Chapter 9: The Dragon Prince Who Cannot Be Retained 2
In order to avoid being followed by people sent by the Nie family, we went to Zhou Mian's hospital.
At the hospital entrance, Zhou Mian pushed open the glass door, suddenly stopped, and looked back at Hong Ze: "What, she is not allergic to animal hair now?"
"My what?" Hong Ze almost bumped into him and glared at Zhou Mian with an impatient look on his face.
I smiled, squeezed over and pushed the door open: "Don't worry! As long as Hongze is here, it will be effective. Linglong sometimes comes to my room to sleep with me, there is no problem at all."
Zhou Mian nodded: "That's good. Don't go crazy when you see small animals."
I ignored him and ran to the cages by the wall, saying hello to the cats and dogs inside. It seemed like I hadn't been here for a long time since Linglong moved in.
"You smell like other cats and dogs. Linglong will get mad when she smells it when you get home." Hongze leaned against the counter, looked at me, and complained, "Last time I praised the goldfish in the building opposite in front of Xiaojinli and Xiaoli, and they ignored me for two days! How stingy!"
"Little Koi?" Zhou Mian placed three cups of water on the counter and asked curiously, "You picked up another kitten and brought it home? Why didn't you bring it here first?"
Zhou Mian's words made me feel a little embarrassed, so I quickly explained, "No, Little Koi and Little Koi are the two koi in my home. Hongze named them."
"Ah? So that's it..." Zhou Mian exclaimed in surprise, looking a little uncomfortable, "Did you ask Hongze to name them?"
I scratched my head in embarrassment. When I first bought the little koi carp home, Zhou Mian asked me to name them, but I refused. I wanted to argue that Hongze was being overbearing and self-willed, but I felt that this reason was too pale, and I didn't know what to say for a while.
"Hey, isn't this what we're here for?" Hongze interrupted, "Weren't you anxious at school? You're not anxious now?"
Hongze brought my thoughts back to reality. My eyes fell on Hongze, and I was a little dazed: "Why do you think the person in charge would send other people to monitor us?"
"Does the Nie family have a precedent of directly recruiting others?" Zhou Mian also got into the mood and asked me with his chin in his hand.
"Directly recruit? What do you mean?" I didn't understand Zhou Mian's meaning at once, and couldn't help but ask back.
"That is..." Zhou Mian hesitated for a moment, as if thinking about how to phrase it, "Has the Elite Program ever recruited anyone..."
I understood what Zhou Mian wanted to say and laughed a little. Compared to Ling Jiao's blunt call of me an "elite", sometimes Zhou Mian's hesitation was more hurtful.
I shook my head, getting rid of unnecessary thoughts. "As far as I know, there has never been such a thing. After all, if the child was not an orphan with no one to rely on since childhood, what the Nie family did could not be called a favor. It's like if one day someone suddenly appeared in front of you and offered to support you, you would just feel confused, and even think that person had bad intentions."
Zhou Mian nodded silently without saying anything.
"So you mean there is no other possibility? But even if my background is unclear, what if it's an oversight in the school's archive management? Is that person in charge too idle? Is the principal his relative?" Hong Ze drank two glasses of water in one breath, swinging his legs from time to time while sitting on a high chair.
I thought about it and expressed my thoughts: "I am worried because there is no reason to do this. Logically speaking, even if you are suspicious, it won't threaten his interests. But he is so concerned, which means there must be a reason behind it that we haven't thought of."
"It's about interests and reasons. You're really tired." Hongze's light words were like a loud slap in my face.
I bit my lower lip tightly, controlling myself from guessing if there was any hidden meaning behind his words. After adjusting my breathing a little, I calmed down: "Since he has noticed you, why don't you stay out of the spotlight? Don't go to school recently and stay at home. Although you can erase the impression you give to others and completely eliminate the traces of your existence. If you don't show up, he won't be able to find you even if he wants to."
"How can that be? I won't be a coward!" Hongze slapped the counter and refused without even thinking.
"Even if it's for Lingmiao, what's wrong with you being a coward for once?" Zhou Mian seemed a little annoyed after hearing Hongze's words, "Your disappearance now is the only way to avoid being implicated with Lingmiao. If your relationship with Lingmiao is discovered, you can just walk away. What will you do with Lingmiao? How will you let Lingmiao gain a foothold in the Nie family?"
"Human, are you afraid of being implicated by me?" Hongze stared at me with sharp eyes, his tone cold and emotionless.
I shook my head and said calmly, "No, I don't care about that."
"Ling Miao!" Zhou Mian scolded, "He is confused, you can't be confused with him!" After saying that, he grabbed Hong Ze's collar and said with gritted teeth: "Since you appeared, how much trouble have you caused Ling Miao? Have you ever thought about it? It's just a small soul-binding cage. You are so powerful, is there really no way to crack it?"
Zhou Mian's words caught my attention. His tone sounded like he knew some incredible secret. I couldn't help but ask, "Crack? Zhou Mian, what are you talking about?"
Hong Ze spoke before Zhou Mian did. I couldn’t see his expression, but I could hear his threatening voice: “Zhou Mian! Let go of your hand, just say what you want to say!”
"Hmph, I told you to follow Lingmiao's instructions and stay out of the spotlight. Don't go to school and erase all traces of your existence. You can't go back to the family building. If someone sees you there, Lingmiao will be in even greater danger. I'll help you find a safe place to rent a house. If I have time, I'll take Lingmiao to see you." After saying that, Zhou Mian turned around and looked at me, "Lingmiao, what do you think?"
"I don't think so." Hongze glanced at Zhou Mian with contempt, looked at me and said, "Even if your supervisor didn't suspect you, do you think you are still safe after the man caught by the 'bread seller' saw us gathered together?"
I pursed my lips and said nothing, but I actually agreed with Hongze's words. Hongze continued, "Fu Lingmiao, do you understand 'family' as people who will disappear easily when something happens?"
Hongze's voice was not loud, but it hit my heart directly. I clenched my fist unconsciously and shook my head under Hongze's gaze.
"This incident started with me. If I disappear now, won't your person in charge definitely come looking for you? Do you think I will let you face it alone? If I am here, at least he will always target me." Hongze walked towards me step by step, asking more and more questions, not giving me a chance to refute.
Hongze lowered his head, took my hand and held it tightly, whispering, "Don't chase me away."
"I..." Hongze's words touched me to a great extent, and made me waver for a moment. But I still keenly found the loophole in his words. Just like Zhou Mian said, if no one can find Hongze's existence, then the person in charge has no reason to keep holding on to me. Even if I will have a period of uncomfortable days, I believe it will not last long.
Hongze raised his head, looked me straight in the eyes, and said, "Trust me."
In just three short words, I could no longer find a reason to refuse. In Hongze's clear eyes, I saw my head lowering and raising inch by inch. I heard my own trembling voice in my ear: "Okay."
"Lingmiao?" Zhou Mian's sudden exclamation brought me back to my senses. He seemed a little exasperated, "You are too careless!"
"I..." I had nothing to say in the face of Zhou Mian's accusation, and I didn't want to make any excuses. "Just let him stay. Let's keep the status quo and keep our troops in place. This just shows that we have nothing to hide, and it can buy us some time. The person in charge is not that idle either, and he has time every day to care about our affairs."
"But I may have to wrong you," I turned to look at Hongze and continued, "On the way home, you can only stay in the Soul Binding Cage to avoid attracting the attention of Jiang Hao and others. As for school, you must keep a distant relationship with me. You are only Zhou Mian's friend, not my friend. Is this okay?"
"Tsk, who wants to be friends with you?" Hongze turned his head and said nonchalantly, while walking to the cage and poking his finger to wake up a kitten that looked like Linglong.
The kitten was awakened by the poke. It opened its eyes slightly, scratched Hongze's hand with one claw, meowed, moved to another place and continued to sleep.
Hongze retracted his finger in pain, blew on it with his mouth, pointed at the cage and cursed, while carefully moving away from the cage.
I wanted to laugh and couldn't help teasing him, "Yes, we were the ones who cried and shouted that we wanted to be friends with the 'Prince Jiaolong'... " At this point, I suddenly remembered that the person in charge seemed to be very concerned about Hongze's title of "Prince Jiaolong" in the school, and repeatedly asked me several questions about the "Prince Jiaolong".
"Why, did you remember something?" Zhou Mian asked loudly.
I looked up at him, secretly marveling at the tacit understanding between us. He could sense the difference in me just by a slight pause when I was speaking.
"When the person in charge talked to me, he repeatedly asked about the 'Prince of Jiaolong'. I felt that he was very interested in this title." I licked my lips, feeling that I was about to grasp the key point of the matter. "Hongze said that he was carrying something on him. Could he be from there too?"
Zhou Mian and I looked at Hong Ze at the same time. Hong Ze understood and shook his head: "No, he is just a human. It is not ruled out that he knows a little about our affairs and has developed an unnecessary greed."
"Greed?" Zhou Mian nodded in agreement. "I think that makes sense. The more glamorous a person is, the harder it is to satisfy him. If that's the case, if he's alone, then you should be able to handle it, right?"
"Of course!" Hong Ze proudly tossed his hair, "Do you think I'm called 'Prince Dragon' for nothing?"
"Haha, you get proud just because I praise you? Hurry up and put your tail back, it's almost up to the sky." I couldn't help laughing, and the uneasiness in my heart was calmed down.
"Hongze, actually you are braver than me." Zhou Mian lowered his head and suddenly said something out of the blue.
Hong Ze looked at me in bewilderment, then turned to look at Zhou Mian, as if he couldn't believe it, and even his tone changed: "You...are you praising me? It's amazing, what day is today? It's so weird!"
"Good day!" Zhou Mian took a deep breath and shouted, "Stay for dinner. I'll cook my specialty for you today."
"Oh yeah!" Zhou Mian's words made Hong Ze and I cheer at the same time.
"Keep your voice down! Director Zhou is delivering a cat!" A nurse ran out and scolded us in a low voice.
"Is there really a cat giving birth? Let me go and see!" Hong Ze rushed to the glass window outside the operating room in surprise.
I followed closely behind, wanting to see the mother cat give birth to kittens with my own eyes: "I want to go too! I want to go too! Together!"
