Anya looked at Joey after hearing what Phoebe said. She looked at Joey before exchanging glances with Phoebe in tacit understanding.
Anya shifted her position and sat next to Joey in the back row.
Joey had been silent throughout the journey. He cowered to one side as soon as he saw Anya approach him. Anya's presence left him fearful.
Anya secretly reached out to Joey and pinched his arm fiercely. When she heard Joey scream in pain, she asked loudly, "Joey! Is something wrong?" She then placed her hand on Joey's forehead and acted as if she was worried. "What?! His body temperature is so high!"
Phoebe played along and said, "What happened? Does he have a fever?"
Anya nodded. "He does! He's having a fever! What should we do, Mom?"
Phoebe leveraged the situation to their advantage and said, "What else can we do? We need to go to a hospital, and fast! Joey has a fever! We need to send him to the hospital!"
The servants were hesitant.
Phoebe frowned and lashed out at them. "Joey is having a fever! Why do you look so reluctant to bring him to a hospital? He might be an adopted child, but the two elders have accepted him. Can you bear the responsibility if something happens to him?"
The servants looked at each other. One of them finally said, "There's a village hospital nearby. Perhaps we can bring him there to get checked up for the time being?"
Phoebe was anxious. "A village hospital? Are you sure you want to let a doctor from such a small hospital treat Joey's condition? What if the doctor misdiagnoses him and delays his treatment? Are you going to take responsibility for that?"
At that moment, the servant felt something was amiss and immediately called to report what happened.
Anya and Phoebe fled the hospital with Joey and got into a cab right away.
Anya breathed a sigh of relief after getting into the vehicle. "Where are we going now?"
Phoebe said, "I have an apartment just off the expressway. The Riveras don't know that it exists. We'll head there and take a breather before planning our next move."
Anya nodded. She was already very tired, so she had no complaints when she had a place to stay.
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