Chapter 68p2: Awakening
Jiang Zao had ridden all the way here. Perhaps because everyone in the camp had seen her with the Prophet, no one had stopped her, and she had arrived at the entrance of the Red Cross without any obstruction.
She had only heard that Little Mi was awake and had rushed over in a panic. It wasn’t until she dismounted that she saw that there were many people gathered at the entrance of the tent.
Jiang Zao squeezed through the crowd. After a lot of effort, she finally managed to open a crack and saw Little Mi half-lying on the bed, holding a sharp scalpel to Yan Zhen’s neck.
The surrounding soldiers all raised their guns. “Put down the knife!”
“Little Mi…” Jiang Zao was stunned on the spot and slowly opened her mouth.
Little Mi heard the familiar voice and came to her senses. The moment she saw her in the crowd, tears also welled up.
“Big sister…”
Jiang Zao walked over step by step, motioning for her to relax. She slowly put her arm on Little Mi’s and took the scalpel from her hand.
“It’s okay, Little Mi. She’s the doctor who performed your surgery.”
When the shiny scalpel was taken away from her neck, Yan Zhen finally let out a huge sigh of relief and escaped from her grip. God knows she just wanted to change Little Mi’s dressing and also to cut off the granulation tissue that had grown on her wound.
The moment she lifted her quilt, Li Mi’s right hand had moved, and she had instantly snatched the scalpel from the tray and pressed it against her throat, so scared that she didn’t even dare to move.
The sound of the tray falling to the ground also alerted the guards, which was why the scene just now had happened.
Yan Zhen looked at Little Mi, who was now crying in Jiang Zao’s arms, and couldn’t help but think: Damn child, she’s so strong.
“I thought… I thought I’d never see you again…”
Jiang Zao just patted her hair, her eyes slightly red.
“It’s okay, it’s okay… big sister is here.”
She saw that the gauze wrapped around Little Mi’s shoulder was bleeding again from her movements. She must have come over to change her dressing.
“Little Mi, don’t move. Let Doctor Yan take a look at you.”
Only then did Li Mi let go, and she got up with teary eyes. Jiang Zao helped her lean against the bed and moved aside.
“Big sister…” Little Mi held her hand, and Jiang Zao held her wrist in return. “Don’t worry, I’m right here.”
“Didn’t you say not to touch? Why is it okay now?”
Yan Zhen raised an eyebrow and stood still.
Jiang Zao knew that anyone who had been treated like that would feel uncomfortable, not to mention that Yan Zhen had also saved Little Mi’s life.
“Sorry… Little Mi, she… she didn’t mean to. She just went through… some things, and her emotions became very tense.”
Yan Zhen looked at her, then at Little Mi. The child’s eyelashes were still covered with tear stains, but her expression already had a maturity and stubbornness that did not match her age. Her alert appearance was like a wounded leopard.
Yan Zhen turned her head and ordered the nurse.
“Go and get a new bottle of alcohol and instruments.”
“Yes, Doctor Yan. Do the soldiers need to stay here?” the nurse asked worriedly before she left.
Yan Zhen waved her hand. “Everyone can go.”
For a moment, only the three of them were left in the tent. Yan Zhen disinfected her hands again and put on gloves. She gently lifted the gauze on Little Mi’s shoulder and applied alcohol with a cotton swab.
Little Mi immediately gritted her teeth, her whole body trembling in pain.
Yan Zhen glanced at Little Mi and stopped her movements.
“Next, I’m going to clean the necrotic tissue around your wound. If you can’t bear it, you can cry out.”
Jiang Zao was a little unbearable. “Doctor Yan, is there no anesthesia?”
“Anesthesia is only for the seriously injured. She doesn’t count now.”
Yan Zhen’s eyebrows under the mask were cold, and she didn’t even raise her head.
Little Mi gritted her teeth and took a sharp breath. She was afraid of hurting Jiang Zao, so she let go of her. Instead, Jiang Zao took her hand, which was on the quilt, and held it in her palm.
“No… it’s okay… big sister… I can do it.”
“Bear with it. I’m starting.”
After Yan Zhen finished speaking, she picked up the tissue scissors from the tray, first cut off some of the extra threads, and then little by little, she went into the flesh to clean the necrotic tissue around her wound.
Jiang Zao pressed Li Mi’s head against her own shoulder. Li Mi let out a muffled groan from her throat, her face was pale, and large beads of sweat slid down her temples, but she didn’t say a word.
Yan Zhen put down the scissors in the tray, sprinkled some medicinal powder on it to reduce inflammation, and then wrapped her wound again.
When she turned to put things away, Li Mi finally noticed that there was iodophor on the cart next to her.
She immediately gritted her teeth.
“Isn’t there iodophor… why didn’t you use it on me just now?”
“A disobedient child should be punished.”
As Yan Zhen spoke, she winked at her, picked up the tray, and went out.
“You—”
Li Mi sat up angrily but fell back down helplessly. Jiang Zao held her down.
“Alright, alright. The wound will open up again in a moment.”
When only the two of them were left in the tent, Li Mi finally calmed down and leaned against her with relief.
She had too many questions to ask.
“Big sister, where are we? How did you find this place? And how did your hair become like this?”
“I’m fine. This place is called the Utopia Camp. We drifted down the Baisha River and got here.”
Li Mi saw that her eyes were red and suddenly felt that something was wrong. She hadn’t seen Big Sister Wen, and Grandma Jiang, and even Kele, who had been inseparable from them, since she woke up.
She had a bad feeling in her heart, and her eyes also slowly turned red, but she still grabbed Jiang Zao’s hand, as if to confirm something.
“Big sister, what about Big Sister Wen, Grandma Jiang, and Kele? Why do I only see you? Where are they…”
When she mentioned Jiang Wuni and Kele, Jiang Zao’s tears could no longer be held back and fell.
She took out the tattered doll from her backpack and placed it by Li Mi’s hand.
“Your Big Sister Wen is still here, but… Grandma and Kele are not coming back.”
Before she had heard it with her own ears, Li Mi still had a glimmer of hope. It wasn’t until she saw Jiang Zao crying in front of her and saw the blood-stained doll that Li Mi knew that Kele and Grandma had really left them.
Scenes from the past flashed before her eyes.
Her tears burst out at that moment, and she hugged the doll tightly to her chest.
“It’s all my fault… if it weren’t for me… everyone wouldn’t have left Yuanxi Village, and Kele and Grandma wouldn’t have…”
As Li Mi spoke, her right hand was clenched into a fist, and tears streamed down her face. Jiang Zao’s eyes were filled with tears, and she patted her head.
“Little Mi… we… the three of us have to live on well so that we don’t let them down. You have to listen to Doctor Yan here, take your medicine on time, and get better as soon as possible, so that we can leave this place.”
Although Little Mi had just woken up, she could feel that Doctor Yan was not a bad person, and this camp also had fully armed soldiers, which seemed very safe.
Since the survivor base had already fallen, and they had nowhere else to go for the time being, why not consider settling down here?
Jiang Zao saw her confusion, looked around, and lowered her voice. “In short, this camp is not reliable. Besides me and your Big Sister Wen, don’t believe anyone else here.”
Li Mi seemed to understand but not quite, but she nodded solemnly.
Jiang Zao patted her head again and tucked her in.
“Rest for a while. I’ll go when you’re asleep.”
***
Wen Zhao, who had been busy all day, looked up again when the sun was about to set. A person wrapped in a long robe gathered them together and gave each of them two green pieces of paper with a sun pattern on them.
Wen Zhao looked at them over and over again. It took her a while to realize that this was the “food ticket” that the old woman had mentioned that day.
It could be used to exchange for food.
She looked up again, not knowing how Little Zao was doing. She always felt that the Prophet looked unfathomable and very dangerous. Most importantly, she had ill intentions towards Little Zao.
Thinking of this, Wen Zhao’s heart tightened. She quickly chased after the church attendant in front. “Excuse me, how do I get to the church?”
The man in the dark robe turned his head and glared at her with contempt, shaking off her hand and snorting through his nose.
“Is the church a place for someone like you to go?”
“You—” Wen Zhao was furious and clenched her fists. The foreman pulled her clothes and whispered.
“How dare you provoke the people from the church? Are you tired of living? If you’re looking for someone, go to the canteen. It’s almost mealtime. Everyone will be gathered there.”
The surrounding soldiers all cast unfriendly gazes because of this incident. Only then did Wen Zhao unclench her fists.
“Thank you.”
“Eh, you’re welcome. Let’s go quickly. Otherwise, we’ll be late for dinner.”
Looking at the residents who were constantly pouring out of the houses on both sides of the road, Wen Zhao also joined the crowd and walked towards the canteen.
***
After Jiang Zao left the tent, she was asking everyone about Wen Zhao’s whereabouts. She couldn’t wait to tell her the good news that Little Mi had woken up, but she had stopped several soldiers and they all shook their heads, saying that they had not seen this person.
The evening hymn sounded on the radio on time, and people all walked towards the canteen. Looking at the gradually gathering crowd, Jiang Zao had a flash of inspiration and also ran over.
“One food ticket for one steamed bun. Go over there and get it,” the leading attendant said listlessly, pointing to the side.
Wen Zhao’s food ticket was taken away. She had worked hard all day and had only gotten two steamed buns that could barely fill her stomach.
There were vegetable leaves and sweet potato paste over there, but it took two food tickets to exchange for a bowl.
A white-haired old man was bowing and scraping in front of the attendant.
“Please… just a little more. I go out to work every day, but because I’m old, they don’t want me. I’ve been saving up for a long time to get these three food tickets…”
There was only a thin layer in the iron bowl in his hand.
“Go, go. Everyone gets this much. If you eat it, what will others eat? Get lost!”
As the attendant spoke, he gave him a push. The old man was unsteady and fell to the ground, and the porridge also spilled out.
Looking at the little bit of food that he had worked so hard for several days to get being wasted like this, the old man couldn’t help but wail.
A church attendant led two soldiers over.
“You have committed the sin of clamor and greed. You will be whipped twenty times. Take him away.”
The faces of the people who had worked all day were filled with apathy, as if they were used to it.
Seeing that the old man’s mouth was being covered by the people from the church and he was about to be dragged away, Wen Zhao took a step forward. The foreman from the next team grabbed her arm and lowered his voice.
“He deserves it! Don’t even think of pleading for him. The crime of harboring will only be punished more severely!”
In that moment of daze, the old man was dragged away by the people from the church in front of her. Wen Zhao looked at his back and was lost in thought for a long time, until her gaze fell on the end of the line.
Jiang Zao was anxiously looking around, searching for her. Wen Zhao’s height was so outstanding in the crowd.
Jiang Zao stood on her tiptoes and saw her at a glance.
The moment their eyes met, a smile appeared in both of their eyes. Jiang Zao couldn’t help but raise her hand.
“A—”
Before she could call out, Wen Zhao shook her head at her.
Jiang Zao came to her senses and looked at the soldiers and the church attendants in dark robes who were walking back and forth. She swallowed her words.
