“Man Man!…Man…Su Man! Stop it right now!”

From the far end of the corridor, a middle-aged woman came running breathlessly, calling out urgently:

“He’s the one who sent your father to the hospital—Mr. Lu! He’s not the one who hit him!…”

The middle-aged woman gasped for air in great heaves, rushing over to grab the girl’s hands and pull them away forcefully!

Su Man blinked in bewilderment and let go.

The middle-aged woman immediately apologized to Lu Yuwen:

“I’m so sorry! This is my daughter. Her temper’s a bit quick. Are you all right? Did she hurt you?”

Lu Yuwen straightened his collar and shook his head lightly to indicate he was fine. Inwardly, though, he was still reeling.

He was not a slight man—standing at a full 180 centimeters—and yet a little girl had nearly pinned him against the wall without any way out. Truly beyond words…

He wasn’t sure whether that said more about his own lack of physical robustness, or her extraordinary strength.

Lu Yuwen found himself studying this girl named Su Man.

She looked to be in her early twenties, and was strikingly beautiful—cropped hair level with her ears, a delicately pointed chin, thick dark lashes like small fans partially concealing the expression in her eyes. Her nose was faintly upturned, and below it was a soft pink mouth pressed into a slightly downward curve, betraying a touch of self-consciousness.

Those lashes fluttered twice. She looked up at him with embarrassment, then awkwardly averted her gaze.

“S-sorry, Mr. Lu.” Su Man apologized woodenly, her expression in dead earnest—though the tips of her ears had gone red.

Lu Yuwen looked steadily at Su Man.

He looked for so long that Su Man grew uncomfortable. She furrowed her brow and snapped, lifting her eyes abruptly: “What are you staring at me for?!”

Lu Yuwen startled and came back to himself.

The middle-aged woman beside them read the situation astutely, tugged Su Man by the arm, and scolded: “What kind of attitude is that?! If this man hadn’t been kind enough to bring your father to the hospital, who knows what might have happened to him! Are you going to say thank you properly or not?”

Su Man was terribly uncomfortable. She was already this old, and here her mother was making her go around apologizing and saying thank you to someone—as if she were a child again…

Still, she knew better than to embarrass the man in front of her. He was her father’s savior, after all. The right response was a thousand expressions of gratitude, not causing him more trouble, wasn’t it?

Su Man knew right from wrong. So she only pressed her lips together in silent protest and refrained from snapping back at her mother.

Lu Yuwen felt a little awkward himself.

He had found Su Man oddly familiar just now, and had zoned out staring at her for a moment.

But there was no way to say that aloud—she would certainly misread it as some cheap, clichéd pickup line.

So he changed the subject: “Mr. Su has woken up. Why don’t you go in and see him?”

“We really can’t thank you enough for today.” Su Man’s mother expressed her gratitude repeatedly. “We’ve had you running back and forth all night. Was the phone that reached you just now the hospital’s? Can I transfer the medical expenses to you?”

Lu Yuwen said: “That was the hospital’s phone. My number is…”

Su Man’s mother tugged Su Man’s arm again: “You write down Mr. Lu’s number. I’ll go check on your father.”

“Oh…” Su Man took out her phone.

……

Su Man’s mother walked into the ward. The moment she saw the man in the hospital bed, all the anxiety and worry from before transformed instantly into burning fury.

“Just look at yourself!” she scolded without a trace of patience. “What were you doing wandering out in the middle of the night instead of coming home? Now look what happened—you got hit!”

Su Man’s father had only just woken up. Her scolding gave him a pounding headache. Weakly, he said: “I was driving home, but my craving for a cigarette hit, so I parked on the side of the road and thought I’d cross the street to buy a pack. Who knew a car would suddenly come barreling—”

“If they weren’t watching the road, were you not watching the road either? Do you cross the street without looking?!”

“Hey, isn’t that victim-blaming?” Su Man’s father sighed. “I’m the one who got hit here…”

His wife was furious. But then she caught sight of the bandages on him, and her heart ached too. She let out a sound of mingled exasperation from her nose: “Young and old alike—not a moment’s peace from either of you!”

Su Man’s father froze. “Huh? What happened to Man Man?”

Su Man’s mother: “Ha! She was out in the corridor just now and nearly beat up the man who saved your life—thought he was the culprit.”

Su Man’s father bolted upright in alarm. “That won’t do at all! She needs to apologize right away!”

Before his words had even finished, the two of them walked through the door——

—