Chapter 31: hit-and-run

"I'll be there right away."

After hanging up, Guan Xi ditched her classes and ran outside of the campus to hail a taxi.

Half an hour later, the cab stopped in front of the city hospital.

The car had barely even stopped before she flew out of it and rushed inside the hospital.

Little Grape had just gone through surgery and was now transferred to the ICU.

"Xixi!"

When Bai Xiaomi saw Guan Xi, she rushed to her, eyes red from sobbing. "Little Grape is seriously injured. What should we do, Guan Xi?"

Guan Xi remained calm despite Bai Xiaomi's hysterics.

"What happened?" Guan Xi asked, her voice slightly shaky. "How did Little Grape get into an accident?"

"This morning..."

Bai Xiaomi hiccuped, unable to finish her sentence.

Director Liu, who was standing to the side, sighed and took over the explanation.

It turned out that the orphanage had taken the children out to play on the street this morning. However, not long after they had left the orphanage, a car started barreling towards them at a reckless speed. The director and the woman leading the kids immediately started to pull them out of harm's way, shouting for the car to stop. The driver didn't even slow down and in what felt like a split second, hit Little Grape.

After all that, the car just drove away as if nothing had happened.

Director Liu started sobbing after he finished the story. "It's all my fault. I wasn't able to protect Little Grape."

Director Liu treated all the children in the orphanage as if they were her own.

Although they might have been abandoned by their parents, in her eyes, every child was the cutest little angel and deserved to be treated well.

Guan Xi was also feeling distressed, but she has to remain calm.

She asked quietly, "Mother Liu, did you see the driver?"

"No. "

"What about the license plate number? Did you remember it?"

Director Liu shook her head. "We were all in shock and focused on Little Grape. I didn't pay attention to anything else."

They didn't know who the perpetrator was?

Guan Xi bit her lip and comforted Director Liu. "Mother Liu, don't blame yourself, it's not your fault. Little Grape will get better, don't worry."

Director Liu forced a smile on her wrinkled face. "Okay."

As they were talking, a nurse came to ask them for payment. The hospital was charging them 10,000 yuan in advance plus the follow-up treatment that would cost 400,000 to 500,000 yuan.

The operation of the orphanage was welfare-based. They relied on donations from the society and a little welfare subsidy from the government. It was impossible to take out such a large sum of money in one go.

Director Liu didn't know what to do. She tried pleading, "Nurse, we... we are from an orphanage. We don't have that kind of money on hand. We only have 30,000 yuan right now. Can we pay the remaining money in the next couple of weeks?"

The nurse had seen hundreds of patients who cannot afford the medical services they provided. Desensitized, she put on a fake smile and said, "If you don't have the money, take your patient and leave the hospital. We're not running a welfare organization."

"What?" Director Liu choked out.

"Mother Liu, here's 80,000 yuan. Take it." Guan Xi handed her card to the payment window and said to the nurse, "Here's the payment."

"Xixi, how do you have so much money?"