After a Flash Marriage with a Professor - Chapter 18

Chapter 18: Changing Clothes

Shen Junlan clenched her hand. Mingshu’s tears had seeped into the gaps between her fingers and quickly evaporated.

She lifted Mingshu into her arms. Her hand brushed against the bloodstains on Mingshu’s dress, and she paused.

Considering that Mingshu would definitely be worried about her brother when she woke up, Shen Junlan decided to take her to the hospital. She wasn’t sure of the exact reason for Mingshu’s fainting, whether it was from her fear of blood or from excessive sadness and shock.

Shen Junlan walked out with Mingshu in her arms. At the door, she ran into Yan Hongbo, who had just returned. Yan Hongbo looked dazed, and his eyes were lifeless. It took him a while to manage a single sentence.

“What’s wrong with Mingshu?”

“She fainted. Are you Mingshu’s father?”

Yan Hongbo nodded. “You are…”

“I’m Mingshu’s fiancée. My name is Shen Junlan.”

“…Oh…” Yan Hongbo responded distractedly. At this moment, he couldn’t care about so many things. His mind was filled with his son’s severed finger.

His wife had sent him back to ask for the bank card’s password. The bank card was given by Mingshu to Wenxuan, so Mingshu must know the password. When they went downstairs, they asked the doctor, who said that the surgery to reattach the finger would cost 20,000 to 30,000 yuan. After the surgery, they would also have to stay in the hospital for two weeks, which would cost a lot of money. The couple had no money, so they had no choice but to come and ask Mingshu.

But Mingshu had fainted.

Yan Hongbo looked at the elegant woman in front of him again. She was Mingshu’s fiancée. It was she who had given Mingshu the money, so she must know the password, too.

“Miss Shen, can you tell me the password for that bank card? Mingshu’s brother is going to have surgery soon, and his mother and I don’t have the money. Could you…”

“Yes, Uncle. We can talk about it later. Where is Mingshu’s room? I want to change her clothes first.”

“There’s no time. The ambulance is downstairs. It’s about to leave.”

As soon as Yan Hongbo finished speaking, the siren of the ambulance quickly faded away. The ambulance had already left. Ambulances don’t stay for long.

Shen Junlan said, “Uncle, there’s no need to rush. I drove here. We can go together later.”

“Oh, good.” Yan Hongbo led her to Mingshu’s room and opened the door. “This is Mingshu’s room. Her clothes should be in the closet.”

After that, Yan Hongbo closed the door and waited outside, pacing with his hands clasped together.

Inside the room, Shen Junlan turned on the light and placed Mingshu on the bed. Mingshu’s bed was small, the room was small, the closet was small, and the window was small. The blanket and bed curtains looked old, but they were very clean.

She quickly walked to the closet, opened it, and found no dresses inside. She turned to look at the window, pulled back the curtain, and saw a red dress hanging outside. It was the one Mingshu had worn on the day of their blind date.

It would not be appropriate to wear a red dress to the hospital. Shen Junlan chose a gray casual set for Mingshu, with a stand-collar short-sleeved top and long pants.

After closing the bed curtains, Shen Junlan began to change Mingshu’s clothes. She first took off the bloodstained white dress. She only looked at Mingshu’s face and nothing else. Shen Junlan held her breath slightly as she helped Mingshu put on the top and then the pants. Throughout the entire process, she made sure to look away from inappropriate parts, but she couldn’t help but touch Mingshu’s smooth skin, which made her heart tremble slightly.

“Are you ready?” Yan Hongbo knocked on the door anxiously from outside.

Shen Junlan opened the door with Mingshu in her arms and said, “Yes, we are. Uncle, let’s go downstairs. Could you please tell me which hospital the young man went to?”

Yan Hongbo walked ahead and said that Wenxuan had gone to the Municipal Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Shen Junlan asked if Mingshu was afraid of blood. Yan Hongbo was stunned for a moment and said evasively, “…I guess so.”

After they got downstairs, Shen Junlan didn’t talk to Yan Hongbo anymore. She walked to her car with Mingshu in her arms. Zhang Jiajia, who had been waiting downstairs the whole time, came forward.

“Sister Junlan, what’s wrong with Sister Mingshu?”

“Jiajia, you should go home first. We can talk about this later,” Shen Junlan said.

Zhang Jiajia pouted. “Sister Junlan, do you still think of me as a child? I can help, too.”

“Jiajia, be good.” Shen Junlan put Mingshu in the car, fastened her seatbelt, and saw that Mingshu’s father had also gotten in. She drove off immediately.

Zhang Jiajia stood still, watching the leaves stirred up by Sister Junlan’s car slowly fall to the ground. She ran over and caught a leaf. She felt a little sad. Sister Junlan never even gave her a second glance.

She squeezed the leaf, and it was crushed.

Yan Wenxuan was pushed into the operating room and stayed there for two hours. Yan Hongbo and Qin Shu saw the operating room door open and immediately went up to the doctor and asked, “Doctor, has my son Wenxuan’s finger been reattached?”

“Yes, it has. He’ll be transferred to a regular ward soon. If there are no complications, he can be discharged in two weeks.”

Yan Wenxuan was pushed out on a hospital bed by a nurse. Yan Hongbo and Qin Shu immediately followed.

Mingshu hadn’t woken up yet. Shen Junlan let Mingshu rest her head on her shoulder as she sat on a chair in the hallway. She saw the young man lying on the bed with a pale face. His gaze looked in her and Mingshu’s direction, and he opened his mouth, but Shen Junlan didn’t hear what he said.

Yan Hongbo and Qin Shu leaned in and heard him.

Yan Wenxuan said, “I remember my sister is afraid of blood. Did she faint?”

“Yes,” Yan Hongbo replied, feeling a little ashamed. As a father, he didn’t know his daughter was afraid of blood. The lady just now had asked him, and he couldn’t even give her a proper answer.

“Is that my sister-in-law next to her?”

“Yes,” Yan Hongbo replied with a smile. “She seems like a good person.”

Qin Shu interrupted them. “That’s enough. You just had surgery. Don’t talk so much. Get some rest. Wenxuan, your face is as pale as paper.”

“I’m fine, Mom.” Yan Wenxuan now felt very relaxed and happy. Of course, his hand was still in immense pain. During the surgery, even with the anesthetic, it hurt like hell.

“You’re fine?” Qin Shu pretended to lightly hit his hand. Yan Wenxuan winced in pain.

“Still saying you’re fine? Do you regret it now?”

“No regrets.” Yan Wenxuan gritted his teeth in pain, but he still said firmly that he had no regrets.

A nurse transferred him to a regular ward, settled him in, and gave them some instructions before leaving. The ward was crowded with other patients.

Yan Wenxuan said, “I want to talk to my sister-in-law. Dad, go get her for me.”

“Okay, I’ll go right now.” Yan Hongbo felt extremely guilty about his son cutting off his own finger. If his son wanted the sun from the sky at this moment, he would try to get it for him.

Seeing that her father had left, Yan Wenxuan called out “Mom” again. Qin Shu’s eyes were still red. She was staring at her son’s reattached finger. She reached out and touched the silver pins holding it in place. She asked, “Does it still hurt a lot?”

Yan Wenxuan shook his head and asked her, “Mom, can you be a little nicer to my sister from now on?”

Qin Shu looked up and blinked. She raised her hand and wiped the corner of her eye. Her eyes were very similar to Mingshu’s. When she was young, her eyes were even more charming than Mingshu’s, with a proud, upturned flick at the corners. But time had left its mark on her eyes and face. Just looking at the shape of their eyes, Mingshu was undoubtedly very much like her.

Yan Wenxuan stared at his mother’s eyes. It was these eyes, so similar to his sister’s, that made him believe his sister was his mother’s biological child.

“Mom, why aren’t you saying anything?”

“You’re heartless. Your dad and I are here to watch over you, and all you can think about is your sister.”

“If I didn’t think about my sister, then I would be heartless. When I was little, my sister was the one who raised me,” Yan Wenxuan retorted.

Qin Shu looked away, still not agreeing.

Yan Wenxuan was anxious. “I really don’t get it. Why are you so mean to my sister!”

Shen Junlan happened to walk in at this moment and heard Wenxuan’s complaint to his mother. She stopped at the door, but didn’t walk in. It was only when Yan Wenxuan saw her and waved at her with his uninjured hand that she continued to walk inside.

“Mom, you should go out. I want to talk to my sister-in-law alone,” Yan Wenxuan said.

Qin Shu had no choice but to get up and leave. When she walked out of the ward, she saw her husband from a distance, with his arm around their daughter. No, it was more like their daughter was leaning against his shoulder, and he was holding her shoulder with his hand. Qin Shu’s anger flared up. She rushed over. “Yan Hongbo, what are you doing?”

Yan Hongbo raised his hands. “Mingshu can’t stand steadily, so I have to hold her.”

“If you don’t trust me, you can do it.”

Qin Shu didn’t move. Mingshu vaguely heard her parents arguing and slowly woke up.

“Mingshu, you’re awake?” Yan Hongbo said happily. “Wenxuan’s surgery is done. Your wife helped us find the doctor. The surgery was a success. Tell your dad, where did you find her?”

Yan Mingshu moved her face away from her father’s shoulder and rubbed her temples. Her vision was still a little blurry. She vaguely saw the scene before she fainted. When she opened her eyes again, she saw a sea of white. The white and the blurry blood merged into one.

“I met her on a blind date,” Mingshu said, clutching her chest. She felt a little nauseous.

“What does she do?”

“A university professor.”

“Dad, where is Professor Shen?”

“Wenxuan said he wanted to talk to her alone, so she just went in.”

Qin Shu threw cold water on her. “A university professor. At most, her salary is only a few tens of thousands a month. And she doesn’t look that old. She probably hasn’t been working for many years. Maybe she gave you a million yuan in bride price and now she’s broke.”

Mingshu looked up and said, “Mom, Professor Shen has helped us a lot. You shouldn’t talk about her like that.”

“Shouldn’t talk about her like that? If you had married Boss Huang, he could have helped our family more.”

“But I hate Boss Huang!” Yan Mingshu retorted, gritting her teeth.

Qin Shu scoffed. “You’ve already secretly gotten a marriage license with someone else. What else can I say? A daughter who gets married is like water that has been poured out. I don’t know what kind of spell you cast on Wenxuan to make him so agitated that he would chop off his own finger for you.”

“That’s enough, that’s enough. Don’t say another word,” Yan Hongbo said, his head aching. He quickly tried to mediate between his wife and daughter.

Mingshu bit her lower lip until it hurt. She didn’t want to stay silent and suffer in silence this time. She continued, “I just want Wenxuan to be well. If Wenxuan chopped off his own finger, isn’t it because you and Dad forced him to? If you hadn’t lied and said fifty thousand was a million, Wenxuan wouldn’t have felt so guilty that he would chop off his own finger.”

“That’s enough, Mingshu. What’s wrong with you today? Stop talking, stop talking. All the blame is on me. I shouldn’t have gambled and I shouldn’t have borrowed from loan sharks and made you sacrifice yourself for me.”

“Why are you being so meek?” Qin Shu was unhappy with her husband’s gentle attitude toward their daughter. “Do you really think that just because you’re married, you have someone to support you? Have you forgotten who gave birth to you and who raised you?”

“I haven’t forgotten.” Mingshu stood up from the metal chair, biting her lower lip tightly, her eyes glistening with tears.

Qin Shu looked at the glistening tears in Mingshu’s eyes, and her anger flared up. She also stood up. “You’re still saying you haven’t forgotten!”

“Slap—”

A loud slap landed on Mingshu’s face. Mingshu covered her right cheek. Tears welled up in her eyes, but they didn’t fall.

Shen Junlan came out of the ward just in time to see this scene. She quickly walked over and shielded Mingshu with her body. Mingshu held on to the back of her shirt, stepped out from behind her, and said, “Mom, this isn’t my fault.”

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