Hangcheng Trip

The two women also realized at this point that they might have been mistaken, but there was no way they would lower their heads and admit it. Things had already escalated this far; if they did not throw a tantrum, it would be hard to end things.

"I-I think you're in cahoots with him! You deliberately coordinated your stories to help him get away with it! I've seen plenty of people like you! Don't think you can fool us like this! Officer, you can't believe him!" the shorter woman said.

"Exactly! Who do you think you are? You can tell at a glance that he has diabetes?"

Without the narrator's prompt, Guo Yuan would not have dared, even with ten times the courage, to claim someone had diabetes based solely on a few outward signs. But with the narrator having practically confirmed it, what did he have to fear?

He immediately fired off another barrage of professional medical terminology, leaving the two women utterly speechless.

Xue Ruoyi seized the opportunity to ask, "Did you two actually see him snatch your bags?"

This time, the two women's attitudes made a complete one-eighty. They had just sworn up and down that it was him, but now they did not even dare use a word of certainty.

Xue Ruoyi understood at once and shot her colleague a look.

Her colleague immediately got the hint, took out his phone, and called the Traffic Management Department, asking them to help check the surveillance footage.

Seeing how certain the two women had seemed about the culprit, Xue Ruoyi had originally planned to take everyone back first and check the footage afterward, since it would take the Traffic Management Department some time to pull it up. But now, it seemed highly likely that she had wronged an innocent person.

After the male officer finished his call, he dispersed the crowd and invited the two women, the man who had been beaten, and Guo Yuan into the nearby duty booth.

Inside the booth, Xue Ruoyi kept secretly studying Guo Yuan.

It's been almost ten years. How did he get so tall? And he's a lot more handsome than before, Xue Ruoyi thought.

"Sister Xue, they've checked the footage. This gentleman definitely didn't snatch their bags. More accurately, no one snatched their bags at all. There were too many people at the subway entrance earlier, and a young man brushed against their bags while passing by."

The two women were immediately unhappy. "What did you say? No one snatched the bags? That's impossible! Did you get it wrong?"

"I've already pulled up the footage. You can watch it yourselves." With that, the male officer opened the video on his phone and played it in front of everyone.

After watching the video, the two women's expressions became somewhat awkward.

"Th-this, Officer... s-sorry! We got it wrong."

"You shouldn't be apologizing to us. You should apologize to this gentleman." Xue Ruoyi pointed at the man who had been beaten.

"That's right. You should apologize to this gentleman. And since you assaulted him, you should compensate him. Sir, you can also refuse compensation and reserve the right to sue. If necessary, you could get an injury assessment done. They might even end up detained for ten days or half a month," Guo Yuan added.

The moment they heard they might be detained, the two women could no longer sit still. They hurriedly apologized to the beaten man and pulled all the cash from their wallets—around seven or eight hundred yuan—as compensation.

The man clearly looked like the honest, simple sort. After accepting the money, he said that he would not pursue the matter further.

The two women let out sighs of relief and hurriedly ran out of the duty booth.

"Officers, brother, thank you both."

Xue Ruoyi felt somewhat ashamed upon hearing that. She had nearly wronged this man today.

Out of guilt, Xue Ruoyi asked her colleague to drive the man to where he was headed.

Her colleague immediately nodded in agreement.

After the two of them left, only Guo Yuan and Xue Ruoyi remained in the duty booth.

"Guo Yuan, you've really got some skills now! Looks like you inherited Uncle Guo's craft after all!" Xue Ruoyi said teasingly.

Guo Yuan gave a bitter smile. "Inherited what craft? I was kicked out."

"Huh? Your medical knowledge seems pretty good. You spotted at a glance that the man just now had diabetes. How could you have been kicked out?"

Guo Yuan sighed and told Xue Ruoyi about what he had been through over the past few years.

"So that's what happened! Tsk, tsk. If you ask me, you brought this on yourself. Uncle Guo laid out a smooth and easy road for you, but you refused to take it and insisted on writing novels instead."

Guo Yuan was a little unconvinced. "You're one to talk. Didn't you also refuse to follow Uncle Xue's plans?"

"I was never interested in becoming an anesthesiologist. Besides, I have a younger brother. It's enough for him to become a doctor.

"And my dad didn't pressure me that much back then. Once he asked what I wanted and learned that I did not want to be an anesthesiologist, he never forced me again.

"By the way, what's Shi Ze doing now? He must have gone into medicine and carried on the family profession, right?" Xue Ruoyi abruptly changed the subject.

"Uh, Shitou did become a doctor, but he didn't exactly carry on the family profession."

"What do you mean?"

"Shitou opened a pet hospital."

"A veterinarian?"

"Yeah."

"Pfft!" Xue Ruoyi burst out laughing. "So our Class of '98 trio somehow ended up with not a single one of us becoming a doctor."

After that, the two chatted about what they had been doing over the past few years. It was not until Xue Ruoyi's colleague returned that Guo Yuan said his goodbyes.

Before leaving, they added each other on WeChat. Guo Yuan casually created a small group chat for the three of them, and later, while he was shopping at the supermarket, his phone did not stop vibrating.

Two days later, Guo Yuan arrived at the airport with a backpack on his shoulders. He had bought a discounted ticket for a flight to Hangcheng that day. He had also gotten in touch with Gouzi, and the two planned to have dinner that evening and catch up properly.

Once he arrived at the airport, the narrator's voice did not stop.

Everyone Guo Yuan looked at was analyzed by the narrator.

And in a setting like this, a man's gaze would generally only linger on women.

For the first time, Guo Yuan found waiting for a flight to be quite an interesting experience.

Sadly, happy times were always short-lived. Before long, Guo Yuan had to board his flight.

Two and a half hours later, the plane arrived in Hangcheng on schedule.

This was Guo Yuan's first time in Hangcheng, but he had long yearned to visit the city.

As the saying went: "Above there is heaven; below there are Suzhou and Hangzhou."

As the capital of a province, Hangcheng was not only economically developed, but also had plenty of places worth seeing.

West Lake and its surrounding areas alone contained numerous natural and cultural scenic sites and historical relics well worth exploring.

Moreover, Hangcheng was a city with a profound historical heritage.

Setting aside everything else, just the fact that it had once been the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty gave Hangcheng countless stories to tell.

However, Guo Yuan had not come here to sightsee. His purpose was to take the first step toward becoming "Jobs."

At 7:30 that evening, Guo Yuan left the hotel where he was staying, took a taxi, and arrived at the restaurant where he had arranged to meet Gouzi.

They had agreed to meet at eight. Guo Yuan arrived first, found a table by the window, sat down, and sent Gouzi the table number.