Wen Tingli stepped forward uneasily: “You’ve already helped our family too much. I don’t want you to owe anyone favors because of this, and especially don’t want you to offend the Bailong Gang for our family’s sake.”

Superintendent Deng was both amused and moved.

“Child, not everyone is afraid of the Bailong Gang. This concerns a human life — we can’t just watch the perpetrator go free. I’m not familiar with the Lu family, but I still have a few old friends in the courts and among the lawyers. Let me discuss with them first about what to do.”

Wen Tingli waited anxiously to the side. As soon as the call connected, Superintendent Deng smilingly announced her own name to the other party. The person on the other end was indeed very warm — even through the receiver, one could hear the rustling, animated tone of voice. Yet after hanging up, Deng Yi’s expression showed no improvement at all. She picked up the phone book on her desk, flipped through it, and dialed another number.

This time it was to the office of the director of St. Mary’s Hospital.

“Director Gao, this is Deng Yi.”

This conversation went on even longer than the last.

After putting down the phone, Deng Yi said nothing for a long while. Under the lamplight, her head of silver hair looked especially aged. Wen Tingli hurried to help Superintendent Deng sit down on the sofa, then ran off to pour her some tea.

Deng Yi said thoughtfully, “The tricky part right now is that Qiu Dapeng seems to have planned in advance how to evade legal responsibility. According to the diagnosis of the emergency doctor on duty at St. Mary’s that night, he has several fractured ribs, and he insists he was beaten by your father — he even had a doctor at St. Mary’s report it to the police station in the French Concession.”

“He’s talking nonsense!” Wen Tingli was both shocked and furious. “That night, when Qiu Dapeng left our house, he ran faster than a rabbit. Uncle Chen and Uncle Zhou can both confirm this.”

Deng Yi slowly shook her head. “The two of them are involved parties. Qiu Dapeng might seize on that very point to accuse your father of having wanted to make trouble for him all along. Now that the French Concession has already accepted Qiu Dapeng’s report, if the public tribunal there ultimately rules that he acted in self-defense, in the end your father might even be made to bear Qiu Dapeng’s medical expenses.”

Wen Tingli felt the blood rush straight to her head: “Is there no justice left in this world!”

“Don’t worry. Tomorrow I’ll arrange to meet a few lawyer friends. I’ll see this matter through to the end.”

Deng Yi lived up to her name — the more difficult the problem, the more resolute her expression became. This attitude touched Wen Tingli deeply, and her own gaze grew firmer in response. “Alright, I’ll do as you say. I’ll go back and wait for news.”

Originally, she had intended to persuade Superintendent Deng not to get further involved. Now she understood — such words would be an insult to Superintendent Deng’s character. At no point would Superintendent Deng ever back down.

The thought brought tears to Wen Tingli’s eyes. “‘Compassionate Heart,’ ‘Compassionate Heart’ — now I understand the deeper meaning behind your hospital’s name. I’m truly fortunate to have met someone as good as you.”

Deng Yi said, half-joking, “Look at yourself — don’t you look like a young sapling? And I, this old woman, am already a towering tree that reaches the sky. Now that you, this little sapling, have run into wind and rain, how could this old tree not shelter you a little? Once you too grow into a towering tree, naturally you’ll help other saplings in turn.”

Overwhelmed with emotion, Wen Tingli couldn’t help but bury her face in Superintendent Deng’s lap and burst into tears. The old woman’s gaze was so gentle, so sorrowful, and so full of compassion, as if it could soothe every wound in the world.

After crying for a good while, Wen Tingli felt considerably more at ease, and wiped her tears dry with her handkerchief in embarrassment. “Tomorrow I have to report to Wushi Middle School. I’ll study hard. These past few days I’ve been busy moving house, and I originally worried there’d be no one to take care of my father, but just now the nurse told me I could hire a caretaker for only ten coppers a day — that’s a relief, I can be more at ease while I’m at school. I also wanted to ask what medicine you gave my father — he was sleeping so soundly just now.”

Deng Yi opened a drawer and took out a prescription to show Wen Tingli. “Yesterday the hospital received a new shipment of British medicine. One of them is a nutrient injection that your father urgently needs, and there’s also a pain medication that should help ease his suffering. As long as his nutrition and sleep keep up, I believe your father will recover somewhat faster.”

Wen Tingli’s face brightened. “Does that mean there’s hope my father’s illness can be cured?”

Deng Yi thought for a moment. “It’s still uncertain for now. During rounds just now, several of your father’s indicators showed no major improvement, but there’s no clear worsening either. Let’s continue treatment a while longer and see.”

By the time Wen Tingli returned to the ward, Sister-in-law Zhou had already fallen asleep on the empty bed nearby, holding Xiao Taozi in her arms.

Wen Tingli sat down blankly at her father’s bedside. Under the dim light, her father’s face was strangely sallow, his sunken cheeks and eye sockets making him look nothing like a living person — more like some grotesque wax figure from a joss-stick shop.

In just a few days, a vibrant life had withered to this state. At least now they had the new medicine, which stirred hope in her heart once more. She lowered her head, resting it against the bed frame, and called out softly, “Father.”

Wen Desheng, who had lain as silent and still as a corpse, suddenly gave a start, lifted his chin, and answered in confusion and panic, “Father’s here.”

Wen Tingli closed her eyes, letting her tears fall pattering to the floor.

“I’m back. I want to read for a while.”

“Good, go ahead and study hard. Don’t mind me,” Wen Desheng said muddledly.

Wen Tingli wiped away her tears, turned back, took up her book bag, and sat down at the small table to the side. Compassionate Heart Hospital turned off the lights at ten every night as a rule; in a few more minutes she wouldn’t be able to read. She lit an oil lamp early with a match and focused on her homework.

Wen Desheng lay in bed, silently listening to his daughter turning pages, and said faintly, “Tingli, if Father doesn’t get better…”

“Don’t talk nonsense! You’ll definitely recover. Superintendent Deng just changed your medicine today — she says as long as it doesn’t worsen, there’s hope.”

“Really?” Wen Desheng’s eyes brightened slightly. “No wonder I feel a bit more comfortable.”

His expression relaxed all at once. He stared silently at the ceiling, but couldn’t help speaking again.

“The remaining fabric and machines at the shop are worth about four hundred silver dollars altogether. Hire a cart to take them to the foreign cloth market and find a Mr. Wang there to sell them off — he’s an old acquaintance of mine, he won’t cheat us. As for the remaining money, it’s all locked in the cash box.”

Hearing no response from his daughter, Wen Desheng turned his head and saw her sitting motionless at the table, unsure whether she’d heard him at all. He gazed at her hazily for a moment, then suddenly gave a bitter, pained laugh.

“Father is a useless man. After marrying your mother, I never gave her more than a few good years. Once she was gone, I couldn’t even take care of two children properly. If something happens to me this time, you and Xiao Taozi will have no one to depend on. Father—”

Wen Tingli cut him off abruptly: “Since you know Xiao Taozi and I would have no one to depend on, how could you bear to die? Xiao Taozi is only three. I’m about to go to the best girls’ school in the city — don’t you want to see me get into university with your own eyes?”

Her voice was visibly trembling. Wen Desheng kept his eyes on his daughter, tears sliding quietly down from behind his ears.

“Can you really get into university?” His tone turned animated. “You’re clever, child, but you’ve never much liked to study hard. No one in our family has ever produced a university student. If you really do get in, Father will be the first to go light a stick of incense before your mother’s memorial tablet.”

“Just watch.” Wen Tingli lifted the textbook in her hand with full confidence. “I won’t just get into a good university — I’ll make a great name for myself, earn great wealth, do great things. Sooner or later I’ll become someone remarkable, just like Superintendent Deng!”

“Suddenly so ambitious?” Wen Desheng listened with a broad grin. “Good, good, good. Father will definitely get better. Father will wait to see the day my daughter makes her name known far and wide.” His eyes were filled with tenderness for his daughter.

The next day, Wen Tingli rose before dawn, washed up at the public water tap, then slipped into the restroom to change into a light bamboo-green short jacket and long skirt. She came out, combed her glossy black curly hair into a high ponytail in front of the mirror, and rode to Wushi Girls’ Middle School to report for enrollment, full of spirit.

Wushi Girls’ Middle School was located in the French Concession, quite far from Compassionate Heart Hospital. Wen Tingli had to change vehicles twice before arriving. The moment she got off, she saw many girl students in pale blue short jackets and black gebo silk long skirts filing in through the school gate one after another.

She paused at the gate and looked up. Wushi’s school gate was built of red brick, its overall style far more Western and modern than Xiude’s, and the campus itself was several times larger, with numerous school buildings and an exceptionally elegant garden — everything about it spoke of dignity and refinement.

A plaque hung beside the gate, reading: “In the year XX, donated and built by Mr. Lu Hongjun.”

Wen Tingli thought to herself that since Wushi Girls’ Middle School had been founded by the Lu family, this Mr. Lu Hongjun must be some head of the Lu family in a certain generation.

She adjusted the strap of her book bag and strode through the gate, when suddenly she heard someone behind her exclaim in surprise, “Oh, Miss Wen!”

Wen Tingli turned to see a short-haired woman wearing sunglasses sitting in a car, waving to her. As if afraid Wen Tingli wouldn’t recognize her, the woman took off the Western sunglasses perched on her nose and gave Wen Tingli a radiant smile.

“It’s me, Huang Yuanshan! Director at Huangjin Film Studio. We met last time at the Qiao family’s.”