"A fever?"
Lin Wanyi didn't even grab a coat before rushing to the next room.
On the bed, Keke's cheeks were flushed red, and she was completely dazed.
"She was perfectly fine before bed. How did she suddenly get a fever?"
Li Suhua stood to the side, looking anxious.
Lin Wanyi quickly grabbed some fever-reducing medicine.
Such a high fever had to be brought down first, otherwise, anything could happen.
Wang Keke was uncomfortable and refused to cooperate with taking the medicine.
Li Suhua held her:
"Be a good girl, my sweet girl, open your mouth. You have to take your medicine.
"Look at you, you're burning up so much you're confused. Hurry, take the medicine, take it."
They finally managed to feed her the medicine.
Li Suhua wiped down her entire body and asked Lin Wanyi:
"Should we go to the hospital? I'm scared."
Lin Wanyi took Wang Keke's temperature again. The medicine was working, and the fever had gone down a bit.
She breathed a sigh of relief:
"Let's just monitor her at home for now, Mom. It's common for kids to get fevers.
"Right now, the hospitals are full of all kinds of viruses. The flu is really bad, and there's hand, foot, and mouth disease too.
"If we go, the cross-infection might make things worse.
"It's fine. You go to sleep, I'll stay up and watch her."
Li Suhua was still worried, so she lay down next to them.
Lin Wanyi comforted her: "Mom, it's really okay. Keke used to get fevers all the time when she was little.
"I was always the one staying up all night with her.
"I'm used to it. You go to sleep."
This made Li Suhua even more unable to sleep.
"Why was it just you? What about Wang Hao? Didn't he care?"
"He had to work during the day, and I didn't want to interfere with his job."
"And what about Liu Chunlan? Didn't she help you either?"
Lin Wanyi was silent for a moment:
"She doesn't like Keke. She despised Keke for being a girl. From the moment Keke was born, she never cared about her.
"I think she even wished Keke would just burn to death from a fever, so she could force me to have a second child."
Li Suhua held Keke's little hand, her heart aching in spasms.
After the pain subsided, she patted Lin Wanyi's back in frustration over her daughter's past submissiveness:
"You... what am I going to do with you?
"I used to think you just had a good personality, that you were gentle and never fought with anyone.
"Your dad and I both said it was a good trait, but I never expected it to be this bad.
"It's not good at all. Being too kind just means being weak, and it invites people to bully you.
"Wanyi, you can't raise Keke to be like this in the future.
"You have to teach her how to fight back, not to just swallow insults and humiliation, you hear me?"
Lin Wanyi nodded: "I know. I won't let Keke make the same mistakes I did."
That night, neither mother nor daughter slept.
Wang Keke didn't get a fever again.
Outside the door, Wang Hao was shivering from the cold, but seeing the light in Lin Wanyi's room stay on all night, he was secretly delighted.
He thought Lin Wanyi couldn't sleep because of him.
As soon as day broke, he immediately got up and waited.
Wang Keke had to go to school, and Lin Jiajun had to go make a living, so they had to open the door eventually.
But he waited until eight o'clock and still didn't see Wang Keke come out.
He started pounding on the door again:
"Wanyi, it's already eight. Aren't you taking Keke to school?
"She's going to be late."
No one answered him. He repeatedly pounded on the door.
Still, no one paid him any attention.
He didn't know that Wang Keke had spiked a fever again.
This time, it shot straight up to forty degrees Celsius.
Li Suhua completely lost her composure:
"To the hospital, we need to go to the hospital right now."
Lin Jiajun went to grab the car keys, while Lin Wanyi gave Wang Keke another dose of fever medicine and dressed her.
The moment Li Suhua opened the door, Wang Hao took the opportunity to squeeze his way in.
He pushed into the house and quickly pulled out the gold bracelet he had forgotten about yesterday, holding it out to Lin Wanyi:
"Wanyi, look, this is the big gold bracelet I bought for you.
"Gold prices are so high right now, I really spent a fortune on this.
"Wanyi, Wanyi."
Lin Wanyi, carrying Wang Keke, pushed Wang Hao aside:
"Get out of the way!"
Wang Hao refused to move. He tried to take Wang Keke from her:
"Keke, get down. You're seven years old, why are you still making your mom carry you?
"Hurry up and get down."
Wang Keke lay motionless against Lin Wanyi's shoulder, as if she couldn't even hear him.
Wang Hao actually got angry. He put on a stern face:
"Wang Keke, get down right now. What are you doing?
"You're a big kid now, hurry up and get down."
Lin Jiajun shoved him hard out of the way:
"Get lost! Keke has a fever, we need to take her to the hospital immediately."
"Sick?"
Wang Hao frowned:
"What kind of sick? What's wrong with her?"
Lin Jiajun was losing his patience:
"I just said she has a fever. Get out of the damn way."
Wang Hao finally stepped aside, and Lin Wanyi got into the car with Wang Keke.
Just as Wang Hao tried to get in on the other side, Lin Jiajun slammed on the gas and sped off.
Watching Wang Hao chase after the car, Zhao Yulan quickly locked the front gate of the Lin house.
Wang Hao was once again shut out.
He pointed angrily at Zhao Yulan:
"Auntie, why are you locking me out? This is Lin Wanyi's house, what right do you have to lock it?"
Zhao Yulan jingled the keys:
"Because I'm Lin Wanyi's aunt. She didn't let you in last night, and she certainly wouldn't let you in today.
"You just stay out there and behave yourself."
When she went back home with the keys, Lin Yuantang praised her:
"You handled that well."
Zhao Yulan tossed the keys onto the counter:
"Of course. No matter what, I'm Lin Wanyi's aunt. I wouldn't side with an outsider, would I?
"I just heard them say Keke had a fever, so I rushed right over."
Lin Yuantang was eating his breakfast:
"Yes, we're family. When push comes to shove, we have to help each other. We absolutely cannot let someone like Wang Hao bully our Lin family."
He paused and then added:
"Your sister-in-law is out of line too. I won't even mention Delin, but what kind of nonsense was your sister-in-law spouting yesterday?
"If it hadn't been your birthday and I was trying to save your face, I would have scolded her right then and there.
"What did she mean by calling Keke a burden that couldn't be brought along? That is Wanyi's own flesh and blood. If your sister-in-law can't accept that, then forget it.
"Don't meddle in Wanyi's marriage prospects anymore."
Zhao Yulan nodded in agreement:
"How was I supposed to know my sister-in-law would say those things? If I had known, I definitely would have stopped her.
"I had good intentions. I was genuinely worried that Chen Hui would have issues, so I wanted to find Wanyi a good home.
"I just won't bring it up again."
Lin Jiajun drove very fast.
When they arrived at the hospital, there were people everywhere.
It was only eight-thirty in the morning, but the pediatrics department already had long lines.
The sounds of children crying and coughing filled the air.
Lin Wanyi quickly put a mask on Wang Keke.
Lin Jiajun went to register them, but there was a long line at the self-service machines too.
They ended up waiting for two whole hours.
Li Suhua anxiously asked a nurse:
"The child has a high fever, forty degrees. Can't she be seen first?"
The nurse looked up and tried to soothe her:
"Ma'am, look around. All these kids have high fevers from the flu. You're anxious about your child, but so is everyone else.
"Here's what you do. Take this thermometer and keep an eye on her temperature.
"If it goes over forty degrees, give her a fever suppository first."
Li Suhua had no choice; the nurse was right.
They were all children, all precious to their parents. They just had to wait.
Fortunately, Lin Wanyi had given Wang Keke fever medicine before coming to the hospital, so her temperature had dropped again.
As they sat on the bench waiting, Wang Hao somehow managed to track them down and showed up again.
