Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Ishihara Taro’s face contorted with rage the instant he saw that Gu Nianzhi had fallen to the ground in a sitting position and not onto the protruding rock. He clenched his fist tightly, and his fingernails dug into the palm of his hands, but he didn’t feel any pain. He only felt unbearably upset. He had on sunglasses like Gu Nianzhi did, and he glared in her direction before turning around swiftly and leaving the place.
…
It was a really bad fall for Gu Nianzhi! She could only hear her mind buzzing as she sat on the ground, and she was unable to pull herself back together for quite a while. Several students that were in the vicinity ran over to her and asked, “Hey, are you alright?”
Gu Nianzhi shook her head slightly. “I’m alright.” She tried to push herself up with her hands, but the fall had been so painful that she could feel the impact of it on her tailbone. She was in so much pain that she inhaled deeply repeatedly.
At that moment, a slim hand with a fair complexion reached out to her. The hand was perfectly shaped, and the fingers were very straight. They were not knobby at the joints, which were barely discernible. However, the hand didn’t look too delicate and gave off an indescribable feeling of strength. The nails were clean and well-kept, the white half-moons at the base clearly visible. The middle finger of the person’s left hand had a shallow ring compression mark on it.
Gu Nianzhi raised her head up slowly. Due to the impact of the fall, her glasses had slid off the bridge of her nose and now sat loosely on the end of her nose. She looked somewhat hilarious, but her large, dark eyes gave her frightened expression an added look of cuteness.
He Zhichu was the one standing in front of her. He reached his hands out to her. “What is it? Are you unable to get up?”
Gu Nianzhi clenched her teeth as she held onto He Zhichu’s hands. He Zhichu realized at once that she was hurt when she began trying to exert her strength. He bent over immediately and carried her in his arms. “I’m taking you to the hospital.”
On second thought, he remembered that Gu Nianzhi couldn’t be admitted to an ordinary hospital. He Zhichu corrected himself immediately and said, “Give Huo Shaoheng a call and ask him to take you to the hospital on his base. Doctor Chen, isn’t it? The doctor who sees you?”
Gu Nianzhi squinted and mumbled “Hm” softly.
It seemed like her body constitution was special, indeed. All three of them, Huo Shaoheng, Chen Lie, and He Zhichu, knew about this. Even if it was just a fall, the three would not allow her to receive treatment at a general hospital.
She took out her phone and called Huo Shaoheng. However, Huo Shaoheng was at a meeting. According to the usual procedure, all electronic equipment, including smartphones, could not be brought into the meeting venue. Therefore, the call was received by the operator at the Special Operation Forces’ headquarters.
The operator transferred the call to Huo Shaoheng’s cell phone immediately when he heard Gu Nianzhi’s voice. Unfortunately, the transferred call went to his voicemail. After thinking about it, Gu Nianzhi then called Yin Shixiong instead.
Yin Shixiong wasn’t at the meeting. He swiped his phone to answer the call when he saw that it was Gu Nianzhi’s number. “Nianzhi? What’s the matter? How surprising that you’re taking time out of your busy day to give me a call. Haha, I’m flattered!”
As she held onto her phone, Gu Nianzhi observed that He Zhichu was gazing at her intently and had no choice but to whisper back to Yin Shixiong, “Brother Xiong, I… I just had a fall, and there might be some problems with my bones. Could you take me to Brother Chen for a checkup?”
Yin Shixiong got serious immediately when Gu Nianzhi personally requested a checkup. “How did you fall? Where did you fall? Can you move? If you can’t, I’ll dispatch an ambulance.” The ambulance would have a stretcher in it, so her injuries wouldn’t be aggravated.
Feeling pain in her tailbone, Gu Nianzhi thought that it’d be better for there to be a stretcher and said softly, “Yes please, if that isn’t too much trouble.”
Yin Shixiong called Chen Lie immediately. “Doctor Chen, it seems that Nianzhi has injured herself. Could you dispatch an ambulance to her school and bring her in for an examination?”
Startled at the need for an ambulance, Chen Lie said hurriedly, “No problem. I will dispatch the ambulance and be there personally.” Chen Lie hurriedly threw on his coat and white scrubs and brought his medical team with him.
He Zhichu carried Gu Nianzhi to the backseat of his car and said, “Wait here for a while. You’ll be moved to the ambulance when Doctor Chen arrives.”
It was difficult for her to nod since she was lying in the backseat of the car, but she still acknowledged what he said.
Many onlooking students witnessed He Zhichu carrying her to his car. If she wasn’t mistaken, she saw some of the students taking pictures of them furtively… But they would all understand the situation once the ambulance arrived. After all, people who enjoy making malicious and groundless accusations were in the minority.
He Zhichu didn’t get into his car. Instead, he stood by the side of his car and scanned his surroundings indifferently. The snow was still falling, and he became slightly embarrassed by the excited students. One after another, groups of students scattered and left, but at the same time, there was a never ending stream of new students looking in their direction, curious to know what was going on.
His car was parked on the snow covered ground by the roadside. Although it was winter, and the grass was all gone, the land there was still softer than it was in other places.
Gu Nianzhi asked He Zhichu from inside the car, “Professor He, why did you drive out here in the snow today?”
He Zhichu held his arms close to his body and stood with his legs crossed as he softly said, “I came here to pick you up.”
Gu Nianzhi was speechless for a moment then couldn’t help but ask, “Did you throw the rock at me just now? You really put a lot of strength into throwing it.”
He Zhichu turned around and glanced at her. “I didn’t, but I’m very grateful to the person who threw the rock at you. You wouldn’t be lying here, talking to me right now if that hadn’t happened.”
As He Zhichu recalled what had just happened, his heart pounded so hard that it felt as though it were bursting out from his chest. At the time, he had just gotten out of his car and was behind Gu Nianzhi when he saw her falling backwards in the direction of the protruding rock, which appeared to be as sharp as a knife! The consequences would have been dire if the back of her head had landed on the protruding rock.
He didn’t know why, but his legs gave out the moment he realized that Gu Nianzhi hadn’t hit her head on the rock. He slipped and sat on the ground when his legs gave out, and it was only then that he was able to gulp for air and breathe. It had felt like someone had been strangling him. He didn’t even dare to breathe…
Gu Nianzhi’s heart skipped a beat. How could this all be so coincidental? With her photographic memory, her logical and meticulous mind got to thinking. The current situation bore an uncanny resemblance to the one that she faced before, when she was almost knocked down by a bicycle. She was only unharmed on that occasion because a boy on a skateboard rushed over and knocked down the bicycle.
This time, she only fell on her rear and not backwards because of the piece of rock that had flown out of nowhere and hit her knee. However, the fall on her rear was so forceful that her tailbone bore the brunt of it all.
Using a physics formula, Gu Nianzhi started to silently calculate the amount of force used when she landed on her rear. Her estimation was that the amount of force was almost equivalent to being hit on the back by a hammer weighing ten kilograms.
Then again, the way in which she was saved, by both the boy on the skateboard—who put her out of harm’s way by blocking the bicycle—and the rock this time around, seemed similar to how Huo Shaoheng and his crew would operate. They were all keeping her safe and protected behind the scenes. Their presence could not be felt, but they always appeared at the right time to save her from danger.
Could this really have been arranged by Huo Shaoheng?
She recalled what Huo Shaoheng told her before, when he forced her hand in marriage. He said that their marriage would be the fastest way to increase her security protection to the highest level. Her imagination ran wild for quite some time before she finally heard the sirens of the ambulance getting closer.
As the doors opened, Chen Lie jumped down with a stretcher and a team of paramedics following behind him. They all rushed to He Zhichu’s car.
