Tang Ran stood at the entrance blankly for several seconds before reacting. She raised her head in confusion and whispered, “Luo Zhan?”
“…It’s me.”
He had gotten so used to hearing the young girl call him “Luoluo”, that when she addressed him by his real name every now and then, Luo Zhan found that he had already become a little unaccustomed to it.
Tang Ran was surprised, “Why did you come?”
Luo Zhan raised his eyebrows, “Am I not welcomed?”
“No,” the girl denied in a low voice. “It’s just that the store manager said you don’t like the Tang family and definitely won’t visit.”
Luo Zhan immediately replied, “He lied to you. Don’t believe him.”
Tan Yunchang, who was standing behind Luo Zhan and doing his best to maintain a smile, “……?”
Perhaps he wasn’t a human, but Luo Zhan was really a dog.
Tang Ran hesitated for a moment, then nodded, “Then are we heading out now?”
“Mn, I’ll get you your cane.” Luo Zhan walked towards the storage cabinet at the entrance.
“The cane is in—”
The sound of the cabinet door opening cut off the girl’s words.
Luo Zhan’s figure and Tang Ran’s voice stopped at the same time.
There was silence in the air.
Tan Yunchang was still looking at the two of them perplexedly, wondering what had happened. Then he heard Tang Ran ask in confusion, “How did you know where my cane was?”
Obviously this thought came to Luo Zhan too, which was why he stopped. He glanced at Tan Yunchang.
Tan Yunchang was stupefied for a few seconds, then suddenly reacted and laughed loudly to cover up his guilty conscience, “Ah, I saw you put it here before. Before coming in, I specially asked Luo Zhan to take it out for you first because I thought you weren’t awake yet.”
Tang Ran thought for a moment and nodded lightly, “Oh.”
“……”
Tan Yunchang breathed a sigh of relief and showed an expression of having survived a disaster. He looked towards Luo Zhan as if to claim credit.
As a result, upon turning his head, he found that the person concerned seemed much calmer than himself.
Luo Zhan took out the cane from the storage cabinet and walked back to the young girl’s side.
He held the cane in his right hand and used his left hand to place the girl’s hand on his wrist, “Let’s go, I’ll bring you out.”
“Mn.” The girl nodded and quietly walked out with Luo Zhan.
Tan Yunchang looked at the slender figure walking past him in amazement.
He had known Young Master Luo for so many years, yet it was his first time finding out that this person actually had the genes of a gentleman in his bones and knew how to treat women so tenderly.
Unfortunately, it had been buried away for the past twenty years; he rejected all confessions, ruthlessly and brutally destroying the flowers1. Such a beast in human clothing was unprecedented.
“Obsessed with beautiful eyes for so many years, and shattering countless young maidens’ hearts because of that.” Tan Yunchang whispered to himself, “Yet in the end, having fallen for a blind young girl…does your face hurt2 ah, Young Master Luo.”
After muttering in a low voice, Tan Yunchang followed behind the two, closed the door and left the side residence.
Luo Zhan had driven over his red convertible supercar to pick Tang Ran up. It was parked along the main road, not far from the Tang family’s courtyard.
Once they were out of sight from the Tang family, Tang Ran and Luo Zhan got out of the cargo truck and switched to the sports car.
Tan Yunchang followed behind mournfully. Even after the two people had gotten into the car, he still clung to the door on the driver’s side and refused to go away.
After leaving the range of the Tang family, Luo Zhan also took off his baseball cap.
Tan Yunchang looked down and saw it. He couldn’t help mumbling, “I just said you were watching ‘little movies’ yesterday and you refused to admit it. Look at your dark circles…”
Luo Zhan leaned his arm against the car door and looked at Tan Yunchang lazily. He didn’t speak, only giving the other person an unfriendly look.
Tan Yunchang sighed, “It’s really nice to be handsome. Even dark circles become sinfully beautiful. Who knows how many nurses and young ladies will be deceived on this hospital trip.”
“…You’re still not leaving?”
Tan Yunchang asked, “Ancestor, you’re really not bringing us with you?”
Luo Zhan’s slender knuckles hooked onto his sunglasses as he glanced apathetically at Tan Yunchang, “There are only two seats, how to bring you?”
“Well, Qianhua and I can drive behind you.”
Luo Zhan said, “I’m not meeting Matthew today. Even if you go, you won’t see your male god.”
“You’re not meeting? Why not?”
With Tang Ran beside him, Luo Zhan reluctantly held back his impatience and accompanied Tan Yunchang in this drawn-out conversation. He coldly replied, “This isn’t a blind date. Is there a need for the middleman to go too?”
“……”
“Also, later I will make arrangements for Matthew to visit the lab. At that time, don’t mention Tang Ran’s name.”
“Ah?” Tan Yunchang subconsciously glanced at the girl in the passenger seat, “Why?”
Tang Ran heard her name and turned around curiously.
Luo Zhan frowned, “Matthew mentioned before that he has some history with the Tang family. Regardless of whether it’s good or bad, Tang Ran should try to have less contact with him.”
“……” Thinking of the young girl’s special background, the store manager suddenly understood and nodded, “Got it. I won’t mention her name.”
“He’s just returned to China to develop the market and is very busy now. Wait for his time to free up, at the very latest it’ll be the end of next month. I will help the lab link up with him.”
“Awesome!”
Tan Yunchang got his guarantee and floated away excitedly on cloud nine, leaving behind Luo Zhan and Tang Ran in the supercar. There were a few seconds of silence.
Tang Ran asked softly, “Who is Matthew?”
Luo Zhan leaned over and skillfully fastened the girl’s seat belt, “An overseas friend of mine, the founder of Auto Technology. He returned to China this year to develop the domestic market. He’s also the one who helped me contact this ophthalmologist.”
“Ah,” Tang Ran nodded in sudden understanding. “So he’s not a foreigner.”
“Mn, at twenty years old he joined the international school exchange programme and went overseas. He then stayed abroad till now, only coming back this year. Matthew also has a Chinese name, called Lan Jingqian.” Luo Zhan paused and looked up, “Have you heard of him?”
Tang Ran thought for a moment and shook her head, “No.”
Luo Zhan fastened the safety buckle and straightened his body. He said reassuringly, “Maybe he has some history with the older generation of the Tang family and it’s nothing to do with you. You don’t have to worry.”
“I’m not worried,” the girl chuckled. “His Chinese name sounds very nice.”
“……”
The car suddenly became quiet.
Tang Ran was puzzled for a moment, thinking she had said something wrong. She was hesitating what to say next when she heard that familiar, lazy tone from the driver’s seat, carrying a hint of displeasure:
“Does it sound even better than mine?”
Tang Ran was slightly stunned, then curved the corners of her eyes, “Luoluo sounds the best.”
The young man’s side profile was stiff and cold.
He didn’t say anything and started the car. But before driving out, that thin corner of his lips still couldn’t be suppressed, quietly lifting into a little joyful arc.
Through Lan Jingqian’s introduction, Luo Zhan learned that Jia Junxi now ran a private ophthalmic hospital and did not hold an official position but was a behind-the-scenes owner. In addition, his information was deeply hidden, so very few people in China knew of his whereabouts.
The examination scheduled this time was to be conducted in Jia Junxi’s private hospital.
Even though it was an ophthalmic hospital, operations such as intraocular surgery or cornea transplant had preoperative examinations which covered all the organs and health indicators, so the hospital was well-equipped with complete facilities.
Since this big boss surgeon was invited to perform the surgery, naturally the preoperative examination would be conducted at his hospital too.
The only problem was that the city where this private hospital was located was more than half a province away from K City where Luo Zhan and Tang Ran came from. On the highway, even with Luo Zhan driving over the speed limit, it still took three to four hours before they finally reached their destination at noon.
A full body examination naturally included blood tests, so the young girl was instructed the night before not to eat anything or drink water in the morning.
After spending so much time traveling to the hospital, Tang Ran was already so hungry that her little face was almost wrinkled together.
Luo Zhan saw this and found it both distressing and amusing.
Fortunately, the extremely high cost of private hospitals meant patients were few, and the various tests were also arranged quickly and efficiently. After the full body examination, which focused on the kidney and liver for any possible rejection reaction, Tang Ran was taken to the hospital’s main ophthalmic examination room.
The eye examination was delicate and precise, and had to be conducted in a sterile environment. As an accompanying family member, Luo Zhan could not enter and had to wait outside.
Compared to the normal full body examination from before, the eye examination seemed to take an exceptionally long time. As the minutes ticked by, Luo Zhan, who was waiting in the hallway, had long gotten up to lean against the wall, a slightly tense frown on his face.
The handsome face darkened impressively.
After standing outside and waiting for nearly twenty minutes, Luo Zhan still didn’t see any new movement.
At the thought that the young girl could not see anything and could only stay in the freezing examination room with a few unfamiliar doctors and nurses, and how scared she must have been when tested by those cold instruments…
Luo Zhan immediately became even more anxious.
There was a nurses’ station just up ahead. An older head nurse who had passed by several times noticed Luo Zhan and couldn’t help but stop this time, smiling kindly at him.
“Young man, are you in a hurry?”
Luo Zhan looked up at the words, with a hint of impatience in his eyes, “…Does an eye examination require such a long time?”
“Well, it is an eye examination after all. Tests such as partial vision, optometry, corneal topography, corneal curvature, tear secretion…there are many things to check one by one, so it’s normal to take a longer time.”
The head nurse finished speaking and could not help but laugh when she saw Luo Zhan still frowning.
“The person inside – who are they to you? Seeing how anxious you are, I know you are waiting for your friend’s eye examination to finish, but those who don’t know will think you are outside the delivery room waiting for your wife to give birth.”
Luo Zhan froze slightly.
At this moment, the door of the eye examination room was pushed open and Tang Ran, accompanied by a young nurse, slowly walked out.
“Head Nurse.” The young nurse quickly greeted the middle-aged female nurse beside Luo Zhan.
The head nurse nodded, sized up Tang Ran who came out, then said in surprise, “This girl looks quite young. The young man outside the door was so worried, I thought it was his girlfriend.”
At this time, the young nurse noticed the appearance of Luo Zhan who was walking over from the hallway. She was stunned for a while before coming back to her senses, her face all red, “How can that be, Head Nurse? This young girl’s only sixteen this year.”
Luo Zhan paused his step for a moment.
Then he lazily lifted his eyes and glanced at the young nurse with an aloof handsome face and unfriendly eyes.
Too bad the young nurse was blushing and didn’t dare look at him, neither did she notice.
“So young?” The head nurse asked in surprise, “Then what’s the relationship between the patient and the patient’s accompanying family member?”
“……”
The air was quiet for a few seconds.
By now, Luo Zhan had already walked to Tang Ran’s side. He took the blind cane from the girl’s hand, skillfully kept it away, and then placed the girl’s hand on his wrist.
Upon completing these actions, that disaster-bringing3 face which had shed the previous uneasiness and restlessness, returned to its usual careless and indifferent expression. It seemed like there was no desire to answer the question.
In the silence, the head nurse and young nurse looked at each other, their expressions gradually turning strange.
The mood also became a little vague and awkward.
Tang Ran nervously held onto Luo Zhan’s arm. Through the thin shirt, came the body temperature that she had slowly become familiar with and dependent on.
There was silence for several seconds, then the girl whispered:
“He is my big brother.”
===
The author has something to say:
Author: Congratulations Young Master Luo on becoming a brother!
Luo Zhan: …No, I don’t want that.
Author: Then what do you want?
Luo Zhan: I want to—
JJWXC Inspector: (Covers LZ’s mouth) No, you don’t.
———
1 The girls who chased after Luo Zhan.
2 Luo Zhan has face-slapped himself with his own words/actions.
3 Extremely good-looking.
TL: I don’t know how many times the author has described LZ as ‘lazy, cold and handsome’. I’ve already used synonyms wherever possible but there’re just too many…
moonbeam 