After thinking it through, Shu An happily followed her cousin to her aunt’s house for lunch.
Meanwhile, the clinic at the machinery factory had also become lively.
“Oh my goodness! Old Fu! Come and look at our son! Hurry and report this to the police! Which damned bastard did this to him? How could they be so vicious?”
When Xu Fengjia heard someone tell her that her son had been beaten unconscious and was completely unresponsive, she immediately dropped what she was doing and hurried to the clinic.
Seeing her son lying unconscious on the hospital bed, Xu Fengjia instantly panicked. She was so anxious that she paced around like an ant on a hot pan.
She turned toward Han Yongqiang, the head of the Security Department, who stood nearby with a grim expression, and demanded, “Section Chief Han! What exactly is your Security Department doing? My perfectly fine son works at our machinery factory, and now he’s been beaten so badly! Is this how you protect the safety of the factory’s workers?”
The factory doctor crouched beside the bed and carefully examined Fu Xuejun’s injuries. Afterward, he stood up with a solemn expression and repeatedly shook his head at Deputy Factory Director Fu Zhengyi, who had rushed over after hearing the news.
“Director Fu, I can’t treat these injuries. There’s a wound on his head with bleeding, and his lower leg has also been broken. The fracture is severely displaced. His injuries are too serious.”
“He needs to be taken to a major hospital immediately for bone-setting treatment. If you delay, the displaced bone could heal incorrectly. There’s a very high chance he’ll be left disabled for the rest of his life, and even his ability to walk could be affected.”
“What? He could end up crippled?!”
Xu Fengjia’s face turned deathly pale. She immediately forgot about arguing with anyone and anxiously urged them, “Quick! Quick! Find someone! Hurry and get him to the hospital!”
Han Yongqiang’s expression darkened completely after being publicly berated. He said sternly, “Comrade Xu, you can’t just make accusations like that! First, find out what actually happened!”
“When something happened to Fu Xuejun, he wasn’t even within the factory grounds! He wasn’t at the factory during working hours. If our security personnel hadn’t happened to discover him unconscious in an alley outside the factory while on patrol, you wouldn’t even know when you would have discovered that he was missing!”
Xu Fengjia no longer cared about what he was saying. All she could think about was getting someone to carry her son to the hospital as quickly as possible.
Fu Zhengyi was already grim-faced because of his son’s serious injuries. Seeing his wife anger the Security Department in her panic, he was secretly annoyed.
He immediately stepped forward to smooth things over, putting on an apologetic expression as he raised his hand.
“Section Chief Han, calm down, calm down! The child’s mother was just too anxious and confused. Women can panic when something happens, and sometimes they speak without thinking. Please don’t take it to heart.”
Then he changed the subject.
“My wife and I always thought Xuejun was at his post working. We didn’t realize he had gone out. Perhaps the Logistics Department had some temporary assignment today and sent him out to handle something, which was why he got hurt outside.”
“I’ll have to ask Director Shu about it later. Was there some important assignment today that required Xuejun to go out? We shouldn’t let his accident cause any delay in his work!”
As he said this, he was secretly cursing his son.
Given his relationship with Shu Huairen, and knowing his own son’s character, he was certain that Fu Xuejun had simply slacked off and gone out without permission today.
But he couldn’t say that aloud.
No matter what, he had to make it seem like Fu Xuejun had been injured while performing official duties and somehow connect the incident to a workplace injury.
At the same time, he was secretly furious.
Which bastard had been bold enough to beat his son in broad daylight?
Just as he finished speaking, a steady male voice came from the doorway of the clinic.
“I’m afraid I can’t take responsibility for that statement, Director Fu.”
Everyone immediately turned around.
They saw Shu Huairen, the head of the Logistics Department, walking in.
Shu Huairen hadn’t expected to arrive just in time to hear those words. His gaze swept over the chaotic clinic before settling on Fu Zhengyi. A cold, distant smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.
“There were no field assignments for the Logistics Department today. Neither collective tasks nor temporary errands.”
“If I remember correctly, he should have been at work right now. I’d also like to know how someone who was supposed to be at his workstation ended up outside the factory.”
With one sentence, he completely shattered Fu Zhengyi’s plan.
Fu Zhengyi’s face instantly turned livid. He forced a smile and said, “Oh, so that’s how it is. Then I really did misunderstand Director Shu. But there’s no way to ask him about it now. He’s still unconscious. We need to take him to the hospital and find out exactly what’s wrong.”
“Yes, yes, exactly. Stop talking about it and hurry up. Get him there,” Xu Fengjia urged.
Seeing that they were still standing around arguing about irrelevant things, she hurriedly called people over to help carry him away.
Soon, they rushed Fu Xuejun to the hospital.
The factory clinic immediately fell silent.
Han Yongqiang looked at Shu Huairen in surprise. He moved closer and asked in a low voice,
“Old Shu, you’re not acting like yourself today. You actually didn’t give the deputy factory director any room to save face.”
“Hmph, didn’t give him any face? I’ve already given him plenty of face! Otherwise, considering what his son did today, he should be publicly criticized and reprimanded!”
“Our Logistics Department has been running around all day calculating all kinds of orders for this month. And what does he do? He slacks off, and then causes this kind of trouble.”
“I told them from the beginning not to send him here. I said not to send him here! Put him in any other department, but don’t put him in my Logistics Department. Yet you people insisted that he was at least a high school graduate, that he was educated, and that putting him in the workshop would be wasting his talent.”
“In my opinion, wasn’t his talent wasted? I can’t afford to have someone like him in my department!”
After saying this, he ignored everyone else’s expressions and turned around and left, leaving the others staring at one another.
“What’s wrong with Director Shu today? Why is he refusing to give the deputy factory director any face?”
Most of them were secretly muttering to themselves.
It was an open secret throughout the factory that the two men didn’t get along, but it was rare for Shu Huairen to make their conflict so obvious.
When Shu Huairen returned home, Shu Yong immediately stood up and asked,
“Dad, how did it go? Is everything all right?”
“It’s fine. But how did you know Fu Xuejun had been beaten?”
Shu Yong kept a straight face.
“I didn’t. I just happened to pass by. I figured that since he was lying in an alley and he works under you, if something really happened to him, Fu Zhengyi and his wife would make trouble even if they were in the wrong. I didn’t want them dragging you into it.”
Shu Huairen nodded at this, but suddenly realized something was off.
He stared at Shu Yong.
“Why do I feel like something’s not right? Don’t tell me you had something to do with this.”
Shu Yong knew that there were many things he couldn’t hide from his father. He awkwardly rubbed his nose and said,
“Well… you could say that. An’an and I did it.”
The moment Shu Huairen heard Shu An’s name, his brows immediately tightened.
“What happened? Did you take your sister to fight someone?”
“No, Dad! How could I? Have I gone crazy? It was An’an. That girl went up and hit him with a brick. But the first hit didn’t knock him unconscious, so I gave him another one.”
Hearing that he hadn’t deliberately taken his sister to get into a fight, Shu Huairen finally relaxed.
“An’an came into the city? Why didn’t you bring her home? Your grandfather was still talking about her a few days ago.”
“She came into the city to collect some money and to see Xiao Ming. She should be at Aunt’s house now.”
“She probably ran into Fu Xuejun on the way and got angry, so she just picked up a brick and hit him.”
“Then what happened to his leg? Did you do that?”