Feng Ya Lun being released from detention and Jia Zhi Qing being discharged from the hospital actually happened on the same day, further proving Gao Qin’s theory that the two were truly fellow sufferers.
Xiao Bai was an artist, so of course the company could not let him go to the detention center to pick up Feng Ya Lun. Wouldn’t that be handing the media a story on a silver platter? Yimate’s relationship with the press had not improved nearly enough for that.
So Xiao Bai was assigned to pick up Jia Zhi Qing instead.
The moment he stepped into the hospital room, Xiao Bai began to wonder whether his sleep quality had been so poor lately that he was hallucinating.
Seeing him, Jia Zhi Qing greeted him cheerfully. “Xiao Bai.”
The beautiful reporter sitting beside his bed turned around and gave Xiao Bai a sweet smile.
Xiao Bai was shaken. “How did you two…?”
When he had visited only a few days ago, these two had still been giving each other the cold shoulder, looking as though they intended never to speak again for the rest of their lives. How had they suddenly become close enough to feed each other fruit?
Jia Zhi Qing patted the beautiful reporter on the shoulder, his face glowing with happiness. “Call her Sister-in-law.”
Xiao Bai respectfully said, “Sister-in-law.”
The reporter clicked her tongue at him. “What nonsense are you talking about? Just call me Le Qing.”
Even someone as slow as Xiao Bai could tell what must have happened over the past few days. He hurriedly said, “I’ll go take care of the discharge paperwork.”
Jia Zhi Qing nodded and waved him away. “No need to come back for three, five, maybe seven years. Your big brother is busy.”
Le Qing smacked him irritably. “Stop talking nonsense.”
So Xiao Bai could only take his sweet time handling the discharge paperwork.
Surprisingly, the nurse did not become impatient with him at all. Instead, she enthusiastically chatted with him about the entertainment industry.
The moment Xiao Bai heard her mention Feng Ya Lun, his guard immediately went up.
Gao Qin had told him that if anyone tried to ask about Feng Ya Lun, he was to keep his mouth completely shut.
Seeing that he would not respond, the nurse changed the subject. “I heard Yan Su Ang got hurt filming yesterday. Did you know?”
Xiao Bai looked up from the bill in surprise.
“I thought you and Great God were pretty close.” She pointed toward the building next door. “Wasn’t he with you when Jia Zhi Qing came to the hospital the second time? One of my coworkers said Great God rushed into the emergency department looking for your name that day. Apparently, he was frantic.”
The numbers on the bill suddenly blurred before Xiao Bai’s eyes.
He remembered the morning they had eaten malatang together, when Yan Su Ang had asked why Xiao Bai had not gone through the emergency department. Xiao Bai had thought nothing of it then, but now that he looked back, it was obvious: Yan Su Ang must have gone to the emergency department first, failed to find Xiao Bai’s name, and hurried over to the outpatient department instead—so worried that he had not even cared about exposing his identity.
“What happened to him?” Ever since that day when Xiao Bai had waited more than five hours at the crossing-the-bridge rice noodle restaurant without receiving so much as a text or phone call from him, the two of them had not contacted each other again.
“I think he broke his leg.” The nurse lowered her head and rummaged through a cabinet. After a while, she pulled out a magazine. Its cover showed a crowd of people surrounding a stretcher.
Yan Su Ang had one arm draped over his eyes, while other people obscured his face, making his expression impossible to see. But judging by the anxious expressions of everyone around him, his injury was obviously not minor.
“Which hospital is he staying at?”
“He was filming in the neighboring city, so probably a hospital over there.”
Xiao Bai immediately began handling the payment much faster.
Once the discharge procedures were complete, the doctor repeatedly instructed Jia Zhi Qing to avoid driving or riding in vehicles as much as possible. Xiao Bai hurried back to the room.
Le Qing had already packed everything and was supporting Jia Zhi Qing as they waited for him.
The moment Jia Zhi Qing saw him, he exclaimed dramatically, “Xiao Bai, are you sure you were doing the discharge paperwork here? You didn’t make a detour through America first?”
Le Qing pushed his head. “You were the one who told him to take his time. Now that he actually did, you’re complaining?”
“I was joking. Sigh. Forget it. Xiao Bai, go call a taxi. Let’s leave.”
“The doctor said you should avoid driving or riding in vehicles.”
Jia Zhi Qing froze, then complained, “Then I might as well buy myself a cargo tricycle and pedal it home.”
Elio’s Notes: 黄鱼车, literally “yellow-fish cart,” is a regional term for a pedal-powered three-wheeled cargo cart. Jia Zhi Qing is joking that if cars are forbidden, he may as well transport himself on one of those instead.
In the end, Jia Zhi Qing still took a taxi.
Before getting in, he dismissed Xiao Bai on the grounds that a real man should know better than to be a third wheel.
Xiao Bai watched the taxi disappear into the distance. A strange impulse suddenly rose inside him, and he took out his phone and called Gao Qin.
“Brother Gao.”
“Feng Ya Lun is already out. I’m arranging for him to rest at a hotel. You don’t need to worry.”
“I want to go to the neighboring city.”
“……” Gao Qin remained silent for a full ten seconds before saying flatly, “Do you know what you’re saying?”
“Yan Su Ang is hurt. I want to visit him.”
“In what capacity?”
The question caught Xiao Bai off guard. “As his friend. When Zhi Qing and I were in the car accident, he came to see us too.”
“Then don’t go.”
Click.
Gao Qin hung up, leaving only a rapid string of busy tones behind.
Xiao Bai stared blankly at his phone for a long moment, then stubbornly dialed again.
Gao Qin answered and immediately asked, “Do you absolutely have to go?”
Do I absolutely have to go?
Xiao Bai froze.
How had merely wanting to go suddenly become absolutely having to go?
Gao Qin took his silence as confirmation and said coldly, “So nothing I say will make any difference, is that it?”
“I think…” Xiao Bai considered it for a long time before slowly saying, “Friends should help each other and care about each other.”
To hell with helping each other and caring about each other!
Gao Qin nearly swore aloud.
“Brother Gao, if you were the one who got hurt, no matter what happened, I would go see you too,” Xiao Bai added.
“Well, then I really ought to thank you.” As if I have the kind of rotten luck Jia Zhi Qing and Yan Su Ang do! Gao Qin took a deep breath. “Go.”
“…Huh?” Xiao Bai had thought it would take a tremendous amount of effort to make his intentions clear and seemed stunned by Gao Qin’s sudden generosity. The busy tone had been sounding for quite some time before he finally came back to himself and belatedly said, “Thank you, Brother Gao.”
There were two ways to get to the neighboring city.
By train or by coach.
Since the train was too crowded, Xiao Bai chose the coach.
During the two-hour journey, nobody showed any interest in the person wearing an enormous sunhat and covering himself from head to toe.
Only after getting off and looking at the unfamiliar streets did Xiao Bai begin to panic a little.
He still did not know which hospital Yan Su Ang was in.
He took out his phone and called Yan Su Ang.
The phone was switched off.
After thinking about it, he had no choice but to call Gao Qin.
The moment Gao Qin answered, he said sarcastically, “Don’t tell me you got lost.”
“I’m not lost.” Xiao Bai paused. “But I don’t know where Yan Su Ang is staying.”
“You don’t know where he is and you still dared to charge off alone… You—” Gao Qin sighed. Why are the artists under me, one after another, all the kind who grow beautiful faces instead of brains? “He’s at the Municipal Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine. If you’re at the railway station, take Route 152. If you’re at the coach station, take Route 5.”
Xiao Bai rummaged through his bag and suddenly exclaimed, “Ah! I forgot my coin purse.”
Gao Qin snapped, “Would you like me to send a helicopter over to deliver it?!”
“Uh, no, that won’t be necessary.” Xiao Bai hung up, went to a small convenience kiosk, and bought a bottle of mineral water to get some change. When he checked the bus-stop sign, Route 5 was indeed there.
The Municipal Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine was currently in absolute chaos.
Media outlets of every description had gathered there, and fans had rushed over from every direction as soon as they heard the news.
The patients who had actually come to the hospital for medical treatment abruptly discovered that they had somehow become the most disadvantaged group in the entire place.
Xiao Bai stood outside looking at the sea of moving heads and did not dare approach casually.
Gao Qin had warned him before that except for legitimate events such as press conferences, anywhere crowded with media was forbidden territory for an artist.
Xiao Bai remembered the emergency department Yan Su Ang had mentioned and immediately circled around to the back.
Sure enough, there were almost no reporters or fans around the emergency department. The hospital had kept the passage there completely clear.
He had taken only three steps inside when a security guard stopped him.
“Who are you? Are you here for treatment?”
Xiao Bai said quietly, “I want to see Yan Su Ang.”
“Who doesn’t?!” the guard said irritably. “Go on, go to the front and get in line.”
“I’m his friend.”
“Yeah, and I’m his brother.” The guard rolled his eyes at him—then, with that second look, his expression abruptly changed. “You’re Zeng Bai. Xiao Bai, right?”
Xiao Bai nodded.
“Why didn’t you say so sooner!”
Surely one celebrity visiting another celebrity was not here to dig up gossip.
The guard immediately turned around and headed inside. “Follow me.”
With someone who knew the territory leading the way, Xiao Bai naturally passed through without obstruction.
Yan Su Ang’s room was nothing like the shared ward Jia Zhi Qing had stayed in. Not only did Yan Su Ang have a private room, there was even someone stationed outside to keep watch.
The nurse on guard frowned unhappily when she saw the security guard bringing someone up. “Didn’t we say nobody was allowed in?”
The guard smiled apologetically. “He’s Great God’s friend.”
“Friend?” The nurse suspiciously looked past him at Xiao Bai.
Xiao Bai cooperatively removed his hat. “Hello.”
The nurse relaxed. “Oh, it’s Xiao Bai. Great God is resting right now. Why don’t I go in and ask him? Wait here for a moment.”
She could, of course, have used the telephone sitting right beside her. But when she had an opportunity to see Great God one more time, why would she possibly waste it?
Xiao Bai watched her go inside, feeling strangely uneasy.
Ever since what had happened with the crossing-the-bridge rice noodles, waiting had filled him with an inexplicable sense of dread. There were simply too many thoughts and emotions that could arise while a person waited.
The unfamiliar feeling frightened him.
Although he could no longer clearly remember everything he had thought that day, the feeling itself had remained inside him and would surface again at certain moments.
After a while, the nurse came back out wearing a gentle, satisfied smile. “Great God would like you to go in.”
Xiao Bai stood, thanked both the nurse and the security guard, then slowly walked toward the door.
The room was at the end of the corridor. It had its own separate door, with a long strip of glass set into it through which bright white light shone.
Xiao Bai’s heart beat uneasily.
They were friends… right?
The words he had spoken so confidently to Gao Qin and the security guard suddenly no longer seemed quite so certain.
He suddenly remembered that during that day of waiting, he had once doubted those words too.
Maybe calling us friends is only my own wishful thinking? Maybe Yan Su Ang… doesn’t actually want me here?
Only then did he realize how rashly he had come running over without considering anything else.
His hand stiffened slightly against the door.
The door slowly opened, first into a narrow crack, then halfway.
Previous
Main
Next
Leave a Reply