25 guesses
It's another visiting day.
Yang Xiao had just come out of her visit to Zhou Daye and was taking off her isolation suit and shoe covers at the door.
"Yang Xiao, let me take you home today." Seeing that her zipper was caught on her clothes, Zhou Qi immediately stepped forward to help her unzip it. "No need, don't you have to finish the medical records tonight?" Yang Xiao shook her head, her hair getting in her eyes.
"Let's go." Zhou Qi wasn't asking for her opinion at all. He was just informing her that he would send her home today. Yang Xiao had a rough idea of Zhou Qi's motive for insisting on sending her home. Teacher Ji must have called him again. She knew that Teacher Ji always cared about her.
"Okay." Yang Xiao agreed readily, having anticipated what he was about to say next. Zhou Qi looked at her unsightly hair and decided to take her to get a haircut first. When Yang Xiao appeared before him with a clean, unobstructed head of short hair, he felt a little uncomfortable.
So, their conversation didn't officially begin until they were sitting on the bus. Yang Xiao tilted her head to look out the window at the lush greenery, quietly waiting for Zhou Qi to speak.
"Yang Xiao, you know Dad's condition right now. He's in the intensive care unit, kept alive by countless tubes." Zhou Qi's voice was tired. He seemed to be talking to himself, not Yang Xiao. "Every day when I'm there, I wonder what Dad would most want to see if he were awake."
He turned his head and looked at Yang Xiao: "He definitely doesn't want to see you put down your textbooks and stay there every day. Just like he worked hard to send me to school, he must want you to fly higher and higher now." And not be like me, whose wings will be broken at any time and trapped here.
"I know you're anxious right now and desperately want your family to be together. I feel the same way." He sighed softly, "But we have to protect this home for him, and we have to protect your future for him. When he wakes up one day and finds that our Yang Xiao not only hasn't fallen behind in her studies, but has become even more powerful, then he will be truly happy. Perhaps... it will be more effective than any medicine."
Yang Xiao nodded heavily, "I understand, I will continue to study hard." Glancing at the dark circles under his eyes, she felt a tightness in her heart and couldn't help but ask, "Zhou Qi, are you very tired recently?" Almost at the same time, before Zhou Qi lowered his head to avoid Yang Xiao's sight, she saw a flash of tears in Zhou Qi's eyes.
Zhou Qi, are you crying?
"No." When Yang Xiao looked at him again, Zhou Qi's eyes were as calm as usual. She pulled out a pack of tissues from the side of her schoolbag and handed it to him. Without saying anything, she turned her head to look at the green plants outside the window. Zhou Qi paused for a moment with the cartoon-printed tissue, then put it in his pocket.
The bus arrived at the station. Zhou Qi got off the bus behind Yang Xiao, and the two said goodbye at the school gate.
Yang Xiao looked at Zhou Qi with bright eyes: "Thank you, Zhou Qi. I will listen carefully to what you say today." Zhou Qi looked at her as if she was about to raise three fingers to swear at him, and he couldn't help but find it a little funny: "Come in quickly."
That day, the sun was shining brightly, shimmering on Yang Xiao's swaying ponytail. Zhou Qi was a little dazed by the sight. At that moment, Fang Qiu's phone rang, and his phone vibrated wildly in his pocket.
"Brother, are there any signs?" Zhou Qi turned around, holding up his phone, and stood at the intersection, watching the passing cars and waiting for the red light to pass. "Hey, Doctor Zhou, what made you suddenly think of asking me to ask you about takeout boxes? That's really strange. Come to the store, and I'll explain it to you." Fang Qiu's tone was a little excited.
As soon as Zhou Qi opened the glass door of the store, Fang Qiu rushed over and hooked his neck: "If you ask me, this matter is not that simple. Why do you care about a crappy plastic box manufacturer?" Zhou Qi patted his hands, motioning him to let go.
"So, have you contacted the manufacturer yet, Senior Brother?" Zhou Qi walked towards the bar, poured Fang Qiu another glass of warm water, and handed it to him.
"When did your senior brother become unreliable? That manufacturer just had a new owner a while ago. Lao Sheng, the distributor, told me about it yesterday when I went to get the packaging."
"Change the boss?" Zhou Qi looked at Fang Qiu, who seemed to be hesitant to speak, and nodded again, "You continue."
"You think a change of ownership is strange? It's not so bad, after all, these days when a small business suffers huge losses, they'll definitely sell the factory. But the problem is, it doesn't make sense. The original factory was doing just fine, and the boss, I heard, had no debts and didn't smoke or drink, let alone gamble."
"Can you still contact the old boss?" Zhou Qi watched Fang Qiu take a big gulp of warm water from his cup. "Drink slowly."
"It's hard to say. Normally, people like this would have taken the money and left long ago. Tell me, does this matter have anything to do with the Miao family? Otherwise, why are you so concerned about it?" After saying that, Fang Qiu put down his cup again, got down from the bar, and took the business sign at the door.
"Not sure. I hope there's some connection." Zhou Qi took Fang Qiu's cup again and added some warm water. "Do you remember what I told you about the alcohol cotton pad?"
"Of course, I haven't lost my memory. You said you were disinfecting someone, but before you could wipe the wound, the alcohol cotton swab dried up. And the nurse rolled her eyes at you, saying you were taking your time, and then opened a new package for you." Fang Qiu seemed to have thought of something and slammed the table: "No way..."
"Yes, it was fine after I opened a new package. And as for the take-out box incident, I went to the cafeteria to ask about it later, and nothing similar happened again. But how could it be such a coincidence that several take-out boxes had problems in those few days?" Zhou Qi had a vague feeling that these things could not be explained simply by "bad luck."
"You mean, there's a possibility..." Fang Qiu understood, but didn't say anything definitive. He exchanged glances with Zhou Qi, "Do you really want to get involved in this? This is a matter of moving cheese."
"Brother, I have no choice. I can't give up on my father. As for Miao Yue... this is my only chance to turn things around." Zhou Qi's mood darkened as he spoke. "If I don't resist, I'll just be pushed to the bottom."
"But you haven't graduated yet. If something really happens..." Fang Qiu looked at Zhou Qi with a troubled expression. "Let's wait a little longer. At least the situation with my uncle isn't too bad right now."
Zhou Qi nodded, "Yes. Besides, I have nothing but guesses now."
"So how did you suspect the Miao family? Just relying on this alcohol cotton and lunch box?" Fang Qiu was very curious. He didn't think that such a complicated family would make such a stupid mistake and make moves in the most obvious place.
"The Miao family is not stupid. But the timing is too coincidental. Miao Yue just got engaged, and then problems occurred in areas that shouldn't have problems under normal circumstances. And then the problems were quickly resolved." Zhou Qi stopped talking here.
Fang Qiu quickly understood what he meant. "Are you saying... the Miao family is deliberately trying to show goodwill to the other party?"
"So I said, I'm not sure, I hope this has something to do with them." Zhou Qi took back his words.
Fang Qiu sat next to him and took a deep breath. "Brother, I advise you not to get involved in this mess. This isn't something that ordinary people like us can solve. Besides, we can't afford to offend the Miao family, and you... well, I'm not talking about you. Yes, you'd risk everything for your father, but don't you have a little one at home now? What about Yang Xiao? Have you considered her safety?"
"So before we do this, we'll wait for her to leave." Zhou Qi finished speaking and tapped the bar with his knuckles. "It's time to get to work, Boss Fang. I won't be here any longer to interrupt your business."
"Get lost, you little brat. Bring Yang Xiao over this week when you're free to try the improved wild tea." Fang Qiu felt like the housekeeper of Zhou Qi's family, taking care of Zhou Qi, the older one, and worrying about Yang Xiao, the younger one, all the time, busying himself here and there.
Zhou Qi returned to the hospital and continued to follow his teacher around, doing odd jobs like copying medical records, changing dressings, and disinfecting. He had recently been going to the cafeteria windows, which he hadn't frequented before, more frequently.
His guess turned out to be correct; the packaging boxes haven't had any quality issues since then. If they can follow the clues and find the former manufacturer, things might go much more smoothly.
Miao Yue knew her infidelity was unsuccessful, so she didn't bother him much. She'd occasionally send him explicit photos, then withdraw them, claiming they were sent to the wrong person. Days passed without a reply. She often felt like a complete slut for being so unfaithful as to flirt with a man who was so chaste.
From a young age, she'd never been without everything she wanted, growing up like a star surrounded by stars. She'd believed she'd never been shortchanged in material matters, that giving whatever someone asked for was love. But as she grew older, she slowly realized that it was just a pretense of filling a void of guilt with the things they had the most. Guilt that she was born to pave the way for her brother, to be the sacrifice he sacrificed for his rise to power.
So she began to rebel, deviating from the planned path for her, studying art and pursuing a career in media. But no one cared. No one cared whether she studied Western art history or clinical medicine. No one cared whether she stayed in China or ventured overseas.
She just needs to marry a man she has never met more than a few times.
Even when she called her father and asked him to arrange for someone to treat Zhou Qi's father, the other party readily agreed without even asking who the other party was or why he wanted to help him.
Even though she knew that her father, who had crawled out of a pile of human evil, could guess what she thought of Zhou Qi, he did not get angry.
After all, in their eyes, love and loyalty are worthless things, and only when interests are tied together can they be solid.
She suddenly felt that the world was extremely boring.
Except Zhou Qi.
But without power, Miao Yue was nothing. She didn't even have the chance to play tricks on Zhou Qi.
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