The three girls had a pleasant weekend.
On Sunday afternoon, Lin Nanxi returned to school.
Shen Xinglan also had to go home to follow the plot.
After her niece and best friend left, the villa—where her voice echoed when she spoke—was once again left with only Chu Tianqing.
She didn't have time to feel lonely.
The worker grandma's pleasant weekend was over.
The thought that tomorrow was Monday, a workday, and she'd have to go serve the capitalist Lin Sinian…
Chu Tianqing yawned, instantly feeling sleepy out of pure reflex.
When workhorses think about work, they're basically alive but dead inside.
To coax herself into having a good mood for "going to work" on Monday, Chu Tianqing splurged on a Liu Wenxiang spicy malatang takeout for dinner.
After eating her fill, she soaked in a bath, put on a face mask, and changed into the several-thousand-yuan silk nightgown her niece had given her before lying down on the soft, big bed.
Chu Tianqing touched the hem of the nightgown—the slippery texture felt amazing, like wearing nothing at all, just as comfortable as her niece had said.
It was truly expensive, but it was also truly comfortable.
Chu Tianqing rolled around on the bed, feeling like she'd already been corrupted by the consumerism of the wealthy.
Early autumn brought frequent rain, especially at night.
Chu Tianqing had just said goodnight to Shen Xinglan over voice call and locked her phone when she heard a dull rumble of thunder.
She unlocked her phone again and opened her WeChat chat with Lin Sinian.
The chat history was still stuck on the comforting message she'd sent him in the middle of the night during the last rainy day.
Chu Tianqing typed away—
[It's thundering again, don't be scared, I'm here with you…]
After a moment's hesitation, she deleted all the words, locked her phone, and went to sleep.
The little devil Qingqing in her head, wearing a sexy silk camisole nightgown and flapping her wicked little wings, popped out again—
That ungrateful old man, can't even be bothered to reply to a message!
Hmph, you don't deserve my comfort!
Scared of thunder?
Let the thunder come harder!
Old man, you just stay scared!
Renji Hospital, VIP ward.
The hospital windows didn't block sound well, and Lin Sinian was startled awake from his sleep by the thunder.
He'd already become skilled at using his mind to calm his emotions.
But the muscle-memory fear of thunder from after his amnesia still seriously affected his sleep quality.
He'd just fallen asleep when his body was forcibly awakened, and after several rounds of this, his heart was pounding.
He instinctively looked at his phone—the screen wasn't lit.
He opened WeChat, found the chat with Chu Tianqing, and it still showed the message she'd sent during the last rainy day.
Lin Sinian let out a cold laugh.
She'd said herself, "Every rainy day, I'll be there with you."
Sure, a liar after all.
Lin Sinian's eyelashes fluttered as he seemed to see "Typing…" appear.
His OCD kicked in—he wanted to see what she was going to send.
But he waited through thunderclap after thunderclap, crackling like firecrackers, and Chu Tianqing never sent a single message.
Monday morning.
Chu Tianqing woke up naturally.
The happiest thing in the world was waking up fifteen minutes before the alarm and getting to laze in bed before it went off.
After lounging a bit, she pressed the button by her bedside, and the curtains drew open. She closed her eyes and stretched.
Her cheeks didn't feel the warmth of sunlight.
She opened her eyes.
Huh? It was an overcast day.
Overcast days had their perks—riding a bike wouldn't get you sunburned.
Chu Tianqing got up briskly, hopped on her little electric cart, and went to the yard to pick a bouquet of fluffy teddy bear sunflowers as today's free gift.
She'd already thought of what to say—everything was ready.
In the fridge were breakfast rice balls Shen Xinglan had prepared for her in advance, plus the premium fruit her niece Lin Nanxi had ordered before leaving.
Chu Tianqing microwaved a spicy pork floss, salted egg yolk, and sausage rice ball, ate a few pale snow strawberries sweet as first love, and bit into a jelly orange.
Good sleep at night, good breakfast in the morning—naturally, Chu Tianqing was in good spirits.
She changed her clothes, slung on her backpack, hugged the sunflowers, and scanned to unlock a shared bike.
Riding her beloved little bike, Chu Tianqing breezed through the streets and alleys with a pleasant wind at her back.
Late September weather was neither hot nor cold—perfect for cycling.
Though that came with a caveat: only on good days.
A few hundred meters from the hospital, rain suddenly began to fall from the sky.
"Damn!" Chu Tianqing mentally screamed "Legs, pedal faster!" as she sprinted toward the hospital.
She reached the hospital entrance in just two minutes.
After parking the bike and holding her backpack over her head, she jogged toward the inpatient building.
But in those few minutes, the rain came down harder and harder, and she still ended up half-soaked.
There was a mirror in the inpatient building's lobby. Chu Tianqing looked at herself—strands of rain-soaked hair clinging to her cheeks. It actually had a certain kind of beauty, and inspiration struck her in that instant.
"Not wet enough?" Chu Tianqing went to the restroom and deliberately made her hair even wetter before taking the elevator upstairs.
"Good morning…" Pushing open the ward door, Chu Tianqing wrinkled her nose and sneezed. "Achoo!"
"Good morning, ma'am? How did you get caught in the rain…"
Assistant Sun hurried to the restroom and brought back a clean bath towel.
Chu Tianqing wrapped herself in a bath towel and smiled nonchalantly. "It's nothing. I forgot to bring a raincoat. The weather forecast didn't call for rain, so I was careless."
"A raincoat?" Assistant Sun looked baffled. "Ma'am, how did you get to the hospital?"
Chu Tianqing casually dried her hair and said in a natural tone, "I rode a shared bike."
Assistant Sun: "You ride a bike to the hospital every day, and ride back to the villa?"
Chu Tianqing nodded. "That's right."
Assistant Sun was stunned. "It's such a long distance, with wind and sun. I know the company took back the driver and car, but why don't you take a taxi, ma'am…"
Chu Tianqing said airily, "The villa area is too far. A taxi round trip costs over two hundred a day. I still owe Xiao Xi her allowance. Riding a bike doesn't take that long—round trip is just over three hours, I guess…"
Seeing that she wasn't joking at all, Assistant Sun was momentarily speechless and instinctively looked at Lin Sinian.
Lin Sinian's gaze rested faintly on Chu Tianqing's face, with no extra emotion in his eyes. "You forgot your raincoat. Getting soaked is paying the price for your own mistake."
"Didn't I already admit from the start that I was careless?" Chu Tianqing put down the towel, suddenly getting testy.
Although Lin Sinian's words couldn't be faulted, they just weren't pleasant to hear.
A normal husband who doted on his wife wouldn't say a few comforting words at a time like this, wouldn't he? Wouldn't he try to solve the problem?
Instead of solving the problem, he just made snide remarks?
He really was an insufferable old man!
However, after seeing his heavy dark circles, Chu Tianqing's mood improved again.
Carrying a large bouquet of teddy bear sunflowers, she sat down by his hospital bed and asked knowingly, "Wow? Why are your dark circles so heavy? Did you not sleep well because of the thunder last night?"
Lin Sinian looked up and caught a flash of schadenfreude in her eyes.
Chu Tianqing broke into a smile, her eyes as damp as her hair. "I brought you teddy bear sunflowers. Don't they look like little suns? Today isn't sunny, so I brought the 'sun' to you."
With her "lines" delivered, Chu Tianqing's "charm offensive" task for the day was complete, regardless of how Lin Sinian reacted.
She picked up the vase from the bedside table and tossed out the withered flowers inside with disdain. "The roses I brought last week have long since wilted. Why haven't you thrown them out yet?"
Lin Sinian and Assistant Sun spoke at the same time—
Lin Sinian: "Forgot."
Assistant Sun: "The boss wouldn't let me throw them away…"
Chu Tianqing paused mid-motion and looked at them suspiciously.
Why weren't their answers consistent?
Lin Sinian shot a look over.
Assistant Sun immediately changed his story: "Over the weekend, I heard a feng shui master say that placing roses in a hospital room can 'absorb illness.' I mentioned it to Chairman Lin, and he said to leave them for now and not rush to throw them out."
"You guys are so superstitious." Chu Tianqing swapped the sunflowers into the vase and went to the bathroom to add water.
While rinsing the vase and changing the water, she silently grumbled to herself. Flowers can absorb illness?
Rich people had the strangest superstitions. If it actually worked, they might as well lay the old man in a flower field and his memory would come back.
All day long, they wasted time on useless things like this.
Inside the hospital room.
Lin Sinian looked toward the bathroom and gave Assistant Sun a slight nod.
Assistant Sun leaned in.
Lin Sinian said coolly, "Ask her privately if she has a driver's license."
"Understood."
Lin Sinian's lips moved slightly. "Change the lunch soup to ginger soup."
"Yours too?" Assistant Sun was surprised. Lin Sinian didn't eat ginger.
Lin Sinian didn't respond.
"Understood. We'll change them all." Assistant Sun picked up his tablet to make a note.
Chu Tianqing came out of the bathroom carrying the sunflowers and placed the vase on the bedside table.
"I'll put the flowers here. If it thunders and rains again tonight, the 'little sun' will keep you company, so you won't be scared."
With that, she stepped back and tilted her head to admire her handiwork.
Actually, the avocado-green vase and the blooming sunflowers matched pretty well?
Avocado green…
Chu Tianqing's face flushed hot in an instant.
The couple's toy her eldest niece had given her on Saturday was that exact color.
Out of nowhere, a chibi version of Qingqing popped into her head, pulling along another chibi Lin Sinian in a hospital gown?!
Then the scene shifted, and both little figures had lost their clothes.
Each held one of the little toys, about to happily engage in a two-player toy session, giving each other a good time…
Chu Tianqing's mind went dirty, and she panicked.
She had to rein in her imagination, which was running wild like a runaway horse!
"Prosperity, democracy, civility, harmony, freedom, equality, justice, rule of law, patriotism, dedication, integrity, and friendship…" Chu Tianqing muttered the core socialist values as she turned and left the scene, pulling out her laptop from her bag.
Good. The two little figures in her head had put their clothes back on.
But wait—why was there a neck and shoulder massager on the companion sofa?
Assuming it was for Lin Sinian or Assistant Sun, Chu Tianqing casually tossed it onto the cabinet by the door and returned to her "workstation" to clock in.
Assistant Sun was about to explain that the neck and shoulder massager was something Chairman Lin had specially gotten for her.
Lin Sinian lifted his eyelids slightly.
Assistant Sun fell silent.
Lin Sinian caught every one of her little expressions.
Chu Tianqing's rain-dampened, now fluffy strands of hair looked very much like the fuzzy petals of the teddy bear sunflowers.
She alternated between blushing and frowning while muttering something under her breath…
She really did look like a little "possessed" "lunatic."
The little "lunatic" Chu Tianqing was only "possessed" for a brief moment before quickly returning to normal.
Chu Tianqing had serious business to attend to.
The most urgent matter at hand was smoothly marrying Shen Xinglan off to the comatose Lin Zhichen.
In the original plot, the wedding was to take place two weeks later.
Chu Tianqing didn't dare imagine how much money that damn system would deduct if they failed to complete such an important major plot point.
There was absolutely no way she'd escape being labeled a deadbeat in the third dimension.
Chu Tianqing sat solemnly in front of the computer all morning, discussing strategies for the "marriage to ward off evil" with Shen Xinglan.
Those old foxes from the Lin family were slippery as eels, with dirty hearts and dirty tricks to match—clearly not easy opponents. There was no telling what underhanded schemes they might pull during negotiations.
Unfortunately, she hadn't found any more direct useful clues from the original owner.
To solidify the argument that Shen Xinglan was absolutely indispensable, they had to think of other angles.
Shen Xinglan had done detailed background checks on all three old foxes and prepared multiple simulated scenarios to send to Chu Tianqing. The two exchanged plans and checked each other's work for gaps and oversights.
Chu Tianqing wasn't the type to enjoy competition.
But if she had to sit at the table, then she'd be the only one left standing.
Lin Sinian's condition had been more stable this week, and the doctor allowed him to use the computer for six hours a day to handle work.
The little "lunatic" sat right where he could see her with just a glance.
All morning, she'd been "on fire."
As if something was burning inside her, she radiated a strange energy from head to toe.
It wasn't until the nurse delivered lunch that the "energy" vanished completely, as if it had burned out.
"Time to eat!" Chu Tianqing closed her laptop and cheerfully grabbed her own meal tray.
"Bon appétit, everyone—dig in~" Chu Tianqing had a habit of drinking soup first, and lately the soup had been especially to her liking, particularly the morel chicken soup.
One spoonful of the golden broth went down, and her face instantly scrunched up like a little steamed bun: "So spicy… What is this?"
"Ginger soup. It wards off cold and evil spirits." Lin Sinian leisurely picked up a bite of greens with his chopsticks.
Chu Tianqing: ?
She could believe warding off cold, but what the hell was this about evil spirits?
Lin Sinian added another line: "It should be because it rained and got colder today—the hospital prepared it specially. It's good for you."
"Yours too…?" Chu Tianqing ran over and lifted the lids off Lin Sinian's and Assistant Sun's soup cups one by one.
Seeing that they had the same ginger soup, she slumped back to her seat with a look of despair, muttering quietly: "Ugh, I really hate the taste of ginger."
When she got to the end of her meal, Chu Tianqing propped her chin on both hands and stared at the soup cup.
She thought about how she'd gotten caught in the rain today—if she caught a chill and came down with a cold, that would be terrible. She absolutely couldn't get sick at such a critical moment.
In the end, she was defeated by those words "good for you."
With a look of someone facing certain death, Chu Tianqing raised the soup cup and downed it.
The spiciness made her stick out her tongue: "Sss…"
The instigator, Lin Sinian, hid his smile behind his eyes.
Chu Tianqing endured the fiery tingling on her tongue and looked at Lin Sinian suspiciously.
He… was acting strange?
Pacing over to Lin Sinian, Chu Tianqing lifted the lid of his soup cup—
Sure enough, it was completely full!
With a "caught you red-handed" expression on her face, she tilted her head to look at him: "This ginger soup that's so good for you—how come you haven't touched a single drop?"