Chapter 7 Coming to Work Again? Asking Though One Already Knows
Early this morning, Grandma had already been transferred to Beijing University Affiliated Hospital, now staying in a double room at the end of the fourth-floor corridor.
After exiting the elevator, Shen Chaoxi checked the room number at the nurse's station and walked over.
Beijing University Affiliated Hospital is just a subway ride away from Dongzhi No. 1 High School, taking only fifteen minutes to get here.
It was past five in the afternoon, the sun was slanting westward, and it was still a long time from completely setting. The entire ward area was quiet and orderly, a swath of white throughout, and the smell of disinfectant was omnipresent.
Upon seeing Shen Chaoxi enter, Zheng Juanjuan, having anticipated her arrival, still complained a few words.
"I told you, your uncle could make it here. The most important thing for you right now is your studies! It's fine for today, but after reviewing at school tomorrow, go straight home."
Zheng Juanjuan had taken a nap here in the afternoon, her hair still uncombed, with a strand hanging in front of her ear. She was in a hurry to change clothes for work, casually grabbing a handful and tying it up with a black elastic band.
Shen Chaoxi, looking at Zheng Juanjuan's crow's feet crisscrossed eyes, thought about how she and Yao Chun were the same age. Yao Chun, who had run away five years ago, had still been tender like a young girl. She must also be living comfortably now.
After sending Zheng Juanjuan off, Shen Chaoxi intended to read for a while but kept getting interrupted by the other person in the room, asking all sorts of questions.
Grandma had taken a set of sleeping pills in the afternoon and was still in deep sleep.
Shen Chaoxi made an excuse to go to the pantry, carrying a hot water bottle.
There's a hot water room on every floor of the ward.
Unfortunately, the fourth-floor hot water room had a "Under Maintenance" yellow sign posted at the door, so she had to climb the stairs to the fifth-floor orthopedic ward.
On the way to the fifth-floor hot water room through the emergency exit, one had to pass a row of doctors' offices.
Shen Chaoxi felt something off and looked down to see that the laces of her canvas shoes had come undone.
She moved to a corner and squatted down to tie her shoelaces.
At the same time, a door to one of the offices across the way opened.
"I'm telling you it's nothing, it's been a fracture for two months now, if it gets any longer, it's going to ossify!"
"This is just to be safe. Why would you go and be a gym teacher with a foot injury? How old are you to still be messing around!"
"Big brother, when have you ever seen a gym teacher run the 800 meters themselves!"
...
The two chattered, passing by Shen Chaoxi without much connection to one another.
One of their voices, deep and teasing, was all too familiar to her.
Deliberately dawdling until they had passed the hot water room and were heading toward the elevator, Shen Chaoxi finally stood up.
The hot water room was deserted at this time, so drawing water was quick.
Shen Chaoxi had just filled a kettle with hot water when she turned and got a start.
Shang Jianghan, who had already walked a good distance away, was dressed in light beige casual clothes, toying idly with car keys in his left hand, his right hand in his pocket, his face lazily amused, leaning against the doorway of the water room.
Hadn't he already left?
Shen Chaoxi hid her surprise, took a few steps forward, and put on a polite smile.
"Mr. Shang, what a coincidence!"
How could it not be? Students and teachers had more chances of running into each other outside school than within it.
Shang Jianghan stood backlit, his distinctively angular face not very clear, his mouth on one side curving slightly upward, the dark depths of his eyes shimmering with a kind of mirth.
"Here to work again?"
He knew the answer even before he asked!
Shen Chaoxi's eyes and brows were downcast, her thick lashes fluttering slightly, casting a shadow over her face.
"No, a family elder is hospitalized," Shen Chaoxi said sparingly.
Other patients came to get water; Shen Chaoxi made room and walked out.
Shang Jianghan didn't move, his languid posture unchanged.
The faint scent of timber drifted past her nose; to go out, they would have to get close.
But she had to go out anyway.
"Goodbye, Mr. Shang!" Shen Chaoxi secretly breathed a sigh of relief, politely said her goodbyes, and left.
As she walked briskly to the corner, on some inexplicable impulse, she looked back and saw that Shang Jianghan's stance hadn't changed.
Returning to the ward, her uncle Yao Yuan had already arrived.
Her cousin Yao Dima had also come along.
Yao Dima, just twenty this year, was only two years older than Shen Chaoxi, his handsome and sunny face tanned to a wheat color.
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The work of a courier brings in money fast, but it's also tough.
"Uncle, Cousin!
When did Cousin come back?" Shen Chaoxi put down the hot water kettle and first made two cups of warm water for them.
Ever since she came to the Yao Family and took up the spare bedroom, Yao Dima had moved out of the house and had been living in the temporary accommodations at his workplace.
A while back, their courier company took on an outsourced job that paid double, and Yao Dima had been away on business for half a month before he just got back.
Yao Dima took the cup of water and gulped down a few mouthfuls.
"I came back this morning, went to the company to report in and came back; I'll rest for a couple of days. I heard from my dad that you're commuting to school, what were you thinking?
We have people at home, what help can you, a young girl, provide? Focus on your studies and don't end up like me, failing to get into university and only able to do labor-intensive work."
Hearing this, Shen Chaoxi felt warmth in her heart; ever since Yao Chun left, she had never been cared for like this at the Shen Family.
Taking back the empty cups with a grin, Shen Chaoxi joked on purpose.
"What, Cousin, are you implying that I'm taking up your room, leaving you nowhere to sleep when you come back?"
Although it was said in jest, Yao Yuan, looking over Yao Dima from the hospital ward, still felt the need to explain on his behalf.
"That's not what your brother meant. He can sleep anywhere, it's all the same for a grown lad; just to get by. He's just worried that commuting back and forth will affect your studies."
As the three of them talked, Grandma leisurely woke up.
Seeing her granddaughter and grandson in front of her, and being in a different environment, Grandma seemed to be in much better spirits.
She had been a teacher for most of her life. In her youth, her husband betrayed her, leaving her to struggle for survival with a child in tow, and in her later years, she still worried about her daughter's troubled marriage.
Faced with such a plight, it was inevitable that she sometimes felt hopeless.
However, seeing that both children were healthy and hadn't grown up misguided brought her some solace.
**
It was a rare overcast Wednesday afternoon.
The physical education class that Class 9 both longed for and dreaded, arrived as promised.
At the sound of the school bell, nineteen students lined up in two rows.
Nine girls, ten boys.
Shen Chaoxi stood on the outermost side.
She had an earphone in her right ear, listening to an English listening practice.
Seizing the opportunity before the teacher arrived, Fang Yuan switched places with someone to move next to Shen Chaoxi.
"Chaoxi, when I can't run later, I'll pretend to have a stomachache, and you can help me, so we can use the excuse to go to the infirmary."
Having learned from the painful experience with Class 6, Fang Yuan prepared a strategy for himself.
Shen Chaoxi glanced briefly to the far left of the line.
"Why not have Xiaoyu accompany you?"
The two were always together, inseparable as flint and tinder.
Fang Yuan squeezed his nose with an indignant face.
"Don't mention it; she said even if she dies, she wants to be tortured by the handsome guy!"
It was said that the soldier teaching Class 6's PE class was also handsome.
Xiao Xiaoyu happened to be someone who was fixated on looks.
"Your stomachache isn't my stomachache, will the teacher even allow me to leave?"
Shen Chaoxi thought that with just over a dozen students in a class, if two left, there might be complications.
Fang Yuan wasn't worried in the slightest.
"Tsk! Why do you think I'm asking you? Because you're pretty, ah! I don't believe any man can resist your delicate glance! Remember to frown a bit when the time comes, and it'd be best to look utterly pitiful. Ah, actually, you don't even need to do that; just bow your head, and let your eyes drop a bit; it's bound to work!"
Shen Chaoxi: ...
Who knew she had such an effect?
Shen Chaoxi was truly amused by his words!
As the two whispered to each other, they were unaware of the tall figure approaching from not far away.
The man walked towards them backlit by the sun, his features not very clear.
In an instant, the line fell silent, and all eyes focused on the man nearly one meter ninety in height, with broad shoulders and a narrow waist, moving with presence.
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