Chapter 222: Ambulance

Jiang Lai took the grilled skewers and roasted sweet potato he handed her, their fingers briefly touching.

Ke Zhongyu's fingers trembled slightly, and the next second he withdrew them as if nothing had happened.

Jiang Lai looked at him: "Ke Zhongyu, get in the car. It's cold outside."

Ke Zhongyu walked around the front of the car, opened the door and got in, while Jiang Lai rolled up the window on her side.

The heater was on in the car.

Ke Zhongyu navigated to the hotel; on the way, Jiang Lai didn't open the late-night snack in her hands to eat.

Ke Zhongyu: "Don't like it?"

Jiang Lai shook her head: "Let's eat together."

Ke Zhongyu said nothing more and parked the car at the hotel entrance.

The best hotel in the county seat—not even a chain hotel.

The two went in side by side; Ke Zhongyu showed his electronic ID, and Jiang Lai also handed over her ID, saying she was the one who booked the hotel.

The front desk looked at Jiang Lai: "You booked two deluxe king rooms—would you like them on the same floor?"

Jiang Lai nodded: "Yes."

Ke Zhongyu's throat bobbed once; he glanced at the vending machine in the hotel lobby, then turned back to ask Jiang Lai what she wanted to drink. Jiang Lai only wanted a bottle of mineral water.

Ke Zhongyu held two bottles of mineral water in one hand, followed Jiang Lai through the card swipe into the elevator, and went up to the second floor.

Not only were the two on the same floor, their rooms were also adjacent.

Jiang Lai broke off half the sweet potato and gave it to Ke Zhongyu: "I won't give you the skewers—you can't handle spice, and they're from a street stall. If you get an upset stomach, that'd be bad. Shen..."

She had just let out one syllable when she stopped herself in time.

Mentioning Shen Xun at a time like this was extremely bad luck, but he was the only reference point that came to mind.

Ke Zhongyu heard what she left unsaid; he reached over and took her skewers, pulled out three sticks from them, and went into his room on his own.

The next second, the room door opened again.

Ke Zhongyu stood at the doorway and said to Jiang Lai: "Sleep early. We still have to go to the neighboring county tomorrow."

"Okay." Jiang Lai wanted to say goodnight to end the day, but Ke Zhongyu always gave her an inexplicable sense of steadiness and reassurance. She opened her mouth and said: "Ke Zhongyu, I feel very uneasy."

Ke Zhongyu knew.

He listened quietly.

"It's not unfounded unease either. The people in the alley told me that Ping'an's mental disability subsidy was originally only 148, but because his thumb is gone, he can receive over 200 every month."

"In the photos Shen Xun showed me, including their descriptions, Ping'an doesn't have a single truly warm piece of clothing in winter—200 is more than enough to buy autumn clothes and long johns."

"Also, I just checked that special school. There isn't a single negative review—under what circumstances would there be not a single negative review?"

As the person in power at Ke Group, Ke Zhongyu knew all too well: naturally, when things had been manipulated behind the scenes.

"Jiang Lai, if you want, we can head out right now."

Jiang Lai's voice paused, and she finally shook her head and said: "Never mind, let's go tomorrow morning."

Too tired.

From A City to G Province, then to K City, then to the county.

Enough tossing about.

Ke Zhongyu: "Are you sure?"

Jiang Lai nodded: "Mm."

She said goodnight, reminded Ke Zhongyu to rest well, and then thought of the skewers he had just taken, so she reminded him: "The spice here is different from what you tasted in A City. A City's spice is a modified version. Take one bite—if you can't handle it, don't eat it."

"Your stomach will really hurt." Jiang Lai looked completely serious.

Ke Zhongyu nodded.

As the door to Jiang Lai's room closed, Ke Zhongyu also closed his door.

He took out his phone and sent a message to Chi Ce.

【If you get abdominal pain and diarrhea after eating spicy food, how do you resolve it?】

Chi Ce: 【If?】

Chi Ce: 【Then don't eat it】

Ke Zhongyu: 【Eat】

Chi Ce: 【Order a box of antidiarrheal medicine for delivery】

Chi Ce: 【Use milk, yogurt, or ice cream to stop the spice】

Ke Zhongyu thought this made sense, and the next second he bought a box of antidiarrheal medicine.

……

A City.

Deep in the night.

Shen Xun had already fallen asleep. The phone on his nightstand rang; the first two times he didn't hear it and turned over to keep sleeping.

It kept ringing afterward; he reached out to feel for it, squinted and saw it was an unfamiliar number, and quickly hung up.

After hanging up, it kept ringing incessantly.

Shen Xun had been mentally exhausted lately; being repeatedly disturbed while sleeping soundly, he simply long-pressed the phone to power it off.

Finally, quiet.

Shen Xun fell into a deep sleep.

The person on the other end of the phone also slowly closed their eyes.

……

Early morning.

Jiang Lai finished brushing her teeth and washing her face, then knocked on Ke Zhongyu's door.

The door opened, and Jiang Lai saw a faint dark circle under Ke Zhongyu's eyes.

They hadn't slept well.

Maybe the bed wasn't comfortable enough.

The hotel's soundproofing was also just average; outside the window, traffic noise would occasionally be heard, especially at night when freight trucks passed, making the disturbance quite noticeable in the otherwise sleeping neighborhood.

However, Ke Zhongyu showed no sign of it and calmly asked, "Should we eat breakfast before leaving, or eat while we go?"

Jiang Lai: "Eat while we go."

Just as the two went downstairs, the secretary who had taken them to school the previous night was already waiting in the lobby, driving a government vehicle, and said he would take them to the special school.

With him around, finding the person would go more smoothly.

Jiang Lai bought three breakfast portions, one each; she could eat since she wasn't driving, but Ke Zhongyu could not.

Moreover, Ke Zhongyu hadn't slept well the previous night.

Jiang Lai thought, she really needed to go take her driver's license test.

From here to the neighboring county, without taking the highway, the national road would take an hour and a half; Jiang Lai worried about making Ke Zhongyu terribly hungry, so she picked up a xiaolongbao and brought it to his lips.

Along with the xiaolongbao touching Ke Zhongyu's lips, there was also Jiang Lai's finger.

The man's lips were a bit dry.

In winter, skin tends to become dehydrated easily.

Jiang Lai's finger twitched back, and she switched to using just a fingertip to pinch the bun; if Ke Zhongyu didn't eat the xiaolongbao soon, it would fall.

A smear from Ke Zhongyu landed on Jiang Lai's face.

"I just wiped my hands with a wet wipe." After Jiang Lai explained that her hands weren't dirty, she thought of the street stall's xiaolongbao and said, "Make do with eating it? Or should I make you something else when we get back?"

Ke Zhongyu opened his mouth and bit the xiaolongbao from her hand, finishing it in a couple of bites and swallowing it down; Jiang Lai then raised the straw of the soy milk a bit and brought it to his mouth.

Ke Zhongyu took a sip.

After finishing, he said, "Make buns bigger than your fist."

Previously, when Jiang Lai brought buns to the Ke Clan, everyone in the CEO's office got a share—except him.

He couldn't forget that.

Jiang Lai then realized, smiled briefly, and felt her heart calm a little.

Kunlinan followed the white sedan ahead into the county seat, winding through turns, up and down slopes, and stopped at the special school's entrance.

The guard at the gate approached to ask for paperwork, but the secretary merely showed his face, and the two vehicles proceeded in.

Inside the school gate was an artificial hill with a flowing pond; the path split into two, the right leading to the teaching building, the left to the dormitory building.

Jiang Lai's group turned right; after driving in less than a hundred meters, they heard the sound of an ambulance.

Jiang Lai glanced in the rearview mirror and saw an ambulance speed out of the left road like an arrow, bursting out of the school gate.

The situation inside the ambulance could not be seen.

Their vehicle also turned a corner.

Jiang Lai withdrew her gaze and suddenly felt a tightness in her chest.

The vehicle came to a stop.

The secretary led them through a noisy teaching building, explaining as they walked: "The special school is indeed special; each child's situation differs, making them harder to manage—some are quiet, some are hyperactive, some are volatile, so teachers and instructors inevitably have to raise their voices."

The school's environment is tranquil, yet the entire teaching building is noisy.

The three entered the education building; while climbing the stairs they encountered a female teacher and two male instructors—the teacher's face was ashen and drenched in sweat, while the instructors furrowed their brows with grim expressions.

Jiang Lai frowned slightly.

The secretary said, "The principal's office is on the third floor; we'll be there shortly."

The principal's office door was tightly shut.

As they approached, they heard angry shouting from inside.

"If this happens again, none of us will get away with it!"

"Moreover, that student was someone who had been emphasized as needing close attention—do you understand what 'close attention' means?"

Upon hearing this, the secretary's face turned slightly embarrassed, and he explained to the two: "The special school is indeed special; it's normal for the children to roughhouse and bump into each other..."

Ke Zhongyu swept his gaze over.

The secretary immediately shut up and raised his hand to knock on the door.

Upon hearing the knock, the interior fell silent.

The male teacher who opened the door recognized who it was, immediately put on a smile, shook his hand, and then noticed the two people beside him.

"This is Mr. Ke and Dr. Jiang; Director Li asked me to bring them over to find someone."

The male teacher hurriedly brought the three inside, and introduced them one by one to the principal and the other teachers in the room, especially mentioning Director Li's name.

When looking for someone to handle matters, the small-talk segment is unavoidable.

After a brief exchange, Jiang Lai got straight to the point, pulling out Ping'an's photo and saying, "This is my younger brother; his original name was Zhang Ping'an, but his uncle just changed it."

Upon seeing Zhang Ping'an's photo, everyone's faces turned pale.

Ke Zhongyu narrowed his eyes and said in a low voice, "What happened to him?"

"No, no, no..." everyone immediately shook their heads in denial.

On the contrary, this only made things seem more suspicious.

The principal remained relatively calm, explaining, "This student is called Zhang Yi—'one' as in one-two-three."

Upon hearing that name, Jiang Lai frowned, obviously Shen Xun hadn't instructed them properly; it was a name randomly chosen by Ping'an's uncle's family.

After receiving the principal's glance, the male teacher continued: "Zhang Yi has autism, is timid, never speaks to people, and when nothing's going on he likes to be alone—either climbing trees or climbing buildings. We're also at our wits' end; last night we don't know what he was thinking, but he climbed out onto the window sill and accidentally fell down. This morning... this morning we only just discovered it."

He also seemed to realize this was the school's negligence, and immediately explained: "We've already called an ambulance! Moreover, Zhang Yi lives on a low floor, so he should be fine!"

Jiang Lai's heart jolted.

It turned out that the person lying in the ambulance that had just brushed past her was Ping'an.

Her hands and feet went cold: 'Which hospital?'

'The county hospital.'

Jiang Lai and Ke Zhongyu turned and left.

The secretary holding a briefcase looked at them with a solemn expression and said in a low voice, 'This student is going to have an accident; no one can save you.'

Everyone was sweating profusely and hurriedly followed them to the hospital.

Jiang Lai got out of the car and hurried inside, asking the nurse at the triage desk, 'Hello, just now a student got off the ambulance, fifteen years old, named Zhang Yi; where is he? I'm his sister.'

The nurse said, 'He was just in the ER, and now he's been sent to the operating room. You're his sister? Then why haven't you been answering our calls? We couldn't reach you in the ER, and we can't reach you here either.' She read out a number, 'Did you change your number without telling the child?'

Jiang Lai, upon hearing that,

That was Shen Xun's number.