The distance between them suddenly closed.
Chu Tianqing suppressed the urge to flinch and steadied herself.
"Why?" Chu Tianqing avoided Lin Sinian's eyes, which seemed capable of seeing through to one's very soul.
She raised her other hand and placed it over the large hand gripping her slender wrist.
Chu Tianqing's palm was warm.
The pale, bony hand holding her wrist was slightly cool.
"Because you're my darling sweetheart, Lin Sinian." Chu Tianqing's brows curved gently, a smile settling in her eyes.
The temperature of Lin Sinian's palm rose instantly.
He released her wrist, a faint blush creeping to the tips of his ears.
Chu Tianqing also withdrew her hand from the back of his.
Inwardly, a chibi version of Qingqing put her hands on her hips and stuck out her tongue: Nyah nyah nyah, may disgust kill you and I won't pay a cent!
Chu Tianqing began her "performance."
She looked up at him, her gaze as soft as her voice: "Taste memories last longer than memories stored in the brain, and they carry deeper emotional recollections."
"When you were pursuing me, you knew I loved the chicken popcorn, potato cakes, and plum-flavored rice cakes from a certain fried food shop. On our dates, you'd send your people away and specially buy them to wait for me."
"Our acting teacher always ran overtime. Every time I found you, the fried food had already gone cold."
"Then you'd find a convenience store and heat them up in the microwave for me. Whatever I couldn't finish, you'd always eat for me."
"You always told me we mustn't waste food—that your older sister taught you that."
"Assistant Sun said you lost your memory. At first, I didn't believe it…"
"You can forget the whole world, but how could you forget me? See, you even remember the taste of the food we loved…"
Chu Tianqing's throat tightened, her lashes trembling like a butterfly with broken wings. Her beautiful eyes seemed drenched in spring rain, and a single teardrop slid perfectly from her right eye.
She tilted her face slightly, letting the tear trace along her flawless jawline.
When she spoke again, her voice carried just the right hint of a tremble: "Sinian, I'll be here with you, helping you piece your memories back together, bit by bit."
Yeah, right~
Old man, you'd better stay amnesiac for the rest of your life!
On the other side of the hospital room.
Assistant Sun saw in Chu Tianqing's eyes a fiercely suppressed, surging… love, presumably?
He felt something cool on his cheek and reached up to touch it—
What? He was crying!
Wah wah wah wah, what a god-tier love story between Chairman Lin and his wife!
As Lin Sinian's personal assistant, Assistant Sun clearly remembered that Chairman Lin had gone on a few solo dates with his wife during their university days.
So their dates were this pure and innocent?!
Assistant Sun couldn't deny that initially, he'd shared the same view as the elders of the Lin clan—that Chu Tianqing was with Chairman Lin for his money.
But before the wedding, the two had signed a prenuptial property agreement, and it was Chu Tianqing who had proposed it.
Their dates never went to luxury stores; instead, they strolled through snack streets and university campuses.
They were truly in love?!
Assistant Sun watched the two on the hospital bed gazing at each other with deep affection, nearly bursting with excitement. They were just too perfect for each other.
On the hospital bed.
Lin Sinian looked at Chu Tianqing's beautiful eyes, brimming with "love," unable to determine whether that "love" was genuine.
Even though he sensed the surging emotion, he still felt something was off.
Her "deep affection" was riddled with a sense of incongruity?
No matter how he analyzed her words or body language, he couldn't rationally find traces of "love"—yet his body was responding with "this is love."
It was absurd. And contradictory.
Lin Sinian subconsciously glanced at the meal box.
There was one more thing he hadn't tried: a chicken nugget shaped like a little sun.
The little sun nugget had a sly, cheeky grin painted on it.
For some reason, Lin Sinian felt this little sun nugget resembled the girl claiming to be his newlywed wife.
His chopsticks had just reached out—
Thud.
The lid of the meal box snapped shut.
Chu Tianqing casually pulled the chopsticks from his hand and blinked: "Just a taste is enough. It's fried food, after all—eating too much isn't good for you."
"Assistant Sun, where's the trash can?" Chu Tianqing turned to ask.
Assistant Sun brought over the trash can.
Under Lin Sinian's gaze, Chu Tianqing crushed the meal box firmly in her hand and tossed it in.
"Wasteful." Lin Sinian spoke coldly.
He was still thinking about that little sun nugget he never got to eat.
"That's not called wasting." Chu Tianqing immediately retorted.
Lin Sinian's brows furrowed slightly, curious to hear what other nonsense she'd come up with.
Chu Tianqing lifted her chin with a hint of pride: "It's called leaving room for memories. If you get sick of the taste now, how will that flavor sustain us until we grow old together?"
After saying it, she mentally applauded herself.
Who has the brilliantly clever little brain? The impromptu golden line I just came up with is amazing!
Lin Sinian's brow arched slightly, but a shallow frown creased his forehead.
He saw not a trace of longing for growing old together in her eyes.
Only a proud little goose, seemingly delighted with its own masterpiece, admiring itself in solitude…
Even with amnesia, Lin Sinian could distinguish sincerity from pretense through muscle memory alone.
His little wife was full of tricks, and not a single word from her mouth was the truth.
"Huh? The corner of your mouth…" Chu Tianqing leaned over and pulled a tissue from the bedside table, naturally wiping the sauce from the corner of his mouth for him.
Her fingertips accidentally brushed against his lips.
Lin Sinian flinched back uncomfortably, as if shocked by an electric current.
The sudden movement seemed to aggravate the wound on his head.
"Hiss…" Lin Sinian pressed his hand against his forehead as a sharp pain surged through him.
"I'll call the doctor for you." Chu Tianqing pressed the call button.
Doctors and nurses filed in.
After a round of examinations, Lin Sinian was given a sedative injection.
The attending physician said gravely, "Mrs. Lin, the fact that your husband woke up and can maintain clear logical speech is already a blessing within misfortune."
"His brain is like a freshly repaired porcelain vase right now—it can't withstand violent fluctuations. Emotional stimulation must be strictly avoided."
"He's currently under observation during the acute phase and needs to stay hospitalized for three more weeks. If there's no delayed cerebral edema or epilepsy during this period, we can consider letting him recuperate at home."
"Three more weeks in the hospital…" Chu Tianqing latched onto the key phrase, lost in thought.
Assistant Sun said, "I'll stay here with Chairman Lin. Madam, you're physically weak, and you fainted this morning. You should go home and rest first, then come back tomorrow."
Chu Tianqing's face showed reluctance as she bit her lower lip. "Alright then. There's still a lot to deal with at home."
Assistant Sun nodded. "Please take care of yourself, Madam."
"By the way, has Lin Zhichen shown any improvement?" Chu Tianqing asked with concern.
Since she was playing the role of a "devoted wife," she had to perfect the persona of a considerate, understanding companion.
"Vice Chairman Lin's condition isn't optimistic—don't be alarmed," Assistant Sun lowered his voice. "The doctors say he most likely won't wake up."
"Oh no… Can I go see him?" Chu Tianqing panicked, another tear falling.
A beauty in tears—Assistant Sun's heart ached for her. "I'll take you to look, but the clan elders might be there, so we'd better not go inside."
He brought Chu Tianqing to another floor's ward.
Chu Tianqing didn't go in. She looked through the glass at her brother-in-law Lin Zhichen lying on the hospital bed.
The Lin family really did produce beautiful people.
Her cheap brother-in-law's looks and temperament were beyond reproach.
In the entertainment industry, he'd easily outshine the top male celebrities.
"I hope Lin Zhichen recovers soon." Chu Tianqing pressed her palms together in prayer for him.
Assistant Sun sighed inwardly: Sigh, Madam worries about Chairman Lin, and now she has to worry about Vice Chairman Lin too.
"I'll be going now. Thank you, Assistant Sun. You've worked hard." She nodded at him and slowly walked toward the elevator.
Assistant Sun watched her frail figure retreat, his eyes full of emotion.
Thinking about it carefully, Madam had just turned twenty-one—still a college student who hadn't even entered society.
The current Lin family—
Chairman Lin with amnesia, Vice Chairman Lin in a coma, and a young miss still in her senior year of high school.
Madam was only three years older than the young miss, yet she was forced to shoulder the heavy burden of the Lin family.
Once she walked out of the hospital entrance, making sure she couldn't be seen from the ward windows, Chu Tianqing immediately switched faces.
She bought a bottle of barley tea from the convenience store and strolled over to the lakeside park.
Treating the little swans in the artificial lake as her best friend, she started chattering away, venting her frustrations.
From helping the little white lotus Lin Nanxi save face, to being fined by the system, to the three college guys at the aristocratic academy going after her, and finally to her first round of battle with the amnesiac Lin Sinian…
Taking a sip of barley tea, Chu Tianqing finished her rant.
It finally relieved her restless urge to pour her heart out.
Seeing that no one was around, Chu Tianqing put her hands on her hips and laughed. "Babe! I've seen how amazing I am, hahahaha!"
Laughing, laughing, Chu Tianqing's nose tingled and tears nearly fell.
This time it wasn't an act—she was genuinely a little sad.
If only her best friend were here.
Even if she couldn't be here, wouldn't it be nice to at least chat over messages?
Chu Tianqing murmured to herself, "I'll write down everything that happens every day, and when I finish the book-transmigration mission, I'll tell Shen Xinglan everything, one item at a time."
When she got home, she'd chat with Shen Xinglan for three days and three nights straight!
No wait—Shen Xinglan had a lot of part-time jobs to do, and her lab was busy too. She couldn't spare three days and three nights.
But… Chu Tianqing thought, by then she should have the power of money.
She'd always believed in the power of manifestation.
In the end, she would definitely complete the book-transmigration mission perfectly and return to the third dimension with a large sum of money.
Then she'd throw the money at her best friend and treat her for three days and three nights!
Being naturally optimistic, Chu Tianqing cheered herself up in just one minute and continued thinking about the plot.
Thank goodness for the incredible memory and plot-analysis skills she'd honed from memorizing lines while filming web dramas these past few years.
The original text of this restricted-genre novel was six hundred thousand words, written by the dog author in a scattered, haphazard way—writing whatever she dreamed of whenever she dreamed it.
Chu Tianqing could remember about four hundred thousand words. She recalled a small detail about the female lead's mother and dug deeper into the story behind it—
Lin Sinian and his sister Lin Qiangwei weren't born into a wealthy family.
The Lin siblings' mother had no marital relationship with their father, Lin Zongyuan. She was merely his mistress without any official status.
Their mother died early, and their father let the siblings grow up wild and untended, not even giving them child support.
It wasn't until Lin Sinian was twelve that he and his sister were finally brought back to the Lin family.
Of course, that was after a paternity test.
The reason was that none of Lin Father's several wives could conceive, yet after divorcing him, they all successfully had babies.
It was only when the elders of the Lin clan urged Lin Zongyuan to get checked that he was diagnosed with severe asthenozoospermia.
His sister was ten years older than Lin Sinian, and for a long time, she supported both herself and her younger brother by selling fried snacks at the university gate.
Back then, Lin Sinian was still young and loved all kinds of fried food.
Afraid he'd get a sore throat from the heat, his sister almost never let him have any.
Little Lin Sinian would occasionally sneak a bite of the leftover fried goods his sister hadn't sold.
When his sister caught him, she could only helplessly heat them up in the microwave for him.
Fried food reheated in the microwave turned soft and soggy, with terrible texture—yet little Lin Sinian still loved it.
Chu Tianqing exploited Lin Sinian's affection for his sister to cement the "emotional foundation" between her and Lin Sinian.
The "leftover blind box" did heavy lifting.
Going forward, she still had to keep working hard, asking herself every day: Has Lin Sinian fallen for me today?
Chu Tianqing opened the ride-hailing app, ready to head home.
From here to the villa district, a luxury car would cost 500 yuan.
"Robbery!" Chu Tianqing furrowed her brows. A thousand yuan really didn't stretch far.
A premium ride was 150 yuan, a standard ride 90…
Without hesitation, she picked the cheapest option—a shared ride at just 48 yuan.
Even spending 48 on a shared ride stung.
If it weren't for the ten-centimeter high heels being genuinely inconvenient,
Chu Tianqing would've just scanned a shared bike and pedaled back to the villa district.
Until the old geezer coughed up his gold, Chu Tianqing could only scrape by on the 1,000 yuan her niece had lent her.
The ride-hailing driver was equally puzzled.
It was his first time carpooling to the top luxury villa district in the capital.
And the passenger? A stunning rich girl in head-to-toe designer labels with impeccable vibes?!
Chu Tianqing buckled her seatbelt and closed her eyes to rest.
After who knows how long, the familiar system voice sounded in her ear—
【Please proceed with the next plot, host.】
Chu Tianqing opened her eyes, and a few lines of the book's original text appeared before her—
【Under the guise of "marriage to ward off evil," marrying Shen Xinglan off to the vegetative Lin Zhichen—wouldn't the entire Lin family fall right into their hands? Chu Tianqing envisioned the beautiful future ahead and laughed like a honking goose with her hands on her hips.】
A honking goose laugh, huh?
Author, come out and laugh like that for me to see!
【Chu Tianqing left the hospital and immediately arranged to meet Shen Xinglan, but her dear bestie showed up uninvited, already waiting for her at the villa gates…】
Chu Tianqing looked out the car window—the ride was just a few meters from the villa entrance.
She rubbed her eyes, thinking she must be seeing things.
Crouching by the ornate carved gate was a figure she'd recognize even if reduced to ashes.
Chu Tianqing was ecstatic, laughing like a honking goose: "Bestie! You got transmigrated over too?!"