34.Why are you everywhere?
Xu Wenqiang was halfway through crying when she remembered Chen Yang lying on the ground with blood all over his face, and she stopped abruptly. She said to Xiao Cheng with a nasal voice, "If you don't care about Chen Yang, then don't care about me either."
Xiao Cheng didn't ignore Chen Yang in the end, because he wanted to take care of Xu Wenqiang.
After letting Chen Yang sit in his back seat, he said, "Let's go to the hospital near the school."
"no!"
"no!"
Xu Wenqiang and Chen Yang expressed their opposition in unison.
"If I go to the hospital in this state, what if the hospital gets nosy and asks me to find my parents?" said Chen Yang.
"If we go to the hospital with Chen Yang, there will be trouble. I'm afraid my mother and the school will find out," said Xu Wenqiang.
"You are quite experienced." Xiao Cheng glanced at them, but he knew they were right. "Since you still care about your parents and the school, you still caused such trouble."
Chen Yang said with blood all over his face, "This isn't a big deal. Don't make a fuss."
Xiao Cheng said, "Bleeding from the head isn't a big deal. Bleeding from all seven orifices is a big deal, right?"
Chen Yang was silenced by Xiao Cheng's words. In fact, a big mess almost happened if Xiao Cheng hadn't arrived in time.
Chen Yang shut up, and Xiao Cheng didn't continue talking.
They both noticed that Xu Wenqiang remained silent from beginning to end.
Xiao Cheng glanced at Xu Wenqiang. Her face was expressionless, as if she had just been crying so hard in front of him that she couldn't breathe, and had been accidentally possessed by a ghost. Xiao Cheng withdrew his gaze and gripped the handlebars tightly. His palms kept burning, as if someone had deposited a hot tear there.
Chen Yang was sitting in the back seat of Xiao Cheng's car and saw the look Xiao Cheng gave Xu Wenqiang. He then lowered his head and didn't look at Xiao Cheng and Xu Wenqiang walking side by side in front of him.
Although he was drowsy from the alcohol and pain, he was very clear about one thing. He could no longer walk to Xu Wenqiang's side. From now on, or in the future, he could only lag behind her, a step or more behind, like now, watching her walk side by side with others.
Although they didn't want to go to the hospital, Chen Yang's injuries still needed to be treated, so Xu Wenqiang took Xiao Cheng to a small clinic near the farmers' market.
The clinic was really small, housed in a roadside bungalow. If it weren't for the two bright red crosses on the glass door, it would look like an ordinary convenience store from the outside.
Pushing the door open and walking into the small clinic, Xu Wenqiang saw no one there. "Grandpa Li?"
"He's not dead!" someone promised, coming out from behind a shelf filled with medicine. "Now that you're here, you can't let me sleep peacefully."
"Grandpa Li, please take care of it." Chen Yang said with a shy smile.
"Stop laughing! Your face is bloody and creepy." Grandpa Li had gray hair and wore a pair of reading glasses. When he looked at people, he lowered his head and looked over the lenses. "Chen Yang, did someone hack you?" He looked at Xu Wenqiang and took off his reading glasses. "Xu girl, who did this to you?"
"Oh, I was punched too." After hearing what Grandpa Li said, Xu Wenqiang felt the pain in her right eye socket.
"Aren't you injured?" Under the light, Xiao Cheng finally saw that Xu Wenqiang's right eye socket was bruised. His palms burned again, and he clenched his fists. Even though he had checked her face from head to toe, he had still missed the injuries.
"I'm fine." Xu Wenqiang turned sideways to avoid Xiao Cheng's sight.
"It's just a minor injury. Why make such a fuss?" Grandpa Li waved his hand and walked behind the medicine shelf. "Chen Yang, come with me. Xu girl, go get an ice pack."
"I understand." Xu Wenqiang agreed.
Chen Yang came over and looked at Xu Wenqiang, hesitant to speak: "You——"
Xu Wenqiang said expressionlessly, "Chen Yang, please don't say those nonsense. If you punch me normally, it's much more serious than this."
"You deserve it!" Chen Yang gritted his teeth and said a harsh word, then staggered to the back of the medicine shelf.
Xu Wenqiang sighed and turned around, only to find herself caught in Xiao Cheng's gaze again. There was nothing she could do. The clinic was so small that she could bump into someone just by moving her butt. Where could she hide?
Xu Wenqiang looked at Xiao Cheng, and an inexplicable but huge sense of grievance surged in her heart. Xiao Cheng, why are you everywhere?
When they first met at the farmers' market, he saw her being pinned to the ground and beaten by Chen Yang. They met again at school; he was ranked first, she was ranked last. On the basketball court at Qingshi Junior High School, he helped her win that game. In the cafeteria at Qingshi No. 1 Middle School, he sat next to her. And tonight, this chaotic and dirty night...
He was present at her misfortune and misery. He said he was sent by God, but was he sent by God to witness her suffering or to save her?
"Don't think too highly of yourself. What does this have to do with you?" A voice in my heart mocked.
"Who said it wasn't?" Xu Wenqiang said softly.
Xiao Cheng looked at Xu Wenqiang, whose face was half blue, and reached out his hand, but in the end he just flicked her forehead: "Xu Wenqiang, be more careful."
"My heart is already big enough. If it gets any bigger, it won't hold any more." Xu Wenqiang rubbed her forehead and put on a prepared smile. "Xiao Cheng, it's getting late. You should go home."
Seeing Xu Wenqiang's mercenary smile again, Xiao Cheng also smiled and said, "Xu Wenqiang, are you just sending me away like this?"
Xu Wenqiang hummed, then continued with a smile, "I'm tired tonight, and I don't have the energy to say thank you. I'll organize my words when I get to school tomorrow and then formally express my gratitude to you."
"Don't wait until tomorrow. I think we should do it tonight." Xiao Cheng said, and began to rummage through the small clinic. "Where's the ice pack? Just apply the ice pack to your face and organize your words. I can wait."
Xu Wenqiang stopped Xiao Cheng and said, "Don't rummage around. Be careful or Grandpa Li might prick you with a needle."
"Do you know where the ice pack is?"
"I know."
Xu Wenqiang walked to the refrigerator behind the door, took out an ice pack, and continued to urge Xiao Cheng: "It's too late, you should go home quickly."
"You know it's late, but you didn't go home, did you?" Xiao Cheng sat down on a small stool and smiled at Xu Wenqiang. "You can trust your childhood sweetheart, but I can't trust him."
"Are you going to wait for me to go home together?" Xu Wenqiang asked.
"That's right, let's go home together." Xiao Cheng said.
The words "Let's go home together" had a fatal attraction for Xu Wenqiang in this dark night. She felt a surge of anxiety in her heart, and finally said, "Whatever you want."
Xiao Cheng brought over a small stool and said, "You can sit down and organize your gratitude."
Xu Wenqiang sighed and sat down.
After the two sat down, neither spoke. Xu Wenqiang covered her face with an ice pack, looking like she was saying, "Don't bother me."
Chen Yang's howling and Grandpa Li's impatient scolding could be heard from behind the medicine shelf.
"Grandpa Li, please be gentle."
"If you're afraid of getting hurt, don't fight with others. What were you doing before? Don't move, or I'll stab you in the face."
…
"It would be great if Grandpa Li really came." Xiao Cheng said casually.
Knowing that Xiao Cheng was a sharp-tongued person, Xu Wenqiang ignored him.
Seeing Xu Wenqiang pretending to be deaf and dumb, Xiao Cheng said again: "This Grandpa Li has become a good man who has been there to cover for the loss."
Xu Wenqiang then put down the ice pack and said, "Anyway, since we're injured, let's go find him first. These ice packs were prepared for us by Grandpa Li."
Hearing "we", Xiao Cheng paused: "Is it Su Xiaoshan, and Chen Yang?"
Xu Wenqiang shook her head. "It was all of us kids at the farmers' market. We were always bruised and battered, sometimes from being beaten by the older kids, sometimes from fighting ourselves, and sometimes from being beaten by our parents at home. Grandpa Li felt sorry for us, so he put a lot of ice packs in his refrigerator."
Xiao Cheng stopped talking.
He had no way of understanding what Xu Wenqiang was talking about. But from her few ordinary words, he understood that every child in the farmers' market grew up in a violent encirclement.
He expressed regret, but there was nothing he could do. He wasn't Grandpa Li; he was just a bystander. He didn't have the sympathy to care about so many things. All he cared about, all he wanted to care about, was Xu Wenqiang's affairs.
Although, she didn't seem to appreciate it.
"Xu Wenqiang, does it hurt?" Xiao Cheng asked.
"It hurts." Xu Wenqiang said.
She adjusted the ice pack on her face and accidentally touched the most injured part, causing her to hiss in pain. She couldn't help but add, "Of course it hurts!"
The pain is excruciating, and I feel like I’m dying...but no one cares.
That wasn't right, it seemed like someone had just asked her that question. "Okay, get out of here!"
After Grandpa Li finished scolding him, Chen Yang walked out from behind the medicine shelf. His head and hands were bandaged, like a seriously ill patient who had escaped from the hospital.
"How much?" Chen Yang asked.
"No need to pay. Your father hasn't used up all the money he saved here." Grandpa Li came out and said, "If there's another one, it will probably be time to pay. Let your father come and deposit it in advance."
Chen Yang was obviously stunned: "How did my dad know?"
"You came home injured all day, and your father came to me to ask about you. I told him, and he gave me money." Grandpa Li said, "Your father is not a good person either. He doesn't care about you at all. I think spending some money is doing my best to repay my son."
Grandpa Li's words were well-intentioned, but Chen Yang felt it stung so much that he cursed, "None of your business is my family's business, and it's not your place to scold my dad. Just make money, that's all. Why all that nonsense?"
Grandpa Li was stunned in place, as if he hadn't reacted. Xu Wenqiang couldn't bear it any longer, and pointed at Chen Yang's nose and cursed: "Chen Yang, you bastard! Grandpa Li has stitched so many wounds for you, and applied so much medicine to you, have you lost your conscience?"
Chen Yang turned around and looked at Xu Wenqiang, angrily saying, "Xu Wenqiang, this has nothing to do with you. Stay out of this!"
"Okay, stop arguing." Grandpa Li waved his hand, "Get out of here."
Chen Yang still didn't give up. He looked at the bruised half of Xu Wenqiang's face, his eyes turning blood red. "Xu Wenqiang, I owe you tonight. Yu Yong took advantage of you, and I will help you get it back. But the old debt between you and me will not be let go!"
Xiao Cheng originally wanted to hear Xu Wenqiang curse back, but suddenly he heard a harsh word.
"Chen Yang!" Xiao Cheng said coldly, "You said Yu Yong took advantage of Xu Wenqiang. What's going on?"
"he--"
"Chen Yang!"
Xu Wenqiang gritted her teeth and looked at Chen Yang fiercely.
"It has nothing to do with you!" Chen Yang threw down a sentence and rushed out of the clinic.
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