League of Legends: League of Unknowns

Clad in a long white coat, Head Doctor Fong walked out of the ward, followed by a female intern who was making notes on a clipboard.

Li Yun immediately came rushing up to him, her face creased with concern. “Is it… is it really that bad?” she asked.

Seeing Li Yun’s haunted expression, Doctor Fong spoke with some exasperation. “Ah, you’ll have to find the money somehow. First, we’ll complete this operation. Anything else after that… you’ll have to figure it out yourselves.”

“How much will it cost this time?”

“The operation itself will cost quite a bit. Long-term care afterwards will incur many costs not covered by medical insurance. Old Jing’s insurance records are a mess… If he’d been keeping up with all his payments, then this treatment wouldn’t take more than twenty thousand. By the look of things, thirty or forty thousand may be needed instead.

“I don’t get it. He was well aware that his liver was malfunctioning, so he should have known to settle these insurance matters ahead of time. What’s worse, the antibiotics he was given previously aren’t effective anymore, and the new medicines he needs aren’t really covered. We can go back to the old stuff anyway, but I can’t guarantee it’ll work.” Doctor Fong didn’t hide the scornful accusation in his voice.

Doctor Fong and Yu Jing were well-acquainted by now. For some time now, he’d been telling Yu Jing to look after his health, but his words had fallen on deaf ears, and now tragedy had struck after all!

“Earlier, you mentioned a transplant…” Li Yun’s voice faltered.

“Let’s see how this operation goes, first. Sigh, Miss Li… It doesn’t matter what you say. Your time would be better spent scraping together the money you need. It’s always hard to say exactly how medical costs will turn out.”

Li Yun nodded, and said nothing more.

Returning to the ward, she saw Yu Jing lying in bed, appearing to be in excruciating agony. It was difficult to watch.

She didn’t have much experience with loaning money.

Their household could neither be considered rich nor poor. They managed to get by. As their children grew, the costs multiplied. It was difficult to put any money away—they seemed to be constantly spending it all.

It would have been fine if they could have kept on going like that, but when a real emergency cropped up, requiring any large sum of money, it could be a deathblow when they didn’t have any great means to begin with.

Li Yun had been content with her lot in life. Sometimes she saw certain relatives scrambling here and there to borrow money, and she felt sorry for them. She’d have lent them some if she’d had any to spare.

She’d never imagined that one day, it would be her turn!

If she went before her friends and family to beg for the money she needed, how would they regard her? Yu Jing’s attitude and temper had offended no small number of people. They might even rejoice to see him in dire straits now. One could never tell, with people.

***

Leaving the hospital, Li Yun looked up into the glare of the sun, uncertain which way she should go first.

Thirty or forty thousand… it wasn’t too much to ask for, but neither was it an inconsequential amount. She wasn’t acquainted with many wealthy people, and even if they had the money, that didn’t mean they would lend it to her. It was harder to get money from the rich than the poor.

“Li Yun!”

As she stood there in a stupor, someone walked towards her.

“If it isn’t Mr Guan…” Li Yun saw who it was, and greeted him half-heartedly.

“I heard Yu Jing’s sick. I’m here to see him.”

Mr Guan was a senior citizen in his golden years. Back when this area was covered in two-story houses, everyone knew each other. Now, everyone was crammed together in high-rise apartments, but they talked to one another a lot less often.

“Go ahead. He’s in Ward 303,” Li Yun said.

“Um… how are you doing, financially?” Mr Guan leaned in to whisper. “I heard an operation might be necessary. That can’t be cheap.”

Li Yun forced a wan smile. “We’ll manage.”

“I’ve got forty thousand bucks, just lying around. If you need it, it’s yours.”

She froze, staring agape at Mr Guan’s wrinkled, spotted face.

Just as she was wondering where to get the money, Mr Guan was suddenly here to offer it to her?

She didn’t recall him to be a wealthy man, himself. How did he come to have forty thousand, ‘just lying around’?

“Heh, heh… Take this card. The password is five 5s. Go on, take it. We’re neighbors, after all. Don’t sweat it. When my arthritis was acting up, wasn’t it your little Yu Luocheng who carried me to the hospital? Otherwise, I’d have bought the farm right there, in that shabby little room.” Mr Guan beamed from ear to ear.

Li Yun took the card that was worth forty thousand, but didn’t know what to say. Already, her vision was swimming with tears.

“Mr Guan, I… I don’t know… don’t know what I should say. Thank you… thank you so much.”

“Oh, no need to thank me. Really, it’s nothing, no trouble at all. I’m not in any urgent need of money, myself. You can take as long as you need to pay me back. I just remembered I have something to do, so I’ll be off now.” Before Li Yun could thank him further, Mr Guan hurried off down another road.

Li Yun stood there holding the card for a long time. The incredible timing of this windfall had left her stunned with disbelief, and speechless with joy!

Honestly speaking, the thought of going to her relatives for help had been hard for her to stomach. With this, her troubles were greatly alleviated.

Thrilled, Li Yun raced towards the bank. She wondered if this might be Mr Guan’s idea of a prank, because as far as she knew, there was no way he could possibly have forty thousand to lend to her.

***

After Li Yun had left, Yu Luocheng quietly stepped out from behind the advertisement panel of a nearby bus stop.

Watching her depart, he recalled the sight of that look in her eyes. It felt like there was a palpable weight in his heart.

Commander Qin was not a rich man. He’d had to borrow that last ten thousand from somebody, so that he could go on to lend it to Yu Luocheng.

A staggering sum of money like this could reduce a modest household like Yu Luocheng’s to destitution—what more a man like Yin Qin, with so many depending upon him for their survival?

He had to return that money as soon as possible.

Standing in the shadow behind the vertical panel, Yu Luocheng stared at his own hands for a long time.

How was he going to pay it back? By getting a job?

With a monthly salary of a thousand-odd bucks, what could he get done? He was barely a high-school graduate, with no skills to speak of.

There was only one thing he was really good at, and for a period of time it had once been his goal in life, but his parents, his family, his teachers… all had sneered upon it.

Yu Luocheng wondered, if Yu Jing caught him in the cyber café, training day and night at that accursed game, would the pain in his expression perhaps be worse than anything he’d suffered because of his ailing liver?

He was so determined to get Yu Luocheng into a university, that even on the sick bed, he was still talking about test results and places to go.

He couldn’t bear to disappoint his father anymore. Frankly, one could say that Yu Luocheng himself was a main cause for his deteriorating health. It had taken an exorbitant fee to transfer Yu Luocheng from a second-rate school to a top-tier one—money that could have gone to his medical bills instead…

It was his own delinquency that resulted in his father lying there in that hospital bed now, wracked with unspeakable torment. He couldn’t be allowed to see Yu Luocheng doing that thing he hated the most.

But just once more. Just this one more time.

For no other reason whatsoever, other than that prize money!

Defeat was not an option!