Chapter 28 A sudden rise in the dead of night…

The unknown and fear that suddenly arise in the dead of night are terrifying. Babies cry because they cannot find anyone to shelter them, and the elderly face the darkness and look back on their lives with a heavy heart.

Song Mingli ruffled his soft black hair: "What do you want to hear?"

Ying Shixue turned her head back, her voice muffled by the fabric as she said, "Whatever."

Song Mingli thought for a while, then hummed a tune softly. There were no lyrics, only the melody.

The man's voice was deep and gentle, humming an ancient ballad from a distant era in the night. His hand moved up and down soothingly along with the rhythm of the song.

Ying Shixue was held in his arms, and gradually, she went from leaning on his shoulder and neck to slowly relaxing her body and resting against his chest.

On a cold night, it must have been a magical thing to be in contact with warm, fresh skin. Through a layer of bones and flesh, he could almost feel the flow and circulation of blood in another person's body, and the constant beating of their heart.

Thump, thump.

Consciousness gradually blurred with the rhythmic movements, and finally the eyelashes trembled and closed, the breathing became slow.

Song Mingli slowed down his hand movements, finally stopping completely, and looked down.

From his angle, one could see Ying Shixue's slender, straight nose, a small section of her delicate, pointed chin, and her thin collarbone and a small section of her shoulder, which were exposed due to the large neckline of her clothes.

Song Mingli remained expressionless, adjusted his collar, gently placed him on the bed, and covered him with a thin blanket up to his shoulders.

Then, resting his elbow on the back of the bed, he propped his head up with one hand and looked at the sleeping person's profile.

Ying Shixue's cheek was partially sunken into the soft pillow, and even in her sleep, her brows were still slightly furrowed.

He stretched out his finger and gently touched the center of his forehead, slowly smoothing out the wrinkles.

What are you worried about? Or rather, what are you afraid of?

What he didn't know was that if he had tilted his head slightly or looked inside more intently while adjusting Ying Shixue's collar, he would have seen a three-finger-wide, healed, sunken scar on the smooth skin of Ying Shixue's left shoulder.

The scar lines are crooked and layered, and one can imagine how resolute the owner must have been to cut off that piece of flesh with one stroke. After removing the contents, the wound was not sutured properly and in a timely manner, causing it to ulcerate and heal repeatedly, resulting in so many scar lines.

But everything was concealed under a piece of the thinnest fabric, and the sea was calm.

In the end, Song Mingli simply tucked the blanket around him and fell asleep beside him.

-

The summit concluded smoothly without any further mishaps. A minor incident occurred on the fifth day at the banquet when he unexpectedly bumped into Cheng Cheng at a corner. Ying Shixue looked at him with some surprise, noticing his black and white banquet waiter uniform: "Weren't you in Liancheng working on your graduation project?"

"Oh." Cheng Cheng said expressionlessly, "I figured this place is full of business tycoons. Even if I can't learn from their experience, I can at least benefit from their good fortune."

Ying Shixue: "To be honest."

"..." Cheng Cheng said decisively, "They pay more here."

He glanced around a few times, then quietly leaned closer to Ying Shixue and whispered, "One night there is equivalent to five days there."

“Anyway, that company has already moved on to the next stage, and there’s nothing I can do to help there,” Cheng Cheng stepped back and shrugged. “I’ve been working here for half a month already. I came here before graduating to reminisce about my alma mater and get my medical check-up done.”

The action of wiping the snow should pause.

Cheng Cheng looked at him suspiciously: "Don't tell me you've forgotten about this."

Ying Shixue remained silent.

He really forgot.

Although St. Franry's students do not take a unified entrance exam like students in traditional schools, but instead have a well-established and long-standing grading system that is recognized by many universities, a final comprehensive physical examination before graduation is still essential.

Ying Shixue recalled the notification document she had seen at the time, which stated that the deadline for the physical examination was exactly one week after the summit ended.

He breathed a sigh of relief: "I understand. I'll go back to school this weekend."

A hint of teasing appeared in Cheng Cheng's eyes: "What, is your brother keeping such a close eye on you?"

"Speaking of which, didn't you decide to go to that medical equipment company a long time ago? You couldn't change your mind in the end?"

Ying Shixue turned her head slightly to the side, her long eyelashes drooping. This posture made the magnificent and dazzling white light of the banquet hall shine down from one side at an angle, with half of her face hidden in the shadows so that her expression could not be seen. Her profile under the exposed light was particularly cold and white.

Finally, he slowly shook his head, a smile appearing in his eyes: "It's alright."

This sentence was a bit abrupt, but he had lingered there long enough that the foreman was already calling him. Cheng Cheng finally left with a hurried "I'm going now," and departed.

As the banquet was drawing to a close, as usual, a leader gave a concluding speech. Ying Shixue stood behind the crowd, looking at the person on the stage, and took a small sip of the wine in her glass.

-

After returning, there was indeed a lot to do in the week. Every department in SK was extremely busy, with one task after another being coordinated and project progress being pushed forward. For three out of the five days, he saw the light in Song Mingli's study on until late at night.

Sunday was the last day of the deadline given by the school. Ying Shixue stayed up all night to finish half of the day's tasks, and then asked the company for half a day off in the afternoon. She left work early to go back to school to get a medical examination form. When the leave application was approved, it was directly signed by the president, which made Wei Chao, who happened to be passing by, hesitate for a long time.

Ying Shixue found it both amusing and couldn't say it outright: "Don't worry, Brother Wei, I know what I'm doing."

Wei Chao glanced at him several times, seemingly engaged in a fierce internal struggle, and finally patted his shoulder with a slightly weary expression, not knowing whether he believed him or not: "That's good, that's good..."

By the time he arrived at the school, it was already three or four o'clock. St. Francis was very wealthy, and the temporary medical examination area alone took up almost half of the gymnasium. From the equipment to the medical staff, everything was up to the highest standards.

He forgot about it after reading it. He wasn't the only one who arrived on the last day. There were people queuing in front of each item. It took Ying Shixue a while to finish all the checks. At the exit, she queued up to hand over her medical examination form to the medical staff in charge of stamping it.

The woman was a middle-aged female doctor. She took his medical examination form and was just going through each form as usual when she saw a certain data point. Suddenly, her eyes paused and she looked up at him.

Perhaps it was because Ying Shixue was so beautiful that when she looked at people with her clear eyes while wearing casual clothes, it immediately stirred up the female doctor's long-hidden maternal love, and her voice softened:

"Young man, you have type HQ blood. You should be careful not to bump into anything and bleed. Be careful on the road. After all, there are very few matching blood types in hospitals. Even if there are some elsewhere, it may not be possible to get them in time."

She looked at the medical report again: "Also, your weight is a bit low. Even during puberty when you're growing, you shouldn't be this thin. Your heart rate is also a bit premature. You need to rest early at night and not stay up late or overwork yourself."

Ying Shixue listened and nodded. Just as she was about to say that she had remembered, a quarrel suddenly broke out next to her.

He instinctively looked in the direction of the sound and saw a male student who had come for a physical examination angrily slam his form on the table: "What do you mean! Huh?"

The person opposite him was also a male medical worker with long bangs. His face was obscured by a white mask, making it impossible to see his features. Faced with the man's rage, he simply leaned back and refused to even glance at him.

The boy got even angrier, snatched the instrument from the doctor's hand, and threw it on the table: "Is this the attitude of your institution? Casually disclosing the privacy of those undergoing medical examinations and insulting their medical records..."

A short, stout middle-aged man, also dressed in a white uniform, pushed his way out of the crowd: "Excuse me, excuse me, I'm so sorry..."

Finally, I managed to squeeze my way to the male student: "I'm so sorry, young man, I'm the person in charge here. I'm really sorry, but this doctor usually..."

He rubbed his hands together with a slight chuckle: "He's a straightforward person, and he offends people with his words." He turned around and scolded sharply: "Xiao Li, hurry up and apologize to him!"

The doctor called Xiao Li didn't move an inch. Seeing that the boy was about to rush forward, Director Huang stopped him, using her round belly to steal the spotlight, firmly blocking the student in front of the medical table: "Don't rush, don't rush. How about we give you a 12% discount on all your future checkups at our facility, plus a free one-day hot spring hotel experience card~"

Ying Shixue looked away. The female doctor beside her sighed, "Sigh, Dr. Li is the same. How many times has she caused trouble this month? If you ask me, the director shouldn't have..." She stopped there, shaking her head, her tone tinged with concern.

"It's a shame about that equipment; it was just replaced last month..."

Ying Shixue glanced to the side and saw the two characters "Tian Zhe" printed in cursive script on the bottom of the instrument that had fallen on the table.

-

With today's highly advanced technology, once the medical examination form is stamped and confirmed to be in order, it is directly uploaded to the system. Ying Shixue's eyelids twitched heavily when the doctor was talking to her. Finally, after returning to the villa, she saw Aunt He's distressed eyes and a table full of various nourishing dishes.

Song Mingli sat on the sofa with his laptop on his lap; it was unusual for him to be home at this hour.

Seeing him return, my gaze shifted from the computer screen to him. A fleeting glint of light flashed across the edges of his eyes, which were devoid of any luster. My words were concise and to the point:

"Go up."

Ying Shixue looked in the direction he pointed and saw a high-precision weighing scale.

"Why did you suddenly bring this out?"

Logically, even though the school uploads the data to the system, it's impossible for them to directly send the specific medical examination data to the parents.

Song Mingli showed him the message he received on his phone. Ying Shixue quickly scanned it and found it was a text version of what the female doctor had said to him that afternoon!

“St. Francis certainly doesn’t disclose students’ physical privacy casually, but as a parent, I have the right to know about your health condition.”

Song Mingli tilted his chin slightly toward the scale, his tone casual yet authoritative: "Take off your coat and stand on it."

Ying Shixue was silent for a moment, then took off her coat and draped it over the chair. Just as she was about to stand up, Song Mingli spoke again: "Take off your shoes too."

The scale moved slightly, and a number slowly appeared on the display screen.

If Song Mingli had maintained a composed expression when he first entered, his demeanor had completely changed by now, even causing Aunt He to exclaim "Oh!" upon seeing him.