Chapter Forty-Four: Firm Vows

That evening after returning, Nangong Yuchen first told Nangong Kexin about his midday arrangement with Angel, though he withheld the reasons behind it and the conditions promised. At first she was somewhat reluctant, but under Nangong Yuchen's persuasion, she eventually agreed. The move to Angel's place was set for after the Elite Student Advancement Competition concluded. After all, the two of them living together in this small space was indeed rather awkward. After his sister finished bathing and came back, Nangong Yuchen sat on the edge of the bed, mulling things over. Looking at Nangong Kexin, whose pretty face was flushed with redness, he said, "Kexin, for Friday's Elite Student Advancement Competition, I want you to become an Elite Student too." "Me?" Nangong Kexin was taken aback. She hadn't expected Nangong Yuchen to speak to her so solemnly about this, and she smiled lightly, saying, "My physical fitness is still so far behind, and I have no combat experience either. How could I possibly become an Elite Student?" "You can!" "Become a Star Academy Elite Student?" Feeling the sincerity in her brother's gaze, Nangong Kexin murmured with a lack of confidence, "Really... can I?" "Mm!" Nangong Yuchen repeated word for word what Angel had told him that morning. "Wouldn't that be too risky? What if we get surrounded and attacked? Even you might..." Nangong Kexin was worried after hearing it all. She was afraid that Nangong Yuchen might be eliminated because of this—and if that happened, what about their parents' affairs? Just then, she suddenly heard Nangong Yuchen speak with absolute confidence: "Don't worry, the three of us will definitely advance together and become this year's three-person Elite Student squad!" Perhaps infected by Nangong Yuchen's confidence, the worry in Nangong Kexin's heart slowly dissipated. She suddenly stood up from the bed and invited her brother to spar as they used to. Nangong Yuchen gladly agreed. In truth, he was also gambling—wanting his sister to become an Elite Student alongside him, he could only put on a facade of unwavering confidence. "Thud! Thud!" The two of them bounced around the small room, practicing against each other. Two days passed in the blink of an eye, and Thursday night arrived. ... At a ward in B District Hospital of Ruxia City lay a plainly dressed woman. Her eyes were tightly shut, completely motionless, with an oxygen mask over her face. She seemed unable to breathe on her own at all, relying solely on the oxygen humidifier hanging beside her to sustain her life. The ward's quiet was suddenly shattered by commotion from the corridor outside. "Bang!" The tightly closed door was abruptly thrown open, and several doctors and nurses in white coats hurried in, rushing straight toward the hospital bed. Close behind them followed a dark-haired girl of about fourteen or fifteen, her face drenched in tears as she begged, "Doctor, please don't! I'll have the money gathered by tomorrow—if you take off the oxygen, my mother will... wu..." Her words dissolved entirely into sobs. "Hmph, tomorrow? I've already given you three days of grace, but you can't even afford the medical bills. This is the hospital's decision, and there's nothing I can do about it!" The leader was a tall, thin middle-aged male doctor. He shook off the girl who had run up from behind and impatiently ordered the nurse beside him, "Remove it!" The stern voice fell, and several nurses walked to the bedside, reaching out to remove the oxygen mask from the plainly dressed woman. "Thud!" At that moment, the dark-haired girl behind them dropped straight to her knees, weeping and pleading, "Wu... ah... Uncle Zhang, I beg you, you can't remove it! My sister is already raising the money—she'll pay everything by tomorrow. Please, for the sake of how my mother helped you back then, give us just one more night, please?" Hearing this, the middle-aged male doctor surnamed Zhang flew into a rage. "How dare you bring that up!" "That little favor your mother did for me in the Gao household—haven't I repaid it enough over all these years?! If it weren't for me pleading with the hospital on her behalf, she'd have died long ago! How could she have survived until now?" Dr. Zhang's furious face was somewhat terrifying. The dark-haired girl could only kneel on the cold floor, her face covered in tears as she choked out her pleas. "Dr. Zhang... should we still... remove it?" The nurses beside him were frightened, their hands hovering over the oxygen mask, unsure what to do. "Remove it—unless you want to pay the bill yourself?" Dr. Zhang shouted angrily. "Snap!" Hearing this, the nurse quickly pulled off the oxygen mask. The plainly dressed woman on the bed, who had been pale, began to flush red, then slowly turned toward purple. The girl kneeling on the ground wept even more miserably. In a panic, she crawled to Dr. Zhang, clutching at his white coat and sobbing her pleas, only to be met with cold rejection. "Xinyu, is that prepared for your father?" On the hospital corridor, a middle-aged man wearing glasses looked at the banknotes clenched tightly in the pretty girl's hand beside him, and smiled. "Mm!" Gao Xinyu lowered her head and nodded at the question, then raised her reddened eyes and said, "Uncle Li, I'm sorry. I could only borrow 2,000 yuan from my classmates. In the end, I still have to trouble you." "Ah, child, our families have known each other for so many years. Why be so polite with me? And besides..." As Uncle Li spoke, the two suddenly heard cries and screams coming from a ward ahead. Their faces turned white, and they rushed inside in a panic. Gao Xinyu was extremely fast—within no more than two seconds she had charged into the ward. The first thing that met her eyes was her younger sister kneeling before Dr. Zhang, pleading. "Xinlan, what are you..." Her sweet voice trailed off as she saw the plainly dressed woman lying on the white hospital bed, her face suffocating purple. "Mom!" Gao Xinyu rushed over in horror, screaming, "What did you do to my mother?! Put the oxygen back on her! Put it back on her!" At her words, the nurses glanced at Dr. Zhang's expression and remained unmoved. "Wu... please, put it back on my mom..." Gao Xinyu was so anxious that tears streamed down her face. She grabbed the nearest nurse, crying and shouting. "Miss Gao, you can't afford the treatment fees. This is the hospital's decision. We... we can't do anything about it!" That nurse couldn't bear it any longer and had to explain. "Money? I've already gathered enough! Please, just put the oxygen back on my mother!" Gao Xinyu tremblingly pressed the 2,000 yuan into the nurse's hand. "This bit..." The nurse looked at the money and started to speak, but seeing the girl weeping so heartbreakingly, so pitifully, the words died in her throat. "Uncle Zhang, I've brought the money! My mother is about to... wu wu ah!" Just then, Uncle Li, the bespectacled man from the corridor, arrived. Seeing the scene inside the ward, he roared in fury, "Zhang Liang, you've gone too far! Wanru is in this state, and you dare—!" With that, he looked at the tall, thin Dr. Zhang standing there, pulled a stack of banknotes from his pocket, and flung them over, bellowing, "This is all for the treatment fees! Hook Wanru back up this instant!" The male doctor called Zhang Liang turned around at last and ordered, "Hook it up!" Then he walked out without looking back. "Wu... Uncle Li, thank you so much..." The dark-haired girl named Xinlan, about fourteen or fifteen, saw her mother's complexion slowly beginning to recover. Her face wet with grateful tears, she thanked Uncle Li and moved to kneel again. Uncle Li quickly caught her and said, "Xinlan, what are you doing? Stand up now!" "Wu wu..." The dark-haired girl had already choked up so much she couldn't speak. Gao Xinyu stood by the hospital bed, looking at her mother lying there, and couldn't help rubbing her teary eyes as she called out, "Mom!" Unknowingly, two hours passed. During that time, Uncle Li went home, and her younger sister, exhausted from the ordeal, was persuaded to leave as well. In the end, only she remained to keep watch. Gao Xinyu looked at her mother's unconscious form and suddenly spoke in a trembling voice, "Mom, don't worry. Tomorrow, I will definitely become an Elite Student and cure your illness!" The girl's quivering voice, carrying a resolute determination like an oath, echoed through the deep-night ward...