After AFK for five years, I returned to be number one in the entire server.

Shen Yi's mother lived a very humble life, from marriage to the loss of her husband, and then raising her daughter alone.

In this isolated town, she was the most inconspicuous and the easiest to be bullied.

But in her life of accepting whatever comes her way, there is only one thing that is her Achilles' heel.

The workers' initial whispered discussions gradually escalated into mockery and insults directed at her daughter.

Those blatant and jarring words, like sharp needles, pierced the ears of this honest mother one after another.

As the malicious speculations grew increasingly vile, even degrading Shen Yi to nothing, this woman, who had never dared to breathe loudly before, broke down for the first time.

That was the only time in her life that she stood up like a true fighter and confronted everyone around her.

She used all her strength to have a fierce argument with the workers who were insulting her daughter.

However, this outburst exhausted her already damaged physical condition.

She already suffered from a serious heart condition and could not withstand such intense emotional fluctuations, collapsing in the middle of the crowd.

The factory workers panicked, and the supervisor eventually called for an ambulance.

Shen Yi was cleaning when her cell phone suddenly rang.

She answered the phone, and the anxious voice of the garment factory manager came through the receiver.

Within a few brief seconds, all the color drained from Shen Yi's face.

Shen Yi looked up at Lin Ye, who was not far away, her voice trembling.

"My mother had a heart attack and was taken to the county hospital."

……

……

The county hospital corridor was long, with incandescent lights on the ceiling and a pungent smell of Lysol in the air.

The red light above the door of the emergency room was blindingly bright.

Shen Yi sat on a row of blue plastic chairs outside the door, her hands tightly clasped together.

She arrived in a hurry, her shoes covered in mud, her hair disheveled and hanging over her shoulders, a few strands of hair stuck to her pale cheeks with cold sweat.

From the moment she received the call until she arrived at the hospital, her mind remained in a kind of buzzing blank state.

She couldn't even remember how she got on the bus or how she ran through the lobby; she only remembered the garment factory manager saying on the phone, "Your mother got into an argument and had a heart attack; she's dying."

Arguing with someone?

How could my mother, who is someone who doesn't even dare to raise her voice, argue with someone?

Shen Yi bent over slightly, her body trembling uncontrollably as if she had been soaked in ice water.

She stared at the tightly closed door, her eyes dry and aching, but not a single tear could be shed.

When a person is in extreme fear, they cannot cry; they only experience a suffocating feeling as if all the air has been sucked out of their chest.

Lin stood a few steps away, offering no words of comfort. Not only was he not good at it, but in this situation, any words would be pale and powerless.

His gaze fell on Shen Yi's slender back, looking at her like a withered leaf swaying precariously in a storm.

Time stretches out infinitely here, each second feeling like it's being slowly ground down on a dull knife.

After an unknown amount of time, with a "click," the door to the emergency room was pushed open from the inside.

The red light is off.

Shen Yi suddenly stood up and asked the doctor, "Doctor... how is my mother?"

The doctor removed his mask and looked at her with a serious expression: "Are you a family member of Shen Xiulian?"

"I am her daughter."

"The patient was in critical condition when he arrived, suffering from severe heart failure caused by an acute myocardial infarction. We just performed emergency resuscitation, and his life has been temporarily saved, but his condition is very unstable and he must be transferred to the ICU for observation immediately. He may need to undergo coronary artery bypass surgery later."

The doctor took out a folder and handed it to her: "This is the critical condition notice and the informed consent form for transferring to the ICU. You need to sign it immediately."

Shen Yi held the pen, her hand trembling slightly with nervousness, and wrote her name crookedly at the signature area.

The doctor took the documents and hurriedly turned to arrange the subsequent transfer.

A short while later, a nurse came over with several receipts.

"Shen Xiulan's family, the emergency green channel fee will be charged to your account first, but the transfer to the ICU and subsequent surgery require hospitalization procedures and a deposit. Please go to the cashier on the first floor as soon as possible to pay the remaining amount and a deposit of 50,000 yuan. The daily cost of the ICU is not low, so please be prepared."

Fifty thousand yuan.

This number hit the doctor like a blunt object, slamming it hard on the back of the head.

She looked down at the thin payment slip in her hand and took a half step back.

She couldn't even come up with five thousand yuan, including all her savings and the remaining living expenses from her student loans.

The mother's salary of three thousand yuan was mostly used to buy medicine, and the rest was used to maintain the daily life of the two of them and Shen Yi's tuition fees. The family didn't have much savings at all.

A thought flashed through her mind: to demand compensation from the workers who had argued with her mother.

This is Changshui Town. Those workers toil away for a month and only earn three thousand yuan. If you really ask them to pay for medical treatment, they will only throw a tantrum and make a scene. It is absolutely impossible for them to immediately come up with tens of thousands of yuan.

Even if you call the police, going through procedures, arguments, and lawsuits will take at least several months.

Should I borrow it from someone?

The townspeople wanted nothing more than to throw dirty water on her, and her relatives even came to ask her for money this morning.

"Let's go."

"Where to?" Shen Yi looked at Lin Ye blankly.

Lin didn't waste any more words and turned to walk towards the elevator.

Shen Yi stood there stunned for two seconds before hurriedly taking her slightly weak legs to follow.

The lobby on the first floor was bustling with people, and there was a queue of moderate length in front of the payment windows.

Lin Ye stood in the line, and Shen Yi stood behind him, looking at his tall and straight back, her lips trembling slightly.

She knew that Lin was also a monthly-level player and had many ways to make money, but they were not related, and she couldn't understand why Lin would spend this money.

Before this, she did indeed have the idea of ​​getting close to Lin Ye and trying to rely on him to escape her social class.

But recent events have made her forget about that idea.

She realized that she could never repay what she owed the other person.

When it was their turn, Lin also handed the form in his hand through the groove under the glass window.

The staff member inside was typing rapidly on the keyboard, saying without looking up, "The ICU pre-deposit is 50,000 yuan. How do I pay?"

"Scan the code." Lin Ye took out his phone and brought up the payment interface of the west Wangmu terminal.

The staff stamped the receipt with their red seal and pushed it out: "Payment successful. Take it to the nursing station upstairs."

Lin took the items and turned to hand them to Shen Yi behind him.

"I will pay you back later. It may take some time, but I will definitely pay you back," she said softly.

Lin didn't care when she would pay him back. This money was a bonus Tian Shu gave him when he went to Shiqiao Village alone last time; it was an unexpected windfall.

In this place filled with life and death, Shen Yi quietly followed behind Lin Ye.