Lin Nuonuo stood outside Lin Chen’s room, staring at the tightly closed door. Without thinking, she called softly, “Dad……”
Of course, there would be no response.
Lin Chen hadn’t come home at all.
Even so, standing there gave her a sense of safety she couldn’t describe.
“Dad, good night.”
After whispering her goodnight into the empty air, she spread the blanket she had brought on the floor and curled up inside it.
The fear left behind by her nightmare slowly faded, and before long, she drifted into sleep.
The floor was cold and hard, terribly uncomfortable, yet she slept more soundly than she had in a long time.
────ρя
Elsewhere, on the top floor of a brightly lit corporate tower, Lin Chen sat at his desk as his friend dropped several documents in front of him.
“These are a few investment agreements. Take a look.” Wei Jinchi said, pulling out a chair and sitting across from him.
Lin Chen skimmed the agreements, then looked at the other party. “You’ve already checked them, haven’t you?”
Hearing that lazy, irresponsible remark, Wei Jinchi let out a snort. “Aren’t you afraid I’ll set you up, take the money, and run?”
Lin Chen looked at him and countered, “Would you?”
Under his friend’s disdainful stare, Wei Jinchi fell silent.
……Fine. It wasn’t that he couldn’t, but he simply didn’t dare.
Not to mention their years of friendship, their superior–subordinate and partner relationship, and the absolute trust between them, if he really dared to cheat Lin Chen, he fully believed Lin Chen had the ability to ruin him within a month and leave him homeless.
“Forget it, don’t look then. Ugh, how did I end up with a boss who does nothing?” Wei Jinchi grumbled as he gathered the agreements. But when he flipped to the one for 《Attending Physician》, he paused, then gave Lin Chen a teasing look. “As an undercover investor, the best you managed for yourself was the eighth male lead role?”
Most shows didn’t officially list something like ‘eight male lead’. Lin Chen’s part, to put it nicely, was one of the supporting casts, and to put it plainly, he was just a transitional side character.
Lin Chen shot him a glance and said coldly, “No time.”
Hearing that, Wei Jinchi recalled something and dropped the topic.
“So you’ve been staying at the Lin residence lately?” He asked. He was one of the few people who knew a bit about the messy drama there, though not in detail.
“Depends on my mood.” He was joining the production soon, so he might not stay there obediently just because Lin Chaojiang wanted him to.
At that thought, Lin Chen suddenly remembered the little kid who only cared about ‘mealtimes’. Since he didn’t return tonight, would that child show up at his door again at dinner to ‘check in’?
She couldn’t be that foolish.
Probably.
Lin Chen thought.
But he didn’t know that not only had Lin Nuonuo gone to ‘check in’ at his door that night, but she had directly occupied the floor outside his room.
And the result was that, by the second half of the night, she developed a high fever.
……
Burning hot and delirious, Lin Nuonuo couldn’t wake up the next morning, nor crawl back to her own room.
At first, the servants didn’t notice anything wrong.
Only when breakfast began, and Lin Chaojiang felt something was missing, asking where Lin Nuonuo was, did anyone realize that the child who always arrived at mealtime on her own hadn’t shown up.
A servant went to her room and found it empty. The bed was untouched. She was nowhere to be seen.
After searching the villa, they finally found her at Lin Chen’s door, along with her blanket.
She was unconscious, her body blazing with fever.
Even the usually indifferent servants panicked and hurriedly carried her back to her room.
When Lin Chaojiang came to check and saw how high Lin Nuonuo’s fever was, he scolded the servants harshly, “She’s burning up like this, and none of you noticed?! How are you taking care of a child?!”
At that, guilt spread across the servants’ faces.
They treated people differently depending on their status.
Seeing that the young master and young madam didn’t care about Lin Nuonuo— didn’t even treat her like their own daughter— the servants naturally wouldn’t be as attentive to her as they were to Lin Zixin.
Besides, this child took care of herself. She dressed herself, folded her own blankets, washed up on her own, came to meals by herself, and even washed most of her clothes except the very large pieces.
She caused no trouble, so they paid even less attention to her.
“She somehow ended up outside the second young master’s room. That’s why we didn’t notice.” A younger servant whispered defensively.
Lin Chen hated being disturbed and people entering his room or touching his things, so aside from necessary cleaning, the servants rarely approached that area.
As for why Lin Nuonuo had shown up at his door, none of them cared to think too hard. Maybe she wandered there while feverish, or maybe she got the rooms mixed up. After all, their rooms were both near the end of the hallway.
Ignoring their excuses, Lin Chaojiang turned to Butler Wang. “Bring Dr. Liang.”
“Yes, Sir.”
Dr. Liang, the family doctor, lived nearby and arrived quickly. After examining Lin Nuonuo, he confirmed it was just a high fever from catching a chill and had the servants give her medicine.
“It’s just an ordinary fever from getting cold. It lasted a bit long and drained her energy, but there’s no other serious issue. Now that she’s had medicine, her temperature should start dropping within thirty minutes.” He reported.
Lin Chaojiang nodded, relieved.
“How have you been feeling since switching medications? Any side effects?” Dr. Liang asked.
“None. I feel much better than before.”
“Good.”
He performed a brief checkup on Lin Chaojiang and, finding nothing wrong, prepared to leave. “If there’s nothing else, I’ll head back.”
“Wait.” Something occurred to Lin Chaojiang. “The child couldn’t speak for some reason. Check what’s wrong.”
“She can’t speak? Let me see.”
He followed Lin Chaojiang back to Lin Nuonuo’s room.
By now, her fever had mostly subsided, but she still hadn’t woken.
After examining her throat and vocal cords, Dr. Liang concluded, “There’s no physical issue with her throat or vocal organs. Her inability to speak is likely not caused by her voice system.”
“Then what’s the reason?” Lin Chaojiang frowned.
“There are many possibilities, like issues with cognitive development, neurological factors, or psychological causes. For example, a sudden change in environment or some form of stress can trigger an acute response and cause temporary muteness……”
Without proper equipment, he couldn’t give a definitive answer.
“A full examination would be best.” Dr. Liang suggested.
Checking the cause would require a hospital visit, but his son and daughter-in-law clearly hadn’t bothered to arrange anything since the last time Lin Chaojiang brought it up.
“I understand.” Lin Chaojiang nodded and sent the doctor off, then had Auntie Liu stay to care for the child.
Auntie Liu replaced the cooling patch on Lin Nuonuo’s forehead and fed her some porridge while she was half-awake.
Seeing the child lying on the bed, Auntie Liu’s eyes softened in pity.
“She finally put on a bit of weight, and now she’ll lose it all from this fever.” She sighed.
When Lin Nuonuo had first arrived, she was thin and frail. After half a month of better meals, she had begun to fill out and look healthier. Now her complexion had improved too— no longer as sallow— and her delicate features were becoming noticeable.
────ρя
Children fell ill quickly but recovered just as fast.
In the morning, Lin Nuonuo was still limp and weak, but by afternoon, she was lively again, sitting in the living room accompanying Lin Chaojiang as he read.
For once, he wasn’t reading economics or politics. He had taken out a storybook and was teaching her characters.
Lin Nuonuo listened quietly, but her eyes were unfocused. Cheek in hand, she seemed lost in thought.
Seeing her dazed expression, he assumed the child was still weak from the fever and asked gently, “Nuonuo, are you uncomfortable anywhere?”
She shook her head. After hesitating a long moment, she finally asked the question weighing heavily on her heart, “Um…… how can I make my dad know I’m his child?”
Her voice was unhurried and soft, tinged with childish clarity but also the exhaustion of someone who had just been sick.
Her words startled Lin Chaojiang.
“You can talk?!”
He was genuinely shocked.
If she hadn’t said such a long sentence, he might have thought he imagined it.
Lin Nuonuo nodded. “I can.”
She could speak. She simply hadn’t wanted to. No one there ever talked to her, and she never needed to speak.
Hearing her answer him again, Lin Chaojiang felt pleasantly surprised.
Then he recalled what Dr. Liang said before about psychological stress causing muteness. Considering the child had been taken from the orphanage into an unfamiliar home, she must have been overwhelmed. Her silence might truly have been an acute reaction.
Or perhaps…… the fever had burned it out of her system.
Thinking that way, Lin Chaojiang no longer found it strange.