The Taming of the Ruffian Hero

On Valentine’s Day, Shu Xiaoman, Lin Wenxi, Gu Xi, Zheng Kai and a few boys and girls gathered together in the evening to comfort each other. Shu Xiaoman enviously told them that at the beginning of this year, Zhao Yuan had come to the city to visit Chen Wanxin.

She made many guesses as to why Zhao Yuan had visited Chen Wanxin during the spring festival and kept talking at the table. Zheng Kai and Lin Wenxi kept listening to her without saying a word. Gu Xi enjoyed gossiping together with Shu Xiaoman for a while. After that, when he noticed that Zheng Kai did not wear the jade goddess of mercy pendant necklace, he felt displeased and kept pestering Zheng Kai. Zheng Kai asked him to stop making a fuss over such a small thing.

“By the way, why didn’t Zhao Yuan come here together with you guys? Do you know where he is, Wenxi?” asked Gu Xi.

Lin Wenxi and Zheng Kai fell silent at the same time.

Early this evening, Chen Wanxin had suddenly come to their dorm and asked Zhao Yuan to go out with her. Zhao Yuan tried to refuse her in the beginning, but in the end, he still packed up his things and left with Chen Wanxin silently.

Since being told by Chen Wanxin that he did not know something about Zhao Yuan, Lin Wenxi had always wanted to find a chance to ask him about it in recent days but failed to think of a proper reason to ask him about his personal affairs.

Lin Wenxi did not know this thing for a reason.

During the new year holiday, Zhao Yuan had received a call from a nurse of a hospital in the city not long after Lin Wenxi had left his house. The nurse told him that his father had been in the hospital for nearly half a year and owed the hospital a lot of money now.

Zhao Yuan hurriedly went to the hospital to see his father. When he found out that his father looked alright, he felt much relieved.

The debts were a big problem for him. He thought, “It looks like that I can only raise the money by selling our house in the county and borrowing money from my relatives and friends.”

When he was lost in thought, the door of the ward was suddenly opened, and Chen Wanxin came in while carrying many nutrition supplements. They were surprised upon seeing each other here.

“You?” They exclaimed simultaneously.

Chen Wanxin told Zhao Yuan how she had accidentally found his father in this hospital. “My cousin works in this hospital. One day, she told me that a patient who got wounded in a traffic accident stayed in her hospital for a long time without paying the medical expenses and refused to contact his family. I was just curious and then found out that this patient is from Yangzi County and his surname is Zhao. I checked his photo and thought that he looks similar to you, so I decided to come here to see him.

“Uncle Zhao refused to talk to me when we first met. When I told him that I’m your girlfriend, he felt much relieved. I told him that you perform well in our university, and he was moved to tears.

“Uncle Zhao said that he wanted to save more money for your future, so he came to work in the city to make money. One day, when he was driving a truck, a pedestrian suddenly stood in his way. To avoid hurting the pedestrian, he made a sharp turn and thus drove his truck into a pond. Fortunately, he was taken out of the pond in time. But the pedestrian was nowhere to be found.”

(What Zhao Ming had not told Chen Wanxin was that he suspected that someone had altered his steering wheel. As he had no evidence, he could only bear the loss by himself. He used all his money to pay off his loans and thus did not have money to pay for his medical expenses.)

Chen Wanxin continued, “Uncle Zhao did not want to make you and your relatives worried and insisted on waiting for the traffic police to find out the pedestrian who should bear half of the loss. As such, I paid for his medical expenses and helped him to hide this thing from you.” When Chen Wanxin was talking, Zhao Ming thought to himself, “My son has a good girlfriend. When I’m discharged from the hospital, I’ll have a serious talk with him. I should urge him to study hard and work hard to pay the money back to his girlfriend.

“And this girl is so pretty and kind. She helped me a lot. Obviously, she must love my son very much. If Zhao Yuan loves her too, I should advise him to mary her when he has a successful career and a good income.

After hearing Chen Wanxin’s words, Zhao Yuan felt touched and said, “Thank you.”

Zhao Yuan loved and respected his father very much. He had lost his mother when he was little, and it was his father who had worked hard year after year to support him. He thought, “I didn’t treat Chen Wanxin very well in the past. I’ve never expected her to do such a thing for me. I’m really grateful for her, but she told my father that she’s my girlfriend. This is somewhat awkward.”

Upon hearing Zhao Yuan’s words, Chen Wanxin said with tears welling up in her eyes. “Don’t thank me. I always treat your father as my own father.”

Zhao Ming was so moved. He suppressed his urge to cry and said, “Yuan, your girlfriend is really nice. She took good care of me every time she came to see me. She fed me water and food and even washed clothes for me.” While saying this, Zhao Ming could not help but think of his missing wife. He thought that if his son could marry this kind girl he would really have nothing to worry about in the future.

“Wanxin…” Zhao Yuan stuttered. “I’ll definitely pay you back.”

“Don’t say that. I’m perfectly happy to help you.” Chen Wanxin paused and then whispered, “How did you know that your father is here?”

Zhao Yuan told her that a nurse had called him and told him everything. Chen Wanxin was so surprised upon hearing this that her face changed. She hurriedly made a call and shortly afterwards, a female doctor who looked somewhat similar to Chen Wanxin, walked into the ward.

“Hey, cousin! I’ve told you that I’ll take care of Uncle Zhao’s medical expenses. Why did you call his son?” Chen Wanxin said anxiously.

“What’re you talking about? It’s not me. Maybe it’s someone at the cashier. It’s probably Xiao Liu,” the female doctor grumbled and dragged Chen Xinxin out.

“Do you know how much money you’ve paid for him? He still owes the hospital some money. You’ve sold quite a lot of your jewelry for this thing. If you continue to pay for him, your father will find it out sooner or later. He’ll be angry at you!” The female doctor said outside. “And I saw Xiao Liu come to visit Mr. Zhao before. He probably gave his son’s number to her. That’s none of my business!”

“Alright, alright, I know it’s not you. Don’t tell this thing to anyone. Otherwise, I won’t ask Boss Mo to help your husband to get the loan!” said Chen Wanxin.

“Tut-tut, how can you threaten your cousin like this? We’ve been as close as real sisters since our childhood.” The female doctor pinched Chen Wanxin with a smile on her face and then walked away.

“Stop blaming your cousin, Wanxin. I was me. I just don’t want you to take care of these things alone, so I gave my son’s number to the cashier,” Zhao Ming said apologetically.

Chen Wanxin nodded slightly and said. “It’s not a big deal. I was just afraid that this thing would distract Zhao Yuan from his studies.”

“No, I should’ve let him know a long ago. Please forgive me. I’m really selfish…” Zhao Ming said ruefully.

“No, no. I should help him even if we’re just classmates. And, I… I mean he and I are…” Chen Wanxin stuttered while looking at Zhao Yuan.

Zhao Yuan smiled toward her without saying a word.

Upon seeing that, Chen Wanxin asked Zhao Ming to take a good care of himself and left.

After her departure, Zhao Ming said disappointedly, “It seems that she likes you but you don’t like her. “What a pity! She’s such a good girl. If you really don’t like her, you should let her know instead of letting her waste her time on you!”

“She knows it,” said Zhao Yuan.

“Sigh, I thought that you two really loved each other. I really shouldn’t have let her do all those things for me. I feel somewhat guilty now.” Zhao Ming could not help but sigh.

“She lets me know about this thing when she wants me to know about it.” Zhao Yuan suddenly said. He was well aware that if Chen Wanxin really did not want him to know about this thing, he would not be able to know it.

“That’s nonsense! No matter how rich she is, she can’t help me pay the medical expenses all the time. She might’ve really sold her jewelry for me or borrowed money from her friends. Now she cannot make ends meet and thinks of this method to shift this burden to you without hurting anyone’s feelings. She’s so considerate and thoughtful. You really don’t deserve her!” Zhao Ming said somewhat grumpily.

“Dad, don’t get upset. I’ll pay her back! But she’s not as good as you think her to be…” Zhao Yuan felt reluctant to continue. After all, a rich girl like Chen Wanxin probably had never taken care of a patient by herself before. Considering all she had done to his father, Zhao Yuan did not want to speak ill of her anymore.

He thought, “It seems that my father plans to respect my choice now, although he feels grateful for Chen Wanxin. But if she continues to help us, he’ll probably urge me to marry her in the future.”

Zhao Yuan had some doubts about Chen Wanxin.

He thought, “If she really just cared about me without asking anything in return, she would never let me know what she had done for my father. Now when she knows that Wenxi and I are on good terms and feels sad about it, I ‘happen’ to receive the call from the hospital. I know what she wants, but I cannot give it to her.

“However, considering all she has done for my father, I can’t avoid or ignore her anymore.”