Copycat - Chapter 20.1
Chapter 20.1
◎Does It Hurt?◎
“Sweetie, go wait for me upstairs,” Wen Jiao said softly, gently squeezing the back of her girlfriend’s soft neck. Ren Jinggeng raised his eyes, looking at his daughter with some surprise.
Zhou Ziyan walked away, constantly looking back worriedly. Wen Jiao stood in place with a gentle smile, waving, her soft gaze following her girlfriend until she left. Zhou Ziyan hesitated but ultimately stepped out of the VIP room, sitting on a sofa in the lobby to give the space to the father and daughter.
Inside the VIP room.
Seeing their interaction, Ren Jinggeng’s expression grew even darker. He shot a cold glance at the person peeking through the glass.
The manager, who was caught peeking through the glass, flinched in fear. He rushed in and asked all unrelated personnel in the VIP room to go to the restaurant on the second floor, offering them complimentary meal vouchers.
The large VIP room was left with just the father and daughter.
“Explain yourself,” Ren Jinggeng said with a scowl, walking to the sofa and crossing his legs.
Wen Jiao, who had been standing to see her girlfriend off, also sat back down.
She picked up the bowl of pumpkin porridge on the table. The warm porridge was steaming, and she calmly retorted, “What’s there to explain? It’s exactly what you think it is.”
The man had been suppressing his anger, but this casual explanation made his fury erupt.
Ren Jinggeng shot up from the sofa and walked over to his daughter, glaring angrily. “Wen Jiao, have you gone crazy? How could Wen Yilian and I give birth to a lesbian like you?!”
“Do you know whose daughter you are? You could marry any promising young man you want. Why do you have to be a lesbian? Homosexuality is a disease. I’m taking you to a hospital right now to see a psychologist and get you cured!”
Wen Jiao slammed her spoon down.
The white porcelain spoon hit the rim of the bowl with a sharp clang, the crisp sound of cracking porcelain. “Ren Jinggeng, biologically, I am indeed your daughter, but legally, our father-daughter relationship has been severed. I won’t take a single cent of your wealth, nor will I ever use your connections. Whether I’m a lesbian or not has nothing to do with you!”
“Mr. Ren, it’s not the past anymore. Watch your place.”
“Please have some self-respect.”
Her attitude was detached and cold, as if the person in front of her was a stranger, not the father she had lived with for over a decade.
This clear severing of ties was the final straw that broke Ren Jinggeng’s emotional dam.
“Good, good, good!” Ren Jinggeng laughed in a fit of rage. He strode back and forth restlessly in the VIP dining area, his eyes finally landing on the porcelain bowl in front of Wen Jiao.
In his fury, he walked forward, picked up the white porcelain bowl, and smashed it forcefully at the person eating porridge.
The fragile porcelain hit her forehead with a heavy thud, shattering into countless irregular fragments in mid-air. The hot porridge it contained splashed onto her, the high temperature instantly soaking through her clothes and scalding a large area of skin on her chest.
The broken porcelain shards scattered on the floor, and some of the pure white pieces were stained with scarlet drops of bl00d.
The lobby manager was startled by the sound of breaking porcelain from inside. He pushed the door open slightly and saw a shocking scene.
The boss’s daughter sat there indifferently, one hand covering her wound. Through the gaps between her fingers, he could see her bleeding, and a bloody, lacerated wound stretched from the corner of her eye to her temple.
It had been carved by a sharp shard of porcelain.
The gash sizzled as it bled, the scarlet bl00d dripping down her fair arm and onto the white porcelain pieces on the floor.
Ren Jinggeng seemed stunned. In a daze, he took another step forward.
The manager at the door quickly pushed the door open and rushed in, embracing the boss who looked ready to strike again. He gathered his courage and shouted heartbreakingly, “Boss, you can’t hit her anymore, assault is a crime!”
“No matter what, this is your biological daughter!”
The manager closed his eyes, gritting his teeth as he shouted the last sentence. He suddenly realized the person he was hugging had stopped moving. He carefully looked up and saw the boss’s expression.
Stunned, helpless, and regretful.
“Yueyue, I…” Ren Jinggeng raised his hand, his rough palm wanting to touch the bleeding wound, but she ruthlessly pulled away. His hand hung in the air, then he finally clenched his fist, his knuckles turning white from the force.
Ren Jinggeng took a deep breath, turned to the manager holding him, and calmly ordered, “Have the hotel’s resident doctor patch her up, then contact Dr. Li, the surgeon at our private hospital.”
The manager hurried to make the arrangements.
After the manager left, only the two of them remained in the room. Ren Jinggeng stared at his daughter’s wound, his brow furrowed deeply. A moment later, those dark eyes met his.
She was without joy or sorrow, just like Wen Yilian.
He suddenly relaxed his clenched fist. In the silence, he sighed, shaking his head helplessly. “You decide for yourself.”
Then he turned and left.
Wen Jiao was left alone in the room. Bl00d dripped down her arm. The air was so quiet that she could hear the sound of bl00d drops falling onto the porcelain. She sat there quietly, like a stopped clock.
“Wen Jiao!” Someone pushed open the VIP room door. Wen Jiao raised her eyelids, and after seeing who it was, she frowned slightly. The muscles in her brow pulled the wound, sending a sharp, neural pain.
She bit her lower lip to endure the pain, turning her face away awkwardly. Her tone was stiff. “Get out.”
The soles of cheap rubber shoes squeaked on the expensive floor, the footsteps steadily approaching where Wen Jiao sat.
Wen Jiao lowered her eyes and bit her lip. “Zhou Ziyan.”
“I told you not to come over.”
This time, she still didn’t listen.
The footsteps stopped in front of Wen Jiao. A pair of slender hands carefully touched her wound, and a small voice asked, “Does it hurt?”
Zhou Ziyan knelt on the floor. She wasn’t crying, but her pupils were a little unfocused. She used her fingers to wipe away the bl00d drops on Wen Jiao’s pale face over and over. The scarlet bl00d dyed her fingers a sinister crimson, like a poppy. She asked again, “Does it hurt?”
“Does it hurt?”
She repeated the question, her wiping motions growing more forceful. Her other hand, which was resting on a piece of broken porcelain on the floor, was leaving a deep bloody mark on her palm.
“Does it hurt?”
“Does it hurt?”
…
She was like a robot, repeating the same words.
Wen Jiao looked at her worriedly and said softly, “Ziyan, the doctor is here.”
“Miss Zhou, please move aside.”
The resident doctor at the Banerwind Hotel had been waiting for a long time, but the girl in front of him had completely circled the injured patient, creating an invisible protection zone.
She not only blocked the person who wanted to hurt Wen Jiao, but also the doctor who wanted to help her.
The doctor tried to squeeze past, but the protection was too thorough. The manager sighed, acting as the bad guy for a moment, and reached out to push the girl to the side.
Zhou Ziyan was pushed off guard, and her hand hit the floor, twisting her wrist. Wen Jiao, in a moment of panic, used her hand, which had been cut by the fragments, to grab her.
Zhou Ziyan was slightly stunned.
Following the arm that was holding her, she saw the white skin with scratches from the porcelain shards. The dried bl00d had formed into a series of jagged scars, like blades scraping her heart.
“What’s the situation? Is it serious?” the lobby manager asked nervously, standing beside the doctor.
The doctor frowned. “The wound is close to the eye and the gash is deep. It will need stitches.”
“She must be taken to the hospital immediately,” the doctor concluded.
Private Hospital.
When Wen Jiao opened her eyes, a nurse was applying an anesthetic to her wound. Seeing that she was awake, the nurse smiled kindly. “You’re awake.”
Wen Jiao looked around.
She was lying on an operating table, facing a blue wall. The nurse was in front of her, and a doctor in a white coat was on the other side, holding a suturing needle and threading it. The scent of disinfectant filled the operating room.
There were some faint, messy sounds from outside the operating room door—footsteps, and what sounded like mumbled prayers.
The nurse looked helplessly towards the door, then turned to the patient. “Is that pretty girl outside your girlfriend?”
Wen Jiao took a moment to realize who she was talking about, then nodded slightly.
The nurse carefully applied the anesthetic near her wound. “You fainted on the way to the hospital. We brought you in on a stretcher. Your girlfriend was running beside the interns carrying the stretcher, crying all the way. It was quite a scene…”
Wen Jiao imagined the dramatic scene, a slight, unnoticeable smile curling on her lips.
The nurse looked a little speechless. “She really scared me. You were covered in bl00d. I thought someone had been in a car accident or had a heart attack and needed emergency treatment, which is why they were rushed to our private hospital. But our head of surgery said you just had a cut on your forehead that needed stitches.”
“Why did I suddenly faint?” Wen Jiao asked.
The nurse quickly said, “Don’t talk, just listen to me. You’re very weak right now, and talking will also drain your energy.”
“The reason you fainted, besides being hit by a heavy object, is that you’ve been overly exhausted. Think about it, when was the last time you got a good rest? It’s good to work hard at your age, but not at the cost of your health.”
“Medical bills can drain your money a lot faster than you can earn it.”
Wen Jiao smiled helplessly, not bothering to deny it. During the days Zhou Ziyan was kidnapped and hospitalized, she had barely slept, pushing herself to handle everything. She had planned to rest when she returned to the hotel, but the commotion that night had lasted for hours. Her body had reached its limit without her even realizing it.
The nurse teased, “If not for yourself, do it for your delicate and beautiful little girlfriend. You just have a cut on your forehead, and she’s already crying a river. If you were really seriously injured, she might just follow you to the grave that same day.”
If it were Zhou Ziyan, she might actually do something like that.
The woman lying on the hospital bed smiled. Her pale lips curved slightly upward, like an epiphyllum blooming in the dead of night, pure and untouched by dust. The young nurse stared at her exquisite and beautiful face, momentarily lost in a daze.
“Preparing for secondary disinfection,” the doctor said, breaking her reverie.
The nurse instantly snapped back to attention and turned to grab the necessary tools for disinfection.
The red light outside the operating room lit up, and the suturing began.
Zhou Ziyan paced anxiously back and forth outside the door. Ren Jinggeng sat in a chair in the waiting area, his face sullen and his expression grave.
“Stop moving around,” Ren Jinggeng said with a scowl. “Hospital rules state that family members can’t enter the operating room. I can’t even get in, let alone you. Without the head surgeon’s permission, there’s no way you’re getting in.”
The girl’s footsteps seemed to pause for a moment at his words, but she quickly resumed her anxious pacing in front of the door.
Ren Jinggeng’s face darkened. His daughter wouldn’t talk to him, and now her girlfriend didn’t even respect him as a father!
A secretary walked over from the hospital corridor with a file. He glanced at the girl standing in front of the operating room door, then whispered to the boss, “Boss, I’ve found everything.”
Ren Jinggeng’s brows knitted together, his expression grim. The secretary said a few more things.
“Are you sure? No mistake?”
Ren Jinggeng looked up, his brows tightly furrowed.
The secretary nodded firmly. “Absolutely no mistake.”
“Miss Wen’s… friend is named Zhou Ziyan. She lives in City A and is the granddaughter of Zhou Shansheng.”
Ren Jinggeng’s face became serious. He waved a hand at the secretary, signaling him to leave.
The surgery was still in progress. Ren Jinggeng frowned, his sharp gaze fixed on the anxious little girl waiting at the door. Her worried expression wasn’t faked; it was clear she had genuine feelings for Wen Jiao.
Thinking this, Ren Jinggeng’s frown deepened. The Zhou family was a murky pond he didn’t even want to wade into. The real estate of the Zhou corporation was mixed up with a lot of shady business behind the scenes. Otherwise, given the current state of the real estate market, their cash flow would have dried up long ago. They were relying entirely on those grey industries for funding.
The Zhou family was a ticking time bomb.
It could explode at any time.
“Zhou Ziyan,” Ren Jinggeng said, trying his best to soften his expression, but his irritable nature was hard to hide.