Chapter 3.2 - 3rd Stop: The Campus Storm Arrives (2)
“Oh,” Mu Cheng muttered, then walked toward the nurse’s office.
At the nurse’s office, the nurse applied an ice pack to Guangxi’s sprained ankle. After wrapping it up, she told him to rest for a while, and Mu Cheng stayed behind to look after him. He closed his eyes, his brow furrowed, as though he was enduring some pain.
“Does it hurt a lot?” she asked with concern.
“It’s not my ankle,” he pointed to his forehead. “It’s here.”
“What happened to your head?” she frowned, noticing over the past few days that he often had headaches. “Why don’t you take some medicine? I’ll go get you some water.”
“No need,” he stopped her. “I think I lost my medicine box earlier.”
“Did it fall on the playground? I’ll go look for it…”
He suddenly grabbed her wrist, stopping her. “Sit down.”
“But…”
“Just sit!” He held her hand firmly.
“Okay,” she looked at their hands intertwined, her heart fluttering. “Then… I’ll hum a song for you.”
She gently began humming the melody of a song she often played for him. Whenever she played it for him, no matter how much pain he was in or how agitated he was, he always calmed down. Unfortunately, there was no piano in the nurse’s office, so she had to hum instead, hoping he wouldn’t mind how bad it sounded.
Just as she started, she heard him mumble, “It sounds awful.”
What?! She could hear the smile in his voice, knowing he was teasing her. She pouted slightly, “Then I won’t sing.”
"Continue," he commanded briefly, still with his eyes closed.
She had no choice but to continue humming. After a moment, his furrowed brows gradually relaxed, and a faint smile appeared at the corners of his lips.
"I knew it, asking you to accompany me was the right decision..." he murmured softly, drifting into a drowsy sleep.
Mu Cheng quietly gazed at him, feeling a strange urge to caress his childlike sleeping face. Time passed silently, and after a long while, she suddenly realized that she had missed the time she was supposed to open the store.
"Oh no..."
※※※※※※※※
"That Ren Guangxi, could it be that he’s into the lunchbox girl?"
In the smoky PUB, Zhang Aili had gathered a group of young men and women to party, among them were several players from G University's field hockey team, who were rivals to Shengde’s team.
"Who’s the lunchbox girl?" G University's team captain, Arno, asked curiously, his sly eyes scanning her body.
"You don’t know her!" Zhang Aili replied impatiently, never having a good attitude toward this clingy guy.
Arno instantly felt frustrated, and a teammate nearby quickly tried to smooth things over. "Speaking of Ren Guangxi, I happened to see him last night dropping a girl off at her place. She was quite pretty."
"Who was it?" Zhang Aili asked, her tone tense.
"I don’t know, but I took a picture of them." The teammate pulled out his phone. "Take a look, isn’t she stunning? Ren Guangxi sure knows how to pick up beautiful girls!"
Zhang Aili stared at the blurry photo on the phone, and though it was a little unclear, she instantly recognized the girl as Mu Cheng. Realizing her ex-boyfriend was seeing that kind of unrefined girl made her blood boil.
"Arno, captain~~"
Arno’s whole body relaxed. "What is it? Babe?"
"There’s something I want you to do for me." She draped her arm around Arno’s shoulder. "Okay?"
"Of course, whatever you say. No matter what, I’ll do it! I’ll go through fire and water for you!"
※※※※※※※※
"What do you want? Why did you bring me here?"
Mu Cheng glared warily at the few big boys in G University team uniforms in front of her. She had been heading to Shengde Hall after work when they grabbed her by the side gate of the campus and dragged her into the ice hockey rink.
Her hands and feet were bound, and she knelt on the ice, shivering from the cold, but still trying to remain calm. "You’ve got the wrong person. I don’t even know you."
"You’re Liang Mu Cheng, the student from Shengde. They’ve given you the nickname ‘lunchbox girl,’ right?"
"So what if I do?"
"Then we got the right person." The leader, Arno, grinned slyly. "Who told your Anada to mess with my sweetheart? We just want to teach him a lesson."
What is he talking about? Mu Cheng was confused, but as she saw Zhang Aili entering the rink, she immediately understood.
"Hey, lunchbox girl," Zhang Aili sneered coldly. "Do you remember who I am?"
※※※※※※※※
"Who is this? Li Xiaoman? Tao Nini?" When Ren Guangxi picked up the phone, he sounded impatient.
In the evening, his mom had urgently called him back home, and he thought something serious had happened. It turned out it was just a family dinner with Mr. He and his daughter. To protect Shengde Hall, he had to feign niceties with He Yixian. He was already at his wit’s end, and now his ex-girlfriend was adding to his problems.
Zhang Aili was furious. "Ren Guangxi, you can be as arrogant as you want, but only for now!"
"Oh?"
"Do you want to guess who’s waiting for you at the hockey rink? She’s shivering in the cold, like a little kitten. If I let someone stomp on her hand with a hockey stick, do you think she’ll still be able to play the piano?"
"You!" Guangxi was shocked. "You kidnapped Mu Cheng?"
"I’ll give you half an hour. Remember, only you are allowed to come. If you don’t, I can’t guarantee what will happen to her hand."
"He won’t come," Mu Cheng stated with forced calmness.
"Are you sure?" Zhang Aili raised an eyebrow.
"I don’t know what you want to do, but Ren Guangxi has nothing to do with me."
"If he has nothing to do with you, why does he escort you home in the middle of the night? Who are you trying to fool?"
"Anyway, he won’t come. If you think you can threaten him through me, you’ve got the wrong person."
"We’ll see if he comes. If he doesn’t, fine. But if he does..." Zhang Aili smirked, her eyes flashing with jealousy. "I’ll make sure he regrets it."
When a jealous woman gets angry, she is indeed terrifying. Mu Cheng bit her lip, feeling both worried about her situation and afraid that Guangxi might come to rescue her alone. There was a line of burly men ready to teach him a lesson.
Please, Guangxi, don’t come.
She silently prayed, focusing on his safety, not realizing that if he didn’t come, her own situation might turn out much worse.
