My Youth Began With Him

“Get out of here, all of you! I don’t want to be here! I want to go out! I want to play games!”

Huo Mian followed the patient’s agitated roar to find a young man, only 17 or 18 years old, lying on the bed.

He was skinny, his skin was yellowish, and there were dark circles under his eyes. It was obvious that he lacked sleep.

Huo Mian looked at the boy’s chart – Huang Jiaming, male, 17 years old, is in grade 10, class 9 of 2nd High School. Due to mania, he had violated school policy many times and was forced to drop out. His parents were the owners of a local supermarket conglomerate. He was their only child and lived an abundant lifestyle.

With the information she had in hand, Huo Mian was almost certain of what was causing his symptoms.

Therefore, she walked up to the boy…

“Head Nurse, don’t go over there, it’s dangerous,” the nurse behind her warned her, in fear that Huo Mian would get hurt.

“Are you Huang Jiaming?”

“Who are you? Let me go at once, or else I will trash your hospital! Don’t you believe that I can do it?” the young man said rebelliously.

Huo Mian smiled.

“What are you smiling at? You don’t think I can do it?” the young man shouted in fury.

Huo Mian shook her head, “I believe you, I’m laughing because I see some of you in myself. Back then, when I was about your age, I was really rebellious as well. Once, the principal at 2nd High School caught me as I was climbing up the walls of our school to skip class.”

“You went to 2nd High too?” The young man seemed excited.

Huo Mian nodded. “The education quality at 2nd high is really good, but… there is just too much homework and tests. I didn’t like to study back then and often skipped classes.”

“Me neither, I don’t like our teacher. He has a depressed-looking face,” the young man immediately said in agreement.

“You like playing online games?”

“Yeah, my favorite is League of Legends.”

“What a coincidence, me too. My favorite character is the scarecrow, what about you?” Huo Mian asked with a smile on her face.

“Fiddlesticks? Little mobility, but he’s got sick AoE and support potential. I like Annie.” The young man smiled; his animosity towards Huo Mian had disappeared.

“Annie? That really cute girl with a teddy bear in her hands, right?” Huo Mian smiled back.

The young man said excitedly, “Yeah, that bear is really powerful. My chances of winning become very high when I use Annie.”

“As long as you don’t get those good-for-nothing teammates,” Huo Mian added.

“Haha, exactly. It looks like we have a lot in common; can you ask the hospital if they can lend me a laptop? It’s so boring here, I’d love to play a few matches,” the young man pleaded Huo Mian.

“That’s not a problem, but only on a few conditions.”

“What condition?”

“You can only play for an hour a day, and… once you’re done, you have to let our nurses draw your blood and administer your IV. You also need to take your medicine on time. Deal?”

“Um…” The young man was unwilling.

“It’s okay if you don’t want to take the deal. I’ll be going now,” Huo Mian said as she turned around to leave.

“No, wait, I agree.”

“Then you have to be a good kid; no more shouting and yelling, it’ll affect the patients in the other rooms, okay? Once you recover, you’ll be able to go home.” Huo Mian comforted him.

“Okay.” The young man nodded his head obediently.

After exiting the room, Huo Main reminded the nurse, “You can give him my laptop to play with every day at 9:30 AM and take it back at 10:30 AM. Then, give him his injections and meds.”

“Head Nurse, is that okay? What if the higher-ups find out…” the nurse voiced her concern.

“I’ll take the blame if they do. Back to work now.”

“Okay.”

From her conversation with the young man just now, Huo Mian was almost certain that he had lacked company since he was young. Even when playing games, he would pick the girl with the teddy bear. This just shows how insecure he felt all the time. As people’s standards of living improved, many parents began neglecting their children so they could earn more money, ultimately resulting in their kids having psychological issues.

Huo Mian sighed; if she were to have a baby, she would never be like that.

She didn’t mind making less money, but her child needed someone by their side, especially during the first couple of years. Once they grew up, they would no longer need their parents’ protection.

After a busy day at the hospital, Huo Siqian suddenly came, right before Huo Mian was about to get off work.

He knocked on Huo Mian’s office door. “Hey.”

Huo Mian looked up with an indifferent expression on her face. “What do you want?”