Chapter 33: Meeting the Young Mistress Again
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Toward evening, Wu Bei hurried to the hospital.
Su Qing had apparently been waiting at the main entrance for quite some time and looked somewhat impatient.
“Sorry, Qingqing,” Wu Bei apologized awkwardly. “The traffic was terrible...”
“Someone paid two million yuan toward Uncle Wu’s medical expenses before, didn’t they? Now that he’s missing, the doctors spoke with the finance department, and they can refund the money to you.”
Su Qing cut him off before he could say anything else.
Faced with her cold attitude, Wu Bei froze for a moment before asking, “All right. Do I need to go through any formalities?”
“Just sign these documents. The money won’t be transferred immediately, though.”
Su Qing took a file folder from her bag and handed it to him.
“Thank you so much. Why don’t I treat you to dinner?”
Wu Bei accepted it eagerly and pointed toward the shared bicycles nearby.
“No. My colleagues are getting together tonight.”
Su Qing rejected him without expression.
Wu Bei opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but he had no idea where to begin.
After signing the documents as quickly as possible, Su Qing turned and walked toward the roadside.
Unwilling to let her leave like this, Wu Bei called after her, “Qingqing, did I do something to offend you?”
“Of course not. We’re just ordinary friends. It’s not a matter of offending or not offending each other.”
Su Qing turned back and gave him a faint smile, but the smile was filled with perfunctory politeness.
Before Wu Bei could say anything else, Su Qing had already slipped into a black sedan and sped away.
Inside the car, Su Qing stared blankly out the window.
The woman driving was her head nurse. As she turned the steering wheel, she complained, “Why didn’t you tell him how much trouble you went through to get the hospital to issue that refund?”
“I didn’t want to tell him.” Su Qing pouted unhappily.
...
Meanwhile, Wu Bei stood rooted to the spot, utterly bewildered. He could not understand why Su Qing had suddenly become so distant after less than a day.
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“Little Wu!”
As he stood there in confusion, a woman’s voice called out from nearby.
Wu Bei turned his head and saw a young woman in a pure white T-shirt and denim shorts approaching him with a bright smile.
“Hmm?”
He recognized her at once.
Wasn’t she the important figure he had encountered a few days earlier when delivering vegetables to Luo Xue’s company? Luo Xue seemed to have addressed her as Miss Nianxia. Before that, Nianxia had twice pressed him about whether he had ever served in the army in the Imperial Capital.
When she reached him, Wu Bei asked quietly, “Do you know me?”
“You really don’t remember me?”
The young woman gazed at him with watery eyes, her expression filled with disappointment.
“Have we met before?”
Wu Bei searched his memory again. He truly had no recollection of her and shook his head.
The girl exhaled, then extended her delicate hand with a graceful smile. “All right, then let’s get reacquainted. My name is Zhao Nianxia!”
Staring at her slender, pale hand, Wu Bei hesitated.
Why would someone important enough for Luo Xue to flatter and fawn over suddenly want to befriend him?
He did not believe in any nonsense about love at first sight, nor did he think he possessed anything that could attract the favor of a gifted young woman like her.
Could that wretched Luo Xue be plotting some new trick?
“Thanks, but I’m not interested in making friends.”
After thinking it over for a long while, Wu Bei walked straight past her.
“Hey! Why are you acting so high and mighty? I’m not a swindler!”
Zhao Nianxia waved her little fists and pouted in protest.
Wu Bei did not respond. He simply quickened his pace.
After struggling through more than twenty years of life, Wu Bei had long since stopped believing in fairy tales. Whenever he encountered something he could not understand, his usual attitude was to keep his distance.
He returned to the guardhouse at his residential compound.
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Seeing Uncle Ren reclining in a lounge chair, humming along with the opera playing on the radio, Wu Bei was inexplicably filled with a sense of security.
In this vast city of tens of millions, aside from his father, Wu Shihao, Uncle Ren was probably the only person who made him feel he had someone to rely on.
That reliance had nothing to do with material support. It was purely an instinctive comfort of the heart.
“Off work?”
Hearing movement at the entrance, Uncle Ren opened his eyes.
“Yeah.”
Wu Bei respectfully refilled Uncle Ren’s teacup. After hesitating for a few seconds, he told him everything about his plan to start a moving and loading company.
“It’s a good thing for a young man to start a business!”
After listening patiently, Uncle Ren praised him and tossed him a cigarette.
Feeling guilty, Wu Bei said, “Uncle, I won’t be living here in a couple of days.”
When he had been at the end of his rope, Uncle Ren had taken him in. Now that he was preparing to leave, he still had no way to repay him immediately.
“A tiger belongs roaring through the mountains and forests; a dragon belongs roaming across the seas! How much can you accomplish by hiding out here with me?”
Uncle Ren picked up a palm fan and lightly tapped Wu Bei on the forehead.
Filled with confidence, Wu Bei promised, “Uncle, just wait until I make something of myself. I’ll take care of you and let you enjoy your retirement!”
“Haha, good! I’ll wait for that day. Come on, the two of us will have another drink tonight. Consider it an early celebration for you.”
Uncle Ren first pulled a plastic jug filled with strong white liquor from beneath the table. Then he took a packet of peanuts and two drinking glasses from the drawer.
Wu Bei could not help teasing him. “So you had everything prepared in advance. Even if I hadn’t brought this up today, you would have found some other excuse to make me drink with you, wouldn’t you?”
“Isn’t life just a matter of deceiving others, and occasionally deceiving yourself?”
Uncle Ren smiled faintly and filled both glasses to the brim.
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