Chapter 854 — The Greedy Florist

Before Guan Xin could even react, Kang Jingming began to sing: "In the hospital there's a girl named Xiao Xin, pretty and kind, with a pair of beautiful big eyes, and thick long braids..."

Kang Jingming strummed the guitar and sang, and he did rather have the air of a romantic prince about him — except that his singing was so awful it sounded a bit like a toad croaking. It not only startled Guan Xin but also made the onlookers frown!

"Xiao Mei, let's get out of here quick, don't pay him any attention!" Guan Xin had never encountered a scene like this before and was genuinely frightened by Kang Jingming.

Seeing that Guan Xin was about to leave, Kang Jingming grew anxious. He abandoned the song entirely and went straight into the confession: "Xin Xin, you are the goddess in my heart. You are electricity, you are light, you are the only legend. I love only you..."

"Where are you from? Flammable and explosive materials are not allowed in the hospital, let alone setting off fireworks! And shouting into a loudspeaker like that has already disturbed the patients here. Come back to the security office with us and accept your punishment!" Just as Kang Jingming was making all that racket, the police from the hospital's security duty room arrived in response to a report and surrounded him in an instant.

"Huh?" Kang Jingming had not expected to actually summon the police. He was stunned for a moment. "Is courting a girl a crime too?"

"Courting isn't a crime, but the methods you used have violated hospital regulations. Come along with us now!" The two officers took Kang Jingming by either arm and led him away.

Everyone had gathered around expecting to watch a farce, but before Kang Jingming could even finish his confession, the police hauled him off, and the crowd soon dispersed.

Guan Xin finally breathed a sigh of relief. Kang Jingming really was a nuisance, making such a spectacle and leaving her at a loss. She had never lacked suitors before, but this was the first time anyone had kicked up such a fuss!

"Phew..." Guan Xin let out a long breath and decided that the next time she saw Kang Jingming, she would have a proper talk with him. There was absolutely no hope for him with her, and she wanted him to stop wasting his effort!

"That guy really is unlucky — he didn't even get to finish his confession before the hospital security police arrested him!" Li Xiaomei pursed her lips, finding it rather amusing.

"Good thing he was arrested, otherwise I really wouldn't have known how to deal with it!" Guan Xin shook her head and hurried with Li Xiaomei toward where the hospital commuter bus was parked...

In the hospital security office, Kang Jingming wrote a letter of guarantee and paid a small fine before being released. After all, he hadn't done anything too serious, so the police gave him a lecture and let him go.

Kang Jingming didn't take a word of it to heart. Secretly anxious, he quickly maneuvered his wheelchair out of the security office, only to find Zhu Xiaozhang and Wang Shubin both waiting at the door.

"Where's Guan Xin? What happened?" Kang Jingming asked urgently.

"She left ages ago!" Wang Shubin said somewhat helplessly. "Young Master Ming, you weren't there — there was no way we could stop Guan Xin from leaving!"

"Then what expression did she have when she left? Did she look very happy?" Kang Jingming asked.

"No, she seemed pretty angry..." Wang Shubin said cautiously.

"Damn it, all that buildup for nothing!" Kang Jingming said in great annoyance. "Why does this hospital have to stick its nose into everything?"

The three of them left the hospital together. The sea of flowers in front of the entrance had already been cleared away, and the guitar and loudspeaker were nowhere to be seen, but Kang Jingming didn't much care about those things. What he was thinking about now was how on earth he could win Guan Xin over! It seemed the confession had been a complete failure!

The only question was whether Guan Xin was angry because she didn't like him, or because the confession had been interrupted halfway through?

The florist at the entrance had really struck it rich! Kang Jingming had been arrested, and Wang Shubin and Zhu Xiaozhang had left, so the more than ten thousand roses at the entrance had all become ownerless property. The florist hurriedly called over a few workers, gathered up every last rose, and stored them in his own cellar.

The owner had gotten a great bargain, yet he was not satisfied. He went on hatching his schemes, planning to sell those fresh flowers to Kang Jingming again tomorrow! He waited at the hospital entrance, and when he saw the three of them walk out, he hurried up to them beaming: "Well now, gentlemen, still buying flowers? I've got cheap roses here, guaranteed cheap. Will you want them again tomorrow?"

"Like hell I will!" Kang Jingming shot the florist an annoyed glare. Buy more? So he could be made a fool of again tomorrow?

"Boss, didn't you fail today? Aren't you going to keep at it tomorrow?" The owner was taken aback, somewhat unwilling to let it go. He had seen Yu Xiaoke make money and was burning with envy and jealousy. Now that he had picked up ten thousand roses for free, he still wanted to sell them to Kang Jingming.

Had the boss kept his mouth shut, things might have been fine, but the moment he brought up the failed confession, Kang Jingming flew into a rage — the man had to poke the one sore spot that ached the most! Furious, he jabbed a finger at the flower shop owner and ordered Zhu Xiaozhang and Wang Shubin, "Beat him for me! Damn his hide, running his mouth off in front of me!"

As the saying goes, a heart never knows contentment — like a snake trying to swallow an elephant, and this boss was just that sort. He had already pocketed ten thousand roses for free, yet he still wasn't satisfied; he actually wanted to turn around and sell those same ten thousand roses back to Kang Jingming!

Now look how that turned out — Wang Shubin and Zhu Xiaozhang gave him a solid beating and knocked every last bit of fight clean out of him!

The boss did have some connections, and he even knew Crazy Bull, the local boss who ran this whole stretch of turf, but when he saw that Kang Jingming and his two companions had arrived in a Porsche Cayenne — obviously men of money — how would he dare provoke them? He could only howl and wail, begging for mercy.

And so Kang Jingming's Great Courtship Offensive ended in farce. Guan Xin was not moved in the slightest, and he had frittered away fifty thousand yuan for nothing.

Still, Kang Jingming did not give up. The next afternoon, as quitting time drew near, he staked out the entrance of the First People's Hospital together with Wang Shubin and Zhu Xiaozhang, waiting for Guan Xin to get off work.

"The way things stand, what am I supposed to do?" Kang Jingming sighed, at his wit's end. He had taken on this task from his family full of confidence, thinking he could wrap it up brilliantly and flawlessly — who would have guessed that Guan Xin would be so hard to deal with? No matter what he did, she remained unmoved.

By any reasonable measure, his family background was about equal to Guan Xin's — a well-matched pair by any standard. So why wouldn't she be moved?

"Young Master Ming, I figure Guan Xin grew up in an intellectual household like that, so she must have had a proper upbringing — otherwise she wouldn't be this hard to hook!" Wang Shubin reasoned.