Chapter 6: Thirty-Nine Degrees

On Saturday night the thermometer said thirty-nine point four, and Mu Qing stood in his kitchen above the shop and read it three times.

Ran lay on the sofa in his pyjamas with his cheeks bright red and his eyes shut.

He had been fine at dinner.

He had eaten his rice, and corrected Mu Qing's spelling of a word on the noodle sign.

He had gone to bed with a pear in his hand.

Late in the evening he had called out, in a thin little voice, that his head was hot.

"Drink this," said Mu Qing.

Ran drank half a cup of water and made a face.

"It's only a fever, Papa," he said, with great effort. "Children get them."

"I know."

"You're gripping the thermometer."

Mu Qing put it down.

He gave the medicine, and an hour later the number had not moved.

He rang Fan Yue's number and it went to voicemail, because she was at her mother's in the next county for the weekend.

He went down and stood in the street with the boy wrapped in a blanket against his chest.

It was raining, and there was not a taxi on the whole length of the river road.

His hands began to shake, and he knew exactly why.

The last time he had been this afraid, he had been alone in a rented room with a calendar, counting weeks.

"Papa," said Ran against his neck. "Use the book."

"What book?"

"The minutes. There's a number on the last page. Uncle Xu said in case."

Mu Qing stared at the blanket.

He had not seen the number go in, and the boy's small square writing had put it there all the same.

He climbed the stairs again with the child on his shoulder, found the exercise book, and turned to the last page.

There were eleven digits, copied out neatly, and under them the word Emergency.

He rang.

It was answered before the first tone had finished.

"Mu Qing," said Xu Zhengyuan, awake and quite clear.

"It's Ran," said Mu Qing, and his voice cracked in half. "He has a fever. I can't get a car."

"Where are you?"

"The shop."

"Stay inside," said Xu. "I'm at the Jinshan. I'll be there in six minutes."

It was five.

Keep reading free with an account. Start I Ran Away With His Child from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.