Chapter 37 Is money so important?
After staying in Ciyun Pavilion for a few days, Song Li returned to work at the company. This period happened to be the busiest time for the cooperation project with Du Zhanrong's company. He Qian didn't want Song Li to meet Du Zhanrong, so he often asked her to go out and do some unrelated work.
On the day when the two sides held their first meeting and dinner, news of Song Li being harassed by Du Zhanrong had more or less reached him.
"Give this to Ling Puyan. He should still be in the Central Hospital. Contact him before you go." He Qian called Song Li in and pointed to the brown paper bag on the table.
"Is he in the hospital?" Song Li blurted out.
He Qian looked up at her, and a casual yet caring word was enough to make him suspect something.
Song Li also realized that he asked too quickly, "I saw him come to the company some time ago."
"I just said he was in the hospital. Why do you think he was hospitalized?" He Qian closed the news he was browsing, let go of the mouse, and stared at her seriously. Judging from her expression, there must be something he didn't know!
Song Li's ears felt hot when he was looked at. He reached for the bag and said, "I just asked casually. I don't mean anything else."
He Qian is a thoughtful person, especially towards Song Li. Her first reaction when Ling Puyan was mentioned just now was definitely not a casual question!
Song Li breathed a sigh of relief after leaving the president's office. He packed up and prepared to go to the garage. Just as he was about to call Ling Puyan, he saw an unread message. It turned out that the royalties for the past few days had arrived.
She kept some and passed the rest on to her mother.
Today, she's feeling a bit buoyant and is gradually recovering. Not only did she receive a payment, but she also received a short video of her mother taking her sister to the market, where she took the initiative to buy groceries! Earlier, her brother happily shared the scholarship news with her!
Song Li smiled comfortably. It would be great if every day could be like this, even if it was just a very small piece of good news.
She called Ling Puyan and he told her that he had been discharged from the hospital and had just returned home.
Ling Puyan's home is in the northern suburbs of the city. She has been there twice. It is in the same direction as her home in Tianyun District.
Song Li drove to the northern suburbs of the city and arrived at the entrance of Ling Puyan's villa. He was actually waiting in the parking space in front of the door.
"Mr. Ling." Song Li called him happily. It was not known whether she was in a good mood or she felt happy just seeing him.
Ling Puyan was wearing a black casual outfit, standing in the sun. His sharp-edged face seemed to be gleaming with light, and his long legs showed off his perfect figure. The hormonal aura exuded by his military physique at this moment was even more intense...
"This is what Mr. He asked me to give you." Song Li handed over the brown paper bag. She guessed it was Chinese medicinal herbs because she smelled the scent of musk and rice wine in the small space inside the car.
Ling Puyan picked up the phone with a smile, "Come in."
Song Li didn't think of staying. "No, I'll leave after I deliver the things. How are you... feeling?"
"Since you care about me, you can't just stand at the door and chat for a few minutes and be done with it, right?" Ling Puyan tilted his head, "Come in, I have something for you."
"What?"
Ling Puyan opened the door and was not going to talk to her outside.
Song Li didn't hesitate anymore and followed him into the house. "Have you been hospitalized these days? You said you completed the discharge procedures this morning. Is...is the injury on your waist serious?"
"I guess so. A little worse than expected."
"What did the doctor say?"
"The hospital might be helpless." Ling Puyan didn't show too much negativity. "So, your boss asked the old man at home to prescribe Chinese medicine for me!"
When Song Li saw him shaking the brown paper bag in his hand, he felt a pang of sadness in his heart. He actually talked about it as if it was someone else's business.
"Have you met your chairman?"
"Yes, I have."
Ling Puyan put down the bag and said, "Sit down. I'll pour you a glass of water. Or do you want something to drink?"
"Water will be fine, thank you."
"Don't be so polite, saying 'Mr. Ling' one moment and 'thank you' the next! I'm used to life in the army, and I don't need to be so polite." Ling Puyan poured a glass of warm water and placed it on the table in front of her. He then sat down and opened the brown paper bag.
Inside were patches of ointment. From the layered parts, you could see that the ointment was black and covered with several layers of thin transparent plastic paper.
Song Li could see that it was probably for Ling Puyan's convenience, so she could just remove the transparent paper film and apply it directly on the waist.
"Are you home alone?" Could he apply the ointment to his lower back by himself?
"Well, my parents are in the army."
Song Li knew his father was an officer and his mother was a military doctor, so their inability to return home must be due to strict discipline. But with his injuries...was it really safe for him to be home alone? Last time, he just sat on the stairs for too long and nearly fell when he got up!
He just said...it's worse than expected.
"You... don't want to hire a nanny or a caregiver?" Song Li didn't know if it was appropriate to ask this.
Ling Puyan put the ointment back into the bag without saying a word. It took a lot of courage for him to accept that he was about to be paralyzed. He couldn't accept it even more when he opened his eyes every day to see someone serving him 24 hours a day!
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked that." Song Li felt that after all, he was a staunch soldier who had participated in wars. How could he want to be taken care of by others for the rest of his life?
Ling Puyan pretended not to care, but his voice was much lower: "Maybe you are right, there will be such a day."
"How about I put the medicine on you now?" Song Li said to ease the atmosphere.
Ling Puyan smiled and said, "Do you want to enjoy the feeling of being taken care of in advance?"
"Did Mr. He say anything to be careful about?" Song Li had already stood up and reached into the bag to get the ointment. "Don't worry, I won't apply it crookedly, and it won't look ugly!"
Ling Puyan sat sideways on the sofa, trying to turn his lower back towards her. Song Li squatted beside the sofa and reached out to roll up the edge of his clothes...
There was a ten-centimeter-long scar on his lumbar spine, like a black centipede lying on his skin!
Song Li was stunned. What a serious injury this must be...
Ling Puyan turned around and saw her dazed expression, and his mood also fell. He was not embarrassed that she saw his ugly appearance, "Are you scared?"
"No, no." Song Li suppressed his emotions.
"When I was shot, I thought I was going to die. But after surgery and half the bullet was removed, I was fine!"
Song Li knew that this injury was more than just a few words that could explain it. "It hurts, right?"
Ling Puyan had never heard such a gentle voice... filled with sincerity and tenderness. These three words seemed so close to him, yet so far away.
Song Li placed her fingertips on the raised scar. She knew very well how painful bone pain was...
He felt the touch of her fingertips, and his heart seemed to float in the clouds, soft and lingering... He thought his life had stopped like this, but at this moment, he suddenly longed for a miracle.
"If you wipe your tears secretly, I can't comfort you now. Your waist hurts so badly..." Ling Puyan put his hands on his waist. He had been sitting for a while and his waist was really starting to hurt.
Song Li quickly regained consciousness, took the ointment, tore off the transparent paper film, and then applied the ointment to the centipede-shaped scar...
She wished she could put the ointment on the scar and it would disappear.
Ling Puyan put down his clothes and pressed his palm on the ointment, which began to emit a warm current. "Thank you."
"Didn't you say you don't like being polite? Why are you saying thank you to me again?"
Ling Puyan stood up, but had to stand still, not daring to move. "If I don't say thank you, I'm afraid you'll cry!"
Song Li saw that his body was stiff, "Does it hurt even when you're standing?"
"It's okay." Ling Puyan took a few steps.
"By the way, how much was the medical bill you paid for me at the hospital last time? I'll transfer it to you!"
"If I were to argue with you about this little thing, I would come to you the next day to collect the debt! Don't worry about it!"
Song Li hesitated for a few seconds before retracting his phone and tying up the paper bag containing the ointment. "So you said you had something for me. What was it? You want to take it back to Mr. He?"
Ling Puyan took a USB flash drive from the entrance. He had just prepared it, and if she didn't go into the house, she could get it easily.
Song Li felt somewhat familiar with the USB drive at first glance, but he didn't react for a moment. He took it and asked, "Shall we give it directly to Mr. He?"
"If you give it to your boss, your identity will be exposed!" Ling Puyan said half-jokingly.
Song Li was puzzled. "For me?"
"It's yours!" Ling Puyan couldn't understand how someone so slow to react could have been He Qian's secretary for so long. "It's yours!"
Song Li carefully observed the USB flash drive in her hand, and it became more and more familiar... She remembered it!
"This...how come it's here with you?"
This was a USB flash drive that she accidentally lost a few years ago. It contained an SCI paper on pharmaceutical research.
Song Li wrote it for someone else. The other party offered a very high price, and she was in urgent need of money, so she had no choice but to do it.
Everyone knows what it means to publish an SCI paper, but how could Song Li cause such a stir under He Qian's nose? It would not only ruin her, but also the article.
"Do you remember when you came to the army to deliver something to me in mid-August about five years ago? You might have left in a hurry and dropped a USB drive, and I've forgotten to return it to you!"
Song Li recalled that it seemed to have been lost during those days. Later, she made a new copy for the other party. At that time, she was really afraid that someone would pick it up and publish it in advance. Fortunately, it was in Ling Puyan's hands and now it has seen the light of day again.
"I've read the contents." Ling Puyan seemed to be confessing, but also seemed to be feeling sorry for her.
Publishing in SCI is inherently difficult, and requires a particularly high level of professional knowledge and English proficiency. This is especially true for her article in the field of pharmaceutical research, where every word and sentence is filled with professional terms that are difficult for ordinary people to grasp!
Although he didn't know much about pharmaceutical research, he could see that the article was very logical, and the large number of experiments and data analyses throughout were enough to prove her amazing ability!
What he couldn't understand was why she didn't publish it under her own name!
Two days after Ling Puyan found the USB drive, this article was flooded with praise and admiration from everyone! But that person wasn't Song Li, it was someone else!
Song Li didn't respond. She quietly put away the USB drive and put it in her bag. "Then I won't say thank you. I've delivered the medicine, so I'll leave first."
"Song Li!" Ling Puyan called out to her from behind, his voice a little loud, "You know what I want to ask!"
"It's been so long, is there any point in asking now?"
"It's just that this article was published so long ago! It was published in the past two years, recently, how long ago?" Ling Puyan paid special attention to that person. He had published three SCI papers in succession in recent years. No need to guess, it was written by Song Li!
Song Li turned his back to him and pretended to be calm to deny: "You think too much, I'm not that powerful!"
"Is money really that important?" Ling Puyan couldn't understand. "How much can a paper sell for? How long will it last you? Are you so dismissive of your own future?"
Although that money didn't last long, it kept her family alive during that time!
No one knows how painful it must have been for her to cut out her own blood and sweat and sell it!
No one knew how painful it was for her to see someone else's name being slapped on the research paper she was so proud of!
Is money so important? Haha...
Ling Puyan saw her body trembling slightly and wondered if he had been a little too controlling.
"Song Li..." As he walked over, he saw a string of tears rolling down her face...
Song Li took a step forward, avoiding him, and said calmly: "Mr. Ling, I'm leaving first."
Ling Puyan watched her leave, closed the door, and then heard the sound of a car starting... Then he looked at the shattered tear on the ground, blurred on the grain of the wood board. Is this what sadness looks like?
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