NOVPUBChapter 68: 067: Wen Changling hits someone; Xie Shang comes to pick him up (Second update)
Chapter 68: 067: Wen Changling hits someone; Xie Shang comes to pick him up (Second update)
Xie Shang, who had been silent, finally responded to the joke, “I’m not single.”
Everyone was surprised.
Including Gu Yihuan, “You’ve progressed so fast with her?”
Gu Yihuan could be considered a semi-insider, but even he hadn’t expected Xie Shang to have started a relationship with someone and to make it public.
A crowd of people was waiting for Xie Shang to continue.
At that moment, his phone rang.
He glanced at the caller ID, “I need to take this call.” As he answered, he got up and walked outside.
He Dongzhou, who was sitting next to him, inadvertently saw the name on the screen: Miss Wen.
“Xie Shang.”
“Hmm.”
Xie Shang waited a few seconds, and Wen Changling still hadn’t spoken.
He pushed the door open and stepped out into a quiet area, “Why aren’t you speaking?”
“Are you busy?”
The way the conversation started was very similar to how Gu Yihuan would speak when he needed a favor from him.
“I’m not busy.”
Wen Changling spoke with some difficulty, “Then, can you come pick me up?”
This was the first time Miss Wen, made of steel, had taken the initiative to ask for help since they started dating.
Pretty rare.
“Where are you?”
“At the Traffic Police Brigade.” Wen Changling explained in a low voice, sounding not very confident, “I accidentally bumped into a pedestrian with my electric scooter.”
Wen Changling didn’t often ride electric scooters. Today, Sister Tao’s store was too busy for her to leave, so she went to the school to pick up Aimin and Aiguo. Fortunately, the accident happened on her way there, and she wasn’t carrying passengers.
Xie Shang asked, “Did you get hurt yourself?”
“I twisted my ankle.” The scooter was impounded, otherwise, she wouldn’t have called Xie Shang.
“Wait for me to get there.”
Xie Shang hung up the phone.
He had left his car keys on the poker table. He went to the card room to get them, and as he passed the dining table, he said, “Excuse me, I need to leave first.”
He Dongzhou asked him, “What happened?”
“Something came up.”
Xie Shang didn’t elaborate and left first.
Gu Yihuan had just taken a sip of sour plum juice, and it was very sour, “Definitely his girlfriend looking for him.”
Everyone was curious about Xie Shang’s private life.
Although in the eyes of the elders, Xie Shang was a rotten shoot, the opposite sex who showed interest in him had never ceased since the age when gender differences mattered. Over so many years, not to mention any romantic tales, Xie Shang didn’t even have a female friend who was slightly close to him. It’s not like he wasn’t interested – he went to places of romance, never participated himself but watched others play.
So it wasn’t that Xie Shang didn’t understand; he had seen all types of women and all kinds of antics. He was someone who could still keep his head clear amidst the romantic throngs.
In the circle, there was a second-generation rich kid with no filter who had once said something that shocked everyone: It wasn’t just women who wanted to dirty Xie Shang but men as well.
But nobody dared; they would end up behind bars.
Someone at the table asked Gu Yihuan, “Have you seen his girlfriend?”
“Yeah, I have.”
Immediately someone asked, “What’s she like? Is she stunningly beautiful?”
That was hard to judge.
To be honest, Gu Yihuan didn’t have a strong impression of Wen Changling. During the time at the Gu Family house, he had hardly taken a close look at her, and he hadn’t noticed the person standing next to Xie Shang at the police station until afterwards. In his memory, Wen Changling wore glasses, lacked presence, and wasn’t talkative… just pretty ordinary.
He wasn’t sure if there was anything exceptional about her.
Gu Yihuan didn’t know how to describe her, so he simply said, “Fourth Brother doesn’t go for looks.”
His friend made a meaningful sound, “Oh, so she’s not beautiful.”
Gu Yihuan immediately defended her, “Why are you so vulgar?”
The vulgar friend consciously shut his mouth and glanced at Guan Qingyu opposite him, who seemed a bit distraught.
*****
Wen Changling sat on the chair outside the traffic police brigade, not waiting very long. Xie Shang’s car stopped across the street, and she leaned on the chair to stand up.
She seemed to be fine, with no injuries visible on her body.
“Which foot did you sprain?”
“The right foot.”
Xie Shang squatted down and rolled up her pant leg. Her right ankle was swollen, and there was a large bruise around the joint, but the skin wasn’t broken, and there was no bleeding.
Xie Shang placed her pant leg back down, “Let’s go to the hospital.”
Wen Changling, being a nurse herself, knew the extent of her injury: “It’s not a bone injury, and I can walk, so there’s no need for the hospital.”
He fell silent for a few seconds before speaking in a softer tone as though coaxing: “I have a friend who practices traditional Chinese medicine, is it okay to go see him?”
Now that he had asked so nicely, Wen Changling couldn’t refuse, so she nodded. Then, limping, she walked by herself toward the car, not needing any help to lean on.
After getting into the car, Xie Shang made a call to Gu Kaiyun.
“Kaiyun, are you at the clinic?”
“Yes.”
Gu Kaiyun was busy that day, having missed Guan Qingyu’s welcome party and was still at the clinic at this hour.
Xie Shang started the car: “I’ll be there in half an hour.”
“Someone’s hurt?”
“Not me,” Xie Shang said, “My girlfriend.” n𝚘𝚟𝚙𝚞𝚋.𝚌o𝚖
Girlfriend?
Gu Kaiyun was hearing of this for the first time: “Okay, come over.”
Xie Shang hung up the phone.
The girlfriend in question sat in the passenger seat, obediently holding the seatbelt, dutifully and demurely. The air conditioner was on in the car, with windows and doors tightly shut—she felt the air pressure was a bit low and wanted to open the window.
“How seriously is the person you collided with injured?” Xie Shang finally asked.
Wen Changling, with her finger halfway out to open the window, drew it back, paused her action, and placed her hand neatly on her lap: “The leg is injured, and the person is now in the hospital. One of my colleagues is taking care of it for me.”
It was an elderly lady, last named Liao.
The same one Liu Shifang had hit a few days ago.
“Has the responsibility been established?”
“Not yet, there were no cameras at the site of the accident.” Wen Changling had come to make a statement for the record.
Xie Shang looked ahead at the road: “Why didn’t you call me immediately?”
Without even thinking, she replied: “Because it wasn’t a big deal.”
The car fell silent.
At the next intersection, the red light had them stop. Xie Shang turned to look at Wen Changling. The street light outside shone into the car, twinkling like bright pearls burning in his eyes.
“This is not a big deal, then what is?”
Wen Changling belatedly realized: “Are you angry?”
Xie Shang was irritable, he hated the feeling of losing control.
He looked away: “No.”
The green light came on, and Xie Shang started driving again, simultaneously opening the right window.
Wen Changling smoothed her hair that the wind had tousled and, conceding, said: “I won’t do this next time.”
Easy to say.
Xie Shang made a sound of acknowledgement.
The slightly dry evening breeze blew into the car. Wen Changling leaned her face toward the window, letting the wind slap against it, her eyes open, soberly and indifferently watching the neon of the city.
The clinic wasn’t far; it took about half an hour to get there by car.
Wen Changling had seen Gu Kaiyun at the Gu Family home before, but it was today that she truly met him face to face.
He wore a white lab coat that was immaculate, as if untainted by a speck of dust. He carried a faint scent of herbal medicine—not pungent, very mild—just like him, gentle through and through.
The gentleman in the books, like jade, must look something like this.
“Hello.”
“Hello.” Wen Changling didn’t think she had any remarkable traits that would make her unforgettable, so she introduced herself, “My last name is Wen.”
Gu Kaiyun knew her last name was Wen, and now he also knew which Wen she was—the Wen from Wind Town of Flower City.
