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Chapter Seven: A Clear Threat
Zhang Qiu smirked and asked, "Is someone at your hospital chasing after you?"
"Yes," Wang Jinghan replied nonchalantly, "and it's not just one."
"After all, you're the flower of the hospital," Zhang Qiu recalled Dr. Li's words to tease her.
Wang Jinghan exclaimed and pushed Zhang Qiu away, her face turning crimson as she retorted, "It's all their nonsense! Just tell me what happened."
Seeing Wang Jinghan shy, Zhang Qiu stopped joking and said seriously, "After I got injured last time and was in a hurry to go home, you helped me find a jacket. Do you remember?"
Wang Jinghan nodded in confusion, "Of course I remember."
Zhang Qiu asked, "Is the owner of that jacket chasing after you?"
"Yes." Wang Jinghan suddenly froze; how did Zhang Qiu know about this? "How do you know?"
"I ran into him."
"And you two..." Wang Jinghan couldn't imagine what would happen if the playboy Lin Zhe encountered Zhang Qiu.
"It was fine. He threw a beer bottle at me; he was accurate the first time, but completely off the mark the second time." Zhang Qiu spoke lightly, while worry was written all over Wang Jinghan's face as she hurriedly asked, "So what happened between you two?"
"You care about him so much; no wonder he's jealous," Zhang Qiu continued to smile. "Don't worry; he's fine. I didn't do anything to him."
"Oh, you've misunderstood me. How could I possibly care about him? What I meant was I'm afraid you two might get into a fight. This guy has some background at home; I'm worried you'll get into trouble." Wang Jinghan patiently explained. She had no good feelings for Lin Zhe and seemed to want Zhang Qiu to know that she was single.
Zhang Qiu chuckled and didn't take it to heart. In the bar, Lin Zhe had been completely drunk, and his friends were terrified; how powerful could he be with some background? The current Zhang Qiu was no longer the same Zhang Qiu from two months ago. There's a saying: to understand a person, look at their friends.
"Do you have any feelings for him?" Zhang Qiu looked at Wang Jinghan, unable to resist the urge to gossip.
"Of course not!" When Lin Zhe was mentioned, Wang Jinghan frowned repeatedly. "How could I have feelings for someone like him?"
"What kind of person?"
"He's just a playboy."
"A playboy?" Seeing Wang Jinghan's expression, it was clear she had a negative impression of Lin Zhe and was quite disdainful.
"Yeah, he's just a playboy." Wang Jinghan pouted and launched into a tirade against Lin Zhe. "His reputation in our hospital is terrible. He doesn't rely on real skills but on connections to get by. He doesn't come to the hospital to work; he comes to chase after girls. Every time a new nurse starts, he gets all excited, and several girls have left here because of him."
After hearing this, Zhang Qiu sighed, "Looks like I was wrong; I shouldn't have let him off so easily. I thought he was your friend, so I didn't take action against him."
"Not taking action was the right choice. The less trouble you stir up, the better. Remember that."
"Got it." Zhang Qiu nodded in agreement and then asked, "How can this playboy continue to chase nurses when his reputation is so bad?"
"Of course he can."
"Why is that?" Zhang Qiu was puzzled.
"The new nurses are naive and fall for his sweet talk."
"Doesn't anyone warn them?"
"There are warnings, but they don't listen. What can you do? Some things you only learn after falling once," Wang Jinghan said with a smile, shaking her head and sighing. After all, wasn't she just like them?
"How are you? Coming at this time, have you reflected on yourself?"
Zhang Qiu shyly scratched his head and smiled, "I ran into some trouble."
"Come on," Wang Jinghan didn't believe it was just trouble. "What mess did you get into this time?"
Zhang Qiu shared the news about the strike at Beiluan High School with Wang Jinghan. Wang Jinghan's eyes widened in surprise as she exclaimed, "Oh my, if this is just trouble, it's too serious!"
"Don't worry, it's all good now. Didn't you hear?" Zhang Qiu found it strange that Wang Jinghan hadn't heard about such an incident at Beiluan High School. After all, many residents in the Cloud Sea District were taking photos during the strike.
"No," Wang Jinghan shook her head, clearly unaware of anything.
Zhang Qiu pulled out his phone and typed in "Beiluan High School strike," but no relevant content appeared. After flipping through a few pages, he found a post mentioning the strike. However, when he opened it, the content had already been deleted. He recalled Wu Deyu's words: Beiluan High School doesn't care about being slandered.
"What are you laughing at?" Wang Jinghan noticed Zhang Qiu's silence followed by sudden laughter.
"I remembered something the principal said. Looking back now, it's no wonder he was so confident. Impressive, really impressive." Zhang Qiu couldn't help but admire Wu Deyu's ability. The last time he called the police on him, they only deleted posts from the forum. This time, all information regarding the strike at Beiluan High School had vanished from the internet—truly remarkable.
"I'm completely confused," Wang Jinghan had no idea what had happened to Zhang Qiu. Listening to his fragmented explanations made no sense individually, and when pieced together, it was just as confusing.
"Here's the thing," Zhang Qiu explained to Wang Jinghan. "After the strike, the power of the Hall Society was exposed to the principal, who ordered me to disband it. But could I do that? So I used the strike as leverage to negotiate with him and got Liu Journalist to help out. In the end, the principal didn't agree and instead said something like this."
"This isn't a negotiation; it's clearly a threat."
Zhang Qiu nodded; there was indeed some truth to that.
"You really don't make things easy for me," Wang Jinghan sighed again. "I've noticed a pattern: every time you offend someone, it's always someone more powerful than you."
"But every time, I've turned misfortune into good luck."
"No one can be lucky all the time, right?"
"Of course not."
"So, please don't make me worry about you so much, okay?" Wang Jinghan placed her hands on Zhang Qiu's shoulders and said earnestly, "Jiang Xue feels the same way. She might not come out because she loves you and doesn't want to hinder you, but she must be very worried about you."
"Alright, I promise." Zhang Qiu admitted that Wang Jinghan was right; no one could always be lucky. Just because he had managed to get through these past few times didn't mean he would be able to do so next time. Wanting to have continuous good luck without strong support was simply impossible. Zhang Qiu eagerly hoped to become stronger quickly.
Zhang Qiu looked into Wang Jinghan's eyes and slowly said, "I have a question."
"Is it for me?"
"Yes."
"What is it?"
"Why are you worried about me?"
Wang Jinghan seemed momentarily taken aback, stammering as she was about to answer when a nurse rushed over calling for her: "Hurry up, go to the fifth floor, Dr. Wang is looking for you."
"I'll answer you later," Wang Jinghan hurriedly said before following the nurse as they ran off. Zhang Qiu watched her figure until she disappeared around the corner of the stairs, softly saying, "I'll be waiting for your answer."
After finishing his tasks, Zhang Qiu went straight home. His mother had gone to work, and strangely, his father was also not at home. Zhang Qiu recalled that his father had mentioned he would be back to work soon since he had almost recovered. He wondered if today was the day. Lying on his bed, he stared at the ceiling fan spinning above him and soon fell asleep.
He slept soundly until He Mei returned home. Zhang Qiu woke up and asked his mother, "Mom, where's Dad?"
"Your dad went to work, he left in the afternoon." He Mei did not stop her pace and walked directly into the kitchen, holding a bag of green vegetables. The light was too dim for Zhang Qiu to see what it was.
The sound of chopping vegetables came from the kitchen. Zhang Qiu had nothing to do, so he also entered the kitchen. The kitchen in the new house was much more spacious; half of the room was dedicated to it, with a large cabinet, a faucet, and a range hood all in place. The only downside was the lack of gas; a dark green gas cylinder sat in the corner, covered in dust, left behind by the landlord.
He Mei did not use it. Instead, she laid a wooden board on the gas stove and placed the induction cooker on top. Once plugged in, she began to stir-fry. Zhang Qiu saw that it was spinach. So, He Mei cooked while Zhang Qiu prepared rice. Twenty minutes later, mother and son sat down at a dining table.
The dining table was set on the newly smoothed cement platform in the yard, with a mosquito coil lit nearby. The evening in Beilan County Town had already lost its heat, and a slight cool breeze blew around them. Zhang Qiu took a bowl to fetch water from the well and stirred the rice thoroughly before starting to eat. He had eaten this way before at his grandmother's house in the countryside; in the county town, tap water could not be consumed directly. Now that they had moved to a new home, they had well water again.
He Mei asked with concern, "Is it cool enough? There’s hot water inside."
"It’s not cool at all; this is how it should be eaten," Zhang Qiu wiped the fine beads of sweat from his forehead, picked up some spinach with his chopsticks, and then shoveled in a couple of bites of rice.
While eating, He Mei suddenly said, "Son, what are you planning to do? Your dad and I won’t interfere, but you must take the college entrance examination seriously; after all, it's only a month away, okay?"
Zhang Qiu paused for a moment, looking at his mother, especially at the hints of white hair at her temples. He nodded heavily and said, "Don't worry, Mom, I will take the college entrance examination seriously."
After finishing dinner, Zhang Qiu returned to his room and took out the textbooks he had brought home to review. He knew that with his current grades, getting into a second-tier university was still possible; all he could do was work hard to aim for something better. While working on math exercises in his room, He Mei paused as she passed by and smiled with satisfaction.
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