Chapter Fourteen Zhang Min

  Su Tong stared at the blister in her palm, dazed for a long time without regaining consciousness. She was certain that there was no such blister on her hand when she went to sleep the night before. Why would a person who slept soundly in bed wake up with an extra blister in their palm? No matter how she thought about it, it just didn't make sense.

  She sat in her bed, dazed for a moment, letting her mind clear up. The dream that had become somewhat vague at the moment she woke up gradually came back to her memory, especially the instant before she woke up from the nightmare. The red and juicy fruit in her palm suddenly withered away, turning into a ball of gray ash, which was held in her palm, and then suddenly became scorching hot, startling her awake.

  Yes! It was that instant, my palm hurt so much, so to say, could it be that this blister was scalded in my dream?

  Although she had experienced many unbelievable things the day before, Su Tong still found it hard to believe such an illogical conjecture. She carefully checked her bed again, even under and beside it, but couldn't find anything that could scald herself or cause blisters on her hands for some reason. With a belly full of question marks, she had no choice but to temporarily give up searching for the cause.

  Also because she spent a lot of time in the morning trying to figure out how the blisters on her hands came about, Su Tong almost ended up being late for work. She didn't even have time to eat breakfast, and first tried to find a way to pop the shiny, very full, and painful blister, draining out the fluid inside, then carefully bandaging the wound so she wouldn't be held back from doing her job during the day; after all, once she got busy, she wouldn't have time to worry about whether or not there were blisters on her hands.

  Luckily, the night before, his ankle had been treated by Tang Ao, otherwise it would have been inconvenient to move around and he would have really been anxious to death. This was what Su Teng thought of in a daze for a moment when he hastily changed his clothes, put on his backpack and went out the door, staring at the tightly closed anti-theft door across from him.

  It's really hard to predict the world, who would have thought that after living for twenty years without believing in evil spirits, I would suddenly encounter these strange experiences one after another. And who would have thought that there is a handsome neighbor living right across from my house? As an interior decoration consultant, he can even heal wounds with such skill!

  Here is the translation:

  As he thought about it, Su Tong suddenly couldn't help but think of another thing. He had been living in this neighborhood for several years since moving here, but how come he had never noticed his neighbor across the hall before yesterday? From the feeling he got from seeing him yesterday, Tang Ao was clearly not someone who lacked presence. Although he was very composed and courteous, with a gentle and polite attitude, both his appearance and temperament were the type that would stand out in a crowd. Yet, despite coming and going every day, he had never noticed any signs of moving or changing neighbors across the hall, so how could he have never paid attention to him before?

  Why not take some time to sneak over to the property management side and ask about the situation? Although normally, property management wouldn't disclose owner information to others, Su Tong is a local journalist and has a good relationship with the property staff. It's possible to get some information out of them. Besides, I'm not really trying to pry into anyone's business, just want to know if Tang Ao has been living here all along or just moved in recently.

  On the way to work, the mobile media on the bus was also playing local news. After a few traffic updates, it briefly mentioned those kids who had an accident in Changqing Mountain. The morning news broadcast on the bus only provided some brief messages, without giving any specific information, just saying that the children were still mysteriously unconscious, and the hospital was at a loss, waiting for experts from other places to come and make a diagnosis.

  These kids are already aware of the situation and aren't surprised, but as soon as they see this message, they can't help but think of the children they saw in the hospital room yesterday, who were unconscious with faces that looked like they were sleeping peacefully, but were actually on the verge of losing their vital signs. Due to a lack of similar experiences, even the department director couldn't assert the degree of danger. Those are lively lives and the hopes of several families. What was originally supposed to be an exciting spring outing turned into this because of some unknown situation. Just thinking about it makes one's heart ache.

  After getting off the bus, Su Tong ran all the way to the newspaper office without being late. After punching in, she first went to buy a cup of coffee for herself and thought about how to continue following up on this matter while waiting for her coffee. She also took the opportunity to call the hospital to ask if there were any further changes in the condition of those children, whether it was optimistic or pessimistic. The reply from the other end was that there was no significant change from before, except that their body temperature had dropped by about 0.1 degrees compared to before, and still showed no signs of waking up.

  Su Tong walked into the office with a cup of coffee, and Wang Li, who was already sitting at her desk, typing away on her keyboard, looked up and saw her. She jumped up from her chair in surprise and rushed over to Su Tong, examining her from head to toe, almost spilling the coffee out of Su Tong's hands: "My goodness, let me take a closer look! Is my eyes playing tricks on me? Yesterday's Iron Lady, how did you become so energetic and walk in here today? This recovery speed is a bit scary!"

  Su Tong steadied the coffee cup that Wang Li had almost knocked over, barely avoiding having to take a hot coffee bath first thing in the morning. He gave Wang Li a slightly reproachful look: "Where did you go gallivanting last night?"

  "Don't worry about that for now, I'm more curious about how amazing the handsome guy living next door is!" Wang Li squeezed Su Tong's eyes, "The more you care about me, the more I think it's impossible to be an ordinary neighbor. You must have hidden something from me, not very nice! Take this opportunity, give yourself a last chance, hurry up and tell the truth, what's going on between you and that Tang Ao?"

  "You're such a person, when can you be serious for once?" Su Tong was thoroughly defeated by Wang Li's gossip spirit and hastily made a surrender gesture. "Sister, I admit defeat! I really don't have any secrets from you. Think about it, with your sharp eyes, sitting across from me, I'm like a spider living under a microscope, I reckon even my leg hair is counted clearly by you, where's the secret? Besides, I sent you a message last night just in case, but you're using it to tease me!"

  "What can I do, you're asking for trouble, knowing that I'm a curious person and still putting yourself in harm's way!" Joking aside, Wang Li was still a bit worried about Su Tong's foot recovery. While teasing her, she pulled Su Tong down to sit and reached out to lift up Su Tong's pant leg. Seeing that Su Tong's ankle wasn't red or swollen, as if it had never been injured at all, Wang Li couldn't help but feel extremely surprised. She threw away the gossiping enthusiasm she had just a moment ago and exclaimed, "Wow! This recovery is too good! If Tang Xiao were an old man with white hair, I would have guessed he was some kind of extraordinary person hiding in plain sight. But since he's so young, could he be a low-key, mysterious undercover doctor?"

  "You're talking nonsense!" Su Tong cried, laughing and scolding Wang Li with a glance, hurriedly putting his own pants leg back down. "Which medical profession requires casual clothes?!"

  "It's true, my brain is short-circuited!" Wang Li patted her own forehead, Su Tong was fine, and she was relieved. She said this and returned to her desk, tapping on the keyboard and saying, "There are too many things in my brain that need to be digested at once, it's all chaotic!"

  "What are you doing there so early in the morning?" Su Tong asked with some curiosity.

  "Don't mention it, my friend and I went out to watch a movie after dinner yesterday. The old donkey insisted on watching some action blockbuster, but the movie was so long! From the opening scene to the end credits, it took three hours! By the time we got back home, it was already midnight. I still had half of an article left to write and planned to finish it after getting back home, but I was too tired and fell asleep as soon as I got home. I only saw your message this morning when I woke up. Ugh, don't even get me started! Luckily, my brain is clear and I can still think straight, or else I'd be in big trouble with Old Dong!" Wang Li waved her hand and quickly refocused on the article she was still rushing to finish.

  Su Tong couldn't help but laugh at her flustered appearance. Wang Li was indeed very clever and had a knack for writing news articles, but she had a playful personality and lacked a sense of urgency, with weak organizational discipline. To put it in modern terms, she was a procrastinator. Every time Old Dong assigned her tasks, she would drag them out until the last minute, never grasping the importance of time. Although Old Dong often criticized her at meetings for not being diligent enough, he secretly appreciated Wang Li's abilities, and so he often wore an expression of frustration, as if he was disappointed that she wasn't living up to her potential.

  Wang Li was busy writing her draft, while Su Tong started sipping his coffee and thinking about the day's work schedule. After a while, Editor-in-Chief Dong came over, and Su Tong hurriedly ran to his office to report on the progress from the previous day, including the latest information he had obtained by calling the hospital that morning.

  Lao Dong, after all, is an old hand with so many years of work experience. After listening to Su Tong's report on the progress and gains, he has already realized that it is not necessary to spend more time guarding the hospital, because before the expert comes for consultation, it is not easy to make any breakthroughs. As long as you remember to keep in touch frequently, actively ask about the latest situation and progress, and ensure that you won't miss any updates on information, that's enough. If you really want to do something about this matter, then you need to find another entry point.

  "Chief Editor, I was thinking," Su Tong said, noticing Old Dong's furrowed brow and becoming cautious in his tone as well. Old Dong was actually not a bad person, just a bit stubborn. When he was in a bad mood, anyone who said something foolish or made an unwise suggestion would be lectured by him, receiving a lesson on ideology. "Since the hospital is out of the question, I've been to Changqing Mountain and didn't see anything special around the area where the incident happened. How about we consider going to these children's homes and taking a look? Maybe their families will have some different opinions, regardless of which side is closer to the truth. Collecting and listening to multiple voices still has meaning."

  Old Dong nodded after a moment of contemplation: "What you said is also right, on the one hand, going to the family's home to take a look, as you said, can collect different voices, synthesize various parties' views and attitudes. On the other hand, this is also a good opportunity for our newspaper to do some propaganda. Other news organizations, TV stations, either don't pay attention or just report on it coldly, without any humanitarian care for the families of the children in this situation. This is indeed a good opportunity, not only can we make our series of reports more substantial and objective, but also take this chance to establish a positive image of our newspaper, making our readers feel that we are a newspaper with human emotions, letting those who originally didn't know much about us recognize us through this matter, becoming our potential reader group, or even directly developing into our readers. It's a win-win situation, really great! So it's decided then. Later I'll go find the leader to discuss it again, see if we can buy some consolation gifts and things like that. Let Zhang Min go with you, he'll be in charge of taking photos, when you get back we'll do some propaganda. It's more intuitive and persuasive than just text, plus he's a big guy, going with you can also help carry the consolation gifts. Now go notify Zhang Min, I'll take care of the consolation gift matters."

  Lao Dong arranged the work, and it was a mess. He set up one thing here, and then immediately got up and walked out over there. Su Tong didn't even have a chance to open his mouth to offer an opinion.

  But even if she had the chance to speak up, she probably wouldn't be able to say anything. In her heart, there were ten thousand unwilling thoughts, not wanting to go out on an assignment with Zhang Min. What could she do? She was a text reporter and Zhang Min was a photographer; they had different jobs, but cooperation was necessary. Old Dong's arrangement was reasonable, so should she tell the leader that she didn't want to work with Zhang Min because he had tried to test their relationship with ambiguous behavior in the past? That wouldn't be okay. Not handling coworker relationships well and bringing personal emotions into work were major taboos. Su Tong had worked for over three years, not a rookie, but still far from being a veteran. It was better to be cautious and not give people a bad impression.

  So even if she had a lot of unwillingness, she could only grit her teeth and endure it.

  Follow the official QQ public account "Love" (ID: love) for the latest information at any time.