According to the speculation of online fans of Xiao Mubai and Shen Nian, everyone is immediately convinced about love again. The man is handsome and the woman is beautiful, looking like they just stepped out of a romance novel...
In the later part of the video, when leaving, Xiao Mubai holds Shen Nian's face in his embrace, not letting her be captured by the camera. Many fans bless them to have a child soon and be happily married forever.
"Have a child soon, and be happily married forever..."
These eight words, including all the well-wishes from fans' comments, felt like knives stabbing into his heart, one after another, piercing his heart and his rationality until it was torn to shreds...
"Bang!" Lu Lingchuan suddenly raised his hand and violently smashed the tablet he was holding. The force of the action was so intense!
The tablet was practically smashed into pieces the moment it hit the ground, the screen shattered into debris.
"..." Lu Lingchuan placed one hand on the table, his breaths coming in heavy gasps as he struggled to calm down, the bloody redness in his eyes lingering for a long time.
.....................
At the hospital.
Shen Nian was still unaware that the hot pot restaurant incident had become a hot topic online, let alone that Lu Lingchuan had found out about it. After leaving the police station, she rushed to the hospital.
When she arrived at the hospital, the doctor was still treating Xiao Mubai's wounds.
His torn white T-shirt had been taken off and placed aside, revealing his muscular physique.
He normally looked tall and slim, who would have thought that under his clothes he would have such well-defined abs, a full eight-pack even. Xiao Mubai's skin was only slightly darker than Shen Nian's, adding a few more points to his already perfect charm.
Under normal circumstances, Shen Nian would have averted her gaze, but in this situation, she didn't have time to think too much about it and went straight in.
Xiao Mubai was sitting on the hospital bed, one hand gripping the edge, while the doctor was using tweezers to treat his wound.
Xiao Mubai's forehead was covered in sweat, and the usually gentle and handsome face was now furrowed with a pained expression, evidently struggling to endure the pain.
Seeing this scene, Shen Nian paused for a moment, then went up to him: "Mubai."
Hearing Shen Nian's voice, Xiao Mubai turned his head slightly and gave her a weak smile: "You're here."
"Are you okay..." Shen Nian started to say, then realized she was stating the obvious. He clearly didn't look okay.
Looking up at the doctor, Shen Nian asked, "Doctor, how is my friend? Why haven't you finished treating his wound yet?"
She had come here after completing the statement at the police station, but Xiao Mubai's wound still wasn't treated.
The doctor, still focused on his work, didn't look up but patiently replied to her.
"The wound itself isn't big, but when the bottle hit him, some glass shards got into the wound, so I need to pick them out one by one."
Shen Nian saw Xiao Mubai's pained expression and asked again, "My friend is in a lot of pain, can you give him an anesthetic?"
Just hearing about having to pick glass shards out of the wound sounded excruciatingly painful.
"Although anesthesia can temporarily relieve the pain, the side effects are quite significant, so we try to avoid using it if possible."
Xiao Mubai's wound hadn't reached the point where anesthesia was absolutely necessary.
Seeing Shen Nian's concerned look, Xiao Mubai gave a smile to reassure her: "I'm fine, you can sit over there. I'll be okay soon."
Instead of sitting down, Shen Nian took some tissues from the doctor's desk and came back to wipe the sweat off Xiao Mubai's forehead.
"I'm sorry, I've caused you trouble again," Shen Nian said.
Xiao Mubai maintained his smile, his gentle nature making him seem even warmer.
"It's not your fault, you don't need to apologize," he replied.
Shen Nian knew it would be melodramatic to say anything more. She couldn't share Xiao Mubai's pain, so she just did what she could to help.
"Where are your friends?" Shen Nian suddenly asked.
Apart from the fact that the two of them weren't a couple, the online fans' speculation was pretty much spot-on.
Xiao Mubai had come out for a gathering with friends today, and by coincidence ended up at the same hot pot restaurant as Shen Nian.
At the time, Xiao Mubai was having dinner with his friends when he heard shouting from not too far away and realized something had happened. He had only intended to go over and see what was going on, but then spotted Shen Nian in the crowd.
When that man was about to smash the bottle towards her, Xiao Mubai didn't hesitate and rushed over to shield her from harm.
Currently, there were only the three of them in the office, and Shen Nian hadn't seen a fourth person since she arrived.
The reason why Shen Nian had let Xiao Mubai go to the hospital alone while she gave her statement was because Xiao Mubai's friend was with him.
Xiao Mubai replied, "It's getting late, so I told them to go home."
Shen Nian didn't say anything, but silently went to get a disposable cup, filled it with water from the dispenser, and brought it over to help Xiao Mubai drink.
In his current state, Xiao Mubai couldn't drink by himself.
Xiao Mubai didn't put on airs either, gratefully accepting Shen Nian's small gesture of care. After drinking, he gave her a big smile: "Thank you."
Shen Nian frowned: "We don't need to say those words to each other."
Hearing this, Xiao Mubai's smile grew even wider.
.....................
The living room was brightly lit, the silence only broken by the sound of the man's heavy breathing.
The man glared at the smashed tablet on the floor, his breaths coming in ragged gasps, his chest heaving violently, unable to calm down for a long time.
After an unknown amount of time had passed, he picked up his phone and checked the time.
Unlocking the phone with facial recognition, the screen was still showing the call log.
The most recent call was from half an hour ago, with Liang Jinghe.
Liang Jinghe's hot pot restaurant was on South Street, and there was a police station on South Street, so unless something unexpected happened, the responding police officers would have been from the South Street police station.
When he was on the phone with Liang Jinghe earlier, from what she said, he could tell that she had already handled everything. At the time, he could hear the sound of a car driving on the other end of the call, so he assumed she was on her way back.
Liang Jinghe had gone back, and Shen Nian should have gone back too.
Coming back from South Street, it would take at most twenty-five minutes to get home, factoring in the time to walk into the residential area, even at the slowest pace, she should have been back by now.
But...
Lu Lingchuan looked towards the front door, but it was quiet over there, no sound of the door opening...
This time, he didn't smash his phone. Instead, he made a call and as soon as it connected, he instructed, "Contact an employee who has a good relationship with Jiang Lingling, and get her to find a way to discreetly find out where Shen Nian is."
He hung up after saying that.
Five minutes later, the phone rang back, it was Lu Lingchen's voice: "I asked Li Nan, who has a good relationship with Jiang Lingling. Jiang Lingling told her that Shen Nian went to the hospital."
"..."
After reporting, Lu Lingchen asked in confusion, "Why did Shen Nian go to the hospital? Brother, why did you ask me to find out Shen Nian's whereabouts? You even had me get someone else to discreetly ask Jiang Lingling."
"Brother, did something happen? Brother?"
At this moment, Lu Lingchuan's mind was fixated on Lu Lingchen's words "Shen Nian is at the hospital," and he had no attention to spare for Lu Lingchen's questions.
