Chapter Twelve: Aftermath of the Injury

  Yan Xiufang had just arrived at the hospital on the second day when she heard a group of young nurses chattering about how a child of a staff officer from the army corps had beaten up children of a division commander and two regiment commanders the night before. Her heart skipped a beat, but then she thought that Zhang Peng was only eleven years old, how could he possibly have fought with three other kids? She didn't take it to heart.

  When making rounds, Yan Xiufang saw Deputy Commander Wu outside the ward and went forward to greet him: "Commander Wu, are you ill?"

  "No, yesterday the kids from the neighboring squad had a fight and beat up my third brother. You're an expert, take a look!" She said, inviting Yan Xiufang into the ward.

  Yan Xiufang entered the ward and saw two team leaders sitting on the sofa, looking unhappy. A young officer was sweating profusely, constantly apologizing to the three leaders' wives, "It's our fault for not taking good care of the children, letting them get hurt."

  "How can I bear to hit the child? Who is so bold and beat up my Kang like this?" a lady asked.

  "A child of a staff officer in the army, who has just come from the countryside for a short time." The instructor replied hastily.

  "Without a sense of hierarchy, country kids are just uncouth." Another madam said.

  "Find out which staff officer's child this is and have him go home for a good scolding." The teacher's wife also spoke up.

  "Yes, yes... We will definitely handle it seriously and make everyone satisfied." The instructor said nervously.

  Yan Xiufang came to their medical records, looking at the test results. The three little ones had already come back to their senses, "That kid really has two brushes, look at how he beat us up." Li Weiguo said with a grin.

  Qian Kang didn't mince words either, using a soldier's shovel to split Zhang Peng's two arms, almost chopping off his arm, and looking at the blood on his body. Wu Quan was injured the lightest and saw the clearest.

  "Go back, we have to think of a way..."

  "Who did you fight with?" Qian Kang's words were interrupted by Yan Xiufang.

  "A stinky advisor's name is Zhang Peng!" Qian Kang replied.

  "Where is Zhang Peng? How's his injury?" Yan Xiufang asked hurriedly.

  "In the sealed room, I was covered in blood and couldn't see where I was injured." The instructor's response.

  "A bunch of idiots!" Yan Xiufang slammed down the medical record and pushed through the crowd, rushing out of the ward.

  "Who is she and why is she scolding people?" Qian Kang's mother did not recognize Yan Xiu Fang.

  "Deputy director of the hospital, Military Zhang's wife, what's going on today?" Wu Shizhang saw Yan Xiufang so flustered for the first time and replied in puzzlement.

  Yan Xiufang didn't have time to change her clothes and ran to the driver's class, asking for a car to rush to the reconnaissance camp.

  "Where is Zhang Peng?" Yan Xiufang asked Wang, the head of the reconnaissance battalion, as she entered the barracks. Wang had been following Zhang Quanyi as his chief of staff and was very familiar with Yan Xiufang.

  "Which Zhang Peng?" Wang Yinglong was asked inexplicably.

  "That recruit who got into a fight yesterday is in solitary confinement," the clerk replied.

  "Take me there at once!" Yan Xiufang pulled Wen Shu and walked away, with Wang Yingchang closely following behind.

  As soon as the guard opened the door of the isolation room, Yan Xiufang rushed in and saw Zhang Peng's face pale and covered with dirt, his eyes closed and leaning against the headboard, the blood on his clothes had dried up and stuck to his body, his left arm was wrapped with a torn sleeve, and there was still blood seeping out. On the bedside table, his breakfast remained untouched - a bowl of porridge, several pieces of salted vegetables.

  Zhang Peng heard the sound of the door opening, opened his eyes, saw his mother, shook his head, and only then believed that he was not dreaming.

  "Mom, they bullied me." Zhang Peng rushed into his mother's arms and muttered.

  "Pengpeng, don't be afraid, Mom will take you home." Yan Xiufang hugged her son tightly, forcing herself not to let tears fall, turned around, bent down, and carried Zhang Peng out, suddenly feeling a drop of water rolling down her neck.

  "Zhang Peng, what's wrong?" Liu Dayong and Zhang Peng's newly recognized fellow villager Zhou Liang brought him a bowl of noodles from the cooking class, just walked to the isolation room, saw Zhang Peng being carried out by a doctor, thinking that something had happened to him, shouted with a crying tone.

  "Classmate, don't worry, my mom is coming to pick me up." Zhang Peng said with a smile on his face, still with tears in his eyes.

  "Director Yan, why don't we go to the camp's medical team first and then head back home?" said Captain Wang as he stepped forward.

  "Whatever...alright." Yan Xiufang hesitated for a moment and decided to take a look at her son's injury before making any decisions.

  Liu Dayong and Zhou Liang supported Zhang Peng together with Yan Xiufang and sent him to the medical team.

  "Thank you both," said Yan Xiufang to Liu Dayong and Zhou Liang.

  "No need to thank me, I'm Zhang Peng's class monitor, and I didn't protect him well." Liu Dayong replied with a full of apology.

  They arrived at the medical team, Liu Dayong and Zhou Liang sent Zhang Peng to the dressing room, and were called by the regimental commander to ask about the situation. Only Yan Xiufang and her son, as well as a military doctor from the medical team, remained in the house. Zhang Peng's clothes had been stained with blood, and it took a while to soak them in salt water before they could be removed. Yan Xiufang opened the package on Zhang Peng's arm sleeve and saw that the wound was over an inch long, with rolled-up muscles, swollen and shiny, already inflamed, her heart felt like it had been cut by a small knife.

  "Pengpeng, I'll rinse your wound for you, it might hurt a bit, bear with it," said Yan Xiufang.

  "Mom, I'm fine, I can hold on," Zhang Peng said, gritting his teeth in pain.

  "Director Yan, I'm afraid you'll need a few stitches." The military doctor said, after cleaning the wound and finding it was cut very deeply.

  "Yes, then you get ready." Yan Xiufang knew it could only be like this.

  "Needle", Zhang Peng heard the word "needle" and was immediately startled, the aftereffect of that barefoot doctor's treatment had relapsed.

  "Can...can it be done without needles?" Zhang Peng stuttered a bit.

  "It's okay, I've been given anesthesia, it doesn't hurt at all." Yanshuifang comforted Zhang Peng, seeing that he was very tense.

  "I'm not afraid of pain, I'm afraid of 'needles'. My uncle said that when he was injured, he just used a red-hot gun to cauterize the wound and it healed. Mom, can you do that for me too?"

  "Nonsense, you'll get infected for sure if you keep messing around," said Yan Xiufang.

  "Director Yan, we've run out of anesthetics, what should we do?" the military doctor asked.

  "Can't you stitch without anesthesia?" Zhang Peng asked.

  "It can be done, but it's very painful."

  "Let's just get it stitched up then, I don't believe there's a big uncle who can hit me hard." Zhang Peng thought that without anesthesia, he could endure one less injection, and with his mother in front of him, he bravely pretended to be a hero.

  The wound was quickly stitched up, and both mother and son were covered in sweat. Zhang Peng was in pain and scared, but he gritted his teeth and didn't make a sound. In Yan Xiu Fang's eyes, Zhang Peng's injury was just a minor matter, but today she was facing her own son, and without anesthesia, her heart couldn't help but feel tense, her hands shaking as she sewed one stitch before being unable to continue, letting the military doctor take over for her.

  "Peng Peng, doesn't your uncle often scold you?" Yan Xiufang asked while bandaging Zhang Peng.

  "Not just Big Uncle, but also that old thing, practicing kung fu and changing methods to bully me!" After finishing speaking, he regretted it again, 'old thing' is Grandma's father.

  "I wish you could beat those three kids as badly." Yan Xiufang didn't mind, she knew too well what her father and brother were capable of.

  "It's too cheap for them, I didn't use all my strength, can only let them lie down for two days, provoke me again, and finish them off."

  "You've caused quite a bit of trouble, just wait and see how your dad deals with you." Upon saying this, Yan Xiufang couldn't help but feel some worry, as Zhang Quanyi had always been very strict with the child.

  Zhang Peng saw that the package was tied up, and then picked up the bloody clothes to put on his body. "This is a 'charm', it must not be changed, nor can it be thrown away!" Zhang Peng said in his heart.

  Yan Xiufang saw that her son's injury was not serious and put down her mind to say: "Let's go, go and tell them what happened."

  Wang Yingchang had already asked Liu Dayong and called Lian Chang to understand the general situation of the incident. Liu Dayong also said his own speculation, and the military doctor reported Zhang Peng's injury. Wang Yingchang was convinced in his heart.

  At this time, Yan Xiufang led Zhang Peng over, and Zhang Peng timidly hid behind his mother, with a dejected and wronged look.

  "Zhang Peng, tell Commander Yan about what happened," said Yan Xiufang.

  "Mom, I'm scared, they all bully me!" Zhang Peng swung his stick and hit a big patch.

  "It's okay, Mom is here! They don't dare." Yan Xiufang didn't know that her son was being playful, and with a loving heart, she involuntarily followed Zhang Peng's baton.

  Zhang Peng was bullied by the older soldiers because he came from a rural area and his father was of low rank. Later, due to his outstanding training performance, they became jealous of him and would often find fault with him and punish him by making him clean up. This led to hatred between them, and eventually, three of them ganged up on him and beat him up.

  The situation he described was mostly true, but there were some exaggerations and distortions. For example, the inspection during training was exaggerated as corporal punishment; the commendation from the regiment was distorted as a tool to provoke conflict between him and the older soldiers; the company commander's "opposite training" was distorted as covering up for bad people; only rescuing the child of a high-ranking leader, while ignoring his own injuries and locking himself in a confinement room.

  However, considering their past friendship over a bowl of noodles, Zhang Peng magnanimously let Liu Dayong off.

  "Is this how you people work at the grassroots level? I'll take my child back first, and I hope you can give me an explanation!" Yan Xiufang listened, slapped the table, and turned around with a displeased expression, pulling Zhang Peng away. Leaving behind a group of people staring at each other in shock.