Li Zheng stood at the door of the ward, his hand on the door handle, for a long time he couldn’t open it.
The door suddenly opened from inside, and Xiao Wang, who was carrying a basin in one hand, came out of the ward.
“Mr. Li?”
A trace of embarrassment appeared on Li Zheng’s face as he nodded his head, “Is Mr. Zhao okay?”
“Secretary Zhao’s body temperature is slowly dropping, and his consciousness is clearing up. He was just asking about you!” Xiao Wang said with a smile, “By the way, Mr. Liang just left, he said he was going back to the hotel.”
“Why don’t you come in and talk to the secretary first, Mr. Li, and I’ll go get some water.”
Li Zheng’s gaze fell through Xiao Wang to Zhao Mu, Zhao Mu also happened to look over at this time, the two eyes met, then the atmosphere in the room became subtle for a while.
After Xiao Wang left, only Li Zheng and Zhao Mu were left in the room.
Li Zheng gently closed the door behind him and slowly walked over to Zhao Mu’s bed and sat down.
“Xiao Zheng? Is it really you?” Zhao Mu’s voice was slightly trembling, with excitement and disbelief.
Even with Director Meng’s words and Zhao Qihua’s letter as a prelude, when Li Zheng really appeared in front of him, Zhao Mu’s heart was still tossed up with shocking waves.
He had countless questions in his heart, but when he saw Li Zheng’s eyes that were so calm that there was not a single fluctuation, all of Zhao Mu’s words were blocked in his throat, and he could not ask a single word.
Li Zheng noticed the old man’s difference and subconsciously rubbed his brow, “Sorry, after the family accident, I go sick and had high fever for a few days, I can’t remember many things.”
Zhao Mu smiled, but couldn’t say anything, he thought Li Zheng meant Zhao Qiuhua leaving home. Once he thought of this matter, Zhao Mu was ashamed to face this grandson, and as for the questions in his heart, he couldn’t ask them even more.
“How are your father and sister?” He was silent for a while then asked dryly.
Li Zheng slightly raised his head, “Father left in the middle of last year, went out to sea and met a storm. Sister is now …… not bad.”
Zhao Muping’s hand on the hospital bed clenched up violently because of excessive force, making the part of the infusion tube that met the needle appear to ble-ed, and the blo-od backed up to the infusion tube all of a sudden.
Li Zheng was startled and placed his hand on the back of the old man’s hand, “Take it easy.” He said in a deep voice.
“Li Qiang …… Li Qiang, he!” A flush appeared on Zhao Mu’s pale face, his whole body was trembling, “Li Qiang, he ……” hands clenched the corner of the quilt, his eyes didn’t blink as he stared at Li Zheng.
His needle had already slipped out of the blo-od vessels, but Zhao Mu didn’t care, his full attention was on the news he just got.
Li Qiang was dead.
His son-in-law, Li Qiang, was dead?
How could this happen? How could this happen? Li Qiang was a good man and a very filial son-in-law, and even Zhao Mu often thought in private that even if he had a son, he couldn’t be more filial than Li Qiang.
Because of his daughter, he was ashamed to face his son-in-law, but he never thought that Li Qiang would be gone just like that.
Although according to Li Zheng, Li Qiang was out at sea and met with shipwreck and left, but was this really not even remotely related to Zhao Qihua’s sudden departure?
“How could this happen? How could this happen?” Zhao Mu muttered.
Seeing this, Li Zheng first removed Zhao Mu’s needle, and then quickly walked out the door to find the nurse.
When he came in with the nurse, Xiao Wang was already there, as well as the Chinese delegation he had seen in the morning, led by Xian Ning.
Xian Ning and the others became anxious, “Secretary Zhao? Secretary Zhao? What did you say?” They could also see that something was clearly wrong with Zhao Mu’s mood.
When Xiao Wang saw Li Zheng enter, he greeted him directly.
“Mr. Li, what just happened? How did he become like this all of a sudden, as if …… he was struck by something.”
Li Zheng glanced at him and didn’t reply, but turned his head to the nurse, “He is very unsettled, just now the needle slipped out of the blo-od vessel and was pulled out by me, please give him a new one.”
The American nurse nodded, “Sir, please be careful and control your emotions.” She ignored the crowd and walked to Zhao Mu’s hospital bed.
The female nurse moved sharply, and after she warned Zhao Mu again not to get overly excited, she nodded to Li Zheng and left the ward.
Only then did the crowd see Li Zheng in the ward.
“It’s you?” Xian Ning didn’t know how to address Li Zheng and looked a little embarrassed.
After Bablu was arrested, Li Zheng soon left as well. Then the delegations from Europe, America and other countries changed their high and mighty posture and surrounded the Chinese delegation, praising their companion’s wisdom and courage.
But Xian Ning and others knew in their hearts that this Mr. Li Zheng, who had saved the day, was not their companion.
The name Li Zheng, Xian Ning had already heard at home, invented China’s first original medicine, biological genius, but across the line, the Chinese masses, including Xian Ning, didn’t know what these meant.
It was only today that Li Zheng’s “I am the inventor of palmatine” made that crazy dangerous man change his attitude, which made everyone understood how significant this drug was to some people in some countries.
They were still discussing this mysterious Mr. Li Zheng on the way to the hospital, but they didn’t expect to see him in Zhao Mu’s hospital room now.
“Hello, guys.” Li Zheng smiled politely at the crowd.
“Mr. Li Zheng you are …… here to see Secretary Zhao?” Xian Ning spoke tentatively.
She had heard that Secretary Zhao Mu had a daughter in Hong Kong, and this biology genius’ lab was also in Hong Kong, so perhaps they would know each other, Xian Ning guessed.
Li Zheng’s eyelids drooped slightly, he was silent for a while, “Hmm.”
Apparently, he couldn’t call a stranger his grandfather without any obstacles.
“Mr. Li Zheng ……”
Xian Ning was about to say something else when the door was once again pulled open and Liang Zhe pushed the door in, followed by several young men and women dressed in waiter’s attire. They were all carrying delicate thermos boxes in their hands, and a fragrance of meals permeated the ward.
When Liang Zhe saw so many people in the ward, he frowned slightly, then seeing Li Zheng, his expression soothed slightly, and he walked quickly to Li Zheng’s side.
“The food I bought doesn’t seem to be enough.” He said in a low voice
Although Liang Zhe’s voice was intentionally softened, the ward was not large, the crowd heard it.
A hint of embarrassment appeared on the faces of the delegation led by Xian Ning, and someone hurriedly said, “We just came to take a look, there’s no need for dinner.”
“Yes, yes.” The crowd echoed one after another.
As soon as the words came out, the crowd felt something was wrong, according to reason, Zhao Mu was with them, they and Zhao Mu should be closer, how come now they looked like outsiders?
Xian Ning was a financial worker. As soon as Liang Zhe came in, she recognized Mr. Liang, who was now in the limelight. Her eyes swept over Zhao Mu, who was still in a trance on the hospital bed, and a flash of deep thought flashed in her eyes.
She always felt that the relationship between Li Zheng and Zhao Mu seemed to be not as simple as it appeared.
When the Chinese delegation saw that Liang Zhe had already directed the waiters to set the food, they were too embarrassed to stay any longer and bid farewell to Zhao Mu.
Although Zhao Mu was still immersed in the shock and sadness of Li Qiang’s death, he had been an official for so many years after all, and subconsciously pulled out a smile in response.
Xiao Wang was the most confused person in the room, he scratched his head hard, looked at Xian Ning, and then looked at Li Zheng and Liang Zhe, he felt that something wasn’t right.
“Xiao Wang, go back with Miss Xian. It’s been hard on you all morning.” Zhao Mu suddenly spoke.
The strange feeling in Xiao Wang’s heart became even stronger.
“Secretary Zhao ……”
“Don’t worry, Xiao Zheng will take care of me.”
Xiao Zheng?! Xiao Wang’s mouth opened wide, “Oh,” he answered, and froze before he walked out the door.
Seeing Xiao Wang leave, Li Zheng made Zhao Mu’s hospital bed higher and picked out some light meals and put them on the table of the hospital bed.
“Eat some.” He handed the chopsticks to Zhao Mu.
In New York in the eighties, Chinese restaurants were not everywhere like in the latter days, and Liang Zhe had gone to Chinatown specifically to book the food.
“Thanks.” Zhao Mu smiled at Li Zheng.
What followed in the ward was the slight sound of chewing, Zhao Mu had a high fever and no appetite at all, he didn’t move after trying to eat half a bowl of rice.
His gaze kept falling on Li Zheng, watching him clip and eat, and deliberately put the meal that Li Zheng had clipped more times in front of Li Zheng.
Li Zheng felt very complicated, he hadn’t had this feeling for a long time, his old man left early in his last life, and he had no other relatives, life was a laboratory in addition to the laboratory.
He didn’t know what kind of role Zhao Mu played in the tragedy of the original body. And how should he get along with this blo-od grandfather. The original him was determined to be politely detached and do what was morally right to do, but now ……
“After your father left, how did you and Sitian live?” Zhao Mu couldn’t help but ask.
Li Zheng paused, “After father left, Aunt Zheng helped with the funeral. The family originally had a boat, no one went to sea when my father was gone, the production team wanted to take it back, several times my sister blocked then, and then I rented the boat to Zheng Xiaodong, so that also passed.”
Zhao Mu lived in Qinghe town and naturally knew the status of a boat in the hearts of fishermen. Hearing that the production team came to the door to forcefully get the boat and Li Zheng had to rent the boat to the Zheng family to avoid disaster. Zhao Mu felt ashamed.
“Child, you’ve suffered. Go back with grandpa. Grandfather will take good care of you.”
Li Zheng smiled and put down the bowl in his hand, he pursed his lips, “I’m fine now, I don’t need to be taken care of. Besides, I may fly to Africa in a couple of days, I will visit China when I have time.”
Fly to Africa?
Both Liang Zhe and Zhao Mu’s expressions changed at the same time.
“What are you going to do in Africa?”
Li Zheng lifted his eyelids, “I promised someone something, I have to do it.”
TN:
Finally, a ✨confession ✨