Although Qiao Ling could not hear the content on Chen Kuang’s side of the phone, but after he said this sentence, from the mobile phone receiver obviously burst out a man-made explosion-like noise.
Chen Kuang very timely pulled the phone away, waited until the other side impatiently finished cursing dirty words, then calmly answered: “Why is she at the bar? That you have to ask her, how would I know.”
Qiao Ling secretly thought: how is it unrelated to you…
It’s exactly aimed at you.
“She’s fine, don’t worry.” Chen Kuang was a bit unable to bear the other side’s irritability, turned his head, handed the phone to her, signaling.
Qiao Ling pursed her mouth, received the phone and placed it by her ear: “Ge, I really am fine.”
The phone seemed to have his palm’s warmth… wu, warm warm.
As soon as Qiao Jing heard her voice, he immediately fired questions like a chain cannon: “You this late, what are you doing hanging around in a bar! You’re killing me with anxiety! Didn’t I tell you last time that area recently isn’t peaceful! Just listen to yourself!”
“Believe it or not, I’ll report to your mom!”
Qiao Ling, shocked and also scolded, her rebellious mentality came up, directly retorted: “I… I wasn’t messing around outside! What danger is there in going to a bar, how would I know in this era there are still roadside hooligans…”
“You’re not allowed to tell my mom, if you dare snitch, I won’t let you off!”
Chen Kuang was currently inspecting the damage condition of the mountain bike, the corner of his lips slightly hooked up.
“You go back to the bar and wait for me, I’ll send you back!” Qiao Jing said: “I’m driving, will arrive in a moment.”
Qiao Ling glanced at the man beside her fiddling with the bicycle, “Then you go directly to the city hospital emergency department, we are going over.”
“Ah? Already going to the hospital and Chen Kuang still fucking says you’re fine! This is called fine!?” Qiao Jing got anxious.
She was helpless, really couldn’t stand him: “Of course I’m fine! It’s him who’s injured, I’m hanging up, focus on driving.”
Qiao Ling hung up the phone on her own, handed the phone back, “Sorry ah, my ge has always been like this since young, don’t mind him.”
Chen Kuang put the phone in his pocket, as if seriously examining her face.
Qiao Ling was being stared at by him without blinking, a little nervous, dodged her gaze, “What?”
“Nothing.” Chen Kuang pushed the bike forward: “You and your ge have quite different personalities.”
“But really look a bit alike.”
Qiao Ling trotted to catch up, curious: “You think we look alike? Where?”
Chen Kuang tilted his head, again fixed his gaze on her face, from the brows swept down to the eyes, the line of sight flowing downward to the lips, chin.
She got even more nervous, heart pounding.
The mountain bike’s wheels creaked as they turned, the atmosphere in this one glance subtly changed flavor.
“Mouth and nose ba.” Chen Kuang skipped over her pair of clear little deer eyes, covering up a moment of unnaturalness, looked straight ahead: “Thirty percent alike.”
“Mm, counting up three generations in my family all are Binyang locals, only my dad’s branch married a wife from outside.”
She took the initiative to introduce: “My mom is from Gui City, the last time you saw her, didn’t you feel she has quite the Yun-Gui person facial features?”
Chen Kuang “mm”-ed, without any extra words.
Qiao Ling embarrassed, the mood that just jumped a little immediately retracted back.
Was it a bit too much talking?
Speaking of her own mom, she couldn’t help but again think back to that day in the shop, the scene of being scolded by her mom in front of Chen Kuang.
Qiao Ling lowered her head, staring at the constantly stepping-forward steps, shut her mouth.
The conversation suddenly, without warning, entered a relatively speechless state.
Fortunately, there was the mountain bike gear plates turning with the chain’s clicking sound, alleviating some of the awkwardness.
Chen Kuang noticed the stiff atmosphere from the person beside him, inwardly sighed, giving face as he padded a sentence: “Why not talking anymore?”
He gave a step down, she immediately followed and rolled down along with it. Qiao Ling picked at the pendant on her bag: “That, those things my mom scolded me about that day…”
“Can you forget it?”
Chen Kuang’s hand loosely supported the bike handle, his fingers slowly tapping on the handlebar, tone carrying a bit of teasing flavor: “If you didn’t bring it up, I would’ve already forgotten.”
Qiao Ling: “……”
She covered her forehead with her palm, annoyed as she confessed: “Sorry, I just feel too embarrassed.”
“Please you must forget it, otherwise I really don’t know how to face you.”
Chen Kuang glanced at her from the corner of his eye, also cooperatively: “Got it, just pretend I wasn’t there that day.”
But his attitude of coaxing a child while blatantly lying with open eyes instead made Qiao Ling feel even more awkward.
If she had known earlier, she wouldn’t have brought this up!
Qiao Ling hurriedly searched for a topic, self-deprecating: “My family doesn’t support me opening a shop, but I really like it, so… it’s quite hard to self-reconcile.”
“It’s like in their thinking, even if you don’t like it, even if you earn very little, job stability is above everything.”
“Looking at you, seeming very outstanding, your situation probably isn’t the same as my family’s ba.”
She hinted at his bartender job, asked: “Don’t know, you doing this, do your parents support you?”
“Do they also complain about you?”
Chen Kuang lowered his eyes, didn’t answer, quietly gripped the bike handle tighter.
Facing Qiao Ling’s naive and completely unaware little face, in his mind flashed the phrase “the ignorant are guiltless,” as he cooperated and replied: “Still okay.”
Qiao Ling nodded, not noticing his subtle emotional change: “Oh, then looks like all parents are the same.”
In a few words, the two walked past one and a half intersections, arriving at the city hospital’s emergency department.
In the early hours of the weekend, the emergency department was the busiest.
The hall lights were bright, Qiao Ling was very anxious about his wound, afraid that even one minute’s delay would miss the best time for disinfection.
Walking to the entrance, Qiao Ling turned her head, looking at the man slowly parking the mountain bike, “What’s wrong?”
Chen Kuang tilted his head up, glanced at the high-hanging bright red cross light above the hospital building, his Adam’s apple pressed down, suppressing his expression as he caught up with her steps.
“Nothing, let’s go.”
Registration, waiting for consultation, the doctor checked the depth of his wound, confirmed it was just a superficial wound.
Fortunately, no need for stitches, but because there was bleeding, a tetanus shot was still necessary, and more than ten minutes of wound debridement also needed to be done.
After the injection was finished, Qiao Ling followed him into the debridement room.
Chen Kuang sat in front of the ultrasonic debridement machine, placed his injured arm under the spray head, quietly waiting for the ten minutes of debridement spray to finish.
She found a stool and sat next to him to keep him company.
The sprayed disinfectant water dripped down his arm into the waste liquid pool. Qiao Ling, who had been feeling a little sleepy, instantly sobered up when she glanced at his solid arm with bulging veins.
Wawu, white skin thin flesh, who understands.
Qiao Ling’s eyeballs were almost glued to his arm muscles, sighing inwardly: So this is the charm the sisters on the internet talk about, the allure of battle damage.
Although it’s a bit inhumane, but a forearm with scars is even more sexy ah…
“What are you looking at?” The person next to her suddenly asked.
She jolted, feeling guilty to the point of almost falling off the stool, “Mm?”
Qiao Ling quickly put on an act and pointed at his wound: “I was thinking about this, does it hurt?”
Chen Kuang’s voice was much hoarser than before entering the hospital, not sure if it was because of exhaustion or pain.
The tone sounded less bright.
Chen Kuang clenched his fist, rotated his arm, stared at the wound: “No feeling.”
Qiao Ling closed her eyes and turned her head, gritting her teeth to restrain herself.
Heavens, when he used strength, the muscle lines tightened up.
Stop seducing people already…
She quickly found another topic to suppress her wicked thoughts, “Right, while we’re here, let’s chat for a bit.”
Chen Kuang raised his eyebrow: “What?”
“About your resting problem.” Qiao Ling picked at her fingers, looking at him with guilt in her eyes: “I heard from my ge, you’ve been sleeping at the bar these past few days, even fainted from sleep deprivation.”
He didn’t take it seriously: “It’s not that serious.”
She shook her head, took the initiative to communicate the conflict: “No matter what, it’s my fault you can’t go home.”
“See if we can come up with a solution, let you both sleep well and my shop also operate normally.”
“Although doing business is hard, I don’t want to harm other people’s health just to earn this bit of money.”
Chen Kuang glanced sideways at her, straightened his posture: “Aren’t you able to communicate right now.”
Qiao Ling blanked: “Mm? What does that mean.”
“Last time in the elevator I was just trying to talk about this.” He was puzzled: “Why did you run?”
She paused, then thought of that spring dream again, her ears and cheeks turning visibly pink at a speed visible to the naked eye.
I ran not because I didn’t want to communicate, it’s because——!!!
You were biting my neck in the dream, you!
“Uh, that.”
“Aiya, let’s not talk about that first, the main point is the solution.” Qiao Ling, blushing, pulled the topic away.
Chen Kuang already didn’t understand, seeing her inexplicably blush again, felt even more that this person was interesting.
The debridement passed five minutes, a treatment cycle beeped, the doctor came in to start the next treatment: “Spray for another five minutes ah, once it’s done you can leave.”
Chen Kuang nodded, then turned to look at her sitting beside him: “Do you have any ideas?”
“Actually you also know, this…”
Before he finished speaking, two people hurriedly rushed in from outside.
“Are you okay?! Mei’r ah!” Qiao Jing’s loud voice squeezed into the narrow debridement room.
Seeing the topic interrupted, Qiao Ling rolled her eyes, opened her mouth toward the door: “Ge, can’t you lower your voice in the hospital?”
As a result, looking up, she saw following behind Qiao Jing walking in was the bar manager Xie Rouyin. She paused for a moment, subconsciously glanced at Chen Kuang.
And Chen Kuang was staring at these two people who came.
His gaze, in Qiao Ling’s eyes, was clearly the displeasure of Qiao Jing and Xie Rouyin spending the whole night alone.
Did she run into a love triangle asura field again!?
She secretly cried in her heart, feeling that awkwardness surge up again.
Hateful… handsome man and beautiful woman, really quite matching.
Qiao Jing didn’t say anything else and pulled Qiao Ling up, looking her up and down repeatedly: “Are you really okay? Should we do a check-up? Damn it, don’t let me catch those few assholes again, those sons of bitches that got fucked by dogs, daring to bully my family!”
Chen Kuang: “……”
Qiao Ling: “……”
Xie Rouyin smiled apologetically to the nurse outside the door with warning eyes.
Too crude, this person.
Qiao Ling shook her head, completely speechless: “I’m really fine, only his arm got scratched.”
“Really not going to report it to the police? What kind of grudge do you guys have with those people?”
Qiao Jing irritably scratched his head, finding it hard to organize his words.
Chen Kuang lowered his head rinsing with disinfectant, showed no intention of opening his mouth.
Xie Rouyin, as a woman, answered Qiao Ling on behalf of these two hard-to-approach men: “It’s not complicated, those two people were customers who came to drink when we first opened. That day they drank too much and got handsy with other female customers. At that time they quarreled with Qiao Jing, and in the end Chen Kuang carried them out, so they held a grudge.”
“After that, they’ve been pretending to be hooligans near the bar harassing female customers going in and out, the purpose is to spread rumors that this street isn’t safe, ruining our business.”
“The surveillance cameras on this street aren’t dense enough, there are many blind spots, letting them exploit the loophole.”
Qiao Ling frowned, “How could it be like this, really disgusting.”
She reacted, turned her head and pointed at Chen Kuang, “Oh… so, the aunties saying you were in the alley in the middle of the night beating up several people was…”
Chen Kuang tilted his head, lifted his eyes, raised his eyebrow.
Qiao Ling pressed her lips together and shut her mouth: “……”
So it was to teach a lesson to the thugs harassing girls.
Qiao Jing shook his head, discussing with Xie Rouyin: “No, we still have to report to the police. Even if there isn’t direct evidence and they can’t catch anyone, having the police patrol our area more often would still be useful.”
“I agree, we can’t keep handling it privately like this.” Xie Rouyin had a headache, even her charming makeup turned bitter, “Of all days, just today I wasn’t at the shop, and something like this happened again.”
Chen Kuang leisurely asked Qiao Jing: “What did you two go do tonight?”
Qiao Ling secretly widened her eyes.
It’s coming! Asura field!
He’s starting to interrogate!
“Entertaining suppliers ah, we were just about done when I saw your WeChat, so we rushed right over.” Qiao Jing sighed.
Qiao Ling felt super awkward, silently narrating the asura field scene to herself.
Chen Kuang must be jealous now. Qiao Jing, with the identity of deputy manager, can naturally accompany Manager-jiejie to attend various social events, naturally take care of her, pick her up and drop her off, and then possibly just…
He must be regretting, why can’t he be a little richer, a little more capable, if only he were deputy manager…
Aiya~ what a sour and bitter male lead inner monologue.
A crisp snap of fingers sounded in front of her eyes.
Qiao Ling snapped out of it, looking at Chen Kuang who called her like that.
He pointed at the paper box behind her: “Debridement’s finished, pass me some paper.”
“Spacing out again?”
Qiao Ling returned to her senses, said two oh’s, hurriedly pulled some paper to wipe his arm.
Qiao Jing and Xie Rouyin were standing at the debridement room door discussing countermeasures and tonight’s next arrangements.
Qiao Ling was mentally scripting a scene from a sour yet sexy older-sister-younger-brother romance novel about a poor male lead’s inner monologue. She sighed, and couldn’t help but comfort him: “It’s okay, no one starts off with the capital to be a boss.”
“Qiao Jing’s family really spoils him, counts as half an ‘eating-the-old’ tribe [啃老族, slang for relying financially on parents even as an adult]. You, having solid skills and fighting your way up on your own, definitely have more charm, would attract her more.”
Chen Kuang wiped his damp arm, examining her with a strange expression.
What is she talking about.
“But I still have to stand on my ge’s side, even though you helped me this time and got hurt for me, I am me, Qiao Jing is Qiao Jing.”
Qiao Ling handed him another tissue, her small mouth mumbling very fast: “You can’t use this thing as leverage in your competition from now on.”
The last sentence she deliberately lowered her voice, not wanting him to hear, yet couldn’t help but say it.
“I don’t want to become a part of your three-person asura field play.”
For some reason, after saying this, the blocked feeling in her heart cleared up, and at the same time there was also a feeling of letting go, as if releasing the string of a kite.
Chen Kuang looked at her saying a pile of inexplicable words, eyes turning red inexplicably again.
“……”
He put together the few phrases she said, guessed roughly: “You think I’m chasing Xie Rouyin?”
Qiao Ling’s heart jumped, she hurriedly glanced at those two people, confirmed they didn’t hear, and let out a breath of relief.
She slanted a glance at Chen Kuang, “Isn’t it?”
My ge even wishes he could tear you, this love rival, into pieces and bury you at sea.
Chen Kuang didn’t answer, slowly turned his head away, bent his arm to block the lower half of his face with the back of his hand.
Half a second later, as his shoulder line shook once, Qiao Ling saw the raised corner of his eye.
He.
Smiled?
Qiao Ling blinked. Clearly sitting inside a hospital, yet it felt as if she heard the jingling sound of silver camel bells carried by the wind in the great desert——
Chen Kuang was like golden sand in the northwestern desert, dry, rough, scorching hot.
When he smiled, it stirred up a gust of wind, ringing the crisp little bell hanging in her heart.
Almost in that instant, a bold idea popped up in her head, an idea that could solve the conflict between his sleeping and her shop’s operating time.
Qiao Ling’s lips moved, the impulse swelling at the edge of her mouth.
“Thanks to you.” Chen Kuang lazily looked back, his tone faintly teasing: “I finally know why Qiao Jing keeps picking on me.”
She stared in shock. So he doesn’t like the manager at all!?
It was all Qiao Jing imagining a love rival by himself!
So embarrassing!
“Since you said you are you, and he is he, then I won’t stand on ceremony for this favor.” Chen Kuang balled up the used tissue and tossed it into the trash can, tilting his head: “Qiao…?”
Qiao Ling’s face flushed red as she told him her own name: “Qiao Ling.”
“Qiao Ling.” He repeated, nodded, also not polite: “My bike, I’ll leave it to you. I’m fine, but the bike getting kicked like that isn’t a small matter.”
She was already so ashamed she couldn’t think, hurriedly nodded.
At this moment, the two people who had finished discussing looked over at them. Xie Rouyin said to Chen Kuang: “Leave meimei [younger sister] to Qiao Jing to send home, you come with me to the police station to make a report, then go back to the bar.”
“There are too many customers tonight. Xia Tian told me he’s about to not hold on anymore.”
Chen Kuang nodded, rolled up his shirt sleeves again and stood up, walking toward Xie Rouyin.
Qiao Ling touched her face with the back of her hand, burning so hot it really felt like having a fever.
She blinked to ease it. Really crazy, she was actually just thinking… thinking about letting him… go to her place to sleep…
Xie Rouyin patted his shoulder and said, “Let’s go,” and the two of them had just stepped out of the debridement room when Chen Kuang suddenly turned his head.
Qiao Ling, sitting in place, met that glance, seeing him curl up his lips toward her.
Chen Kuang’s left hand in his pocket, his other hand pointing outside, carrying a very faint smile, reminding.
“Remember to fix the bike.”
Her brain buzzed.
It felt like something had already fallen in.