DF Chapter 70

Chapter 70: Ms. Fu said the matter you needed her help with has been taken care of.

Chapter 70 Ms. Fu said the matter you needed her help with has been taken care of.

The winter vacation flew by with the arrival of the New Year. Sheng Jia spent the remaining time at home grinding away at practice problems. Stacks of test papers piled up on her narrow desk. Until the eighth day of the new year, Sheng Huaiying brought workers into the house, moved her small desk out, and replaced it with a large wooden table that was extremely mismatched with Sheng Jia’s room. It was a full 1.4 meters long, completely occupying the space in the room.

“Actually, I ordered a new desk for you last month, but the workers took a break for the New Year, and it’s only just been made now,” Sheng Huaiying said softly, touching the smooth surface of the desk. “It’s too much of a burden to study on that narrow desk every day, Jiajia, do you like it?”

Does Sheng Jia like it?

Of course she likes it.

No one could be more eager for a large desk that’s convenient for studying than her.

For the rest of the vacation, she spent at least twelve hours a day studying at this desk until school started.

The new semester started quietly. After all, the college entrance exam was only four months away. Senior high school students received the greatest preferential treatment from the school, and even had priority dining rights in the cafeteria.

Sheng Jia and Song Ji’an were still sitting in the same front and back seats this semester. Teacher Liu Yidong had no intention of adjusting the seating arrangement this semester. Everyone was sitting next to familiar friends or study partners, and no one had any objections to this arrangement.

Song Ji’an obviously had no intention of studying abroad. In fact, her diligence in the classroom was on par with Sheng Jia’s, and she never missed evening self-study. In her own words, perhaps it was because her mother and her grandmother had both become very successful women after studying at universities in China. Her dream since childhood had been to follow in their footsteps and enter their alma mater.

She and Sheng Jia were talking about her future plans while the snow outside the window was still falling, fluttering and melting on the windows due to the temperature difference, blurring the glass.

At that time, the teacher on the stage was answering questions, and the students below were noisily communicating with each other.

Zhou Yin complained beside them, “I always thought time was passing slowly, but I didn’t expect that in the blink of an eye, the hundred-day countdown to the college entrance exam is almost here. Last semester, I still complained that senior year was boring, but now I’d rather go back to last semester.”

One month after the start of the semester, their daily workload of test papers was twice that of the previous semester. Even in a purely science-oriented class, there was still a lot of memorization and review to be done. Every second at school was compressed to the extreme.

The only time they could catch their breath was probably after school, when they went to a hot pot restaurant outside the school to eat meat in the snow. The thin slices of meat rolled in the boiling broth, and the whole room was warm and filled with the aroma of chili. This aroma would be brought back to the classroom, making people’s mouths water, which is why this activity was so popular in the grade.

Even Sheng Jia was dragged by the excited Song Ji’an, Su Zhaolin, and others to eat once, but unfortunately, the Sichuan and Chongqing flavors were too authentic. From Song Ji’an to Su Zhaolin to Xu Lijing, everyone’s stomachs were burning from the spiciness, and the activity was eventually terminated.

The third mock exam was held before the hundred-day oath ceremony. Sheng Jia still steadily took first place, and Song Ji’an took second. Lu Jing did not intend to hold another commendation meeting to waste time, and the bonuses were quickly and efficiently distributed to each class.

On the day she received the bonus, Sheng Jia also received a message from Ru Ping.

–Ms. Fu said the matter you needed her help with has been taken care of.

In fact, this was earlier than Sheng Jia had expected.

It was impossible for Song Ningqiu not to investigate the friends around Song Ji’an. Sheng Jia didn’t think that Song Ji’an’s affection for her could be hidden from Song Ningqiu after Ansdert Island.

However, out of appreciation and respect for Sheng Jia, Song Ningqiu would probably not be as reckless as Fu Minglang and directly investigate Sheng Jia’s experience. It was more likely that she would take the opportunity to ask Fu Minglang casually when they met.

After all, among Song Ningqiu’s friends, only Fu Minglang was most familiar with Sheng Jia.

Sheng Jia put her phone back in her pocket. She slowly thought about how Song Ningqiu would feel when she heard about her background.

Pity? Pitiful? Or maybe a little heartache?

A child who has lived in a corner of the city with her mother since she was a child, but is self-reliant, would she like her?

The cold wind scraped her nose red. She rubbed her frozen hands and breathed into them.

She reopened her umbrella and entered the high-end teahouse where Fu Minglang had once met her.

Senior year had become a one-day-off-a-month affair, and Sheng Jia rarely had free time.

Fu Minglang asked her out for tea, but it was actually for food. The table was full of Cantonese pastries. Fu Minglang liked shrimp dumplings and ordered four servings, and generously ordered two servings for Sheng Jia as well.

“I think Cantonese pastries are delicious, but the portions are too small,” Fu Minglang said while eating. “When people get old, they like to eat light things to maintain their health. Today, I can only ask you to eat with me and accommodate my taste.”

Sheng Jia sat down without much politeness and started looking through the menu. “You shouldn’t be so down on your luck that you can’t afford to treat me to a meal, right?”

Fu Minglang laughed. “That’s not true, but I ordered too much, and I’m afraid I won’t be able to finish it.”

Sheng Jia ticked a few boxes on the electronic menu and ordered some refreshing stir-fried dishes, mostly Hunan dishes that had been modified to suit Jingjiang’s taste. They weren’t too spicy, but they were full of color, aroma, and flavor.

While waiting for the food to be served, Sheng Jia put down her bag, ate a few shrimp dumplings, and then raised her eyes and asked, “What did you ask me here for?”

“Can’t I ask a younger generation to accompany me if I have nothing to do?” The wrinkles at the corners of Fu Minglang’s eyes curved into deep folds, filled with extremely gentle light. “I often invite young friends out for meals and chats wherever I go. Although I don’t like being called old, I am indeed a fashionable old lady, and I feel that I can talk to you young people.”

“That’s true,” Sheng Jia echoed. No one mentioned Song Ningqiu asking about Sheng Jia’s information. She glanced at the curtain in the private room and took out her phone from her arms. “Then I’ll take advantage of this time to do some coursework.”

Fu Minglang paused slightly. “You’re still doing coursework while eating?”

Sheng Jia had already turned on the screen projection by herself. She said while connecting to the Internet, “I was called over from the library by you before dinner. There’s still a little bit left that I haven’t finished watching.”

“You’re not polite with me at all.” Fu Minglang was very comfortable with Sheng Jia’s familiarity.

As she said this, a lecture video of a special mathematics teacher was already playing on the screen. Sheng Jia entered a state of concentration very quickly. Even though there was so much tempting food around her, she could still keep her eyes glued to the screen.

Footsteps came from outside the door. The dishes Sheng Jia ordered were served. Hunan cuisine was different from Cantonese cuisine. Some of the dishes were still sizzling with oil when they were served, and the aroma domineeringly filled the entire room.

Sheng Jia’s study video was at the most critical moment. She casually picked up two bites of food and swallowed them with rice, mentally calculating formulas. It wasn’t until after the video ended that she realized something was wrong.

She frowned and looked around at the dishes on the table, then reached out and pulled at the collar of her high-necked sweater. There was already a patch of red spots on it, and a feeling of suffocation spread from her throat to her heart. Her face turned a sickly red in a matter of seconds.

Fu Minglang looked up and noticed her appearance. Her eyes changed slightly, and she said nervously, “What’s wrong? Are you having an allergic reaction?”

Sheng Jia covered her neck and nodded with some difficulty. The allergic reaction wasn’t very serious. Her voice was a little hoarse. “I guess I’ll have to trouble you to buy me some allergy medicine.”

Fu Minglang immediately turned her head and called to Ru Ping, who was standing guard outside the door, “Ru Ping, get the car ready quickly, we’re going straight to the hospital.”

After saying that, she walked over and pulled Sheng Jia out. “You can’t take allergy medicine randomly. Have you taken it before? What if you’re also allergic to allergy medicine?”

Ru Ping happened to push the door open. Seeing this, she quickly took over Fu Minglang’s task, helped Sheng Jia up, quickly put on her cotton coat for her, and the two of them pulled her out.

The teahouse manager was quite frightened, thinking there was a safety problem. He quickly came over to see what was going on. Seeing that it was a VIP guest having an allergic reaction, he prepared wet wipes and water more considerately.

Sheng Jia had never been taken care of so meticulously before, and her face was still a little dazed when she got into Fu Minglang’s Bentley.

She really hadn’t had this kind of experience since she was a child, so much so that she wasn’t even sure what the allergen was. She didn’t refuse Fu Minglang’s kindness, but on the way to the hospital, she was wondering what the other party’s purpose was in inviting her to the teahouse. She absolutely didn’t believe that a big boss like Fu Minglang would go out of her way to ask her out for dinner.

She looked at her already reddened fingertips thoughtfully.

But she really misunderstood Fu Minglang. Fu Minglang came to see her this time because she was bored and wanted to tease a child.

When people get old, they become more childlike. Sheng Jia was the most interesting junior she had met in a while. She came to Jingjiang to discuss a business deal, thinking that it happened to be the weekend, and Sheng Jia’s family situation wasn’t very good, so she simply invited her out for a good meal to replenish her body. Of course, it would be even better if she could find out what she wanted to do.

The allergic reaction was purely accidental, but when Fu Minglang saw Sheng Jia’s allergen test report, she was rarely stunned.

It was snow pear.

In fact, this is a relatively niche allergen.

Sheng Jia was still getting an IV drip in the ward. Thanks to Fu Minglang, she was able to enjoy the preferential treatment of a single ward in a private hospital. Seeing Fu Minglang’s expression, her eyes flickered slightly.

“Can I see the medical record?” Sheng Jia asked softly.

The red spots on her neck had already faded. The actual allergic reaction wasn’t very serious. She didn’t eat much of the dish, but when the doctor asked her whether to choose medication or an IV drip, she decisively chose the latter.

The reason was simply because it would go away faster. Taking medicine would take about half a day to recover, and senior high school students couldn’t afford to waste time.

Fu Minglang quickly put away that bit of surprise. She smiled and handed her the medical record, joking, “So our little Sheng doesn’t know what she’s allergic to.”

Sheng Jia lowered her eyes, her gaze also falling on the three words “snow pear.” In fact, the allergen test report listed a lot of allergic substances, but only snow pear was ticked separately, and the value behind it exceeded 0.35, which meant that her single allergen was snow pear.

“I haven’t eaten this fruit before,” Sheng Jia replied frankly. “I’m sorry to have troubled you. I’ll transfer the money for the hospitalization to you later.”

“Do you lack that little bit of money?” Fu Minglang glanced at her. “You’re not polite when you eat, ordering whatever you want, but you’re being polite about staying in the hospital?”

Sheng Jia looked at her innocently. “No, I’m just being polite, knowing that you won’t want my money. Otherwise, I’d seem very impolite, and I can’t afford the money for this premium ward.”

“Alright, this time I was the one who caused you trouble,” Fu Minglang waved her hand. The dish containing snow pear was the Cantonese snow pear soup she ordered herself. Sheng Jia had only drunk three or four mouthfuls before her face turned red from the allergic reaction.

“You rest here for a while, sleep for two hours, and then I’ll have Ru Ping send someone to call you and take you back to the library. I have a meeting in the afternoon, so I’ll leave first.”

Sheng Jia nodded. The time was now 1:00 p.m. Sleeping for two hours would only be 3:00 p.m., which was exactly the time the city library opened.

“Thank you,” Sheng Jia said, waving her hand to Fu Minglang as a farewell.

Fu Minglang walked out of the ward, but did not leave immediately. The light in her eyes surged, and it took a long time before she walked forward. Ru Ping followed behind her, silent. She had seen the test report earlier than Fu Minglang.

“Go check Sheng Jia’s more detailed information,” Fu Minglang narrowed her eyes. “No, start with her mother, I want the most detailed information about both of them. No, check one generation further up, check whether her grandmother had an allergen test and whether she had a snow pear allergy.”

Ru Ping responded with a “yes.”

Fu Minglang had many friends, but looking at all her friends, only one person was allergic to snow pears – Song Yumei.

Song Yumei discovered her allergy when she was young. They went to Yunnan together, where snow pears were abundant, but in the Yunnan dialect, it was called “Agong,” a name imported from abroad. The two thought it was a local specialty radish. After hiking back to the hotel, they ate more than half a box. Song Yumei was taken to the hospital emergency room by ambulance that night, almost dying in Yunnan because of snow pears.

Fu Minglang’s impression of this was too deep. Song Yumei was not even allergic later in life, she was genetically allergic, allergic to the entire composition of snow pears. This allergy was inherited from her own grandmother. Before that, her elders had told her not to eat snow pears, but because the Song family had never had this kind of fruit, even if Song Yumei remembered the name, she didn’t remember what it looked like. When they returned home, the two were scolded by Song Yumei’s mother.

Sheng Jia’s allergy was not a simple food allergy, it was a genetic allergy.

Faces that look so similar, and allergens that are exactly the same, are there such coincidences in this world?

Fu Minglang had indeed witnessed some amazing coincidences, but her desire for knowledge made her have to understand that it was indeed a coincidence before she would believe it, and this time was the same.

And Sheng Jia, who was in the room, stared at the test report in her hand. After a long time, she took out her phone and sent a message to [R] for the first time.

–Things may be a little hard to hide, I may not be able to hold it down until after the college entrance exam.

Not long after, [R] replied.

–It doesn’t matter, I will help you. Of course, if you decide to let everything come to light early, I don’t mind.