bamboo basket
Taking a statement didn't take long, but Tao Chu spent much longer sitting in the room waiting.
At first, she saw the older policeman carrying a teacup out and thought she would be able to leave soon.
Later, she asked the policewoman who stayed in the room with her three or four times, and the answer she received was always, "Wait a moment."
There was no clock on the wall, and Tao Chu gradually became restless.
She didn't know the extent of Cen Le and Wen Yunsheng's injuries, whether Li Yue and the others were taking statements next door, or whether Tao Guohua had understood her hints...
She felt distinctly anxious and restless, yet a wave of physical drowsiness washed over her, creating a contradictory feeling that made her feel uncomfortable all over.
She propped her head up and used her knuckles to scrape the scalp next to her hairline, feeling the tendons underneath being pulled apart.
As soon as the door creaked open, Tao Chu looked up sharply and saw the young policeman who had lent her his phone on the overpass.
The policewoman turned around and called out, "Oh, it's Xiao Zhou—"
"Sister Zhang, my supervisor asked me to relieve you. Go and rest for a while," he said quietly as he walked over to the policewoman.
The policewoman stood up and said, "He seems pretty honest. Just keep a close eye on him."
After the door closed, Xiao Zhou went to the water dispenser next to him, filled a glass of warm water, and placed it in front of Tao Chu.
Perhaps because he had been staying up all night, he looked tired and in a bad mood, with his eyebrows and eyes drooping.
"Your friend has been taken to the Municipal People's Hospital. His back and leg injuries are quite serious, and he is still undergoing surgery."
"Oh—thank you." Tao Chu took the water glass, staring at him, waiting for his next words.
But he avoided her gaze, turned back to the table, lowered his head silently, and said no more.
Tao Chu took a sip of water and observed his expression.
Unease, guilt, and remorse.
A sense of foreboding washed over her. After placing the paper cup on the small table in front of her, she asked, "Are Li Yue and the others still here?"
He glanced at her but didn't say anything.
This was already the answer she needed.
She first felt a tightness in her throat, and the words of cursing welled up in her throat, but it was as if they were blocked by a high dam, and not a single drop of water could be gushed out.
Laughter, however, seeped out from the crack first—
Cen Le was taken to the hospital with her face covered in blood. She risked her life to stop a car and was locked up here, while Li Yue has already been released!
Not even overnight!
She thought of Li Yue huddled in the black car, texting without even looking up. She had initially thought he was a trapped beast making a last-ditch effort, but now it seemed...
She's the one who's ridiculous.
Those who could control everything ten years ago will only become more unscrupulous ten years later.
Xiao Zhou glanced at her upturned, cold smile and felt a pang of unease. But with surveillance cameras everywhere, he could only whisper, "Please calm down."
Tao Chu rubbed his face, peering through his fingertips at the person directly in front of him: "I'm calm enough..."
Since disembarking and returning to Jianglin City, she and Cen Le have been slowly planning how to use the old case to stir up trouble.
They meticulously reviewed the progress of their investigation, revising the whistleblower's materials word by word and rehearsing how to film the video line by line, but they dared not make any rash moves for fear of alerting the enemy.
But the snakes had already surrounded them, waiting for their chance to strike.
If it weren't for her persuading Tao Guohua to put a "protective shell" on herself, Li Yue, unable to restrain himself, would probably have attacked her first.
Tao Chu covered her tear-filled eyes. Cen Le was implicated because of her, and so was Wen Yunsheng...
Seeing her lying on the table without saying a word, Xiao Zhou stood up uneasily, then slowly sat down again.
Tao Chu was originally burying her head in tears, thinking about what other options she could have while crying, until exhaustion overwhelmed her.
When she was woken up, Tao Chu suddenly looked up, knocked over the cup in front of her, and spilled the remaining half cup of water onto her trouser leg.
"Go back first. Don't go out unless necessary. I'll contact your family if anything happens," Xiao Zhou said softly. "They're waiting for you in the lobby on the first floor."
Tao Chu wiped away the dried tear stains on her face, stepped out of the room, and saw that the windows at the end of the corridor were already bright with daylight.
Tao Guohua had finished a whole pack of cigarettes, his face even smelling of the smoke. He was about to go to the small supermarket across the street to buy another pack when he saw Tao Chu coming down.
He hurried over and saw that she was disoriented, her eyes were vacant, her hair was disheveled, and there was blood on her body: "Oh my, you really scared me to death!"
Tao Chu didn't ask him until she got into the car, "Li Yue wasn't detained?!"
Tao Guohua thought to himself, "I almost couldn't even get you out, let alone detain him."
But he didn't want to lose face in front of his daughter, so he could only sigh a few times.
"Who knows where Li Pengcheng got his extraordinary abilities from! Given that Wen Yunsheng was hit so badly, Wen Tao wouldn't have given in so easily..." he muttered.
The fact that Jianglin City's public security system bypassed Wen Tao can only mean that Li Pengcheng was using connections to get to higher levels...
"Dad, take me to the People's Hospital first." She planned to see Wen Yunsheng first, and then try to find out which hospital Cen Le was in.
Tao Guohua accompanied her to the outpatient hall of the People's Hospital to find out Wen Yunsheng's ward. As soon as the two got off the elevator, they saw a lot of people gathered in the corridor, as well as two video cameras.
Tao Chu had been interning for two months and immediately recognized that it was a media outlet looking for an interview. Could it be that they were looking for Wen Yunsheng?
Thinking that she might be able to help Wen Yunsheng turn down reporters if they happened to be there, she walked towards them.
Sure enough, there was a familiar face – Bi Jing, a reporter from the Daily News. Tao Chu went up and patted her on the shoulder.
Bi Jing was taken aback when she saw her: "You're here for an interview too?"
Tao Chu peeked through the crowd and saw Wen Yunsheng lying on the bed with his back turned, so she said, "Oh, I'm not here for an interview—"
She originally wanted to say that she was visiting a friend, but she was afraid that Bi Jing would ask more questions. She was about to make up an excuse and call Tao Guohua to deal with it when another sharp-eyed reporter noticed the bloodstains on her clothes.
The man sized up her face and figure: "Are you the female driver who drove the Ferrari last night?"
The noisy ward fell silent for a moment, and everyone's eyes turned to Tao Chu, with Bi Jing's gaze being particularly intense.
She grabbed Tao Chu, her eyes gleaming with the word "exclusive," like a cat spotting a mouse: "Come with me!"
Wen Yunsheng had just undergone surgery, and the anesthesia hadn't completely worn off. Hearing that Tao Chu was being harassed but couldn't move, he could only worry anxiously.
Tao Chu shook off Bi Jing's hand, looked at the camera shoved in front of her, and her face turned cold.
"When you came to the hospital to conduct interviews, did you show your press credentials to the interviewees? Did you obtain their consent? Did you not consider whether it would disturb other patients' rest?"
The camera zoomed out slightly, but the reporter who had just spotted Tao Chu wouldn't give up and kept pressing her for answers:
"What is your relationship with Mr. Wen Yunsheng of Jianglin Yuanmao Group? Was that blue Ferrari your own vehicle? Was there any drunk driving or drug driving involved in the traffic accident?"
Tao Chu was well-versed in dealing with reporters. He absolutely could not answer his questions, and only said, "I will not accept your interview. Please leave the hospital."
Seeing that they were still talking at once and wouldn't let it go, she shouted, "Show me your press credentials! I want to file a complaint against you for disrupting the normal order of the hospital and disturbing the patients' rest, and I demand compensation for the damages!"
Upon hearing the word "compensation," their voices immediately fell silent.
Tao Guohua, who was following behind, shouted for them to make way, and squeezed into the ward with Tao Chu, forcibly closing the door.
Tao Chu walked to Wen Yunsheng's bedside, met his gaze, and asked softly, "Did the surgery go smoothly?"
He moved his lips, making a very soft sound: "It will take some time before I can walk normally again."
Seeing him curled up in the pale hospital bed, Tao Chu felt a lump in her throat, nodded, and turned away.
"Chuchu!" Tao Guohua, who was looking down at his phone, suddenly called out to her, "Come and take a look!"
"What's wrong?"
"When I saw those reporters, I thought I'd search online to find out more, but I was afraid they'd make things up. And then, a press release came out first thing this morning—"
Tao Chu took the phone and glanced at the news headline: Ferrari Portofino crashes on first attempt, beautiful woman speeds on elevated highway late at night.
She clicked on the details, and the only description of Wen Yunsheng was "the co-pilot is suspected to be the son of an entrepreneur from Jianglin City." However, after today's commotion by these reporters, subsequent reports might not cover him up.
"show me."
Tao Chu turned around and handed the phone to him. He glanced at it and understood the Li family's intention: "You can't hide it from my dad. Contact him as soon as possible and make plans accordingly."
The three of them only had one usable cell phone, and Tao Guohua became uneasy when he saw that they wanted to use his phone to contact Wen Tao.
I just promised Sui Liyong last night that I would drag Wen Tao and Li Pengcheng into this mess, and today I'm proactively contacting Wen Tao. What if Sui Liyong finds out...?
"I can't get through." Tao Chu said, then immediately thought of the reporters. "Did some of them also try to ambush your dad?"
"It's possible—my mother isn't feeling well, so let's not talk to her about it yet. Chuchu, my secretary should be here soon, you can go ahead and get busy."
Tao Chu originally wanted to ask the nurse to help him find a caregiver to accompany him, and then find an opportunity to bring up Cen Le so that he could leave first.
But his understanding and subtle approach left her feeling utterly ashamed.
Because of her own car accident and personal injury, and the trouble she caused, she couldn't even provide the most basic bedside care.
Cen Le's fate is unknown, her old cell phone is missing and its safety is uncertain, and Shen Yingchang's identity might offer a turning point in Li Yue's case...
These things weighed heavily on Tao Chu's heart like mountains of stones, and she simply couldn't stay here.
Wen Yunsheng couldn't bear to see her in such a predicament, so he smiled at her and said, "Your life is saved, everything else is trivial."
Tao Chu knew in her heart that she owed him too much this time, and she had no intention of renegering on her debt.
She stepped forward and gently patted his blanket: "Thank you... You should rest well, I'll come to see you again."
"Don't be too reckless." Wen Yunsheng lowered his eyes to look at her withdrawing hand. "Be careful."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
