Chapter 27
The ordered skewers were served one after another. Before even starting to eat, the tempting aroma was already in the air. Shen Bining's appetite was whetted. She rubbed her hands together, ready to have a good meal.
"I didn't even know if you liked it or not before I brought you here on my own initiative. It's my fault for not asking your taste beforehand," Tang Hui said somewhat guiltily as he poured Shen Bining a drink.
“Of course I love to eat.” Shen Bining said as she picked up a skewer of tender and delicious grilled lamb and put it in her mouth. Her eyes lit up immediately. “Delicious, delicious. No wonder you all love to come here. I’m so grateful that you brought me here today. You’ve helped me discover a hidden gem of a barbecue restaurant. Otherwise, I would still be eating a hamburger by myself.”
Tang Hui wasn't very hungry, but seeing how much Shen Bining was enjoying her food, he couldn't help but feel hungry. He picked up a skewer of beef tendon and put it to his mouth, casually saying, "Actually, when I decided to ask you out tonight, I was prepared to be rejected."
"Why?" Shen Bining smiled and looked at Tang Hui, still eating skewers. "Attorney Tang shouldn't be so insecure. Logically speaking, no girl should have ever refused your late-night snack invitation."
Tang Hui smiled and said, "I thought you'd want to go home and rest early since you've been working so late. Aren't you tired?"
"I'm tired, but how can I sleep if I don't eat my fill?" Shen Bining tilted her head, grabbing a golden-brown, fragrant chicken wing and saying, "I'm off tomorrow, so it's okay to go home a little later tonight. I'll eat my fill, go home, have a good sleep, and wake up naturally tomorrow. There's nothing better than here."
"You're working so late, don't your parents leave you a midnight snack?" Tang Hui asked casually, taking a sip of his drink.
Unexpectedly, Shen Bining suddenly shivered violently, her beautiful face contorting as if she had remembered something terrible, and the corners of her mouth involuntarily turned down.
Under Tang Hui's astonished gaze, Shen Bining complained bitterly, "You should know what my parents do now. My dad was a doctor for thirty years; my mom, although she doesn't work in a hospital anymore, studied medicine in college. So these two are seasoned health enthusiasts, with strict standards for the food our family eats. In my parents' eyes, McDonald's and KFC are complete foreign junk food, a culinary attack by Europe and America poisoning the Chinese people. Spicy hot pot and snail rice noodles are also unhealthy, and even barbecue and hot pot should be eaten as little as possible. When I get home, the only thing waiting for me for supper is plain porridge and light side dishes, because these are easy to digest and good for the body at night. God, I've worked more than twelve hours today and haven't eaten dinner yet. When I get home, all I can eat is plain porridge and side dishes. I'm going to want to hang myself."
As she spoke, Shen Bining humorously made a gesture as if she was about to hang herself.
Tang Hui was surprised to find that Shen Bining had such a lively and cheerful personality. She laughed so hard her eyes crinkled. "No wonder you don't go home so late at night. You'd rather go out and eat hamburgers by yourself."
"So, thanks to Lawyer Tang for inviting me out for a late-night snack and taking me to such a delicious barbecue restaurant. Come on, let's have one. I'll finish mine, you can drink as you like." Shen Bining raised her glass and clinked it against Tang Hui's glass, then downed her drink in one gulp.
Tang Hui couldn't help but chuckle, his eyes crinkling with laughter as he gazed intently at Shen Bining, and finished his drink.
The two were enjoying their meal when Tang Hui's phone rang; a WeChat message had arrived. Opening his phone, he saw it was a voice message from Lisa.
"I need to meet your girlfriend, in the next couple of days, immediately, as soon as possible."
Tang Hui pursed her lips, didn't reply, and simply turned off her phone.
Shen Bining noticed something was wrong and teased, "What's wrong? You suddenly look like you ate something bad. Did your little cousin send this to you?"
Tang Hui didn't hide anything from her, since he needed her help with this matter anyway. "I told Lisa I have a girlfriend, and she insists on meeting you. It's in the next couple of days, you..."
“Sure, I have a two-day weekend this week, so I can go with you to see your little cousin. Just let me know when you've decided on a time, and I'll be ready anytime,” Shen Bining said readily, wiping her mouth.
Tang thanked him, and the two continued eating their late-night snack. When they were almost finished, he finally asked the question that had been bothering him the most: "May I ask why you helped Zhou Nianhua? Even if you work in end-of-life care, you don't have to grant every patient's request."
Shen Bining had already finished eating. She took a sip of her drink before speaking: "At first, a police officer surnamed Xie from the prison came to the hospital to tell me about Zhou Nianhua's condition. At the time, I thought the patient just wanted to ask me for more painkillers so that he would suffer less in his final days. But later I found out that the patient's need was not for medicine, but to find someone."
Tang Hui vividly demonstrated what it means for actions to be more honest than words. Although he tried his best to appear indifferent to Zhou Nianhua, he unconsciously put down his chopsticks and listened attentively to Shen Bining's words as she spoke.
“I visited you in prison… After reading Zhou Nianhua’s file, I learned why he was imprisoned. To be honest, my first reaction was to leave. I didn’t want to provide end-of-life care for a man who killed his wife. Although from a doctor’s perspective, this idea is wrong. We should treat all patients equally. Whether a patient is guilty or not is the judge’s business. But even though I understand this in my heart, I can’t really be completely without reservation.”
“I was about to leave immediately, but Officer Xie spoke very well for Zhou Nianhua. I was very surprised that a prison guard would treat a murderer so specially. In Officer Xie’s words, although it was true that Zhou Nianhua had committed an unforgivable crime, the way he had presented himself to others over the past twenty years was by no means that of a vicious person. Many of the prison guards would even have the illusion that Zhou Nianhua was a good person and wonder if he had been wronged back then.”
At this moment, Tang Hui suddenly looked up, his eyes already red, and said in a cold voice, "Impossible, he killed my mother. He confessed to it himself, and all the evidence shows that he did it."
"Don't get agitated, this is just a hypothetical situation." Shen Bining quickly calmed Tang Hui down and continued, "Out of curiosity about Zhou Nian, I still went to see him, but from his appearance, he didn't seem like a vicious person at all. In fact, he was an honest man in the eyes of the public. I talked to him for a while, and he asked me to help him find you. He wanted to see you one last time before he died."
“I asked him why he made this request instead of asking me to get some painkillers. He has liver cancer, which is in its terminal stage and will cause him immense pain. Without painkillers, he could die from the agony. But he insisted on seeing you and made me a promise that really touched my heart.”
Tang Hui frowned slightly and blurted out, "What promise?"
Shen Bining leaned forward, closing the distance between herself and Tang Hui. Her bright, intelligent eyes stared intently at Tang Hui, her voice carrying a hint of seduction. "He said there were hidden reasons behind his killing of his wife back then, but these reasons can only be revealed to you. Otherwise, he would have to take this secret to his grave."
Tang Hui had considered several possibilities beforehand, but he never expected this reason. For a moment, even he, a renowned lawyer, was speechless with surprise.
A while later, he was awakened by the sudden, boisterous singing of a group of drunk young men and women at the next table. He quickly composed himself, suppressing his panic and maintaining his usual serious and aloof demeanor. He snorted and said resolutely, "He's lying. His goal was to trick you into coming to me, and then trick me into seeing him. What secrets could there be in murder? Did someone point a gun at his temple and force him to do it?"
Shen Bining immediately chimed in, "I don't completely believe him either, but I couldn't resist my curiosity, which is why I risked getting stabbed to find you. As for whether what he said is true or false, why don't you meet him and hear what he has to say? If what he said is true, the misunderstandings and grudges between you and your father over the years can be resolved; if it's false, you can also give him a good scolding to his face and have some fun. I believe that with your eloquence, you can definitely make these criminals feel ashamed."
Tang Hui remained noncommittal, seemingly unwilling to continue the topic. He silently took a sip of his drink and said, "Since I promised you that I would go to see Lisa if you helped me trick her away, don't worry, I'm a man of my word and will never go back on my word."
Shen Bining was slightly taken aback. She tried to find something in Tang Hui's eyes, but found that Tang Hui refused to look at her anymore, as if he was afraid that she would see the true emotions in his eyes.
In that instant, Shen Bining understood everything. She smiled slightly and didn't press the matter further. She simply followed Tang Hui's words and said, "Don't worry, I'm sure I can trick your little cousin away."
"Mmm," Tang Hui replied in a very soft voice, her gaze never daring to look directly at anything.
Perhaps to ease the awkwardness or to avoid being interrogated by Shen Bining, he hurriedly got up, hastily said "I'll go pay the bill," and ran away like a deserter.
"Pfft." Shen Bining couldn't help but laugh as she watched Tang Hui, who was usually calm and collected, flee in panic, his long legs moving at a speed comparable to the wheels of fire.
"What a stubborn guy, so adorable."
Shen Bining works in end-of-life care and has seen many hypocritical people, but Tang Hui is definitely one of the best among them.
She could tell that Tang Hui also wanted to see Zhou Nianhua again, but his feelings for his deceased mother and his hatred for his father over the years prevented him from facing his true feelings.
His hatred for Zhou Nianhua at this moment was entirely out of habit, as if hating Zhou Nianhua was something he had to do, something he would never allow himself to change for the rest of his life. Any forgetting or relaxation of his feelings would be a betrayal of his deceased mother, an act of forgetting his roots, and an act of filial impiety.
So he forced himself to hate his biological father, even though that man was dying, and refused to pity the father who missed his son day and night.
He kept reminding himself, "Tang Hui, if you go to see Zhou Nianhua, it means you have betrayed your mother."
But humans are complex beings with emotional needs. In life, we don't only experience love and hate. Moreover, the boundary between love and hate is often blurred, and it's impossible to distinguish between love and hate.
Take Tang Hui's case as an example; his hatred for his biological father actually stemmed from love. Shen Bining guessed that before the tragic changes in their family, the father and son must have had a very good relationship. It was precisely because of this that Tang Hui hated the father who killed his mother and ruined his happy life even more.
This extreme mix of love and hate, coupled with a desire for an explanation, tore Tang Hui apart. He was unwilling to "betray" his mother, yet he longed to see his father again and ask him questions in person. These conflicting emotions tormented him, and he must have had a very difficult time these past few days.
At this point, someone needs to give him a way out, forcing him to see Zhou Nianhua. In this way, he can both fulfill his wish and deceive himself into believing that he was also acting out of helplessness and that he did not betray his mother.
Shen Bining and Lisa were both the ones who gave him a way out. Lisa forced him to find a girlfriend, and Shen Bining forced him to keep his promise after the deed was done.
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