Chapter 11 This Rain Has Been Brewing for a Long Time, Falling Suddenly and Unexpectedly
As soon as she took over Class Nine, she knew this bunch of "troublemakers" came from no simple backgrounds, blessed with superior family conditions.
Even so, she still held hope for these kids, especially when she saw Shen Chaoxi studying anytime, anywhere, which reinforced her thoughts.
Perhaps, the breakthrough to getting these second-generation rich kids in Class Nine to buckle down and study was with this girl.
Unfortunately, she applied for day school!
Taking care of sick elders at home was an indisputable matter, and it was an irrefutable reason for her to attend day school.
However, the final year of high school was too crucial for students who were devoted to their studies and aimed to secure admission into universities on their own merit.
For this reason, Dongzhi No. 1 High School would invite teachers from the college entrance examination committee to give lectures randomly each week, usually scheduled in the evening.
This was a significant loss for day school students.
Bai Jinyuan remembered the family gathering that day when she rarely encountered Shang Jianghan, who also returned home with her sister Bai Jinyu.
At that time, the family was jovially chatting on the first floor of the villa, except for him, who leant lazily against the outdoor swimming pool's column with a cigarette in his mouth, flicking the ash into the clear pool water as it accumulated.
One should know that the outdoor swimming pool was the exclusive territory of Bai Jingran, the Bai Family's eldest grandson. The only person bold enough to flick cigarette ash into it in all of Shangjing was the man before her.
Bai Jinyuan shook her head helplessly; it seemed that after tonight, the Bai Family's villa swimming pool would have to go through another round of trouble replacing the spring water.
"How old are you to be stooping to your cousin's level?"
Knowing full well that Bai Jingran would make a fuss, he deliberately stirred up trouble.
Shang Jianghan raised his eyebrows and glanced at a certain room on the second floor of the villa with a challenging look.
"Who spoils, who suffers! Worst comes to worst, my aunt can stay outside for a few days."
That was to say, let her avoid the trouble for a few days!
"I don't mind, but your grandparents and your aunts and uncles will suffer!"
Talking about Bai Jingran, the Bai Family's eldest grandson, both parties lost interest.
The indulgence of the Bai Family's elder generation and the doting love of Bai Qirui and his wife turned him into what he was now, filled with both regret and helplessness.
"What's going on with my student, I heard it was you who approved her day school status? You really have too much free time!"
Bai Jinyuan shifted the topic, referring to someone, and Shang Jianghan knew who she meant after a moment's consideration.
He didn't offer a defense.
Bai Jinyuan became even angrier.
"Don't you know how important the final year of high school is for a student? Not to mention whether a day student can study well at home, just think how regrettable it is for her to miss out on the special evening courses! And the time spent commuting to school, other students can outpace her by a long shot..."
"Then why don't you ask her why she chose day school?"
Bai Jinyuan was interrupted and felt uncomfortable, thus spoke with a bit of irritation in her tone.
"Why?"
The cigarette had reached its end, and Shang Jianghan flicked his fingers, the next moment the cigarette butt flew in a perfect parabola through the air and landed precisely in the swimming pool.
The calm surface rippled, creating a small circle of ripples.
At the same time, the sound of clattering came from a certain room on the second floor.
Bai Jinyuan closed her eyes, thinking to herself that she would immediately move out in a moment!
Having achieved his goal, Shang Jianghan stretched his arms and twisted his sore neck, preparing to leave.
"Hey! You haven't answered my question yet?"
Far off, Bai Jinyuan only then heard Shang Jianghan's distant voice.
"She said she has an elderly relative in the hospital who needs care."
Watching Bai Jinyuan's somewhat distracted look, Shen Chaoxi politely said goodbye.
"Miss Bai, I'm off, see you tomorrow!"
Bai Jinyuan hadn't regained her composure when she saw that figure already descending the steps, quickening their pace towards the school gate.
There was a faint rumble of thunder coming from the southwest.
"Hey! Chaoxi, take an umbrella before you go, it's going to rain!"
Bai Jinyuan thought to chase after her, but Chaoxi's figure was nowhere to be seen.
A quarter of an hour later, Shen Chaoxi finally squeezed onto the bus just as rain began to patter down just after she stepped aboard.
"Yo! Little lady, you're lucky; any later and you'd be soaked!"
The bus driver joked, as he drove this route every day and during this time of day he'd meet this pretty young girl eight or nine times out of ten.
Once after a casual chat, the driver found out the girl was a student at Dongzhi No. 1 High School.
As a long-term resident of Shangjing, the driver naturally knew that Dongzhi No. 1 was a key high school in the province and city, sending the highest percentage of students to Tsinghua Capital University and Beijing University each year.
In his mind, children who could attend Dongzhi No. 1 were all good children!
Shen Chaoxi gave the driver a nonchalant smile and, with passengers urgently boarding behind her, hurriedly walked further inside.
Outside, the raindrops were getting larger, and by the time the bus reached the next stop, it was pouring buckets, and the sky was a vast expanse of white, hardly clear.
Chaoxi wondered if Zheng Juanjuan, who might still be on her way to work, had brought rain gear.
These past few days, to save money on her commute, she had been renting an electric bicycle.
In such heavy rain, riding an electric bicycle would be extremely difficult.
Looking through the bus window, Chaoxi saw that almost every sheltered place was packed with people.
The downpour seemed to have been lying in wait, striking unexpectedly!
Pulling out her mobile phone from her backpack, Chaoxi dialed a familiar number, trying to contact Zheng Juanjuan.
She fully expected that the other party, either rushing or sheltering from the rain, might not hear the ringing, but surprisingly, the call was answered within seconds.
There was no sound of heavy rain on the other end of the call, all around was silent, which relieved Chaoxi.
At this time, Zheng Juanjuan must have been trapped in the hospital by the heavy rain.
"Aunt Juanjuan, you are still in the hospital, right? It's raining too hard outside, don't go to work, losing pay is better than getting sick from the rain!"
After Chaoxi finished speaking, she received no response from the other side.
She looked at her phone's screen, which showed that the call was still connected.
Putting the phone back to her ear, she heard rustling noises followed by cries of pain.
"Gentle! It hurts..."
"Looks like a fracture, we need to take an x-ray to see..."
"Doctor, it's nothing... I still have to take care of the elderly and I have work... just wrap it up simply and that'll be enough..."
The intermittent words came through, allowing Chaoxi to piece together some information.
Juanjuan seemed to be hurt, and the injury didn't sound minor.
The bus's stop signal chimed; Chaoxi needed to get off at the next station, and as luck would have it, this bus also went to Beijing University Affiliated Hospital.
Half an hour later, soaked on one side, Chaoxi hurried into the hospital's emergency room, where she found the injured Zheng Juanjuan in the third consultation room.
In the examination room filled with the smell of disinfectant, the blue and white ambiance and the ticking of machinery mixed with the friction sounds of metal instruments.
Juanjuan sat forlornly on the side of the treatment bed, her hair was in total disarray, her clothes bore signs of being torn, her head was wrapped in a white bandage, her left arm was bandaged, and she had rolled up the sleeves of her trousers to reveal cuts and bruises on her calves.
Then, out from behind the white partition screen came the tall and thin Yao Dima.
His condition didn't seem much better than Juanjuan's; his entire left face was severely swollen, and there were remnants of blood near his mouth and nose that hadn't been fully cleaned, with every exposed part of his skin showing marks of abrasions.