

Shen Wanshan recounted the entire series of events to Shen Yong, leaving no detail unspoken.

"So that's what happened!" Shen Yong exclaimed, nodding his head as understanding dawned on him.

As dusk settled in, the sky grew dimmer, and a refreshing mountain breeze swept through, significantly lessening the day's heat. The mountain's microclimate was fickle; in no time at all, a light rain began to fall, prompting the trio to consider heading back inside.

Just as Shen Wanshan attempted to rise, a sudden, sharp pain shot through his right leg. "Yong! My leg injury seems to have flared up again! It feels like needles in my bones, and it's chillingly cold!" he exclaimed, not concealing his discomfort.

Shen Yong knew all too well that despite repairing the damaged muscles and bones in his father's leg, the injury had not been fully healed. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) focuses on regulating Qi and blood and maintaining the balance of Yin and Yang. His father's severe leg injury had caused a significant loss of Yang energy, leading to an excess of Yin.

On sunny days, the abundant Yang energy in the air could be absorbed by those with excessive Yin, helping to balance the body's internal energies. However, this minuscule amount of Yang energy, once absorbed from the atmosphere, could not be stored by the body and would quickly dissipate with changing weather conditions.

"Dad, your leg hasn't fully recovered yet," Shen Yong confessed, unwilling to keep his father in the dark. "You're lacking Yang energy right now. On rainy days, you'll feel a deep, cold pain in your leg."

"Yong, we have cloudy and rainy weather here every few days! If that's the case, your dad is going to suffer terribly," his mother, Xie Yun, interjected with concern. "Since you understand what's causing the problem, you must have a treatment. Please, find a way to eradicate the root of your father's ailment!"

"Mom, please, don't worry," Shen Yong reassured her, taking her hand gently. "I know exactly what needs to be done to address the root cause. It requires just one particular medicine. However, we're missing a very rare and valuable herb for the concoction. Rest assured, I'll spare no effort in searching for it."

"What kind of valuable medicinal herbs are we talking about? I've heard that deep within Peach Mountain, there's an abundance of rare herbs. Let me know, and when I have a moment, I'll go search for them myself!" Xie Yun inquired.

​