Siheyuan: I just came across and wanted to chase me away

Chapter 1007 Xiao Bao's Situation

The man sized her up, his gaze sweeping from her slightly furrowed brow to the pregnancy test results clutched in her hand. Seeing that she was indeed a pregnant woman looking for someone, his attitude softened unconsciously. He forced a smile and waved his hand, saying, "She's not here. Go downstairs to the smoking area; it's a designated area for people to smoke and rest. She's probably chatting with someone there." He paused, then added, "There's only one patient from our unit staying here; there's no one else. You don't need to look for her here."

Lu Jia knew perfectly well that asking any more questions would only give her away and arouse suspicion, making all her previous efforts futile. She deliberately pulled a long face and muttered with a hint of resentment, "It's really strange, where did this person go... He said he just wanted to smoke a cigarette, and it's been almost half an hour. Could he have gotten lost..." As she spoke, she slowly backed downstairs, but the corner of her eye, like a needle tempered by fire, quickly scanned the room number—307. That number pierced her heart like a nail.

Upon reaching the first floor, she didn't hesitate at all and went straight to the nurses' station at the end of the corridor. There sat a young woman with a ponytail, the nurse Xiaolin she had met during her previous hospital stay. "Xiaolin, is it your shift today?" she asked, a natural smile on her face, her tone as familiar as if she were greeting a neighbor.

Xiao Lin was writing a nursing record with her head down when she looked up and saw her. She immediately put down her pen and smiled: "Yes, Sister Lu, what brings you here? Are you feeling unwell?"

Lu Jia waved the test results in her hand, her eyes and brows radiating just the right amount of joy: "I'm fine, I just came for a check-up. Look, I'm pregnant, just six weeks along."

"Really? That's great!" Xiaolin's eyes lit up, and her voice rose a little. She quickly got up and helped her up. "Then you have to take good care of yourself! The first three months are the most crucial. Don't overexert yourself, and don't touch anything cold or raw. You have to be careful."

The two chatted casually, from pregnancy symptoms to what they would name their child. Seemingly nonchalant, Lu Jia was subtly observing her surroundings—once she was sure no one was paying attention, she changed the subject, moving closer to Xiao Lin and speaking in a low voice with a hint of curiosity: "By the way, Xiao Lin, I went up to the third floor to find my husband, but the officers at the door stopped me. Who's staying in room 307? They seemed quite mysterious, with two officers guarding it like they were watching a prisoner."

Upon hearing this, Xiaolin first looked around, making sure the nurses were either busy or far away, before quickly approaching her and saying in a voice only the two of them could hear, "I'm only telling you this; I wouldn't dare tell anyone else—we're not allowed to spread rumors in the department. I don't know exactly who it is, but I heard it's someone who committed a crime and was brought in by the police a while ago. He's quite badly injured; I heard… his spine is broken, and he's paralyzed. It's hard to say if he'll ever be able to stand up again." She paused, her voice even softer, "That's why we sent people to keep an eye on him, firstly in case he runs away, and secondly in case someone comes looking for revenge or something goes wrong."

Lu Jia's heart skipped a beat, as if struck by a heavy hammer—a paralyzed man? A broken spine? It was most likely Xiao Bao! He was perfectly fine when he was arrested a while ago, how could he suddenly be injured like this? Who did it? Was it an accident during the police interrogation, or was someone deliberately trying to silence him? Would everything he knew, all the people involved, become unsolved cases because of his paralysis? Or perhaps, there was a hidden story behind this, someone trying to use his paralysis as a pretext to cover up a deeper secret?

Countless thoughts churned in her mind like a jumbled mess. But she showed no sign of distress, only letting out a soft "Oh," feigning surprise: "So serious? What a pity." She chatted with Xiaolin for a bit about precautions for pregnancy before thanking her discreetly and turning to leave the hospital.

As she stepped outside, the midday sun was blazing, making her skin feel hot, but Lu Jia felt a chill run down her spine—Xiao Bao's collapse meant things were probably more complicated than she had imagined. She gripped the pregnancy test results tightly in her hand, her knuckles turning white, with only one thought in her mind: this matter absolutely could not be left like this.

Lu Jia felt a heavy weight pressing on her heart, making it hard to breathe. Her mind was filled with the news that Xiao Bao had become paralyzed—how could the man who had just been so confident at the dinner table, saying "I'll hold the sky up if it falls," have suddenly fallen to this state? Was he being targeted by old enemies for revenge, or was it related to that unresolved matter from before? Her fingers, gripping the bag strap, turned white. She considered going upstairs to investigate, but remembering Xiao Lin's earlier comment that "the third-floor stairwell is completely guarded by police; not even a fly can get in," she knew it was a waste of time. Those uniformed officers had eyes as sharp as hawks; with a stranger loitering on the third floor repeatedly, it would be strange if she wasn't arrested as a suspicious individual.

She took a deep breath and could only suppress her anxiety as she rushed to work. She still had to go to work; if she was marked absent without leave on the attendance sheet and the factory used this as a pretext to fire her, that would be adding insult to injury—in this day and age, she knew better than anyone how precious a decent job with a salary and food rations was, and she absolutely could not afford to lose it.

At the same time, in the VIP ward on the third floor of the hospital, Xiao Bao lay on the bed, his body limp like a boneless lump of mud. He couldn't lift a hand or foot, and even moving a finger was difficult; his fingertips couldn't even catch the fabric of the sheets. His eyes were open, staring blankly at the yellowish water stain on the ceiling, unable to utter a sound. He could only watch helplessly as two doctors in white coats whispered amongst themselves beside him, as if discussing a troublesome matter.

More than anyone else, he wanted to scream, to ask himself what was wrong. Just a while ago, he could carry a gas cylinder up five flights of stairs and fight off three or five people without them getting close. How did he suddenly become so immobile? But when he opened his mouth, it felt like his throat was stuffed with a wad of water-soaked cotton. He couldn't even squeeze out a sound; only his chest heaved in vain.

A doctor wearing gold-rimmed glasses pushed up his slipped glasses, his brow furrowed deeply. "It's strange, really. In my thirty years of medical practice, this is the first time I've encountered something like this. I've done a full-body checkup, tested everything I could think of, and the results show everything is normal, not even a hint of inflammation." He glanced at Xiao Bao, who lay unresponsive on the hospital bed, his tone tinged with suspicion. "Do you think he might be faking it? Trying to avoid something by pretending to be 'paralyzed'? After all, when he was brought in, the police informed us that he was involved in a case."