Chapter 123: Is There a Grudge?

The air was thick with the frantic bustle of activity, yet in the hospital, Mu Qingyang slept with fitful restlessness, his brow slick with sweat as if haunted by a nightmare.

Liu Yan, standing by his side, wiped his face tenderly with a damp towel, hoping to rouse him. The moment her hand brushed against his arm, Mu Qingyang’s eyes snapped open.

Seeing he was awake, Liu Yan cried out in pleasant surprise, "Mu Qingyang, you're awake!"

Mu Qingyang, however, fixed her with a stern gaze and demanded, "What are you doing?"

Liu Yan quickly withdrew her hand, asking with concern, "Are you alright? Do you feel any pain? Does your arm hurt?"

*Good heavens, what a chatterbox,* Mu Qingyang thought, his brow twitching. He fought the urge to tell her to be quiet. He looked down at his arm, now encased in a plaster cast and swathed in bandages. It was immobile. He struggled to sit up, but the moment he moved, he winced in agony.

"Mu Qingyang, can you stop moving? Your ribs are broken, for heaven's sake!"

Liu Yan’s scolding successfully pinned him back. "Just stay still and try to sleep. Your mother should be here soon, so I'll be going now." With that, she turned and left.

"How rude, just walking off like that," Mu Qingyang muttered, waiting several minutes until he was certain she had cleared the hospital entrance before he let his frustration show.

"Qingyang, who are you talking about? Who was rude?" Shen Yali’s voice suddenly echoed through the ward.

As she stepped closer to the bed and saw his condition, Shen Yali nearly fell apart. "What on earth happened? How did you end up like this?" she cried out, her voice trembling.

Seeing her distress, Mu Qingyang remained calm and composed. "Oh, it's just as it looks. A broken arm and some fractured ribs."

"And you call that 'nothing'? I let you go out to have some fun, and you end up in a brawl, getting yourself beaten to a pulp! Neither you nor your sister ever gives me a moment's peace," Shen Yali lamented, her heart aching.

*Sigh.*

How was he not giving her peace? It was a miracle he had survived the beating at all. As Shen Yali busied herself pouring water and peeling fruit for him, Mu Qingyang countered, "Mom, the fact that I only ended up like this is proof enough that I’m sparing you a lot of trouble."

*Oh, Mu Qingyang, could you stop pouring oil on the fire?* Look, Shen Yali’s face had already darkened. "Still talking about sparing me trouble, when you're in this state?"

"Of course! If you knew that my sister had been dragged away by a group of men with knives, you wouldn't say I wasn't—oh, no..."

He had barely finished the sentence when he realized his slip. Seeing Shen Yali’s wide, horrified eyes, he scrambled to fix it. "I mean, Mom, that was just a hypothetical! A 'what if.' My sister wasn't actually taken by anyone."

After much pleading and explanation, Shen Yali remained half-skeptical, though she ultimately chose to believe him.

"Alright, eat some fruit. I'll go make you something to eat shortly," Shen Yali said.

"Mm, you're the best, Mom!" Mu Qingyang replied, though his mind drifted away. *How is my sister? What if something truly happened to her? I can't tell Mom. I have to find a way to reach my cousin.*

But fate had other plans.

"Qingyang, how are you feeling? Do you know where those people took your sister?"

Hearing the voice and the words that followed, Mu Qingyang, who was in the middle of eating an apple, nearly bit his own tongue. "Bai Fanhao, do I owe you a debt or something? Why do you always have to ruin everything?"

Bai Fanhao was left bewildered by the outburst. Since when did asking a simple question make them enemies?

"Who was taken away?" Shen Yali asked, emerging from the hospital room's bathroom, her expression dazed and adrift.