After a period of scolding, Liu Ruoxi’s emotions were vented, and she gradually calmed down, softening her tone: “Let me ask you, why did you make Yaoyao wear that thing?”
Yang Haoran was still considering pretending to be unconscious, but his mother let out a cold snort:
“If you don’t speak now, Mom will leave straight away and have Aunt Shen take care of you instead.”
Yang Haoran thought it over and didn’t believe his mother was just trying to scare him. He said, “Mom… I’ve already done what I did, and I don’t want to make excuses. I just want your forgiveness!”
“I just want to make it clear to you—Yaoyao was willing. Even though I had those intentions too, Yaoyao agreed to it as well.”
Yang Haoran knew hiding things would do no good anymore, so he honestly confessed. Anyway, his mother had already vented most of her anger, and now was a good time for mother-son communication.
“How do you expect Mom to forgive you?”
Liu Ruoxi fired back: “Whatever else you wanted, Mom gave you everything she could. Whatever you asked Mom to do, Mom did it. Was that still not enough to satisfy you?”
“Yaoyao is your sister—how could you bring yourself to do that to her?”
Bang!
The sound of her hand slamming against the bed and the anger she could no suppress made Yang Haoran jolt in alarm. He quickly lowered his head and admitted his fault: “My dear mother… please don’t be angry. This is all my fault. How about this—from now on, I’ll listen to everything you say. If you tell me to go east, I won’t go west. If you tell me to catch a dog, I won’t catch a chicken…”
“Don’t you mention dogs to me!”
Those sensitive words instantly struck a nerve with Liu Ruoxi. Her face turned cold, but as she looked at her son’s pleading expression, she felt both furious and unable to fully suppress it: “This matter isn’t over. We’ll talk about it later.”
Afterward, Liu Ruoxi brought out a thermal container and spoon-fed her son porridge one scoop at a time. Although her expression remained stern, Yang Haoran enjoyed every moment of it. He could see now that even though his mother had been acting angry and cold this whole time, whether it was staying with him overnight or preparing nutritious porridge in advance, everything revealed her concern for him.
It couldn’t help but make Yang Haoran think of Aunt Shen. Had Mom… been persuaded by Aunt Shen?
It was a pity he had passed out and didn’t know what had happened, but this change in his mother’s attitude… surely it wasn’t just because he was hospitalized. Something must have happened that he wasn’t aware of.
“Lie down and rest. I’ll come back to check on you later.”
Seeing the fatigue between his mother’s brows and how she looked somewhat haggard, Yang Haoran was suddenly struck with concern. He remembered that his mother was still pregnant: “Mom, you should go back and rest. I’m fine here, don’t worry about me.”
Liu Ruoxi snorted coldly, not giving him a pleasant look: “Who’s worried about you… I’m worried about my son!”
“Yes, yes… you’re absolutely right.”
Yang Haoran found it amusing but had to play along with his mother.
After his mother left, Yang Haoran relaxed… This felt so good… Was this what it was like to be carried while lying down?
Aunt Shen… I’ll never call your jokes dark humor again!
Still, Yang Haoran was curious—how exactly had Aunt Shen managed to persuade his mother?
His hospitalization? Brother Tiger? Aunt Shen… these must all be connected.
By noon, the hospital room had become lively.
Class Advisor Gu Qingying, Yaoyao, Xiao Shaowan, Aunt Hao Lei, his girlfriend Ji Youxi… and many other women close to Yang Haoran gathered around the sickbed.
Yang Haoran exchanged a few words with each of them, reassuring them that he was fine and that they didn’t need to worry.
When a male doctor entered and saw the large crowd of women, he was taken aback. The key point was that all these women, regardless of age, were extremely attractive, and among them was Director Hao, the head of the urology department, well-known within the hospital’s internal medicine circle.
He assumed these were all family elders and children of the boy, since the boy in the sickbed was quite handsome himself. He could only sigh in admiration at how good-looking everyone in this family was.
The male doctor entered the room and found himself surrounded, yet it wasn’t noisy. Most of the conversation consisted of Ji Youxi inquiring about the injury, while the other women listened to the doctor’s explanation.
Although the male doctor found the situation somewhat unusual, he felt unusually at ease. After dealing with patients’ family members all day, this was the first time he found this part of the job enjoyable—so much so that he wished he could stay longer.
Wei Ming arrived with his mother, He Muchen, and Zhou Shiwen also came with his girlfriend, Wen Ting. This was another point that gave Yang Haoran a headache.
Unlike last time, Aunt He clearly noticed something was off when she saw the large group of women surrounding him. Her mood seemed down, but whenever Yang Haoran looked her way, she forced a smile.
Aunt He followed Ji Youxi and the others out of the room to ask the doctor about his condition. Left by the sickbed now were only Wei Ming, Zhou Shiwen, and Wen Ting.
Earlier, when Wei Ming saw so many women, he was also startled and kept his distance, since his best friend Haoran was completely surrounded by women.
Only now, after they had all left, could Wei Ming no longer contain his confusion. He asked Yang Haoran, “Haoran, I can understand my mom and I coming to see you, but why are Class Advisor Gu and Class President Yang Mengyao here too… and that woman in the white coat… you know, the one with the really big breasts…”
Seeing Wei Ming’s astonished expression and his stumbling, incoherent speech, Yang Haoran naturally wouldn’t tell him the truth. He laughed and cut him off: “Teacher Gu is our class advisor. Isn’t it normal for her to visit a student? Same goes for the class president.”
“As for that female doctor, she’s Youxi’s mother. She works at this hospital.”
Despite Yang Haoran’s seemingly reasonable explanations, Wei Ming wasn’t buying it. He wasn’t stupid—he could tell these women were all very close to Haoran, including Teacher Gu and Class President Yaoyao.
Wei Ming knew about Xiao Shaowan, and Ji Youxi went without saying, but the others were beyond his understanding.
“Wait… Wei Ming, why did you bring your mom to see Haoran? What’s there to understand?”
Zhou Shiwen, who had been listening nearby, was utterly confused. He knew a bit more than Wei Ming, but also a bit less. He didn’t understand why the teacher seemed so close to Haoran, but what puzzled him even more was why Wei Ming’s mother had also come to see Haoran.
Perhaps due to a sense of empathy, Zhou Shiwen instinctively began to speculate, though he wasn’t willing to confirm it. After all, could it be that Wei Ming, tall and sturdy as he was, also shared his same cuckolding tendencies toward his mother?
He didn’t think it was such a coincidence.
Noticing Zhou Shiwen’s strange look, Wei Ming suddenly choked up. After a moment’s thought, he explained, “Shiwen, when my mom arrived, Haoran and I went to pick her up from the airport. When she heard Haoran was hospitalized, she wanted to come with me to see him.”
In Wei Ming’s description, He Muchen was made out to be like any other elder coming to visit a younger family friend, since they were already acquainted.
Since He Muchen had been in low spirits and spoke very little, appearing not particularly close to Yang Haoran, Zhou Shiwen found it natural to accept this explanation and didn’t think there was anything going on between Wei Ming’s mother and Haoran.
“Then what about Teacher Gu?” Zhou Shiwen turned to Yang Haoran.
“Haoran, is the teacher also…” Wei Ming finally caught on, his face a mix of disbelief and a strange sense of inevitability. He looked at Yang Haoran, lost for words.
Haoran had always told him there were other women, but Wei Ming never imagined that even their class advisor, Gu Qingying, who stood at the classroom podium, was among them.
“Didn’t I already say? What’s strange about Teacher Gu visiting me? She’s our class advisor.”
“Haoran, you can say that to fool yourself, but don’t treat me like an idiot!”
“Yeah, Haoran, I also think something’s up between you and Teacher Gu. She’s never been this nice to you before, has she?”