My hometown is far away in Moscow.

Chapter 132 Xiang Nan Discharged from Hospital

Not many people came to class today, as many students were still busy taking care of injured relatives and friends at the hospital. Before class, the teachers and students on campus observed a brief moment of silence together.

Everyone was still reeling from yesterday's shock, and the fire remained the most talked-about topic. Wu Ga hadn't come to class yesterday either, but as soon as he entered the room today, he started telling the class about taking Hu Yi to find his sister yesterday, prompting the students to ask Hu Yi all sorts of questions.

Hu Yi expressed his gratitude for everyone's concern one by one, and then solemnly treated Wu Ga to a meal in the school's main building cafeteria. He also pretended to casually slip him two packs of Zhonghua cigarettes—he had only smoked a few packs of the two packs of cigarettes given to him by Xiang Nan's father, and had saved the rest for favors.

After leaving the school, Hu Yi took a taxi to the hospital to see Xiang Nan and bring her food. He had watched Xiang Nan eat two meals at the hospital yesterday. The hospital food was probably nutritious enough, but it looked bland and Russian-style, definitely not to Chinese tastes.

Since the restaurant was closed for the next few days, Lao Wei had nothing to do at home, so Hu Yi asked him to prepare a few delicate dishes for Xiang Nan. The portions were small, but the nutrition and taste had to be guaranteed, and they couldn't be too greasy.

Old Wei's culinary skills need no introduction. The dishes were a perfect balance of meat and vegetables, with just the right amount of oil and salt, and the flavors were just right—ideal for a patient resting in bed. As soon as the lunchbox was opened, the aroma filled the entire ward. It even made the Mozambican girl, who was sleeping in the same room, slightly twitch her eyelids.

The girl jumped from the second floor. Her limbs were mostly unharmed, but her scalp and face were burned when her unkempt braids caught fire during her escape. Although the injuries were not very serious, the intense shock and fear had kept her in a coma since yesterday. Every time she woke up, she would immediately start crying, then fall back asleep.

Perhaps she was starving, for the Mozambican girl was awakened by the delicious aroma wafting from Old Wei's cooking. Her nostrils flared slightly, and she said something in a hoarse voice to her friend who was accompanying her. Her friend was overjoyed and immediately began preparing food and drink for her.

Xiang Nan was also very happy to see her fellow patient wake up. Yesterday, she looked sickly and listless while eating, but today, as soon as she smelled the aroma of food, she sat up with her neck tilted to the side and devoured the food in a whirlwind, leaving oil all around her mouth.

Hu Yi was greatly relieved. From then on, he paid Lao Wei to prepare meals for Xiang Nan every day, and he would try his best to deliver them himself. When he was too busy, he would ask Yu Feifei or Xia Yan to do it for him. But no matter who delivered the meals that day, the other friends would always take time to visit Xiang Nan together every day.

With the meticulous care of her older siblings, Xiang Nan recovered and was discharged from the hospital a few days later. The school arranged for her to live in dormitory building number 4, where she shared a room with two Russian third-year female students. The two girls had lived there for several years, and the room was full of belongings and had a strong sense of home, but correspondingly, the only space left for Xiang Nan was a bed.

Hu Yi and Yu Feifei escorted her into the house and placed the clothes, stationery, and other necessities they had bought for her over the past few days on her bedside table. Xiang Nan stared at her assigned bed for a while, then suddenly felt a lump in her throat and shed a few tears.

"What's wrong, Nan Nan?" Hu Yi was slightly taken aback. "Don't you like this room? I'll find you a better place in a while. Just make do here for now!"

"No, it's fine here." Xiang Nan rubbed her eyes, sobbing. "Brother, I remembered where I used to live. Come with me back to Building 6 and take a look."

The area beneath the black Building 6 was filled with flowers, banners, and photos.

Hu Yi and Yu Feifei came to pay their respects with flowers the day after the incident. Several days have passed, and people continue to stop in front of the building to silently express their condolences in various ways.

There were slightly more people downstairs today than in the past few days. Even from dozens of meters away, Hu Yi and the others could hear heart-wrenching cries. It was the families of the victims who had come from China to mourn their loved ones. They were of different ages, holding portraits of their deceased relatives, kneeling in the snow and calling out their names, moving all the onlookers to tears.

The removal and identification of the bodies has been completed. More than 40 students from various countries tragically lost their lives in the fire, and nearly 200 others were injured.

This was the most devastating disaster in the decades-long history of the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia, a rare major accident with casualties in the history of Chinese students studying abroad, and an indelible painful memory for all those who experienced it.

With red eyes, Xiang Nan looked at the family members of the victims beside her, then raised her head and stared blankly at the room she had once lived in. Overwhelmed with emotions, she could not control herself.

She narrowly escaped the fire, thinking she had lost so much: friends she had only known for a short time before saying goodbye forever, a cozy house she had just decorated, beautiful clothes she had brought from China, personal items carefully prepared for her by her brother Xiangdong, and the living expenses her parents had earned with their hard-earned money.

But looking at these heartbroken students' families, everything she had lost seemed less important. After all, she was still standing there, perfectly fine.

After standing silently in front of the building for a long time, Xiang Nan gently put down the bouquet of flowers in her hand, bowed slightly to the relatives of the victims in the distance, and turned to leave slowly.

After leaving Building 6, Xiang Nan and Hu Yi took taxis to several other hospitals to visit Lao Jiang and other preparatory students. Lao Jiang had injured his pelvis and lumbar spine and was bedridden. Fortunately, some kind-hearted international students volunteered to help take care of him, solving most of the daily living problems for him and many other injured students.

After the fire, various national departments and agencies urgently coordinated the processing of passports and visas for the families of the dead and injured, arranging for them to visit Russia as soon as possible. Old Jiang's family will be arriving in a few days, so he is currently in a relatively good mood.

Xiang Dong and his parents were initially eager to visit Xiang Nan, but after confirming that she had only suffered minor injuries, they temporarily put their plans on hold. On the one hand, they could give priority to visiting her to those who needed it more, and on the other hand, they could save time and energy to earn more money to supplement Xiang Nan's living expenses.

As for their daughter's current living situation, the elderly couple had been worried. However, the preparatory students affected by the disaster received varying degrees of compensation and subsidies from the Moscow city government and the school, and Hu Yi repeatedly assured them that he could cover all of Xiang Nan's expenses in the short term. Only then were the two elders completely relieved, and they were just waiting for their daughter to return to China during the winter vacation so they could bring her more money to repay Hu Yi.

Although Hu Yi made a big promise to Xiang Nan's parents over the phone, he was actually not very well-off. He had thrown a thousand dollars into the hotel and hadn't even heard a sound. He had also bought a lot of daily necessities for Xiang Nan in the past few days, so he only had eight hundred dollars left.

However, he was not worried about it. When he first came to ANU, losing $1,800 was like a bolt from the blue for him, but after two years of experience, making money was no longer a difficult thing for him.

Even if the restaurant doesn't open, it's not a big deal. It's not hard to find a way to make some money, is it? With this thought in mind, Hu Yi returned to his school dormitory with a relaxed attitude. But when he looked up casually, he found that the Arabic restaurant downstairs in Building 6 and his brother Liu's restaurant were both open.

"Huh?" Hu Yi's heart skipped a beat. He had just taken out his phone to ask Fang Qing when Fang Qing called first: "Little Hu, I heard the dorm supervisor went back to his office. We're just about to go find him. Why don't you come along?"

(End of this chapter)