CH 57.2

Ning Wan couldn't keep calm. She pulled out her phone immediately and searched for 'dog falling from the sky'. Sure enough, it didn't take long before she had found the Weibo that the teenagers around her were discussing. It was a contribution by a reader to the a large, Weibo-verified marketing page called "The Strange and Beautiful Things Around Us". She looked at the time of submission, and her heart thumped - it was a time was consistent with the day when Chen Shuo was hit, and the appearance of the two buildings in the video was also consistent. Ning Wan was very familiar with Yuelan Community and recognized it at a glance.

She watched the video from start to finish. Obviously, the photographer had not gotten the beginning. When the video began, the dog was already mid-air and falling at a high speed. The video looked accidentally taken. The photographer had seemed to want to get the situation once the dog had landed, but due to to a large green tree below that blocked their line of sight, they hadn't been able to show where the dog had ended up.

How unexpected that although no video surveillance in the community had been able to capture Chen Shuo's accident, a resident in the opposite building had taken a short video! Ning Wan immediately contacted the OP and explained the ins and outs of the situation, hoping to speak with them, get the original video, and perhaps obtain more details about the falling dog.

She was in luck, because her query was quickly answered. The other was very friendly, and said straightforwardly that they could meet after work that afternoon. Ning Wan hurried back to headquarters for her materials, and then rushed back to the community office to tell Fu Zheng the news and show him the video.

"Come on, let's go check with Chen Shuo right now."

But Fu Zheng stopped her from leaving. "Don't. I'll go."

"Huh?"

Fu Zheng pursed his lips. "If you go, even if you show him the video Chen Shuo will never admit it. If I go, he'll be willing to talk."

"But why?" Ning Wan asked, confused.

She had known Chen Shuo for so many years. Surely their friendship was at least comparable to his much shorter friendship with Fu Zheng? What couldn't Chen Shuo say in front of her? Was there some secret involved? After all, getting hit by a dog wasn't at all like getting hit by a little mahjong tile. It should have been easy to identify. Not to mention that the dog had landed squarely on Chen Shuo, used him like a mattress, and then walked away unscathed...

Fu Zheng smiled. "You don't need to know why."

When Fu Zheng walked into the ward, Chen Shuo was quite composed. He had broken his ribs, and breathing was painful; his right hand was also fractured, so he could only shakily use his left to eat. His whole person was a mess.

Even though he had been injured by a falling object, the physical pain was nothing. More important was the psychological blow. Originally, according to his well-planned scheme, he would have been able to confess. But in the end, he hadn't visited a single resident. Not only had he failed, but he was now in such a state...

Although Ning Wan had come to visit several times due to his injury, caring, attentive, and genuinely anxious and upset on his behalf, every time she came Fu Zheng was with her. He couldn't even say a few words to her in private. It seemed as though they spent a lot of time together, but the actual time where it was just the two of them was zero.

What made Chen Shuo even more frustrated was his current image. He was like a disabled person; not only was he not handsome, but also bedridden and unkempt; in a hospital gown beside Fu Zheng standing tall in his suit. The contrast was simply shabby. And the worst part was that right after he was hit, both Ning Wan and Fu Zheng had arrived right away to witness the most awkward, helpless, humiliating moment of his life.

Therefore, Chen Shuo had felt humiliated in front of the girl that he liked. After all, no one wanted to be seen like that in front of the person you wanted to impress.

On top of that, it was bad enough that he had been hurt by a falling object, but stuck in Chen Shuo's craw even more was that--

He had been hit by a dog!!! A dog!!! And he had broken bones, but the dog was fine!!!

According to this train of thought, he wasn't even as good as a dog...

Right at that very moment, Fu Zheng pushed open the door into his ward alone, pulled out a chair, sat down, and punched him straight in his weakest spot. "Chen Shuo, you were hit by a dog, weren't you?"

“……”

Although it sounded like a question, Fu Zheng's tone was a statement of fact. Obviously he already knew.

Some things can be hidden for awhile, but not for a lifetime. If Fu Zheng knew, then Ning Wan naturally knew too. Thankfully Ning Wan hadn't come. Since Fu Zheng was here alone, it could be considered taking having taken his pride into account. After all, getting hit by a dog sounded even more tragic than getting hit by an ashtray.

Knowing that the cat was out of the bag, Chen Shuo didn't try to hide it. He turned his head to look out of the window and replied, "Since you already knew, did you really need to ask me?"

"Some details that need to be confirmed with the victim," Fu Zheng smiled, ignoring Chen Shuo's surliness.

In the beginning, when Chen Shuo had been dangling around in front of him everyday, Fu Zheng had genuinely felt like he was a bit of an eyesore. But now that this had happened, Fu Zheng's subtle hostility to Chen Shuo had suddenly disappeared. He felt very calm. Who knew why, but even alone with Chen Shuo, he felt like the young man was suddenly quite pleasing to the eye. His heart was even full of a senior's care toward the younger generation and sympathy for misfortune. After all, 'a broken bone takes a hundred days to heal', so they probably wouldn't see much of each other for about three months. Although Fu Zheng wouldn't miss him at all, he was quite willing to display harmony and friendship between colleagues.

"You're a victim, and we're colleagues. There's nothing embarrassing or shameful about it. You're the most innocent party here, so there's no need to hide anything from us. Since things have gone down this way, I'll help you defend your rights."

But feelings obviously couldn't be synchronized in both directions, since Fu Zheng's sincere speech didn't make Chen Shuo warm up to him at all. Instead, not only did Chen Shuo's hostility to Fu Zheng not dissipate, but it became strong enough to see with the naked eye. "Are you gloating inside? All of a sudden I get injured and have to be hospitalized?"

Fu Zheng ignored this odd accusation. "If you don't want Ning Wan to come here and ask you straight to your face how you got hit by a dog, you'd better cooperate with me."

No matter how much Chen Shuo glared at him, this statement obviously worked. Of course he didn't want Ning Wan to be here. It was utterly embarrassing to have been hit by a dog. There was no way he wanted to describe it in detail in front of the girl he liked.

Ning Wan letting Fu Zheng come by himself meant that she knew him well enough to take his emotions into account. Chen Shuo's heart was both touched and grieving over her kindness. He could only hate himself for having been so unlucky. What sort of terrible luck did you have to have to get smashed by a dog falling from the skies when you were just walking along the road?

But he knew that he had to cooperate with Fu Zheng under the current circumstances. Looking away, his voice dull, he recited, "I was walking on the lower floor when the accident happened. When the dog fell, I didn't realize it was a dog at first. Everything happened so fast. I was suddenly hit and all I could feel was pain. It took a while to realize that it was a dog."

"The dog was probably scared, too," Chen Shuo continued, holding back his depression and frustration. "It fell from such a high place. Although it had me as a cushion so it didn't get hurt, it felt the impact too. After I fell to the ground, it lay motionless on top of me for a long time. Then after a few minutes, it got up sluggishly and swaggered off..."

Although Fu Zheng had not been at the scene, he could vividly see it just listening to Chen Shuo's description - Chen Shuo lying on the ground with a broken bone, the dog waving it's tail without taking even a strand of cloud away1, turning and leaving in a joyous manner...

This tragically picturesque incident, coupled with Chen Shuo's bleak expression and dispirited tone, gave Fu Zheng the faint feeling that Chen Shuo was a young maiden who had just been abandoned by his seducer, perhaps one who had just been disabled for life after getting an abortion, while the dog was that philanderer who had cruelly abandoned him after learning that the surgery had gone wrong. Here was Chen Shuo, still lying on the operating table, while that philandering dog had fled without even paying for the abortion...