Chapter 207 - 174: A Bird in the Hand

Chapter 207: Chapter 174: A Bird in the Hand

Huai Yu read through every poster lining the hospital corridor. Yet, even as the information washed over her, her mind remained completely blank.

Before she could review them again, the doors to the emergency room opened, and several doctors strode out.

"Are Chen Xing’s family members here?"

"Here!" Huai Yu and Uncle Zaozi responded hurriedly. "Doctor, how is he?"

The doctor nodded. "They are all currently out of danger. However, because their injuries were so severe and their bodies heavily overdrawn, the hospital made an exception and arranged for medical pods. They should be ready to come out of the pods tomorrow around two in the afternoon."

Huai Yu’s expression tightened with pain. "Then... how many points will that cost?"

The doctor paused. Looking at the young Huai Yu, his voice softened.

"It’s like this. The boy with the orange hair who suffered the most severe injuries is also your family, right? He had a rare, highly toxic fungus in his body. Our entire emergency team put in a massive effort to save him."

"Toxins again?!" she thought in dismay. Huai Yu remembered the agonizing pain Zhou Qian had endured and pressed her lips tightly together.

Meanwhile, the doctor stood there, radiating calm confidence, and spoke lightly.

"As for this mutant fungus specimen, we extracted it and are currently keeping it in the hospital for research. If you don’t need to keep it as a souvenir, the hospital won’t take it for nothing. All medical expenses for the four of them will be completely waived.

"How does that sound?"

Huai Yu fell silent.

If they were using it for research, the specimen had to be quite unique, right? She kind of wanted to see it too.

But...

"Alright! Thank you, Doctor!" she said.

The doctor left, thoroughly satisfied. Huai Yu and Uncle Zaozi completely relaxed, slumping into their chairs without the slightest desire to move.

Uncle Zaozi suddenly realized something. "Why did you agree so easily about that specimen the doctor mentioned?

"He said they were keeping it for research and was generous enough to waive the medical bills for all four of them. It must be worth something, right?"

Huai Yu hesitated. "But if it was a tumor extraction, and the tumor was rare enough that the hospital wanted to study it, could we still ask for money?"

"I suppose not," Uncle Zaozi admitted.

"But seeing as Chen Xing won’t be able to go to the Wilderness for a long time, I was just thinking we should try to get some money wherever we can!"

Huai Yu frowned in conflict. "I thought about that too! But first of all, I don’t even know where to sell a mutant fungus to get a good price.

"Secondly, I have no idea how to keep it alive or preserve it.

"I was afraid that if I asked for it back and it died because I didn’t store it properly, we’d lose out on both ends."

That was the most fundamental reason.

Uncle Zaozi thought it over. He had grown shiitake mushrooms before, but that was clearly a different matter from a mutant fungus. He truly had no experience in that area either. Thus, he had no choice but to nod in agreement.

"So I figured, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush," Huai Yu continued. "At the very least, the hospital waived their medical fees, which should be a massive amount, right?

"We should be content with this."

"True!" Speaking of this, Uncle Zaozi also sobered up.

Besides, despite being thick-skinned and good at making money, he really had no experience turning a profit in a hospital. Even if he were told to haggle with the doctors right now, he wouldn’t be able to bring himself to do it. He could only let the matter go.

But on second thought, by doing the hospital a favor, wouldn’t it make things like follow-up appointments easier in the future?

"AH!" He slapped his thigh. "I forgot to ask about those doctors just now. Little Yu, wait here for a moment. I’ll go ask around.

"No matter who suggested waiving the medical bills, we should at least get to know them. Next time we bring someone in—PTUI PTUI PTUI! I mean, having an extra friend opens another door."

Huai Yu nodded. "I understand."

Revitalized, Uncle Zaozi strolled off toward the nurses’ station.

Uncle Zaozi was quite skilled at chatting and building connections. It didn’t take long before he ambled back, casually pulling a piece of candy from his pocket.

"Look! I specifically asked for this for you," he said.

He had long since eaten the previous candy himself, but his guilty conscience eventually drove him to pester the nurses until they gave him another one.

"Also," he continued, "I have to say, it’s a good thing we didn’t haggle with the doctors. I asked around. Many of the highly active biological materials in the medical pods are single-use consumables, and they are incredibly expensive!

"Just using it for two hours starts at two thousand points! Depending on the consumables, the price can be even higher.

"Unless you’re military personnel—who can exchange their merits for different durations of medical pod usage—everyone else has to pay full price.

"Chen Xing and the others will be using them all the way until the afternoon."

He raised his wrist to check his watch. It was already 5:30 in the morning! With four people using the pods until 2:00 PM, the expense for the medical pods alone would be nearly forty thousand points, not even counting anything else!

GASP! An astronomical price! An absolutely astronomical price!

He had never suffered such severe injuries to warrant a hospital visit like this. Now, he finally understood why medical pods weren’t easily offered to patients. They were way too expensive!

Who the hell could afford that?

"If we really tried to bargain over that whatever fungus," Uncle Zaozi said, treating it as a cautionary tale, "even if we put aside whether we could quickly find a buyer, whether Fen Da and the others could hold on is another matter entirely!

"Sure enough, you can’t think about getting rich in a hospital."

Huai Yu nodded, earnestly taking his words to heart. Along the way, she also memorized the details of the doctors Uncle Zaozi had mentioned, deciding to relay the entire story to Chen Xing and the others once they woke up.

But for now...

She rubbed her eyes. "Uncle Zaozi, since they won’t be out of the pods until the afternoon, why don’t you go home and rest first? Today has been too exhausting.

"There’s no rush to come back this afternoon either. My brother is hospitalized here. I’ll go back a bit later to settle things at home, and I’ll be coming over to see him this afternoon anyway."

Uncle Zaozi hadn’t felt that sleepy at first, but when Huai Yu yawned, he couldn’t stop himself from opening his mouth as well, yawning so hard that tears squeezed out of his eyes.

Even with his gossipy nature, he couldn’t fend off the wave of exhaustion. He truly was getting old.

He nodded. "Alright then. Since they aren’t awake yet, there’s no point in just sitting out here. We might as well go back and get some proper rest. That way, we can come by tonight to look after them and lend a hand."

But at this point, Uncle Zaozi suddenly frowned in thought. "Little Yu, when I took you to the highway entrance, did I mention what I wanted to buy?

"Why do I get the feeling I forgot something?"

"Ah," Huai Yu replied, looking equally bewildered. "You didn’t say we were buying anything. You just said you were taking me to broaden my horizons... Oh!"

She remembered. "You bought plastic bags from someone! He actually dared to ask for four points! It took you a lot of effort to haggle him down..."

As she spoke, she also started to feel like she had forgotten something.

Uncle Zaozi’s eyes grew blank. "Then... why would I buy plastic bags out of nowhere if I wasn’t buying anything else?"

The two of them stared at each other in dismay. It took a long moment for their exhausted brains to finally start turning again. Then, a flash of realization struck them like lightning.

"My meat! AHHH, my chicken! My bullfrogs!"

"Did the tricycle make the delivery?!"