Chapter 81

Asking for Help

Xu Chenzhu opened the door for Chao Musheng. Chao Musheng immediately pulled it most of the way shut again. "Mr. Xu — opening it all the way is gawking. You have to leave a crack if you want to actually watch."

He pressed himself to the doorframe and peered through the gap, the two pieces of hair sticking up from his head swaying back and forth. Xu Chenzhu felt an almost irresistible urge to smooth them down.

"Mr. Xu — why are you looking at me?" Chao Musheng pulled him closer. "Look out there."

There was nothing out there worth looking at.

Xu Chenzhu saw he was half-crouching and pulled a chair over. "Sit."

"Together." The chair was large enough. Chao Musheng shifted to make room and patted the space beside him.

The moment Xu Chenzhu sat down, Chao Musheng reached over and looped an arm around his shoulder. "It's a young girl."

Xu Chenzhu stared at the hand resting on his shoulder. Everything in his head went blank. He could no longer hear a single word from the corridor.

*

In the hall stood a girl of about fourteen or fifteen, hair dyed a vivid pink. She had both hands fisted in the sleeve of the man from room two, shaking with the whole-body fury of a small animal that had lost all reason.

"Ningning — I know you're worried about your mother." The man's expression was a careful map of helpless, exhausted paternal patience. "It's late, the other patients are resting — why don't you go home, wash your face, get some sleep, and come back in the morning?"

"Don't touch me!" The girl twisted away from his hand. "Stop performing for the cameras. You're the one who did this to my mom — I'm calling the police!"

"Ningning." He looked worn to the bone, though his eyes still held the particular tolerance of a father bearing a difficult child. "Your mother hasn't woken up yet. Please — the bracelet you asked me to buy, I'll get it for you tonight. Just go home. All right?"

"I don't want your bracelet." Her voice went sharp. "I want you gone!"

"Ningning, I am your father." He sounded exhausted past the point of pretense. "If you keep this up, I really will hit you."

"You're not my father! I don't have a father like you!"

Crack.

The man's palm connected with the girl's face. Her cheek went red immediately.

The commotion had woken most of the floor. Patients and family members, irritated at the disturbance, had been watching. When this unreasonable, loud girl finally got what was apparently coming to her, a small satisfaction moved through the assembled observers.

"Children today — you can't discipline them, you can't even criticize them, and they have no consideration for their parents whatsoever."

"Teenage rebellion. They don't understand what their parents go through."

One or two murmured observations drifted through the corridor, none of them kind to the girl. Most people said nothing at all — watching the scene play out with the detached interest of an audience at a moderately diverting show.

Qi Shi stood in the corner. He saw the 99 above the girl's head, then moved his gaze to the man — and his expression shifted.

This man, performing such anguished exasperation at his daughter's behavior, had an anger value of 5.

His wife was unconscious. His daughter was screaming at him in a hospital corridor. No man with any genuine feeling in this situation could possibly be at 5.

"You have no right to tell me anything!" The girl shoved at him with both hands. The man deflected with a raised forearm; she hit the wall and slid to the floor with a heavy sound.

"Ningning — are you hurt?" He bent toward her with apparent concern. She sat on the ground and knocked his hand away.

"Ningning — that's my fault, that's on me. Let me look at where you hit—"

"Get away from me!"

Anyone watching would have felt only sympathy for this long-suffering father.

What Qi Shi saw was the man's anger value drop from 5 to 2 the moment the girl's head struck the wall.

He wasn't worried. He was pleased. The value went down because seeing her get hurt made him feel better.

Was this really a father and daughter?

To Qi Shi, this man performing patience and sorrow was considerably more repellent than the girl screaming at him.

"Your teacher called me yesterday about your hair — she wants it back to natural before school starts." The man looked down at his daughter on the floor and sighed. "How old are you, going off to dye your hair? Until your mother wakes up, you should stay at your grandparents'."

"Grandparents." The girl's laugh was pure contempt. "Leeches who took money from my mom to build a house for your brother and talk about her behind her back. Don't think because she's unconscious you all get to order me around."

"You are a minor, and as your father, I absolutely have the right to—" His volume rose. "Look at yourself. Pink hair, pierced ears, using insults about your grandparents—"

"The child's head just hit a wall. Maybe check on her injuries before lecturing her."

Chao Musheng pushed the door open and crouched down beside the girl. "That's a very good wig, by the way. Where did you get it?"

Zeng Ning looked up, eyes rimmed red. The young man who had appeared beside her was unexpected. "Who are you?" she asked, voice catching.

"I'm your mother's neighbor here — my company has a project with hers." He smiled. "You can call me Uncle Chao."

"You're barely older than me." She scrubbed the tears off her face before they could fall. "Are you trying to get me to call you uncle just to feel superior?"

"Ningning — that's extremely rude!" The man heard his daughter's tone toward Chao Musheng. "This is Assistant Chao from Kunlun Group!"

Zeng Ning turned away from him and looked at Chao Musheng with guarded assessment. "You're this young and you're already someone's corporate workhorse?"

"Ningning!"

"Yep." Chao Musheng nodded cheerfully. "A very young workhorse."

The doctors arrived to find one person sitting on the floor and one person crouching beside them, and took a moment to determine which one needed examining.

"Your mother needs quiet right now. Come to my room and we'll deal with that head." Chao Musheng waved toward the far end of the corridor.

The players who had been covertly watching looked at each other, then at Curly Hair — she was the only woman among them.

You Jiu's expression said: naturally. Qi Shi was watching the girl's anger value tick down to 89, thoughtful. The other two were simply envious.

Whatever the truth of the argument, Chao Musheng's appearance had quieted the corridor considerably. The patients who had been watching from behind closed doors now opened them.

"If you have issues with your child, talk it through — striking her like this, when Ms. Zeng wakes up she'll be heartbroken."

"Mr. Chao, you're still ill — let the young lady rest in our room."

"She can come here — I've been on my own and the company would do me good."

The floor that had been near-silent a few minutes ago suddenly had the texture of genuine life — neighbors intervening, bystanders with opinions, the particular noise of people who actually cared.

The players stared. These NPCs were chameleons.

"Thank you, everyone — it's late, please rest." Chao Musheng smiled and gently declined. "I have plenty of people here. One child is easy."

Zeng Ning kept her head down and said nothing. She recognized what the other adults were doing — performing concern for the benefit of this young man, not out of any interest in her.

"Thank you." She didn't want to be anywhere near her father, so when the cleaning staff woman came over to accompany her, she went willingly into room four.

The man moved to follow. The bodyguard at the door extended one arm. He stepped back immediately. "My daughter doesn't know how to behave — thank you for the trouble, President Xu, Mr. Chao."

The bodyguard gave him one look and nodded, without warmth.

*

The doctor examined Zeng Ning and found only a standard contusion. She was prescribed a topical spray for the swelling.

"I'm sorry for waking everyone up." The girl who had been screaming in the corridor ten minutes ago was now conspicuously subdued. "And for making so much trouble."

"You didn't wake me. I was already awake." Chao Musheng coughed quietly a few times.

Xu Chenzhu checked his temperature with a palm to his forehead, then got up to pour him a cup of warm water. "Drink."

Zeng Ning was still fourteen or fifteen — she didn't have the vocabulary of adult social grace, so she defaulted to compliments as a way of expressing goodwill.

She watched the man hovering around Chao Musheng, held herself back for two seconds, and then took the plunge: "Your boyfriend really looks after you. You're both so good-looking — you suit each other."

Curly Hair's hand jerked. The spray nozzle almost went directly into the girl's hair.

Boyfriend. Suited.

This child was about to send the boss of Xu Enterprises into a happy delirium.

"—" Chao Musheng choked on the water he'd just swallowed. He coughed hard enough to rattle the room.

Xu Chenzhu's eyes darkened slightly. He reached over and patted his back in slow, gentle strokes. "Zhaozhao — are you all right?"

"I'm fine." Chao Musheng wiped his mouth, caught a glimpse of Xu Chenzhu's perfectly composed expression, and gave Zeng Ning a helpless smile.

He could see she was mortified. If he corrected her, she might try to disappear through the floor entirely. "You're very worried about your mother?"

Zeng Ning answered something else entirely. "You don't believe what he told you?"

Everyone in the room knew who he referred to.

"Sensible adults don't take one person's account as the whole truth." Chao Musheng's throat still felt wrong from the coughing. He pressed his fingers against his neck. "Your mother is going to be all right. Don't worry."

Zeng Ning had been holding back for a long time. At those words, all of it came through at once.

She had met too many adults who took her father's side — everyone telling her how good he was, how much he had to deal with, as though she was an ingrate for noticing otherwise.

Now, finally, an adult was standing on her side. Every piece of stubbornness and resolve she'd been holding collapsed into pure grievance: "His goodness is an act!"

She talked through her tears — things that would look trivial from the outside but had accumulated in a child over years. Grandparents who took money from her mother to build a house for her father's brother, then spoke badly about her mother behind her back, while her father stood right there and said nothing.

"The day my mom fell, my dad didn't come back until very late." Zeng Ning couldn't get the tears to stop. "The nursing aide in there now — my dad arranged her privately. I'm scared she might hurt my mom."

She pulled out a bank card. "Xiao Chao — Chao-jie — I have a lot of New Year money saved up. Please, can you help me find a proper aide?"

"If you don't believe me, I can go get the cash right now." She stood, afraid Chao Musheng wouldn't want to help. "I'll go now."

"It's the middle of the night — where are you going by yourself?" Curly Hair caught her arm. "Sit down and talk."

"Legally speaking, only you and your father have the right to make decisions about your mother's care." Xu Chenzhu, who had been silent through all of this, spoke. "In principle — you're a minor. Even if Zhaozhao arranges an appropriate aide for you, your father has the legal authority to refuse."

Zeng Ning stared. She looked back and forth between Chao Musheng and Xu Chenzhu, lost. "Then what can I do?"

"That's the principle." Xu Chenzhu took the bank card from her hand and placed it in Chao Musheng's palm. "For now, leave this card with us as security. When your mother recovers and wakes up, pay us the aide's fees and we'll return it."

Curly Hair saw the girl still standing there in a daze and poked the back of her hand. "They said they'd help you. Say thank you."

"Thank you, Uncle Chao! Thank you, Uncle Xu!" Zeng Ning jumped to her feet and bowed deeply to both of them. "May you two be together forever — I mean — may you always be happy, always stay together!"

Chao Musheng's face went stiff. He glanced sideways at Xu Chenzhu's expression.

Child, stop talking. You're going to make him change his mind about helping you.

A stack of red notes was pressed into Zeng Ning's arms. Xu Chenzhu closed his now-empty wallet with perfect composure. "Zhaozhao and I are your mother's business partners. Since you've called us uncle, we owe you a meeting gift."

Curly Hair looked at the money in the girl's arms with unambiguous envy.

She really had a gift for this. Look at what she'd done to the boss.