The two returned to the clinic.
After settling all the medical expenses, Doctor Qiao handed two yuan back to Qin Yuan.
“It originally wouldn’t have cost that much, but we had to cut his clothes off. And when he leaves, he’ll have to take our bedsheet and quilt with him so he can stay wrapped up. I deducted the cost of those, so this is all that’s left.”
Qin Yuan hurriedly pushed the money back.
“Doctor Qiao, I don’t want the money. You’ve already done so much for my friend. Just consider this my treat for some steamed buns. I bought buns for the people next door when I went to use their phone earlier, didn’t I? Please don’t refuse.”
For someone who was only pretending to be kind, no amount of money would ever be enough.
But someone who was genuinely kind would think even a little was too much.
Doctor Qiao refused to accept it, and the two pushed the money back and forth several times.
In the end, Qin Yuan simply stuffed it into his pocket.
“Actually, there’s something else I need your help with. If you don’t accept this, I’ll be too embarrassed to even ask!”
Only then did Doctor Qiao stop refusing.
“What is it? Go ahead.”
Qin Yuan said, “My friend had a disagreement with his family, and that’s how this whole incident happened. So if anyone comes asking about his identity later, please tell them his name is Sun Yulin and that he’s from the county town. Tell them the county sent an ambulance to pick him up. Whatever you do, please don’t tell anyone that I was the one who took him away. That’s all. Please make sure you remember.”
When Qin Yuan said this, she was genuinely only trying to prevent the Xia family from finding out the truth.
That mother and her children had already come up with countless schemes against her. They were determined to get both her and her university admission opportunity. Once they realized something had gone wrong with their plans, they would undoubtedly find another way to deal with it.
So besides taking her savior away as quickly as possible, Qin Yuan needed to fabricate a believable story.
That way, even if the Xia family really came to the clinic asking questions, they wouldn’t connect the injured man to her.
Unexpectedly, Doctor Qiao immediately connected the entire matter to her anyway!
He looked at the young man lying on the hospital bed, then at Qin Yuan’s face.
After studying them seriously for a moment, he suddenly said,
“Oh, I understand! He’s from the city, while you’re from the countryside. But because you’re so pretty, he insisted on marrying you. His family refused to approve of the marriage, so he got upset and jumped into the river, right?”
Qin Yuan: “…?!”
What an imagination!
She had only said a few vague words. How had he managed to invent an entire love story from them?
What a waste that this man had never become a scriptwriter!
Still, the situation was complicated.
Doctor Qiao might be a good person, but Qin Yuan wasn’t close enough to him to explain everything in detail.
Gritting her teeth, she nodded.
“Ah… more or less. But I’m not the heroine of the story. Anyway, as long as you don’t tell anyone that I was the one who took him away, that’s enough. Can you do that?”
Doctor Qiao was still convinced that his guess was correct. A knowing, almost auntie-like smile spread across his face as he replied ambiguously,
“Sure, sure. No problem. I know where to draw the line. I won’t tell anyone.”
While they waited at the clinic for the ambulance to arrive, Qin Yuan went over to check on her savior while Doctor Qiao searched for some clothes for him.
The young man on the hospital bed remained completely still.
His long eyelashes drooped weakly, casting faint shadows beneath his eyes. Even the tips of his lashes seemed to carry a trace of frailty.
The wound across his high nose bridge had faded from a glaring bright red to a dark crimson, making his pale complexion and miserable condition appear even more striking.
However, perhaps because Doctor Qiao had taken good care of him, a faint trace of color had returned to his face. His lips were no longer so dry and cracked that strips of white skin peeled from them.
Even while deeply unconscious, his jaw remained tense and his brows slightly furrowed, as though some instinctive part of him remained vigilant even in sleep.
One of his hands rested outside the quilt.
It was a remarkably handsome hand, with clearly defined knuckles and clean, elegant lines. Yet now it hung there without the slightest strength, his fingertips frighteningly cold.
Qin Yuan slowly reached out.
The instant her fingers touched his, the bone-chilling cold made her heart clench.
A wave of guilt immediately surged through her.
She quickly wrapped both hands tightly around her savior’s hand, carefully trying to transfer her warmth to him little by little.
The man showed no response.
He remained so quiet that only his faint breathing proved he was still alive.
Yet precisely because he was so defenseless and unaware, Qin Yuan finally let go of her usual restraint.
She leaned closer to his ear and whispered softly,
“Comrade Savior, you’re going to get better. I won’t let you have saved me for nothing. You have to work hard and wake up too, all right? At the very least, you should hear me thank you in person, shouldn’t you?”
Meanwhile, Doctor Qiao searched all around the clinic.
Eventually, he returned and handed Qin Yuan a pair of underwear.
“Hey, this is all that’s left! His long underwear was cut open in several places, so it’s impossible to wear anymore. This is the only thing that’s still intact. Take it with you.”
Qin Yuan turned around.
Her gaze landed on the army-green underwear dangling from Doctor Qiao’s hand.
Her face instantly turned bright red.
It was true that she had been married in her previous life.
It was also true that she had lived for several decades.
But her marriage to Xia Junsheng had existed in name only!
They had even slept in separate beds.
It all began after Xia Junsheng “returned from the dead.”
When he came home, he claimed that the freezing cold had damaged his body and left him impotent.
Not long afterward, Xia Min went away to attend university.
Hu Yinglian worried about her daughter and said that since Xia Junsheng couldn’t do much work at home anyway, he might as well frequently visit and take care of his younger sister.
Later still, whenever Xia Junsheng occasionally returned home, he would say that seeing Qin Yuan only reminded him that he was impotent and forced him to face his guilt toward her.
So, supposedly out of guilt, he came home less and less often.
As a woman living in the countryside, Qin Yuan had been so busy every day that she barely had time to rest.
She had to work the fields, grow grain and vegetables, tend the chickens, ducks, and livestock, serve her mother-in-law three meals a day, and endure all kinds of village gossip.
With Xia Junsheng away from home, she had one less person to wait on and slightly less work to do.
So at first, she hadn’t thought much of it.
It wasn’t until much later that she realized something was terribly wrong.
But by then, it was already too late.
She had become gravely ill, and even if she wanted to confront Xia Junsheng, she no longer had the strength to do so.
In short, although Qin Yuan had been a married woman and had washed Xia Junsheng’s clothes before, his underwear had always been mixed among a large pile of the entire family’s laundry.
It hadn’t seemed particularly noticeable then.
But now, faced with a strange man’s underwear all by itself, Qin Yuan was unbearably embarrassed.
She lowered her eyes, too embarrassed even to take it.
Unfortunately, Doctor Qiao saw absolutely nothing wrong with the situation.
Still holding the underwear, he said,
“Take it. It’s not dirty. I washed it and even dried it for him. I thought that if he woke up, he’d need something to wear. It’s not like our clinic keeps spare underwear for patients.
“Look carefully. There’s even a name written inside. Oh, what did you say his name was again…?”
The instant Qin Yuan heard there was a name inside, she immediately snatched the underwear from his hand and carefully searched it.
“Where’s the name?”
Doctor Qiao leaned closer and pointed to the inside of the fabric.
“Here! Look. It’s a… Wang! That’s a surname, right? Hey, what did you say your friend’s name was again?”
Qin Yuan saw it.
On the label sewn into the side of the underwear was a clearly embroidered character:
“Wang.”
The stitching was rough and clumsy, unlike the handiwork of a woman. He had probably embroidered it himself so he could distinguish his clothes from other people’s.
Army-green underwear, with his surname embroidered on it so it wouldn’t get mixed up with someone else’s…
This man was most likely a soldier, wasn’t he?
Yet a soldier was now being forced to use someone else’s identity.
If anyone discovered that, it could damage her savior’s reputation!
Qin Yuan’s heart suddenly skipped a beat.
She hurriedly stuffed the underwear into her pocket and immediately improvised an explanation.
“That’s his childhood nickname! ‘Wang’ means… Little Wang-Wang! Heh heh. His parents adore him, that’s all!”
Doctor Qiao clicked his tongue.
“Tsk, tsk. City people really are refined. Even when giving a kid a nickname, they have to make it sound fancy. If they wanted to call him Doggy, they could’ve just called him Doggy. Why bother with ‘Little Wang-Wang’?”
Qin Yuan: “…”
This man must have been a literary genius in his previous life.
No matter the situation, he could always come up with an interpretation no one else would ever imagine!
Still, at least she had managed to cover up the issue.
Everything was fine…
Except for the man’s underwear in her pocket, which suddenly felt as though it were burning a hole through her clothes.
Today’s Mini Theater
Qin Yuan: “I have a friend…”
Doctor Qiao: “Say no more. I understand. You’re the friend. No matter what you say, you’re always going to be that friend!”