NOVPUB
Chapter 155: Chapter 155: The Girl’s Heart Suffers a Billion Blows
It was just around noon, and the sun was scorching like a tongue of fire, almost seeming to burn the skin of anyone it hit. Tong Yao walked home along the tree-lined road, distractedly thinking about the home renovation. As a result, she almost got knocked down by a man on a bicycle. Luckily, she had quick reactions and dodged in time, bumping into the tree instead. She stumbled slightly, almost falling, and the clothing bag in her hand dropped to the ground.
The man on the bicycle was also startled, quickly propping up his bike with his foot to prevent himself from falling. He was already in a bad mood, and now this had happened, leaving him irritated. Just as he was about to look up and swear, he saw that the girl in front of him had a lovely figure. Probably a pretty young lady, he thought, and his irritability immediately turned into concern.
"I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to do it. Are you okay?"
The man left his bicycle to the side and walked forward to help Tong Yao pick up the clothing bag.
Tong Yao, who was about to bend down to pick up the bag, looked surprised. She straightened up and took the clothing bag, about to say ’I’m fine’, when she noticed the man suddenly step back like a scared rabbit.
Looking up at the man, Tong Yao felt he looked very familiar, like an overripe red-bottomed monkey, but she couldn’t recall where she had seen him before.
"..." The man finally realized who Tong Yao was, and his charmingly charming gentlemanly expression stiffened, replaced by a look of disdain. He had thought he’d had a chance encounter with a beauty, but instead it turned out to be a homely girl. Seeing Tong Yao staring at him, he was afraid he’d be followed, and practically broke the bicycle chain trying to ride away as quickly as he could.
Tong Yao: "..." Her young heart took an enormous hit.
Her face was swollen and red from the heat, not looking particularly good, but the man’s face wasn’t any better. His face was so red it looked like it was about to explode, and all his facial features were twisted. He even had the audacity to reject her. Did he never look in a mirror before leaving the house?
Fortunately, the man fled hastily, otherwise she might have had a few sarcastic remarks for him...
"Sis, why are you just getting back?" Li Nuanchun was carrying a basin, intending to go downstairs to pick some vegetables, when she ran into Tong Yao who had just come back from outside. She decided not to pick the vegetables and instead followed Tong Yao upstairs, saying, "Not long after you and your young husband left this morning, someone came to the housing complex looking for you. He waited all morning and just left. If you had come back a few minutes earlier, you would have run into him."
"Someone was looking for me?" Tong Yao found it strange, as she hardly knew anyone in Li City. "What does the person looking for me look like, and what’s his name?"
"I can’t really describe what he looks like, he said his name was something Jia... I can’t remember it exactly right now, my memory isn’t what it used to be. Don’t worry, let me think..." Li Nuanchun tapped her forehead and thought for a moment, then suddenly remembered, slapping her thigh excitedly, "That’s it, he called himself Jia Qing! Yes, Jia Qing. I figured he must be Si Chen’s relative. I told him to find Dr. Si, but he said Dr. Si was too busy and he didn’t want to disturb him. He said he’d wait outside for you."
Tong Yao is from Kyoto, so she doesn’t know anyone here, which is why Li Nuanchun assumed that Jia Qing must be a relative of Si Chen. Si Chen has had a lot of people from the countryside come to look for him at the hospital over the past year. Everyone has discussed this matter behind the scenes before.
Who knows what those people are thinking? Whenever they come to the hospital they want to see Si Chen. The hospital doesn’t belong to Si Chen, so even if they manage to find him, they still have to pay the medical bills, right?
As the two women were talking, they had already entered the house. Tong Yao had just turned on the electric fan and was taking a sip of water when she heard the name Jia Qing. She was so startled that the water went down the wrong way and she started coughing. Her face turned red and it took a while for her to recover. This frightened Li Nuanchun greatly, and she rushed to pat her back.
"Are you okay, girl?"
Considering Tong Yao’s thin and feeble appearance, she hoped she wouldn’t choke, otherwise, where would she find another pretty little fairylike daughter-in-law for Si Chen? 𝙣𝒐𝙫𝙥𝙪𝙗.𝙘𝙤𝙢
"I’m fine, I’m fine..." Tong Yao waved off Li Nuanchun, who was still patting her back, then took a more sip of water to soothe her throat. After a moment she finally asked, "Did he say anything else?"
Who could have imagined that Jia Qing would actually come to find her? Was he out of his mind? He even dared to come to the housing complex. Wasn’t he afraid Si Chen would beat him to death?
Wait a minute... Tong Yao suddenly remembered the man on the bicycle who had almost hit her earlier. At the time, she had just thought that he looked familiar and hadn’t thought much more about it. But now that she thought back on it, the faces of Jia Qing and the man merged in her memory.
No wonder she had found him familiar. So that man was Jia Qing...
You can’t blame her for not recognizing him. Jia Qing had changed a lot, his face was red and black like a monkey’s ass and his entire demeanor had changed. Even if the previous owner of her body were to meet Jia Qing now, she probably wouldn’t deign to glance at him even once.
After thinking for a moment, Li Nuanchun shook her head definitively. "No, he didn’t say anything. He just didn’t want to find Dr. Si for some reason, but he insisted on waiting here for you. I even told him that I didn’t know when you’d be back, and if it was urgent he could find Dr. Si first, but he still refused to go."
As she spoke, puzzled, Li Nuanchun noted, "I found it strange at the time. Surely if he was a relative of Dr. Si, he’d find Dr. Si instead of looking for you?"
Muttering under her breath, Tong Yao thought: What could he possibly want? Was he not content with the fact that he couldn’t hook up with the previous owner of my body? He still wanted to pester me!
Of course, such thoughts could not be expressed openly. Otherwise, if word got out, who knows what kind of stories people would make up about her. In this era, you could act tough and no one would say anything—people might even spread the word that you were not to be trifled with. But if rumors spread about a woman’s misconduct, it was no small matter.
Considering this, Tong Yao blinked her eyes and casually made up an excuse: "Ugh! He’s from the village next to ours. He probably wanted to borrow money to get married or something like that. Ahchen is working, so he feels awkward asking him. He said he was waiting for me, but actually, he probably wanted to catch Ahchen after work. He just didn’t expect Ahchen not to come back for lunch, so he ended up waiting for nothing."
"So, it was about borrowing money. Good thing you came back late, otherwise, it would have been awkward." Li Nuanchun took Tong Yao’s words at face value. Money lending can indeed be complicated, she’d had her fair share of such experiences.
You’d offend people if you don’t lend them money.
But if you do lend the money, others might think you are rich and all the relatives would start asking for loans. When it comes to claiming the money back, you can end up in trouble. No matter whether you lend the money or not, it’s a mistake either way. When you are poor, relatives shun you, but when you have money, everyone comes running.
Ever since marrying Dai Liwen, Li Nuanchun often encountered such dilemmas. She tried to run away from it whenever she could.
"Indeed." Tong Yao blinked her eyes and said with an air of knowledge, "Luckily, I returned a bit later. Otherwise, I don’t know how I would’ve handled it. In the future sister, if you see this man, whether or not I’m home, just tell him I’m not around."
"All right, don’t worry, I’ll tell him if I see him next time." Currently, Li Nuanchun and Tong Yao were the closest in Housing Compound. She blurted out without thinking about it, "Girl, you were lucky it was me who ran into him today. If it were Yanmei, who knows what kind of stories she would cook up behind your back."
