Chapter 14.2

Jiang Wang got out of the car and walked over to check Peng Jiahui’s breathing, his tone very harsh as he spoke.

“Wake up, can you see who I am?”

The middle-aged man’s voice was indistinct, and his fingers were already so paralyzed that he couldn’t bend it flexibly.

He wanted to open his eyes but also wanted to sleep. He choked on his breathing from time to time, and coughed embarrassingly.

Jiang Wang put out his cigarette, and held his biological father up with both arms, “Cough it out, don’t let it get stuck. You… cooperate a little.”

The man was utterly confused at this time and couldn’t say a complete sentence. The only thing he remembered was to hold on tightly to the briefcase and not lose the important things inside.

“Peng Jiahui, wake the f*ck up.” Jiang Wang said angrily, “Three, two, one, breathe!”

He knocked the man on the back with great skill, which made the latter let out a long gasp like he had just gotten out of drowning. Struggling he said, “…It hurts.”

“Where does it hurt?”

Peng Jiahui’s eyes were bloodshot. His vision couldn’t even focus when he opened his eyes, he just muttered and gasped in pain.

Jiang Wang sweated profusely as he carried the other for a few minutes. Realizing that his biological father might really die on this street, he turned his back and dragged him to the direction of the car.

He had tried his best to forget this person, so much so that he refused to even keep his surname. But in the end, he still couldn’t let the other party simply die on the street.

People would become extremely heavy when they’re drunk, it was very difficult to walk while carrying them on your back.

“Don’t throw up on me!” Jiang Wang heard his weak breathing, and increased his voice again to keep the other party conscious, “Wake up! Head into the car, can you see it to the right?!”

He drove through the night all the way to the emergency department of the People’s Hospital. On the way, he constantly confirmed whether Peng Jiahui was still conscious.

The doctor was slightly angry when he received the person, “What kind of drunk is this?! Are you not afraid that he will bleed to death from his stomach and die? Why didn’t you stop him if it had already come to this?!”

“Who are you?!”

Jiang Wang said wearily, “Neighbor.”

He didn’t even want to say he was a friend.

Several nurses hurried over to take care of Peng Jiahui’s admission to the hospital to undergo gastric lavage^[1]stomach pumping. They left an intern to notify him about registering information for the payment of the bill and medicine.

“At present, there is severe alcohol poisoning and there should also be acute gastroenteritis. The specifics need to be further confirmed.”

“Don’t leave tonight, you’d better stay here for the time being incase of any accidents.”

The doctor handed over a few forms to him, and his voice was anxious and fast, “Do you know his family? Notify the patients’ family members to come over as soon as possible.”

Jiang Wang thought for a while, “I think they’re all dead, so just let me know if something needs to be done.”

As for Peng Xingwang, the child was sleeping, there was no need to look for him.

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Jiang Wang stayed until dawn.

He leaned against the wall, and groggily slept for a while. He woke up with a start when he felt the sudden loss of strength on his neck and dropped his head.

The nurse came over again to inform him to go through the admission procedures. He had to fill in the patient’s ID number, age, and address.

Jiang Wang came to hold the black briefcase of Peng Jiahui. He sat alone in the dim and urine-smelling emergency hall.

He looked down for two seconds, then reached out to open the briefcase.

A few pieces of loose money, the total amount did not even exceed 80.

An ID card, a bunch of keys, and a keychain of a yellowed plastic lamb.

Looking further inside, there was also a hidden layer that could be opened with a zipper.

He paused for another two seconds and opened the zipper completely.

The first thing that caught his eye was the brand new five hundred yuan.

Jiang Wang remembered what Peng Jiahui was like when he gave it to him that day, and what he was like now. He hasn’t moved a single step.

Poking open a red envelope, there was a carefully folded purchase agreement inside.

[Proposal: Order of EP-12 components from Chengfeng Machinery Co. Ltd for company collection.]^[2]_{TL/N: I have no clue what this is I’m sorry ㅠㅠ}

Under the bullsh*t document, there were the fingerprints and signatures of both parties, as well as the transaction amount.

[Twenty thousand yuan]

“F*ck.” The man cursed fiercely, causing the patient who was getting an infusion in the distance to stare in surprise.

For the sake of a 20,000 yuan deal, he drank like a ghost. Was he not afraid that the child would have to burn paper for him tomorrow if he died?

Jiang Wang felt a nameless fire inside him and didn’t know where to let it out. If he was younger and more vigorous, he might just drive over to kill those idiots.

Just run them over directly, one time.

He packed the things back to their original state, fixing them two or three times. Then he got up and went to arrange an inpatient ward for Peng Jiahui.

When all the trivial work was over, it was already seven o’clock in the morning. Outside the corridor, people had come to visit their families one after another with hot breakfast.

Peng Jiahui was scheduled for gastric lavage and infusion in the middle of the night, so he was already asleep by this time.

Jiang Wang didn’t want to stay in the same room with this person. He sat alone outside the ward against the wall and slept with his eyes closed.

His neck hurt very much.

A phone call from the printing factory rang abruptly at half past nine, asking about alternatives to the process of making books.

Jiang Wang woke up and finished answering quickly. He got up to see Peng Jiahui, who was still rehydrating.

The latter vomited several times in the middle of the night and early in the morning. He could only rely on the help of nurses to take care of him.

Jiang Wang originally came only to take a look and arrange a nurse to watch over him, so he could finally leave by himself. Unexpectedly, Peng Jiahui opened his eyes with some difficulty when he heard his footsteps.

“Your bag is here.” Jiang Wang said coldly, “No one will save you next time.”

Peng Jiahui’s face was morbidly pale, his lips moved in order to speak, but he couldn’t make a sound.

Jiang Wang eased his temper and fed him water.

“Please,” Peng Jiahui’s consciousness has not fully returned, and now he was still talking intermittently, “Don’t, don’t tell Xingxing.”

Jiang Wang was actually very unaccustomed to being called a nickname.

The name Xingxing, even now, he had only called Peng Xingwang twice when he was in a very good mood.

The middle-aged man was afraid that he would not agree, so he tried to hold up his body and begged again.

“I got it.” Jiang Wang said blankly, “I’m going to work, is there anything else?”

“No, no.” Peng Jiahui’s voice was dry and dumb, “Brother, thank you.”

“The doctor said that if you came here any later, maybe you would’ve died in the street because of stomach bleeding.“ Jiang Wang just wanted to say these few words and leave. But as soon as he opened his mouth, his anger rose from the ground again, “I asked you to find a job, not to kill yourself. Is it that difficult to live a good life?”

“If they ask you to drink, you just drink it? What are you? Just something for them to ridicule?”

Peng Jiahui was so trained that he didn’t even dare to speak. He lowered his gaze like a coward admitting his mistake.

Jiang Wang looked at him, it really seemed like he only bullied the soft but feared the hard. He took a deep breath, turned and started to walk out. He thought to himself that he was already too busy, why did he have to take care of this fully-grown man, f*ck.

After walking a few steps, he turned back and stood in front of Peng Jiahui’s hospital bed, frowning at him.

“Come to my company.”

“Don’t play anymore with those idiots, understand?”

Peng Jiahui, who was in his thirties, had a much younger face than he remembered. Usually, he showed a dazed look sandwiched between youth and middle-aged.

He was already a father, but he had no thoughts about his place in this world. He lived like he owe a lot of debt in life, always panicked, tired and pale.

It may also be that many people actually live into their thirties but still find themselves completely unprepared to shoulder the lives of more family members.

Jiang Wang didn’t want to have anything to do with this person, but with his current life, it couldn’t be easier to arrange a casual and stable job for Peng Jiahui.

Before Jiang Wang could talk more about his generous conditions, Peng Jiahui shook his head and refused.

“Far from fragrant and near smelly.” Peng Jiahui’s throat was hurting, and he spoke very slowly, “I can’t raise a child, I can only give you Xingxing, I’m sorry.”

“Brother… I’m sorry.”

Jiang Wang pursed his lips and did not speak.

He knew where this person’s thinking was.

It was probably after his son was taken away that Peng Jiahui became a bit more sober and re-embarked on the main thread of his life. Going to find a job to make money and trying to move to a more decent residence. He was forced to rediscover his incompetence in all aspects.

Peng Jiahuo would rather have Peng Xingwang stay with Jiang Wang and live a decent life, rather than accept the new job and be a burden. He didn’t want to make Jiang Wang feel bored, resulting in him not caring for Xingwang anymore.

The nurse came over with the tray to give him medicine again, urging Jiang Wang to finish the chat and leave.

“The patient has to rest, don’t visit for too long!”

Jiang Wang looked down at Peng Jiahui, and wanted to ask him why he suddenly looked like a human being now.

‘When your life was unhappy, you beat up your child and vented your anger out on him. You can’t even keep your wife in your thirties. What the hell were you doing in the first half of your f*cking life?’

He didn’t say anything in the end, and put the black briefcase deep in the bedside table.

“Take a good rest and see you again tomorrow.”

“To be hospitalized before even starting, you’re embarrassing the company. You would directly be under me, you know?”

He was only a few years short of his father now, and he could even be called a brother.

Jiang Wang did not wait for Peng Jiahui’s reaction, he turned around and left neatly, without looking back.

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After he got home, he fell asleep from ten o’clock in the morning until midnight.

The next day, the child didn’t ask him where he had gone, but he was happy to say that there were many questions in the final exam that he was confident in, and all his homework was finished.

Jiang Wang slumped on the bed and slept soundly. He responded weakly, then sent the child to Teacher Ji to make up for his English. He turned and went out to buy hot porridge for his visit to Peng Jiahui.

Peng Jiahui was in high spirits today. Although he was still pressed by the nurse for an infusion, he finally spoke fluently.

He stammered to explain how difficult business was and talked about the incident a few days ago. He was actually about to be promoted, and the company had a good attitude that they even paid compensation for his nutrition expenses.

Jiang Wang listened blankly with his chin propped up, and occasionally saw Peng Jiahui’s embarrassed expression before he let out a sigh of relief.

“By the way,” the man tentatively said, “Since you are… Wenjuan’s relative, you should know her situation.”

Jiang Wang was still habitually processing the situation, but after that, he realized that Wenjuan was his own mother.

“Wen Juan seems to have been married for almost a year already. I heard from relatives back in the city.” Peng Jiahui sighed deeply, “If it hadn’t been for accidentally having a child back then, she would have been much better off than she is now.”

For the first time, Jiang Wang heard his biological father talk about his biological mother. Countless questions poured into his throat, but he still nodded with a flat expression.

“She likes the kind of person who went to college, so she kept crying when she married me.” Peng Jiahui defended himself, “I didn’t stop her at all when she wanted to get a divorce, but who would’ve thought she didn’t want her child either. She ran away in a hurry as if she was afraid that I would haunt her.”

“What do you think is Wenjuan running from? Is it so hard to live in a small city?”

Having said that, Peng Jiahui sat upright, frowning and babbling.

“By the way, I heard that she is coming back this month. When you take Xingxing to eat with her, I won’t go. There is nothing to say when we meet, right?”

“Xingxing must miss her.”

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