Chapter 1108 — The Orphanage in Crisis
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
With the orphanage's finances about to slip into the red, Yu Xiaoke was utterly at a loss.
The commission she had posted earlier on the Thief Sect's website had still not been taken up by anyone. Even if she wanted to earn some money on the side, she had no way to go about it. All she could do was sit on her bed and heave sighs at the heavens.
"Xiaoke, why the long face? The kitchen's already cooked, so why aren't you eating? The children are all waiting for you!" The old director pushed open the door of Yu Xiaoke's room and came in.
"Director, I'm not eating. I'm not hungry. You all go ahead," Yu Xiaoke said, shaking her head.
With Yu Xiaoke's source of income cut off, life at the orphanage grew harder by the day, and the food got worse and worse. Nearly every meal now was potatoes stewed with cabbage, and the portions had shrunk a good deal besides.
The orphanage's last few thousand yuan had gone to buying potatoes, cabbage, and some rice and flour in bulk from a wholesale depot. That sort of thing kept well, and buying in bulk brought the price down.
It was all leftover stock from the previous autumn. The new vegetables would be coming in soon, so the vendors were unloading it cheap, by the lot.
Cheap as the vegetables were, rice and flour were dear. At meals Yu Xiaoke ate as much vegetable as she could and as little grain as possible, until the very sight of it turned her stomach. Today she truly could not face it, and skipping a meal would save a little grain besides.
"Xiaoke, look how thin you've grown. How can you not be hungry? If you ruin your health, what will become of the children?" How could the old director not know what was on Yu Xiaoke's mind? But was she any different? Watching the rice and flour dwindle day by day, she too worried in secret; yet worry or no worry, she could not let Yu Xiaoke go without food.
"All right, then. I'll go eat a little..." Yu Xiaoke nodded.
But the harder things got, the more they went wrong. Misfortunes never come singly, as the saying goes. The orphanage had no money, and it was precisely at this moneyless moment that money was needed.
Not long after the meal, one of the children came down with acute appendicitis from playing ball.
Yu Xiaoke and Xiao Ken rushed the child to the hospital, and only there did Yu Xiaoke suddenly remember: she had no money.
Over the past while, the orphanage's entire savings had been spent. In Yu Xiaoke's hands there was not a single cent in cash.
These days hospitals were no charity. Without money there would be no surgery. That much Yu Xiaoke knew perfectly well.
Fortunately, she knew a few people at the hospital, Nurse Wang among them. But knowing people did not mean escaping the bill. The most Yu Xiaoke could do was ask Nurse Wang to put in a word so that the child with appendicitis could have the operation first, while she went off to scrape the money together and pay afterward.
Even that was enough to make Yu Xiaoke grateful. Watching the sick child wheeled into the operating room, she finally let out a breath and said to Nurse Wang beside her, "Nurse Wang, I really have to thank you for this."
"It's nothing, just a small favor. But Xiaoke, you still need to pay the medical fees as soon as you can. If the hospital leadership comes down on me, I can't bear that responsibility," Nurse Wang said.
"I know, Nurse Wang. I was in such a hurry that I came out without any money. I'll go home and fetch it right now." Yu Xiaoke did not reveal her predicament. Nurse Wang had already helped so much; how could she burden her further?
Nurse Wang was only an ordinary nurse, her monthly salary hardly high. Yu Xiaoke could not bring herself to ask her for a loan.
"That's fine, then. I'll be off. I've still got things to see to, and I'm the only one in the duty room, so I can't be away too long." Nurse Wang thought nothing more of it. She knew Yu Xiaoke's profession, and so to her mind Yu Xiaoke was not short of money.