Chapter Ten: Healing Injuries

  Su Tong was frightened by what she saw, and it's not that she had no experience. From childhood to adulthood, although she couldn't be considered a tomboy, she wasn't the kind of weak and delicate Lin Daiyu either. When playing with a group of kids, it was normal to get some scrapes and bruises here and there, maybe even a few days of swelling and bruising. But falling down and twisting her ankle, without any redness or swelling, just a pair of small black and purple hands on her ankle... after all, life isn't a horror movie, not everyone has strange experiences. It's like something that only happens in the movies suddenly happened to her, anyone would be scared stupid.

  What to do, Su Tong stared blankly at her injured ankle, frozen in place, unsure of what to do next. She didn't dare touch the black and purple handprint with her hands, fearing that it would spread like a crazy virus throughout her body if she did. But just staring at it wouldn't make it disappear either. The mark not only looked eerie but also felt scorching hot and painful. Su Tong wondered if seeing the state of her ankle had worsened her mental burden. She thought the pain was initially bearable, but after just a few minutes, the pain index seemed to be growing exponentially. Su Tong didn't know if it was her imagination, but she felt that the area around the two black handprints on her ankle seemed to be faintly turning greenish-blue, as if the black substance - whether it was toxin or something else - was slowly spreading.

  It can't go on like this, Su Teng doesn't understand medicine, but as a social news reporter for over three years, her experiences are indeed more abundant than those of her peers. It's not uncommon to see people who refuse to go to the hospital despite their effective illnesses, only to end up with life-threatening consequences. Thinking about how she's still in her early twenties and so young, if she were to lose a foot due to this strange and inexplicable injury, she would never be able to run around doing interviews and finding news again. Just thinking about it makes Su Teng collapse.

  Her ankle hurt badly, Su Tong grabbed her phone and took a look at the time on it, it was already past 8pm. She couldn't care about being polite anymore, so she quickly called Wang Li to see if she and her boyfriend had time to come over and accompany her to the hospital to see what was wrong. However, when she called, Wang Li's phone was turned off. She tried calling the landline at Wang Li's house, but it just kept ringing with no one picking up. She didn't know if this couple of old lovers had gone out for a walk after dinner or were watching a movie together.

  What can you do? Su Tong had his first taste of relying on the wall, and people running away. Sometimes things are just so unlucky, when you don't need to rely on anyone, many people throw out olive branches, indicating their willingness to provide help at any time. However, when you really need someone to lend a hand, those people may not be intentionally avoiding you, but they all happen to be "out of service", leaving you with nothing to do but stare blankly.

  Forget it, dragging on won't work either. I don't know when Wang Li and Lao Lv will be able to return home. If it's too late, let alone whether it will delay things here, just getting them to come out of their house at that time is not a good idea. After some thought, Su Tong decided to rely on herself instead. She calculated that the elevator had already resumed operation, and she only needed to hop on one foot to the door, take the elevator, and then hop all the way to the entrance of the residential area, where she could ask the security guard to call a taxi for her.

  Okay, actually thinking carefully, just from the point of jumping out of the unit door to the entrance of the community, it's not easy at all. This section of road is at least 300-400 meters long, including a small stone-paved path that is uneven and bumpy even when walking with two feet, let alone hopping on one foot.

  But it's come to this, what other choice is there? Just grit your teeth and prepare to jump out with all your might!

  Su Tong steeled herself, propping herself up from the sofa and hopping on one foot to the door. She leaned against the shoe cabinet to manage to put her shoes on, a simple action that normally took less than two seconds, but now made her forehead sweat with a thin layer of fine beads. Every slight movement of her ankle made Su Tong inhale sharply in pain. If she had to rate it from one to ten, the pain of stubbing her toe against the table corner was an eight, and now it was at least 8.5.

  After finally putting on both shoes, Su Tong held onto the door handle and carefully jumped out of the door, leaning against the wall to lock the door. However, she discovered a small plastic bag hanging from the door handle. She recalled the knocking sound she heard while dozing off earlier, which seemed to be from the man at the door. Without locking the door, she first took down the plastic bag and looked inside, finding several types of medicinal creams for treating bruises and a business card.

  Su Tong took out the business card and looked at it. The card was pure black with no patterns, and the top line had small white words that read "Home Decor Consultant". In the middle position were two large white characters - Tang Ao.

  Tang Ao? Su Tong felt that this name looked very familiar, and after thinking about it for a moment, he remembered that it was the name of the protagonist in "Journey to the West". Could it be that the man living across from him was named Tang Ao? Was it him who had sent these things over? Su Tong was somewhat surprised. Why would this neighbor, with whom she only had a nodding acquaintance, go out of his way to send her medicine? She wasn't sure, but it couldn't be because he had taken a particular liking to her, could it? Su Tong acknowledged that she wasn't ugly, and was even relatively delicate, but she was by no means a stunning beauty who could turn heads. She never thought she had the kind of charm that would make someone fall in love at first sight. So maybe this person was just naturally warm and considerate towards everyone around him?

  Su Tong hesitated about whether to reopen the door and put the ointment at home, go to the hospital by herself, or simply bring these ointments together. As she was pondering, the elevator door opened, and she instinctively turned her head to look at the person coming out. Although the security situation in this neighborhood is still good, it's always better to be safe than sorry, especially since Su Tong has never been brave. This building has only two households per floor, and at this time of night, she was alone in the corridor, so she thought it was necessary to take a closer look at who the person was.

  As she turned her head, the person who came out of the elevator was none other than the man living across the hall. He was still wearing the same clothes as he had during the day and was holding a box of take-out food. Seeing Su Tong standing in the corridor with a plastic bag containing ointment in her hand, he first looked startled, then smiled and nodded at her, asking: "Are you feeling better? Why are you out so late?"

  "Is this the one you hung on my door just now?" Su Tong used one hand to support himself against the wall and with the other hand, picked up a small plastic bag and gestured to the other person.

  "Yes, I knocked on the door, but you might have been resting and didn't hear me. I was afraid of disturbing your rest, so I hung my card on the door. The man's tone was very gentle, but as he spoke, his eyes did not meet Su Tong's gaze, instead, they were cast on Su Tong's foot that was secretly suspended in the air, raising an eyebrow and asking, "Your ankle isn't better yet? What happened? Is it serious?"

  Su Tong originally wanted to say that nothing was wrong, although the other person's concern was kind, but since they had only known each other for a short time, she didn't know the root of the matter and it wasn't good to trouble others without knowing the situation. From any angle, she shouldn't have told this man the truth. However, when her gaze met the man's dark eyes, Su Tong felt a momentary daze, and before her brain could react, she had already blurted out: "My ankle is inexplicably swollen and hurts badly, I think I'll go to the hospital to take a look."

  As soon as the words came out, Su Tong herself was startled. She could have come up with ten thousand excuses to gloss over it, but for some reason, she had just blurted out the truth uncontrollably. The man's eyes were clear and bright, yet somehow her heart seemed to be captured by his gaze.

  "Oh?" The man's eyebrows furrowed upon hearing this, and he instinctively took two steps forward, crouching down. "If it's swollen... that's not good at all. Don't be afraid, let me take a look at your ankle to see what's going on."

  As he spoke, he lifted Su Tong's pant leg without hesitation, and under the light of the corridor lamp, a pair of small black hands were clearly exposed in his line of sight. The man's eyebrows furrowed even more tightly as he stood up and said to Su Tong: "Your current situation isn't very good, the less you move around, the better it is for your recovery. Don't go to the hospital, it may not be of much help anyway. Why don't I go get some medicine to apply to your leg? I'm not sure if it will definitely work, but it's worth a try. If we wait any longer, the black area will spread and that won't be good for your body."

  As he spoke, he stretched out his hand to support Su Tong without waiting for her response, and carried her back to the living room, re-seated her on the sofa, then hastily walked out, opened the door and entered his own home.

  Su Tong sat on the sofa, his whole person somewhat dazed. What should he do now? He had met this neighbor only three times, and yet the man was willing to enter his home to help him check his injuries. If he treated the man as a bad person, it would be too hurtful, but what if the man was genuinely kind-hearted? Who knew what kind of person he really was? From the moment Su Tong learned his name until now, it had been less than five minutes. Given his current situation, if the other party had ulterior motives, it would likely end in disaster.

  It's blessing or disaster, the disaster can't be avoided! Su Teng took a deep breath and quickly called Wang Li again with his mobile phone before the man came back. The other side was still in a shutdown state, and there was no way to get through. Su Teng had no choice but to take out the man's business card from the plastic bag, quickly took a photo of it with his mobile phone, and sent it to Wang Li, telling her that this person was coming over to apply medicine for him.

  What if this Tang Ao is really not a good person and has some secrets of his own, at least there should be someone who can provide clues to the police.

  Su Tong had just finished dealing with all that when the sound of the door closing came from outside. The man named Tang Ao walked in, holding some things in his hand and closed the door behind him.

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