A middle-aged man in a suit came in through the door and stopped beside the young man. He asked his question casually—or at least, tried to make it sound that way. Every word was careful.
“I think I’ll pass. Why don’t you go with Lisa? Once we’ve signed the investment contract, my secretary can discuss the other details with you.” Yao Chen turned slightly toward the man and gave him a polite smile.
“Mr. Wei, I have a friend I need to see. I’m afraid I’ll have to leave you this time, but I’ll visit and apologize properly another day.”
“Don’t mention it, Mr. Yao. No need to be so formal with me. Go take care of your business!” Wei Encheng waved it off heartily with a laugh, looking completely unbothered.
Wei was a cautious man. The young man in front of him might’ve been only twenty-two, but who in the business world hadn’t heard of Yao Chen?
A college student had built half an empire through his own efforts in a neighboring metropolis full of cutthroat competition. His father was a real estate tycoon, and his grandfather was a military district commander.
A man like that couldn’t be measured by his age.
Besides, Wei had come on behalf of the group to discuss his young counterpart’s branch-company project, Lake of Heaven. He’d seen for himself just how renowned Yao Chen’s eye for opportunity was.
“I’m in a hurry, so I’ll take my leave.” Yao Chen gave a perfunctory reply, then turned to the blonde woman beside him. “Lisa, take the car to my father’s villa later. I have a few things to handle, so I won’t be picking it up. You can have the keys.”
Lisa took the McLaren keys and looked up at him. “Mr. Yao, if you’re in a hurry, why not drive there? I can drop you off, then come back and continue discussing things with Mr. Wei.”
“A car like this isn’t appropriate for a trip to the hospital.” Yao Chen quietly shook his head and raised a hand to hail a taxi at just the right moment. After watching Wei Encheng walk away, he added:
“This afternoon’s discussion is still important. I won’t have you drive me, but you need to go ahead of time. I can afford to offend Wei Encheng, but I can’t afford to offend Shengyun.”
Lisa nodded in understanding. Yao Chen gave her a couple more reminders about the meeting, then got into the cab.
“Where to, sir?” The driver didn’t mind having waited a little and was especially friendly toward customers in this area.
Yao Chen rested an elbow against the window, crossed one leg over the other, and gazed aimlessly at the street ahead. His reply was crisp and clear.
“Huadu Central People’s Hospital.”
… …
… …
Half an hour later, at Huadu Hospital.
The sky was clear and cloudless. Huo Tong sat on a bench in front of the lawn, seriously watching the window of her hospital room.
The time the other person had mentioned had arrived. She pulled out her phone and checked QQ. Sure enough, Chongqing Forest had sent her a message just one minute ago saying he’d arrived at the hospital.
After that, he’d acted as if he hadn’t seen all her warnings to stay away and asked where her room was. Huo Tong had very decisively come down with sudden blindness.
Truthfully, she was touched. She felt bad for the guy who’d traveled all this way to visit her, but her hands were busy setting herself to invisible and AFK. She played dead without missing a beat.
She put her phone away and looked toward the window again. The young nurse was already standing quietly beside it, waiting.
After speaking with the doctor, Huo Tong had asked the nurse to help handle things when Chongqing Forest arrived. She’d also asked her to signal from the window once he’d left.
… …
… …
Compared to the packed outpatient department, there were hardly any people in the inpatient building.
A young man in a suit walked over the corridor’s white-tiled floor. Only a few patients in blue-and-white checkered shirts passed him.
Yao Chen carried a bag of fruit for his visit in his right hand and raised his left arm to check his watch.
It was 1:21. He’d stopped at a fruit shop in the CBD, so he was later than he’d expected to be.
He opened QQ and saw that Water Domain Venerable still hadn’t replied. The profile picture had gone gray, too. Yao Chen raised an eyebrow. He was a little annoyed, but not surprised.
The moment the other person stopped replying in the taxi, Yao Chen had figured he’d pull something like this. He’d probably already gone into hiding somewhere.
Still, Yao Chen didn’t particularly care whether he managed to see him. His main reason for coming was to find out whether the other person was really all right. He could ask the doctors and nurses about that.
If something was wrong, he could help. Yao Chen valued this one among the few friends he had.
He turned up the stairs and headed for neurology. Since he had a few projects with Mu Group, he’d called Chairman Mu to ask about the situation.
While they were discussing business, he’d casually managed to find out which department Mu’s daughter was hospitalized in.
Thanks to his good looks and polished manner, Yao Chen quickly got the nurse to tell him where the patient sharing a room with the person he was looking for was staying.
He followed the room number to the door and knocked lightly with a bent finger. A woman’s voice answered from inside.
“The door’s unlocked. You can come right in.”
Yao Chen said, “Sorry to bother you,” and stepped inside.
The room smelled of disinfectant. On the first bed, a beautiful young girl slept quietly, neat and tidy.
The other bed was empty, its covers tangled into a heap. A nurse who seemed to be the one who’d just answered him stood nearby, staring at him in a daze.
“Hello. I’m here to visit someone. Could you tell me where the person who uses this bed is?” Yao Chen glanced toward the disheveled bed.
“Ah… y-you’re her friend?”
The little nurse looked completely stunned. She stared at the handsome man and swallowed, still not quite believing it.
She’d imagined that the boy Huo Tong had mentioned would be, at most, a classmate her age—a young kid who hadn’t even outgrown his baby face.
Instead, he was a mature, composed young man dressed in expensive clothes. Even his gift for the patient was a bag of Red Delicious apples with the Qian Guo Ji logo on it.
“That’s right. My surname is Yao. Didn’t he mention I was coming before he ran off?” Yao Chen nodded quietly, walked over, and set the apples on the bedside table. He asked in a calm voice.
The little nurse was at a complete loss for words.
Were girls these days really so precocious? In high school and already hooking up with a rich, handsome guy?
No, wait. Huo had told her not to let this person know she was a girl. So he’d always thought Huo was a guy—and still cared about her this much?!
Tch… Rich people these days. They had everything going for them, so why were they all into that sort of thing?
The little nurse had already dreamed up one melodramatic story after another. The lovestruck look vanished from her face, and she even took an unconscious step backward.
Seeing the nurse’s wary expression, Yao Chen felt helpless for no apparent reason. He asked politely,
“Did he say anything bad about me? The way you’re looking at me, you’d think I was some unforgivable villain.”
“No, no, don’t get the wrong idea.” The nurse shook her head. Remembering Huo Tong’s instructions, she still lied. “She just left the hospital for a while with her mother. She won’t be back until tonight, so you might’ve come at the wrong time.”
After speaking, the nurse stole a glance at Huo below and thought the girl was impossible to read.
“Is that so… I guess I did show up rather abruptly.” Yao Chen smiled regretfully, but keenly noticed where the nurse was looking.
He pretended not to notice. Acting as if he were simply wandering around, he headed toward the window, changing the subject as he tried to ask about Water Domain Venerable’s condition.
“But I might not be able to wait until tonight. I’ll have to leave Huadu soon, and I don’t have his number. Even if I did, I doubt he’d answer.”
A trace of sadness entered Yao Chen’s steady voice. His gaze lingered on the nurse, deep and earnest.
“I really want to know how he’s doing. You know how some idiots hide their problems because they don’t want us to worry. I don’t want anything to happen to him.”
“I-I see…”
The little nurse saw that the man was polite and seemed completely sincere. His words began to sway her, and the melodrama in her head shifted into a tragic romance of the year.
Seeing him look so sorrowful as he gazed out the window made her heart ache. She couldn’t help thinking that there was no harm in telling him what was wrong with Huo.
