Ch 14 - Alex’s “Poor” Box of Food

As Alex touched the box of food, it still felt warm, so his dormmates could still eat a warm meal. He carried the box into the hospital.

"Creak," the door squeaked as Alex pushed it open into the hospital room.

Rose Scott was staying in a single room. Her injuries weren't serious, so she only had some gauze on her injured leg.

Rose's friends were circled her hospital bed. Other than Joe and a few others, the rest of them were dressed quite stylishly.

Beside the bed lay the gifts they had brought with them. There were beautifully packaged fruit baskets, several red boxes of chocolate, and a few vases filled with brightly coloured flowers.

The group was talking and laughing, but everyone's gaze turned toward Alex as he came in with the box of food.

Alex was stunned by the crowd. He hadn't expected there to be so many people in Rose's room.

Alex was originally here to deliver food for Joe, but, after all, Rose was injured. Now that so many people were looking at him, he smiled and asked Rose, "Rose, are you okay?"

Rose didn't respond. She just looked coldly at him as if she wasn't happy to see him.

"What's that in your hand?" Rose's dormmate, Stacy Whitehouse, asked as she pointed at the box Alex was holding.

"Oh, I brought some food over for my friends," Alex said plainly as he glanced down at the box.

"You can't be bringing food to see Rose, right?" Stacy looked at Alex in surprise and said, "Coming to the hospital to visit patients with food?"

"Even if this isn't for Rose, they would still—" Alex started to explain.

Just as Alex was about to explain that this meal was for his roommates, Joe walked over quickly, patted Alex on the shoulder, and said with a smile to the others, "Alex is the real deal. We haven't eaten yet—this will feed everyone's hunger."

Alex had come to Rose's hospital room, so if he hadn't brought anything with him, her snobbish friends likely would have ridiculed him. Although this meal was meant for his roommates, now it looks like it was for Rose.

It was better to bring food than nothing, right? Alex thought.

"Haha—this is the first time I've heard of someone bringing food to see a patient!" said one person.

"I've heard of it before, but all I've seen were patients' mothers bringing food. You're still a university student, aren't you?" said another person.

A few of Rose's friends started to discuss among themselves.

"Hey—no one saw you when you came in with this thing just now, right?" Rose asked snappily. It was embarrassing for a classmate to bring her food.

"I saw it," said someone. Alex felt a bit uncomfortable.

Don't say that the food was not for her. Even if it was for her, it would still represent my generosity and shouldn't be looked down upon, right? Alex thought to himself.

"You saw it? How shameful!" Rose snorted and turned her head away.

"Why don't we take a look at what exactly he's giving us?" Stacy said plainly. After saying that, she walked over to Alex and opened the box he was holding.

Rose's friends started to talk to each other.

"There's no need to look. What good stuff can he possibly bring? I heard this person's name at university. His family is extremely poor, and he doesn't normally go to restaurants," one said.

Another responded, "I think I recognize him. He used to be a delivery boy outside of our university, and I've even ordered takeout from him. He delivers takeaway for the small food stalls outside of the university."

"Ah? For those small stalls outside the university, a serving of fried rice and noodles would only cost one or two dollars. Is that box full of fried rice and noodles?"

"Definitely—by the looks of him, even if it's not egg fried rice, it would not be worth more than two dollars. Rose needs good food right now. Why bring this?"

"When the nurses come in later, they will see everyone in the room eating lunch from these boxes. It's only one- or two dollars' worth of fried noodles. If this gets out, we'll be the laughingstock of the hospital."

Rose's friends talked back and forth, ignoring Alex who was still standing there. A few of them had eaten together at the Rookie's Lodge the evening prior, so they all knew Rose's attitude towards Alex.

Alex was speechless. There was no need for him to stay any longer. He ignored the others and told his roommates to eat their food before it got too cold. He then turned around and left.

Rose frowned as she looked at Joe, who was carrying the box of food, "Slow down—be careful not to eat too much."

Joe felt a little uncomfortable. But he didn't say anything in front of everyone, so he put the box on the floor.

At that moment, the door to the room opened and someone walked in.

"Rose, it's all my fault. How are you? Is the injury severe?" Zane Harrison walked in. His head and hands were wrapped in gauze, so his injuries weren't too serious.

"It's nothing serious—just a bit of skin and a bit of a fracture. The doctor said I could be discharged after two days of observation. What about you?" Rose said as the coldness on her face vanished, and she revealed a sweet smile.

"Are you all right? You were in a coma yesterday. How are you feeling? It's all my fault… sitting behind you… influenced you—" Zane said with concern.

Following that, Rose started to show Zane some warmth.

Seeing this, Joe and the others didn't feel good.

When Alex had walked in, Rose spoke coldly to him. The other people's words were so unpleasant to hear, and they didn't even try to ease the mood.

In contrast, Zane caused Rose's injury, but Rose treated Zane so well.

Even Rose took the blame for the injury upon herself.

However, no matter what, Zane had saved Rose's family's company this time, so it was understandable that she would treat Zane this way. Joe and the others could only let out a sigh.

As she spoke, another woman rushed into the room.

"Rose, what's wrong? How are your injuries? Oh my—look at this arm covered with gauze. What did the doctor say?" the woman exclaimed.

As the woman spoke, she rushed to Rose's bedside and looked at her in worry. She was dressed in a light blue striped business suit. She had short, neat hair, fair skin, and long, thin eyebrows.

"Auntie," Rose sighed.

Rose's big eyes were shining as she stared at the woman. Her small hands already holding onto the woman's hand.

The woman that had rushed in was Rose's aunt, Sue Bradley.

Although Sue was Rose's aunt, she was only four years older than her. They were more like sisters, so, after the incident, Rose had naturally called Sue.

"The doctor said it's not a big problem. Auntie—don't worry—I'm blaming myself. I should have called you to tell you not to come," Rose said matter-of-factly, looking Sue in the eye.

Hearing Rose's words, Sue heaved a sigh of relief.

Sue noticed that Zane's head was also wrapped in gauze, so she turned to look at him and frowned, "So—you're the one who threw Rose off the motorcycle, right? You said it rained last night. Why were you riding around in the rain? Do you think you're so good on that bike? You got lucky nothing serious happened this time. If something had happened, would you be fully responsible!"

What Sue said to Zane in front of everyone made him look bad. He coughed and looked around at the others with an awkward expression.

"Auntie, don't say that to Zane. He didn't do it on purpose. Our recent family matters were settled by Zane's father," Rose pulled Sue's hand toward her and whispered. "Zane has helped our family so much."

Hearing Rose's words, Sue was slightly stunned. She looked at Zane with a steady gaze and said to her, "Rose, are you going defend him?"

Of course, Sue knew about Rose's recent situation with Donald and Luciel Brennan. When she had heard that Rose had provoked the Heavenly Lion Group, she had been extremely anxious and had sent people to find some connections. However, these connections turned out to be useless because the Heavenly Lion Group was too strong.

Later, Rose had called and said it had all been settled.

Sue was relieved, but it aroused her curiosity.

Who had her niece found to settle the matter in less than a day? Sue wondered.

Was it this young man in front of her? No matter how Sue looked at it, it didn't seem right.

"Auntie," Rose glanced at Sue with displeasure, "Zane's company is not small, and his father had a meal with President Chase. Helping them out is not a big deal. It's rude of you to question Zane."

"Silly girl… things are not as simple as you think. What sort of status does the president of the Merchant Union have? Do you think you can make a move just by eating a couple of simple meals?" Sue was much more mature than Rose, and she had experience with the Merchant Union before as well. She knew that it was not that simple.

"Ma'am, the solution your family tried was not working. So I asked my family to help," Zane spoke up. Sue had embarrassed him a lot. He continued, "When your family was at a loss for what to do, I helped you guys out big time, yet you still treat me with the same attitude—don't you feel embarrassed?"

Sue was truly angered by Zane's words.

"I'm just saying… it isn't an easy task to get President Chase to make a move," Sue said with a dark expression.

"You still don't believe me?" Zane showed a slightly surprised expression and took out his phone. He glanced at Sue with a smile and said, "I'll call my dad to confirm it in front of you and Rose, okay?"

Zane sneered and dialled his father's number.

"Hey, dad… let me ask you something. Yesterday, I told you to help Rose with her family's matter. Didn't you go to look for President Chase?" he asked casually.

"Ah… this matter… I forgot to tell you about this my son," Zane's father replied.

"I went to look for him yesterday, but President Chase's secretary said that he couldn't see me. It's just that President Chase was too busy at work and didn't have time to talk, so I left a message in the end," his father told Zane.

Zane's father didn't know what was going on with Zane, so he told the truth.

Zane's heart skipped a beat, and his face instantly felt a little hot. It turned out that it wasn't because of his dad.