"Is he okay?"
After a brief silence, Xiao He asked.
"He's fine, just..."
Liu Rulan hesitated for a moment, then finally said, "He just got his face cut during the chaos."
Xiao He fell silent again.
While men might not be as particular about appearance as women, he was an actor.
An actor who relied on his looks to make a living.
If his face was ruined, that meant his future acting career...
"Can it be saved?"
Xiao He tentatively asked.
With modern medical aesthetics being so advanced, if it could be repaired—
"I don't know, there might be scarring."
Liu Rulan said quietly.
"Is that so..."
Xiao He sighed.
His feelings about Tong Junhui were very complicated.
At first, he thought Tong Junhui was an ungrateful person who didn't remember Liu Rulan's kindness at all, and had willingly sunk into depravity by colluding with Feng Zhengyang and his group.
But it wasn't until the Xu Youyou and Cheng Hongwen incident that Xiao He understood the deeper meaning behind Tong Junhui's actions, and his true purpose for returning to the entertainment industry.
Tong Junhui had returned to the entertainment industry for revenge from the very beginning!
And now, because of that revenge, he had ended up like this...
"Sister Liu, where are you now?"
Xiao He immediately asked.
Liu Rulan turned around, withdrawing her gaze from the dawn light at the horizon, and looked back at the long, narrow hospital corridor behind her: "I'm at the hospital."
"How did you get the news? I'll come right away."
Xiao He put the phone on speaker while efficiently getting up to change clothes and prepare to go out.
"Tong Junhui's family members have all passed away, and he hasn't made many friends over the years, so when filling out the emergency contact for the police, he put down my number."
After saying this, Liu Rulan slightly raised her head, feeling somewhat heavy-hearted.
Tong Junhui had returned precisely because he had nothing left.
Volunteering to become a police informant also showed he had long been prepared to go down together with his targets.
That's why, when leaving contact information with the police, Tong Junhui hesitated for a moment before writing down Liu Rulan's name and number.
He knew there weren't many people in this world who would genuinely care about him anymore.
Liu Rulan was one of them.
Even though their final interactions hadn't been pleasant, if something happened to him, Liu Rulan would still be willing to spare some time to help collect his body.
This was based on Tong Junhui's trust in Liu Rulan's character.
Therefore, after Tong Junhui was sent to the hospital, Cheng Bei—who had been arresting people with Tong Junhui and whose true identity was a police officer—called Liu Rulan.
So Liu Rulan rushed to the hospital and learned the general situation from the police.
But after understanding the whole story, Liu Rulan's feelings were quite complex.
What could she do?
She had repeatedly reminded him, and even intervened once... but all she could do in the end was show up at this moment to help Tong Junhui with hospital procedures.
Liu Rulan had done everything she could.
She had a clear conscience.
Hearing Liu Rulan's words, Xiao He also felt somewhat melancholy.
More than ten minutes later, he drove to the hospital Liu Rulan had mentioned.
"How is it?"
When he saw Liu Rulan, Xiao He first subtly assessed her condition.
It was clear Liu Rulan had come in a hurry, wearing only a lightweight chiffon top and white suit-style casual pants, with no makeup on her face, making her look more haggard than usual.
"He's fine, he just had anesthesia for stitches and can't speak right now."
Liu Rulan said.
"Okay." Xiao He shook the car keys in his hand. "I'll go back to the car for a moment and be right back."
"Alright."
A few minutes later, Xiao He handed the car blanket from his vehicle to Liu Rulan: "Put this on for now."
Although it was already late March, about to enter April, and the overall temperature was gradually rising, it was still early morning with low temperatures, and sitting in the hospital with its naturally cold air made it even colder.
"Thanks."
Liu Rulan was indeed quite cold, so she didn't refuse and directly draped it over herself.
Xiao He then sat on the bench and asked: "What did the police say? Even if this wasn't Teacher Tong acting bravely, it should count as self-defense, right?"
"That's not clear yet." Liu Rulan shook her head, her expression somewhat grave. "It seems Feng Zhengyang noticed something and was preparing to escape, then Dong Zeng was also alerted. Tong Junhui had been monitoring their situation, and when he discovered they were planning to flee, he immediately notified the police and actively pursued Feng Zhengyang and the others... When the police found them, he had already been stabbed."
"The incident happened in an underground parking lot where there were no surveillance cameras capturing the entire event. The police arrived at the scene within half a minute but didn't witness the whole process, so they can't yet determine whether Tong Junhui intentionally injured others or acted in self-defense."
However, everyone had their own suspicions about this.
After all, the knife was brought by Tong Junhui, and Feng Zhengyang and Dong Zeng had the most severe injuries. Given Tong Junhui's hatred toward these two, it wasn't hard to guess that Tong Junhui had intentionally injured them, since he had the motive.
But given the current situation...
"Teacher Tong was clearly cooperating with the police to make arrests, just trying to buy time. There's nothing wrong with him carrying a knife for self-protection, right?" Xiao He immediately said. "Dong Zeng and Feng Zhengyang were already cornered and extremely dangerous. For Teacher Tong to step forward at that moment and help the police intercept the criminals—his intentions were good. I believe the police will give us a fair response."
Liu Rulan was momentarily stunned, then understood what Xiao He meant.
Since there were no surveillance cameras and no other witnesses, this matter could be interpreted differently.
"Let's find him a lawyer later." Xiao He said. "Although I still don't really like him, I dislike Feng Zhengyang and Dong Zeng even more."
To be honest, when Xiao He heard that Feng Zhengyang and Dong Zeng had each been stabbed three times, he felt quite satisfied.
Neither of them were good people—with Xu Youyou dead and Cheng Hongwen injured, and then they tried to use fabricated damaging information to smear him—he remembered all of it.
Now that these two had gotten what they deserved and were lying in the hospital, he felt no pity for them.
Fortunately, they were still alive and not completely dead.
People like them dying would be one thing, but they shouldn't drag Tong Junhui down with them.
This guy was already miserable enough.
Liu Rulan pondered for a moment, then nodded: "I will."
She might as well see this good deed through to the end.
"But why do I feel like you know more than I do? What crimes did Feng Zhengyang and Dong Zeng actually commit? Why were the police arresting them? You don't seem surprised at all."
"Eh? Do I?" Xiao He played dumb and scratched his head. "Their movie was so terrible, with no signs of big production or investment at all. Netizens were calling it a money laundering film, so the police arresting them makes sense, doesn't it?"
"Does it?"
"Doesn't it?"
"..."
Just as Liu Rulan was about to say something, a nurse came over and notified them: "The patient in room 202 can make sounds now. You can go see him."
"Okay."
Liu Rulan immediately responded to the nurse while standing up.
Xiao He stood up as well.
"We'll talk about this later. Let's first understand the current situation clearly." Liu Rulan said, then took the lead into the hospital room.
The room was quiet, with the person lying on the bed wrapped in thick bandages around his face, currently staring blankly at the sky outside the window. Not far from his bedside sat a police officer.
Hearing footsteps, the police officer alertly looked up first, and after confirming Liu Rulan's identity, his tense body relaxed again.
Tong Junhui also slowly turned to look.
When he saw Liu Rulan, the two visible eyes showed a hint of apology.
After Liu Rulan sat down, he spoke with a hoarse voice, struggling to say: "I'm sorry."
He had let Liu Rulan down in many ways, and even at this moment, he had to trouble her.
His entire life had truly been a complete failure.