NOVEL NEXT Chapter 13 - Her savior
It wasn’t long after Tang Wanyuan laid down that she received a call from Tang Gu.
Patting her cheeks to dispel her smile, she answered the video call.
Her complexion didn’t look good—her face was pale, and she was lying on her side to avoid pressing against the wound on the back of her head. Her eyes were pitiful, “Brother…”
Tang Gu stared at his sister through the phone screen, his expression growing darker by the second. “Dong Ling said Chu Yu beat you into the hospital?”
Sitting in the back seat of a car, Tang Gu deliberately left the lights off. Tang Yuan couldn’t see him clearly, but she gave Dong Ling a mental thumbs-up for at least being honest and telling the truth.
Dong Ling’s actual words were: “Chu Yu and his girlfriend had a fight, and Tang Yuan was accidentally injured. She’s in the hospital now, getting bandaged. She’s in room XX at XX Hospital. Do you want to come pick her up?”
“Brother, are you outside right now?”
“I’m coming to get you.”
“What?!” Tang Yuan looked up just in time to see Jiang Zi walking back with a few report sheets. She quickly returned her gaze to the phone. “No need, brother! My friend is already picking me up, so don’t worry about me.”
Although it was already past nine at night, for a workaholic like Tang Gu, there was always more work to be done.
Tang Gu, not usually one to pay much attention to his sister’s personal life, didn’t ask about her friends and simply questioned, “Is she driving?”
That one sentence left Tang Yuan speechless.
They had come in Dong Ling’s car.
Most likely, they’d have to take a taxi back…
Jiang Zi had already walked to the bedside and overheard Tang Gu’s question. She said, “I have a car.”
Tang Yuan looked at her in surprise. A car? What car?
“I’ll go pick you up,” With a final word, Tang Gu hung up the phone.
Tang Yuan put down her phone. “My brother is like this—once he decides on something, he won’t change his mind.”
And he was already on his way. Even if Jiang Zi did have a car, she’d still have to wait for Tang Gu to arrive.
Jiang Zi responded with a calm “Mm” and then changed the subject. “The doctor said it’s nothing serious, though the wound looks alarming. You’ll need to eat light, avoid getting the wound wet for the next week, apply medication daily, and change the bandage. It should heal in about a week.”
“A week?!” Tang Yuan’s expression twisted slightly.
【Damn that Chu dog, hitting so hard. Two slaps really were too lenient.】
Jiang Zi lowered her eyes, hiding the cold glint in them. Indeed, it was too lenient.
By the time Tang Gu arrived, it was already ten at night.
He pushed open the door and noticed Jiang Zi sitting by the bedside. This must be the friend Tang Yuan mentioned, but he didn’t recognize her.
He walked over and looked Tang Yuan up and down. “Where did he hurt you?”
Tang Yuan pointed to the back of her head. With Tang Gu’s help, she sat up and complained, “He aimed straight for my head when he hit me.”
Tang Gu was silent for a moment. “Let’s go home.”
Tang Gu glanced sideways at Jiang Zi, his tone distant and cold. “This lady, Tang Yuan, isn’t feeling well, and I don’t know where you live. I assume it’s not on the way for you, and since you said you have a car, it should be convenient for you to return on your own, right?”
Tang Yuan grabbed her brother’s arm, just about to speak, when Jiang Zi calmly replied, “Yes.”
Wait, where did Jiang Zi get a car?!
Tang Gu nodded and said to Tang Yuan, “It’s getting late. I’ll take you home now.”
Tang Yuan looked at Jiang Zi, her face filled with confusion. Jiang Zi smiled faintly and said, “Get some good rest when you’re home.”
Tang Yuan: …
Could she tell her brother that Jiang Zi didn’t actually have a car? However, that would only indirectly reveal that they had lied to Tang Gu earlier on the phone.
In the end, all she could do was look back at Jiang Zi every few steps, walking alongside her brother.
After getting into the car, Tang Yuan let out several sighs, feeling guilty about leaving Jiang Zi behind.
Sitting next to Tang Yuan in the back seat, Tang Gu noticed her low spirits. “What’s wrong?”
Tang Yuan shook her head slightly. “Oh, right, brother. I gave Chu Yu two hard slaps. He’s probably furious by now.”
Tang Gu: “Not hard enough.”
“I mean, I’m afraid he might retaliate,” Tang Yuan rubbed her arm, worried. “Like, what if he planted a spy in our company and tried to sabotage us from within…?”
She added, “That’s how it plays out in the TV dramas I’ve seen.”
A heavy coat was draped over her shoulders, shielding her from the chill of the air conditioning.
“Don’t worry about business matters. I can handle them.”
Tang Yuan clutched the coat tightly, muttering, “Just be careful, don’t let anyone backstab you.”
Meanwhile, the woman Tang Yuan was concerned about had settled into the discreet luxury of a Maybach.
The driver glanced in the rearview mirror. “Sister Jiang, how come you are alone? Didn’t you say to pick up a friend?”
Jiang Zi leaned back against the seat and kicked the back of the driver’s seat. “Just drive.”
During the two months spent on set, she often dreamt of her days in the cultivation world.
The reason she was so sure Tang Yuan and her junior sister were the same person wasn’t just because of their identical little habits. There was also something she had pieced together from small details in her dreams.
In that past cultivation world, her junior sister had also been a mission executor.
Perhaps she never fully awakened throughout her entire life in the cultivation world. Most likely, she hadn’t awakened her consciousness back when her junior sister was still around either, which was why she couldn’t hear her inner thoughts back then like she can now.
She didn’t know what role Tang Yuan played in the past and what role she was playing now.
Tang Yuan, perhaps… has memories of the cultivation world. Otherwise, it would be hard to explain why, when she acted as the senior sister, she had traces of her past self.
Jiang Zi’s gaze softened as she thought of Tang Yuan’s mimicry of her past actions—it was rather cute.
In this world, she could feel the world’s law still guiding her toward a predetermined path. However, she clearly sensed that the invisible constraints on her had loosened a bit.
Tang Yuan…
A savior that belonged to her, Jiang Zi, alone.
Forty minutes later, Tang Yuan returned home.
As soon as she stepped through the door, a young man sitting on the sofa immediately jumped up and rushed over to her.
His tone was filled with urgent concern, “Sis, are you okay?”
Tang Yuan propped herself up against the entrance table, feigning weakness in her voice. “Move aside, let me change my shoes.”
Could Tang Su really let her, an injured person, do everything herself? He quickly placed a pair of indoor slippers for her and helped her remove her high heels.
He growled angrily, “I knew that scumbag wasn’t a good person! How dare he hit you! Just wait till I run into him!”
Tang Yuan pushed his head away. “And what are you going to do if you run into him? Can you even beat him? Stop worrying about adult matters and focus on your studies. Fill that head of yours with some knowledge.”
Thinking about Tang Su’s eventual breakdown and how he’d been driven to jump off a building, her heart tightened in pain. “Don’t provoke him, you hear me?”
The male lead’s combat abilities were no joke. Not only would Tang Su be unable to win, but It was also possible for him to be silently killed. After all, the male lead’s protagonist halo and the world’s laws still heavily favored him.
Tang Su rolled his eyes and complained to Tang Gu, “Bro! Look, this lovestruck fool is still defending that scumbag.”
“Your sister’s not wrong. Focus on your studies and stay out of things that don’t concern you.”
Tang Su: …
“Okay.”
Though he was still young and impulsive, he was obedient.