Chapter 40

A City XX Hospital, inpatient ward.

Su Ci walked in carrying a bag of fruit. A caregiver was helping Zheng Ming wipe down his body. When he saw her, he gave her a simple, honest smile. “You’re here.”

Su Ci nodded and set the fruit down.

Zheng Ming couldn’t eat it; it was for the caregiver.

She bent slightly to look at Zheng Ming. It was obvious he was being well cared for; even his lips looked moist. “How has Uncle been lately?”

“Same as always,” the caregiver said. “He still hasn’t woken up.”

Ever since the cerebral hemorrhage a year ago, Zheng Ming had remained in a vegetative state, lying motionless in the hospital bed, reduced to skin and bones.

Su Ci looked at him for a long time before shifting her gaze to the caregiver in front of her and explaining why she had come. “I came today to ask you, Uncle, have you seen that benefactor before?”

She had just come from the nurses’ station. The nurse said that when she received the notice, she handled the transfer to a different ward; as for anything else, they didn’t know.

The caregiver thought back to what had happened that day. “I didn’t see any benefactor. But I heard someone say it seemed to be one of the hospital’s shareholders who stepped in to help.”

A hospital shareholder?

Su Ci frowned. Very quickly, she realized something and took out her phone to search the hospital’s ownership structure.

Sure enough, this hospital had been invested in by the Yan family.

So her guess had been right; it was Yan Can who had helped.

And she still didn’t want Su Ci to know.

After confirming that, Su Ci only felt even more conflicted.

Right then, a new message came in on her phone.

Yan Can: What a coincidence, I’m in A City too. Where are you?

Su Ci sent her the location: What are you doing in A City?

Yan Can: Shopping for clothes.

Su Ci didn’t ask anything else. Just then, the ward door behind her was pushed open, and Huo Tian stood at the entrance carrying a fruit basket. Probably because he hadn’t expected to see her here, his expression flashed with surprise. But very quickly, he curved his lips and said in a familiar tone, “Ah Ci, you’re here too.”

Su Ci ignored him. She turned and gave the caregiver a few instructions, telling him that if Zheng Ming needed anything, he should let her know; she would bring it next time.

The caregiver nodded. Su Ci glanced at Zheng Ming’s cardiac monitor. Because she came often, she could read the data on it. The indicators from top to bottom were normal. She checked Zheng Ming’s body once more.

The pressure sores from lying in bed for so long had already improved a lot. Before leaving, she took his blood pressure and temperature. As soon as the blood pressure measurement was done, she loosened the cuff and reminded the caregiver not to keep it on all day; let it loosen occasionally.

The caregiver nodded repeatedly, feeling inexplicably tense.

Among the three kids who came to see Zheng Ming, only Su Ci made him feel nervous and at a loss.

Even though she was the youngest of the three.

Su Ci’s phone kept vibrating in her pocket. She took it out and looked at it; Yan Can said she was coming to pick her up.

“Alright, I’m leaving now.” Su Ci put away her phone, slung on her backpack, and brushed past Huo Tian.

Seeing that she was leaving, Huo Tian called after her in a low voice, “Ah Ci?”

Su Ci acted as if she didn’t hear him and walked out of the ward without stopping.

Downstairs at the hospital, Yan Can was sitting in the car, idly scrolling through her phone. When she saw Su Ci come out through the entrance, she was just about to open the door and get out when her expression darkened.

There was a boy following behind Su Ci.

Huo Tian hadn’t expected Su Ci to come see Zheng Ming today. Since they’d run into each other, he wanted to have a proper talk with her.

So when Su Ci left, he immediately followed.

“Ah Ci!” Su Ci was walking too fast. In his anxiety, Huo Tian reached out and grabbed her wrist. Su Ci frowned, her tone icy. “Let go!”

“Sorry!” Huo Tian let go at once. “Ah Ci, let’s find a place and sit down to talk properly, okay?”

Su Ci’s face remained cold.

There were people coming and going at the hospital entrance. Su Ci didn’t want to say another word to him. She glanced at her phone; Yan Can had said she was already waiting at the entrance. Su Ci looked up and indeed saw a luxury car parked there.

All Su Ci was thinking about was going to Yan Can; she wanted to see her right away and didn’t want her to wait another second. She couldn’t spare any attention for anyone else.

Huo Tian didn’t know what she was thinking; he only assumed she was deliberately avoiding him.

Not wanting to miss this chance, he stepped in front of Su Ci in a few quick strides and sighed helplessly. “Ah Ci, can’t we just sit down and have a proper talk? It’s been so long; you still won’t forgive me?”

“I don’t want to talk about this right now.” Su Ci frowned, her voice as cold as ice. “I have something to do. Move.”

What she had wasn’t something to do; she just didn’t want to deal with him. She simply refused to forgive him. Stubbornly, he blocked her path and softened his tone. “Ah Ci, I don’t understand why you hate me so much. What happened back then—”

“Hey, hey, hey—there’s no way to chase a girl like this!”

An unfamiliar female voice cut him off.

Huo Tian turned around. It was a girl with a high ponytail and peach-blossom eyes, very beautiful.

Yan Can had originally thought she’d let Su Ci handle it herself, but after watching for a while, this guy was really hard to shake off.

No choice; since Su Ci was too embarrassed to refuse him, then she’d have to step in.

“Can’t you tell she doesn’t like you?” the girl said.

Huo Tian…

Realizing she had misunderstood, he immediately explained, “No, we’re friends, I—”

Yan Can didn’t listen at all. She walked around him and headed toward Su Ci.

Honestly, she had rejected Yan Can so decisively before, so why couldn’t she turn someone else down now? She even let him pester her for this long. Yan Can complained silently to herself. Out loud, she grumbled, “Su Ci, I’ve been waiting for you forever!”

“Sorry.” Su Ci looked at her and said softly, “Something came up and delayed me.”

The girl asked her, “Are you hungry? Let’s go eat first.”

“I’m okay,” Su Ci said.

“Okay or not, we’re eating first.” The girl was downright domineering.

Su Ci nodded. “Alright.”

Seeing the two of them holding hands, Su Ci lowering her eyes and obediently letting the girl lead her away, Huo Tian felt something strange tighten in his chest.

This girl and Ah Ci had an unusual relationship.

Even when Ah Ci used to be closest with Zheng Mo, Su Ci had never acted like this with her.

So well-behaved.

It was as if no matter how she treated Ah Ci, she wouldn’t resist.

Since when had Ah Ci become like this?

“Chen Shu, you can drop us off there and then leave.” Yan Can gave an address to a restaurant and leaned back in the rear seat with her eyes closed to rest.

Seeing that his young lady didn’t seem very happy, Chen Shu didn’t dare say much.

The car headed steadily toward its destination.

Along the way, Su Ci could clearly feel a low pressure hanging in the air.

Yan Can didn’t seem to be in a good mood, perhaps because Su Ci had made her wait too long.

Su Ci pressed her lips together and looked at the person half-dozing beside her. “When did you get here?”

Yan Can kept her eyes closed and huffed unhappily. “I was already here when I sent you the message.”

She turned her head to glance at Su Ci, as if deliberately trying to make her feel guilty, and pouted. “I waited for you so long my stomach nearly went up in flames.”

She was very angry right now; from the sound of it, Su Ci and that boy seemed to have had something going on before.

“Were you two together before?”

The topic jumped a little too fast. Su Ci hadn’t even reacted yet. “What?”

Her tone was very unhappy. “Are you going to get back together with him?”

“How would you even think that?” Su Ci didn’t understand how Yan Can could jump to that conclusion. She shook her head and explained with a frown, “He’s my friend.”

Yan Can didn’t realize her voice had already turned a little sour. “But to me, he looks like he likes you.”

“He’s pretty good-looking too. You don’t have even a little interest?”

Su Ci’s brow furrowed even tighter. “No, he’s my friend, just like A Wen.”

She didn’t want Yan Can to misunderstand and tried her best to explain. “Just a normal friend.”

Yan Can was almost furious now, her thoughts branching wildly. “You may think that, but he might not. In my opinion, that guy probably likes you.”

“Yan Can, I—”

The words Su Ci had been about to explain cut off abruptly. She suddenly realized that Yan Can was being jealous, and a secret delight bubbled up in her heart. But she didn’t want Yan Can to misunderstand. “Whether he likes me has nothing to do with me. I don’t like him.”

“I won’t like him now, and I won’t like him in the future either. So, can you stop being angry?”

Hearing that, Yan Can felt a little better. She huffed and said stubbornly, “Who’s angry? Whether you like him or not has nothing to do with me either.”

Su Ci looked at her deliberately averted face and couldn’t help but curve her lips.

Her possessiveness had actually reached this level already.

After dinner, Yan Can figured that since they were already here, they might as well spend some time strolling around A City before heading back. But heaven wasn’t cooperating. When they were eating dinner, the sky outside suddenly opened up and poured down torrential rain, completely throwing all their plans into disarray.

The weather forecast showed that the rain wouldn’t stop anytime soon.

Yan Can looked at Su Ci and asked tentatively, “How about we get a room?”

Su Ci: “Get a room?”

Did she mean what she thought she meant?

Yan Can pointed outside. “The rain is too heavy; driving on the road isn’t safe.”

“I don’t want to squeeze onto a high-speed train.”

“Like that,” Su Ci nodded. “Okay.”

The restaurant was on the third floor; from the fifteenth floor upward was a star-rated hotel.

Yan Can handed over her ID and immediately asked for the best suite, but Su Ci tugged at the hem of her clothes and said to the front desk, “A single king room is fine.”

The two of them took the key card and went into the elevator. Yan Can said, “You don’t need to save money for me.”

Su Ci said, “This is my first time staying in a hotel. I’m a little scared.”

“You can be scared too?” Yan Can genuinely couldn’t imagine this person being afraid of anything. She deliberately teased her. “Then if you sleep with me, aren’t you afraid I’ll take liberties with you?”

Su Ci turned her head to look at her. “Would you?”

Yan Can reached for her hand, her fingertips lightly rubbing across her palm. Su Ci couldn’t help curling her fingers. “Didn’t I say it before? I’m fascinated by your body.”

She leaned close to Su Ci’s ear and said softly, “I’m afraid I won’t be able to control myself.”

Hot breath brushed against Su Ci’s ear, sending a shiver through her. She endured it for a moment, then said softly, “Then don’t control yourself.”