Chapter 27 Her breath and smell came to my face, carrying the pleasant smell of flowers...

It is said on the Internet that after doing good things, people will feel refreshed and everything will go smoothly. There seems to be some truth to this.

Not long after Gao Xing rescued Zhang Wei on the roadside, he received good news.

Jin Ji told her that Feng Yue had already entered the printing process, but last week, the publisher suddenly notified her that a re-evaluation was needed. She'd been dreading the entire week, fearing her first book would be doomed. But today, she'd unexpectedly seen a surprising turn of events: not only were they getting an additional print run, but they'd also been recommended to Starship.

When she heard that her work was noticed by Starship, her first reaction was not joy, but pressure, because she didn't know whether Shi Yunran had any influence on it.

This society is a huge network. Once you are in a relationship, it is difficult to extricate yourself.

"By the way, that day..." Ji Nian finished his business and wanted to ask her something else, but after thinking it over, he swallowed it back. "Forget it, let's talk about it after you come to sign the contract."

Not long after I received the call, Jinian sent me the signing time. I was happy to see that it was a weekday, so I asked a colleague to change my shift.

…

To remember this person, not letting her gossip was more painful than killing her. Ever since she saw Gao Xing and Zhou Jinkai together under the overpass, her restless little heart had been scratching its head.

She wanted to ask Gao Xing, but their relationship was very ordinary, just an editor and author. It would be a bit presumptuous for her to ask about someone's love life.

So she set her sights on Qian Chuan. For some reason, he'd suddenly become incredibly attentive to her, repeatedly asking her out. At first, she'd been wary, wondering if he had some hidden agenda. But over time, bombarded by his seemingly endless stream of money, she'd become somewhat swayed.

So she went to ask Qian Chuan, but Qian Chuan said he didn't know?

Even the agent doesn’t know about it, could it be a secret relationship?

The commemoration is even more exciting!

Jinian waited until the signing day, ready to make indirect criticisms to Gaoxing in person.

On Monday morning, Gao Xing changed his shift to go to Xinghai to sign a contract. As soon as he walked in, he was greeted enthusiastically by Ji Nian. She was holding a bouquet of flowers, her face brimming with excitement, as if even happier than she was.

Gao Xing was brought to the conference room by her. Under the chairmanship of the editor-in-chief, Gao Xing and the representative of Starship quickly signed a copyright grant contract. Because Xinghai had sold a large number of copyrights, the whole process was very fast, taking less than ten minutes.

When it came time to sign and stamp, the Starship had forgotten to bring the ink pad for the wooden stamp, so the editor-in-chief asked Ji Nian to go get one. Ji Nian went briskly, bringing with him a few folded-up old newspapers.

It's often difficult to precisely control the depth of the seal when first applying ink to a wooden seal, which can easily cause smudges or stain the contract. This requires testing on old newspapers. Seeing that Ji Nian was quite attentive, the editor nodded silently.

After completing all the procedures, the editor-in-chief and the representative from Xinghai quickly left the meeting room. Gao Xing was also planning to pack up and go back. Seeing the opportunity, Ji Nian smiled mysteriously and sat next to her naturally.

"Is there...something?" Gao Xing was confused and even stopped carrying his shoulder bag unconsciously.

"Were you dating someone at Xinjiehui at the end of last month?" Jinian's eyes flashed with gossip.

Gao Xing didn't react at first. After thinking about the address she said, she couldn't help but avoid the look: "No."

"You still don't admit it! It's Teacher Shixu, right?" Jinian originally tried to fight in a roundabout way, but when it came to the critical point, he couldn't help it!

"You guys—" She couldn't stop laughing.

"No, no, no!" Gao Xing quickly waved his hands and denied it three times. "Teacher Shixu and I just had a simple meal, really!"

"Oh, oh, we're having dinner together~" Jin Yi blinked and reassured her, "Don't worry, I won't tell anyone!"

"It's not what you think, it's really not! I swear!" He was so happy and anxious that he wanted to raise his head to the sky to swear.

Ji Nian slowly pressed her hand down, his mouth almost grinning from ear to ear: "Oh~ So that's how it is, then I must have misunderstood~"

Happy:"……"

She was at a loss for words and while looking around, she accidentally saw a piece of news in the newspaper.

"Shocking the art world! 'Morning,' a masterpiece by mainland Chinese master Li Siping, known as one of the 'Southern Tangs and Northern Lis,' will be available at Prism Auctions next March."

This is a newspaper from Hong Kong and Taiwan. The headlines and news are very exaggerated.

The news said: Prism Auction House beat out a number of competitors and won the auction qualification for the mainland's national treasure-level work "Morning". At that time, only Prism members above V9 will have the qualification to bid. To obtain V9 qualification, you need to have purchased at least hundreds of millions of collections at the auction house.

I was happy to recall that at the auto expo, the old man with a goatee standing at the booth for luxury cars seemed to be called Li Siping.

Speaking of which, Zhou Jinkai was also at the meeting that day.

Somehow, when these two names were put together, Gao Xing seemed to have an extra memory in his mind.

"Jian Ji, do you know Li Siping?" Gao Xing asked her.

"Come on! Tang in the south and Li in the north, who doesn't know them?" Jin Yian said exaggeratedly. "Although his 'Morning' is truly stunning, I still think he's plagiarizing a bit. If I had to say who among contemporary painters I admire most, it's Tang Yanfu. Every one of his paintings is a breakthrough! Every one is a master!"

"Did Mr. Sequence have any relationship with him at that time?" Gao Xing asked.

When Ji Nian heard her say this, he immediately narrowed his eyes: "Have you also heard the gossip about Teacher Shixu? It was said that he was Li Siping's apprentice or son? But later Teacher Shixu denied it..."

As she spoke, her eyes lit up again: "Did you find something new? Did you?"

Unable to resist the gossip, she hurriedly shook her head: "No, no, I was just asking casually."

Ji Nian touched his chin and looked at her doubtfully.

I always feel like something is not right!

…

Because I switched shifts with a colleague, Gao Xing didn't go to the nursing home after signing the contract, but went straight back to Mingjing Lake.

On the way, she received a call from her counselor, asking her how her job search was going after graduation.

After leaving school, Gao Xing no longer paid much attention to the group messages, and he didn't even know that the counselor would urge him to find a job in the group every now and then.

She was about to say that she had found a job when the counselor asked her where she was now.

Gao Xing was cautious and didn't answer directly. Instead, he pretended to be stupid and said, "Teacher, is there something wrong?"

The counselor said that after she graduated, her family called her several times and came to the school to look for her, and even called the school office, so that almost the whole school knew about it. She asked her to call home as soon as possible and not to worry her family.

Although the counselor didn't say it explicitly, Gao Xing could guess that these phone calls must have been very unpleasant.

She was startled and said she understood. After hanging up the phone, she went directly to a nearby business office to change a phone card and filled in a unit in Xijiang on the employment information collection form in the group.

In the three months since the remittances stopped, they had tried every possible means to contact her, but in the end, they only had a mobile phone number. If that number had not been used in many recruitment exam registration information, she would have cut off the last clue long ago.

She has left Xijiang, left the school, and left all the prejudice and ugliness.

Now no one knew where she was, and no one could find her. She no longer had to worry all day long, fearing that they would rush to Jingnan, rush to the school, and rush to the classroom to cause a scene.

His happy hands began to tremble, and in his chest, a warm current slowly boiled and surged.

For the first time, she felt that this was freedom.

When I returned to Villa No. 1, Shen Xingjian was sitting flat on the sofa with a blue elastic band hanging on his legs.

When he saw Gao Xing coming back, he hurriedly put away the elastic band and stuffed it into the gap of the leather sofa.

"Why are you back? Didn't you go to work?" He moved his legs under the sofa and asked in a panic.

Gao Xing closed the door, placed the flowers on the coffee table and said, "I didn't go to work today. I went to the publishing house to sign a contract."

Having not seen a fresh bouquet for a long time, Shen Xingjian looked at the bunch of sunflowers and lilies with a little curiosity: "Where did these flowers come from?"

"My editor gave it to me." Gao Xing answered and reached out to take the blue elastic band. Shen Xingjian wanted to cover it with his body, but he was completely unable to resist her quick eyes and hands.

"Are you doing rehabilitation?" Gao Xing was very familiar with this elastic band; many patients in the nursing home used it.

Shen Xingjian looked slightly embarrassed, took it back and stuffed it into the pocket on the side of the wheelchair and said, “No, just move your legs.”

Noticing his avoidance, Gao Xing could probably guess the reason, because rehabilitation is never as simple as imagined.

It's not a one-time effort; it's a protracted battle, both physical and mental. Every attempt to regain function is often accompanied by muscle weakness, movement distortion, and even pain. Even the simplest act of lifting a hand or leg requires nerves and muscles to reconnect, and trembling and failure are common during this process.

When a person repeatedly experiences the cycle of effort and failure, their brain gradually develops a cognitive pattern: "No matter how hard I try, I can't succeed." Once this pattern solidifies, it can lead to a sense of self-worth, leading them to believe that if they can't even accomplish such a small task, they are completely worthless, ultimately falling into a vicious cycle.

Therefore, in the hospital, many patients will eventually give up rehabilitation on their own initiative.

Gao Xing really wanted to help him, but she had a minor in critical care and geriatric nursing and didn't know much about rehabilitation nursing. Furthermore, if Shen Xingjian wanted rehabilitation, it would be best to go to a professional hospital or institution. It would be dangerous to try it alone at home.

She didn't discourage him, but said in a relaxed tone: "I heard that the rehabilitation medicine department of the Municipal Hospital is very famous. Do you want to give it a try?"

Shen Xingjian's attitude was still a little evasive. He was about to say, "I just stretched my legs after sitting for a long time. I'm not doing rehabilitation," when Gao Xing suddenly came closer, put his furry head in front of him and whispered:

"When we were interning at the Municipal Hospital, there was this incredibly annoying teacher in the Rehabilitation Medicine Department who bossed us around all the time! According to your timeline, he shouldn't even be the director yet. How about you go and teach him a lesson for me?"

Shen Xingjian's back straightened up all of a sudden, his nose subconsciously held his breath, and even his chest forgot to rise and fall.

Her breath and smell hit me in the face, carrying the pleasant fragrance of flowers and plants. In my chest, it seemed like something was beating wildly, "thump thump".

Seeing that he was still hesitant, Gao Xing stood up and clenched his fist to threaten him: "Do you agree or not?"

Seeing that she was about to raise her fist when she disagreed with him, Shen Xingjian couldn't help but chuckled: "How can you beg someone like this? You are calling it a threat, you know?"

"I'm threatening you! So what?" Gao Xing put his hands on his hips. "At worst, you can go to rehab later, and I'll just cook for you that day!"

Shen Xingjian choked and muttered softly: “Can what you made be called a meal?”

It's like a chili pepper meeting!

Gao Xing covered his ears and went upstairs when he saw this: "I don't care, I'll just take it as your agreement. Anyway, I'm waiting for you to avenge me!"