Chapter 29: Torrential Gossip (2/2)
“Yes.” Cheng Xi didn’t expect to actually be recognized, and smiled respectfully back. “Good morning, doctor.”
But that doctor ended up saying, “You’re that doctor whose appointments got booked, aren’t you?” She looked her up and down. “Since someone wants to pamper you, why are you out here being a doctor?”
After saying that, she left swiftly, leaving Cheng Xi standing there alone, stunned speechless.
At this time, a few more doctors and nurses walked out. Cheng Xi quickly turned around and followed that female doctor out of the room. After exiting, she couldn’t help but turn back around, and look at the department sign clearly—it turned out that she had wandered into the gynecology offices.
Cheng Xi was somewhat dispirited, and didn’t hurry back to her office. She got on the phone and checked in with her colleague. “Am I still on vacation?”
Her colleague laughed. “You can still come to work. The head of the department, who was just swarmed by a horde of reporters, probably wants to have tea with you and talk about your life.”
”……”
She firmly decided to continue her break. Besides visiting Chen Jiaman, she barely stepped foot into any other work location. Even so, Cheng Xi couldn’t escape the fate of constantly being teased and mocked by her colleagues in the department. The teasing really started to make her hate Lu Chenzhou, the instigator of this whole fiasco. The key was, even though he knew that he had caused trouble for her, he was still unwilling to cancel the appointments. When she asked him why, he responded, “It’s too troublesome!”
Cheng Xi really wanted to ask why he didn’t find it too troublesome to make the appointments in the first place.
This series of gossip lasted for a few days. When Cheng Xi went to go teach, even her students asked her about it. Like the majority of people on the Internet, these excitable kids were poor and bored. Because the matter involved doctors and rich people, they passionately wanted to learn more about the male and female leads implicated in the whole scenario. This led to news articles popping up about many of the rich people in town; the buzz had ended up causing many of them to release statements clarifying their lack of participation in this affair.
Whenever something like this popped up, Cheng Xi would end up going 囧囧. Even her parents had heard about the news, and her mother had even specifically called her to ask, “Who was it that got all her appointments booked in your department?”
Cheng Xi bluntly replied, “I don’t know.”
Her mother was disdainful. “Then what are you doing at work? Everyone’s saying that that woman is from your department, but you don’t even know who she is?”
Cheng Xi was so 囧 that she couldn’t 囧 any further. At least those reporters had some semblance of decency and hadn’t reported her name.
Her mother implored her to find out more about this gossip, and her brother made even more excessive demands. He asked, “See who was it that managed to tame such a generous man, and find a way to introduce me to her; I’m doing business and really need to be familiar with such people!”
Cheng Xi couldn’t respond. While she was glumly waiting for this fiasco to blow over, Lu Chenzhou suddenly called her. “That man named Liu is here. Do you want to meet him?”
“Chen Jiaman’s math teacher?”
“Yes.”
Cheng Xi was quite shocked. These past two days, she had actually been following up with the police about Chen Jiaman’s affairs. At the beginning, they had investigated for quite a significant period of time, but their conclusion had solely been that Chen Jiaman’s mental condition was caused by her loneliness and sensitivity. In other words, they hadn’t heard about any bullying at all.
Cheng Xi believed the police, and slightly suspected that what the little girl had said was untrue. She was still debating on whether or not she should return to the town to speak with Mr. Liu. But unexpectedly, he had shown up here.
“Sure, where is he? I’ll go and meet him.”
Lu Chenzhou told her to meet him at the caf on the third level of Donglai Hotel, in a private room. When Cheng Xi arrived, she saw Lu Chenzhou and Mr. Liu already sitting face to face; the former wore a cool, bored expression while the latter was antsy, fidgeting, and constantly looking around.
Seeing Cheng Xi’s presence, he even seemed to relax. This time, he put on the face of the kind and caring teacher she had seen first. “Lawyer Cheng.”
Cheng Xi nodded. “Hello.” She looked at Lu Chenzhou, and he coolly looked back at her before saying, “He has something that he wants to tell you.”
Cheng Xi then turned to Mr. Liu. “Please, do tell me.”
Mr. Liu rubbed his hands together. “Didn’t you ask me about why Chen Jiaman quit school? Actually, I know the reason why, but I hope that you’ll keep it amongst the three of us, and that you won’t request me to be a witness on any occasion.”
Cheng Xi’s heart started pounding. From this first statement, she could already imagine that the truth behind Chen Jiaman’s illness was not simple indeed.
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