Mountains and Rivers May Change, But Can Nature Be Altered? (Seeking Follow-up Reads)

Even though Shen Le greeted them warmly, the father and son didn't say much. They simply nodded at him and began moving the air conditioners.

Working in tandem, the two hauled the heavy units over one threshold after another, transporting them into the third courtyard of West Road.

The indoor unit weighed over ten pounds, and the outdoor unit over twenty. They didn't need Shen Le's help; the father bundled the box onto his back, the son steadied it from the side, and they marched inside.

In the sweltering heat, Shen Le was drenched in sweat just walking empty-handed, let alone the father, who was carrying tens of pounds of weight. After just one trip, the father's shirt was soaked through, front and back. He set down the outdoor unit and went back for the second load.

"Um... would you like something to drink?"

Shen Le felt a bit guilty and pulled out two bottles of ice-cold soda, offering them over. The son looked on with longing, but the father just smiled, waved him off, and went back to his work.

The 1.5-horsepower air conditioner had an indoor unit weighing 10 kilograms and an outdoor unit weighing 29 kilograms. Between the carrying, lifting, and moving, the father and son's shirts were soaked through, dripping water without even needing to be wrung out.

Shen Le followed close behind, offering words of encouragement:

"You two are working so hard..."

"It's nothing, nothing at all. Your single-story house is the easiest to install. A few days ago, we installed one on the 25th floor—a three-horsepower unit, mind you. The spot for the outdoor unit was on the side wall, nowhere to stand, nowhere to lean; we had to hoist it down from the roof..."

The 25th floor...

The side wall...

Just thinking about it made Shen Le feel dizzy and weak in the knees; his fear of heights was kicking in. Then, another thought struck him:

"A three-horsepower unit? How heavy is that outdoor unit?"

"Over 50 kilograms!"

The father answered while gesturing for his son to help hoist the outdoor unit, heading toward the installation spot behind the house. Shen Le followed, curious:

"Then... how do you move that down?"

"Tie it with a rope!" the father answered with a chuckle.

"Once it's tied, you lower it slowly, set it on the bracket, and then untie the rope. One person stays up top to lower it, and one stays below to catch it. You just level it out before untying."

Shen Le looked at the father—he was under 1.7 meters tall, lean and wiry, with no visible muscle definition on his arms exposed by his short sleeves.

He looked at the son, who was clearly still just a teenager. While he had grown tall, he was still a long way from being sturdy.

Could these two—or rather, should it really be just one person—really tie a 50-kilogram unit to a rope and lower it from a roof?

The thought alone made his heart race... Shen Le tried to put himself in their shoes. He could barely lift 50 kilograms on flat ground, let alone lower it slowly from a window or a roof.

If they slipped...

"Um... won't it fall?"

"Don't worry, these air conditioners are insured." The father smiled and shook his head dismissively.

"There's insurance for if it falls and breaks, and insurance for if it hits something or someone. The air conditioning company buys it!"

"Then... what about your own insurance?"

The father fell silent. Shen Le opened his mouth, wanting to say, "You should really buy your own," but the words died on his lips.

Installing air conditioners, climbing up and down at great heights—this was a high-risk profession that most standard insurance policies wouldn't cover. The ones that did were prohibitively expensive.

For a family in such poor financial straits, wouldn't private insurance just add to the economic burden?

He closed his mouth, watching the father and son bustle about, finishing the first unit and moving to the second. Once they were done, he quickly grabbed two more bottles of ice-cold soda, insisting on pressing them into their hands.

"Take them, take them! You've worked so hard, and it's so hot out... Or, if you don't like cola, there's Sprite, orange juice, and bottled water in the fridge?"

"Oh, you're too kind..."

The father couldn't refuse, so he twisted off the cap and took a few gulps. The son, who had been waiting for this moment, drank deeply as well.

The father looked at his son with affection, then screwed the cap back on, intending to save the rest for him. Shen Le noticed immediately and stopped him with a smile.

"I have plenty more here. It's fine, you drink yours!"

Zheng Xiaohua nodded and smiled at him, then began to chug the drink. He downed the 500ml of ice-cold cola in one go, the refreshing chill spreading through his body. He couldn't help but drink faster.

"Ah... that's good..."

A wave of heat rushed up, and he couldn't help but let out a burp, then another. Just as he felt a bit better after the series of gasps, a sharp, piercing pain suddenly seized his heart.

"!!!"

The father clutched his chest instinctively and doubled over. The next moment, he curled up and collapsed to the ground, motionless.

"Master Zheng!"

Shen Le cried out in shock. Beside him, the teenager lunged forward, his voice a desperate wail:

"Dad!—Dad!"

"Call 120! Then go to the back door to meet the ambulance! Hurry!"

Shen Le shoved the son aside and knelt down, checking the middle-aged man's condition.

Breathing... it seemed to have stopped. Heartbeat... where was the carotid artery? Where? He couldn't seem to find a pulse. Heartbeat? Should he press his ear to his chest?

Shen Le didn't hesitate. He flipped the man onto his back and leaned down, pressing his ear against his chest.

He listened—nothing. He moved to another spot and listened again—still nothing.

He scrambled up, desperate to perform CPR!

In the frantic rush, he pulled out the Copper Fragment and pressed it against the middle-aged man's chest, praying that it might help heal him, or at least help keep him alive, as he raced to recall the proper technique.

Thank goodness I learned a little of this in college... but wait, is my hand placement right? Is it really?

Is my compression depth enough? Is the frequency right?

I feel like I'm putting my whole body weight into it... Yes! That song! That life-saving song!

"The! Vast! Horizon! Is my! Love!

The! Rolling! Green! Mountains! At my! Feet! Are in! Bloom!

What! Kind of! Rhythm! Is the! Most! Swaying!

What! Kind of! Singing! Is the! Most! Joyful!!

Breathe!

Breathe!"

Shen Le hummed the song to himself while he pressed down with all his might, sweat pouring off his face and dripping onto the middle-aged man's skin.

It felt like he had been pressing for ten thousand years before he heard the wail of an ambulance siren approaching from afar. Another ten thousand years passed until rapid footsteps came thundering toward him:

"Here! Over here!"

"Alright! Move aside! We're here!"

Shen Le rolled to the side and collapsed onto the floor. He watched as two medics in white coats moved in to check for breathing and a heartbeat, then set up an AED:

"Move back!!!"

A sharp crack of electricity echoed through the room. They paused, performed a quick check, and then crack, crack again...

Finally, the middle-aged man's heartbeat and breathing returned. He was lifted onto a stretcher and rushed toward the ambulance. Shen Le wiped the sweat from his face and looked down at his palm with a wry smile:

A clear, distinct mark was pressed into the center of his right palm, shaped exactly like the strokes on the Copper Fragment.

It was lucky it hadn't broken his skin... Perhaps the man had survived until the ambulance arrived because the Copper Fragment had contributed at least a little bit of power?

Otherwise, relying on his own clumsy, off-beat rescue efforts, the man probably wouldn't have stood a chance, right?

He turned back to see the room jumping and clattering; the Ink Marker was clearly throwing a tantrum. Shen Le sighed, picked up the Ink Marker, and headed toward the hospital:

Fine, I know you're worried about your original owner. I'll take you to see him, alright?

The town wasn't large, and there was only one secondary hospital. Shen Le had already been there once when visiting the Little Puppet's owner, so he found his way without needing to ask for directions.

He entered the emergency department and wandered around for a moment before spotting the man, his face sallow, lying on a treatment bed with the numbers on the bedside monitor flickering rhythmically.

His wife sat by the bed, wiping away tears, glancing periodically at the monitor or rising to check how much fluid was left in the IV drip. When she saw Shen Le approach, she scrambled to her feet, her legs giving way as she started to kneel:

"Thank you so much for today..."

"Don't!"

Shen Le quickly pressed her back into the chair. The wife's face was also deathly pale, the anger from their argument completely gone. She held her husband's hand, her thumb stroking the back of his hand over and over:

"The doctor said he had a cardiac arrest, and he was so close to... If you hadn't performed CPR in time..."

"Oh, it's nothing, anyone would have helped if they saw it..."

Shen Le waved his hands repeatedly. The wife choked back a sob, tears streaming down her face:

"I know he works hard, I know his back is bad, but I really didn't know... We had an argument last night, fought until midnight, and he didn't get any rest..."

As she spoke, she wiped her tears and picked up a towel, leaning over to wipe the sweat from her husband's brow. The husband, just pulled back from the brink, had no strength to speak, but the look he gave his wife was filled with tenderness.

Nearby, several relatives who had rushed over gathered in a circle, offering constant comfort:

"It's good that he's been saved..."

"Just don't argue anymore from now on..."

"Live your lives well. Your son is grown and can earn money now; what else is there that you can't get past?"

"Yes, yes!" the wife nodded repeatedly, her tears falling:

"I won't scold him ever again... Truly, only after going through this do I realize that those things don't matter. As long as he's alive, that's all that matters. As long as he's alive..."

She slowly leaned down, pressing her forehead against the back of her husband's hand, hiding her endless tears.