106: Chapter 106 Her humor is heartbreaking.

The hospital room went quiet for three seconds.

Teacher Wang turned over, her snoring skipped a beat, then resumed.

Li Li leaned against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest, rubbing his thumb against his cuff twice.

"The Company wants to mess with me?"

Lu Cheng nodded.

"How?"

"The memo didn't specify a plan; it only had your name and the words 'subsequent programs'."

Li Li thought about it.

Subsequent programs.

The contract he signed with ByteDance included two variety shows—Brave Blue Friends and Busy Roommates.

Gu Zeyan is in the firefighting show Brave Blue Friends, but I don't know if there are any people from the Company in the Busy Roommates show.

The Company likely wants to stir up trouble in these two shows.

Setting traps, malicious editing, bribing guests to cause chaos—the tactics are always the same.

But after pondering for two seconds, he found it somewhat amusing.

He is just a destitute orphanage director; he only went on variety shows to make money.

He has no persona to collapse, no dark history to dig up, and the national may 1st labor medal hangs on his chest.

The Company wants to mess with him?

Good luck to them.

"Let's put the matter of messing with me aside for now."

He looked at Jiang Rumu.

"The tax issue is the real killer."

"Do you have backups of your income details and tax filing records from all these years?"

Jiang Rumu shook her head.

"The Company's finance department handles everything; I only look at the final amount I receive."

Li Li frowned.

This is trouble.

If the Company has planted landmines in the accounts beforehand—underreporting income to pay less tax, or listing Company expenses under Jiang Rumu's personal name—once the tax authorities investigate, she won't be able to clear her name even if she jumps into the Yellow River.

"Lu Cheng."

"Yes?"

"Can you access the Company's financial system?"

Lu Cheng shook her head, her fingers rubbing against the seams of her pants.

"I work in publicity at the Company; I've never had server access to the finance department."

"I took a photo of the memo on the project director's desk while he went to the restroom."

Li Li went over it in his mind.

Taxes, finance, contracts—he doesn't understand them.

But he knows Han Xubai.

That guy is a master of contract law and tax law; he just left the deputy director of the municipal bureau speechless during a livestream, his combat power is at its peak.

Plus, he's an internet-famous lawyer; he'll jump at this kind of confrontation without even being asked.

"Don't worry about this for now."

Li Li straightened up from the wall.

"Find a professional to investigate and see if there are actually any issues with your income and taxes over the years."

"If there's a problem, we'll remedy it beforehand; if not, we'll wait for them to fire their shot—it'll be fun to see the firecracker explode in their own hands."

Jiang Rumu glanced at him, tapped her fingers on the top of her crutch twice, and nodded.

Lu Cheng added in a low voice.

"There isn't much time, the thirteenth of next month..."

"That's enough."

Li Li noted down the date.

On the hospital bed, Zhang Guifang's eyelids began to droop.

Li Li noticed.

"Alright, Mom, you should sleep. The surgery is at eight tomorrow morning; you need to rest well."

Zhang Guifang struggled to keep her eyes open, looking at Jiang Rumu, then at Li Li.

Finally, she only said one sentence.

"Xiao Jiang, be careful on the way."

Jiang Rumu bent down and pulled up the corner of the quilt, her movements so natural it didn't seem like their first meeting.

"Don't worry, Auntie, I'll come back tomorrow morning."

Zhang Guifang closed her eyes, her lips twitched slightly, but she didn't say anything else.

Li Li tidied up the pile of health supplements and pushed them to the corner of the cabinet.

"Let's go, I'll see you out."

Jiang Rumu stood up with her crutch, and Lu Cheng hurried forward to support her on the other side.

The three of them left the hospital room.

The fluorescent lights in the corridor were bleakly bright, and someone was whispering on the phone at the nurses' station.

The elevator lobby was eighty meters from the room.

The speed of the three was reduced to a crawl by that aluminum alloy crutch.

Jiang Rumu limped along, taking small steps, each one landing steadily, with no expression on her face.

Li Li glanced at her foot.

The gauze wasn't wrapped very tightly, and the edges were peeling up.

He didn't say anything.

When they reached the elevator, Li Li pressed the down button.

"Did you book a hotel?"

Lu Cheng nodded.

"Yes, it's two streets away from the hospital."

"Good."

Li Li looked at Jiang Rumu.

"Don't run around when you get to the hotel; your leg isn't fully healed, so stop trying to be a hero."

Jiang Rumu glanced at him.

"Mind your own business."

The elevator door opened.

Lu Cheng went in first and turned around to wait for Jiang Rumu.

Jiang Rumu stepped into the elevator, turned around, braced herself with her crutch, and looked at Li Li outside the door.

"I'll be here at seven tomorrow morning."

"There's no need to be that early—"

"Seven."

The elevator door closed.

Li Li stood in the corridor, watching the numbers jump from 6 to 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, G.

He turned and walked back.

When passing the nurses' station, his peripheral vision caught something.

Behind the counter, against the wall, sat a foldable wheelchair.

A note was stuck to the armrest— "Ms. Jiang — — VIP1206 Temporary Storage".

Li Li stopped.

VIP1206.

Zhang Guifang's room.

He stared at the wheelchair.

She had come in a wheelchair.

She stored the wheelchair at the nurses' station and then walked eighty meters into the room using her crutch.

A person with gauze still wrapped around her foot had forced herself to walk in with a crutch, just so the people in the room wouldn't see the wheelchair.

Li Li turned his head to look in the direction of the elevator.

The number stopped at G.

He walked to the nurses' station.

"Excuse me, the wheelchair temporarily stored for 1206—"

The nurse looked up.

"It was stored by Ms. Jiang; she said she'd have her assistant come get it later."

"No need to wait, I'll take it down."

He pushed the wheelchair out, folded it, pushed it away, entered the elevator, and pressed G.

The first-floor lobby.

Lu Cheng was supporting Jiang Rumu as they walked toward the main entrance.

Jiang Rumu's pace was even slower than before.

She had held up for nearly an hour in the room; her leg had been hurting for a long time, and she had been enduring it silently.

Lu Cheng was sweating with anxiety.

"Sister Mu, I'll go back to get the wheelchair—"

"No need, we're almost at the entrance."

The sound of wheels rolling over floor tiles came from behind.

Lu Cheng turned her head.

Li Li pushed the wheelchair over, unhurriedly, and stopped in front of them.

He didn't look at Jiang Rumu; seeing her limping earlier made his heart ache, but it was also funny.

He handed the wheelchair directly to Lu Cheng and patted the armrest.

"The nurses' station said this is Jiang Rumu's wheelchair."

"Take good care of your boss; don't let her act up until her leg is fully healed."

After saying that, he turned and left.

Lu Cheng was stunned; she looked down at the wheelchair, then at Jiang Rumu.

She hesitated for three seconds.

"Sister Mu, the wheelchair... Li Li brought it down."

"He asked the nurses' station about it."

Jiang Rumu stood where she was.

Her crutch poked into the floor tiles, and her fingers tightened.

She turned her head to look in the direction Li Li had left.

The lobby's automatic doors were closing, and that figure in the worn-out tank top had already turned into the elevator lobby.

"Ugh—"

She jabbed the rubber tip of her crutch hard against the floor.

Lu Cheng's shoulders shuddered, and she almost let go of the wheelchair.

"Si-, Sister Mu?"

Jiang Rumu plopped into the wheelchair, laid the crutch across her lap, and covered her face with both hands.

"Push."

"Huh?"

"Push me! Push me quickly!"

Lu Cheng scrambled to push the wheelchair, rushing out the main entrance.

It bumped when rolling over the threshold, and Jiang Rumu let out a muffled "hiss" into her palms—her foot had hit the footrest.

But she didn't take her hands off her face.

It wasn't until she was sitting in the back seat of the business car, the seatbelt fastened, and the car had driven away from the hospital.

That Jiang Rumu slowly lowered her hands.

Streetlights outside the car window swept past one after another, the orange-yellow light brushing across her profile.

The roots of her ears were red.

She looked down, opened her phone, and stared at Li Li's profile picture on WeChat—that Samoyed wearing sunglasses, grinning, looking utterly annoying.

Her thumb hovered over the keyboard, shaking for three seconds.

She didn't type anything.

She placed the phone face down on her knees.

In the front passenger seat, Lu Cheng peeked through the rearview mirror.

Her boss was staring blankly at the car window, her lips pursed, and the redness on the tips of her ears hadn't faded yet.

Lu Cheng silently turned her head back, took out her phone, and made a note for herself.

[Memo: Wake Sister Mu up at 6:30 tomorrow morning, order breakfast, and prepare the wheelchair cushion.]

After thinking, she added another line.

[P.S.: The boss's illness is incurable.]

---

The sixth-floor ward.

Li Li pushed the door open and went in; Zhang Guifang was already asleep.

Teacher Wang's snoring was as steady as a metronome.

He sat down on the cot and took out his phone.

He turned to Han Xubai's WeChat and typed a line.

Li Li: [Lawyer Han, I have a tax matter, it's urgent.]

Li Li: [The opponent is Shenghui Entertainment.]

After sending it, he opened his notes again and wrote a sentence on the third line of his to-do list.

"3. The Company — — The thirteenth of next month."

He drew two lines under "thirteenth" with his pen tip.

He placed his phone against his chest and closed his eyes.

In the hospital room, there was only the sound of the IV drip.

Steady, quiet.

But he knew that the quiet days were numbered.