ACBAM 15: Good Night

“You’re bleeding!”

“Dr. Su, are you okay?”

“Hurry, stop the bleeding.”

Someone nearby quickly pulled out a tissue and handed it over.

The middle-aged woman’s nails were long, and she had swung with full force, leaving a rather deep gash on the back of Su Shijin’s hand.

A faint, delicate scent of pheromones slowly seeped out along with the blood. An alpha in the hall who wasn’t wearing a suppressant ring caught a whiff of it and immediately took their dog outside, afraid of being affected.

Su Shijin took the tissue handed over and murmured a quiet thank you, pressing it against the wound on the back of his hand.

Ran Tian fetched a first-aid kit and quickly pulled Dr. Su aside to treat the injury.

While stopping the bleeding, she fumed, “I don’t even know if we should get you a rabies shot!”

Not a single curse word, yet still sharp. Tian Yaping, who was helping by holding the band-aids, nearly burst out laughing at Ran Tian’s remark.

“Let her make a scene, the police will be here soon anyway,” said Tian Yaping.

“Yeah, but it’s such a disturbance for the other clients,” Ran Tian said angrily, glaring at the woman thrashing around on the floor.

That middle-aged woman had injured Dr. Su and didn’t even glance at him. Instead, she was screaming at the top of her lungs, demanding compensation from the hospital. She was clearly trying to extort money!

“She was the one who said she didn’t want the dog anymore, and now she’s back trying to pull this stunt,” Ran Tian muttered in frustration. “Good thing I recorded everything—otherwise we would have no way to explain ourselves.”

Su Shijin took the band-aid handed over by Tian Yaping, lowered his lashes, and carefully covered the wound to make sure no more pheromones would leak out.

Fortunately, the pheromone scent in his blood wasn’t too strong. Once the wound was treated, the faint aroma lingering in the air quickly dissipated.

Su Shijin glanced at the woman wailing on the floor and asked, “Did you call the boss?”

Ran Tian froze for a second. “Oh right, if someone’s causing trouble in the hospital, we should let the boss know.”

Only then did Su Shijin remember that Ran Tian had been at the front desk at the time. The only ones who knew the boss had called in a lawyer to handle the matter were Dr. Liu and Zhu Ruolai. As it happened, both Dr. Liu and Zhu Ruolai were currently in the operating room, likely unaware of the commotion happening outside.

“It’s fine, I’ll talk to the boss,” Su Shijin said, stepping away from the others to call He Lian.

The call connected quickly. The person on the other end sounded like they’d been sleeping—her voice was still drowsy. “Hello? Shijin, what’s going on?”

“The toy poodle’s owner showed up and caused a scene. Didn’t you already take care of it?” Su Shijin got straight to the point.

He Lian instantly woke up. “We already reached an agreement. The lawyer was supposed to have her sign the contract tomorrow. What, she went to the hospital to make trouble today??”

“She’s still here,” Su Shijin said.

Rustling sounds came from He Lian’s end, like she was getting dressed. “I’m coming over now.”

Su Shijin said, “Alright.”

Although the police had already been called, they could only mediate in situations like this. At most, their presence might intimidate the woman enough to stop her from causing more trouble.

But to really get to the bottom of things, He Lian still needed to come over.

In the lobby, the people waiting in line for pet checkups hadn’t left. Some customers who had just finished their consultations were at the front desk paying for medication.

Everyone was staring at the woman wailing on the floor, and none of them had left. The cats and dogs joined in with barking and meowing, making the whole scene unbearably noisy.

Especially the older woman on the floor—seeing the growing crowd only made her wail louder, insisting that someone from the hospital had to pay with their life for her dog.

Some people who had just arrived with their pets were so startled by the noisy scene that they froze at the entrance, unsure whether to go in or turn back.

Fortunately, the police arrived in time. After a few more rounds of loud wailing, the woman was quickly silenced by the officers. She immediately quieted down, looking pitiful and aggrieved.

Su Shijin cleared out the break room to let the two police officers take the older woman inside. “Thank you for your hard work, our boss will be here right away.”

The officer waved his hand repeatedly. “Not at all, not at all.”

The older woman sobbed, “You have to stand up for me!”

The older of the two officers was experienced in handling situations and quickly tried to calm her down. “Just tell us what happened, ma’am.”

Su Shijin brought in a few cups of water and then stayed in the room to accompany them.

The woman tearfully exaggerated the events of that night to the police, hiding the fact that she had abandoned her pet without treatment because she thought the medical fees were too expensive. She only claimed that the hospital had killed her dog and that she wanted compensation.

As someone who had been present that night, Su Shijin stepped in to answer when the police had questions.

Su Shijin, however, kept ignoring everything the woman said, not responding at all. People like her were afraid of anyone in uniform—so with the police sitting right there, no matter how angry she was, she could only bottle it up.

After about ten minutes, He Lian arrived, bringing her lawyer along.

Clearly woken up in the middle of the night, He Lian was full of irritation. Her high heels clicked sharply on the floor as she walked. The elite-looking lawyer behind her wore glasses and carried a briefcase.

As they entered the room, He Lian gave the officers a polite nod and then turned to the woman, her smile disappearing. With a sharp snap, she slapped a USB drive onto the table.

“Shijin, you go take care of your stuff. Come on, let me have a proper talk with this lady. With the police right here, I’d like to see how bold you really are, coming into my hospital to stir up trouble! Lawyer Xie! She disrupted my business by causing a scene in my hospital—can we sue her for that or not?!”

He Lian sat down in a chair, crossed her legs, her sharp gaze exuding overwhelming pressure.

Lawyer Xie adjusted his glasses, gave a slight nod to everyone in the room, and calmly began recounting the entire incident from beginning to end.

Seeing that her presence didn’t make much of a difference now, Su Shijin brought in two more cups of water, then closed the door and went off to handle her own tasks.

He had only come over today because the hospital was short-staffed—he hadn’t expected to waste over half an hour dealing with that woman.

After changing into his uniform in the locker room, he came out just as Dr. Liu and Zhu Ruolai were exiting the operating room.

Dr. Liu waved him over at once. “What happened? I heard from Ran Tian that woman came back and caused trouble?”

“See? I told you it’s easy to run into people like that. She even wanted someone to pay with their life—completely heartless.”

“It’s fine,” Su Shijin said, putting on his mask. “Boss He showed up and brought a lawyer with her. It’ll be taken care of.”

Dr. Liu sighed. “It’s not like I care about her…”

She glanced Su Shijin up and down, hesitating for a moment. Seeing that he didn’t seem upset, she finally relaxed. “I was just a little worried about you, that’s all. But if you’re fine, good. There are still a few people waiting outside—go on, get back to work.”

Confused, Su Shijin was gently pushed away by Dr. Liu, not quite understanding why she would be worried about him.

But soon enough, the busyness of the day pushed the whole thing out of his mind. It wasn’t until after midnight that Su Shijin finally changed out of his clothes and got off work.

He Lian and the others had long since left. Before leaving, she had told Su Shijin not to worry about the situation.

Su Shijin really wasn’t too concerned. After all, with a professional lawyer handling it, he felt completely at ease.

As he got into the car, Su Shijin habitually took out his phone and placed it on the mount, only to notice a few new messages on the lock screen that he hadn’t seen before.

He had assumed they were from Jian Lexin, excited about their plans for tomorrow but to his surprise, it was a file sent by Gu Weiyang.

It had been sent around ten at night. When there was no response from him, Gu Weiyang followed up with a message: [Asleep?]

After still getting no reply, he sent another message: [Good night.]

Su Shijin glanced away from that “Good night” message and opened the file.

It was a revised marriage agreement, with the clause about Su Shijin helping him with pheromone desensitization therapy during the marriage clearly highlighted.

The rest of it…

Was completely untouched.

Su Shijin: …

So this person really didn’t care about his half of the assets at all. He had thought for sure that part would be revised.

Su Shijin found himself completely unable to figure out what Gu Weiyang was thinking, so he decided not to bother trying. It wasn’t anything that important anyway.

What Su Shijin didn’t expect was that just as he finished reading the revised agreement, a message from Gu Weiyang popped up.

[Gu Weiyang: Still awake?]

Su Shijin: ?

He replied.

[Su Shijin: How did you know?]

[Gu Weiyang: Got a notification the file was received.]

Su Shijin understood. 

[Su Shijin: Ah, I see.]

It was actually the first time he realized that receiving a file would notify the sender.

Gu Weiyang asked: [Why are you still up? Aren’t you going out early with your friend tomorrow?] 

[Su Shijin: Just got off work.]

Gu Weiyang paused on the other end: [You went to work?]

[Su Shijin: Yeah, overtime. Gotta earn that paycheck.]

Gu Weiyang laughed: [Then be careful on your way home. Let me know when you get back safely.]

[Su Shijin: Okay.]

—

The elevated roads were nearly empty late at night. Driving at the speed limit, it only took Su Shijin a little over ten minutes to get home.

Once he arrived, he messaged Gu Weiyang as promised: [I’m home.]

Gu Weiyang replied quickly: [Good, get some rest.]

[Su Shijin: Mm.]

Thinking about the message Gu Weiyang had sent earlier, he added: [Good night.]

Gu Weiyang, who was at home discussing the next steps with Tan Zhao, couldn’t help but smile when he saw the message. A low chuckle slipped out.

Tan Zhao, who had been talking non-stop: ?

“What are you laughing at?”

He had meant to say something earlier. “You’ve been staring at your phone this whole time—what, your lover’s in there or something? You’ve been glued to it. Do you even know what I just said?”

Calm as ever, Gu Weiyang repeated everything he had just heard word for word. Then, thinking of Su Shijin’s “Good night,” the corners of his lips curled up again, completely uncontrollably.

“You wouldn’t understand,” Gu Weiyang said.

“How would I understand if you don’t tell me?”

Gu Weiyang gave him a look and let out a sigh. “Since you’re so eager to know, I’ll tell you.”

Tan Zhao: ?

Why did that sound like he was about to show off?

Wait a minute—he suddenly didn’t want to know anymore.

Too late.

Gu Weiyang lounged on the sofa with a cheerful smile, stopping Tan Zhao from leaving and forcing him to listen to all the little stories between him and Su Shijin.

It was really just a few things that had happened over the past couple of days, and he hadn’t even met Su Shijin that many times.

But even so, Gu Weiyang managed to retell those few incidents over and over again, embellishing them each time.

In the end, he even asked Tan Zhao, “Got it?”

Tan Zhao: “…”

It’s just showing off your relationship—what’s so hard to understand about that.

No wonder this bastard had dragged him out for drinks in the middle of the night last time. So this was what it was about.

Gu Weiyang took one look at his expression and nodded knowingly. “Didn’t get it, huh? Then I’ll go over it again.”

Tan Zhao broke down. “I got it, I got it, I got it—just shut up already! Damn, I just realized you’re a damn love-struck idiot!”

Gu Weiyang rested his chin in his hand, thought for a moment, then shook his head. “No.”

Tan Zhao: ?

Gu Weiyang said, “We’re not even in a relationship yet. It’s just a one-sided crush.”

Tan Zhao: ??

Gu Weiyang: “If I had to label it, I guess right now I’m… love-struck with a one-sided crush?”

Tan Zhao: …