Chapter 127
After a long time, the patient’s body gradually relaxed.
He took a deep breath and said, “No need.”
“Go on. I can bear it.”
Then he went on and said, “When human beings are wicked, they can commit all manners of crimes. I was one of those people.”
“How wicked are you?”
Fang Qiu asked curiously, but his action did not stop; his hands were still carefully touching the bones, looking for an angle to set them.
“I was born in the countryside.”
When the middle-aged man immersed himself in his memory, his eyes gradually blurred.
“I was so angry that I lit a firecracker and threw it at him.”
“As a result, it was this small firecracker that ignited the whole biogas digester.”
“I can never forget that scene as long as I live. A terrible wave of fire shot up into the sky. The huge impact of the explosion blew Gaogao away in a second.”
“He fell to the ground, motionless, and never got up again…”
“He died, and I was scared silly. I really just wanted to play a prank on him for fun. I didn’t really mean to harm him, let alone kill him. That was the first time I felt guilty.”
Speaking of that, the middle-aged man suddenly stopped.
Tears ran down his face.
After a long time, he suppressed his emotions and continued.
“Then I was arrested by the villagers and taken away by the police.”
“On the day I was arrested, there were deafening sounds of firecrackers and cheers all over the village. Even my parents cheered. I remembered all the happy faces. The village was even busier then than during the Spring Festival.”
“I knew they hated me. Everyone hated me.”
“But it was because they hated me that I became outraged. It was a fit of irrepressible rage.”
“I made up my mind then that when I came back, I would get back at everyone. I wanted everyone who cheered and celebrated for my arrest and everyone who hated me, to be afraid of me. I wanted them to regret it.”
Having said that, the middle-aged man’s mood remained calm, without any ups and downs, unaffected by his memory.
He didn’t feel the same way as he did in the past, but he got lost in his memory.
Fang Qiu listened quietly.
There were not many tiny changes in his look.
However, he kept moving his hands.
“Finally, twenty years.”
The middle-aged man continued after a short pause, “I received combined punishment for several offenses, so I was sentenced to twenty years. It wasn’t until three years ago that I was released from prison.”
“You didn’t have a commutation?”
Fang Qiu asked casually.
He knew that for now, Huaxia’s single sentence carried a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison. However, in the case of combined penalties, it could be up to 25 years.
At the same time, there would be more or less commutation of the sentence if the prisoner performed well in prison.
It was not often that a man was prisoned for as many years as he was sentenced.
“No.”
Lying on the bed, the middle-aged man said, “At that time, I was a wicked man, a wicked man full of hatred! The same was true for the case even in prison. I became the wickedest man in prison. If other prisoners couldn’t beat me, I’d beat them to death!”
Fang Qiu became silent.
His hands stopped moving.
Then he asked, “Did you get this illness in prison?”
“No.”
The middle-aged man laughed sadly and continued to tell the story, “When I got out of prison, I went back to the village, but I didn’t find my parents. It turned out they were dead.”
“To help me pay my sinful debts, they were unwilling to see the doctor when they were sick, and they did all kinds of dirty work to earn money to compensate the villagers. As a result, they died of exhaustion and illnesses. I heard that they didn’t close their eyes in the end…”
While speaking, the middle-aged man could no longer control his emotions, and his tears began to flow again.
“In fact, being educated in prison for twenty years has made me understand one thing.”
The middle-aged man sobbed under his breath and said in a hoarse voice, “But it wasn’t until I knew my parents were dead that I realized I was a scumbag who didn’t deserve to be a human being!”
“I found their graves, and in front of the graves, I slapped myself hard nine times and kowtowed forty times. They raised me in the first twenty years, but in the last twenty years, I failed to take care of them.”
“From that day on, I swore I would turn over a new leaf.”
“I vowed to wash away the shame I had brought on my parents.”
“Back in the village, I apologized to all the people I had hurt by kowtowing three times. I hope they would forgive me, though it was a forlorn hope.”
“Even if all of them didn’t want to see me, I still went from house to house and kowtowed outside their houses.”
“I didn’t miss a single family.”
The middle-aged man gritted his teeth, turned his head, and wiped the tears from his face on the bed. “After that, I started looking for work. I did anything, no matter how hard or tiring, as long as I could make money.”
“I worked in an illegal coal mine for a year.”
“I worked as a stevedore for a year.”
“I worked as a construction worker for a year.”
“I worked day and night and ate little. In three years, I saved 150,000 yuan.”
“And I got this illness during the three years.”
Hearing this, Fang Qiu quivered.
He could not imagine what kind of hellish life this man had been living for three years.
The life that could damage a person’s spine like this was almost equal to life in hell.
This life was not only full of physical limitation but also illnesses!
This disease was not acquired in a day or two but accumulated over the years. In spite of his illnesses, he still carried on the kind of horrible work that could overwhelm him. He suffered unimaginably terrible.
“Two days ago, I went back to the village.”
The middle-aged man went on.
“I donated 100,000 yuan when I heard that the villagers wanted to build a road.”
When saying this sentence, the middle-aged man suddenly smiled heartily. He added, “I donated the money in my parents’ name. Their names are on the tablet of merits. My parents now have the face to sleep their long sleep in the ancestral graves in the village.”
“I donated the remaining 50,000 yuan to the poor students in the poor mountainous areas.”
“I know I can only live like this in this lifetime and cannot contribute to society. So I donated my money to them in the hope that they can contribute to society.”
“I hope that they can become useful people to the country and society, rather than a villain or scumbag like me. There is still hope for them, but I have no hope.”
The middle-aged man said sincerely from the heart.
Fang Qiu took a deep breath.
His eyes were watery.
“What are you going to do when I’ve cured you?”
Fang Qiu asked.
His hands continued to move.