DLRAS Chapter 104

Chapter 104: Not only these

Not only these.

Huo Niansheng had also seen him with his face covered in ointment after unwrapping the bandages, seen the empty, dark eye socket after removing his eyeball, seen him undergoing one plastic surgery after another, unable to bear the torment, turning the room upside down.

Those were dreams before, but now Huo Niansheng felt hatred in his heart. He left home fine in the morning, and within half a day, he encountered such danger.

Chen Wengang said it didn’t look good to have a bodyguard everywhere, besides, Huo Kaishan had passed away, so Huo Niansheng didn’t let Kang Ming follow him.

But like today, how could he forget, what good could come from letting Chen Wengang alone go to meet Zheng Yucheng and the He family?

Such bad luck!

At this moment, Zheng Yucheng just had to walk into the line of fire —

He pushed open a crack in the door of the outer room of the ward. Zheng Baoqiu hesitated, trying to stop him: “Hey, dage, that…”

In a suite, they were all considered siblings, and she was a bit embarrassed blocking the door.

Zheng Yucheng moved his sister’s shoulder aside, insisting, “I just want to go in and see him.”

Huo Niansheng stepped over quickly, blocking the door, not letting him in: “It’s enough to have family members here.”

The two locked eyes in the air for a moment.

Huo Niansheng leaned against the door frame, with hands in pockets. His one long leg was directly stretched out to the other side, his whole demeanor spelled “carefree”. He smiled at Zheng Yucheng, “Having an outsider come in is just disturbing. How can the patient rest?”

Zheng Yucheng’s face was serious, confronting him, “I don’t think our Zheng family counts as outsiders to him.”

Huo Niansheng, impatient to argue with him, said, “So what? What do you want to see? See that he just hit his head, didn’t ruin his face, didn’t go blind, and you’re disappointed?”

This sounded strange. Zheng Yucheng felt he was cursing, “Huo Niansheng, don’t talk so damn unpleasantly!”

At this moment, the door pushed open again, it was He Wanxin coming in, gracefully stepping into the tense situation.

She was still wearing a custom-made little dress, her face adorned with elegant makeup for today’s engagement, but after rushing around all day, it no longer looked so natural. The powder was obvious on her ivory cheeks, her eyelashes like two heavy black fans.

“This is unpleasant?” Huo Niansheng glanced at her, then back at Zheng Yucheng, “You can’t even stand listening to it?”

“At least I know that when a person truly likes another, they wouldn’t be willing to curse him like this.” Zheng Yucheng glared at him.

“Yucheng, didn’t you hear?” He Wanxin already understood the situation with just a glance. She rolled her eyes, took her fiancé’s arm, and laughed while covering her mouth, “He’s just short of grabbing a broom to chase people out, and you’re still here offering your warm face to a cold butt, aren’t you being a bit pathetic?”

She tugged at Zheng Yucheng again, “Let’s just leave.”

Huo Niansheng turned his gaze to her and became gentler.

He smiled, “Just in time, I was going to send someone to deliver a message to Miss He, but it turns out we meet here first.”

He Wanxin was aware enough not to ask whom he had sent or what message, “Hi, long time no see. I didn’t even get the chance to congratulate you on your wedding.”

These three were about to form a standoff, and Zheng Maoxun found it fascinating, treating it as a rare entertainment to watch.

It was Zheng Baoqiu who reacted, “Alright… can you all not crowd in the ward? The nurse might come and hit someone.”

Hearing this, Huo Niansheng stepped back and made way at the door, “Yes, everyone should hurry and leave.”

Zheng Baoqiu pulled her second brother up from the sofa and pushed her elder brother out, not wanting the scene to get too ugly. Besides, there was still a mess at home that needed solving. Before leaving, Zheng Yucheng, still unwilling, glanced at Huo Niansheng, “Don’t think that…”

Huo Niansheng interrupted, “You two are well-matched, I’m looking forward to your good news.”

He Wanxin, lightly holding her fiancé’s arm, said, “Yucheng, let’s go.”

Amanda brought a change of clothes from home for the boss, but when she arrived, Huo Niansheng was not in the ward.

He had gone downstairs to a secluded spot to smoke a cigarette.

Huo Niansheng originally had no obsession with smoking, he hadn’t even thought about whether to quit or not. It was just that whenever he lit a cigarette, Chen Wengang would always come over, and Huo Niansheng, not wanting to refuse every time, unknowingly ended up like this.

Thinking about it now, that person had changed him in more ways than one. He was already a completely different person.

The hospital’s scenery remained the same, with willows and ponds, but as summer passed, it now appeared somewhat withered.

Huo Niansheng walked around the water, thinking about some things, yet it seemed like his mind was empty.

When he returned to the ward, Chen Wengang was still asleep.

Huo Niansheng pulled an armchair to the bedside, its back against the wall, aligning it in the same direction as the bed. He sat down, stretching out his legs, crossing them. Amanda walked in holding the medical record and paused for a moment.

Huo Niansheng, somehow, had found a few small flowers, his elbow resting on the bed, body leaning forward, playfully placing those small white-petaled, yellow-centered flowers in Chen Wengang’s hair.

She recalled her boss, who had been furious upon receiving the news just two hours ago in the office, and didn’t know what to think.

What could she say, schizophrenia?

Early the next morning, Chen Wengang opened his eyes and moved his fingers, finding an inexplicable flower still in his palm, already slightly wilted.

He raised it to his eyes in confusion, and Huo Niansheng walked in, yawning, “How do you wake up so early even when you’re injured?”

Chen Wengang smiled with pursed lips, his eyes bright as he looked at him, “I’ve been sleeping since yesterday afternoon.”

Huo Niansheng leaned over the bedside and kissed his dry lips, “What do you want for breakfast?”

Only then did it feel like a narrow escape from death. Chen Wengang hugged his neck and gently kissed him.

Suddenly the door sounded, interrupting them, and he immediately let go. The nurse knocked twice and brought in the cart for an examination.

She asked how the patient was feeling. Chen Wengang said he felt much better, but still a bit dizzy. He felt a bit guilty, but the young nurse didn’t notice, saying dizziness was normal.

While changing the dressing, she joked to comfort him, saying his hair would grow back soon. This patient was a VIP instructed by the director, good-looking and polite, well-liked, so the nurses who came to check on him were all very kind.

However, Chen Wengang couldn’t use his phone or watch TV for the time being. Besides chatting with Huo Niansheng, he could only sit up and read for a while.

Fortunately, he could endure the solitude and didn’t feel bored. It even felt familiar; thinking back, he realized that a few years of his previous life had been spent this way. He silently read in the ward, asking nothing, while Huo Niansheng sat nearby, finding topics to talk about. Later, the reading location changed to the hillside villa. Chen Wengang lived in seclusion, and Huo Niansheng couldn’t come every day. When Huo Niansheng came, he hoped he would disappear or leave; when Huo Niansheng didn’t come, he felt it was nice to have someone to talk to.

Looking back on some past events, he realized they were still there, unfaded, just never dared to revisit.

Chen Wengang finished reading two detective novels in the ward and discussed his guesses about the culprits with Huo Niansheng.

Meanwhile, he missed the most sensational news outside.

The attacker who attempted self-immolation at the Zheng and He families’ engagement had been arrested.

The man’s family background, motives, and whether he was instigated by someone else required further investigation, but it was certain that the Zheng Group was targeted for revenge. This incident was enough to attract attention, and reporters had been writing extensively about it since the day it happened.

The earliest articles were published by a traditional media outlet known for social news and in-depth reporting. Most online media that followed reprinted its articles, so the news style remained serious. The series of follow-up reports consistently focused on the investigation results of the shipwreck accident and the Zheng Group’s management issues. Portions of the on-site footage featuring the child and Chen Wengang were blurred out.

Although many people asked who the brave guest who stepped forward was, Chen Wengang’s identity was never revealed.

Had his past with Zheng Yucheng been deliberately brought to light, it would have turned into a different story, particularly in the hands of gossip reporters, framing it as a love triangle involving He Wanxin.

Unexpectedly, another event soon overshadowed this news.

Two days after the attack, a local gossip weekly, known for its sensationalism, published a piece on its media account. Riding the wave of the Zheng family’s engagement party incident, it claimed that the fiancée of the Zheng heir was not a simple character and implied that if anyone were to be targeted for revenge, it should have been her.

Soon, curious onlookers began to inquire.

Subsequently, He Wanxin’s past was extensively dug up—opinions varied, some said she had an illegitimate background, some said she was flamboyant and liked to flaunt her wealth. While some of these claims were debatable, her real scandal was that she had bullied classmates during her school days.

Before the Zheng family’s PR could suppress the growing attention, it exploded again, causing a huge uproar.

A sharp-nosed reporter quickly found a victim from back then, confirming the truth of the matter.

Even the main perpetrators of the bullying stepped forward, also accusing He Wanxin of inciting them. Over the years, those who were instigated eventually came to realize the situation. The perpetrators tearfully confessed on video, saying they and their families had paid the price, yet the real instigator had never faced any substantial punishment and still lived freely. They questioned whether this was just according to law and morality.

This sparked a broader social outcry against school bullying, with many experts and social groups calling for increased attention to the issue.

The child who had been taken hostage at the engagement party was frightened and took some time to recover. Her parents brought her to the hospital to visit Chen Wengang. She sat in his lap, eating an apple while listening to the adults’ incomprehensible conversation.

It was only after this family left that Chen Wengang learned about all the chaos outside.

He asked Huo Niansheng, “Did you orchestrate this?”

Huo Niansheng peeled another apple for him, “If you don’t want people to know, don’t do it in the first place. She wasn’t wrongfully accused, was she?”

The sharp fruit knife in his hand played like a weapon, the long peel gradually falling off until it suddenly broke and dropped to the ground.

Huo Niansheng studied the apple in his hand and then looked at Chen Wengang, “Aren’t you curious if the two families will still go through with the marriage?”

Chen Wengang took the apple with both hands and smiled, “Of course, I hope they don’t. Young Master Huo, you seem to enjoy watching the world in chaos. I still have to worry about Zheng Baoqiu. With such a troublesome sister-in-law, wouldn’t I be constantly concerned?”

Huo Niansheng smiled and picked up the apple peel from the ground.

Chen Wengang took the knife from his hand, cut the apple in half, and gave Huo Niansheng one half.

He didn’t want to stay in the hospital any longer, but was forced by Huo Niansheng to stay for ten days to two weeks before finally being discharged and returning home.

Author’s note:
The poem in chapter 36 by Tagore—

Someone silently placed a fresh flower of love in my hands.
Someone stole my heart and threw it to the ends of the earth.