After talking with Li Jianwei, Du Heng had a clear direction for his future work, but his practical problems remained unsolved.
However, Li Jianwei was right: making progress in business can't be done overnight. One must either work hard or seize the right timing, along with the right people and opportunities.
As for the geographical advantage, Du Heng didn't even dare to think about it.
In Jinzhou, there was no chance for a mid-tier hospital like theirs to develop.
Looking down, the nearby Health Clinics and community centers were conveniently located and offered cheaper services. Their quality was also steadily improving, allowing them to resolve minor illnesses right at people's doorsteps.
Looking up, nurous third class A hospitals thrived, each far superior to diocre ones like theirs. Patients not only avoided such diocre hospitals but showed no interest in even considering them.
To put it bluntly, if it weren't for the differential wage system and financial subsidies, so second-level hospitals might have been reduced to the very bottom level.
Although the Municipal Maternal and Child Health Hospital had not yet reached that level, it would be impossible to further develop without a significant advantaged project, as Li Jianwei said.
However, these thoughts were just for now. After the Labor Day holiday, he would prepare and implent more detailed plans.
After attending Wang Fangyu's Baby Steps event and becoming a godfather, Du Heng prepared to fulfill his promise to Liao Yuzhu and, at the sa ti, treat his own heart disease.
The road they traveled was both familiar and strange, as was the scenery along the way.
And those morable huge turns had not changed much.
When driving past them once again, they could still see the marks left by motorcycles slipping down, indicating that the local people's travel habits had not changed much either.
"Heng, is this Xiao Fang's house?"
The car stopped, and Liao Yuzhu and the nanny got out with the child. Liao Yuzhu, being a rich young lady, couldn't help but frown at the sight of the shabby yard before her.
Du Heng nodded.
The yard was still the sa, as was the house, but compared to last year, it felt a bit deserted, desolate, and dilapidated.
On the door knocker hung a dark Iron General, silently telling the three that no one was ho.
The old lady from the neighboring yard heard the car and appeared at her gate again. She eyed the luxurious car and the well-dressed city folk with undisguised curiosity and a hint of gossip.
"Old Three isn't ho; he took his wife out to weed the fields." The old lady ca out a couple of steps, leaning on the doorfra and sizing up the trio. "Who are you? What do you want?"
Hearing the old lady's voice, Du Heng looked back and asked, "Granny, could you tell if it's far to get to where they're working?"
"Not far, just walk ahead, make a turn, and you'll see them working in the field on the right-hand side."
Compared to last year, the old lady's eyesight seed to have deteriorated a lot, squinting to see people.
However, a puzzled expression crossed her face as she replied to Du Heng. She felt she had seen the young man asking the question sowhere before but couldn't recall the specifics.
"You haven't said what you're here for. There hasn't been anyone visiting Old Three's house for more than half a year after the accident."
"We are relatives, here to see my uncle."
Du Heng casually replied, and then he wanted to follow the old lady's instructions to find Wang Shuqiu's father.
The old lady, leaning on the wall, walked towards them, trying her best to see them clearly. She muttered, "Relatives? It doesn't look like it. I know all the relatives of Old Three's family.
Last year, their son died, and the daughter ran away. Their family is considered wiped out now.
Moreover, Old Three's wife has lost her mind, scared witless, so even fewer relatives visit now."
As the old lady approached Du Heng, she reached out and grabbed him. "Why do you look so familiar? Have you been to Old Three's house before?"
"I visited last year."
Du Heng, not wanting to talk much, tried to pull his arm free, but the old lady held on tighter.
"Last year? Are you that girl's boyfriend? You ca around this ti last year too, didn't you?"
Du Heng tugged twice at his arm. Not wanting to use too much force against the shaky old lady, he helplessly replied, "Yes, it's ."
The old lady imdiately regained her energy. "It really is you! I never thought that after Old Three's daughter ran away, you would still co to visit the old couple. I heard she ran off to Africa, is she back now?"
Du Heng didn't want to talk to the old lady anymore. "Granny, let go of my hand. I need to go look for my uncle."
With a face full of sympathy and regret, the old lady continued to ask gossipy questions. "I heard that Xiao Fang killed soone and committed suicide?
Everyone says that Xiao Fang killed the whole family, and only his mother was left alive. It's really a sin."
Whose sin? The old lady didn't say.
But Liao Yuzhu couldn't stand it anymore.
Although the old lady spoke in a dialect, the local dialect was very close to the Jinzhou dialect, so Liao Yuzhu could understand it.
She didn't know whose sin the old lady was talking about, but based on the previous words, she felt like the old lady was talking about Zhao Xinfang, which was sothing she couldn't tolerate.
Just as she was about to argue with the old lady, Du Heng stopped her with a look.
There was no need.
This ti, Du Heng used more force, shaking off the old lady's hand and walking along the mountain path.
This was the second ti Du Heng had seen Wang Shuqiu's father since the incident. The man's body was hunched, his hair completely gray. He didn't look like a man in his fifties but rather like a frail old man in his seventies or eighties.
Most importantly, there was no sign of vitality in him. He was completely enveloped by a thick air of dusk.
If it weren't for the need to move while weeding, one might even think the figure squatting there wasn't human, but a stone.
Beside him was his wife, Wang Shuqiu's mother, chanically working.
"Uncle."
Standing at the edge of the field, Du Heng hesitated several tis before finally calling out, but his voice sounded very hoarse.
As Wang Shuqiu's father looked back following the sound, his empty eyes stared at Du Heng at the edge of the field.
It took a long while for a trace of spirit to appear in his eyes, recognizing Du Heng at the end of the field.
"Kid... how did you get here?" Dropping the shovel in his hand, Wang Shuqiu's father reached out to hold his wife's hand, and they walked toward Du Heng together.
Du Heng felt a bit sad seeing Wang Shuqiu's father's smile, and even more guilty looking at the emptiness in Wang Shuqiu's mother's eyes.
"Uncle, I ca to see you and Auntie, and see if I can help treat Auntie."
"Good, good." A wave of emotion finally appeared in Wang Shuqiu's father's eyes, and his grip on his wife's hand tightened considerably.
On the way back, Du Heng didn't know what topic to bring up, so he could only silently follow behind the couple, listening to Wang Shuqiu's father talk about the events of the past year.
But Wang Shuqiu's mother was like a soulless walking corpse.
However, she could understand what was said to her.
When asked to follow, she followed; when asked to stop, she wouldn't take another step.
"Uncle, has Xiaoqiu never co back?" In the end, Du Heng couldn't help but ask.
As soon as Du Heng finished asking, Wang Shuqiu's father let out a bitter smile. "Not to ntion coming back, she didn't even make a phone call. But I don't bla my daughter; the incident hurt her too much. It's good for her to go out and think it through for a couple of years."
Du Heng fell silent again.
When they arrived at the front door, Wang Shuqiu's father saw Liao Yuzhu, as well as the nanny and the child.
His eyes were a bit evasive and sowhat sad. In a hoarse voice, he asked, "Kid, are these your wife and child?"
Upon hearing this, Du Heng knew he had been misunderstood and hurriedly stepped forward. "Uncle, her na is Liao Yuzhu, Xiao Fang's girlfriend. The other person is a nanny who ca with us to take care of the child."
"Xiao Fang's girlfriend?" Wang Shuqiu's father grew agitated again, and his body trembled imperceptibly.
Looking at the child in the nanny's arms, Wang Shuqiu's father hoarsely asked, "Then who is the child?"
Du Heng didn't answer directly. Glancing at the old lady still curiously watching them at the gate, he whispered, "Uncle, let's talk inside the house."
Wang Shuqiu's father nervously licked his lips. "Alright, let's go inside."
Unlocking and opening the door.
Du Heng once again entered the room where Wang Shuqiu and her uncle had quarreled, and where Zhao Xinfang had fallen ill.
However, the room was devoid of life and even felt a bit cold. Even when Du Heng and the others entered, it still felt empty and quiet.
Since entering, Liao Yuzhu had been curiously looking around the yard and the furnishings in the house, trying to find traces of Zhao Xinfang, so she walked slowly and looked carefully.
But the yard was only so big, and there was only so much furnishing. In just a few glances, she had seen everything in the house.
Wang Shuqiu's father busily poured water and attended to the three of them, while Wang Shuqiu's mother obediently sat in her usual spot.
"Uncle, don't be so busy." Du Heng tried to stop him, but Wang Shuqiu's father insisted on making tea and serving bread for the three of them.
Looking at the strange-shaped, dried crusts of bread on the plate, Du Heng's dissatisfaction with Wang Shuqiu grew, and his self-bla deepened.
If only he hadn't been so resentful last year...
When Wang Shuqiu's father finally finished his chores and sat down, his eyes once again fell on the child in the nanny's arms. "Kid, who is this child?"
He already had so suspicions in his heart.
When last year's incident happened, it was already October, and when his daughter left, it was already November. At that ti, Du Heng was still with his daughter.
So even if his daughter had just left and Du Heng had found a new partner right away, calculating the ti would an that the child couldn't possibly be Du Heng's.
But if the child wasn't Du Heng's, then whose could it be?
His gaze shifted from the child to Liao Yuzhu.
Du Heng had just said that this girl was Xiao Fang's girlfriend.
With the girlfriend coming to the door, holding a child...
Wang Shuqiu's father looked at Du Heng, his eyes filled with anticipation and hope.
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