The Blind Old Woman was taken to the hospital emergency room. The doctor's initial diagnosis was myocardial infarction, possibly caused by eating too much at once, which triggered a reflexive spasm of the coronary arteries. Without timely intervention, this ultimately led to a sudden heart attack.
The son sat on a bench outside the emergency room, burying his face in his hands. He had just had a big argument with his sister about paying for the bill.
When it came time to pay, he wanted to split the bill with his sister's family. His sister objected, saying, "You're the son, Mom lives with you, so you have to pay for her medical expenses." He replied, "Didn't we agree to split it 50/50 before we came?" His sister said, "That has to wait until Mom is discharged from the hospital, and after the insurance reimbursement is deducted, then we'll split the total between the two families. Besides, what are you afraid of? Mom's house is still there, and we still have cats. At worst, the money you get from killing the cat will be deducted from my share."
After arguing for a while, the hospital staff couldn't stand it anymore and came over to mediate. The siblings felt embarrassed, so the sister made an excuse to pick up her child and went home first.
He waited on a bench outside the emergency room.
The old lady was usually fine, so he didn't think anything of it. Whether it was going to her for free meals, drinks, and red envelopes during holidays, or occasionally going to her place to mooch some gas money, he took it all for granted. "Living off your parents," he thought, "Isn't that how everyone does it these days?"
But when the old woman actually collapsed, he suddenly panicked. It was like when he was a child, holding his mother's hand as they strolled down the street, only to find that his hand had somehow slipped away, his mother was gone, and the street was teeming with strangers. He stood in the middle of the street, bewildered and at a loss, and burst into tears.
In the middle of the night, a nurse came out with a form. "Your mother's condition is very unstable and she needs to be admitted to the ICU for observation. You should go and pay the fees first."
He took the bill and looked at it over and over again. "How much?"
The nurse said, "It'll be around five thousand a day, but it depends on her condition and the medication the doctor prescribes. Ten thousand a day is quite normal. You can pay fifty thousand first."
His hand trembled slightly, and he asked cautiously, "Can it be reimbursed by medical insurance?"
The nurse said, "I don't know. Go ask the front desk and pay the money quickly, otherwise we won't be able to deliver the person."
He plopped back into his chair. Despite his usual respectable appearance while driving, he couldn't possibly come up with 50,000 yuan all at once. He'd gambled away all his savings, and his wife controlled all the money at home, so he never got a penny. Otherwise, he wouldn't have to go to his grandmother's place so often to mooch gas money.
He took out his phone, wanting to call his wife. Her workplace was very close to the hospital; she could get there in minutes. But he knew his wife would never spend so much money on the old lady's medical treatment. She wished the old lady would die soon so she could inherit the house.
He wanted to call his sister, but the two had just had a fight and it was impossible for them to come back and give their mother money.
After thinking it over and over, he remembered the cat at the old lady's house.
"Nurse, I don't have enough money on me. I need to go back and get some," he said.
"Okay, then hurry up, your mother's condition isn't good, we can't wait," the nurse said.
He hurried out, but stopped halfway, remembering the nurse's words, and called his wife. His wife launched into a tirade, berating him for things like needing to pay 50,000 yuan just for this illness, whether he'd lost money gambling again, and wishing him to die somewhere far away. He pleaded and explained the situation. His wife said, "Then wait here, I'm coming right away, stay in the hospital and don't leave."
He waited at the hospital, and his wife arrived shortly after. He gave her the bill and asked her to pay. His wife sternly replied, "Why should I? If anyone's going to pay, it should be my sister who comes to pay too, unless we bring the old lady's property certificate." He said, "You pay first. Mom has a cat at home. I'll kill it and then we'll have the money."
His wife raised her hand and smacked him on the head several times. "A cat? You had a cat and you didn't tell me! How many cats does that old lady keep? Is she secretly taking all the money to have affairs outside?"
He cowered as his wife beat and scolded him, pleading, "Please stop hitting me! Mom only has one cat, and it's a stray I just found out about."
His wife got tired of hitting him and said, "Then hurry up and go. You have to bring all the money to me. Don't gamble it away, and don't give it to your sister." He said, "I know. Just pay the hospital bills quickly." His wife said, "You go ahead and do it. I'll take care of things here. After you're done with the cat, don't forget to look for the old lady's property certificate."
He left. As he was leaving, he overheard someone asking his wife, "Do you still have a cat? Cats are worth a lot these days." His wife replied happily, "Oh, it's not that much. Look at my old lady, she even fell ill because of a cat. The money from killing that cat might not even be enough to cure her illness." The person next to him said, "That's true, people get old, they don't think things through anymore. Sigh, it's tough on you children..."
When he left the hospital, he was extremely agitated. He stopped at a red light, and in a moment of distraction, didn't see the light turn green. The cars behind him started honking incessantly. His temper flared, and he floored the gas pedal, nearly hitting a young girl jaywalking at the next red light. He rolled down his window, about to yell, "Can't you watch where you're going? On your way to a funeral?"—a phrase he often used—but then he remembered the words "on your way to a funeral," his heart tightened, and he quickly drove off.
It was already dark when he arrived at his mother's apartment complex. Parking is hard to find in these old complexes, especially after get off work. He drove around for a long time before finally managing to park the car. With his keys dangling in his hand, he staggered towards his mother's house.
As he neared his house, he saw a man and a woman walking towards him. The streetlights weren't very bright, so he couldn't make out their faces clearly. The man had messy hair, wore an old trench coat, and despite the cool autumn weather, he was still wearing slippers, which clattered as he walked. The woman had short hair and jeans, and looked very spirited. If it weren't for the occasional charming smile she gave the man, he wouldn't have known she was a woman.
The two people looked very strange, so he glanced at them a few more times. The man and woman seemed to look at him as well, as if they knew him. He heard Crow caw overhead, and vaguely heard a cat meow.
Upon entering the house, he saw several cat paw prints on the table. He laughed, thinking the cat must have run out because it was hungry. He went into the room, lifted the bed sheet, and took out several shoe boxes from under the bed, opening them one by one, but found no cat. He then knelt down and looked under the bed, shining his phone's light on the area; apart from a broken basin filled with sand, there was nothing there.
He stood up, meowing softly, and searched all the rooms, but there wasn't a trace of the cat. He checked the doors and windows; they were all locked, so the cat couldn't have escaped. The cat paw prints on the table and the litter box under the bed containing cat feces confirmed that his mother did indeed have a cat.
He suddenly remembered the man and woman he had just met and that seemingly real but actually dreamlike meow.
Oh no, could it be a cat thief?
With that thought in mind, he quickly chased after them.