Soon, the news reached President Zhou's ears.
Learning that Fang Wenjun hadn't shown up, President Zhou was also extremely surprised.
"Could Deputy Director Fang have been delayed by something?" someone suggested.
President Zhou shook his head and said it wasn't possible.
Today was the completion day for the painting group, and based on his understanding of his old colleague, Fang Wenjun would have called ahead if something had delayed her.
It was impossible for there to be no news at all until now.
Moreover, everyone knew by now that Little Jiang was the prized student of Fang Wenjun's husband.
He had heard from others that Fang Wenjun had been visiting Little Jiang without fail every day recently, sometimes spending hours guiding her.
Jiang Si's reaction was even more direct.
Considering her current work was already finished and she had nothing else to do here, she thought it might be better to drop by her mentor's wife's home to check on her.
President Zhou pondered for a moment. "I'll go with you."
He happened to have some matters to discuss with Fang Wenjun as well.
The three of them got into the car and arrived near the entrance of the alley where the Fang family lived in half an hour.
Just then, a Beijing Jeep 212 suddenly emerged from the alley.
When Jiang Si saw the license plate, she immediately told Huo Tingzhou to pull over and then stopped the other vehicle.
During this era, public security bureau vehicles all had license plates starting with "GA," with a white background and red characters.
Other official vehicles had blue backgrounds with white characters.
The plate "GA01-4865" was one she had seen before at the Municipal Public Security Bureau.
Sure enough, when the driver rolled down the window and saw Jiang Si, he quickly stepped out.
"Ah, Comrade Jiang, what are you doing here?"
The speaker was a young officer in his early twenties—the same one who had delivered her temporary work permit to the Huo residence. Jiang Si remembered his name was Tao Ming.
Jiang Si replied, "I'm here to visit someone. By the way, Officer Tao, why are you here? Is there a new case?"
Tao Ming nodded. Since this was just an ordinary case, there was no harm in discussing it.
"We received a report from a resident about an intentional assault case here, so we came to investigate."
"Intentional assault?"
"Yeah, apparently someone hit a female comrade with a car and then fled the scene."
For some reason, Jiang Si felt an inexplicable unease upon hearing this.
She instinctively asked, "What's the condition of the injured woman? What's her name?"
"We don’t know yet. By the time we arrived, she had already been taken to the hospital. We’ll have to check there for details."
As for the name, Tao Ming hadn’t paid attention. He flipped through the report.
"The person who reported it isn’t from the same alley. They only mentioned the victim’s surname is Fang and that she’s a painter."
Jiang Si’s face turned pale. "Which hospital was she taken to?"
Seeing how urgent Jiang Si sounded, Tao Ming was momentarily taken aback.
"Uh… Chaoyang Second People’s Hospital, nearby."
"Thank you."
Jiang Si quickly returned to the car. Since Tao Ming had described it as an assault case rather than a homicide, she felt slightly less panicked.
On the way to the hospital, she explained the situation to the other two.
President Zhou was so shocked he couldn’t speak for a long time. He and Old Fang had known each other for nearly twenty years.
He knew exactly what kind of person she was.
Someone as low-key as her, who rarely left home except for work—even if she had a minor conflict with someone, why would they deliberately run her over with a car?
Jiang Si couldn’t make sense of it either.
But she had a feeling this was connected to the mural project.
The hospital wasn’t far, and they arrived in less than ten minutes.
By the time they got there, Fang Wenjun had already been moved out of the operating room, but due to anesthesia, she was still unconscious.
"Doctor, how is she doing?"
"There’s no immediate danger, but she has multiple fractures. After being discharged, she’ll need at least three months of bed rest."
"Once the anesthesia wears off, you can see her."
Hearing this, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
"As long as she’s alright."
However, the doctor’s expression wasn’t as optimistic. Noticing this, Jiang Si asked further.
"Doctor, will the fractures leave any lasting effects?"
"It’s hard to say. When she fell, her arm took the brunt of the impact."
"Although the bones have been set, whether there will be complications depends on her recovery."
The doctor’s words were tactful, but everyone understood the underlying implication.
After the doctor left, President Zhou sighed deeply.
For someone who had spent a lifetime painting, their hands were like a second life.
Whoever did this wasn’t just harming her—they were destroying her spirit!
He didn’t know if Old Fang would be able to handle the news when she woke up.
And with her in this condition, they’d have to find someone else to take over the coloring work for the mural.
As for who, President Zhou had no immediate ideas.
"By the way, Little Jiang, let’s not mention this to your mentor’s wife for now. It might affect her recovery."
Jiang Si nodded. Even if President Zhou hadn’t said it, she would have known to keep it quiet.
Seeing that it was getting late and there was no point in everyone staying, Jiang Si suggested,
"President Zhou, there’s still a lot to handle with the mural group. Why don’t you go back first?"
"We’ll stay here and update you if anything changes."
Since there were indeed many tasks left for the mural group, President Zhou didn’t refuse.
"Alright, I’ll go back and make arrangements."
"When your mentor’s wife wakes up, tell her to focus on recovering. I’ll visit her tomorrow."
Not long after President Zhou left, Tao Ming and his team also returned.
Given the patient’s condition, they wouldn’t be able to take a statement today. They’d come back first thing in the morning.
Seeing Jiang Si lost in thought, Huo Tingzhou gently squeezed her hand.
"Don’t worry too much. The doctor didn’t say it’s guaranteed to cause lasting damage. As long as she recovers well, Deputy Director Fang will still be able to paint."
Jiang Si smiled faintly. Actually, she wasn’t overly concerned about the long-term effects.
The spiritual spring water had remarkable healing properties. She planned to use it to make bone broth for her mentor’s wife—it would surely repair most of the hidden injuries.
What she was really thinking about was: Who wanted to harm her mentor’s wife?
Could it be Qiu Yashu?
It wasn’t entirely unreasonable for Jiang Si to jump to this conclusion. Though she didn’t interact much with other groups,
the public fallout between Fang Wenjun and Qiu Yashu a few days ago had been the talk of the town. She had heard bits and pieces.
Privately, she had asked Fang Wenjun about it.
At the time, Fang Wenjun had only shaken her head and said, "It’s easy to paint a person’s face, but hard to capture their bones; you may know a person’s face, but not their heart."
She didn’t even want to mention Qiu Yashu by name, which showed just how strained their relationship had become.
Jiang Si had always assumed that conflicts between women were limited to gossip behind each other’s backs—
or, at worst, underhanded tactics like reporting or framing, as Su Wanwan had done before.
Who would have thought things could escalate to the point of a public collision!
But dwelling on it now was pointless—everything would have to wait until Fang Wenjun woke up.
Jiang Si and Huo Tingzhou waited at the hospital for nearly four hours.
It wasn’t until a little past two in the afternoon that Fang Wenjun finally regained consciousness.
