Li Yixun had originally planned to have dinner with Yuan Yi after accompanying her to try on wedding dresses, but Yuan Yi inexplicably felt a headache coming on, suspecting she had caught a cold from wearing too little clothing to celebrate New Year’s Eve.
She could only apologize to Yuan Yi, agree to meet again next time, and then find a designated driver to take her home.
When Li Yixun arrived home, she ran into Assistant Jin rummaging through the refrigerator in the dining room. She held a bottle of unsweetened oolong tea and a bottle of purified water, seemingly struggling with what to drink.
“Hello,” Assistant Jin greeted Li Yixun, closing the refrigerator door behind her.
Li Yixun’s beautiful face was adorned with light professional makeup, her slightly wavy long hair cascading down her chest. Her well-tailored business suit flattered her figure, and a cleverly designed brooch added a touch of sophistication.
Li Yixun glanced at the pink slippers on her feet and replied coldly, “Hello.”
When they walked into the living room together, they discovered that Chen Nian’s other male assistant—Assistant Lin—was also sitting on the sofa. He quickly stood up to greet Li Yixun, “Hello, Madam.”
“Hello,” Li Yixun replied, her head throbbing, too exhausted to deal with them. “Don’t worry about me, please make yourselves at home.”
Li Yixun sat down on the single sofa, rubbed her forehead, and closed her eyes to rest, planning to take a shower later.
“Madam, there’s a sudden problem with an investment we discussed earlier, and Mr. Chen needs to go there to handle it. We just booked his flights for tonight, and he’s still packing,” Assistant Lin explained to Li Yixun, explaining their presence at her home.
“Mm,” Li Yixun replied, forcing herself to muster some energy to respond.
A moment later, she heard something placed on the small coffee table beside her, followed by Assistant Lin’s deliberately lowered voice: “Madam, you seem unwell. I poured you a cup of hot water. Please drink some if you wish.”
Li Yixun groggily opened her eyes and saw the steaming cup of hot water on the coffee table. She thanked Assistant Lin for her thoughtfulness, “Thank you.”
“It’s nothing,” Assistant Lin nodded to her and returned to the sofa to sit quietly with Assistant Jin.
Li Yixun picked up the cup of hot water and slowly sipped it, feeling her severe headache ease slightly with the soothing warmth.
Chen Nian, dressed in a suit and tie, emerged from the walk-in closet, dragging a silver suitcase. He glanced at the three people seated in the living room, forming a triangle, seemingly surprised to see Li Yixun at home. “Why are you back so suddenly? Didn’t you say you were going out to eat?”
“I have to go on a business trip for a few days. My return date depends on how things are resolved.”
“Okay.” Li Yixun rubbed her forehead, unfazed by his sudden business trip.
Usually, she would remind him to eat on time and be careful not to get a stomachache when he was out, but today, with a splitting headache, Li Yixun was too preoccupied to talk much.
Besides, she didn’t want to nag in front of outsiders, making her seem like a clingy, nagging wife.
“Let’s go then.” Chen Nian stood for a moment, seemingly having nothing more to say, then pulled his suitcase and walked out.
Assistant Lin hurriedly slipped on her disposable slippers and went to help Chen Nian with his suitcase, turning to say goodbye to Li Yixun, “Goodbye, Madam.”
“We’ll be going now, take care.” Assistant Jin also stood up, smoothing out non-existent wrinkles on her dress, and caught up with them.
“Goodbye.”
A door slammed shut, drowning out Li Yixun’s not-so-loud voice.
Li Yixun’s illness this time came on suddenly, developing a high fever that very night.
Her lips were dry, her chest felt tight, and her mind was somewhat hazy. She knew she had to go to the hospital. With her remaining consciousness, she found her phone and dialed Chen Nian’s number.
However, after the dial tone, only a cold female voice came through: “The number you dialed is currently unavailable. Please try again later.”
The mechanical female voice repeated this in English before the call automatically ended.
Only then did Li Yixun vaguely remember that her husband was away on a business trip.
Unable to get through, she could only force herself to stay awake, shakily turning on the screen, finding the nearest contact in her phone, and dialing back.
“Hello?” The call was quickly answered.
“…Yuanyi…I have a fever…I can’t get up to go to the hospital…Could you come and help me?” Li Yixun was groggy; she found it difficult to breathe, almost gasping for air.
“Okay.” Receiving that affirmation, Li Yixun relaxed and allowed her consciousness to drift into sleep.
Therefore, she didn’t notice that the voice on the other end wasn’t Yuanyi’s, and naturally didn’t hear the anxious voice asking for her address.
When Li Yixun woke up again, it was already noon the next day. Looking around, she realized she was in the hospital.
“You’re awake?” Yuanyi pushed open the door, holding her phone; she seemed to have just finished a call outside.
Memories of last night flooded back. Li Yixun tried to ignore the discomfort of the IV needle in his hand and said apologetically, “Yiyi, I’m so sorry, I troubled you last night.”
Yuan Yi awkwardly touched her nose: “Huh? You troubled more than just me last night.”
“…Huh?”
Li Yixun felt like his mind was going blank.
“Last night you called Yan Che, and then he called me to ask for your address… When we got there, we found your door had a combination lock that wouldn’t open… We tried calling you, but no one answered, and Chen Nian’s phone was switched off.”
“Then Yan Che contacted your property management and broke your door lock… but before we left, we asked them to reinstall the lock.”
“So you’ll receive a bill from the property management when you get back…”
Li Yixun breathed a sigh of relief: “It’s okay, I have the property manager’s WeChat, I’ll transfer the money to her.”
She remembered her phone and reached for it by the bedside: “Where’s my phone?”
“It’s in the drawer.” Yuan Yi took her phone from the drawer and handed it to her. “This private hospital is relatively close to your place, so we brought it to you… The doctor said you have the flu and a slight inflammation in your lungs, so you need to be hospitalized for a few days for IV drips and observation.”
Li Yixun checked her call history and realized that she had indeed called Yan Che around 1 a.m. yesterday.
Yan Che is now the marketing director of their company’s partner. He called her in the car yesterday afternoon to discuss work. Last night, in her hazy state, she thought the last person she spoke to was Yuan Yi, the one she had met with.
“Did Yan Che go back?”
“I let him go back since you didn’t have anything else to do. Making him travel in the middle of the night, you’ll definitely have to treat him to dinner later.”
“Definitely, and he’s still our company’s partner; we’ll have a lot of work to do together.”
Li Yixun opened WeChat and saw a message from Chen Nian pinned to the top of her chat list, sent at 3 AM: “Just got off the plane, did you call me?”
Without a response, he didn’t ask further.
“Did Chen Nian call or message you back later?” Li Yixun looked up, her eyes revealing a hint of expectation she herself didn’t realize.
“Ugh! That jerk! He just replied with a question mark, didn’t say a word. I don’t have time to deal with him.” Yuan Yi pouted, her dissatisfaction with Chen Nian obvious.
Hearing this, Li Yixun lowered her eyes, concealing the desolation within.
A bittersweet ocean welled up inside her. She slowly typed, then deleted word by word; only her keyboard knew of her impending breakdown.
Finally, she replied to Chen Nian: “Yiyi and I got drunk yesterday, playing games.”
Yuan Yi sensed something was wrong and tried to change the subject: “I ordered you some porridge, it should be here soon… You know, this hospital is really convenient, you can just scan a QR code, and someone will deliver it to the cafeteria. I just don’t know if it’ll be any good.”
Li Yixun put down her phone, forcing herself to cheer up: “You know what, I’m starving, I could eat a whole cow. I wasn’t feeling well last night and didn’t eat anything at all.”
“Don’t even think about a cow, you’ll starve to death with just porridge and side dishes every day! You’d better get better soon so you can eat other things, until then you can only watch me eat… Hehe, I just ordered snail noodles.” Yuan Yi proudly tossed her phone.
Li Yixun sneered, “Yuan Yi, don’t try to fool me. Patients need nutrition to recover quickly; how can I drink porridge every day?”
“Well, you can’t eat snail rice noodles either, nyah nyah nyah.” The childish Yuan Yi wasn’t going to back down, deliberately trying to annoy her.