Chapter 59

Two Sides of a Coin

The emergency room door finally opened.

Meng Shoucheng was on his feet at once. His knee hit the bench edge, and the wood knocked once, light. Lila had been standing against the wall, still pinching her sleeve. The sound pulled her back from somewhere far off.

The door opened from inside. A doctor stepped out. The cuffs of his gray-white coat were rolled to the forearm. A few stains on the front would never quite wash out. Behind him a nurse rolled a copper tray past, glass syringes and forceps laid together in the dish.

Meng Shoucheng went to meet him. "Doctor—how's the patient?"

The doctor looked at him, then at Eren and the others standing nearby.

"He's alive," he said. "Out of immediate danger."

Meng Shoucheng's shoulders dropped. The words took the breath he'd been holding. Lila and Eren glanced at each other and let out the one they'd kept in their chests.

The doctor didn't let them stay glad long.

"But the injury is severe. A heavy load came down across the lower ribs and the small of the back—worst around the twelfth thoracic down to the first lumbar. We cleaned the wound, stopped the bleeding, and braced him. Arms still respond. Both legs are weak, almost no feeling. Don't count on him standing anytime soon. Recovery depends on bleeding, fever, and what the legs do over the next few days. Too soon to say."

The farther Meng Shoucheng listened, the more the color left his face.

"Doctor." He stepped half a pace in, voice gone hoarse all at once. "He's only nineteen. Please think of something else. We'll pay. Surgery—whatever it takes. Don't let him just…"

He couldn't finish.

Lila's hand came off her sleeve. Her fingertips hung in the air. The half-breath she'd let go at "he's alive" went back into her chest with those few lines. She opened her mouth to ask if there was another way, then saw Meng Shoucheng's face and swallowed it.

Nova stood by the bench, fingers locked on the chair back. He didn't speak. He glanced at his own toe, then quickly up at Meng Shoucheng again.

The doctor looked at Meng Shoucheng, voice a little lower than before. "We've done what we can for now. The next few days matter. We need to see if the bleeding, the fever, and the pain can be kept down. Don't panic—but don't hope for too much either. This isn't something he lies down for a few days and walks off."

Meng Shoucheng's lips moved twice. In the end he only lowered his head. Dried dust was still in his palms. He rubbed hard once. It didn't come off.

Eren stood half a pace behind him. Under the skin of his left arm the shoot started jumping again, the way a temple jumps when a headache is coming on.

Meng Shoucheng looked at the door that still wasn't fully shut, voice tight. "When can we go in and see him?"

Lila moved half a pace forward too, following his look through the gap, and the doctor blocked her at once.

The doctor shook his head. "Still in the emergency room. He's unconscious."

Eren picked it up.

"When will he wake?"

The doctor turned to him.

"Not likely tonight," the doctor said. "Earliest around dawn. Could be tomorrow, in daylight."

Eren nodded once. "What do we need to get ready?"

"Keep him flat. No turning. Watch bleeding and fever through the night. One of you stays. When a nurse calls, someone has to be here." The doctor dropped his voice a little. "Go pay at the window first. We brought him back, but this injury takes a long time to heal. It isn't a day or two. Start thinking about who looks after him, and about the money."

The corridor went still.

That thin ease of "he lived" was already gone.

A nurse put her head out from the door and called Meng Shoucheng to handle the paperwork. The doctor added two more lines and turned back into the emergency room. The door closed. Nothing left in the corridor but the smell of medicine.

Eren glanced at Meng Shoucheng.

"Come on. Window first," he said.

The window was at the other end of the corridor, a wood counter with iron bars nailed across the front. The clerk sitting there had dark rings under her eyes, one hand propping the desk, the other turning a ledger.

Meng Shoucheng passed in the slip the doctor had given him.

The clerk checked it once, head down. "Meng Xiangyang. South loading crew. Emergency, wound cleaning, Crystone painkiller, back brace, nursing… The deposit you put down isn't enough."

Meng Shoucheng's throat moved. "How much are we short?"

The clerk didn't hurry. "580 in all. No insurance. You prepaid 400. Still short 180."

Meng Shoucheng dug out his coin pouch and emptied it on the little board outside the counter. A few Crystone coins rolled. One hit the iron bar and stopped. He fished two crumpled slips from an inner pocket. His fingers shook a little.

"The crew already chipped in once," he said, low. "When they first brought him in, people emptied whatever they had on them."

Lila looked at that small pile and said nothing. She reached into her pocket, took out the pouch she'd grabbed before leaving the house, loosened the mouth, and a few Crystone coins dropped into her palm.

"Use this first," she said.

Meng Shoucheng looked up. "I can't take that."

"He's the one who matters," Lila said. "Don't stall here."

Eren took out his own pouch too.

After payday, once rent and Nova's school were out, the two of them didn't have much left. Handing over that 180 would mean scraping through the next few days.

He still didn't say more. He only pushed the coins under the window.

Meng Shoucheng's lips moved toward thanks, then the word felt too light. In the end he only shoved the money in hard.

The clerk swept the coins behind the counter, counted them under the check lamp, and pulled out a receipt.

"Sign here."

Meng Shoucheng picked up the pen. His hand hung over the paper a long while before he wrote the name down.

The clerk tore the receipt off and held it out.

"First bill's settled. Hospital stay, nursing, medicine—those still cost. Family needs to be ready." She said it with no feeling, like she'd already said it too many times that day. "And don't go far. A nurse may call anytime."

Meng Shoucheng folded the receipt, tucked it into his work-jacket inner pocket, and pressed his hand over it, afraid the paper might fly off on its own.

Lila asked, "The company didn't put any money in? What about the foreman?"

Meng Shoucheng looked at her. His eyes looked tired.

"We were only thinking about getting him here. The foreman had someone hitch a cart. He stayed busy a while too." He paused. "I mentioned the work injury. He said he'd ask."

Lila didn't push the injury claim further. She only put the emptied pouch away. The bag hung flat on her, almost no weight.

Once the paperwork was done, Meng Shoucheng put the receipt away first, then spoke. "I'll stay tonight. You go back and rest a bit. Don't all wait it out here."

He paused. His voice went lower. "Thank you."

Eren nodded. "We'll wait outside a while. Once things look steadier we'll go. If they need someone, we'll be here."

Meng Shoucheng nodded again.

They went back to the bench outside the emergency room. The red lamp was already out. Over the door there was only a cold glass shade. That didn't make the door any lighter. It felt heavier than before.