Chapter 916: Chapter 890: Contradictory and Complex Human Nature (Fourth Update)

Before Qian could make a move, Qian’s mom and Mr. Liao were already up.

Mr. Liao went to open the door, and outside stood an angry middle-aged woman pointing at Mr. Liao’s nose while cursing.

"I’m fed up with this damned family here. Our elder has heart issues, and you keep making such a ruckus deep into the night!"

The accent was unfamiliar, and she burst into a tirade of dialect, leaving Mr. Liao completely at a loss.

"She says she’s had enough of our family. Her elder has heart problems, and the late-night disturbances force them to get up for medication," Yu Minglang came out to translate.

Da Long’s room door also opened, and he looked full of energy, clearly not having slept at all. "Who’s causing trouble at my house! Are you bullying us because there’s no one home!"

Before he finished speaking, Qian kicked him back into the room and closed the door.

"Don’t cause trouble, go back to sleep obediently, put on your headphones again. If you sneakily read comics at night, I’ll tear them up!"

It’s obvious that this little rascal should have been hiding under the covers with a flashlight, reading comics at this hour.

Daren’t turn on the light, Qian’s mom would find out.

Da Long was too scared to come back out and hid the comics under his pillow, his eyes scanning around nervously. Could it be his sister installed cameras in his room? How does she know everything!

He might evade mom coming in without knocking but couldn’t escape his sister’s god-like vigilant eyes.

"Ma’am, you’ve knocked on the wrong door. We don’t have a child, just a student preparing for college entrance exams," Qian’s mom explained.

She realized this was likely the downstairs neighbor who heard crying and came up.

The family downstairs had just moved in; Qian’s mom hadn’t met them yet.

"Oh! Sorry! I was just too anxious. Our elder was scared awake and got heart issues, just had medication, and I came up to see whose family was so damned! If it’s not yours, it’s theirs!" The middle-aged woman banged angrily against the opposite door.

This astonishing force and anger perfectly demonstrated the full fury of a menopausal woman disturbed from her sleep.

There were also sounds of doors opening upstairs; with all the noise, nobody could sleep.

The opposite door opened, and a weary young man was accompanied by a woman holding a loudly crying child, both with deep dark circles under their eyes.

"What’s going on?"

"What’s going on? That’s a question for you all! Can you manage your kid? Always crying like it’s the end of the world, can anyone sleep? Our old lady was scared into a heart episode by the crying!"

"Keep it down, if the child cries what can we do? We’ve comforted them but they won’t sleep; it’s not like the child understands. Please, show some understanding."

"I can’t understand! Ever since we moved, you’ve been like this, can’t you get it together? If not, move out and stop disrupting everyone’s rest!"

"You’re hilarious, we bought this house, we can live here if we want; if you can’t cope, you can move!" Probably worn out by the child’s constant crying, the young father spoke harshly.

Menopausal mom vs. father’s first time dealing with a deprived sleep crisis - a showdown was imminent.

Neighbors upstairs also sent representatives to watch, nobody spoke, just perched on the stair railing looking down.

Seeing that the argument was about to escalate, Qian’s mom, always eager to help, couldn’t stand it. Her son was a candidate for exams, this uproar truly disrupted him, she stepped forward to try and advise.

"You all should stop; it’s late, everyone needs sleep. I have a kid preparing for college entry exams too. Could we discuss everything properly tomorrow?"

"Your son is preparing for exams, then you should speak up even more, with such a damned family crying daily, what about everyone else?" The middle-aged woman clutched Qian’s mom.

"Who are you calling damned!" Though he didn’t understand the dialect, the expecting father knew it wasn’t nice, angrily rebutting.

"I’m talking about you!" The middle-aged woman pointed at him incessantly, Xiaoqiang and Mr. Liao hurried to intervene, each pulling one person aside, with a brawl over street relations looming.

Meanwhile, the woman holding the child could only helplessly watch, her child crying even harder.

Qian walked over, bypassing the man to stand beside the woman, "Why’s the child crying so much?"

"I don’t know, held and soothed and still crying... we really didn’t want to disturb everyone," the woman said tearfully, she truly didn’t want to bother the neighbors, but this was how the child was.

Qian reached out to place a hand on the child’s forehead and was shocked by the heat.

"She’s running a fever!"

"There was a bit of warmth earlier this afternoon. I read in a parenting book that a mild fever in children isn’t a concern, as they have their own immune regulation to naturally recover."

"Stop talking nonsense, take the child to the hospital emergency now! This fever is too high, it might harm the child."

"Hospital...?" The young parents were a bit confused, their kid frequently cried nightly prior without apparent reason; this time they believed it was routine, lacking any elderly guidance, their parenting knowledge came exclusively from books.

"This temperature isn’t normal, hurry to the hospital."

"But... the book..." This mom was clearly hooked on modern parenting advice from books, yet before finishing her sentence, the child in her arms suddenly changed, becoming rigid, twitching, eyes rolling back - the abnormal signs terrified this mom into screaming, prompting the young father to stop arguing and quickly approach, along with the woman who was venting anger earlier.

Xiaoqiang sensed things were amiss immediately, took out his phone and dialed 120.

"Oh dear! She’s having fever convulsions! Quick, lay the child down!" The woman who was earlier shouting commands the young mom to lay the child flat, muttering all the while, "A small child with high fever convulses easily, don’t panic! Just lay her down, turn her head to prevent vomiting and choking!"

"I’m, I’m now going to find medicine!" Mom was terrified stiff.

"No! No medicine now! Might choke him! Our alley had a wife whose kid convulsed, taking medicine almost choked him, listen, loosen his collar, hurry, young lady, don’t just stand there, bring a clean towel and ice!"

The woman pointed at Qian, who hurried indoors to find a small hand towel, the woman wrapped the towel around an ice water bottle, "A kid had convulsed in our alley last time, the village doctor handled it this way."

Qian searched her mind for parenting info and realized this was a febrile convulsion due to high fever, the woman’s treatment was accurate.

"Mom, get a cool towel, start physical cooling, everyone stay quiet."

Suddenly active, neighbors came down from upstairs to help, whether interested in fights, they wouldn’t speak up, but were willing to lend a hand when a child had issues.

The ambulance quickly took the child away, night returned to silence, Qian stood by the window watching the ambulance leave, Xiaoqiang approached to ask.

"What are you thinking about?"

"Thinking about the complicated human nature and conflicts..."

Today’s various events left Qian with one feeling.

Human nature sometimes looks bleak, but a bit of kindness always keeps hope alive.

"You, go to bed early, I’ll go have a chat with Da Long, he doesn’t seem sleepy either." Xiaoqiang patted her shoulder, ready to leave, but Qian held him back.