“Little swallow, dressed in colorful clothes, comes here every spring…” A childish voice rose from the crowd.
The little girl looked no more than four or five years old, wearing a slightly faded pink dress. She was delicate and adorable, singing a children’s song while waving her little hands, swaying her hips, and dancing for the people around her.
A very cute little girl, but her noticeably pale complexion was heartbreaking to see.
A middle-aged man sat on the ground beside her, occasionally wiping his tears. In front of him was a sign about two feet wide with the words: “Seeking help from kind-hearted people for my daughter’s medical treatment…”
There were already quite a few five and ten yuan bills on the sign, but not many, totaling at most thirty or forty yuan.
Many people in the crowd glanced over but then turned and left. Some even muttered under their breath about it being another scam, they’d seen plenty like this…
Someone else sneered coldly, “I suspect this guy trafficked this little girl and is using her to scam money. I pass by here every day and have seen them for a full half month… I should call the police tomorrow to have him arrested…”
Many others who had initially been moved and considered giving the man a few yuan, upon hearing this, dismissed the thought. They shot the man an angry look before turning away one by one.
Even Sun Lingfei, who had already taken out her wallet intending to give something, tucked it back away and tried to pull Xu Ze along to leave.
However, when she pulled, Xu Ze didn’t move. Surprised, Sun Lingfei looked at him and saw him watching the dancing little girl with a faint smile. He actually slowly crouched down beside the girl, smiling as he watched her dance.
Seeing Xu Ze’s behavior, Sun Lingfei frowned in confusion and leaned closer to him. “Xu Ze… they said this is a scam…”
“Heh…” Xu Ze shook his head gently, leaned close to Sun Lingfei’s ear, inhaling her faint fragrance, and whispered, “It’s not a scam… This little girl is truly sick.”
“Ah? But… that man… that man is probably a scammer…” Sun Lingfei was stunned, then said in surprise.
Xu Ze smiled and shook his head. “No… They are father and daughter.”
“Ah? How do you know?” Sun Lingfei asked, astonished.
“Heh… No need to ask so many questions. They are likely biological father and daughter…” Xu Ze smiled but said no more.
Xu Ze had never been a heartless person; in fact, he was the soft-hearted type. Given his nature, he couldn’t stand seeing such scenes. His compassion was fully stirred, and he decided to try and help this father and daughter.
Meanwhile, in his mind, he was urgently analyzing with Xiao Dao: “Xiao Dao… what’s the analysis?”
“Based on appearance analysis, they do indeed have a direct blood relation. Based on superficial signs, the little girl may have a heart or blood-related issue…” Xiao Dao replied without hesitation.
“Hmm… Same as my thoughts. Looking at the girl’s pale complexion and whitish lips, I think… the likelihood of a blood-related issue is higher…” Xu Ze pondered and said, “Activate B-mode ultrasound to scan the heart.”
Beep… B-mode ultrasound scan initiated… Performing cardiac scan… With the swift response of the system’s automatic reaction system, a dim visual field gradually appeared over the little girl’s chest in Xu Ze’s vision. Within it, a pear-sized, continuously beating heart materialized before Xu Ze’s eyes.
Watching the grey heart in the visual field beating, its size normal and seemingly without any other abnormalities, Xu Ze sighed softly. B-mode ultrasound really wasn’t very practical for examining the heart. Without a color Doppler… he couldn’t clearly see the blood flow within the heart, and thus couldn’t discern any internal issues like septal defects or blood reflux…
“Color Doppler…” Thinking of this, Xu Ze smiled again and said, “Xiao Dao… let me play with the color Doppler.”
“Uh… why don’t you try it yourself?… You’re always making me break my rules. After all, I’m a computer… Breaking the rules will get me formatted…” Little Knife said dejectedly.
“You format yourself? If you were going to format… you’d have done it many times already…” Xu Ze chuckled dryly.
“Darn it… Format myself? Do you think I’m sick and suicidal?” Xiao Dao, his cover blown, snorted in shame and anger. “Even though there’s no supervision from the old central mainframe now… I am a super system with dignity and discipline. Principles still must be upheld as much as possible… Go play on your own.”
Hearing Xiao Dao’s ashamed and angry words, Xu Ze grinned. “B-mode ultrasound is a Level 2 permission. Color Doppler isn’t some advanced thing either; it’s Level 3 at most.”
“Level 3, we can activate by overstepping levels, it just consumes a bit more energy. Let’s just try it.” Xu Ze shrugged and commanded the system: “Activate Color B-mode Ultrasound Scan… Scan the heart.”
Beep… Color B-mode Ultrasound initiated, performing cardiac scan… The automatic reaction system quickly responded.
“So it is Level 3 permission, and we can activate it by overstepping levels!” Xu Ze smiled lightly. Following the color Doppler ultrasound waves scanning the little girl’s heart, he carefully observed the colored blood flow patterns inside. He nodded; the heart indeed had no issues. If there were organic problems with the heart, that would be quite troublesome.
Most organic heart problems require surgical intervention, and heart surgeries are often extremely complicated and not easy to resolve.
Since heart issues were ruled out, the next consideration was problems with the blood system. The girl’s pale appearance most likely indicated anemia. Moreover, this anemia was probably extremely difficult to resolve, or caused by some other underlying condition. Otherwise, this father and daughter pair absolutely would not have been reduced to begging on the streets.
However, of course, this couldn’t be determined just by looking; a blood analysis was necessary…
Seeing the pitiable state of this father and daughter, Xu Ze’s compassion was fully aroused. He wanted to help them. After all, here in Beijing, if it was just anemia but they had fallen to this state and hadn’t been cured, it was likely this anemia wasn’t simple. Some types of pernicious anemia, whose causes might only be discovered in the future, weren’t easily cured by modern medicine.
Perhaps only he might be able to help them…
Beside him, Sun Lingfei grew increasingly puzzled. Watching the bright smile in Xu Ze’s eyes, she really had no idea what this guy was scheming now.
At that moment, as the little girl sang, a crowd gradually gathered behind the two, drawn by the girl’s adorable performance.
Slowly, some people began placing small-denomination bills onto the sign.
However, suddenly, as the little girl sang and swayed, her movements gradually slowed. Just as Xu Ze sensed something was wrong, the little girl suddenly swayed and fell towards the ground.
Amid the crowd’s exclamations of surprise, the middle-aged man burst into tears, scrambling and crawling over. He scooped up the pale-faced little girl from the ground, crying out, “Xiao Yan’er, Xiao Yan’er… Wake up… Wake up… It’s all Daddy’s fault, it’s all because Daddy is useless…”
Saying this, he cried while slapping himself hard across the face several times…
Hearing the slap slap sounds, the little girl slowly opened her eyes. With tears streaming, she feebly reached out her hand, touched her father’s face, and cried, “Daddy, don’t cry, Daddy, don’t cry. It’s Xiao Yan’er’s fault… It’s all because Xiao Yan’er is sick, it’s all Xiao Yan’er’s fault…”
Hearing his daughter’s words, the middle-aged man’s tears flowed even more freely. He held his daughter tightly in his arms, father and daughter crying together.
Watching the touching scene, no one now called them scammers. Many people started taking out their wallets, pulling out bills to place on the sign.
The onlookers watched the crying father and daughter, shaking their heads and sighing. In just a short while, the sign had gained seven or eight hundred yuan more, far exceeding the initial thirty or forty yuan in small bills.
Sun Lingfei now also realized that this was indeed a father and daughter, not scammers. Watching them, her own tears welled up. She took out her wallet and placed all the more than a thousand yuan in cash she had onto the sign.
At this point, the middle-aged man managed to control his emotions a little. Seeing the stack of hundred-yuan bills Sun Lingfei had placed on the sign, he was momentarily stunned, then quickly wiped his tears and repeatedly thanked Sun Lingfei.
He had noticed the two crouching there for a long time but never expected this extremely beautiful girl to give so much money.
Xu Ze, smiling, stood up and walked over to the man holding his daughter. He said gently, “May I take a look at Xiao Yan’er?”
Seeing Xu Ze’s warm, concerned smile and remembering how the girl with this young man had just given so much money, although not fully understanding Xu Ze’s intention, the middle-aged man smiled and placed his daughter, who had recovered a little, into Xu Ze’s hands.
Looking at the still pale little face that was trying hard to smile at him, Xu Ze felt a pang of heartache. What a pitiable little girl…
Without further hesitation, he commanded, “Initiate complete blood count examination…”
As Xu Ze’s command was issued, a tiny needle swiftly extended from the ring lightly touching the girl’s small hand, pricking into it.
The tiny needle retracted so quickly that the little girl felt nothing.
Then, rows of analysis data appeared in Xu Ze’s visual field: WBC: 75%; L: 23%; RBC: 2.0 x 10^12/L; Hb: 63g/L…
“It really is anemia…” Seeing these values, Xu Ze shook his head gently. Red blood cells: 2.0 x 10^12/L; Hb: 63g/L. These values were significantly low… indicating relatively severe anemia…
However, if it were simple anemia, it should be quite treatable and shouldn’t have reached this level of severity. So, it seemed it was indeed…
