When Chen Fan returned to the hospital with food, he found that Su Yingxue was not in the ward.
Chen Fan's heart tightened, and he quickly dialed her phone.
"Yingxue, where are you?"
"That Brother Chen, I... I'm almost recovered. I'm at the first-floor lobby queuing to complete the discharge procedures."
Su Yingxue's apologetic voice came from the other end of the phone.
"Discharge? No, your body hasn't fully recovered. It's best to stay for a couple more days," Chen Fan said with concern.
"I feel fine now, and... and I don't like the smell of the hospital," Su Yingxue said weakly.
Although she said that, it wasn't the real reason.
The bill the nurse had given her today had truly frightened her. She was staying in a premium ward.
In just two days, it had cost over ten thousand yuan.
This was equivalent to more than four months of her salary.
Even though Chen Fan had paid a deposit of one hundred thousand yuan for the hospitalization, they had only known each other for two days. Su Yingxue felt too embarrassed to let him pay for her hospital stay.
That's why she was in such a hurry to get discharged.
With hospital fees of seven to eight thousand yuan per day, her small heart couldn't bear it.
If she hadn't only had a few hundred yuan in her bank card, she would have been thinking about how to repay this over ten thousand yuan to Chen Fan.
Hearing Su Yingxue's words, Chen Fan showed a wry smile. This silly girl was truly unique.
However, he didn't force her any further and said, "What counter are you at? I'll come find you."
"N-no need, I'm almost done here. I'll come up shortly," Su Yingxue quickly replied.
"Alright!"
Chen Fan hung up the phone with resignation, put down the food, and waited in the ward.
About ten minutes later, Su Yingxue returned to the ward, her body covered in a thin layer of sweat.
Chen Fan looked at her with great tenderness. "I'm sorry, I was delayed by a few flies. The food is a bit late. Did I make you hungry?"
As he spoke, he began to arrange a table full of various delicious foods.
"I-I'm not hungry."
Su Yingxue stared blankly at Chen Fan, feeling a prickle of emotion and her eyes slightly moist.
Since she was young, Chen Fan was the first man who had taken such attentive care of her.
Moreover, the way he looked at her was pure, without the naked possessiveness of other men.
But the more he was like this, the more guilty Su Yingxue felt.
Because in her heart, someone else already resided – the little boy who had promised to marry her when she turned twenty!
"You don't have to be so good to me, really," Su Yingxue said with utmost sincerity.
"Isn't it normal for friends to help each other?" Chen Fan held a bowl of fragrant chicken soup and carefully handed it to Su Yingxue, looking at her intently. "Unless you don't consider me a friend."
"I—"
Su Yingxue didn't know how to answer for a moment, so she could only take the bowl of chicken soup and start drinking.
Chen Fan smiled with satisfaction. "Drink slowly. I'll go peel an apple for you."
"No, don't trouble yourself," Su Yingxue said, appearing quite embarrassed.
Just then, her phone rang.
It was their neighbor, Aunt Zhao.
Su Yingxue's heart was instantly filled with a bad premonition. She pressed the answer button, and Aunt Zhao's extremely anxious voice came through:
"Yingxue, your mother has gone missing again!"
"Buzz!"
Su Yingxue's pretty face turned ashen in an instant!
"Aunt Zhao, I'll be right back! If my mother has gone home, you must notify me immediately!" Su Yingxue's face was filled with anxiety and unease.
She had only one relative, and her mother, Li Xiuying, was her entire world!
"Don't worry, I know. Don't be too anxious. It's not the first time your mother has gone missing. She's always found."
"Aunt Zhao, thank you!"
With that, she hung up the phone.
Chen Fan, standing nearby, heard everything clearly.
"I have a car. I'll take you back," Chen Fan said.
"Okay."
This time, Su Yingxue didn't refuse.
Her mother, Li Xiuying, suffered from intermittent mental illness, sometimes lucid, sometimes delirious.
She needed to get home quickly to assess the situation.
Every minute she delayed meant another minute of danger for Li Xiuying!
The two of them hurried to the underground parking lot, got into the Volkswagen Passat, the car prepared by Jiang Tiansheng for him to use, and sped towards the residence of Su Yingxue and her mother.
...
The outskirts of Hangjiang.
Due to the construction of new urban areas in recent years, a large number of migrant workers have flowed into Hangjiang.
Most of these people were doing odd jobs, trying to make a living in Hangjiang, taking on small tasks here and there to get by.
The Gongnong Street in the suburbs had become the gathering place for this group of people.
Chen Fan drove his car rapidly into Gongnong Street, feeling as if he had instantly traveled from a metropolis to a slum.
Looking at the piles of garbage everywhere and the foul-smelling ditch that ran through the entire small harbor, he couldn't help but frown.
The environment here was even worse than he had imagined!
Had Su Yingxue been living in such a place for the three years she was driven out of the Su family?
As a quasi-first-tier city, shouldn't Hangjiang have had such areas rectified by the relevant departments long ago?
However, now was not the time to ponder these things. Finding Li Xiuying's whereabouts was more important.
Chen Fan followed the direction Su Yingxue pointed and stopped under a dilapidated dormitory building.
Su Yingxue pushed open the car door and ran upstairs anxiously.
Chen Fan followed closely behind.
"Clang!"
"Ah!"
A loud bang startled Su Yingxue, nearly causing her to fall down the stairs.
Fortunately, Chen Fan was quick and grabbed her by the waist in time.
Su Yingxue's face flushed. Without time to think, she quickly climbed the stairs!
She had a bad feeling that her rented room was upstairs!
As Su Yingxue and Chen Fan climbed the stairs, they saw a large pile of daily necessities stacked at the stairwell and a mess all over the floor.
"Why did you throw my things out?"
Su Yingxue quickly ran into the rented room and saw the landlady and her son throwing all her belongings out of the room as if they were trash!
Seeing her return, the landlady put her hands on her hips and sneered, "Why can't I throw them out? Tell me yourself, how long have you been owing rent? Do you think this is the Red Cross? Letting you live here for free?"
"But you can't..."
Su Yingxue's voice grew more aggrieved as she spoke.
In the past few months, the rent here had increased several times, and many tenants dared not speak out.
As for her, because her salary had not been paid, she had been a few days late.
Even so, there were still several days left before the contract expired. The landlady had no right to throw her belongings out arbitrarily.
But she was in a hurry to find her mother's whereabouts and didn't want to waste time arguing with the landlady. She gritted her teeth and turned to leave, but was stopped by the landlady.
"I don't think you want to be homeless, do you?" the landlady said with a wicked smile. "How about this, it's not that I'm unreasonable. There's a great opportunity for you now. It just depends on whether you can seize it."
"What opportunity?"
Su Yingxue frowned slightly. She could see a mischievous look on the landlady's face.
The landlady broke into a half-smile, and then uttered a sentence that filled everyone with righteous indignation.