If I had known this earlier
"Who led you astray?"
He Lijun asked unwillingly, but Fang Huai didn't look back. He lifted his heavy legs and slowly went upstairs.
The air fell into a dead silence. He Lijun sat on the floor, her hands white from the water on the carpet. Her hair was disheveled as she stared at the ceiling and muttered:
"Fang Huai, I regret it."
"It's all my fault that I didn't teach you well. It's all my fault."
"It's all my fault for wanting to adopt you. If I hadn't adopted you, you wouldn't have met them, right? You wouldn't have become bad? You wouldn't have become disobedient."
He Lijun pushed her husband away and shouted hoarsely, "It's all my fault from the beginning to the end! It's my fault!"
"I regret adopting you and meeting you in the orphanage."
Fang Huai bent down slightly and almost missed the stairs, hitting his ankle hard on the edge of the steps. He held the handrail and slowly sat down on the steps, turning his pale face to look at his adoptive parents.
He Lijun's words were like sharp knives, stabbing his heart again and again.
"I know."
He squeezed out these words from between his teeth, as if all his strength had been used up.
Fang Huai knew, he had always known, the Fang family's regret and remorse. They regretted adopting him, regretted not returning Fang Henian to the welfare home after he was born, and they regretted meeting him.
Fang Sijie looked at the mess in the room, then looked at Fang Huai and then at his wife. He helped his wife up and whispered a few words in her ear. Then He Lijun wiped her tears and walked directly to the room where they lived.
Fang Sijie approached Fang Huai and looked down at him.
He sighed deeply: "Fang Huai, do you know why I named you Fang Huai?"
Fang Huai looked up at Fang Sijie, a shadow covering him. Fang Huai opened his cracked lips and murmured, "Because of that old locust tree."
He looked into his adoptive father's eyes behind his glasses, hoping to get affirmation and an answer from them.
"Wrong."
Fang Huai lowered his head, his fingers gripping the steps tightly, and said with difficulty, "I don't know."
A long sigh sounded above his head. Fang Sijie glanced at his wife who was busy in the bedroom, and his thoughts gradually flew away - the day he named Fang Huai, the locust flowers were in full bloom.
Before my wife even stepped into the Sophora japonica Welfare Home, she was amazed by the Sophora japonica tree at the door and she smiled for the first time she had seen in a long time.
He felt at that moment that it was the right time to come.
There happened to be a well-behaved little boy standing under the locust tree. He stretched out his hand to the boy on the tree and said softly, "Kong Lingyu, pull me."
"I'm afraid."
Fang Sijie's voice was steady and gentle: "I remember the scene when I first saw you. The falling locust flowers landed on your head, Fang Huai. You smiled so happily at that time, and your eyes were clean and clear, without a trace of haze."
"You are very clean, as clean as the sophora flowers that bloom in that season, like an elf. I can see that your mother likes you, and I hope you can bring us joy like an elf."
"But I was wrong." The voice of regret and annoyance echoed in my ears.
The clean and well-behaved elves did enter his home, but whether the elves gave them or they brought the elves, they only brought them pain, endless pain. Every time Fang Sijie encountered a family conflict, he always had a thought in his mind: I should have known this would happen.
If I had known this earlier, I would have let Maimai stand under the locust tree, let him be Maimai, and not let him be Fang Huai.
"Click".
Fang Huai's nails were broken off by gravity with a snap. The piercing pain made him feel cold to the bone. He stood up weakly by holding the stairs, his face ashen.
He looked at Fang Sijie, his hair covering his forehead obscuring his vision, his heart as dead as death: "I know."
"Thank you, thank you...thank you."
Fang Huai swallowed the word "Dad" that almost came out of his mouth, which made his throat sore.
Fang Huai's eyes went dark, and the blood on his fingertips congealed as he stood on the steps. The burning pain seemed to spread through his fingertips to his stomach, causing his stomach to reflux and acid to keep coming back into his throat, forcing out his tears.
"That's—disgusting."
After the door was closed and the couple had completely walked out of Fang Huai's house, Fang Huai covered his mouth in pain and lay on the ground retching.
The urge to vomit was painful, but he couldn't vomit anything.
Tears dripped onto the floor like beads, and the broken beads blurred Fang Huai's vision.
His hands clutched the carpet like a lifeline.
Ring ring ring.
The cell phone was ringing, like a midnight death knell. Fang Huai slumped down on the ground, holding his churning stomach, and leaned against the steps.
She swiped her face hard with the back of her hand, leaving bright red blood marks across her cheeks and across her high nose bridge. She looked fragile and gorgeous. She blinked her red eyes and looked at the flashing phone.
It’s Xu Hangran.
The little girl's weak voice came from the phone, and she called out hesitantly, "Teacher."
"Um."
Fang Huai stared at the phone screen and forced a response from his throat. Xu Hangran didn't notice anything was wrong with Fang Huai. She poked Zhou Chao next to her with her hand. Zhou Chao awkwardly took the phone and said, "Teacher, how have you been recently? Let's..."
"Hiss." Zhou Chao groaned in pain. Xu Hangran gestured to him, "Get to the point."
"I've been doing pretty well lately."
Fang Huai covered his phone, held it away and responded softly, "Is there anything wrong?"
Xu Hangran couldn't bear it any longer. She snatched the phone and said, "Teacher, we won't hide it from you anymore."
"Dr. Zhao Delang from our department reported you to the dean for contacting the media privately and leaking the author's privacy. Do you remember Ding Ling's father? Although he was arrested, he wrote a letter of complaint, complaining that you investigated his family situation without permission..."
"The director was also criticized. Dr. Zhao also said, 'If the hospital doesn't handle this properly, he'll continue to complain. Li Xiangdong, that traitor, actually slandered you for being irresponsible at work...Teacher, why are they doing this? Many doctors have spoken up for you, but Dr. Zhao is unyielding. The director and the dean are still discussing this matter."
The more Xu Hangran spoke, the more he wanted to cry. Finally, he choked up and said, "Can we still wait for you to come back?"
Zhou Chao, who was standing next to her, saw her crying and carefully handed Xu Hangran a piece of paper.
They knew they couldn't wait for Dr. Fang to return, and after Dr. Zhao's commotion, the hospital couldn't let him go easy on them. They had no other options. They could only contact Fang Huai privately and ask him to prepare.
"I'm sorry to have made you worry."
Fang Huai leaned against the steps, looking at the ceiling helplessly. "I will arrange a new teacher for you. I hope everything goes well for you in the future."
A hoarse voice came from the phone: "Xu Hangran, Zhou Chao, thank you."
Fang Huai hung up the phone, sent messages to several close colleagues in the department, and only felt relieved after settling the two students.
In response to his colleagues' inquiries, Fang Huai feigned a casual tone and replied, "I'm fine. They're just troubling you."
【I'll treat you to a meal when I have time.】
Cheng Shen replied: [It's a small problem. Both of them are top students, so it's not a big deal.]
"You're being too polite, but I'm really craving Jingxuan Pavilion's specialty dishes. You have to treat me to a meal. I'm craving them."
FH: No problem, thank you.
Before Xu Hangran could get over his sadness, Cheng Shen called to sympathize with them and told them to report to his office in the afternoon. Zhou Chao also received a call from another attending physician in the department, asking him to come to him in the afternoon.
Xu Hangran couldn't hold it back any longer, his eyes turned red.
"Why is this happening?"
"Is it true that Teacher Fang will never come back?" Xu Hangran grabbed Zhou Chao's sleeve and couldn't help but say, "This is obviously unfair! Teacher Fang did this for the patients, how could he..."
"Good people don't get good rewards, so who will dare to..." When Zhou Chao saw someone coming, he immediately covered Xu Hangran's mouth and winked at her.
Xu Hangran angrily pulled Zhou Chao's hand off and looked at the newcomer with eyes that seemed to spit fire: "Li Xiangdong, how dare you come here?"
Li Xiangdong glanced at the two of them calmly, "Why can't I come?"
"You traitor, you shameless fellow!"
Li Xiangdong glared at Xu Hangran and sneered, "Xu Hangran, how can you still be as naive as a student? This is a hospital, a battlefield. Being immature won't solve any problems. Of course, too much sympathy is just self-touching. Fang Huai has fallen to this point because of self-touching."
"You want to go this way too?"
Zhou Chao's face darkened and he blocked the girl behind him. "Li Xiangdong, you are really disgusting."
"You're so ungrateful that you're slandering Dr. Fang for your own benefit."
Li Xiangdong, clutching the documents in his hand, said with disgust, "I slandered him? Aren't the facts right in front of you? He's a shameless homosexual, flirting with other women, shameless. I just did what I had to do."
After saying that, he glanced at the two people in front of him and immediately put on a flattering smile. Zhao Delang was walking towards him with a group of people.
Li Xiangdong walked quickly towards Zhao Delang and said something to him in a servile manner. Zhao Delang smiled with satisfaction and nodded to signal Li Xiangdong to join his team.
Li Xiangdong, who got what he wanted, stood in the crowd and smiled at the two of them with disdain.
Zhao Delang just glanced at Xu Hangran's red and swollen eyes, sneered and left.
He is much older than Fang Huai, but his ability is not as good as this young man who has just started out. The director of the department is most optimistic about Fang Huai and sends Fang Huai to any seminar or exchange meeting no matter how important it is.
Especially in the past two years, Director Liang has been on the rise. Every time he promotes Fang Huai, he always feels uneasy as he is the most experienced person in the department.
Zhao Delang used his connections to get inside information, and when he found out that his guess was correct, he couldn't help but feel resentful.
Li Chengshen, the head of the department, is just a playboy and has no competitiveness, while the other few are far inferior to him in qualifications and abilities. Only Fang Huai and he have the ability to climb up the social ladder.
But Director Liang obviously has high hopes for Fang Huai... Why, why can a latecomer like him stand above him?
Zhao Delang refused to accept this. It just so happened that Fang Huai had been causing trouble during this period. Li Xiangdong, Fang Huai's student, took the initiative to surrender to him and revealed a lot about Fang Huai. He caught Fang Huai's weakness and took advantage of the critical period when the hospital was reviewing Fang Huai to directly report him. No matter how proud Fang Huai was, or how much the director's face was, it would be impossible to protect Fang Huai.
You know, Fang Huai's personal affairs caused great losses to the hospital. Regardless of Fang Huai's private contact with reporters, these two work issues that cannot be underestimated can make him kick out of the hospital directly.
Zhao Delang only needs to hand in the reporting materials, and naturally someone will be happy to handle it.
He felt much better when he thought of Fang Huai's pretty face, which was distorted by anger.
Xu Hangran glared at the backs of the group of people and cried even harder.
Zhou Chao was at a loss, trying to coax him: "Ancestor, please stop crying. Crying won't solve the problem."
Zhao Delang heard the commotion behind him and raised his eyebrows proudly. After instructing his interns to keep an eye on the movements in the hospital, he left work.
Arriving at the underground garage, he looked at the gifts in the back seat of the car and smiled proudly: "Li Xiangdong is quite good at handling things."
"This wine is quite good, but Fang Huai just isn't meant to enjoy it."
He picked up a bottle of fine wine and said, "No one can save you this time, Fang Huai."
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