“A-Shu, what are you doing here?”
Shen Huai’s voice came from behind them, carrying a trace of tension that was difficult to detect.
Lin Shu’s heart tightened, and she instinctively pulled her hand back.
Meng Fan had the strongest reaction. He pointed at Cui Shu.
“Who are you? How dare you two be holding hands and getting all touchy in broad daylight!”
“Meng Fan!”
Shen Huai’s deep reprimand immediately stopped his comrade from doing anything further.
His sharp gaze fell on the man standing beside Lin Shu.
He had known this man for a long time.
In fact, he had even been jealous of him.
“Who is this?”
“Ahem… This is my childhood friend, the one I mentioned yesterday. His name is Cui Shu.”
Lin Shu did not think there was anything wrong. There was nothing improper between the two of them. Besides, they had just been in a hurry, and Cui Shu had only pulled her along by the sleeve of her clothes. There had been no inappropriate contact whatsoever.
“Let me introduce you. Cui Shu, this is my husband, Shen Huai.”
The next second, she switched places and walked over to Shen Huai, naturally slipping her arm around his.
The sight immediately relaxed Shen Huai’s previously tense expression, and a smile appeared on his face.
Seeing his brother’s sudden change in attitude, Meng Fan was so angry that he could not even speak.
In his frustration, he failed to notice the watermelon rind under his feet.
He suddenly tripped and fell forward.
Cui Shu was caught along with him, and the two of them crashed to the ground together.
For a while, neither could move, and the alley was filled with their pained cries.
Lin Shu hurriedly wanted to go check on Cui Shu, but Shen Huai stopped her.
Then she watched in astonishment as the man hoisted one injured man over each shoulder.
He carried them all the way to a small courtyard at the very end of the alley.
“Help me knock on the door.”
Lin Shu did not understand what he was doing, but she quickly went over.
She could read the sign above the entrance.
It said: Traditional Chinese Medicine Clinic.
Apparently, he had brought the two of them here to get their injuries treated.
Originally, the two men had come here today to have their lower-back injuries treated. Doctor Qian had already been waiting for them all morning.
“Oh my! What happened to you two?”
Shen Huai briefly explained what had happened and asked Doctor Qian to examine them.
“Neither injury is serious. Have them take some medicine, and they’ll be fine after a while. But this young man’s cuts and bruises will probably take a week or two to heal.”
After hearing the diagnosis, Lin Shu looked at Meng Fan.
This reckless friend of Shen Huai’s had accused her for no reason and had now caused Cui Shu to end up like this.
She gave the man an annoyed look before walking over to help Cui Shu leave.
The dazed Cui Shu was helped to his feet.
Shen Huai did not stop them. He simply watched as Lin Shu helped Cui Shu leave.
“Shen Huai is your husband?”
“Yes. I’ll bring her to visit you properly when we have time.”
“Please look after Meng Fan for me. Once he’s better, have him return to the military unit and find me.”
“Sure. Go ahead.”
By the time Shen Huai finished speaking, the two had already disappeared.
With no one else around, the only place he could think of was the hospital.
He hurried over and asked at the front desk, but there was no sign of them.
Following his instincts, Shen Huai walked around the emergency department.
Sure enough, he eventually found them.
By then, Cui Shu had regained most of his consciousness.
“Your husband’s friend is really something. But your husband isn’t that kind of person too, is he? I remember you used to say you liked men with a scholarly air…”
“Ow! That hurts Doctor, please be gentler!”
“Young man, I’m already being gentle enough. You’re a grown man. You can’t even handle this little pain? Every day, there are so many women giving birth, and what they go through is far more painful than this. Don’t tell me you’re not even as tough as a woman?”
Lin Shu laughed so hard that she could barely stand straight.
“Hahaha! Doctor, please stop teasing him. He was wrongly accused today and then inexplicably took a fall.”
“Luckily, there’s no damage to the bones. I’ll write you a prescription so you can get the medicine. Remember to apply it every day, otherwise a bruise this large won’t disappear easily.”
“Thank you, Doctor. I’ll help you.”
Just then, Shen Huai, who had been standing outside, took over from her and helped Cui Shu up.
Lin Shu ignored him.
There was enough space between them for three or four people to stand.
Cui Shu, however, acted as naturally as ever.
“Hello, Comrade Shen Huai. I’m Lin Shu’s childhood friend. I think this is the first time we’ve met, right?”
Shen Huai nodded without saying anything.
Lin Shu looked at Cui Shu, who was completely innocent and had even helped her tremendously today, and felt full of guilt.
“Should I take you home or somewhere else?”
“Take me to my workplace. I’m going to stay in the dormitory for the next couple of days. I don’t want to go home.”
Lin Shu understood.
He was probably afraid that going home would lead to another argument with his mother because of her.
“I’m sorry. This is all my fault.”
Cui Shu shook his head.
“Don’t say that. What does this have to do with you? It’s all my mom’s fault. There’s something wrong with the way she thinks.”
“She’s such an old fossil. She thinks her son is some kind of irresistible prize that every woman will throw herself at. Whenever she sees a man and woman walking together, she assumes they’re having an affair. I’m telling you, people like that are usually stubborn and narrow-minded. They’re not worth getting close to. Now I finally understand why my mom doesn’t have many friends…”
On the way to his workplace, Cui Shu continued talking about what had happened.
Lin Shu nodded vigorously.
“Exactly! I don’t know if people like that have something wrong with their… brains. Just like you said, they’re old fossils, remnants of feudal thinking…”
Her words were clearly aimed at someone, but Shen Huai remained completely unmoved. Neither his expression nor his eyes changed in the slightest.
He was thinking about how he was going to handle the relationship between his brother-in-arms and his wife.
After what had happened today, there was probably going to be bad blood between them. In the future, Cui Shu might not even give him a friendly look whenever they met.
“I’ll apologize on Meng Fan’s behalf.”
Lin Shu said irritably, “Shen Huai, you’d better beat him up properly. Otherwise, I’ll never speak to you again.”
She did not say another word to him. She walked briskly all the way to the bus stop and boarded a bus.
Shen Huai did not get on.
He had important matters to attend to and was already half an hour late.
“Be careful on the way. I’ll properly apologize to you tonight when I get home. And I’ll deal with Meng Fan.”
Lin Shu turned her face away, refusing to acknowledge the man standing beside the bus window.
The bus started moving, and the man quickly disappeared from the corner of her eye.
Only then did Lin Shu come to her senses.
Why did she even care about what kind of friends Shen Huai made?
She only had a few months left with him anyway. She would just make do with it.
At that moment, Lin Shu was furious.
Her best friend had been knocked down like that and then accused of having an improper relationship with her.
From what Shen Huai had said and from Meng Fan’s expression, she could tell that he had already assumed she and Cui Shu were involved in some kind of inappropriate relationship.
The more Lin Shu thought about it, the more wronged she felt.
She wiped away a couple of tears.
A soldier with such a powerful political background would never understand what it was like for someone from one of the “Black Five Categories” to have only one true friend Cui Shu.
Ever since she was old enough to understand what was happening, she had been given insulting nicknames and ostracized by her classmates at school. They had even thrown things at her.
Yet her family had never done anything wrong.
Only Cui Shu had always stood firmly on her side.
Lin Shu could not imagine what she would have become without Cui Shu.
She might have grown into an introverted, quiet, and insecure person.
In the places where her parents and brother could not protect her, Cui Shu had been the one protecting her.
Put simply, the relationship between the two of them was like that between family.
Yet people constantly mistook their close friendship for romantic feelings between a man and a woman.
Lin Shu found this extremely difficult to understand, but she also knew that their old-fashioned thinking and ingrained stereotypes were not something she could easily change.
Looking at it that way, perhaps she was asking too much of ordinary people.
Even her own family members had asked her before whether she liked Cui Shu.
If she had not been so unlucky as to run into Meng Fan today, she would not have ended up arguing with Shen Huai over this either.