Chu E sat by the bed, looking worriedly at Lin Lan, whose face was pale and eyes closed.
Time passed slowly. An hour after Luoxuan left, Lin Lan finally began to wake up. The moment she opened her eyes, Chu E’s heart settled, and she let out a long sigh of relief. “You’re finally awake. You had us so worried!”
Lin Lan, her head bandaged and unable to move, looked around with her eyes. Chu E understood her thoughts and smiled, saying, “Mr. and Mrs. Zhong kept watch over you all night and have gone home to rest. Luoxuan just left, and I was about to call him to tell him you’re awake…” As she was about to take out her phone, Lin Lan stopped her, grabbing her sleeve and closing her eyes.
“What’s wrong?” Chu E was puzzled.
Lin Lan weakly said, “Chu Chu, don’t tell him, don’t!”
“Why? He’ll be worried if you don’t tell him!”
“
Lin Lan said miserably, “I’d rather die in the car accident than feel like this…”
“What nonsense are you talking about?” Chu E scolded her. “Stop thinking nonsense! You’ve just woken up, you shouldn’t talk too much. Rest well!
Lin Lan’s eyes suddenly filled with tears, “I originally thought that as long as I could marry him, I could get everything I wanted – no worries about food and clothing, wealth and honor! But later I realized that I care more about him as a person, not his assets. I love him so deeply that even I can’t believe it! Just thinking about him having feelings for someone else makes me uncomfortable, I get jealous, I go crazy! I’m about to break down! Chu Chu, please help me, you must help me…”
Chu E was stunned. She really hadn’t expected Lin Lan to love Luo Xuan so deeply!
Lin Lan looked at her mournfully: “Chu Chu, I’m so sad, I’m really so sad! No matter how hard I try, how much heart I put in, I can never win his heart! Chu Chu, what should I do? His heart only has you…”
Chu E was completely frozen, her mouth slightly open, not knowing what to say. She could only tightly hold Lin Lan’s hand, trying to transmit strength through this gesture.
Long silence.
“
After a while, Lin Lan sighed deeply, tiredly closing her eyes, softly saying: “Actually, if he could just give me a smile, say a caring word to me, watch a movie with me, call me ‘wife’, I would be completely satisfied…” She murmured and then fell into a deep sleep.
Chu E gazed at her for a long time before quietly leaving the hospital room, dialing Luo Xuan’s number: “She just woke up and has fallen asleep again. Come here, I have something to tell you!”
The car slid past the fashion store, leaving Gu Yunzhi behind. In a daze, she suddenly remembered that line of poetry: “Returning your bright pearl with tears falling, wishing we had not met before marriage!” Tears immediately welled up and overflowed.
The driver, a man in his forties, saw her silent tears in the rearview mirror and thoughtfully handed her a few tissues.
She returned home feeling melancholic. The entire afternoon, her mind was in a trance, listless in everything she did. Until Gu Yunzhi’s phone call came in the evening.
She didn’t answer the phone, just staring blankly at the mobile phone on the coffee table vibrating repeatedly.
The ringtone finally stopped. Shortly after, a text message sound beeped twice.
Chu Ye slowly opened it, and as expected, it was from him: Little Ye, are you angry with me?
Chu Ye couldn’t describe her feelings, a mix of sweet, sour, bitter, and spicy. Especially when thinking about the scene from the afternoon, she felt inexplicably uncomfortable and jealous. She was angry that he didn’t answer her calls and that he went shopping with his wife! Seeing them chatting and laughing together like a perfect couple made her almost go crazy!
Anger? Jealousy? Envy? Chu Ye suddenly realized with a start – could she have truly fallen in love with him? That steady and calm man? That married man eight years her senior?
Oh, God! Chu Ye was stunned by this sudden realization, unable to come back to her senses for a long time.
The air conditioner blew gently, but Chu Ye felt hot and restless. She wandered around the room like a trapped beast, unable to escape her cage. What should I do? What should I do? She murmured, feeling increasingly suffocated. Unconsciously, she picked up the water glass from the coffee table and took a sip, but when she put it down, it was empty. The cup fell with a clang, shattering into blue and white porcelain fragments.
Chu Ye hurriedly tried to pick up the fragments and accidentally cut her finger. Bright red blood gushed out.
She cried out in surprise, hastily pressing her finger and rummaging through drawers for bandages.
After the chaos, Chu Ye sat on the floor, tears flowing. Not from pain, but because no one was there to comfort her. Sometimes women are like this – a small incident can touch their nerves.
The “Heavenly Immortal” ringtone sounded again. Without thinking, Chu Ye lunged for the phone and shouted, “Yunzhi!”
It was indeed Gu Yunzhi. Hearing her tearful voice, he immediately became anxious: “What’s wrong, Little Ye? What happened?”
Chu Ye sobbed without speaking, feeling a ball of grievance in her heart that she couldn’t quite articulate.
Not hearing her respond, Gu Yunzhi became more worried: “Little Ye, wait a moment, I’m coming up right now!”
Chu Ye was so startled her tears stopped. He was coming up immediately? She rushed to the window and saw his car parked below.
In less than a minute, knocking sounds came at the door. Chu Ye was stunned – he had actually forgotten to ring the doorbell?
The moment she opened the door and saw Chu Ye standing completely intact, Gu Yunzhi let out a long sigh of relief, “You scared me, I thought…” His gaze fell on her bandaged hand, and he exclaimed, “What happened?”
Chu Ye shook her head, her eyes watery.
Gu Yunzhi immediately saw the scattered ceramic fragments and understood. He sighed, went to the kitchen to get a broom, and carefully swept up every piece. He swept meticulously, afraid of leaving any fragments behind. Chu Ye silently watched him, and after he disposed of the fragments and returned from the kitchen, she suddenly hugged him from behind.
Gu Yunzhi’s body instantly stiffened. “Little Ye?” he called.
She didn’t respond, just pressed her face tightly against his broad back, greedily breathing in his scent. When he moved, she said, “Don’t move, just let me hold you like this…” She murmured, completely unaware of how seductive her voice sounded.
Gu Yunzhi felt a warm current surge through his body. He softly said, “Little Ye, it’s not that I didn’t answer your calls, but I really didn’t hear them…”
Chu Ye whispered, “But even if you had heard them, you wouldn’t have answered, would you?”
Gu Yunzhi was speechless. Chu Ye sighed, “I saw you two!”
Gu Yunzhi’s body stiffened. Her words seemed to awaken the nerves and facts that had been lost in her tenderness. He slowly removed her hands, slowly creating distance between them, and said with a bitter smile, “As you saw, I have a family, a wife. Little Ye, I can’t hurt you…” Despite the fact that the girl in front of him was so captivating!
However, during their second unexpected encounter in Zhuhai, her ability to be both dynamic and static, her unpretentious demeanor, and her pure and clear state of mind left a deep impression on him. Especially after hearing from Yun Lei that this young girl had been supporting herself by writing books and articles all these years, he felt an inexplicable tenderness. When he saw her so fragile and touching, constantly calling his name while burning with fever, he involuntarily developed a desire to protect and care for her. With this thought, their fourth meal together became natural. The warm scene of her tying an apron and serving him soup made him secretly fall for her. That warmth, that tenderness, made him linger and yearn.
