Searching for someone in northern Myanmar, and you call that earning tuition fees?

Intensive Care Unit, General Hospital of Military Region.

The smell of disinfectant permeates everything, and the monotonous "beeping" of various monitoring instruments is the only evidence that time is passing.

Nine days have passed.

Li Changfeng leaned back in the hospital chair, his eyes bloodshot and his chin covered in dark stubble. He stared motionless at the person on the hospital bed, who was covered in tubes and bandages.

On the folding bed next to him, Old Zhao slept very restlessly, his brows furrowed, occasionally letting out a few mumbles in his sleep before waking up with a start. He would glance at Su Ming on the bed, let out a long sigh, change his position, and continue to stay awake.

For more than a week, the two of them hardly left the room.

They watched as bag after bag of plasma was transfused into that young body, saw doctors and nurses coming and going, and heard medical terms they didn't understand but knew were very serious.

Time has never felt so long.

Suddenly, the beeping of the electrocardiogram monitor went off-beat.

The change was very subtle, yet it sounded particularly jarring in the quiet hospital room.

Li Changfeng froze, then fell backward along with his chair, which crashed to the floor with a thud.

He didn't even bother to hold onto the chair; he rushed to the bedside and stared intently at Su Ming's face.

On the hospital bed, the eyelids that had been closed for nine days trembled slightly.

"Old Zhao!" Li Changfeng's voice was terribly hoarse.

Old Zhao on the folding bed was startled. He jumped up from the bed and rushed over barefoot without even putting on his shoes.

The two stared wide-eyed and held their breath.

Su Ming's fingers curled slightly.

Immediately afterwards, his pale, chapped lips parted slightly, as if he wanted to speak, but only managed to squeeze out a few breathy sounds.

"Water? Do you want some water?" Old Zhao frantically tried to grab the cotton swabs from the bedside table.

Li Changfeng grabbed him and said, "Don't move! He's injured! I'll go get a doctor!"

Just as Li Changfeng turned around, Su Ming on the hospital bed opened his eyes.

Lost focus, bewildered.

His vision was a blurry white, and all he could hear was a buzzing noise. He tried to blink, but his eyelids were too heavy to lift. After a long while, the outline of the ceiling slowly appeared in the white blur. Then, two people with dark circles under their eyes and stubble on their faces approached him.

Fragments of memory surged through my mind.

The smoke from the mine, the ferocious face of the alpha wolf, the icy mud, and the last car headlight piercing the night sky...

He is still alive.

"Kid!" Li Changfeng's voice trembled with excitement as he saw the boy's eyes focus. "You...how are you feeling?"

Old Zhao also came over, wanting to pat Su Ming's shoulder, but he quickly pulled his hand back halfway, afraid of touching Su Ming's wounds. His old face was contorted with a mixture of crying and laughing: "You're awake! It's good that you're awake! Damn it, you scared us to death!"

Su Ming looked at them, then looked down at himself.

From neck to toe, there was hardly a good spot; various tubes were connected to the surrounding equipment. He was completely wrapped up and couldn't move at all.

He opened his mouth, but his throat felt like it was on fire.

"Don't...don't speak," Li Changfeng quickly said. "The doctor said your vocal cords are also damaged, so don't exert yourself."

Su Ming didn't listen. He stubbornly used all his strength to squeeze out a few words from his dry throat.

The sound was very soft, like a mosquito's hum, but in the quiet ward, every word reached Li Changfeng and Lao Zhao's ears.

He said, "Brother Li... Uncle Zhao..."

"Hey! I'm here!" The two quickly went over.

Su Ming took a breath, his eyes bright, staring intently at them, and weakly asked:

"This time... does it count as a work injury?"

"..."

"..."

The smiles on Li Changfeng and Lao Zhao's faces froze instantly.

The two stood frozen in place, staring at each other, not understanding what Su Ming had said.

An eerie silence fell over the ward.

Only the monitor was still beeping.

Seeing that they didn't react, Su Ming got a little anxious and added with difficulty, "Nutritional expenses... and compensation for emotional distress... um, will that be reimbursed?"

"puff……"

Old Zhao couldn't hold back first.

He covered his mouth, his shoulders shaking violently, wanting to laugh but not daring to laugh out loud, his whole face turning red, and finally emitting a series of muffled sounds like a small-displacement tractor failing to start.

Li Changfeng's lips twitched several times.

He raised his hand and gestured in the air, as if he wanted to slap the kid, but looking at Su Ming's face, which was as white as paper, he ultimately couldn't bring himself to do it.

Finally, he gritted his teeth and let out the pent-up frustration that had been building up in his chest for the past nine days.

When he spoke again, his voice carried a mixture of exasperation and amusement.

"Report!"

Li Changfeng gritted his teeth and said, "The old general has spoken! Everything will be reimbursed! Not only will he cover your nutrition expenses, but he'll even cover the bride price for your future wife—the state will cover it all!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Old Zhao could no longer hold back.

"Hahahaha...cough cough...ouch, I can't take it anymore..." He held onto the edge of the bed with one hand and clutched his stomach with the other, laughing until tears streamed down his face. "You brat...you really...you son of a bitch..."

He wanted to curse, but couldn't utter a single swear word. In the end, all that remained was a hearty laugh that kept coming back.

Seeing Su Ming's nonchalant "that's more like it" expression, Li Changfeng finally couldn't hold back and grinned silently.

As they laughed, the two men, both in their forties, had tears in their eyes.

The fear, despair, and pain that had been suppressed for nine days were completely ignited at this moment by the absurd phrase "work injury reimbursement," transforming into the purest joy of surviving a catastrophe.

Laughter pierced through the heavy doors of the intensive care unit and echoed in the silent corridor.

It's nice to be alive.