Qi Qin walked at a brisk pace, but Nan Fei, who hadn't traveled a long distance in more than a decade, struggled to keep up, gasping for air.
"Why are you walking so slowly?"
They were all from the same village, and it usually took half an hour to walk from the village to the town for school. She was in the habit of making this trip twice a day, so she was used to it.
"I'm sorry!" Nan Fei wiped the sweat from her forehead. Her small, porcelain face had turned crimson, almost as if it could rival the setting sun's burning clouds.
Qi Qin stared at her for a moment, filled with envy.
Nan Fei was the most beautiful girl in the village, and she'd heard that her cousin's wife was also very beautiful when she was young. She herself was quite dark, a trait she got from her mother. With a mix of thoughts in her mind, she slowed her pace.
"I heard this morning that your cousin's wife is not feeling well."
Qi Qin's words stunned Nan Fei. She broke into a cold sweat, looking straight at Qi Qin. The young girl shivered slightly and asked cautiously, "What's wrong?"
"Go home quickly." Jiang Nan Fei took off without a word, biting her lip and running towards home.
No wonder she felt something was off. In her past life, it was around this time that her mother had suddenly gone blind due to lack of timely medical treatment. Back then, their father was working at a construction site in the provincial city, and they had neither the necessary manpower nor money at home. When her mother's eyes suddenly went blind, even the local hospital couldn't figure out why.
Without a pillar to rely on, they just let it be. By the time her father was informed and returned from the provincial city, taking her mother to a big hospital, it was already too late.
Nan Fei's whole body was trembling. She was running and sweating profusely, but her feet felt as if they were floating in the air.
She managed to cover what was normally an hour's distance in just thirty minutes. As she entered the village, she could see her mother sitting on a small stool in the hall, squinting and struggling to look at her.
"Are you back, Nan Fei?" Her young mother with her comforting smile, looked just as she remembered.
Tears streamed down her face, as she cried silently. Nan Fei covered her mouth, feeling like a complete jerk. In her previous life, she owed her parents far too much.
"What's wrong?" Zhang Fengmei struggled to her feet, "Were you bullied at the factory?"
"No!" Nan Fei wiped away her tears, her voice still choked with sobs. She helped Zhang Fengmei sit down, eyes resting on the small three-room house and the modest courtyard, feelings of bitterness welled in her heart.
As Huo Jinlan had said, indeed, their family was very poor.
Her father was one of the three brothers, and their family was the poorest. In order to have a boy and avoid the planned birth policy, they had all their valuable belongings confiscated by birth control officers. They then incurred a heavy fine after their little brother was born, adding to their mounting debt.
With three children to educate and mom's poor health preventing her from doing heavy work, it was all too much for their father to handle alone. Their expenses far outweighed their income.
"Mom, what's wrong with your eyes?"
Zhang Feng Mei sighed, "I don't know, when I woke up this morning, I couldn't see clearly, and it really hurts. I got some medicine from the clinic, but it didn't help."
Nan Fei bit her lip, she knew that her mother had acute inflammation of the cornea ciliary body, and it could not be delayed.
"Mom, let me take you to the big hospital. We can't delay this treatment." She was thrilled to think her mother's vision could be saved.
"To what big hospital?"
"To the provincial city, to the First People's Hospital."