After this initial ice-breaking phase, Ming Can seemed to find a pattern for getting along with this difficult director over the next few days. It was nothing more than being a bit firmer and more proactive when the other party resisted, and being mindful of her own safety during close-contact care.
Fortunately, since the last time Su Zhi unintentionally hurt her, she had not had another episode. When not suffering from a breakdown, aside from being cold, she wasn’t as impossible to handle as the rumors suggested.
Ming Can was good at reading expressions. She would feed the patient water when she was thirsty, turn her over when her body went numb from lying down too long, assist her with the toilet, and when the pain became so severe that Su Zhi passed out, she would help massage pressure points, clean her body, and change her into clean clothes.
Su Zhi was initially ashamed and resistant. However, her current situation made such thin, fragile pride seem insignificant. Slowly, she grew accustomed to this level of care. That was until one time, she drank a few too many mouthfuls of water because she was so thirsty, and coupled with her body’s inherent pain, she couldn’t hold it and suffered another incident of incontinence.
For the entire day after that, she didn’t open her mouth. She didn’t drink a drop of water or eat a grain of rice, no matter how much Ming Can tried to persuade her.
Ming Can felt helpless yet also pitied her. The week-long part-time job was coming to an end. After spending so much time together, Ming Can noticed that even when the woman was in such pain that cold sweat poured down her face and the sheets she gripped were drenched, she didn’t let out a single moan or shed a single tear.
It was pitiable, yet also remarkably resilient.
Even though her past was that of a cold-blooded capitalist who advocated for layoffs, seeing her in her current state occasionally evoked a sense of sympathy.
On the afternoon of the sixth day, a middle-aged man who claimed to be the Vice President of the R&D Department from Su Zhi’s company came to the hospital. This was the first visitor since Ming Can took over the job, and the visit was quite unexpected.
Ming Can was changing the water for the vase by the bedside. When she heard the knock, she asked who was there. After the visitor stated his name, she checked with Su Zhi, and upon receiving a silent nod, she let him in.
The man was dressed in a suit and tie. He wasn’t balding, but he had the look of a smiling tiger.
“How is the recovery going? Do you feel any better?” He placed a fruit basket and flowers on the bedside table and sat on the stool by the bed. His tone carried the precise amount of warmth an executive shows a subordinate, neither overly familiar nor lacking in decorum.
Ming Can stood at the foot of the bed, eyes lowered as she tidied the gauze on the cart. In her peripheral vision, she saw the person on the bed did not answer immediately.
“For this period, just focus on recovering. Regarding the trending search online,” Zhao Guifan said, glancing toward Ming Can. Ming Can, being tactful, excused herself, taking the dirty laundry into the bathroom. The glass door was thin, and she heard him continue.
He said that regarding the online trending topics, the company would do its best to suppress them. As for the family of the perpetrator, Wu Bin, the company would step in to mediate, telling Su Zhi not to worry and to focus on her recovery.
Afterward, he mentioned Su Zhi’s job reassignment.
He kept referring to President Cai. Although Ming Can hadn’t officially entered the IT industry yet, as a senior computer science student, she knew a thing or two about the major internet giants.
Qianyu Technology was one of these giants. Because the boss was surnamed Cai and lacked a technical background, it was nicknamed the Vegetable Factory. The President Cai he referred to was likely the big boss of Qianyu, Cai Ji.
Judging by his tone, he was clearly very close to the big boss.
Su Zhi’s position as Technical Director had been revoked. In its place, she had been given a high-ranking technical consultant title, a position with authority in name but no real power. Her salary remained untouched, even slightly higher than before, and the company promised to pay her fully while she recovered. Every word Zhao Guifan spoke emphasized how considerate President Cai was toward her.
Su Zhi did not offer a single opinion regarding her own reassignment throughout the conversation. It was only at the very end, when Zhao Guifan had finished his business and was about to leave, that she questioned: “Why was Wu Bin’s name on the layoff list?”
Zhao Guifan acted as if he had been prepared for this, his tone smooth yet matter-of-fact: “Wasn’t that confirmed with you over the phone that day?”
Su Zhi looked surprised, suddenly recalling that the day they argued over the phone about the layoffs, it happened to coincide with the server crash. She had been busy trying to solve the problem and, before cutting the call, had said, “Let’s leave it at that for now.”
“You know there was an emergency in the R&D department that day! Why did you still act without authorization?”
Facing her anger, Zhao Guifan remained quite calm.
“There was no other choice. Every department in the company agreed. If you and I opposed it, it wouldn’t have mattered. Besides, President Cai had tacitly approved it. The economic climate isn’t good right now; every factory is laying people off. The R&D department at the Knife Factory cut a third of their staff at the beginning of the year, the Old Iron Factory removed more than half of their testing team, and the Pig Factory will be laying people off soon too. That is the trend. To survive, we have to cut staff. You have to understand the company’s difficulties.”
“I don’t understand!” Su Zhi insisted stubbornly.
She didn’t understand why, if the company had difficulties, they wouldn’t lay off the executives who didn’t do any real work, instead choosing to mercilessly cut the people who worked hard all year round. She didn’t understand it, and although she had tried her best to fight for them, she had ended up in this situation.
The conversation eventually ended with a few perfunctory pleasantries from Zhao Guifan. Su Zhi’s attitude remained cold. The visitor stayed for a few more seconds before leaving, citing a busy schedule at the company. Ming Can, hiding behind the glass door of the bathroom, hadn’t intended to eavesdrop, but she heard every detail clearly.
A few days ago, she felt the woman on the bed deserved it. Capitalism is profit-driven, layoffs happen without a blink, and being abandoned by everyone was just karma.
But now, she wasn’t so sure anymore.
Ming Can stood behind the glass door for a few minutes. Concerned about the patient’s condition, she walked back out.
Su Zhi seemed to have a migraine again. She was supporting her temple with one hand, rubbing it quietly. Hearing footsteps, she turned and gave Ming Can a glance, her expression very faint.
Ming Can walked over. “Are you uncomfortable? Do you need help?”
The other party didn’t speak. Ming Can hesitated for a few seconds before reaching out to place her fingertips on Su Zhi’s temple. The cold touch made Su Zhi’s spirit shudder. She reached out, wanting to push her away, but Ming Can dodged before she could act, moving with the speed of someone avoiding a scorpion.
Su Zhi’s hand froze in mid-air. Only then did Ming Can realize that the other party had only intended to refuse, not to hurt her.
“I’m sorry, I…” She wanted to explain, but she didn’t know what to say.
Silence filled the air for several seconds. Su Zhi withdrew her hand, her pitch-black eyes devoid of emotion.
Ming Can didn’t approach her again. She simply replaced the cold water on the bedside table with warm water, placing it within Su Zhi’s reach. She then busied herself with other tasks, her peripheral vision keeping a close watch on the activity on the bed.
Before long, she noticed those dark eyes close slightly. The eyelashes hung quietly, and her breathing was even, as if she were asleep. Only the hand resting at the side of the bed remained clenched, the knuckles turning white.
Ming Can’s gaze fell on that hand. She suddenly felt a bitter taste in her heart. Was her reaction just now too obvious? But if she hadn’t dodged, what if she had been hurt like last time? It was normal for someone in a bad mental state to be unable to control their emotions, and it was normal for her to be instinctively afraid, wasn’t it?
Forget it. At most, she only had to persist for one more day. If there was a misunderstanding, so be it. It didn’t matter. She just hoped that for the future, Su Zhi would be lucky enough to find a caregiver who was a little more professional than her. Or even if they weren’t professional, at least they wouldn’t be afraid or discriminatory.
After enduring wave after wave of migraine torture, Su Zhi finally couldn’t hold on anymore and fell asleep. She slept exceptionally deeply, so deep that even when the IV bottle was almost finished, her consciousness remained completely submerged in another world.
In that world, there was no unbearable pain or humiliation, only a boundless sense of sinking and stillness. Her body felt like cotton, floating weightlessly in the darkness, devoid of weight and sensation.
“Ms. Su, wake up…”
The sleeping woman’s brows furrowed slightly, and her eyelashes trembled occasionally. Ming Can, worried about what she might be going through, leaned closer and softly called her name. She couldn’t wake her. Her mouth was very dry, and in places where the skin had split, beads of blood were seeping out.
Ming Can dipped a cotton swab in water and applied it to her lips bit by bit. A woman without consciousness was much more obedient than usual. Feeling the moisture on her lips, she would unconsciously stick out her tongue to lick them. She was actually very thirsty; from yesterday until now, she hadn’t drunk a drop of water. She was afraid of losing control and wetting herself, which would be embarrassing, and she was afraid of bothering others. When awake, she restrained herself; at this moment, it was purely instinctive.
Seeing this, Ming Can inserted a straw and placed it by her lips. The woman in her sleep seemed to realize something; she suddenly pursed her lips tightly, frowning in resistance.
Ming Can removed the straw. After quite a long while, the furrowed brows gradually smoothed out, though she remained incredibly vigilant.
Ming Can lowered her head to look at the water glass in her hand. There were faint bloodstains on the straw from the corners of her lips, traces of the dry, split skin being licked.
She replaced the straw with a cotton swab, dipped it in warm water, and gently touched the woman’s lips, moisturizing the split cracks. Su Zhi’s brows moved, but she didn’t pull away. Her dry, cracked lips parted slightly, as if silently demanding more.
Ming Can applied it little by little, moisturizing until those cracks slowly softened and no more blood seeped out.
There was only a tiny bit of liquid left in the IV. Checking the time, she contacted the medical staff to come and remove the needle.
This time, Gong Que arrived. After a careful check, she touched base with Ming Can about the patient’s condition over the last two days.
“Tomorrow is my last day,” Ming Can hesitated for a moment before asking, “Have you found a replacement caregiver?”
“Still looking,” Gong Que replied, her voice very flat. “In her current situation, it’s not easy to find one.”
“Yeah.” Ming Can understood the reason and agreed.
After the layoff incident, coupled with the incident where the woman brought her daughter to apologize being processed and uploaded online, the public’s impression of this director seemed even worse. Nowadays, unless someone was desperate for money, no one would knowingly step into such murky water.
“You just focus on what you need to do,” Gong Que said, seeing her mind wandering.
“Yeah.” Ming Can nodded faintly. Part-time work wasn’t a long-term solution. Next, she really should prepare her resume and find a stable job. Other people’s lives and other people’s misfortunes were not things she had the capacity to shoulder.
“After your shift tomorrow, before you leave, come to my office for a moment. I have something…” Gong Que stopped halfway, her eyes looking at the person on the hospital bed. “Is she awake?”
Ming Can followed her gaze. Su Zhi didn’t know when she had woken up; her pair of dark, heavy eyes were staring blankly at the ceiling.