Chapter 299: Are You Free? |
A breeze stirred the hair lightly.
Chen Dafu stared intently at the TV in front of him, peeling a banana in his hands. As he bit into it, the hospital room door opened.
Liu Changqing walked in carrying several luxuriously packaged gift boxes.
He entered with a beaming smile.
“Hey, Dafu… have you eaten yet?”
“You’re here this early?”
Chen Dafu didn’t answer his question right away. Instead, he looked at Liu Changqing with surprise, eyeing all the boxes he was carrying.
“You going to visit relatives or something? Why so much stuff…”
“What are you saying… I’m here to visit you! Thought I’d bring some supplements to help you recover!”
Clearly caught off guard, Chen Dafu watched as Liu Changqing walked up to the bed and placed the boxes neatly on the bedside table.
Liu Changqing kept smiling as he spoke.
“It’s really nothing. I’ve just noticed you’ve looked pretty worn out lately… actually, I think you’ve lost a little weight compared to before.”
“Really? To be honest, I have been hitting the gym recently!”
Apparently pleased that someone noticed his efforts, Chen Dafu perked up. He broke off a piece of the banana and handed it to Liu Changqing.
“Here, have one!”
“I’ll pass on the banana… By the way, what did the doctor say? Your head’s not seriously injured, right?”
“The doctor came by this morning to check again. Said I’m healing well—nothing serious.”
“That’s good…”
Liu Changqing let out a breath of relief, then seemed to remember something. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a jade pendant, handing it to Chen Dafu in bed.
“I went over to that spot this morning and found this on the ground.”
“Whoa, thank you so much!”
Chen Dafu’s face lit up with joy when he saw the jade. He quickly took it and began wiping it obsessively with his sleeve.
Watching how precious the thing seemed to him, Liu Changqing chuckled softly.
“No need to thank me. It’s no big deal.”
After saying that, he fell silent, his expression growing more serious. After a moment of thought, he cautiously asked,
“I was thinking last night after I got home… there aren’t any security cameras in the area where you were attacked, and you didn’t see the guy’s face. It’ll be hard to find him. So maybe—”
“Find him! We have to find him!”
Before Liu Changqing could finish, Chen Dafu interrupted, suddenly furious. He stopped wiping the jade and shouted loudly, as if he had a blood feud with whoever hit him.
His eyes glared at the TV, and his mind flashed back to the attacker chasing him last night—fierce and relentless.
He gritted his teeth as he spoke.
“I almost died out there yesterday. If we don’t find that guy—”
“True, it won’t be easy to find him. But you know, getting smacked like that might not have been all bad!”
“Hmm? What do you mean by that?”
Caught off guard, Chen Dafu looked at Liu Changqing, full of confusion.
Noticing the shift in topic, Liu Changqing casually pulled a chair over, sat next to the bed, and spoke seriously.
“Think about it… if you show up to see that girl you like, with your head all bandaged up, what kind of impression do you think that’ll make?”
“Uh…”
“Right? She’s bound to feel sorry for you. She’ll think you’re pitiful and take care of you.”
“Y-you think so?”
“I actually gave it a lot of thought last night. You’re kinda slow when it comes to romance. I mean, you just got her phone number yesterday, and then today you were already planning to give her a ring… that’s rushing it a bit, don’t you think?”
“……”
“Put it this way: if you were a girl, and some guy who just met you suddenly wanted to marry you, how would that make you feel?”
After a pause, Chen Dafu answered cautiously:
“Creeped out?”
“Exactly. Like the saying goes—everything has to happen in the right order. You started off all wrong, so of course things didn’t move forward with her.”
“You’re saying…”
“Exactly. Just like eating a meal—you have to take it one bite at a time. Chasing a girl’s the same. You need to start off as friends. And since your company isn’t too busy right now, and you’ve got time, go apply for a job where she works. You two working together? That’ll help the feelings grow fast.”
“Hmm… you’ve got a point…”
Hearing Liu Changqing’s advice, Chen Dafu frowned in thought. He replayed everything in his mind and found it all made a lot of sense.
He looked at Liu Changqing with newfound respect. But just as Liu Changqing was feeling relieved for successfully redirecting the conversation, Chen Dafu brought up another concern.
“But… she doesn’t know who I really am. If she finds out I’m rich, won’t she think I’m just playing around? And besides… she works at this tiny shop that sells savory pancakes. It’s just her and the owner lady, and they seem to handle things fine on their own…”
“Huh? A pancake shop?”
Liu Changqing paused, muttering to himself. When he heard that, he seemed to think of something… but the thought quickly passed, and he continued.
“So the shop’s small—just buy it from them! Then hand it back to them to run, offer generous terms. After that, you go apply for a job there. Problem solved!”
“Yeah!”
Chen Dafu’s face lit up, slapping his thigh in delight, full of excitement.
“You really are smart! I called you a romance master before, and I wasn’t wrong at all!”
“Just a little experience…”
“You’re right though. I’ve been eating her pancakes every day lately, and honestly, I’m a bit tired of them… but your plan’s actually pretty solid.”
“Right?”
“Yeah… but I can’t show my face in this deal… who should I get to help me buy the shop?”
As that thought settled in, Chen Dafu’s happy expression slowly faded. He furrowed his brow and seemed to sink into deep thought.
Meanwhile, Liu Changqing, satisfied that he’d managed to steer the conversation away from trouble, quietly breathed a sigh of relief… then reached over and finally took the banana Chen Dafu had offered earlier.
He peeled it, took a bite.
Chewed.
After a long pause, Chen Dafu seemed to think of something.
He slowly turned his head and looked over at Liu Changqing.
Liu Changqing, still munching on banana, looked back at him.
Their eyes met.
And slowly, a smile crept onto Chen Dafu’s face.
Grinning from ear to ear, he asked,
“Old Liu… are you free?”
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