Su Yun was still fuming. "A little while ago, your dad and your eldest uncle both went back for a visit," she said. "They each gave Grandpa and Grandma three hundred yuan, which is six hundred in total. I was thinking, well, we have to give them money for the New Year anyway, so giving it to them now would let them buy some holiday supplies themselves. But who could have guessed? Grandpa turned around and gave all six hundred yuan to the third brother and his wife. Now Grandma is in the hospital for surgery, and when it came to the three-hundred-yuan fee, nobody would pay up. In the end, your dad paid for it!"

Su Yun was truly exasperated. At the hospital just now, it was all her husband’s family, and with the old woman still in the operating room, none of the brothers were willing to pay. Could they really just stand by and watch her die?

Qin Na did offer to pay, but it wasn’t like Su Yun didn’t know how little money she had. Besides, with both her older brothers staying silent, were they really going to let their younger sister foot the bill?

In the end, it was Qin Zhonghui who paid the three hundred. Qin Na immediately stuffed the one hundred yuan she had been saving for a long time into her brother’s hand. Meanwhile, the third brother just squatted nearby, not making a sound from beginning to end. As for the eldest, Qin Bogang, he wanted to pay, but he usually only carried twenty yuan for spending money. His wife, Sun Li, controlled their finances.

He had gone home to ask for money, but Sun Li wasn’t there, so Qin Bogang had no choice but to go find his second brother.

Su Yun’s eyes were red as she said angrily, "I know that paying for Grandma’s medical treatment is the right thing to do, but this whole situation is just infuriating!"

Qin Jiao patted her mom’s shoulder comfortingly. "Let’s just focus on getting Grandma through this first," she said. "Afterward, we’ll let her see for herself what her precious youngest son is really like—he’d rather watch her die than spend any money. We’ll see what she has to say then. Mom, just bear with it a little longer. After I finish my college entrance exams next year, our whole family will move away. During the holidays, we’ll just go back to visit Grandma and Grandpa on your side, and our uncles. We won’t see anyone else."

"Okay." Su Yun was just so furious, but after talking with her daughter, she did feel a little better.

Fortunately, the emergency treatment was in time, and the grandmother was saved. By then, it was already dark. As it turned out, Qin Bogang took Qin Jiqun to stay at his house, while Qin Jiao’s father, Qin Zhonghui, kept watch at the hospital all night.

Su Yun was fuming, but she still went to the hospital early the next morning with her sister-in-law, Qin Na, and her two daughters.

The grandmother was actually quite tough. Having always been subjected to her husband’s scolding and dominance, she had learned to passively endure everything. Later on, she doted on her youngest son and his wife, never wanting them to do any work. 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

Back when Qin Jiao and Qin Shi were still at home, she could at least make the two girls do some chores. Qin Shi was only six or seven years old at the time, but she was already washing clothes, cooking, and tending the stove fires.

But after Qin Shi left for Ping’an Town with her parents and older sister, the grandmother didn’t dare order her third daughter-in-law to do any work, which meant she had to do it all herself.

Now that the surgery was over and she was out of danger, the grandmother had regained her spirits and immediately started in on her second son, who had stayed with her all night.

"Zhong Hui, honestly. Even though you’ve separated your household, you can’t just forget about us. You used to come back so much earlier in previous years and help me with things. If you had just come back sooner this time, I wouldn’t have gotten so sick."

Qin Zhonghui had been exhausted from the previous day, and then he had stayed up all night at the hospital, worried his mother would get a fever. He’d even caught a bit of a chill. He was so dazed he didn’t even register what his mother had just said.

But Su Yun, who had just walked in, was utterly enraged.

She slammed the lunchbox down on the table with a THUD. Sneering, she said, "Mom, if you were living all by yourself, then fine, you could blame your children who live out of town for what happened. But were you alone? Are the third brother and his wife dead? Did Dad see you in so much pain and not even tell you to go see a doctor?!"