Chapter 91#
Chapter 91#
Daylight appeared.
As early spring approached, sunny days were rare. Although the day had brightened, a layer of dark clouds drifted across the sky.
The gloom was thick and heavy, allowing not a single ray of sunlight to pierce through.
The hospital had just undergone an arson attack, and many of its operations had been suspended. Only the inpatient department saw people coming and going; other areas were quiet and sparsely populated, with most staff busy on the top floor cleaning up the wreckage of the administrative area.
The floor where Zhao Rong’s private ward was located should have been deserted, but the waiting area outside was occupied by quite a few people.
Several were Qiao Nanqi’s subordinates, led by Xiao Wu, who were organizing the investigation results and minor clues provided by the police.
Qiao Nanqi was inside taking care of Zhao Rong. These men didn’t dare disturb him, so they worked outside, waiting to send a message to Qiao Nanqi whenever a report was needed.
Lu Xingping had just gotten off the plane, his suitcase still standing beside him.
After listening to Xiao Wu’s report, he leaned back against his chair, adjusted his glasses, and said leisurely, “So, the truth of the matter is that Chen Jingnian has been scouting the hospital and the area near Zhao Rong’s home recently. On the surface, it looked like he was only targeting Zhao Rong yesterday, but in reality, his objective was the hospital. He hired someone to commit arson to kill Zhao Rong’s mother, while he went to find Zhao Rong himself. On one hand, he wanted to distract Zhao Rong; on the other, he was thinking of a mutual destruction—it would be even better if he could drag Zhao Rong down with him.”
Xiao Wu nodded. “That’s how it looks currently. The fire-damaged areas of the hospital need to be cleaned up over the next two days. Mr. Zhao is hospitalized, and I need to lend a hand, so I might be quite busy. As for the Boss… I’m afraid he won’t be able to entertain you.”
“Oh,” Lu Xingping said, clearly indifferent to such matters. After listening for a while, he simply remarked, “This ‘accident’ sounds straightforward enough; it’s exactly the kind of thing trash like the Chen family would do. But don’t you find it strange?”
Before Xiao Wu could speak, Xia Yuantu scoffed. “With Old Qiao’s experience fighting He Nan all these years, it’s impossible for him to let the hospital have such a massive security loophole. Burning down such a large area isn’t something you can do just by flicking a lighter.”
“They say gasoline was disguised as drinking water and brought in,” Xiao Wu said, flipping through the fresh documents in his hand. “The security guards neglected their duties and didn’t notice. By the time the people upstairs realized, the fire had already spread. At that moment, everyone was focused on the fire on the top floor. The immediate thought was to evacuate the crowd. Because there is a large inpatient department here and some patients need equipment to move, the evacuation focus was all there. No one thought that Ms. Zhao’s individual ward would also catch fire. Later, it was the Boss who carried her down…”
“…Neglect of duty?” Lu Xingping let out a light chuckle.
Xiao Wu’s phone vibrated—Qiao Nanqi was informing him that Zhao Rong was awake.
“I’ll take breakfast in first,” he said to Lu Xingping and Xia Yuantu. “Is there anything else you need to know?”
Lu Xingping didn’t continue the analysis, only saying, “Just repeat what you just told me to Nanqi and the others. Leave the hospital matters to me. None of Nanqi’s businesses are in this field; you might not have the necessary experience.”
Xiao Wu naturally understood the relationship between him and Qiao Nanqi.
Xiao Wu handed all the hospital-related documents and contacts to Lu Xingping and Xia Yuantu, then entered the room with the warm breakfast.
The ward was very quiet.
Zhao Rong seemed to have just woken up, his gaze still a bit vacant. He leaned against the tilted hospital bed, blinking slowly as his eyes gradually focused.
His voice was very light, carrying the haze of someone who had just woken up in the morning.
“Good morning. Thank you for your hard work.”
Qiao Nanqi, who was sitting by the bed, rose slowly and began setting out the breakfast with Xiao Wu.
“Today’s breakfast was bought from outside,” Qiao Nanqi said. “See if it suits your taste.”
His face was exceptionally pale, his lips lacked color, and a faint stubble had appeared. He didn’t look disheveled so much as exhausted.
Just as he reached out his hand, Xiao Wu was startled and moved to stop him, but he immediately pulled back before touching Qiao Nanqi. He could only cry out, “Sir! Let me do it…”
Zhao Rong frowned.
He had rarely seen Xiao Wu so urgent. In his memory, Xiao Wu both respected and feared Qiao Nanqi; let alone trying to physically stop him, he usually wouldn’t even voice a disagreement.
More strangely, after the interruption, Xiao Wu had suddenly retracted his hand as if he were afraid of something.
Looking at Qiao Nanqi’s haggard face, Zhao Rong felt conflicted.
He repeated what he had said to Qiao Nanqi when Xiao Wu first entered: “Go and rest. You must be exhausted from the trip back. I only have external injuries; I’ll just be lying here for a few days.”
Qiao Nanqi shook his head. “It’s fine.”
He looked at Zhao Rong with an enduring, affectionate gaze. As if fearing he would be a burden to Zhao Rong, he even smiled and said gently, “You don’t like troubling others. Since it’s early morning, you definitely wouldn’t want to call Liang Youjun and the others. I don’t trust caregivers, so it’s better if I’m here. It’s also convenient for handling the hospital matters.”
His voice was still somewhat raspy.
As Zhao Rong listened, he felt a faint, inexplicable ache in his heart for some reason.
The man’s deep voice seemed to grate against his heartstrings bit by bit. The emotions that hadn’t had time to surface in his daze last night were now slowly emerging on this gloomy morning.
Actually, Qiao Nanqi was right.
Although this was his hometown from his previous life, he had been an orphan then. Leaving Yangcheng and coming here was merely the feeling of a falling leaf returning to its roots.
His only relative was Zhao Ming. Although he was worried about her now, he didn’t dare let her know about his injuries, so he could only stay by himself.
As for others like Liang Youjun or Xu Xin… they were essentially colleagues and friends. Even though he knew they wouldn’t refuse to take care of him, he would always feel like he owed them a favor.
Only Qiao Nanqi was different.
When he left Qiao Nanqi’s number for the hospital staff to call; when he saw Qiao Nanqi sitting by the bed in the dim light upon waking; when he saw this man setting out breakfast for him this morning…
What he felt wasn’t the guilt of troubling someone, but rather a tiny, struggling sprout of warmth.
This feeling constantly hammered against the heart he had told himself to keep closed, leaving him feeling at a loss.
By the time he snapped out of it, Qiao Nanqi had picked up a spoon and blown on the steam, intending to feed him directly.
Zhao Rong was stunned.
They didn’t really have a substantial relationship now, yet Qiao Nanqi had rushed back from abroad overnight, handled the accident, and looked exhausted, yet he still wanted to feed him.
He lowered his head, avoiding the spoon, and said with some embarrassment, “…I’ll do it myself.”
Qiao Nanqi’s movements paused.
The burn on his upper arm throbbed with pain every time he made a large movement, but as he took care of Zhao Rong, his guilt was suppressed, allowing him to feel a bit more at ease.
He hadn’t expected Zhao Rong to refuse him, even though the knife wound on Zhao Rong’s hand hadn’t healed.
Disappointment flashed in his eyes, but he knew he couldn’t force too much. He steadied his expression and said, “Your hand is inconvenient right now. If you don’t want me to feed you, should I have Xiao Wu do it?”
Zhao Rong blurted out instinctively, “When did I ever say I didn’t want you to feed me?”
As soon as the words left his mouth, he felt they sounded incredibly strange, so he quickly added, “My left hand is still usable.”
But Qiao Nanqi had truly heard the first sentence.
He had been feeling a bit dejected just now, but his eyes lit up slightly. It was as if exhaustion and misery couldn’t crush him; this one sentence was enough to make him forget his fatigue.
This time he didn’t retract the spoon, but instead brought it directly to Zhao Rong’s lips. “It’s better if I do it.”
Zhao Rong’s face remained calm, but his heart skipped a few beats.
Ultimately, he ate it.
Xiao Wu watched from the side, worried about his Boss’s injuries on one hand, and seeing his Boss find joy in the task despite them on the other. He felt that an ordinary person like himself might never understand what someone like Qiao Nanqi was thinking.
Once breakfast was over, Xiao Wu repeated what Lu Xingping had said.
“Neglect of duty?” Qiao Nanqi said coldly. “To know the layout of the hospital and the wards, to know where to start a fire that wouldn’t be easily discovered, and to carry things to the destination without obstruction—all of that requires a period of observation.”
“Did the entire security system neglect its duty for a month?”
He had just been full of affection for Zhao Rong, but his expression changed so suddenly that his coldness made Xiao Wu’s voice tremble. “Yes… that’s right… Their testimony is that they had noticed something before, but the security group leader, Old Lin, didn’t think it was a big deal and ignored it…”
“Sir, do you want to investigate?”
Just as Qiao Nanqi was about to speak, Zhao Rong interjected, “Can you leave it to me?”
Qiao Nanqi paused. “Of course, this is your grievance.”
Unexpectedly, Zhao Rong didn’t ask to see the security guard, nor did he intend to check the surveillance footage.
He made a very simple request. “If I remember correctly, the mobile phones and numbers for security guards who live and work at the hospital are provided by the hospital for their work. I want all the call records for Group Leader Lin during this period—this should be simple. Just take the hospital’s mobile phone information to the service center.”
After Xiao Wu finished clearing away the breakfast leftovers, he didn’t dawdle and turned to leave to handle the matter.
Zhao Rong tried to persuade Qiao Nanqi again, but the man didn’t listen. He opened his phone, selected a few books to buy, and handed it to him. “Your recovery might be boring. Shall I buy some new books for you to read?”
The books were all recent releases that Zhao Rong naturally hadn’t read, but when he saw the titles, he was stunned.
He hadn’t read those books, but many of them were already sitting in his shopping cart waiting for him to check out.
He hadn’t told Qiao Nanqi he wanted to read those; this was undoubtedly Qiao Nanqi’s own guess and choice.
“Why did you pick these?” he asked.
Qiao Nanqi said without hesitation, “Actually, I picked some from the ones I wanted to buy; I thought you would like them. Do you not like them? Then I’ll pick others.”
He didn’t even want Zhao Rong to exert any energy, not even suggesting that Zhao Rong pick them himself.
Zhao Rong, however, said, “No, they’re all books I wanted to read.”
Qiao Nanqi’s thumb paused on his phone.
At that moment, a nurse knocked on the door and entered to change Zhao Rong’s dressings.
Zhao Rong cooperated by pulling back the blanket and lifting the hem of his hospital gown. His voice was like a morning breeze as he said, “I just feel that after so many years, I was once able to hide behind bookshelves full of life, but now I can only lie here sickly. The place has changed, and the book list has changed, but it seems…”
It seemed that the most important thing had gathered dust and grime, but when the winds of parting and reunion blew past, clearing away the dust, that thing seemed—
To have never changed.