Hear this life

After answering the phone call, Qiu Dapeng's face looked as ugly as a dead person. He turned around and shouted, "Stop it now."

Then, he walked to Wen Desheng in front of everyone's stunned gazes, and knelt down with a plop: "Brother, I apologize to you. I will take everyone away right now."

He kowtowed respectfully to Wen Desheng.

Qiu Lingyun showed a look of astonishment: "Dad, what are you doing? Who called just now?"

"Shut up!" Qiu Dapeng seemed to regret his decision so much that his intestines turned green. He kept apologizing to Wen Desheng in a soft voice, "I'm sorry, I'm not a human being. I'll listen to you about how to compensate for the loss of the store. Otherwise, you can slap me a few times?"

Wen Desheng had already been beaten beyond recognition by Qiu Dapeng. Half of his cheek was swollen and his mouth was full of blood. He looked horrifying.

Hearing what Qiu Dapeng said, he used all his strength to spat blood foam on Qiu Dapeng's face. Unexpectedly, his throat gurgled and he choked out a mouthful of blood.

"Dad!" Wen Tingli was so frightened that she bent down and used a handkerchief to wipe the blood off her father, but Wen Desheng was still coughing up blood and even his breathing became intermittent.

Hateful Qiu Dapeng was still pretending: "What, what's going on? I didn't really fight with Big Brother."

Wen Tingli gritted her teeth in hatred. She had seen the fight clearly. Qiu Dapeng had killed her father with a few punches, each hitting her father's vital points. She had no time to fight with this villain. She stood up anxiously and said, "The taxi from the car dealership won't be here for a while. Uncle Zhou, Uncle Chen, I'll stop a rickshaw on the street. Can you help carry my father?"

Qiu Lingyun was also a little panicked at this time: "Dad, what should I do?"

Qiu Dapeng rolled his eyes, wiped his sweat and stood up: "Saving people is the most important thing, hurry! Drive our rickshaw faster."

There was not even a rickshaw on the street. Wen Tingli was eager to save her father, and knowing that Qiu Dapeng would not dare to do anything bad at this moment, she and two of her father's friends carried her father onto the Qiu family's rickshaw.

The nearest hospital is Mercy Hospital.

This hospital was founded by the director named Deng Yi whom I met at Qiao's house last time. He has always been friendly to the poor.

When he entered the hospital, the emergency room was full of people. After asking, he found out that people from the nearby White Dragon Gang had sent a lot of injured people because of a group fight. The doctors in the emergency room were all busy seeing patients, and none of them had time to take care of Wen Desheng.

Lao Zhou and Lao Chen stamped their feet anxiously: "What should we do?"

Qiu Dapeng had disappeared by now, but Qiu Lingyun was still there. Seeing this, he hurriedly said, "My father seems to know the director of the internal medicine department of this hospital. I'll go get him."

Wen Tingli walked straight to the oldest foreign doctor and whispered something in his ear. The foreign doctor was startled and hurriedly brought two nurses to visit Wen Desheng. As soon as he saw her, he said in stiff Chinese: "Hurry up and notify the operating room to prepare for surgery."

On the way to the operating room, Lao Zhou whispered to Wen Tingli, "What did you say to that foreign doctor just now that made him agree to see you so quickly?"

"I told him that I am a good friend of their Dean Deng." Wen Tingli hurried to help push the cart. In fact, she had only met Dean Deng of Dean Ci Xin only once, but she felt that Dean Deng looked very friendly, and thought that even if she used her old man's name as an excuse, he might not hold it against her.

After entering the operating room, Wen Tingli was told to wait outside. She waited until most of the night, and Wen Desheng was finally wheeled out at dawn.

It’s strange to say, after just a few hours of not seeing my father, his body seemed to have shrunk by half. He lay limply in the snow-white sheets, his face swollen and sallow.

"Not very good." The foreign doctor named Thompson said bluntly, "Does your father like to drink?"

"Yes, but my father stopped drinking a few months ago. Is my father in a bad condition?"

"Your father has moderate liver cirrhosis. If he had been properly taken care of, he would have been fine. However, he has suffered a serious injury, which has caused bleeding in his digestive tract. You'd better be mentally prepared... Based on the patient's current physical condition, I'm afraid he won't be able to hold on for much longer."

Wen Tingli felt like being struck by lightning.

"Who was the person who beat your father last night? This is serious personal injury. You need to call the police."

Wen Tingli gritted her teeth and looked around. Qiu Lingyun had probably heard that her father was seriously injured and had already run away. She said angrily, "I'll go to the police station and call the police right away."

Lao Zhou said hurriedly, "Your father needs someone by his side. Lao Chen, why don't you stay with Tingli to take care of Lao Wen, and I'll go to the police station."

Wen Tingli thanked him repeatedly, and the group escorted Wen Desheng to the internal medicine ward. As soon as they moved the patient to the bed, Wen Desheng grabbed Wen Tingli's wrist and said, "Don't let...Qiu run away."

"I know, I know." Wen Tingli nodded in hatred, "Uncle Zhou has already gone to the police station to report it. Qiu Dapeng will definitely not get away. Dad, take good care of him. Once you recover, everything will be fine."

After a while, Lao Zhou came back and said that the police from the police station would come later to testify.

Wen Tingli stayed by her father's bedside and did not dare to leave. Fortunately, after a morning of careful treatment, Wen Desheng's condition finally stabilized. However, the accumulated costs of various diagnostic and treatment measures were staggering. Although the hospital took the initiative to help waive half of the fees, the remaining half must be paid as soon as possible.

It was not until then that Wen Tingli found out that the father and son Qiu had run away without even paying the deposit for hospitalization. Fearing that her father's treatment would be delayed, she asked her two uncles to look after her father while she rushed home to get the money.

Mrs. Zhou was in fear the whole night, and did not dare to go downstairs for fear of scaring Xiao Taozi. When she got up in the morning, she saw the store in a mess, and she was now extremely anxious.

The first thing Wen Tingli did when she entered the store was to open the cashier. The total amount of money in the cashier's pocket was two thousand dollars, which was probably all the family savings. Fortunately, her father had exchanged a large silver note yesterday to rent a house, and it was not conspicuous to carry with him. She stuffed the silver note into her schoolbag with a heavy heart, and went upstairs to get some clothes for her father. Then she took Mrs. Zhou and Xiao Taozi back to Ci Xin Hospital.

After getting off the bus, she bought some rice cakes and soybean milk and asked Mrs. Zhou to bring them to Lao Zhou and Lao Chen in the ward. She took the bill to the accountant to pay the hospital fee, but the accountant said, "Is that Wen Desheng? His hospital fee has been paid."

Wen Tingli was stunned. Could it be that Mr. Qiu had a change of heart and came back to his senses?

The accountant said, "I heard that a friend of the dean helped pay it."

"Excuse me, is that a gentleman or a lady?"

"I'm not sure either." The accountant smiled bitterly, "Miss Wen, why don't you just ask the dean?"

Wen Tingli returned to the ward in surprise. In the room, Xiao Taozi lay at the end of the bed and watched her father in a daze. After watching for a while, she felt scared and turned her head back to hide in Zhou's arms. When she looked up and saw her sister coming in, the tears that had been held back for a long time finally burst out like a waterfall.

"Wow."

The loud cry immediately echoed throughout the ward.

Wen Tingli quickly hugged Xiao Taozi and whispered to stop her: "Don't be afraid, Xiao Taozi. Daddy likes to listen to your stories the most. You whisper in his ear and maybe Daddy will get better faster after listening."

At this time, Lao Chen and Lao Zhou had already eaten the breakfast brought by Wen Tingli. Wen Tingli accompanied them to the nurses' station to treat their wounds. Fortunately, the two only suffered some superficial injuries. Wen Tingli only advised them to go home and rest. After much persuasion, she sent them to the hospital gate and bought them a lot of fruits and forced them to accept them.

As soon as we sat down, the police from the police station finally arrived.

"Who is Wen Desheng?"

Wen Tingli hurried out to greet him: "I am his daughter."

The two policemen took a quick look at the door and stayed in the corridor to question him.

"How is your father's injury now?"

"He was seriously injured. The assailant, Qiu Dapeng, lives on Qiulin 2nd Road. He was afraid of being held responsible after injuring my father last night, so he ran away as soon as he sent my father to the hospital."

The policeman on the left continued, "We also got a general understanding of the situation before coming here. Another person involved, Qiu Dapeng, also called the police last night. I heard that he was also seriously injured and is still being treated at Queen Mary Hospital. After asking you, we have to go to Queen Mary Hospital to check on Qiu Dapeng's condition. By the way, Qiu Dapeng works at Dabao Foreign Trade Company, which belongs to the French Concession. This case may not be under our jurisdiction. You may have to go to the French Concession to report the case again."

The more Wen Tingli listened, the more puzzled and annoyed she became. Not to mention that Qiu Dapeng had only suffered minor skin injuries, why wasn't this case under the jurisdiction of the International Settlement?
The policeman said, "If the other party is also seriously injured, you might as well settle the matter privately. Such fights happen every day, and we cannot just listen to your one-sided story about what happened.

"How can this be called a fight?" Wen Tingli said anxiously, "My father is dying, this is a murder case. Last night, the murderer Qiu Dapeng came to our house with his bodyguards to provoke a fight. Not only did he seriously injure my father, he also smashed everything in our store. The neighbors can all testify to this. Officer, this is not an ordinary fight, this is a deliberate murder!"

The two policemen looked at each other, and the one on the right said impatiently: "Okay, okay, who is your father's attending physician? Let's go find him first to find out the situation." Wen Tingli led the two policemen to Thompson's office and wanted to stay to listen, but the police refused.

She returned to the ward and sat for a while, then quietly went back to check, only to find that the two policemen had already left.

This attitude is extremely perfunctory.

Seeing Wen Tingli coming back, Mrs. Zhou asked hurriedly, "How's it going? Did you catch the gangster father and son?"

Wen Tingli shook her head with a cold face.

"Don't worry too much. If someone is beaten like this, the police will know what happened at a glance."

"It's not that simple. Qiu knew he had gotten into trouble, so he hid in Queen Mary Hospital last night. This old man is shameless and has a dark heart. If he really injures me, he might even turn the tables."

Mrs. Zhou was shocked and angry: "Who gave him this bad idea? Is there any law here?"

At this time, Wen Desheng on the bed suddenly opened his eyes: "Little Orange... Little Orange..."

Wen Tingli was shocked. That was her nickname and her parents had stopped calling her that a long time ago. She thought her father was probably confused, so she hurried forward and held his hand.

Wen Desheng panted weakly: "... Dad is useless. He wanted to seek justice for you and your mother, but it ended up like this. But Dad, Dad has to do this. If he doesn't tear his face off completely, who knows what despicable means the Qiu guy will use to force you to marry his son in the future... If the police don't care about this, you'd better not force it. Qiu Dapeng has met a lot of people in these years..."

"Don't worry, the police haven't made a final decision on this matter yet. I know what to do, so you can just focus on your recovery."

Little Taozi started crying again. Wen Desheng tried to turn his head to look at his daughter, but his eyes were so swollen that he couldn't open them. He could only force out a pale smile: "Don't cry, Little Taozi. Daddy is fine. By the way, Tingli, don't forget to ask for leave from school."

Wen Tingli slapped her forehead, she had indeed forgotten about this. Fortunately, there was a telephone installed on the wall of the internal medicine ward, but it was only allowed to be used by medical staff. Wen Tingli went over and said a few nice words to the person, and after getting permission, she immediately called the school.

The call was answered by Director Wang from the Department of Education. She is one of the school directors and is also responsible for supervising student discipline.

Director Wang's tone was a little unnatural.

"The school is just about to look for you. We held a meeting at noon and decided to expel you as a warning. Don't be surprised. If you were just late or just missed one or two classes, this matter could still be discussed, but you missed a whole day, which is the most serious violation of discipline in the history of our school. Recently, the school wants to catch an example in order to rectify the school's atmosphere. Who else should they expel if not you?"

Wen Tingli hurriedly told him that her father was in critical condition.

Director Wang sighed on the other end of the phone: "I am also very sad about what happened to your family. Which hospital is your father in now? Tomorrow, you will bring your classmates to visit your father."

Wen Tingli thanked him repeatedly and said, "Director Wang, I didn't skip classes without a reason. My father is still in the hospital for treatment. Please forgive me this time because it happened so suddenly."

Wen Tingli was the best at acting like a spoiled child, and she usually dared to speak like this in front of Director Wang. Director Wang was obviously softened by her heart, and covered the microphone and started to discuss things over there. For a while, only the "rustling" sound could be heard in the phone. Not long after, Director Wang picked up the microphone again.

"Tingli, expelling you is a unanimous decision of several school directors. The school's current attitude is very firm, and Mr. Wang can't do anything about it."

Under normal circumstances, the school would never be so heartless. Wen Tingli remembered what Qiu Dapeng said yesterday. This matter must be related to the Qiao family!

No, she had to go back to school as soon as possible. Coincidentally, Lao Chen and Lao Zhou brought their neighbors to visit Wen Desheng, so she asked them to help take care of him and she went out and called a rickshaw to rush to school.

As soon as I entered the school gate, I saw an "expulsion notice" posted on the school notice board next to me.

"Third-year student Wen Tingli has seriously violated school discipline. After research, the school has decided to expel her. Xiu De has always been committed to cultivating talents with both moral integrity and intelligence. We will never tolerate any behavior that disregards school rules. We hope that all students will take this incident as a warning."

All the blood in Wen Tingli's body rushed to her forehead, and she rushed across the flower bed to go upstairs to find Director Wang.

Director Wang was not in the office, so Wen Tingli went to find the head teacher Huang Yun again. Huang Yun seemed to be prepared. As soon as he saw Wen Tingli, he silently pushed a formal letter in front of her.

It says "Notice of Student Dismissal."

Wen Tingli said anxiously: "Teacher Huang, the school can't do this. I skipped class today for a reason!"

Huang Yun is only 25 years old this year. She has been teaching in Xiu De since she graduated from Women's Normal University. She is a well-known nice person and she usually protects the students in her class the most.

She lowered her head and sat in silence, sighing hoarsely, "The teacher had long guessed that you must have something urgent to do and that's why you didn't come. I've been protesting this to the school all day. In the afternoon, I heard from Director Wang that something serious happened in your family, so I went to Principal Liu to mediate again, but the school refused to give in. They even warned me just now that teachers have an unshirkable responsibility for students violating discipline. If I continue to defend you, the school will consider expelling me as well."

Wen Tingli was shocked.

"This is totally unreasonable. Let's go. I'll go with you to see the principal. If they really want to fire me, I can just change schools."

When they rushed to the principal's office, they didn't even see anyone. Huang Yun wanted to go to the principal's house to reason with him in person, but was stopped by Wen Tingli.

"I think the school is serious. This trip might really cause the teacher to lose his job."

Huang Yun said angrily: "But this matter must be argued for!"

Wen Tingli said, "If arguing with reason would work, you would have helped me get the school's forgiveness a long time ago, right? It doesn't work. Now I can only try other methods. Sir, do you have a phone here? I want to make two calls."

***
An hour later, a Citroën rickshaw (note) drove up to the door of the Carlton Café. The servants in front of the door obviously recognized the owner of the car and rushed forward to open the door. A lady in her forties or fifties got out of the car. Although her clothes were not very luxurious, there was a kind of domineering air in her behavior. After getting out of the car, she looked through the window at a corner of the cafe and her eyes were fierce.

The woman walked into the cafe and sat down at a table opposite a girl.

"Mrs. Joe."

Mrs. Qiao looked at Wen Tingli calmly. Whenever this girl appeared in the crowd, she looked like a radiant treasure. All the men present looked in Wen Tingli's direction.

What a disaster! No wonder my son is obsessed with her.

Mrs. Qiao calmly put the jade-colored satin purse aside and said, "Why did you call Liyun and Baoxin? Miss Wen, I'm warning you! Xingchu and Liyun are getting married soon. If you dare to do anything to destroy their relationship at this moment, the Qiao and Bai families will never let you go."

Just an hour ago, Qiao Mansion suddenly received a call from a female student of Xiu De, saying that a classmate was leaving Shanghai, and before leaving, she wanted to ask Bao Xin to meet at Carlton in the afternoon.

The servants of the Qiao family had already received instructions from the master and the mistress, so they politely declined over the phone.

Unexpectedly, the female student said: I wanted to invite Baoxin and Bai Liyun to have coffee together, but since Baoxin was not convenient to come out, she had to meet Bai Liyun alone.

After hearing the report from the servants, Mrs. Qiao secretly guessed that the matter was related to Wen Tingli, and hurriedly called the Bai Mansion. As expected, Bai Liyun had gone out. The more Mrs. Qiao thought about it, the more worried she became. She immediately dropped the things in her hands and rushed to Carlton.

But at this moment, when she saw Wen Tingli's sarcastic smile, she suddenly realized that the person Wen Tingli wanted to see was not Bai Liyun at all, but her from the beginning to the end.

It’s a pity that I fell into the trap without realizing it.

She underestimated this kid's abilities!

"What are you going to do?" Mrs. Qiao said with a dark face, "You don't think that I will be moved by you just by meeting me alone? Let me tell you, even if Liyun wasn't there, our Qiao family would never agree to let Xingchu be with you!"

"Who wants to be with your son?" Wen Tingli sneered, "I came here today to tell you, Qiao, that even rabbits bite when they are angry. Don't be too ruthless in everything!"

(End of this chapter)