Still, Wait For Me (Web Novel)
chapter-75

Old Wai appeared very frightening with all his injuries. Luckily, he had not received too much internal damage in the sense of the term. After staying at the hospital for two days, he finally returned all wrapped up in bandages.

Regarding his injuries, the cover story was that he had met with a robbery outside, having been beaten up after he resisted.

The twin identities of hero and injured greatly improved how he was treated. Li Linlin would sometimes specifically visit their room to help take care of his daily needs, changing the applied ointment for him, feeding him, even helping him to wipe his body.

Of, course, the parts which were wiped down were limited.

In the face of this incident, Li Linlin once again displayed her toughness and stubbornness that far surpassed the norm. However great her fear as well as psychological scars, she still retained that calm smiling face.

Just like this, added on to the fact that she had not suffered any serious visible wounds, no one suspected in the least that she had actually just been involved in such a terrifying incident.

Their roommates only thought that it had been a blessing in disguise for Old Wai as they sung in praise of the empowered peasants and slaves.

In order to create chances for him, every time Li Linlin visited their room, they would all cook up some excuses and flee, leaving the couple alone together within an empty room.

Old Wai himself thought this way as well. He had initially felt worried and helpless, not knowing what he should do to help ease Li Linlin’s psychological scars. However, Xu Tingsheng had told him this: If you want Li Linlin to be at ease, the best way to do that is to just continue being the you that you always were. Just treat it as if this incident never happened.

Therefore, he had completely revived that bit of mischievousness of their past.

Every time Li Linlin visited the room, Old Wai’s injuries would appear ten times more serious than they actually were.

When Li Linlin wasn’t around, he could single-handedly and accurately type in various complex website names into the keyboard to find the most obscure movies. He could occasionally practice programming, could be joking and playing around with his roommates…Yet, as soon as Li Linlin appeared, he would became a pitiful little version of his former self who couldn’t even move a single fingertip on his own.

Li Linlin patiently fed the heavily injured Old Wai mouthful by mouthful before, her face red, she then helped him to clean his face and wiped down his upper front and back as well.

His shoulders bare, Old Wai carefully savoured each time her fingers inadvertently slid across his skin.

“Oh…ah…ow,” Came Old Wai’s voice.

“Did I cause you pain?” Li Linlin asked him.

“Huh?…It’s fine, just a little,” Old Wai said, “Those…unwiped places, they should be getting smelly by now.”

Li Linlin was momentarily taken aback as she understood the meaning in Old Wai’s words, to which she stuttered in reply, “About that…I, I don’t dare…I’m sorry.”

Having merely been ‘teasing’ her a little, Old Wai naturally didn’t continue making things hard for her as he made use of when Li Linlin had her head lowered in embarrassment to secretly shift forward a little. Softly and lightly, he hugged her.

“Ah…you?” Li Linlin’s head shot up by conditional reflex, her face tensing as she extended her hand forward as if threatening to start pinching Old Wai.

“Pinch if you want…have a good look around my entire body. If you’ve found someplace you can bear to pinch, just pinch it then,” Old Wai smiled shamelessly, not letting go.

Li Linlin truly went and carefully appraised Old Wai’s entire body once. Of course, this was but the final threat of this shy, embarrassed girl. She wouldn’t bear to do it. How would she? …All the injuries on every single part of this body had been suffered by him for her.

She remembered how useless he was, useless to the point of having foolishly rushed in without even the slightest ability to resist the men inside. Yet, it was precisely this useless guy who had shielded him behind her, beaten up and bleeding, yet never ever letting down those outstretched arms.

It was like…a mother hen protecting her chicks when an eagle was trying to swoop down and capture them.

Right from that moment, she had fallen prey to this darned fellow whose head was always full of dirty thoughts.

Li Linlin did not speak, hesitating for a moment before, her face red, she gently buried her head in Old Wai’s chest, also spreading her arms and slowly looping them around his waist.

If Old Wai did not capitalise on this momentum now, he wouldn’t be called Old Wai anymore.

“Linlin?” He called gently.

“Huh?” Li Linlin raised her head, before, “Ah…Ah…Oh.”

She raised her little fist, yet was unable to bring it down.

The next time Tan Yao mocked Old Wai for not even having managed to kiss her yet, the latter would no longer have to be silent.

……

A few days later, the media successively began reporting on the imprisonment case. Of course, these reports protected the privacy of the victims to as great as extent as possible. As for the performance of Xu Tingsheng and the others, they generalised it away as the bravery of civic-minded citizens.

As soon as the articles were published, a huge uproar immediately arose as heated discussion commenced on the internet as well as all over the streets and alleyways of the entire nation.

The general public showed sufficient recognition and support towards the guarding of the victims’ identities. It was such that if some website or media entity were to try to pry deeper into the matter, it would immediately be met with a tidal wave of resistance as well as public outrage.

Still, at the same time, the public shared a doubt: The identities of the victims had to be kept confidential. Still, what about the brave, civic-minded heroes? Did their identities have to be withheld as well?

The heroes in question continued living their lives in peace.

Other than accompanying Yuqing to lessons every day, Fang Yuqing also spent much of his time pestering Zhong Wusheng to accept him as a disciple. Zhong Wusheng had the habit of training his body every morning and night, and so he would wake up early every morning to train together with him. Still, the difference in their physical abilities was just too pronounced. Every single time, with Zhong Wusheng still yet to have completed even half of his training routine, Fang Yuqing would already be dog-tired.

Xu Tingsheng would also join in for a few days every once in a while, but he wouldn’t be as passionate as Fang Yuqing who kept challenging his own limits every day.

He didn’t have the goal of becoming a top martial arts expert upon his rebirth.

“When this bro was out in society before, I was always able to handle two or three of my own. So why is it that I’m just like a weak chicken when here with Bro Zhong?” Fang Yuqing asked Xu Tingsheng as he lay limply on the floor.

Xu Tingsheng could only tell him, “That’s because the people you fought with all knew you were Fang Yuqing, and so didn’t dare to attack too viciously. Otherwise, you’d long since be a cripple.”

Xu Tingsheng regained his original peaceful lifestyle. He would receive some of the proceeds from ringtone downloading. He would discuss business matters with his father every once in a while. He would sometimes hang out and randomly muck about with Fu Cheng and Huang Yaming or his roommates. He received a call from Apple weekly, wherein he maintained his distance from her and just chatted casually…The rest of his time was spent peacefully attending lessons or just sleeping in peace.

What was different was that other than every Tuesday afternoon, there was now one additional time-slot during which Xu Tingsheng appeared near Yanzhou Junior High every week. Every Friday evening after school, Xu Tingsheng would appear partway through Xiang Ning’s route home, carefully concealing himself and watching her all the way till she arrived safely home.

It was not that he was being a great worrywart over nothing. The previous incident had still left Xu Tingsheng afraid. Even if the chances of anything bad happening was one in one billion, he still wouldn’t dare to lightly let his guard down.

The wounds as well as that numbed, blank look of that young abused girl that day was like a nightmare as it reappeared within Xu Tingsheng’s mind time and time again.

If you treasure someone really too much, you would always likely feel overly worried for that person, just like a parent’s nagging and a boyfriend’s persistent reminders.

There were many others who were also worried like Xu Tingsheng. Parents became more worried about their children; husbands became more worried about their wives; boyfriends became more worried about their girlfriends. Even the university girls on campus realised the hidden threat to their safety so intensely for the very first time in their lives.

The girls who had randomly ran about outside before began restraining themselves. The girls who liked moving about on their own began going around in groups or pairs. Even many ‘boyfriends’ who had originally still required long testing periods were finally allowed to officially assume the role.

After the ‘Formal Writing’ module had ended one day, Xu Tingsheng happened to meet the departing Li Linlin by the door of his dormitory room. She seemed to have just quarrelled with Old Wai as tears were still visible within her eyes.

Xu Tingsheng greeted her and entered the room before asking Old Wai, “What’s up? You played hooligan and went overboard?”

“Linlin just accepted a new home tutor job. I wouldn’t allow her to, so we quarrelled a little…Actually, I’m not sure what to do as well. You also know how she has to earn her school fees and living expenses on her own…”

Here, he suddenly asked Xu Tingsheng, “Bro Xu, you know many people. How about you introduce me a job?”

“Old Wai wants to find a job? Would it really be so hard for someone who knows programming and is rather good in it to find a job on the internet to earn some money right now?”

These were just Xu Tingsheng’s thoughts, not having been said straight out, because another thought had just suddenly sprung up within his mind.

“How about you help me? …I’m currently thinking of doing up something on the internet. You can help me, and Linlin can help me as well. I’ll give you both a salary as well as a portion of the shares,” He said to Old Wai after pondering for a while.

“Help you? On the internet? In what?”

Xu Tingsheng thought for a moment.

Unable to immediately give Old Wai a clear explanation of things, he could only say, “This thing…I’ve just given it a name. It’ll be called Hucheng Education Service Platform…”

“It may encompass a very broad area, such as the recommendation or even direct sale of supporting teaching materials, the recruitment of students by training institutions, information on studying abroad and so forth. As for the specifics, I can’t properly tell it to you all at once within a short period of time…”

“For now, you can just first understand it as a more trustworthy and reliable medium and platform for home tutors. This is the first step that I have planned out.”