“Who the hell are you? Why are you sticking your nose into other people’s business?” Before the man could finish his long string of curses, the other party twisted his wrist even harder, forcing a painful cry out of him. “Are you sick?”
“I advise you to get out right now, or I am afraid you won’t be able to bear the consequences.” Heng Shi stepped right into the gap between Zou Beiqi and the man, blocking Zou Beiqi securely behind him while continuing to torture the uninvited guest’s flesh and bones. “If I want to deal with you, I have plenty of methods.”
The man clearly realized this was not someone to be trifled with. After giving the two people opposite him a fierce final glance, he had no choice but to make a tactical retreat. “I am not done with you. Just wait!”
The hospital room returned to peace. Zou Beiqi subconsciously shifted his gaze to Heng Shi. “Why are you here?”
“Seeing you leave in such a rush, I followed you downstairs and saw you take a cab to the Central Hospital.”
“Are you stalking me?”
“This is called care.”
Zou Beiqi found it hard to refute him. After all, his reaction had been too slow just now, and if not for Heng Shi, there was no telling how the situation would have turned out. Just as the conversation paused, Lin Huixi turned to thank the two people in front of her, her curiosity getting the better of her as her gaze landed on Heng Shi. “This is?”
“His husband.” Heng Shi said, using the hand wearing the ring to hold Zou Beiqi’s hand.
“You two make a good match.” Lin Huixi also introduced herself, mentioning that she was Zou Beiqi’s high school classmate, though Zou Beiqi himself barely had any impression of her. Turning her face slightly to make sure her daughter was still asleep, she softly explained the previous situation. “That was my ex-husband. Back when our relationship was still decent, he provided money to treat our daughter’s illness. I suppose later on he realized her illness couldn’t be cured and that spending money on it was like throwing it into a bottomless pit. He started arguing with me frequently, going out to drink, and messing around with other people. I couldn’t stand it anymore, so I divorced him.”
“For someone like that, leaving early is the wisest choice.” Zou Beiqi comforted her.
“Even now, every couple of days he tries to demand the medical money back. With our daughter in this state, how can he bring himself to do something like that?”
The more Lin Huixi spoke, the harder it was for her to control her emotions. Zou Beiqi scraped together every comforting word in his head, and it took a while for the atmosphere to ease up slightly, though it probably had nothing to do with his clumsy remarks.
“Let’s not talk about these infuriating things.” Lin Huixi swept a sideways glance at Heng Shi, who was standing silently to the side, and lowered her voice. “Why isn’t your husband saying anything?”
“He doesn’t like to talk.” To be exact, he had no interest in dealing with other people, and talking a bit more to him, Zou Beiqi, was only for the sake of the child.
“It’s fine, it’s just that he looks a bit scary standing over there.”
Right as Lin Huixi finished speaking, her gaze involuntarily drifted toward Heng Shi, only to notice that the man was staring directly at the two of them.
“Qiqi.” Heng Shi called out.
Zou Beiqi obediently walked over to Heng Shi, who raised a hand to tidy up his slightly messy bangs. “Let’s go back?”
“Mm, then we’ll be leaving first.” Zou Beiqi said goodbye to Lin Huixi. For some reason, even though Heng Shi didn’t look like much, he could sense that the other’s expression was off.
Xiao Li was driving, and the two of them remained silent all the way back to the villa.
“Zou Beiqi.” The moment they stepped through the front door, Heng Shi called out to him, his tone as cold as an abyss.
Zou Beiqi had a bad feeling.
“Do you know that if I hadn’t been there just now, when that guy pushed you, you might have miscarried?”
“I couldn’t just stand by and do nothing in that situation.”
Heng Shi still wore a stern face. “Please learn to take care of yourself before trying to play the hero. Besides, you clearly had other options: call the police, ask the doctors and nurses for help, anyone around could have helped. Why did you have to go yourself?”
“It was an emergency. I didn’t have that much time to think.”
“Then please remember to use your brain next time. I am not always around by coincidence.”
Zou Beiqi was losing his patience. “If it were you, could you keep a cool head?”
“I could.”
“Even if it were your family, or someone important to you, you could?”
“I don’t have family, and I don’t have anyone else important.” Heng Shi sneered. “Is she really that important to you? Didn’t you say you barely remembered her?”
“I would help anyone. I’m not as cold-blooded as you.”
“Believe whatever you want. You better remember that you aren’t alone anymore. Take care of the baby.”
“Wouldn’t it be great if the baby was gone? You only married me for the sake of the child anyway, right? If the child is gone, we get a divorce, and nobody has to keep acting anymore.”
The air fell silent for a single moment.
Zou Beiqi calmed down within the freezing atmosphere. Actually, Heng Shi’s words weren’t entirely unreasonable, but his own actions weren’t that hard to understand either, were they?
Besides, why was Heng Shi expressionless and silent? Did he say the wrong thing? Was it too harsh? Weren’t the things he said facts?
“A miscarriage causes severe damage to your body.” Heng Shi spoke up abruptly. “You might not care about living, but I can’t stand watching other people die.”
Zou Beiqi stopped talking.
If you called this care, it obviously wasn’t right; if you called it malicious abuse, it didn’t quite fit either.
Probably seeing that Zou Beiqi gave no response, Heng Shi turned and walked into the inner room. Soon, he came out carrying plain water, pills, and a prepared medicinal mixture. “Take your medicine.”
Zou Beiqi looked at the medicines placed before him and suddenly found it a bit funny. Right after finishing a furious quarrel, Heng Shi still had to come serve him like a pregnant spouse, looking precisely like someone forced to work overtime.
He inexplicably felt the urge to tease the other man. “My stomach hurts.”
Heng Shi didn’t say a single word, directly helping him lie flat on the sofa and reaching out to gently massage his abdomen. Zou Beiqi couldn’t help letting out a soft laugh, realizing immediately after that his laughter was coming at a very inappropriate time.
“I didn’t mean to.”
“Zou Beiqi,” Heng Shi stopped his movements and met Zou Beiqi’s gaze, “do you think this is fun?”
“No.” Watching Heng Shi forced to serve him was indeed quite entertaining.
“If not, get up, sit properly, and go take your medicine over there.”
“Oh.” Zou Beiqi obediently sat at the table to take his medicine. He gulped down the mixture, and his phone in his pocket vibrated right at that moment, revealing a friend request from Lin Huixi, presumably forwarded by Sheng Wanzhong.
He casually clicked accept and shoved his phone back into his pocket.
Zou Beiqi had originally thought his intersections with Lin Huixi would end there, or at most result in a pseudonym like Ms. Lin appearing in the articles written by Sheng Wanzhong. The article pointed out that the itemized bill received by this mother clearly contained suspicious entries, recording medications she had never seen, and pricing blood fees excessively high. Once calculated, the volume of blood transfusion clearly exceeded the normal range required by a human being. On top of that, there were various unreasonable miscellaneous charges.
Beyond that, the article also touched upon matters concerning Lin Huixi’s ex-husband. Sheng Wanzhong mentioned that he later spoke with Lin Huixi to understand the situation, and driven by overwhelming indignation, he decided to write about it, a move approved by the parties involved.
Bringing this up, Sheng Wanzhong cursed up a storm in the WeChat chat window with Zou Beiqi, acting as if he were the one being hunted down for debts by the ex-husband, elevating internet curses to a whole new level.
It was said that the Central Hospital had already attracted the attention of relevant departments, and an investigation was currently underway.
“Don’t look at your phone while walking.” Heng Shi reminded him.
Zou Beiqi had no choice but to temporarily tuck his phone away in his pocket. It was currently lunchtime, and he and Heng Shi had gone downstairs to a mild-flavored restaurant outside the hospital to buy lunch for his parents, instructing the owner as usual that the food was for patients, keeping oil and salt to a minimum.
If not for Zou Beiqi, Heng Shi probably would never have set foot in such a restaurant in his lifetime. “It’ll be quick. Once the food is packed, we can leave.” Zou Beiqi said.
“It’s fine, just waiting a bit.”
Zou Beiqi deliberately lowered his volume. “I’m just worried you’ll find this environment unappealing.”
“I certainly wouldn’t come here normally, but it’s not unbearable.”
Understood. He was picky, but if he had to endure it, it wasn’t impossible.
“I’ll come alone next time.”
“It’s fine, I’ll accompany you.” The meals packed in disposable lunchboxes were placed into a plastic bag and handed over. Heng Shi took them a step ahead of Zou Beiqi. “It’s better if you have someone with you.”
Zou Beiqi always felt the other man was alluding to his reckless stunt at the hospital earlier. He didn’t say anything more to avoid getting into a street fight with him. Following Heng Shi onto the main street, he inadvertently noticed the food in the other man’s hand. Through the plastic bag, he could tell the color looked wrong. “Why is it bok choy? I asked for lettuce.”
“Go back and swap it?”
“Swap it, Dad doesn’t eat bok choy.” Finished speaking, Zou Beiqi reached out to take the items from Heng Shi’s hands, but the other man happened to turn toward the restaurant instead. “I’ll go. You wait here.”
Zou Beiqi nodded and sat down on a bench by the street. He hadn’t even settled into his seat before someone patted him on the shoulder from behind. He instinctively looked back. “You’re back already?”
It wasn’t Heng Shi.
Intuition told him the visitor meant no good.
Zou Beiqi stood up immediately, intending to leave, but two strange men on opposite sides each grabbed one of his arms, slapped a hand over his mouth, and forcefully dragged him into a narrow alley. No matter how hard he struggled, it was all in vain; this body didn’t possess enough strength, especially with two assailants.
Only upon reaching the dim alleyway was Zou Beiqi released, replaced immediately by a sharp slap across his face. “You’re that woman’s kept man, right? You’re the one who leaked the information to the media?”
“I didn’t. She and I aren’t that kind of relationship.” At those words, Zou Beiqi completely understood why they were here. Knowing that any explanation to savages would be useless, he immediately shielded his abdomen with both hands.
There was nothing around except trash, with only a few crushed beverage cans lying near his feet.
“Don’t you fucking deny it! If it wasn’t you, who else could it be?”
Zou Beiqi didn’t reply, forcefully kicking a beverage can against the opposite wall to create a loud noise in an attempt to distract them. Seeing this, the thugs across from him grew even more furious. “Don’t play tricks!” With that, one of them reached out to grab his collar, smashing the back of his head heavily against the wall.
Seeing this, the other man prepared to step in and deliver a vicious punch straight to Zou Beiqi’s face, only to be forcefully stopped by a suddenly outstretched hand.
Heng Shi had saved him once again.
The lunchbox was tossed onto the ground, and Heng Shi immediately delivered a punch to the man who had just attacked. The other person swarmed forward to retaliate for his companion, but was also beaten back by a flurry of punches and kicks from Heng Shi.
“Get lost.” In Heng Shi’s tone was a surging fury that Zou Beiqi had never witnessed before.
“Damn it, there’s an accomplice?”
Realizing they had the disadvantage, both men pulled out folding knives from their pockets, aiming the tips straight at Heng Shi.
Heng Shi wasn’t scared off. Instead, after a few moves, he disarmed one of them and, combining it with strikes, managed to chase the two thugs away. Despite having the upper hand, facing two blades, Heng Shi still couldn’t entirely avoid injury, getting a deep, bloody scratch across the palm of his left hand.
“Heng Shi!” Zou Beiqi hurriedly reached out to press down on his wound. “Let’s go to the hospital right now.”