Chapter 198 — Tang Yun's Secret Thoughts

His feelings for Tang Yun before, and for Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu, had been only that admiring fondness; he knew perfectly well they were impossible, and merely indulged a little fantasy—put plainly, it was the stirring of spring in a young heart.

But with Lan Fen it was different. Kang Xiaobo did not know what love at first sight meant; he only knew that from the very first glance at Lan Fen's photograph, he had felt drawn to her! And when he saw that thin, frail figure on the third-floor windowsill slowly falling through the air, in that single instant his heart seemed about to shatter.

After hearing Tang Yun recount Xiaofen's history, Kang Xiaobo felt a few more measures of tenderness and pity for the poor girl, but what stirred him now was mostly a kind of *** emotion.

It was a *** that reckoned nothing of consequences; once he calmed down, it might well change.

Wei Zhao of course understood what Kang Xiaobo was feeling. He nodded and said nothing. "We will talk about it once we reach the hospital."

Tang Yun saw Kang Xiaobo's hesitation too. She sighed and said nothing, but in the end she shot Wei Zhao another savage glare. "You young masters, all you know is how to ruin girls!"

"Me?" Wei Zhao was startled. "I am hardly a young master, am I?"

"…" Tang Yun pursed her lips and ignored him.

After his fit of anger, Kang Xiaobo seemed utterly dejected, walking behind them the whole way with his head lowered, no one knew what he was thinking.

Wei Zhao parked in the lot of the First People's Hospital, and the three of them got out and headed straight for the emergency room.

There they found the doctor on duty and questioned him; Kang Xiaobo took the lead. "Doctor, may I ask, how is Lan Fen?"

"Lan Fen? The girl who jumped, the one just brought in?" The doctor leafed through the records on his desk, then said, "Lan Fen is all right. She simply collapsed from extreme exhaustion and shock; she has already been taken to the ward for an IV drip, in Emergency Room 6. But she may need to be hospitalized for observation. Who are you to her?"

"We are her friends. Thank you, Doctor!" With that, Kang Xiaobo was about to go and find Lan Fen.

"Wait. First settle the medical fees and the admission paperwork. Lan Fen's family only put down a three-hundred-yuan deposit earlier; it is not enough." The doctor called Kang Xiaobo back.

"Ah? All right, we will go and do it right away!" Kang Xiaobo agreed in a fluster, without a moment's thought. "Where do we do it?"

"She needs to be hospitalized for observation. The patient's condition is very poor, very weak. Let us admit her for a week first; I will write out the paperwork for you," the doctor said.

"All right." Kang Xiaobo nodded again and again; whatever the doctor said now, he obeyed.

Wei Zhao smiled wryly. Had Kang Xiaobo truly fallen for Lan Fen? It was a little theatrical, perhaps, but this was an age steeped in theatrics! Boys and girls, that single stroke of innocent love, so stubborn and so ***.

This must count as Kang Xiaobo's first love, surely? A man in his first love is always ***; he will walk through fire and water, his head will run hot… Yet once he has cooled down, will he still go on seeing Lan Fen?

He glanced at Tang Yun, only to find her still glaring at him, seething with temper.

"What is it?" Wei Zhao was rather puzzled by Tang Yun's manner today. Before, she had been neither warm nor cold toward him, but after they got into the car she seemed to have turned back into the Tang Yun of old, brimming with resentment against him.

Watching Kang Xiaobo pick up the admission slip and walk off to pay, already far away, Tang Yun collected herself and looked at Wei Zhao. "Let me ask you something."

"Hm?" Wei Zhao started, looking at Tang Yun in some bewilderment.

"What exactly do you have in mind?" Tang Yun bit her lip, and as she asked it she lowered her head a little in embarrassment. "In mind about what?" Wei Zhao did not follow. "Xiaofen and Kang Xiaobo? That all depends on what Kang Xiaobo wants…"

"I am not talking about him, I am talking about you!" Tang Yun raised her head and looked at Wei Zhao. "That night—the thing I asked you! Are you or are you not trying to go out with me?"

Wei Zhao had not expected Tang Yun to still be fretting over this matter, yet he nodded. Since he had spoken with the old man at home and meant to stay here for the long haul, there was no need to look left and right anymore.

"Then do you just want to play around, or do you want to be with me from now on?" Tang Yun frowned and said to Wei Zhao, word by word, "Wei Zhao, if you only want to play around, then please stay away from me, away from my mother, away from my whole family, all right? I am not Xiaofen. She was young and ignorant back then, but I am already eighteen, and I will not fall for your tricks!"

"Uh…" Wei Zhao was at a loss for words for a moment; he had not expected Tang Yun to ask such a question. "Play at what? Where would I find the leisure to play? Do I look like I am playing?"

"Then fine! If you are not just playing around, if you want to be with me, then for this period, stop pestering me, all right? Let me get into university in peace; I do not want to be distracted at a time like this!" On Tang Yun's delicate face there was a trace of stubbornness. "By then, if you still want to go out with me, then… I will agree!"

Tang Yun's laying her cards on the table with Wei Zhao today had in fact been days in the deciding. Tang Yun herself did not know just what she felt for Wei Zhao; she only knew that he had helped her family a very great deal, and that she owed him far too many favors.

But Tang Yun would certainly not go out with Wei Zhao out of gratitude or anything of the sort. It could not be denied that in her heart she was growing less and less averse to this man who had suddenly intruded into her family's life; and it was precisely because she was somewhat alarmed that Tang Yun put on a cold, indifferent face for Wei Zhao.

Tang Yun was afraid; she feared sinking too deep. Though she would not admit to any inclination toward puppy love, her former loathing for Wei Zhao had truly dwindled away, replaced by gratitude and an inexplicable flutter…

Especially after Liu Xinwen asked her about herself and Wei Zhao, Tang Yun's heart had never been calm again. Even in her dreams at night she dreamed of Wei Zhao… and what infuriated her most was that she had actually dreamed of kissing him…

Though the dream was absurd and not quite real, somewhat illusory, and Wei Zhao's face in it was not very clear, when Tang Yun woke with a start she knew that the man was Wei Zhao…

She had actually had a wet dream, and the object of her first wet dream was Wei Zhao, of all people. Tang Yun knew of course that wet dreams in puberty were a normal phenomenon, and that the person in the dream was usually someone one liked in real life. That was something she had read in her physiology and hygiene textbook.

Yet the more it was so, the more panicked Tang Yun felt. She was a little frightened—frightened that she really would gradually develop feelings for Wei Zhao, and end up with him…

But reason told Tang Yun that this was a very dangerous thing, that she absolutely must not sink too deep—otherwise her fate might be no different from Xiaofen's.

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