Chapter 79 Have we known each other before?
Rong Lan has been in City A for some time now, but due to work-related matters and some personal issues, he has not yet chosen to leave the city.
He was slightly startled when he heard someone call his name. When he turned around, he saw Luo Zheng lying on the ground covered in blood, looking disheveled. Beside him stood a young and handsome man.
Just as Luo Zheng was about to collapse, he was supported by Chen Jin, whose eyes were red with blood, allowing him to stand up with difficulty. A smile was forced onto his blood-stained face, and his voice trembled slightly: "You really... haven't left yet!"
Rong Lan had never seen Luo Zheng so disheveled, injured, and even covered in blood. She was stunned for a moment, almost thinking she had mistaken someone else for someone else, and asked uncertainly, "How...did you get like this?"
"Help me over there quickly." Luo Zheng said to Shen Jin, who was standing motionless beside him. He knew that after all these messy things, Shen Jin would always be wary of strangers, treating him as an enemy and always afraid that the enemy would suddenly pounce on him and hurt him.
"Oh, oh, okay!" Shen Jin nodded repeatedly. He had run away for so long and was exhausted. In addition, his eyes were swollen from crying and his vision was blurry. He had no time to pay attention to Rong Lan not far away.
"What happened? You look so disheveled." Rong Lan walked towards them, still unaware of what had happened. Her gaze swept over Luo Zheng's injuries and then over the anxious Shen Jin beside him, and she paused slightly.
Luo Zheng took a deep breath, feeling like she was about to faint from the pain. She didn't have time to explain anything anymore: "Don't worry about what's wrong, just take me to get some emergency treatment!"
Rong Lan snapped out of her daze at his call, temporarily averting her gaze and avoiding looking at Shen Jin's face. She quickly reached out to support him and helped him into the room.
He lives in a villa in City A, which is just the right size. Now that there are two more people, it might be a bit noisy, but that's not a big deal.
Rong Lan knew that Luo Zheng was seriously injured. After helping him into the house, she hurriedly called the doctor, briefly explained the injured person's condition, and gave some instructions.
Before the doctor arrived, Luo Zheng fainted due to excessive blood loss and exhaustion, startling the bewildered Shen Jin, who burst into tears: "Ah...Ah Zheng! You...you...don't die! Waaaaah! Wake up, waaaah!"
Rong Lan: "..."
With his current mental capacity, Shen Jin couldn't make sense of it all. He only knew that Luo Zheng had been stabbed and was bleeding a lot, looking extremely painful, and had now fainted... He felt his blood was running cold.
Rong Lan coughed twice, looked at the person who seemed vaguely familiar despite having only met him once before, and patted his shoulder to reassure him, "He's fine, he just fainted. Calm down."
Shen Jin's eyes, which were already swollen from crying, brightened slightly at his words, but then she looked at him with some uncertainty, and choked out, "Really?"
Although her eyes were swollen from crying, they were exceptionally clear, with an indescribable purity. Just staring at him like that made Rong Lan slightly taken aback. After looking at him for a while, she awkwardly looked away and said in a low voice, "Yes, it's okay. The doctor will be here soon."
Upon hearing the word "doctor," Shen Jin instantly saw hope again, as if doctors were omnipotent in his heart. He immediately wiped away his tears, his voice still choked with emotion, and earnestly said to him, "Thank you, sob... Once he gets better, we will definitely repay you!"
Rong Lan slightly tugged at the corners of his thin lips, his gaze inadvertently falling on the stranger again, sweeping over his eyebrows, nose, lips, expression... his gaze seemed almost tangible, as if he wanted to pierce through him.
Although Shen Jin's attention was mostly focused on the unconscious Luo Zheng, he still felt Rong Lan's overly intense gaze and couldn't help but turn to look at him: "Wh...what's wrong? Why are you staring at me..."
Rong Lan was taken aback. He felt inexplicably awkward when he looked at him, so he looked away, smiled slightly, and said in a light voice, "It's nothing. Maybe it's because you're good-looking."
Shen Jin blinked: "Oh... thank you!"
Rong Lan didn't say anything, but just smiled and looked away, laughing self-deprecatingly. She couldn't figure out what she was thinking, as if she had gone mad.
Why... do I see a familiar shadow in a stranger...?
"Don't move him, and don't shake him. The doctor will be here soon." Rong Lan told him this, then left the room and went to the corridor. Looking at the bright sunshine and breathing in the fresh air, she saw many flowers in the villa vying to show off their beautiful figures.
With such scenery and weather, one's mood should improve, but Rong Lan felt her mind was in turmoil. She could only sigh softly, take out a pack of cigarettes from her pocket, light one gently, and take a cigarette.
The swirling smoke obscured his sharply defined features.
As time passed, Rong Lan could no longer remember things from his childhood, and his brother's appearance gradually became blurred in his mind. After all, he was only six or seven years old at that time, and memories from that period were inherently fragile.
He only remembered that the person had a pair of smiling eyes, which were very pure and innocent. When he was a child, the person would wave a toy in front of him and coax him not to cry.
Rong Lan took a drag of his cigarette, exhaled a smoke ring, and gently flicked the cigarette butt with his slender fingers. With his other hand, he pinched the bridge of his nose and muttered to himself, "Haven't I been resting well lately? Why am I thinking so much nonsense..."
Even though more than a decade has passed, sometimes images from the past still surface in his mind, making him unable to resist harboring some fantasies. He even thinks of people who resemble him in the slightest when he encounters them.
Just as he was smoking and lost in thought, the doctor finally rushed over and called out, "Young Master Rong."
Rong Lan snapped out of her daze, gave a soft "hmm," glanced at the doctor and nurses arriving with their tools, and then looked into the room at him: "The person is inside, hurry up."
"Okay!" The doctor didn't dare to be negligent. After greeting him, he quickly nodded and, without knowing who the injured person was, didn't forget to reassure him, "Good people are always protected by heaven. Young Master Rong, don't worry too much."
When Shen Jin saw the doctor arrive, he breathed a sigh of relief. He was worried and wanted to stay by Luo Zheng's side until she woke up, but the doctor said that the following scene was a bit bloody and not suitable for him to watch, so he asked him to leave.
Shen Jin didn't know Luo Zheng's condition, so he didn't dare to leave. He timidly hid by the door, wanting to peek inside, but he was worried that he would cause trouble for the doctors, so he hesitated.
When Rong Lan walked over, she saw him standing in front of the door like a thief. She was slightly taken aback, thinking that something had happened inside, so she asked, "What's wrong?"
Upon hearing the voice, Shen Jin was instantly startled, instinctively straightening up and stiffly turning around. When he saw that it was the person who had helped them, he shook his head and stammered, "N-nothing..."
Only then did Shen Jin begin to see Rong Lan's face clearly. He was slightly stunned for a long time, staring straight at him. He wanted to say something, but it felt like something was stuck in his chest, making him feel uneasy.
On the contrary, Rong Lan, who had already seen some familiar shadows in him, began to feel a little awkward being stared at like that. She looked away and asked softly, "Why are you staring at me like that?"
"Ah..." Shen Jin suddenly realized what was happening, feeling a little embarrassed. He realized that staring at someone like that was inappropriate, so he obediently nodded and whispered, "Sorry..."
Rong Lan didn't know what there was to apologize for, but she still replied, "It's nothing."
The more he looked at the person in front of him, the more likely he was to have wild thoughts. Even though some things were already a foregone conclusion, he was unwilling to accept it and always wanted to hold on to a sliver of hope.
But often, the greater the hope, the greater the disappointment.
So Rong Lan shifted her gaze away from him and looked elsewhere. Just as she was about to say something, the still-burning cigarette between her fingers choked Shen Jin, causing him to cough a few times.
Rong Lan stubbed out her cigarette and threw it into the nearby trash can, then asked, as if trying to make conversation, "How's the situation inside?"
Shen Jin shook his head: "I don't know. The doctor wouldn't let me stay inside, so I'm secretly waiting here... I don't know yet."
After spending some time in the deep mountains, Chen Jin was almost like a wild man. His clothes were dirty, covered in bloodstains and dirt, and even his face wasn't clean.
Rong Lan recalled the scene of Luo Zheng carrying him over, and realized that something serious had happened to him. He asked, "How did he get so badly injured? What happened?"
Shen Jin blinked. He was unsure whether he should say this, but then he thought that Luo Zheng had just brought him here to find this person and had even helped them, so she must be a good person.
So Shen Jin briefly summarized what he knew in his mind and said, "There were bad guys chasing us, and we ran for a very long time... We stayed in the mountains, and finally we came out of the mountains, but we were discovered again and they tried to catch me. Then I fought with A-Zheng, and they... they took out knives... and then A-Zheng was injured and bled a lot..."
Rong Lan frowned, listened to those words, thought for a while, and then glanced lightly at Chen Jin, noticing that something seemed off about him. His speech and many other actions seemed inconsistent with his age.
He figured it might be due to an injury or some other reason, so he didn't ask about the two of them for the time being, since he would find out when Luo Zheng woke up.
"What's your name?" Before Rong Lan could react, the question had already slipped out of his mouth, as if he was still stubbornly refusing to accept the truth deep down.
Sometimes he felt that he was really ridiculous.
Shen Jin had a special fondness for Rong Lan, partly because Rong Lan was a good person who helped them and made him lower his guard, and partly because Rong Lan felt familiar with him and gave him a sense of warmth, which made him like him very much.
So when he asked for his name, Shen Jin happily told him, "Me? Shen Jin!"
Rong Lan's body stiffened almost imperceptibly in front of him. Perhaps it was because the wind had just whistled past his ears, causing him to miss some words, but his face turned slightly pale as he turned to look at him: "...What 'Jin'?"
"Shen Jin!" Shen Jin repeated, seeing how pale his face was, as if something had happened, she was a little worried, blinked her eyes and stared straight at him, "What's wrong?"
Rong Lan blinked, slightly regaining her senses. She pursed her pale lips, then instinctively looked away, avoiding his gaze. She simply said in a hoarse voice, "It's nothing."
"Oh..." Shen Jin responded, without asking any further questions, but her eyes kept wanting to glance at him a few times. When she realized it, she felt that what she was doing seemed a bit inappropriate.
After a long while, Rong Lan, who was looking ahead absentmindedly, suddenly said, "I have an acquaintance... with the same name as you."
"Huh?" Shen Jin was taken aback. For some reason, his heart suddenly skipped a beat and he felt a slight pain. Then he forced a smile and asked, "Are you also named Shen Jin?"
Rong Lan shook her head and said nothing.
Shen Jin could tell from his expression that he seemed a little unhappy, and there was a hint of loneliness on his handsome face, which made Shen Jin's heart ache slightly. He couldn't help but ask, "Then... what about him?"
After asking, Shen Jin couldn't help but look around. He thought that since they were very familiar with each other, they might live together.
However, he did not know that this question made Rong Lan freeze, as if something had stabbed her in the chest, causing a faint pain, and her throat tightened. Finally, she squeezed out, "He's gone."
Shen Jin's face turned deathly pale. He understood the meaning behind those words, blinked as if he had done something wrong, lowered his head guiltily, and apologized earnestly, saying, "I'm sorry... don't be sad..."
Rong Lan lowered her gaze, then chuckled to herself, her voice still somewhat hoarse: "It's nothing, it happened a long time ago."
He chuckled self-deprecatingly, wondering what was wrong with him. Why would he bring up these things with a complete stranger he'd just met? He clearly didn't like bringing these things up with people on his own initiative.
After all, some scars remain in a person's heart, and mentioning them once is like being ripped open, inevitably causing pain.
Rong Lan shook her head, glanced at Shen Jin's dirty appearance, and remembered that this person was Luo Zheng's friend. She felt that she was not being a good host, so she said, "There is a doctor here, so don't worry about him. Take a shower."
"Oh, thank you..." Shen Jin nodded, his gaze inadvertently falling on Rong Lan, a strange feeling creeping over him, as if something was stuck in his chest. Suddenly, a thought struck him, and he asked, "Have we known each other before?"
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