Chapter 184: Stupidity Without a Bottom Line
A full day had passed by the time Song Zijie woke up.
The first thing he felt upon opening his eyes was a deep soreness all over his body, as if he’d been run over by a truck.
As he struggled to recall the events before his surgery, he heard his father’s excited voice.
"Zijie, you’re awake! Do you feel any discomfort? I’ll go get Professor Xia to come check on you."
"Dad, is the surgery over?" Song Zijie asked weakly.
"It was finished a day ago. It only took six hours, which Professor Xia said was unprecedented."
Xia Qiuming arrived shortly after. He was also eager to see the results. As Song Zijie lay in bed, Xia Qiuming began his examination.
After the examination, Xia Qiuming recorded Song Zijie’s vitals, blood pressure, and other data, then handed the notes to Gu Jiaojiao.
"Jiaojiao, I’ve looked at the results, and they’re ideal. Could you take a look and see if anything seems off?"
Gu Jiaojiao took the notebook and looked it over. All the data concerning Song Zijie was written down clearly, with no mistakes.
She nodded. "They are ideal. There are no signs of rejection. This is the best possible outcome."
"Jiaojiao, would it be okay if I wrote this up as a report to submit to the leading medical authorities?"
"Do as you like. I don’t mind. But make sure you clearly state that you and He Shen Yi participated in the surgery. I have no intention of taking all the credit myself."
Gu Jiaojiao said it as casually as if she were discussing what to have for dinner.
Xia Qiuming, on the other hand, was thrilled. Even if Gu Jiaojiao hadn’t mentioned it, he wanted to document his part in that miraculous moment.
When Xia Qiuming and He Shen Yi returned to the Imperial City, they also asked Su Shuochi to bring the medical equipment he had "developed" back with them to benefit the people.
From that day on, the name of Divine Doctor Su Gu became known throughout the land. The only thing was, no one knew that Su Gu was actually Gu Jiaojiao.
Su Shuochi was also inspired and began to research and produce medical equipment. But that is a story for another time.
That day, Granny Li went to the Su family’s house to cause trouble again. It served her right, too, because she ran into a high-ranking official from Qing City.
Boss Xi was at the Su family’s house to bid farewell to He Shen Yi and Professor Xia, and also to thank Su Shuochi for getting Divine Doctor Su Gu to help him.
His father had already recovered and been discharged from the hospital, so he was in high spirits. But right at the Su’s house, he encountered Granny Li throwing a tantrum on the ground.
From what he could gather, he learned that Dong Jianjun’s younger brother, Dong Jianping, had been letting his own brother-in-law run wild.
The man had been brazenly assaulting respectable women, but none of the women he’d harmed were willing to report it to the police.
Even when the thugs were arrested, the moment the victims heard they would have to file a case and go to trial, they backed down.
Many of the women, concerned about their reputations, would drop the charges. This only made Dong Jianping’s brother-in-law and his gang more audacious.
They specifically targeted women from well-off families, who would invariably let the matter drop to save face.
The police would arrest the men, and even though they knew what they’d done, they had no choice but to let them go.
They’d watch the hooligans swagger out of the police station and continue to get away with it.
Captain Xie Zhuoyu and his men wished they could just give those thugs a beating themselves.
So now that the couple, Gu Jiaojiao and Su Shuochi, had beaten those scumbags to a pulp, they were all secretly delighted.
They had even been able to lock the hooligans up with just cause. However, since they hadn’t actually injured Gu Jiaojiao, they were only sentenced to five years.
After Granny Li’s little spectacle, Boss Xi was enraged and announced on the spot that the Li family’s son would have his sentence extended by another five years.
Granny Li was to be detained for fifteen days for deliberately causing a public disturbance.
Dong Jianping, for enabling his brother-in-law, was supposed to be suspended. However, out of respect for Professor Xia and Su Shuochi, he was only given a formal reprimand.
As a result, any thought Dong Jianping had of forgiving his wife vanished. He scowled whenever he saw her, his expression even colder than before.
Aunt Dong was so furious she wanted to beat up Sheng Yueyue. If it hadn’t been for her, her husband would have already stopped giving her the cold shoulder.
After the scene her mother caused, her relationship with her husband was back at a freezing point.
The colleagues in the residential compound were the worst. Whenever they saw her, they would start whispering and making sarcastic comments.
Her rivals couldn’t be accused of talking behind her back, because they did it where she could hear. But you couldn’t say they were talking to her face either, since they never mentioned her by name.
"Did you hear? Turns out someone’s younger brother is a good-for-nothing hoodlum."
"Seriously? She always acts so high and mighty. Turns out beneath that glamorous exterior is dirty blood."
"I know, right? Hooligans just beat people up for no reason and even break into houses to steal money!"
"Good heavens, can you even call them human? That’s the kind of thing bandits did in ancient times!"
Aunt Dong was so angry she wanted to confront them, but what could she possibly say?
Her brother beat someone up? Yes, he really did.
Aunt Dong could only endure it in silence, and when she got home, she had to face her husband’s scowling face.
This was all Sheng Yueyue’s fault. Aunt Dong gritted her teeth and swore that the next time she saw Sheng Yueyue, she would beat her up to vent her anger.
In the detention center, Granny Li was fantasizing about beating her eldest daughter—and that Sheng Yueyue—to a pulp.
If her eldest daughter hadn’t goaded her on, her son wouldn’t be facing ten years in prison, and she wouldn’t have been detained.
For the past few days, Sheng Yueyue had been behaving herself and staying at home. Her father still gave her the cold shoulder, and her two older brothers weren’t giving her any pleasant looks either.
But her mother never blamed her. She was just thankful that her daughter seemed to have become more obedient, and she’d pile all the best food onto her plate.
Although Song Zijin hadn’t asked to see her again, their wedding date was already set for August first.
So Sheng Yueyue felt secure and had nothing to fear. She was only pretending to be well-behaved, waiting for the right moment to strike.
Sheng Yueyue’s mind currently felt like it was full of paste, all tangled up in a knot.
She couldn’t solve math problems, let alone memorize English vocabulary. She had forgotten almost all the knowledge she’d gained in her past life.
So Sheng Yueyue was filled with resentment. ’If it weren’t for Gu Jiaojiao pushing me into a corner time and time again...’
’How could I possibly have no motivation to study? Meanwhile, Gu Jiaojiao, who was a total slacker in our past life, gets praised by the teachers every single day.’
Sheng Yueyue thought, ’Even if I can’t get into college, I’ll drag Gu Jiaojiao down with me.’
’If I’m miserable, Gu Jiaojiao can forget about being happy.’ But she knew to restrain her emotions now.
She was quiet in class, and even though her mind felt like mush, she pretended to be studying diligently.
When she saw Gu Jiaojiao, she even greeted her with a beaming smile. "Jiaojiao, I heard you were harassed by some hooligans?"
Gu Jiaojiao was speechless.
’What is this psycho plotting now?’
"It wasn’t exactly harassment. My husband beat the thugs up and had them thrown in jail."
"Jiaojiao, you should be more careful when you go out from now on. I’m so worried about you."
"You have to keep moving forward in life. You can’t let a few vicious dogs that jump out at you scare you into standing still.
Besides, those vicious dogs have already received the punishment they deserved. I have nothing to worry about.
You, on the other hand, should be worrying about yourself. I hear Granny Li is going to be looking for you to settle the score when she gets out."
"You... you just wait! I won’t let you get away with this," Sheng Yueyue snarled, leaning close to Gu Jiaojiao’s ear.
Gu Jiaojiao gave her a cold look. "Sheng Yueyue, after everything that’s happened, not only has your foolishness not changed one bit, but you’ve become increasingly and utterly shameless in your stupidity!"