CH 84

Now, he was even using tricks to gain pity. Could it be that Miss Song wasn’t the least bit moved?

Strictly speaking, Rong Heng hadn’t spent a single day at ease ever since he transmigrated to modern times.

In these two days after finding out Song Yuan had recovered her memories, his heart had remained suspended in the air. The joy of having lost and found her vanished like smoke, replaced by fear and dread. He was afraid, truly afraid to return once more to those five years when she wasn’t by his side.

Already anxious and fretful, the added stress of having another one of those dreams caused him to recall those desolate1 days following her disappearance, ending up with him falling ill immediately after waking up the next morning.

Sun Qiming wasn’t just his driver, he was also his personal life assistant. With multiple jobs, his salary naturally increased by a lot.

He came in, and seeing Rong Heng looking flushed and listless, he knew that his boss had gotten sick. He didn’t dare to delay and took Rong Heng to the hospital.

Rong Heng sat in the back seat, looking out the car window. Suddenly, he rasped in a hoarse voice, “Don’t go to the People’s Hospital.”

Although Sun Qiming was astonished and puzzled, he still turned the corner, chose a new route, and drove to a different, private hospital. He mused, the boss’s illness isn’t too serious, at most just a cold and fever. It was fine even if he didn’t go to one of the top three hospitals; going to a private hospital for a cold and fever was more than enough.

The two people made a detour to a nearby private hospital.

There weren’t as many people in a private hospital as there were in a public hospital, and it looked just like a clinical examination center. The environment wasn’t bad, and the number of people was small, so Rong Heng’s tense heart loosened.

When they arrived at the hospital, they didn’t need to line up and immediately registered for a consultation.

The doctor was a middle-aged man wearing black-rimmed glasses. After taking Rong Heng’s temperature and checking his blood, he said in a steady tone, “It’s just a cold and fever, nothing serious. If you want, I can prescribe you some medicine. If you feel that your body feels very uncomfortable, you can drink more hot water without taking medicine.”

Sun Qiming let out a relieved breath.

He’d been afraid ever since that incident happened. If at this moment, the boss had a headache and fever, not to mention other things, Madam Xie would be very sad.

It was normal to have a cold in winter for anywhere from as short as two or three days and as long as one week.

Rong Heng lowered his head, buttoning his shirt as he spoke. “Doctor, I’ll be troubling you to help me with the admission process.”

Both the doctor and Sun Qiming looked at him, their faces full of doubts.

An ordinary cold and fever… didn’t need hospitalization, though?

“I’ll be troubling you to help me with the admission process,” Rong Heng repeated.

Sun Qiming seemed to immediately understand the boss’s intentions. As the boss’s driver and personal life assistant, he naturally needed to assuage the boss’s worries, so he explained to the doctor, “Doctor, we’ll have to trouble you2 with the hospitalization procedures. My boss was seriously injured a few months ago and was admitted to the intensive care unit, so it’d be better to stay in the hospital to monitor his condition for his cold. Do you have a VIP ward? If there’s an availability, we’ll have to trouble you.” As though afraid the doctor would refuse, Sun Qiming added, “We won’t use health insurance reimbursement; we’ll pay for the entire treatment out of pocket.”

As a private hospital, there were many wards available. Although the doctor felt that this white-haired young man was a bit too timid and cautious, he still wrote him a note and assigned him to a private ward.

The hospital’s efficiency was extremely high, and soon Rong Heng was admitted to a ward with excellent conditions.

Since Sun Qiming knew what his boss wanted to do, he wanted to do everything he could to make it happen, so he asked tentatively, “Boss, should I call Miss Song? Otherwise, she would worry when she can’t find you.”

Rong Heng shot him a glance and rejected quietly, “It’s just a small matter of being hospitalized. No need to bother her.”

Sun Qiming had been by his side for so long, after all. He couldn’t help but silently criticize, Don’t want to bother Miss Sun? Then what are you doing in the hospital? And you don’t want to make her feel distressed? Frankly speaking, this is a trick of hurting yourself to capture her heart 3. Is there any person who was pursuing a girl who didn’t use this trick? He knew it very well.

After Sun Qiming left the ward, he decided to head directly to Fairview Garden to find Song Yuan.

He was also curious. This Miss Song was indeed very beautiful, and she looked gentle and warm. It was only that she was a bit difficult to pursue. The boss had been resolutely4 pursuing her for several months. Now, he was even using tricks to garner pity. Could it be that Miss Song wasn’t the least bit moved?

Song Yuan was just about to take Rong Ting to the nearby shopping mall. Spring would be right after New Year, and Rong Ting still didn’t have spring clothes.

As soon as the mother and son came downstairs, they saw Sun Qiming standing there.

Sun Qiming relaxed when he saw Song Yuan and spoke with a smile on his face. “Miss Song, our President Xie was originally going to come look for you for something, but unfortunately, he got sick early this morning. His illness was rather serious, and the doctor ordered him to be hospitalized. President Xie didn’t ask for me to come find you, but I’m in a bit of a pinch. President Xie has a bad appetite, and he isn’t willing to eat his meals. I’m unable to persuade him, so I can only thicken my skin to come seek your help.”

Song Yuan was quite surprised. Clearly she’d seen that Rong Heng had been just fine yesterday. Why was it that he was sick today and was even hospitalized?

Rong Ting was extremely worried about his Emperor Father, but he still remembered that Sun Qiming was an outsider, so he could only suppress his anxiety and ask, “How is Uncle Xie? Is he very sick? What did the doctor say?”

Sun Qiming thought to himself, how amazing. Miss Song doesn’t seem worried, but instead Miss Song’s younger brother is very concerned for the boss! It could be seen that the boss’s usual policy of achieving goals through indirect means5 was right.

Once the boss grinded up enough of a sense of existence with Miss Song’s family, why worry about looking for chances to get along?

“The fever isn’t serious, but a few months ago, the boss was seriously injured a few months ago and was resuscitated a few times, so it’s hard to say. The doctor just had him hospitalized to monitor his condition. The specifics of the situation depend on further observation and treatment.”

Rong Ting looked worried and somewhat anxious.

Song Yuan was also afraid that something would happen to Rong Heng. She thought some more before saying, “Please tell me what hospital and ward he’s in. I’ll visit him when I have time today.”

Sun Qiming told Song Yuan the name of the hospital and the ward number. “Why don’t I drive you there?”

He was afraid that if he waited too long, the boss’s fever would go down and his cold would get better.

Song Yuan shook her head. “No need. I’ll drive over.”

Since she said this, Sun Qiming couldn’t stay any longer and could only leave.

After he left, Rong Ting asked fearfully, “Empress Mother, has Emperor Father fallen ill? Is it serious? Grandfather once said that when the Xie family found Emperor Father, Emperor Father had nearly lost his life!”

Song Yuan pondered for a moment before answering, “His driver said it was only a fever, so I don’t think it’s very serious, and he only needs to stay in the hospital for observation. How’s this: we’ll go to the fruit shop to buy a fruit basket, then go to the hospital to see him?”

For her, Rong Heng was just an “ex-husband” now and needed to be treated with civility. It was only expected to bring something when visiting a patient.

Rong Ting gave an ‘en,’ feeling relieved.

When the mother and son arrived at the fruit shop outside the apartment complex, Rong Ting was originally still absentminded. But when he heard the store clerk say that the fruit basket was 200-300 yuan, he immediately came to his senses. He tugged on Song Yuan’s clothes, whispering, “Empress Mother, this is not a good deal. Let’s not buy the fruit basket.”

Song Yuan thought he had a better suggestion. Thinking that it wasn’t appropriate to discuss this in front of the store clerk, she brought him outside the store.

“If we don’t buy a fruit basket, then what should we buy?” Song Yuan thought for a bit. “We either give a fruit basket or give flowers, but your Emperor Father doesn’t like flowers.”

Rong Ting nodded. “I know, we won’t give flowers. This fruit basket is really not a good deal. We can weigh fruits ourselves.”

Song Yuan had learned from7 the mothers in the moms’ group chat and now gave Rong Ting a bit of pocket money every week. It was mainly to build up Rong Ting’s awareness of money.

But Rong Ting was different from what she had imagined. He would pay attention to the prices of the snacks he was interested in…

Yakult in the supermarket was often on sale. If they weren’t too fresh, they were buy one, get one free. Nowadays, Rong Ting liked buying two yakult for the price of one.

“That’s fine.” Song Yuan listened to his opinion. “Then we won’t buy a fruit basket. We’ll just pick some fruits from the fruit shop.”

Rong Ting nodded in satisfaction.

Finally, they bought apples, oranges, and a bunch of bananas. Thanks to Rong Ting opportunistically7 brushing up his sense of existence, Song Yuan also bought him a box of strawberries and cream.

After buying the fruit, they set off for the hospital.

The mother and son stood in the elevator along with a patient wearing a hospital gown and his family member supporting him.

The middle-aged woman was still scolding, “What do I always tell you? Drink less, or better yet, don’t drink at all! You just give me lip service and drink whatever you want. So? Do you feel better after drinking a hole in your stomach this time? Alcohol is not a good thing, drinking too much is not good for your health!”

The patient in the hospital gown looked embarrassed. “Don’t say it, say it when we go back. What are you talking about in the elevator!”

Rong Ting was extremely puzzled. Drinking alcohol would cause a hole in one’s stomach and hospitalization? Why did he think that the power of alcohol wasn’t that great ah? He drank half a bottle last time, and he didn’t have any reaction at all.

The mother and son came to the door of the ward that Sun Qiming spoke of. Seeing that the door was closed, Song Yuan knocked, and soon someone came to open the door. Sun Qiming saw it was her and was taken aback for a moment. Immediately, he happily turned his head and announced to the person inside, “Boss, Miss Song is here!”

Song Yuan: “…”

Song Yuan and Rong Ting entered the ward. It was a single person ward, so as soon as they entered, they saw Rong Heng in a hospital gown, lying weakly on the hospital bed.

When Rong Heng saw Song Yuan, there was clearly a light in his eyes, but the next second, he reprimanded Sun Qiming. “Didn’t I tell you not to go? It’s just a trivial matter. Like I said, I just have a common fever and don’t need to be hospitalized. I can be discharged today.”

“…” Sun Qiming didn’t say anything.

Song Yuan placed the fruit on the coffee table next to him, saying, “Forget it, forget it. You’ve been hospitalized, so it’s definitely not a small matter. And Rong Ting wanted to come see you.”

Rong Ting had already come over to the hospital bed, looking at him worriedly. “Emp–Uncle Xie, are you okay?”

Rong Heng smiled and shook his head. “I’m okay, it’s just a common cold and fever. The doctor was worried and insisted I stay in the hospital to be monitored. Look at me, don’t I look fine?”

Hearing him say this, Rong Ting carefully scrutinized Rong Heng’s complexion, and seeing that it indeed didn’t look serious, he quietly released the tension in his heart.

The environment and facilities of this ward were quite good. It had everything one could need, and it wasn’t much different from a standard hotel room. It also came with a small refrigerator.

Rong Ting was extremely interested in this type of mini fridge. While his Emperor Father and Empress Mother were speaking, he came over to the fridge and reached out to open it. He found that the lights inside weren’t on and guessed that it wasn’t powered on. He took another look and surprisingly discovered that there were several bottles of the wine that Emperor Father had drunk last time in the spa!!

Rong Ting had an incredulous expression on his face. Emperor Father still wanted to drink after getting sick and being hospitalized? Was it possible that it wasn’t a fever at all, but a hole in his stomach like that mister in the elevator? But Emperor Father was afraid they would worry and lied that it was a fever?

[1] 人不人鬼不鬼: lit. people do not resemble people, ghosts do not resemble ghosts; describes a place or circumstance of pure misery

[2] Rong Heng uses the casual you (你), while Sun Qiming uses the polite you (您) when addressing the doctor

[3] 苦肉计: I dunno if there’s an English equivalent for this, but it means to use the trick of harming oneself to win over someone’s trust

[4] 严防死守: 严防 = to take strict precautions; on your guard. 死守 = to defend one’s property to the death

[5] 曲线救国: a term that originally came about in the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945). It means to use indirect means to save the country instead of directly fighting (the Japanese army) head-on (e.g., boycotts of Japanese goods). In this context, the goal is to pursue Song Yuan, and the indirect means is to start with winning over Rong Ting (her “little brother”).

[6] 取经: to learn by studying another’s experience

[7] 见缝插针: lit. to see a gap and stick in a needle; to make use of every second and every inch

Cheese: is it common where you live to buy fruit for sick patients? i know some people buy get-well flowers instead, but tbh if i were sick, i’d rather have visitors bring me fruit lol

But lmaoooo i didn’t think the mistaking perrier for alcohol joke would go for this long