Chapter 138 Unforeseen circumstances The registration office was very crowded, and the recruiting foremen began to select young and strong am glad that I am still young and can get such a stable job. Not only is the salary paid daily, but the workplace is also near my home. I think this is the life that God has given me. I successfully became a miner. After a simple training, I started working. The intensity of work in the mine is nothing for someone like me who is used to doing heavy farm work. Although it is a bit hard, the money I get every day always makes me feel at ease. Especially when I saw that the money turned into rice that could be cooked and meat that I could only eat once in a while. My little son finally stopped crying because of hunger, and my parents could relax a little. I began to be grateful that I became a miner and could provide my family with a stable life. I lived this peaceful life for more than three years. Of course, this man did not let me experience it bit by bit during this process. I just felt myself in a trance for a moment, some more memories appeared in my mind out of nowhere, and I also knew that seven years had passed. Most of the land at home was contracted out to others, and my parents took care of the rest. They only grew some seasonal vegetables to feed the family, which made things a lot easier. There were visibly more things in the house, even the clothes the children wore became brighter.
My parents are already old. The hard work they did when they were young has shown up in their old age, and their waists and knees often ache. The eldest son and the second daughter are already in primary school. In the morning they would walk several miles to go to the primary school in town. The happiest time for me is probably when I come up from the mine after get off work every day and see my son or daughter writing and drawing in a book or exercise book by the mine. When they saw me, they stuffed the things in their hands into their schoolbags, walked over with smiles on their faces and called me "Dad" in a crisp voice. It feels like honey has melted in my heart, moist and sweet. They came to take me home. I felt that my life was worth it. My eldest son studies very hard. He is going to enter junior high school next year. He always manages to take out a perfect test paper from his bag and show it off in front of me like a magic trick. When my co-workers see this, most of them will express envy and praise. Some of them whose children are naughty will also joke that they wish their children could be as sensible as mine. Although my daughter is not very good at studying, she is sensible. She is very skillful. She makes woolen gloves and socks for me every winter. They are well-fitting and warm. I couldn't agree more with the saying that a daughter is a father's little cotton-padded jacket. But my daughter seems to have some health problems recently. At first, she always had nosebleeds, and when she came to see me, she always had two paper balls stuck in her nose. I thought it was due to a sore throat or the weather, so I didn't pay much attention to it. Later, my daughter became thinner and thinner, and I realized something was wrong. When I asked my daughter if she had any other symptoms, she always shook her head. "I'm in good health! I can eat two bowls of rice in one meal!" She clenched her fist, pounded her chest, and said confidently. But she just fell down like that. I panicked and rushed to help her. Only then did I realize that her body was exceptionally light, like a withered leaf in autumn. I held her in my arms and could hardly feel her weight. I was completely panicked, so I sent my daughter back home and went to see the barefoot doctor in our village.
When I took the barefoot doctor home, my daughter had already woken up. She was lying on the bed, and she looked visibly more haggard. The doctor felt her pulse, but just frowned and said that the child had a fever and anemia, but he couldn't explain it and told us to go to the town hospital when we have time. Because I work at the mine, I basically have no holidays, so the task of taking my daughter to see a doctor falls on my parents. On the day I went to see the doctor, I was worried the whole day. The first thing I did when I got home was to ask my parents about my daughter's condition and what disease she had. "The doctor said there was nothing wrong with him. He might just have a weak immune system, so he often had a fever. He fainted because he was a little anemic." My father curled his lips and said, "Going to the hospital is a waste of money." My father is somewhat biased towards boys, and because the results of the check-up at the hospital were similar to what the barefoot doctor in the village said, he had some complaints. Although I have advised him many times, he still has some prejudice in the way he speaks and does things. However, my daughter was fine, which made me feel relieved. However, I knew through empathy that the girl's symptoms could not be simple anemia. The hospital prescribed some medicine, and my daughter's symptoms were alleviated a little. Life seemed to be calm again. After a while, the mine in this mountain area has been developed to the third level and is about to be developed to the fourth level. The development of the next level requires stone chiseling, blasting, and ventilation before we miners can go in and work. My daughter's illness became more and more serious. She went from nosebleeds to nausea and vomiting. Even large red spots appeared on her skin, and some places had even begun to ulcerate. I also felt something was wrong, and the desire to take my daughter to the city for medical treatment became stronger and stronger. It happened that there was nothing for us miners to do before this mining, so I took this opportunity to take my daughter to the municipal hospital in person. After hearing about my daughter's condition, I saw that the doctor had a serious expression on his face. Then, he wrote out a checkup list and asked me to take my daughter to do a routine blood test. The results of the blood test came out very quickly. When I took the test results to see the doctor, the doctor's expression became more serious. Seeing the doctor's expression, I was immediately worried. I prepared for the worst, but when the doctor said the word "leukemia", I still felt like my breathing was stagnant and I couldn't breathe. "Doctor...can my baby still be treated?" I was choking with sobs. The doctor felt sorry for me when he saw me like this: "I can't promise you now. To treat this disease, you need a bone marrow transplant. First, we need to see if your or her brother's bone marrow can be successfully matched. If not, we need to wait for other people to have suitable bone marrow... Then the hope may be slim..." I still asked the question that was on my mind: "Then...if we can find a match, how much will the treatment cost?" I nervously held my daughter's hand. Her palms were cold and damp, and I could feel sweat on them. I guess she was as nervous as I was. The doctor sighed and said, "Probably around 40,000 yuan." I'm already half heartbroken. Forty thousand...how can I come up with that?