With a thought of a plan. She first found Qiao Lu's class teacher, told him what happened, asked for leave, and then took the class teacher straight to the playground to look for him.
Perhaps it was because the head teacher was more credible, or perhaps it was because the video screenshots that Shen Li showed to Qiao Lu were too touching, Qiao Lu was like a dumb person this time, and when Shen Li pulled him, he followed her obediently.
They got in the car, Shen Li told the driver the address, turned around and saw Qiao Lu's confused face. She was silent for a long time, touched him carefully, and asked: "Do you think it's too sudden?"
Qiao Lu blinked quickly to get rid of the inexplicable moisture: "It's a bit, a bit hard to believe."
Forty-seven years old, not old, but not young either. As the father of three children and the head of the family, he was at a prime age in terms of career, but the "three highs" and various diseases also came with him, especially with various other accidents. All these things told Qiao Lu that the domineering and overbearing man was getting old.
Who can avoid aging? Everyone is heading towards aging and death from the moment they are born? But how can that man who is like a mountain - my father - be allowed to grow old?
Shen Li patted Qiao Lu on the shoulder and said, "Be more tolerant. Although he has three children like you, he has not learned how to be a father. My mother said that she was not born to be a mother. There are some things she doesn't understand, and she hopes that I can teach her. In fact, think about it, everyone is like this."
Qiao Lu looked out the window and answered her after a long while: "Yeah."
After paying the taxi fare, Shen Li led Qiao Lu into the door of the inpatient department with ease. When they walked out of the elevator, Qiao Lu suddenly hesitated and said, "You said..."
Shen Li saw the worry on his face and comforted him: "It's okay, how about we go to the nurse's station and ask ?"
At this time, there was only one nurse at the nurses' desk who was entering documents. Shen Li knocked on the counter and asked, "Excuse me, is there a patient named Qiao here?"
The nurse looked up and answered without hesitation: "Qiao? You mean Qiao Jianliang who was hit by the electric donkey? Ward 405."
" What did you say hit him?"
"'Emule'?"
The nurse calmly replied, "'Emoticon.'"
Twenty minutes later, Qiao Lu pushed open the door of Ward 405.
Qiao Lu's father, Qiao Jianliang, was half leaning on the bed. Qiao Zishun wrung out the towel and wiped his face around the IV tube. Qiao Jianliang saw Qiao Lu in the gap between Qiao Zishun's movements and leaned forward excitedly: "Son! You're here!"
Qiao Lu responded vaguely and looked at Qiao Jianliang carefully. He saw that his father's hair was turning white, his forehead wrinkles were deep, and he looked very haggard.
Qiao Zishun looked back, took off the towel, picked up the basin and said, "I'll go get some water." After that, he left the ward.
Qiao Lu walked over, lifted the quilt, and revealed Qiao Jianliang's leg in plaster. He covered the quilt again, tucked the corner of the quilt carefully, and asked with his head down, "How did you do that?"
Twenty minutes ago, the nurse told him that Qiao Jianliang was hit by an electric scooter. Qiao Lu's anger was ignited in an instant. He was hit by an electric scooter, why didn't he say he was hit by a bicycle?
He knew that they were trying to trick him here and lure him back by using a cruel trick.
He wanted to rush in and expose their trick, but was stopped by Shen Li, who told him to at least listen to what the nurse said.
Later, the nurse told him that it was a small electric scooter that was hit by a car. The small electric scooter lost balance and was thrown out, hitting Qiao Jianliang who was lying on the sidewalk.
The word "smash" struck Qiao Lu's heart muffledly. Without Shen Li's persuasion, he calmed down for ten minutes and pushed open the door of the ward by himself.
Qiao Jianliang smiled awkwardly, as if he had done something wrong: "It was just a small accident."
"Does it hurt?" Qiao Lu looked at his messy hair and his heart softened a little.
Qiao Jianliang knew that his son was very soft-hearted, so he smiled innocently and answered, "I don't know, he fainted at the time, and this happened when he woke up."
Qiao Lu's nose was sore after hearing this. He sat beside the bed and raised his hand to take another look at his father's legs. But Qiao Jianliang stopped him and said, "There's nothing to see. It's all wrapped up."
The two of them suddenly fell silent, and the atmosphere in the ward was a little sad.
Qiao Jianliang smiled heartlessly and said, "Son, Dad wants to discuss something with you. You should move back home. You see, if things are going on like this, you never know when Dad might suddenly be gone..."
"Shut up!"
"Okay, I won't talk about this." Qiao Jianliang patted Qiao Lu's sturdy arm and reached out to rub his head, but found that Qiao Lu was much taller than him. He sighed, "When did you grow so tall?"
Qiao Lu is the third child of the Qiao family. At that time, Qiao's mother's career was repeatedly delayed because of the birth of her eldest son and second son. After giving birth to Qiao Zishun, Qiao Jianliang decided not to have any more children, but he did not expect to find out about Qiao Lu's existence not long after.
Qiao Jianliang felt sorry for his wife and was grateful for her sacrifices for the family, so they discussed and decided to abort the third child. However, the old lady refused to agree, saying that she was already three months pregnant and the baby was already formed, so she urged her daughter-in-law to give birth to Qiao Lu. The old lady patted her chest and said that she would take care of the baby after it was born.
Qiao Lu was grateful to his grandmother. If it weren't for her, he wouldn't even have been born. But the old lady was over 80 years old and her energy was limited. After raising Qiao Lu for a few years, she packed up her things and sent him back to her son's home.
In a family with several children, the middle child is usually neglected, but Qiao Lu's family is an exception. The year he returned home, Qiao Ziyao was ten years old and Qiao Zishun was eight years old, both of which were very important school years. Two adults each took care of one child, so Qiao Lu was somewhat overwhelmed and unintentionally forgotten.
So when Qiao Jianliang patted his chest and said that he had neglected his youngest son a lot over the years, Qiao Lu's heart really softened. Even if an apology is late, it is better than no apology at all.
Qiao Jianliang watched his son's stubborn and hard shell gradually soften in front of him, and then he said what he wanted to say most: "Move back home, okay?"
"Dad promises that I will never stop you from doing anything. You can raise monkeys if you want. You want to be a veterinarian. Although Dad disagrees, this is your choice and Dad supports you."
"Move back home, son, and give Dad a chance to make amends."
At this moment, Qiao Lu was lying on the bed, like a cactus, but his thorns had long been softened and could no longer hurt anyone. He sniffed hard, nodded, and was ready to say yes.
The door was suddenly pushed open, and a nurse holding a tray walked in while talking: "405, is the show over? If it is, hurry up, the beds are very tight, and there are people queuing up waiting to be hospitalized!" Behind them followed Qiao Zishun, who was too late to stop the nurse, and Shen Li, who was standing at the door like a fool.
I don't know who took over and asked, "Acting?"
The nurse knew she had done something wrong, so she said "excuse me" and hurriedly left the battle.
Qiao Lu did not give up because of the nurse's departure. He stood up and laughed horribly: "I thought... I thought it was not a lie this time."
He stared at his father and brother: "So it's still a self-torture trick. Tell me, who came up with the idea?"
Although Qiao Jianliang's face turned red, he was not embarrassed by being exposed. Instead, he said, "You misunderstood. We didn't mean to deceive you."
"You're not lying to me? Then why do they say it's acting? Could it be that the nurse at the nurses' desk was also in collusion?" Qiao Lu reacted and pointed at Shen Li and asked, "What about you? Are you in cahoots with them? How much money did they promise to give you after you tricked me here?"
Shen Li was speechless, Qiao Zishun stood in front of her to block Qiao Lu's accusations: "Does the whole world owe you? Who are you showing off to when you look like you are the most wronged person in the world? Do you really have to think so badly of us?"
"That's because you weren't the one who was left behind when you asked your brother for help despite having a high fever of 39 degrees Celsius!"
Qiao Zishun choked, and then said the next second: "Didn't I apologize? Nothing happened to you, and I was scolded later."
Qiao Lu smiled grimly: "Yes, you were scolded for five minutes, but we celebrated your winning the award for the whole night!"
"You just want to make everyone uncomfortable so that you can feel comfortable, right?"
"That night I stayed on the rooftop alone until eleven o'clock, and you were celebrating downstairs. Did anyone notice that I was missing?"
Qiao Lu had a loud voice, and Qiao Zishun was even louder than him: "Aren't we compensating you now? What else do you want?"
The three men's faces were redder and their necks were thicker than each other. Qiao Lu was like a fur-furred cat, baring his teeth and defending himself; Qiao Zishun was like a king, wondering why someone would not accept the gift he gave; only Qiao Jianliang had a red face, with anger at the challenge to his patriarchy and a hint of regret on his face.
Shen Li felt that they all had the right to be angry. Qiao Lu, who had been ignored for so many years, and Qiao's father and Qiao Er, who had tried to make reconciliation moves, all had the right to be angry.
They did try to reconcile, but their approach was wrong and the trust was long gone, so no matter what they did, or whether they did it or not, the result would be wrong.
Qiao Lu became much quieter after being yelled at by Qiao Zishun. He looked in one direction and asked softly, "Is this what you call compensation?"
Qiao Jianliang stopped his angry second son and explained in person: "We are doing this for your own good. The college entrance examination affects your entire life. As your father, I cannot watch you do things without considering the consequences and taking things for granted."
Shen Li suddenly interrupted and asked, "What's wrong with being a veterinarian?"
"What's good about it? You have a low social status and no future." Qiao Jianliang said unhappily, "You hang around cats and dogs all day long. You're dirty and smelly. You have no future!"
The image of a loving father that he had painstakingly built up suddenly collapsed in half. Shen Li thought, perhaps this was the true image of this uncle.
Qiao Lu asked, "Did you throw the little monkey away because you thought it was dirty and smelly?"
When Qiao Jianliang saw Qiao Zishun winking at him, he realized that he had let the cat out of the bag, so he simply said, "I didn't throw it away. I found a good buyer for it, this little girl. I gave it to her to raise."
Shen Li started to panic. Her answer to Qiao Lu was "I picked it up". If this uncle told the truth, she would become an "accomplice" and "accomplice". She was busy explaining to Qiao Lu, but Qiao Lu didn't have time to listen to her explanation.
Qiao Lu kept his eyes on Qiao Jianliang. He asked, "What do you want me to do to satisfy you? Go home honestly and be grateful for your promise to let me raise a little monkey? Then what? I will take the college entrance examination and you will fill in the application form. Even if I can't do well, I will study a major that will not embarrass you. I don't have any ambitions but I will live my life under your arrangement. Then you will be satisfied. This is your compensation, right?"
"Don't think so badly of your father! You are still too young now, and some of your thoughts are just impulses. When you reach your father's age, you will know that sometimes ideals are not worth mentioning..."
"What if I don't?" Qiao Lu interrupted him, "I won't go back, and I won't live that kind of life. You can make amends to whoever you want, I will never compromise."
The negotiations broke down, the illusion was exposed, and Qiao Jianliang was too lazy to maintain his fatherly persona. He sneered, "Never compromise? I'll cut off your pocket money. I want to see how tough you can be!"
The two pushed each other to the edge, and the words became more and more harsh. No one stood up to be a peacemaker, and the tension reached a peak and exploded. Shen Li hurriedly scanned the people present, but could not find anyone to ask for help.
Finally telling the truth, Qiao Lu stiffened his neck and looked at his father, as if laughing at Qiao Jianliang's naivety. He sneered and pushed the door open to walk out.
"Qiao Lu!"
Shen Li called him but didn't know what to say next. She originally wanted Qiao Lu to have a good talk with his father, but she didn't expect that the other party's show of weakness was just a self-torture tactic.
Qiao Lu stood at the door without turning his head: "I know what you want to say, but they are not worth it."
The door was slammed shut, and the two people in the room had no idea what Qiao Lu had been thinking in the ten minutes before he came in.
Sometimes it is like this, the answer is right in front of you but you miss the opportunity to know it. Later, every time you think of it, you doubt whether the answer at that time was the same as you guessed.
But there is no point anymore. If you miss it, you miss it.
Several days had passed since the incident , and Qiao Lu had calmed down a bit. At least he no longer took his anger out on Shen Li.
Shen Li secretly brought the little monkey into school to reunite with Qiao Lu. He held the little monkey and was intimate with it, and finally stopped looking at Shen Li in displeasure.
Taking advantage of his good mood, Shen Li quickly apologized: "I'm sorry for that day."
Qiao Lu glanced down at her and pretended to pout. After seeing her cautious expression, he smiled cleverly: "Don't blame you, you have good intentions."
Shen Li breathed a sigh of relief, and Qiao Lu said again: "It's always doing bad things."
"Hey, I don't always do bad things. It's just this once!"
Shen Li knew that Qiao Lu no longer cared about it, and she was no longer entangled, but she still felt a little regretful: "It was clearly moving in a good direction, but who knew they would still be so stubborn."
"You just think he has softened." Qiao Lu's eyes were deep. "My father has never been a reasonable person. His reason is himself."
After saying this, he showed a devilish smile: "It's just that my dad didn't expect that he thought that cutting off my pocket money would make me surrender, but his idea is doomed to fail."
Shen Li knew what he was talking about. They made their first fortune from the serial "Monkey Playing with Naughty Kids". Although it wasn't much, it was definitely a considerable sum for a high school student. Even if Qiao's father didn't give Qiao Lu living expenses, he wouldn't have to ask them for money in the short term.
Although she knew about the conflict in their family, Shen Li still asked: "Didn't you tell them about this?" Shen Li didn't plan to tell her parents at first, but Shen Tianyou, the "snitch", secretly leaked it. Unexpectedly, Shen's father and mother did not ask Shen Li to hand it over, but praised her instead.
Qiao Lu curled his lips: "If I tell them, they will just think I am 'playful'."
Shen Li tried to persuade him in a roundabout way: "I felt the same way at first, but then I found that I would be happier if I shared happy things with them. My mother even told me some interesting things she found, so I thought maybe you should..."
"That's your family!" Qiao Lu interrupted coldly, "This kind of thing will never happen in our family, but it will happen to me."
"How do you know if you don't try?"
If you don't like something, someone will always advise you, saying how can you know it tastes bad if you don't try it? It's easy to say, but how can the person who easily says such a thing know that you don't think it tastes good until you try it.
Just like the innocent Shen Li in front of her, she simply and naively thought that as long as she tried to communicate with her family, the conflict between Qiao Lu and his family would be resolved satisfactorily. But she didn't know that he could deny it because he had tried and it was useless. It's not that he had never done something as earth-shattering as Shen Li, but because they didn't take it seriously.
Qiao Jianliang is an excellent guerrilla warfare genius when it comes to fighting with his son. In the name of "love", he prevents Qiao Lu from getting any benefit at all.
Qiao Lu looked at the little monkey's round eyes and still felt like a big truck was pressing on his heart. He didn't want to talk about it anymore and changed the subject abruptly: "Let's not talk about this. Have you finished drawing the new chapter? I can probably give you another script on Friday."
Shen Li knew he was avoiding it, and she also knew she couldn't force him, so she had to change the subject: "I finished the drawing a while ago. I'll send it to you tonight. Can you check it again? Oh, I forgot you live in the dormitory and don't have a computer."
She did it on purpose. Ever since she learned that Shen Li was serializing comics online, Shen's mother bought her an iPad for her to create. Before each update, Shen Li would bring the iPad to Qiao Lu to check to confirm that there were no errors before posting it to the serialization platform. But today Shen Li did not bring the iPad.
It’s inconvenient not to have a computer in the dormitory, but there is one at home, but Qiao Lu doesn’t want to go home: “Just bear with it, when we get rich, I will definitely buy a computer!”
"Come on, you're planning on not going home for the rest of your life!" Shen Li said sarcastically. Seeing that his face was getting worse again, she had to change the subject unwillingly, "I have something to tell you. There's someone on Weibo who keeps asking me privately, asking me where the little monkey came from?"
"Who is it?"
Shen Li thought about it and told the relevant information: "It seems that he is also a monkey owner? There is a monkey in the album that is smaller than the Monkey King. They look a bit similar, but I don't think they are the same."
"Never mind that."
"But he said his monkey was lost! He suspected that the 'Monkey King' was his monkey!"
Qiao Lu frowned, as if remembering something, his expression became a little bad, he answered unnaturally: "It's a scam, right? Knowing that you and I are both students, he wants to fool us and trick the little monkey away."
It makes sense to think this way. Their Weibo fans all know that they are both students. That person might have seen that they are inexperienced and wanted to cheat the big star "Monkey King" away. Shen Li didn't notice that Qiao Lu was wrong, so she just accepted his explanation. She decided to blacklist that person on Weibo after she returned. "Okay, there's nothing else to do. Give me 'Monkey King'. I have to get out before the school is closed."
The school is a half-day and half-boarding school, but the main gate will be closed at 7 o'clock in the evening, and only a small gate will be opened to let the students out after evening self-study. If Shen Li doesn't leave, she will be checked strictly soon.
The "Monkey King" clung to Qiao Lu, as if he understood what they were saying, and refused to leave. He also acted pitifully and bowed to Shen Li, trying to stay by Qiao Lu's side.
Shen Li tried to communicate with it for a long time but failed to take it away. She didn't know whether to laugh or cry: "Why do I feel like I'm the bad guy who broke you two up?"
Qiao Lu held the little monkey in his arms and winked at her: "You are, aren't you?" He lifted the little monkey up and felt that it seemed lighter. "Just leave it here with me for one night. Didn't you also say that it was a little restless at night? I just want to see what the reason is."
"Hey, Doctor Qiao." Shen Li teased him, "You haven't even got your medical license yet, but you've already started practicing medicine?"
"I know more about animals than you do!"
Shen Li gave in: "Okay, okay, you are Doctor Qiao, you have the final say, as long as we don't get caught."
Qiao Lu high-fived the little monkey and said proudly, "Don't worry, my roommate has gone home and I'm the only one in the dormitory. Why don't you leave? The door will be closed soon."
Shen Li smiled and answered yes, and walked towards the school gate. When she reached the gate, she turned her head back. In her eyes, Qiao Lu's back was only a dot. It was spring now, and the camphor tree had sprouted green buds. When the wind blew, the dry leaves that had lost moisture fell sparsely, and the ground was withered and yellow. Qiao Lu walked away in the withered yellow, and it seemed that the appearance of the little monkey gave a little life.
Shen Li did not leave the school, but walked into the school's message room, where a middle-aged man with a plaster cast was waiting for her.
Seeing her coming, the middle-aged man was a little excited and asked, "How is it?"
Shen Li shook her head, and the middle-aged man lowered his head in disappointment and sighed.
Shen Li couldn't bear it and asked, "If you cared about me, why did you lie to me in the first place?"
Qiao Jianliang smiled bitterly. He was really hit on the leg by the "electric donkey", but it was not serious enough to require hospitalization. Qiao Zishun asked the nurse to borrow the ward to perform a play. They thought that the ward environment would make Qiao Lu more sympathetic, but they did not expect Qiao Lu to treat everything as a play.
Shen Li advised: "You go back."
Qiao Jianliang was helped up by the young man next to him. He asked Shen Li again: "Can you tell him that I won't stop him from learning anything he wants to learn, I..."
Although Shen Li felt sorry for him, she wanted to complain: "He can't listen now. Even if he can listen to me, how many times have you said these words? How can you make him believe that you are serious this time? You have no credibility at all."
Qiao Lu is tough on the outside but soft on the inside, which can be seen after spending some time with him, but Qiao Jianliang repeatedly uses Qiao Lu's softness to achieve his own goals. "Not keeping one's word, going back on one's words" has become Qiao Jianliang's exclusive label.
Qiao Jianliang sighed deeply, and was supported by the young man as he slowly walked out of the reception room. Shen Li watched him leave with mixed feelings, as if she was happy for Qiao Lu, but also seemed to feel sorry for him.
Old-school Hong Kong dramas like to talk about harmony and beauty, and TV dramas in the 1980s like to talk about a harmonious family. Who doesn't want a harmonious family? But how can one accept that one's ideals and love are cruelly strangled, and that one has to sacrifice oneself to build a so-called harmonious family.
She knew that they were just children and the final say was in the hands of their parents, but they did not want to hand over the autonomy of their lives to their parents no matter what.
When will parents truly understand that children are the continuation of life and independent individuals?