Chapter 435 Open and aboveboard, what's there to panic about? "Clang—!"
A piercing metallic clang, accompanied by the crisp echo of a porcelain bowl shattering, shattered the eerie silence of the treatment room, a silence thick with the scent of medicine and sweat.
The aluminum lunchbox rolled and crashed onto the concrete floor, the lid popping open, spilling a little leftover potato and meat stew broth and stir-fried cabbage broth all over the ground in a mess.
At the doorway, Li Xiaoge, holding an empty lunchbox, stood frozen in place like a statue that had been instantly struck by acupuncture.
Her eyes widened in disbelief; those eyes, which were originally as clear as black grapes washed by mountain spring water, were now filled with shock and disbelief.
"I...I..."
Li Xiaoge wanted to say something to explain that she hadn't deliberately barged in, but her throat felt like it was blocked by a wad of cotton, and she couldn't utter a single syllable.
Her body reacted faster than her mind.
The instinct for survival, or rather, the instinct to escape this terrible truth, made her turn around abruptly.
"I'm...I'm sorry, I...I didn't see anything!"
She cried out in a panic.
Then, like a rabbit startled by a hunter and its tail on fire, she scrambled out of the treatment room, forgetting even to pick up the crumpled lunchbox on the ground.
"Bang!"
She slammed the door shut in her panic, making a loud noise and completely separating the two worlds.
Outside the door, the sound of Li Xiaoge's hurried footsteps receding into the distance could be heard.
Inside the door, there was a deathly silence.
Jiang Yan stared at the tightly closed door, completely dumbfounded, her mind blank.
He remained in that frantic, clothes-grabbing posture for a good ten seconds before he snapped out of it, as if he'd been pulled from a basin of ice water, and came to his senses.
It's over.
He wasn't afraid of himself.
He's afraid of Su An!
He knew better than anyone what that scene meant in an era where people viewed conduct issues as a raging tiger and valued personal reputation more than life itself.
An unmarried lesbian and a shirtless gay man are alone in a closed room.
This cannot be erased simply by saying "I didn't see anything".
If this gets out, Su An's reputation... will be completely ruined.
In this day and age, it is worse than death to tarnish a woman's reputation.
She will face endless gossip, strange looks from everyone, and backstabbing and whispering behind her back! She will be labeled as "immoral" and "having a problematic lifestyle," and will never be able to hold her head high again.
What marksman, what hero, what exercise meritorious... all of these will be smashed to pieces under the big label of "moral conduct issues".
And all of this stems from him!
If he hadn't come to her for hand treatment, if he hadn't taken off his clothes...
“I…” Jiang Yan turned his head to look at Su Tang, his eyes filled with pain and self-blame.
"Don't be afraid, I... I'll go and explain things to her. I'll take full responsibility and I absolutely won't implicate you!"
He spoke very quickly, his voice trembling slightly from extreme anxiety, and he was even somewhat incoherent.
This tough man, who remained unfazed even when facing a hail of bullets on the battlefield, was now panicking like a helpless child.
However, the scene he had envisioned—Su Tang panicking and even crying with her face covered—did not occur at all.
He turned his head and saw Su Tang just standing there quietly.
Her gaze fell on the silver needle in her hand.
She slowly picked up a small wad of alcohol swab from the medicine cabinet next to her and began to carefully wipe the silver needle that had just been pulled out with extreme focus and composure.
From the needle tip, to the needle body, and then to the needle tail.
After wiping her eyes clean, she slowly raised them, her clear eyes calm and still, and glanced at Jiang Yan indifferently.
"What's the panic?"
"I..." Jiang Yan was speechless when she asked those three words.
What's the panic?
He wanted to say, how can we not panic?
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