And judging from their banter just now, it's clear that Zhao Ying and Yang Shuyan have something going on.
In that instant, Liang Shi's first thought was—Xu Qingzhu's house collapsed!
//
Zhao Xuning only came to see her briefly before his afternoon shift, and left shortly after.
The only sound in the empty hospital room was the television. After a documentary, there were commercials, and after a long commercial break, the midday news began.
Liang Shi was bored out of his mind, so he chatted aimlessly with Li Ran and the others in the group chat for a while.
The other person showered him with compliments so much that he almost lost his bearings.
Fortunately, a sliver of reason remained.
Liang Shi left the group chat and found many unread messages, all of which had just been sent.
[Xu Qingzhu: Are you injured? Is it serious?]
Sally: OMG, Liang Shi, you've surprised me again.
[Sally: Have you ever practiced martial arts? Kung Fu!]
Sally: Wow, he's so handsome! Can you teach me sometime?
Sally: Oh right, Blanche asked me to ask you how serious your injury is?
Sally: It doesn't look too serious.
Sally's talkative nature was also fully exposed at this moment.
Even through the screen, I could imagine her excited expression.
Just as Liang Shi was about to reply, having typed only one word, Xu Qingzhu's video call popped up.
She swiped to answer the call.
On the other end of the video call, Xu Qingzhu was sitting in her office with a cup of hot water beside her, still steaming.
Even through the video, she appears ethereal and otherworldly.
"Are you alright?" Xu Qingzhu asked.
Liang Shi shook his head: "It's nothing, except that I'm a little bored in the hospital."
"Where's the wound?" Xu Qingzhu asked. "Let me see."
Liang Shi turned the camera to her shoulder and then said to her, "You know what? It's amazing. The person cut right where the amulet was. There was something inside there, right? The doctor said it was buckwheat hulls, so the knife didn't go very deep. But my brother was worried, so he had the doctor bandage it up very tightly."
Xu Qingzhu listened to her quietly.
Only after Liang Shi finished speaking did she realize something was wrong. She sniffed and asked, "What's wrong?"
Xu Qingzhu glanced over indifferently, yet her gaze was extremely oppressive, and even her words carried a hint of sarcasm, "I just think Teacher Liang should be awarded a bravery award."
Liang Shi: "..."
"I'm injured." Liang Shi pursed her lips. "Can you stop being sarcastic?"
Xu Qingzhu remained silent.
After a moment, the cool voice softened slightly, "What do you want to eat tonight?"
Liang Shi: "...I haven't eaten lunch yet."
Xu Qingzhu frowned: "What time is it?"
Liang Shi also felt wronged, "Nobody delivered it to me."
No sooner had she finished speaking than someone knocked on her hospital room door, and a large group of people entered. They then set up a table in front of her bed and laid out a meal, consisting of more than a dozen dishes of various sizes.
A message from Liang Xinzhou popped up at the top of the screen: 【Add more if it's not enough.】
Liang Shi: "..."
After the delivery person left, Liang Shi asked Xu Qingzhu in a friendly manner, "I think we might have to eat leftovers tonight, is that okay with you?"
Xu Qingzhu: "...No."
Before Liang Shi could say anything more, he saw the television broadcasting a report on the police's recent cracking of a case involving the trafficking of women and children in Dongling City. The criminals who had been on the run for many years had finally been apprehended, which was truly gratifying.
After this news report, two more news reports about people searching for their relatives were broadcast.
One story is about a 17-year-old boy from Chunling County searching for his biological parents. He showed them a birthmark on his shoulder, hoping they would see it and contact him.
Another story is about a 25-year-old girl from Taozhi Village who is looking for her biological parents. She says that both of her adoptive parents have passed away, and her grandmother, who has been paralyzed for many years, also recently passed away. She has no relatives in the world and hopes to find her biological parents.
Liang Shi was originally only interested in cases of trafficking in women and children, but he was stunned when he saw the second case of searching for relatives.
The person in the video is named Guo Xinran, and she looks extremely similar to Qiu Zimin.
Chapter 48
Liang Shi immediately switched the video call to the background, opened the camera, and captured a picture of the girl named Guo Xinran in the last second before the TV screen changed.
The girl's contact information is located at the very bottom center of the screen.
As Qiu Zimin ages, it becomes impossible to tell the resemblance between the two at a glance.
That girl looks at least 70% like Liang Wanwan.
Especially the nose and eyes, they are practically identical.
Liang Shi stared at the string of numbers for a long time before finally putting the photo away.
She planned to think about it after she had eaten her fill.
Choices made when a person is hungry are easily impulsive.
Liang Shi switched the camera back to the video call. Xu Qingzhu hadn't hung up yet; she just changed the angle.
Xu Qingzhu sat in her office chair with a pile of blue folders in front of her. She picked one up at random, opened the pen, quickly flipped through it, and signed her name on it.
When Liang Shi's face reappeared on the screen, she asked, "What were you doing just now?"
Liang Shi didn't reveal Guo Xinran's situation, and casually made up a lie, "I went to the restroom."
Xu Qingzhu raised her head slightly, her clear eyes casually glancing over, and Liang Shi lowered his head to look at the food on the table.
Liang Shi didn't have much experience in lying, and he always chickened out when he tried to lie to Xu Qingzhu in the past.
At this point, the only thing to do is to distract myself.
Fortunately, Xu Qingzhu didn't say much, only asking her, "Can you still eat by yourself?"
Liang Shi: "Of course."
To prove her point, she even shook her arm, "See, I said... hiss..."
The wound seemed to be working against her.
With her large movements, a tearing pain shot through her shoulder.
Xu Qingzhu panicked for a moment, then leaned back in her office chair, her hands hanging limply on the armrests, a smile playing on her lips, tinged with a hint of teasing: "What did you say?"
Liang Shi: "..."
“I said I didn’t think I could be so cocky.” Liang Shi picked up his chopsticks and propped his phone up on the table.
The injury was to her left arm, so it didn't affect her eating.
The pain from the tearing wound still lingered in her mind, and she dared not be smug again.
"Good to know." Xu Qingzhu continued working. "Let's eat."
"Hey, what about you?" Liang Shi suddenly remembered, "Have you eaten?"
"I ate." Xu Qingzhu answered succinctly. After saying that, she felt that her answer was too perfunctory, so she paused and added, "Cola chicken wings and steak."
"Okay." Liang Shi lowered his head and ate. Eating with the video on felt like he was live-streaming for someone, and even though Liang Shi was very experienced in front of the camera, he couldn't help but feel uncomfortable.
But in the past, when she needed to work, she would also do live video broadcasts from home, eating or chatting.
She's not a talent show host, so her live streams are very monotonous; she just chats with her fans.
It was all quite awkward.
I got used to it and would often pick and choose questions from the fan comments to answer.
Now, she's only streaming for one person. Xu Qingzhu didn't say she'd hang up, so this is the only way she can do it.
She eats slower than she usually does at home.
Xu Qingzhu was processing documents, glancing at the screen every now and then.
After a while, Liang Shi asked, "How did you know I was injured?"
"The whole country knows now," Xu Qingzhu said. "You've been trending on social media for half the day again. Are you happy?"
Liang Shi: "..."
What's there to be happy about!
This kind of trending topic is something I have to be on.
She switched to the background to check Weibo, and sure enough, there was a trending topic: #DonghengGroupViolentPersonnel#. Clicking on it led to a video of Liang Shi violently beating the man.
Because knives are now strictly controlled, the person who posted the video blurred out the knife.
"..."
The video caption reads: "[A friend sent me this video. I have to say, this girl would be perfect for martial arts and police dramas.]"
She opened the comments section and found that everyone agreed.
[So handsome! I'm totally smitten!]
[Is this definitely not a movie shoot? It's way better than current police dramas. @Martial arts film directors, come learn from us.]
Does this woman have a boyfriend? If not, does she have a Weibo account?
[I saved the CEO, now I can get a promotion, a raise, and reach the pinnacle of my life, right?]
[...]