Chapter Thirteen: The Poor Family

  Wang Long returned to the county, it was already five o'clock in the afternoon. He found a People's Bank, got a new card, and deposited 200,000 yuan into it. This was for his parents' use. Every time he thought of his parents' dark skin, the deep wrinkles on their foreheads that looked like they were carved by a knife, and the white hair on their heads due to malnutrition, Wang Long felt extremely sad in his heart. For him to study, his father and mother had been living a life of frugality at home, eating less and wearing fewer clothes. Now that he had the ability to repay them, he must do it as soon as possible. "A son wants to support his parents but they are no longer around" - this kind of human tragedy can be seen everywhere.

  When he got home, it was already six o'clock in the evening. His sister Wang Feng had long returned from school and was doing her homework under the dim light, with a sickly and sacred glow on her malnourished face. Wang Long's heart ached as he took out a big bag of snacks he bought for his sister and placed it next to her homework on the table. Little Feng may have rarely eaten snacks since she grew up, but now her pretty little face lit up with joy, "Wow!" She exclaimed as she stood up, holding the snacks and flipping through them while calling out: "Brother is back! Brother is back! Dad, come out quickly!" Just then, their father rushed out of the inner bedroom, his haggard face filled with excitement, grabbing Wang Long's hand and asking: "Didn't you say you were working outside? How did you come back today? It's great that you're back, it's great that you're back! Come, quickly go see your mom, she's bedridden and can't get up."

  Wang Long's heart skipped a beat as he rushed to the bedroom, only to be met with a heartbreaking scene. His mother, Liu Chu, lay in bed with a pale face and sunken eyes, struggling to stretch out her right hand to grab Wang Long's. Wang Long quickly grabbed his mother's hand and anxiously asked, "Mom, what's wrong? Why didn't you go to the hospital?" His mother strained to squeeze out a few words: "No...no...don't need to," before closing her eyes in exhaustion. She then began to cough violently, as if she was about to vomit.

  Wang Bing, who stood beside them, looked pained and said, "Dragon, your mom fell ill last night. She didn't have any major health issues before, but now it's like a mountain has collapsed on her. I wanted to take her to the hospital, but she refused, saying we're too poor and that you're still working outside while you're in high school. We can't afford the medical expenses; it would be adding insult to injury."

  Wang Long burst into tears upon hearing this. Without a word, he scooped up his mother and said, "Dad, I'll take Mom to the county people's hospital. You can follow later." Wang Long rushed out the door and used his Five Elements divine power to instantly transport himself to a secluded spot near the hospital. He quickly made his way to the emergency room, where he registered and then waited outside.

  The hospital was not far from home, and after about half an hour, Wang Bing rushed over, panting, and anxiously grabbed Wang Long's hand, asking: "How is your mother?" Wang Long replied: "Dad, don't worry, they are doing a check-up on mom, let's wait patiently for a while." Wang Bing took out a small cloth package and handed it to Wang Long. Wang Long opened it and found a thick stack of 1-yuan, 2-yuan, and 5-yuan bills, totaling several hundred yuan. Wang Bing said: "Long'er, here is 300 yuan, see if it's enough for your mother's medical expenses? If not, I'll go borrow more." Wang Long suddenly felt a surge of emotion, and tears streamed down his face as he grabbed Wang Bing's hand, saying: "Dad, I have money here. I found a good job during the summer vacation, and my boss prepaid my salary. I've already paid for mom's hospital expenses." Wang Long returned the small package to his father and handed him a card with 200,000 yuan on it, instructing: "Dad, this is my summer earnings, plus the prepaid salary from that kind boss. There's a total of 200,000 yuan here. The password is your sister's birthday. From now on, you must not do things like this again. When you're sick, you must come to the hospital for treatment. It makes me very worried when you do things like this." Wang Bing was shocked and pushed the card back to Wang Long: "Child, I cannot accept this money! You must walk a straight path outside, and never take ill-gotten gains, understand?"

  Looking at his father's inquiring gaze, Wang Long told a benevolent lie and explained: "Dad, don't worry, I'm skilled in martial arts, aren't I? I just agreed to protect a big shot every weekend after school. This money is insignificant to that big shot; it's just his advance payment for labor. You take it, I still have some left." Wang Long forced the card into Wang Bing's hand, and Wang Bing thought for a moment before taking it, saying: "Alright, since that's the case, I'm relieved. Just be careful with your safety from now on. We'll save this money and use it sparingly; we can leave what's left over for when you get married in the future." Wang Long couldn't say anything else; alas, the hearts of parents everywhere!

  When the doctor came out, it had been a while. The doctor said to Wang Bing: "The patient is overworked and has poor intestines and stomach, leading to malnutrition for a long time, which led to a severe illness. In the future, you must let the patient rest more and buy some supplements for her to eat, slowly nursing her back to health. However, the patient needs to stay in the hospital for a month to recover, but don't worry, it's not a big problem." If it were before, Wang Bing would never have agreed, knowing that staying in the hospital for a month would cost tens of thousands of yuan. But now that his son was successful and could earn money to support the family, he let his wife stay in the hospital to recover. Wang Long went to pay the rest of the money and then returned home with his father.

  In the blink of an eye, the two-month summer vacation was about to end. Wang Long had bought some daily necessities for his family and purchased a large quantity of supplements for his mother, reminding her to take good care of herself at home. Liu had been discharged from the hospital a month ago and now looked much better. Wang Long had originally wanted to teach his family some skills, but the spiritual exercises were only suitable for people with the Five Virtues body type. His father, mother, and sister did not have this body type, so they couldn't learn it. Wang Long could only remind his parents to rest more at home and not do any heavy work, saying that he was now able to earn a living and support the family, and asking them not to worry about the family's poverty anymore. After bidding farewell to his parents, Wang Long returned to the campus he had left for two months.

  From summer vacation to Wang Long's arrival at school, the Ou Yang family had not appeared again, which made Wang Long feel very strange. He thought that the Ou Yang family would not let him off so easily? According to their style of doing things, it was unlikely that they would give up on him. Since they hadn't come to bother him yet, they must have been busy with other things. Wu Lao also hadn't called him, which meant that nothing major had happened. Since they weren't bothering him, Wang Long felt a temporary sense of relief and decided to enjoy the peaceful high school life while it lasted.

  It's been a week since school started, and the high school year has also begun to divide classes. Wang Long's grades in the first grade of high school are still the first in the class, especially in history and geography, both of which are full marks. Wang Long chose the liberal arts class because he had been very interested in his country's history since childhood. Now that he has the opportunity to learn more about literature, he chose the liberal arts without hesitation. He was assigned to Class 2 (2) of High School, where Xiao He used to be. This made some teachers in the science class very dissatisfied, because Wang Long's scores in several science courses were also top-notch. Now that such a top student has gone to the liberal arts class, it is indeed a great loss. However, the division of high school classes depends on the scores of each subject, and another important factor is the students' own choices. Now that Wang Long insists on going to the liberal arts class, the teachers in the science class can only sigh and shake their heads. Dongfang Lan also chose the liberal arts class for some reason, and coincidentally, she was also assigned to Class 2 (2) of High School, just like Wang Long.

  "The bell rang" the class bell sounded, Wang Long was about to go with Dongfang Lan to the cafeteria for lunch. As they were classmates who had been promoted from high school (grade 2) together, Wang Long and Dongfang Lan were also very familiar with each other. Moreover, this young master of a high-ranking official would go to the cafeteria with him every day at noon.

  Wang Long and Dongfang Lan were chatting as they walked down the corridor of Class 2, Grade 3. As they turned a corner, Wang Long was stopped by Zhao Fei, the captain of the school basketball team. Wang Long had met Zhao Fei on the court twice before, although he rarely played basketball himself. However, during his strolls around the playground, he often caught glimpses of Zhao Fei's impressive performances. Zhao Fei said to Wang Long, "Wang Long, I have something I'd like to discuss with you. Can you come with me for a minute?" Wang Long had a good impression of Zhao Fei, who was tall and had a sunny disposition, so he nodded in agreement. Dongfang Lan followed behind them as they walked down to a flowerbed on the lower floor.

  Zhao Fei said to Wang Long, "Wang Long, our school's basketball team is about to participate in the city's high school basketball tournament. However, our team's small forward, Sun Yong, injured his foot during training, so I'm here to invite you to join our basketball team and play as a small forward in the competition. How about it?" Wang Long shook his head with a bitter smile: "I rarely play basketball, and I don't fully understand the rules either. I'm afraid I might not be qualified." Zhao Fei said seriously, "Wang Long, classmate, don't worry about this. I see that you're around 1.8 meters tall, which is hard to find in our grade two classes. In our basketball team, we consider it a high standard. As for your ball skills, we can train together. Just agree and it's settled, how about it?" Dongfang Lan also persuaded from the side: "Wang Long, just agree with him, playing basketball is a good thing! I really like watching basketball games."

  Wang Long thought for a moment and finally nodded, saying: "Okay, but I'll try it out first. If it doesn't work out, you can find someone else." Zhao Fei happily nodded and said: "Alright, Wang Long, after class this afternoon, go to the playground and we'll be training there. Today is already Thursday, and the day after tomorrow is the competition. You go familiarize yourself with basketball first." After getting Wang Long's agreement, Zhao Fei excitedly left.