It was already evening and the lights were not on in the huge office.
Neon lights flickered outside the window, and the unrestrained light streaked into the dark room, falling on a wooden carving that was holding a formless hand seal, leaving a plump and slender shadow on the opposite wall.
In the dim light, two men were sitting and standing.
An old and angry voice rang out from the seat: "What is this place? China! This is not a place where you can act recklessly! Don't bring your foreign ways here! You are here to protect the Second Young Master, not to challenge the laws here!"
The man stood with his head bowed, his feet shoulder-width apart and his hands clasped in front of him, which was the standard posture for listening to instructions.
"ทราบ." The man's voice was deep and powerful.
"Let's speak Mandarin here, OK?"
"Got it, Mr. Xu." The man's voice sounded a little strange, like a branch broken by a cold wind, brittle and stiff.
"Go out."
The door opened and closed, and the shadow of the formless Buddha's hand on the wall became strangely colorful with the flickering neon lights.
Swish, the sound of a match burning broke the silence in the room, and a ball of fire jumped out, illuminating a small dark corner on the other side of the room.
A man's face temporarily emerged from the darkness. His body sank into a large boss chair. At this moment, he was frowning and lighting a cigarette between his fingers with a match.
The match was extinguished lazily, and a light white mist rose in the dark room. The man who fell into darkness again chuckled: "Uncle Xu, next time you can just scold me directly, no need to beat around the bush like this."
The old man on the sofa opposite quickly stood up and walked over. When he passed the window, his shadow was infinitely stretched and projected strangely on the opposite wall.
"Xiao Xiao, don't indulge the ignorant people below you. Your father entrusted you to me, so I have to be responsible for you. We are here to do business, and making money is the most important thing."
A dark red dot slid into a line in the darkness, and with the sound of breathing, white smoke rose again.
"Uncle Xu is right. Nothing is more important than making money. But Uncle Xu, you should just teach me this kind of thing. There's no need to teach my people over me. How can they understand it?"
The other party was speechless for a moment, and only after a long while could he hear a forced smile: "Yes, Xiaoxiao, as long as you understand."
"I heard from my father that Uncle Xu's daughter has been receiving treatment in the hospital? I'm new here, so I should go visit her." The man extinguished the red light on his hand, "My secretary will make an appointment with you for the visit. It's late today, so I won't send Uncle Wu off."
The sound of the door closing rang out again, and the room fell completely silent. The man took out the remote control and clicked it. The huge curtain slowly fell down, gradually blocking the light from outside. The hand shadows that hid countless joys and sorrows and piety were swallowed up bit by bit.
Hospitals always have a special existence in the city. This place that holds the most joys and sorrows clearly marks its territory with the smell of disinfectant.
After coming out of Uncle Xu's daughter's ward, Fan Xiao stayed in the hospital for a while. His fingers stroked the Buddha statue hanging in front of his chest, and he carefully looked at the obvious sorrow and pain on the faces of the patients and their families.
"All living things are suffering, and all phenomena do not exist." The Buddha statue became hot from being rubbed, and he muttered to himself with a sneer.
As the sound lingered, he saw a calm and gentle face among the anxious and distressed people.
He looked familiar. What was his name? He took out his phone and opened the address book. Oh, You Shulang. What a hard name to remember.
At this time, the man surnamed You was giving directions to a confused old woman. After several attempts to explain himself, he finally took her to the elevator and helped her press the floor button.
"The area directly opposite the elevator is the department you are looking for." He didn't smile much, but he seemed very credible.
"What a coincidence, Mr. You, we meet again."
As soon as the elevator door closed, You Shulang heard himself being called. He turned around to look for someone and met a pair of gentle eyes. After a moment of surprise, his smile deepened and he said, "Mr. Fan, what a coincidence."
Fan Xiao, who had already noticed You Shulang's hand injury, was still shocked when he turned around and showed his left arm bandaged across his chest. He asked with concern, "Is this an injury from the last rear-end collision?"
You Shulang smiled helplessly, "No, I don't know what happened recently. The car I just repaired was hit again when it was parked on the side of the road. I happened to push the door to get out of the car, and my arm hit the dashboard, causing a minor injury."
The door of the descending elevator opened and the people in the car rushed out. Fan Xiao gently put his arm around You Shulang's shoulders and placed his body in front of his injured hand.
When they reached a less crowded place, Fan Xiao asked, "So you are here for inspection today?"
You Shulang pulled away a little, then said, "Well, let's check again, Mr. Fan, you are..."
"I came to visit a patient. The inpatient department is connected to the outpatient department. I don't know how I ended up here." He joked, "No, Mr. You, can you also give me some pointers? Tell me how to find my car in the parking lot?"
It was undoubtedly comfortable to be with Fan Xiao. You Shulang was a decent and thoughtful person, and he would think twice before speaking or doing anything. Therefore, he naturally felt a little relieved when he met someone who was even more humble and measured than him.
"Okay..." Before he could finish his words, he heard the exclamations from the people around him!
Everyone looked up, and You Shulang and Fan Xiao also followed their gazes, and they saw a woman standing outside the glass enclosure on the third floor with a thin child in her arms!
The outpatient building of this hospital has a total of six floors, with a hollow high design. The mother and child stood on the third floor and somehow managed to climb over the half-person-high glass fence. At this time, the woman held the child in one hand and held the fence with the other hand, with only two inches of space under her feet!
Her hands and feet were visibly shaking, and her whole body was shaky. If one of her hands slipped or her feet weakened, the only thing that could catch them would be the cold, hard ground on the first floor.
You Shulang frowned slightly, took out his cell phone and called the police. He was anxious but not panicked, describing the situation in the hospital very accurately, and asked for the best way to deal with it before the firefighters arrived.
While You Shulang was talking on the phone, Fan Xiao kept looking up at the mother and son. His eyes, as deep as a cold pond, seemed to be filled with countless emotions, so complex and subtle that it was difficult to make out a single detail.
He heard the woman screaming: "Why is my son sick? He is so young, why should he suffer so much?!" The woman's roar frightened the child in her arms, and the baby's sharp cry suddenly rang out.
The woman seemed even angrier: "Every one of you can grow up smoothly, why can't he! Why is he the only one who can't!"
"So, you all deserve to die, everyone deserves to die! My son doesn't have health, and you don't deserve it!"
Behind her stood the security guards who had arrived one after another. One of them, a doctor in a white coat, stepped forward hesitantly and nervously comforted her, "Madam, although the child has been diagnosed, there is still a way to save him. If he is treated in time..."
"Timely treatment? How much will it cost?! I can't afford his medical treatment even if I work all my life! I work in housekeeping, look at my hands, what have they become!" The excited woman actually opened the hand that was holding the child, but without a grip, the thin child suddenly slipped down in her arms!
There were gasps and low cries one after another. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief when they saw the woman finally caught the child who was sliding down.
Fan Xiao seemed to be tired of watching and turned to look at You Shulang.
The man put down the phone and took off his half-covered coat, and asked everyone around him to take off their coats and stack them together.
"Here, it's mine." Fan Xiao handed over the long windbreaker again. Its dark luster showed that it was worth a lot of money.
You Shulang didn't say thank you, but just nodded. He put Fan Xiao's largest size clothes at the bottom and raised his voice to say to everyone, "The firefighters just said that before they arrive, if a child falls, we can use bed sheets, clothes and other things to slow down his fall. If a woman falls, if there is no large enough support, we are not recommended to rescue her, otherwise the people below may be injured."
The man immediately made a decision: "Now let's get ready to catch the child before the firefighters arrive."
He handed a corner of the folded clothes to Fan Xiao with his uninjured hand.
Fan Xiao lowered his eyes slightly and looked at him. There was no extra emotion in the man's eyes. His calmness just showed his strength and confidence.
Fan Xiao nodded slightly and took the corner of the clothes from You Shulang.
"There are many people who can be used. Since your hand is injured, don't get involved." He said in a low voice.
There were indeed many people who came forward to help. You Shulang stood beside Fan Xiao, close to his body, holding the corner of his clothes with one hand and shook his head: "It's okay."
This was the first time You Shulang took the initiative to get close to Fan Xiao. It was normal for two men to stand close to each other, and some simple physical contact was common, but because You Shulang avoided it intentionally or unintentionally every time, Fan Xiao felt that the contact was new.
Since they had taken off their coats, their warm body temperature penetrated through their clothes. You Shulang felt very warm, and there was a faint fragrance lingering in his hair.
Fan Xiao was very sensitive to scents. He sniffed and it was the scent of wild rose.
The man raised his eyebrows, slightly surprised. You Shulang was neither old nor very young, and dressed in a low-key and steady style, tending towards the style of an old cadre in China, but he liked the voluptuous and seductive smell of wild roses, which was really surprising.
"If we can save someone today, I would like to invite Mr. Fan to dinner tonight. I wonder if Mr. Fan would be willing to honor us?" You Shulang's eyes were fixed on the mother and son on the third floor. The invitation he made was natural and appropriate, "It's a celebration, and also an apology for the last accident."
"What if we can't save him?"
Fan Xiao's voice is low, and his tone is light and almost playful, sounding like a temptation coming from the bottom of the darkness.
The hand holding the corner of his clothes tightened, and You Shulang slowly placed his gaze on Fan Xiao's face.
That contradictory feeling reappeared, but before he could think about it, the person next to him smiled softly, with a mischievous tenderness in his eyes: "I'm joking, Mr. You's money will definitely not be saved tonight."