There was nobody at home, and for reasons he couldn’t quite explain, Jiang Xu didn’t feel like going back too early. So he decided to stay a little longer at the office.
It had been a long time since Shen Fangyu’s call, and as Jiang Xu was reading through some documents, he absentmindedly took out his phone and checked the flight path of Shen Fangyu’s plane.
The flight went smoothly without any delays or adverse weather conditions, which made Jiang Xu’s heart inexplicably relieved.
Unexpectedly, just as he put down his phone, the office received a call from Zhang Cheng.
“Zhang Cheng? What’s wrong?” answered Wu Rui.
Jiang Xu heard Zhang Cheng’s name from Wu Rui’s mouth, and his heart, which had just relaxed, skipped a beat, feeling slightly unstable.
Zhang Cheng and Shen Fangyu were on the same plane, so logically, he should be on the plane at this time, not making calls.
Wu Rui could hear Zhang Cheng’s voice on the other end trembling uncontrollably, but he couldn’t tell if it was from the cold or from fright. He couldn’t even speak properly.
“Take a deep breath and calm down. You’re at the venue, right? What happened?”
Doctors rarely lose their cool, and Zhang Cheng was not someone who was easily startled. However, as soon as he heard Wu Rui’s voice, his tone suddenly rose by several decibels. “Senior Brother Wu! Senior Brother Wu, I almost died!”
He took a deep breath to try and calm his emotions, but it was obvious that no amount of adjustment would help. “Fangyu and I were attacked by armed robbers in country M!”
“What?” Wu Rui stood up abruptly, and his loud voice instantly attracted everyone’s attention in the office.
“It’s all because of that M country professor. He could have held the conference anywhere, but he had to do it at his home, where there were no streetlights on the path!”
“The robbers took the driver hostage while we weren’t paying attention and when Fangyu and I got into the car, they pointed their guns at us!”
Zhang Cheng rarely spoke in such an agitated manner, but now he was completely panicked, and he didn’t care if he was shifting blame. The more he spoke, the angrier he became, as if he was relying on this high-pitched voice to dispel the fear.
“I’m really unlucky in eight lifetimes, we went there at the moment the driver was getting robbed. The robbers took all our cash and phones, and they even took Fangyu’s suit off. They drove the car to a place where there was no one and left us there before driving away!”
Zhang Cheng became even more distraught. “It was late night so there were hardly any people on the road. We had to walk a long way with the driver before we found someone to borrow a phone to call the police. The policeman who answered the phone said they couldn’t find the license plate number and asked us to go to the police station to register. But when we got there, they kept asking us about the robber’s appearance and height. Who the hell dares to look when there’s a gun pointed at you?!”
“Later the driver said he had son’s child’s mobile phone in the car. It had GPS installed, and his wife’s phone could receive signals. We followed the police to his house to get his wife’s phone. But the GPS location was fucking bad. It was better to have a random navigation app, there was no specific positioning at all, only a general direction and a straight-line distance!”
“But after some persuasion, those police finally took his wife’s phone to chase the car,” Zhang Cheng wiped his face, “I don’t know if we can still recover documents that were stolen along with the wallets.”
Zhang Cheng was speaking rapidly and intensely like a machine gun, leaving no room for interruption. Now that he calmed down a bit, Wu Rui cautiously asked, “Are all of you okay?”
“We’re okay,” Zhang Cheng said with a bitter smile, “Only the driver was left affected.”
“As long as everyone is okay and not injured,” Wu Ruiran comforted, then asked, “Where are you guys now? What about Shen Fangyu?”
“At the moment, the driver and Fangyu rented a car to follow the police to chase after the car. I am now waiting for news at the police station. Fangyu told me not to call the office, but I couldn’t bear it. Senior Brother Wu, have you ever seen a gun, a real firearm?!”
He didn’t dare to recall the tens of kilometers he had just traveled with a gun pointed at his head.
“I didn’t dare to tell my parents for fear of worrying them. I tried calling some classmates, but they didn’t answer. I had no choice but to call the office. Brother Wu, can you talk to me for a while?”
“Okay, okay, it’s alright,” Wu Rui comforted, “Brother Wu will accompany you.”
“What’s going on?” Yu Sang, who was listening on the side, was confused.
Wu Rui explained to Yu Sang, “Zhang Cheng and Shen Fangyu encountered armed robbers in Country M.”
“Damn, armed robbers?” Yu Sang was dumbfounded. “That is too surreal.”
Jiang Xu, who had been paying attention to their conversation, changed his expression. He was about to speak, but Yu Sang interrupted him and asked the question he wanted to ask, “Are they fine?”
“They are fine,” Wu Rui hurriedly said, “Shen Fangyu went with the police to chase after the car, and Zhang Cheng is waiting for news at the police station.” He shook his head and said, “They were just frightened, and the robbers took their money.”
Yu Sang breathed a sigh of relief and raised his voice into the microphone, “Brother Zhang, don’t be afraid. Money can be earned again. As long as no one is hurt, we can all pitch in and help you guys.”
Zhang Cheng heard Yu Sang’s voice from the other end, and the warmth of the office made him feel much better in an instant. “It’s okay,” he rubbed his temples and half responded to Yu Sang and half comforted himself, “We weren’t planning to stay in Country M for long so we didn’t exchange much cash. We can always do more surgeries when we come back.”
“What surgeries?” Yu Sang said, “When you come back, we’ll go out for a nice meal.” At this moment, Yu Sang temporarily let go of the grudges between him and Zhang Cheng and comforted him, “Don’t worry, I’ll treat you!”
With the news that everyone is okay, the conversation became much more relaxed.
However, Jiang Xu’s brow remained furrowed, and he pursed his lips. Amidst the noise, he asked Wu Rui in a soft voice, “Shen Fangyu went to chase after the car?”
Wu Ruiran had been focused on Zhang Cheng earlier and hadn’t paid much attention to the information in the sentence “Shen Fangyu went to chase after the car.” It was only now that Jiang Xu emphasized it that he suddenly realized the problem with it.
He put the call on speakerphone and asked to Zhang Cheng on the other end, “Shen Fangyu went to chase after the car of the armed robbers?”
“It’s not the robbers’ car, it’s the driver’s car. They kicked us out of the car and took it!” Zhang Cheng said, “I asked Fangyu to wait for news with me, but he didn’t agree. He insisted on going with the police to chase the car no matter how I tried to persuade him.”
“I couldn’t stop him,” Zhang Cheng said, “But the police are with him, so it should be relatively safe. The police also have guns.”
As he was speaking, a string of English suddenly came through the phone. Because he had put it on speakerphone, the words were very clear to Jiang Xu. With his excellent hearing, he immediately understood what the police officer was saying.
“Sir, we’re sorry, but the GPS signal you provided is too vague for us to track. The suspects have already left our jurisdiction. Our police force is limited, so we’ve decided to withdraw.”
It took some effort for Zhang Cheng to calm down, but upon hearing this, he became agitated again and instinctively responded in Chinese, “What do you mean by police force is limited’? You’re the police, aren’t you? Your mission is to serve the people, right?”
Obviously, the M-country police couldn’t understand Chinese, and they didn’t know what “serving the people” meant. They looked at Zhang Cheng blankly, and he was so angry that he had to repeat what he had just said in English.
The police officer who had come to negotiate with Zhang Cheng paused for a moment after hearing this, and explained to him, “Based on our statistics, your loss wasn’t that great, and there were no casualties. The car that was stolen was also very cheap according to our evaluation. Furthermore, based on our experience, even if we could track down the car, the suspects would have enough time to abandon it and escape. You reported the incident too late.”
“It’s not like this in your movies,” Zhang Cheng talked about the blockbuster movies he had seen in disbelief. “You guys are so cool and aggressive! A bunch of police cars roaring down the road with their sirens blaring like they’re rushing to save lives!”
“Sorry, sir, drama needs conflict,” the M-country police officer was unmoved. “Besides, the prerequisite for chasing a car is that we have to know where it is.”
Zhang Cheng was so angry that he almost coughed blood. He couldn’t help but curse himself, “Damn it, I’m a fool for believing M-country movies.”
Suddenly realizing that Shen Fangyu hadn’t come back, Zhang Cheng anxiously asked, “What about Shen Fangyu? The guy who came with me!”
“Mr. Shen insisted that the damn navigation system could track the missing car and insisted on continuing the pursuit. The car owner seemed to trust him, too,” the police officer shrugged. “I wish them good luck.”
Zhang Cheng was stunned by what he heard. “Are you fucking kidding me?” he said in disbelief. “If you, the police, won’t chase after them, why would you let you let two unarmed ordinary people chase the car by themselves? Those people have guns! It’s dangerous!”
No matter how exciting those gunfight dramas with flying sand and rolling stones are, it’s a completely different story when it actually happens to you.
“We have no right to interfere with their freedom,” the police officer didn’t seem to care much, “besides, once they find the car, they can call the police station anytime.”
“You…” Zhang Cheng was so angry that he was about to curse. Jiang Xu suddenly took the phone from Wu Rui’s hand and said quickly, “What is the phone number to the phone Shen Fangyu is holding?”
Zhang Cheng was taken aback. The phone with GPS signal belonged to the driver’s wife. The driver’s wife had stayed at home with the children and did not follow them. He neither knew the phone number nor remembered where the driver’s wife lived.
But this phone was the only way to contact Shen Fangyu to ensure his safety.
He quickly went to ask the police officer, but the police officer refused outright, saying, “I’m sorry, this is related to someone else’s privacy and cannot be disclosed.”
Jiang Xu suddenly felt nauseous, and he stood up abruptly to go to the restroom. However, due to his haste, his vision went black momentarily, but he managed to support himself with his hand on the table so he didn’t fall down.
“What’s wrong, Brother Xu?” Yu Sang quickly noticed Jiang Xu’s abnormal condition, but Jiang Xu waved his hand and walked out of the office.
In the empty restroom, waves of dry heaving followed one after another. Jiang Xu hunched over, leaning against the wall, feeling the nauseous sensation surging up repeatedly, but was unable to vomit anything, just feeling dizzy and disoriented.
It had been a long time since he had felt like this, ever since the morning sickness had ended.
He took out his phone and opened the chat box with Shen Fangyu, and the last message was still on the record of the voice call.
There were too many unexpected things in the world, and as a doctor, he should understand this truth better than anyone else.
Jiang Xu didn’t dare to imagine what would happen if the robbers were the type who killed to cover their tracks after robbing the money. In fact, he couldn’t even imagine it now. Without police protection, would Shen Fangyu, who went after the car alone with the driver, come back safely?
As long as he thought about the time Shen Fangyu called him just one second before getting in the car, saying that he wanted to hear him say “safe journey,” his heart would ache terribly, as if it were being torn apart.
In the end, it was just saying, “safe journey.”
Why didn’t he say it?
Why didn’t he follow his heart and say those words?
Shen Fangyu called a car in the middle of the night because of him.
And what was he thinking at that time?
He was thinking that he should stay calm, afraid that he had truly fallen for Shen Fangyu, afraid that if he said those words, he would let himself go again and wouldn’t be able to stay calm.
Jiang Xu bit his lip tightly, tasting a hint of blood in his mouth.
But now, he suddenly didn’t want to stay calm anymore
What could be bigger than life and death in this world?
Those who hesitated and were cautious might seem sensible at the time, but in the face of unexpected events, they would only appear ridiculous and insignificant.
Since finding out about the pregnancy until now, Jiang Xu had thought that he had become indifferent to life and death, and he had mentally prepared himself to face any unexpected situations on the operating table.
But now, he realized that accepting the unexpected events that happened to Shen Fangyu was much more difficult for him than accepting his own unexpected situations.
Because the dead wouldn’t feel pain, but the living would.
Losing Shen Fangyu was more painful than having his heart cut open.
SF fell first but I’m ok to say JX fell harder. But the author anti country M bias is showing.
You know this is some fcking fiction right ??
The author need some conflict and country M is just a scapegoat.
Doesn’t really mean a bias RIGHT ???
Um. Country M sounds like my country that’s exactly the kind of police we have. When my apartment got robbed, the police wanted ME to get the CCTV footage from the bank nearby instead of them doing it themselves. They’re a waste of taxpayers’ money. And this wasn’t the first time it happened to me when I was still renting. I was young then. But now I have enough money to buy a house with better security. Basic security should be a right, but in my country, you need a lot of money to get that privilege.
There is no bias from this author, just telling it like it is. Let’s not pretend that countries like mine, with corruption all over the place, don’t exist.
o autor odeia só um pouquinho o país m
This isn’t tears. I’m just sweating abit.
I have to keep reminding myself that Shen Fangyu is going to be okay because the novel blurb already told us he delivers their daughter. But still, damn is this nerve-wracking!