Chapter Forty-Four
The next morning, Astragalus requested a half-day leave from her advisor and moved her bedding and luggage to the new dormitory by herself. The Engineering Physics Department’s dorm was on the fifth floor, not far from her previous one, but accessible through a different entrance. Senior year students no longer had classes; all their time was devoted to their graduation project and thesis. Astragalus spent her days in the lab, and her meetings with Tian Yujia and the others became rare. No wonder Liu Tong was so eager to live with her classmates.
When Astragalus arrived, there was only one person in the room—a girl of average appearance, slightly tanned, slender, sitting at her desk reading a paper on her laptop. She helped Astragalus set down her bags and pointed to the vacant bed by the window. “This spot has been empty, just had some things stored there. The dorm supervisor came by yesterday to let us know, so we’ve already cleaned it. If you want, you can wipe it again. There’s also a locker in the hall, which we’ve cleared out.”
Astragalus glanced at the spotless desk—there wasn’t a speck of dust. They could easily have just moved their belongings and left the cleaning to her, but they hadn’t. She couldn’t help but warm to her three new roommates. “Thank you so much, you’ve saved me a lot of trouble. By the way, I’m Astragalus—like the medicinal herb—Class Four, Environmental Science. You’re all seniors too, right?”
The girl nodded. “I’m Ruan Jing—Ruan with an ‘ear’ radical, Jing as in ‘quiet.’ I’m in Class Three; the other two are in Class Four, both from the second major in Engineering Physics. They’re at the lab working on their thesis, they’ll be back tonight.”
Astragalus couldn’t help asking, “So only three girls in your major?”
“There used to be four,” Ruan Jing explained, “but one transferred to study software engineering.”
The Engineering Physics Department’s full name was the Department of Engineering Physics. It sounded unremarkable, but their focus was nuclear physics and particle accelerators. There were two majors, the latter being Nuclear Engineering and Nuclear Technology. In this era, when students chose majors based on job prospects and income, few pursued nuclear physics, and even fewer were women. The mention of nuclear physics reminded Astragalus of the likes of Qian Xuesen and Deng Jiaxian, the scientists who developed the atomic and hydrogen bombs, filling her with respect.
After Ruan Jing went over some dorm details, she returned to her desk and her paper. Astragalus asked, “You study in the dorm? Doesn’t it feel inefficient?”
Dorms were living spaces; even though everyone had a desk, many found it hard to focus and preferred the lab, library, or classroom.
“No,” Ruan Jing replied, “it’s pretty quiet here. My graduation project is mostly done, just left with writing the thesis. Besides, it frees up space for others at the lab.”
“I hope I’m not bothering you while I unpack?”
“Not at all, I can study anywhere.”
Later, Astragalus noticed that even when she accidentally made quite a racket, Ruan Jing was never disturbed, remaining absorbed in her screen, occasionally jotting equations on scrap paper. Astragalus thought she must be the type Professor Fang referred to—the kind who could immerse herself in research, a budding scientist.
That evening, the other two roommates returned and told Astragalus that Ruan Jing had already been recommended for direct admission to the department’s doctoral program—just as Astragalus had suspected.
She got along well with her new roommates, and life settled back into a calm rhythm: days in the lab, working on her project and thesis, evenings spent texting and calling Xiaoying.
Xiaoying was still struggling with unsettled payments at the construction site; work was suspended, and the workers were restless. He was stressed, and though Astragalus had no great advice to offer, she did her best to talk with him whenever he was free, hoping to lift his spirits.
Perhaps distance really did make the heart grow fonder; after moving dorms, her classmates treated her more kindly. Liu Tong, Tian Yujia, and Feng Xidi always greeted her with concern, as if constantly reminding her to “come home often and let us know if you’re having a hard time.” Even Yun Lei’s attitude softened; she would follow behind the others, silent but clearly wanting to speak, too proud to break the ice herself.
Weeks passed in this way, and just as Astragalus thought her senior year would end quietly, a phone call shattered her peace.
The call came from an unfamiliar girl, her voice shaky against a noisy background. “Hello, is this… Huang… Huang Shi?”
People often got Astragalus’s name wrong; she was used to it. “Yes, this is Astragalus. Who’s this?”
Relief and distress mingled in the girl’s voice, and she began to cry. “Thank goodness I found you, finally someone I know! I—I’m Xiao Juan, I work with Tongfu.”
Her Mandarin carried a regional accent, so she must be the friend from the provincial capital Tongfu had mentioned. Astragalus asked, “What happened?”
Xiao Juan sobbed, “Tongfu fainted at work and lost a lot of blood… We don’t know anyone here. She mentioned you before, and I found your number in her notebook… Please, you have to help us!”
Her words were vague and the noise on the line made it hard to hear. “Fainted and bleeding? What happened? Has she been taken to the hospital?”
“The manager called 120, she’s already at the hospital. The doctor took her in, but we don’t know anything yet…”
“Don’t worry, I’ll come right away. Which hospital? Is this your phone?”
Xiao Juan was flustered. “What hospital? The ambulance just brought us here… I borrowed this phone from a nurse.”
A nurse nearby answered for her, “The emergency room at People’s Hospital. Tell the family to come directly.”
Astragalus was in the lab; she hurriedly asked for leave and rushed over. The hospital wasn’t close, and traffic was bad—she spent an hour en route.
The emergency hall was crowded. Astragalus went straight to the nurse’s station. “Excuse me, has a patient named Zheng Tongfu come in the past hour? Brought by ambulance?”
A nurse began checking records, but another one nearby overheard. “Zheng Tongfu? The two girls who came together?” she asked.
Recognizing the voice from the phone call, Astragalus nodded. “Yes, that’s her.”
The nurse, seeing she was also a young girl, frowned. “You’re not family, are you? Why aren’t her family here for something this serious?”
An older nurse said, “She’s not even twenty—what family? Her parents probably don’t even know.”
Astragalus explained, “Her family’s out of town, they can’t get here right away. I’m a friend from her hometown. How is she? Where is she now?”
The nurse sighed. “She’s all right, already transferred to the maternity ward—just go out, turn right, Building Five, third floor.”
Astragalus was stunned. “Maternity ward?”
The nurse replied, “You didn’t know? Twenty weeks pregnant, poor health, overworked, showing signs of threatened miscarriage. She’ll need to be hospitalized and observed for a while.”
Astragalus, inexperienced in love and raised in a conservative environment, had never known a peer who was pregnant—let alone someone younger than her. The news left her reeling. On her way to the maternity ward, she slowly pieced things together: the child must be Li Mingzhi’s, which explained why Tongfu had come all this way in such a hurry to find him. That scoundrel Li Mingzhi had gotten the girl pregnant and then abandoned her.
People’s Hospital was overcrowded. The wards were full, and extra beds lined the corridors near the restrooms, where the air was stuffy and the flow of people constant.
When Astragalus found her, Tongfu was already asleep, hooked up to an IV. Next to her sat a girl in a hair salon uniform—presumably Xiao Juan—her eyes red and puffy. When she saw Astragalus, she nearly cried again. Astragalus signaled her to keep quiet and drew her aside. “How is she? Will she be okay?”
Xiao Juan wiped her tears. “The doctor said she’ll be fine, just exhausted from work. She’s always been frail. They want her to stay in the hospital for a week, then rest in bed at home to keep the baby. It’s my fault—I’ve been living with her and never realized she was pregnant. She used to be so skinny, barely ninety pounds at five foot four. After New Year, she gained a lot of weight. I thought it was because Li had gotten into grad school and she was finally able to relax and enjoy life. Who knew it was this…”
A nurse approached. “Are you the family for bed six? If you’re here, please pay the hospitalization deposit.”
Xiao Juan looked at Astragalus, clearly embarrassed. “Sister, do you… have any money?”
Astragalus had guessed they wouldn’t have much saved, so she’d brought all her cash and bank cards. “How much is the hospital deposit?”
“Three thousand for a week,” Xiao Juan replied. “It goes by actual expenses, settled daily, or they’ll kick us out. We’ve only had one pay day and handed over our five hundred. I told them family was on the way, and they agreed to let Tongfu stay…”
Astragalus herself was just a student, pinching pennies for her own relationship, barely affording cheap meals—she didn’t have that kind of money either. She thought for a moment. “Don’t worry, I’ll think of something.”
Twenty-five hundred was no small sum for a student, and borrowing from classmates was awkward. She could only turn to Xiaoying, who at least had a steady job.
She called him from the stairwell. He must have been busy, because he didn’t pick up until the third attempt. “Why are you calling now? Is something wrong?”
“Xiaoying, I’ve run into some trouble. Can you lend me some money?”
He immediately asked, “What’s happened? Are you okay?”
“It’s not me. It’s a girl from our neighboring village, Xiba. You know it, right? She suddenly fell ill and needs a hospital deposit. Together we don’t have enough…”
Zhou Yin said, “A hometown girl? Of course we should help. Everyone needs support when they’re far from home. How much do you need? I only have five thousand in cash, the rest is in a fixed deposit—is that enough?”
“That’s plenty. Two thousand is enough.”
“You need it now? Hang on, there’s a bank nearby. I’ll transfer it immediately, so you can get it right away. Just text me your account details.”
After a flurry of activity, they managed to pay the deposit before the end of the workday. Both Astragalus and Xiao Juan finally breathed a sigh of relief.