Chen Qianqing's mother, Liu Huamei, had bought a morning train ticket and arrived at the hospital around 2 pm with her luggage.
At that time, Chen Qianqing was sitting on the bed playing a mobile game, and his overall complexion looked pretty good.
"Qianqing." Liu Huamei entered the room, dragging her luggage. She gave birth to Chen Qianqing when she was already in her thirties, making her an older mother. Chen Qianqing was their only child, so naturally, he was doted on. When she heard the news of Chen Qianqing's accident over the phone, she almost fainted.
But seeing Chen Qianqing sitting calmly on the bed, Liu Huamei finally felt relieved.
Chen Qianqing hadn't seen Liu Huamei many times. In his previous life, his only impression of this woman was the scene of her crying after finding out about Chen Qianqing and Lu Zhengfei's situation. At that time, they were already stuck in a dead end, and the death of Liu Huamei and her husband was the final straw that broke the camel's back.
"Mom." After yesterday's psychological conditioning, it wasn't too difficult for Chen Qianqing to call her mom. He put down the book in his hand and looked at the woman. "You're here."
"I didn't call, so you weren't planning to tell me?" Liu Huamei complained as she dragged her luggage. "You're alone in the hospital, with no one taking care of you. Why are you so stubborn?"
Chen Qianqing smiled and said, "I didn't want you to worry."
Liu Huamei glared at Chen Qianqing, rambling on, "I ended up worrying even more! You don't know that your dad almost took leave to come with me."
Chen Qianqing's father was named Chen Qingyang, an ordinary worker who loved Chen Qianqing very much.
"You should really thank your friend," Liu Huamei said. "If it wasn't for him, I probably would have called the police."
As an uninformed person, Liu Huamei's words were filled with a sense of irony. The main culprit, Lu Zhengfei, was being thanked by the mother of the victim, and he didn't know if he could suppress his laughter.
Chen Qianqing remained calm, and even after hearing these words, his face didn't change much. He calmly said, "I should really thank him. Without him, I might be dead."
When Chen Qianqing said these words, Lu Zhengfei pushed open the door and entered. His gaze fell upon Liu Huamei sitting in the room and Chen Qianqing's expressionless face. Then, Lu Zhengfei, also with an expressionless face, put on a sincere smile and said, "Hello, Auntie."
Lu Zhengfei's smile was so genuine, as if he really was just a friend who helped Chen Qianqing, delighted to see his friend gradually recovering.
"You must be Xiao Lu, right?" Liu Huamei smiled and said, "Qianqing is lucky to have you taking care of him. If it weren't for you, I would have been so worried."
Lu Zhengfei continued to smile, "Not at all, Auntie is too polite. I'm a good friend of Qianqing, so it's only natural to do these things."
If it were the previous Chen Qianqing hearing these words, his expression would probably immediately change. Although he wouldn't explicitly point out Lu Zhengfei's hypocritical face, he definitely wouldn't give him a friendly look.
But now, Chen Qianqing only showed a half-smile, not even bothering to look at Lu Zhengfei.
Chen Qianqing knew very well how to provoke Lu Zhengfei without inviting punishment. It may be somewhat difficult for a person to abuse others, but it was effortless to abuse oneself.
Sure enough, after seeing Chen Qianqing's reaction, the heavy smile on Lu Zhengfei's face faded a bit.
"Auntie, my family has a house near the hospital. It would be inconvenient for you to come here. Why don't you come to my place for a while?" In front of Liu Huamei, Lu Zhengfei displayed an unusually enthusiastic attitude.
"That wouldn't be right," Liu Huamei declined. "I'll rent a place nearby and take care of Qianqing when he wakes up."
Lu Zhengfei said, "Auntie, it's difficult to find short-term rentals in this area. Qianqing and I are like brothers. Please don't decline. It's just a matter of giving face, right?"
Before Liu Huamei could respond, Chen Qianqing interjected, "Mom, you should go and stay. He's my good friend, so it's fine."
Liu Huamei hesitated.
Luo Zhengfei said again, "Are you dissatisfied with where I live?" With the words spoken, if Liu Huamei still refused, it would be disrespectful. So she reluctantly nodded her head and agreed to Luo Zhengfei's proposal.
During this time, Chen Qianqing's expression remained unchanged, and the tone of his words just now was very natural, as if Luo Zhengfei was really his good friend.
Luo Zhengfei originally wanted to test Chen Qianqing, but he didn't expect such a reaction from him. This made him suspect that Chen Qianqing might have some other ideas again.
But before Luo Zhengfei could think of anything, he heard Chen Qianqing say, "Mom, I want to eat the fish you make."
These words dissipated most of the gloom between Liu Huamei's eyebrows. She pretended to be annoyed and said, "You child, I haven't even sat down properly yet, and you want to eat fish. Besides, I have no place to cook it."
"Aunt." Luo Zhengfei said, "I happen to need to go back and get something. You can come with me and put your luggage away, and I can cook fish for Qianqing."
Liu Huamei gratefully said, "Little Luo, thank you. Qianqing is spoiled too much..."
Hearing this, Luo Zhengfei glanced at Chen Qianqing and showed a meaningful smile. Chen Qianqing acted as if he didn't see it.
After talking for a while, Luo Zhengfei took Liu Huamei's luggage and left the ward.
Chen Qianqing sat on the bed and watched the two leave, closing his eyes in silence.
Not many people knew about Chen Qianqing's leg injury, to be precise, not many people who were close to Chen Qianqing knew. When Luo Zhengfei imprisoned him, Chen Qianqing's family didn't even know, let alone his friends.
Not knowing about suspending studies, even less knowing about the accident. At this moment, Chen Qianqing was alone, without any external support. According to common sense, no one would come to visit him during his leg's recovery period. But just after Luo Zhengfei left, an unexpected guest arrived.
Chen Qianqing was reading, and he heard the sound of the door being pushed open. He looked up and saw a familiar face - his sister, or more accurately, Luo Zhengfei's sister.
Luo Zhengfei was not an only child; he had a younger sister named Lu Yiqin. Luo Zhengfei had always spoiled her, and almost all her requests would be fulfilled.
If it weren't for Lu Yiqin's strong hostility towards Chen Qianqing, Luo Zhengfei would probably continue to spoil her. After Luo Zhengfei found out about the incident involving Chen Qianqing and her, Lu Yiqin was forcibly sent abroad.
Now, Lu Yiqin's appearance was clearly not a good sign.
"I heard my brother say your leg is broken?" Lu Yiqin came in with a mocking face, her eyes filled with malice as she looked at Chen Qianqing. "Strange, why didn't your ass rot first? Your leg broke first."
Under normal circumstances, Chen Qianqing would definitely argue with her after hearing these words. But Chen Qianqing didn't curse, and most of the time, he trembled from being scolded by her.
But today, Lu Yiqin's plan backfired.
When Chen Qianqing heard her words, he didn't even raise his head and continued to look at the book in his hands, his tone coldly saying, "Is this how your brother taught you to speak?" He had long known that Lu Yiqin didn't like him, but he didn't expect her to frequently trouble him behind his back.
"What qualifies you to talk about my brother?" Anyone else can say it, except for Luo Zhengfei, who was Lu Yiqin's Achilles' heel. She exploded, "You're just a whore, and you're selling yourself so cheap!"
Her words were extremely vulgar, but Chen Qianqing lifted his head and looked at Lu Yiqin coldly, "Say it again."
Lu Yiqin's face instantly flushed red. She didn't know what had happened to Chen Qianqing, but her intuition told her that today's Chen Qianqing was not someone to mess with.
"If you continue to pester my brother, you will die a miserable death." Lu Yiqin said this, but still refused to leave.
Chen Qianqing said, "I am already suffering a miserable fate. Do you think my leg broke on its own? And Lu Yiqin, have you forgotten what you did?"
Lu Yiqin angrily replied, "What did I do? I have no idea!"
Chen Qianqing looked at her and smiled, "Do you know Xu Zhuo?"
The mention of this name instantly drained the color from Lu Yiqin's face. She stammered for a while before saying, "H-how do you know about that?"
Chen Qianqing replied, "How I know is not important. What's important is that your brother doesn't know yet. But if you don't leave, I can't guarantee that he won't find out."
Lu Yiqin was furious but dared not say anything more. She glared fiercely at Chen Qianqing and suddenly picked up the cup on the table, slamming it onto Chen Qianqing's bed.
Chen Qianqing remained motionless, with no strong expression on his face.
"Just you wait!" With these words, Lu Yiqin turned and walked out.
Chen Qianqing looked at the water stains and the cup on his bedsheet and suddenly laughed. When Lu Yiqin smashed him, the water was cold, but when Luo Zhengfei saw it, the water could become hot. Chen Qianqing knew that there were surveillance cameras in the room, but he was also well aware that when he watched the footage, he didn't see Lu Yiqin bullying him. This meant that someone tampered with the surveillance.
It was a long time later when he identified the person who had manipulated their relationship. However, by that time, he and Chen Qianqing had lost any chance of reconciling.
Now, his goal was to expose this person in advance.