VBNWDW - Chapter 37
Chapter 37
The evening wind rustled past, scattering osmanthus blossoms across the courtyard. Golden petals carpeted the ground, their rich, sweet fragrance drifting into the hospital room.
The hospital bed had been raised slightly, allowing Xi Zhoulu to sit up halfway. Her blue and white patient gown hung loosely on her frame, and her forehead was wrapped in gauze. Her expression was listless, her complexion pale and bloodless. Her light gray-blue eyes, partially hidden by her bangs, were half-open as she glanced helplessly to the side.
Xi Zhoulu's voice was low and hoarse, and it was a struggle for her to speak. "This has nothing to do with you…" she said reassuringly.
Before she could finish, Luo Yueqing, who was sitting beside her, cut her off sharply. "Don't talk!"
Her voice softened slightly as she continued, "The doctor said the best thing for you right now is to lie down and rest. Don't talk. Talking will pull at your ribs."
It wasn't as if Xi Zhoulu hadn't heard. The moment she woke up, she had been surrounded by doctors and nurses, subjected to a series of examinations, and given a long list of instructions. It wasn't that she couldn't speak a single word, just that she should speak as little as possible.
She opened her mouth, but before any words could come out.
Luo Yueqing barked, "Shut up!"
Her voice rose, her tone harsher than ever before.
Xi Zhoulu pressed her lips together and obediently fell silent. Then, the little fox who had been so fierce just a moment ago lowered her head again, her eyelids half-closed, the corners of her eyes still misty and damp.
What should I do…
Xi Zhoulu felt a headache coming on. She knew she shouldn't have let Luo Yueqing know the full details, but then again, she hadn't had a choice. When she woke up, the other woman was already sitting by her bed.
She sighed, knowing exactly what Luo Yueqing felt guilty about, but she didn't think it was necessary.
The situation had been critical. The cars in front of them had been smashed to pieces. The fact that they had escaped in one piece was already a blessing. Compared to the others, a few cracked ribs could even be considered a minor injury.
But Luo Yueqing still regretted not noticing her injuries at the time and carrying her on her back for so long. Xi Zhoulu must have been in extreme pain.
Xi Zhoulu, however, felt it was unnecessary. It only hurt more when she was jostled. If she had cried out in pain then and slowed Luo Yueqing down, they might have been caught by Tan Xunwen's men. Who knew what kind of torture they would be enduring now.
"Alright…"
"Shu—"
The two voices spoke almost simultaneously.
Xi Zhoulu shot her a look, and Luo Yueqing reluctantly pursed her lips.
"It's fine if I speak softly. It won't pull at them," Xi Zhoulu said in a low voice.
The person opposite her grudgingly agreed.
"Come a little closer," Xi Zhoulu added. "I can speak more quietly."
With one hand, Luo Yueqing dragged her stool forward, pressing her right leg against the edge of the bed and resting her hand on the mattress, getting as close as possible.
The woman in the bed reached out a hand from under the covers and hooked her little finger around Luo Yueqing's.
"Were you scared?" she asked gently.
"It was fine," Luo Yueqing said stubbornly. She had broken out in a cold sweat, but she refused to mention a word of it now.
Xi Zhoulu suddenly smiled, a faint warmth lingering at the corners of her eyes. She gave the other's hand a little squeeze and said, "It's my fault…"
Luo Yueqing pouted and cut her off. "You've already apologized."
Xi Zhoulu compliantly changed the subject. "Your injury?"
"I think when the car crashed, I subconsciously raised my arm to block it and fractured my forearm," she answered sullenly, then quickly added, "It's better than yours. I can still run and jump. It's just inconvenient at times."
Xi Zhoulu nodded slightly. The dizziness from the concussion lingered, making her reactions slower than usual. Her words came out slowly, making her sound much gentler than normal.
"Anywhere else?" she continued to ask.
Luo Yueqing shook her head. After all, she was an S-Class Alpha. Her constitution was much better than the sickly Xi Zhoulu's.
Xi Zhoulu breathed a sigh of relief. "I'm sorry to have put you through this. If I had known for sure that Tan Xunwen would make a move then, I would have had you stay home."
At the mention of the true mastermind, Luo Yueqing's eyelids twitched. She recalled the cold, complicated gazes he had sent her way at the cemetery, and she felt a surge of anger. "If I had stayed home," she retorted bluntly, "who would have carried you through the mountains?"
"That was the worst-case scenario," Xi Zhoulu couldn't help but reply.
She had been cautious enough, not only bringing plenty of people but even switching cars midway. She never expected Tan Xunwen to resort to such a ruthless method, not even sparing uninvolved people.
To be honest, when she had asked Xu Qingxi for people, she was just habitually preparing for the worst. She never thought she would actually need them.
Speaking of which, Luo Yueqing grew curious. "At the time, I was just focused on running deeper into the woods without any sense of direction. How did your people find us?"
Finding someone in the deep mountains was extremely difficult. Even experienced hunters could lose their way with a single misstep, let alone an ordinary person. Once lost, one could only wait for family to report them missing and for a search party of hundreds, or even thousands, to conduct a sweeping, bottom-up search. It was a testament to the difficulty of the task.
Luo Yueqing had heard Xi Zhoulu say she had made preparations and assumed she had told a confidant to call the police immediately if she didn't hear from her for a long time, using the momentum of a large-scale search to scare off Tan Xunwen.
But now it seemed that wasn't what Xi Zhoulu had done. And she hadn't arranged for many people either; that blunt female Alpha had let it slip earlier that there were only twelve of them in total.
Without some special method, Luo Yueqing would never have believed it.
Hearing this, Xi Zhoulu hesitated for a moment before explaining, "I had a GPS chip implanted in my body."
Luo Yueqing froze, shocked and astonished.
Xi Zhoulu pursed her lips. "I kept thinking," she said in a low voice, "what if I was caught by Tan Xunwen again?"
Although she had made more than enough preparations, she was still plagued by nightmares, repeatedly reliving her childhood kidnapping. Over and over, she would force herself to answer the question: if it happened again, what would she do?
She didn't believe the Xi family would spare no effort to find her this time. Xi Zhoulu only trusted her own arrangements.
Luo Yueqing didn't know what to feel. She could only tighten her grip on the other's hand, her thumb rubbing against the back of it.
"You've been thinking about this all along…" she murmured.
Xi Zhoulu avoided her gaze, speaking as if to escape it. "Thankfully, it worked. It wasn't in vain that I took two cuts for it."
"Huh?"
"It was implanted just a couple of days ago," Xi Zhoulu explained.
"The two days you slept at the office?"
"Yes," Xi Zhoulu nodded. "It sounds impressive, but it has to be removed in a month at most. It can't be charged inside the body."
Luo Yueqing nodded. The one who was usually so talkative had become a mute, while the one who was usually quiet was now doing all the talking.
Just as Xi Zhoulu was thinking of what to say next, there was a knock on the door. After a "come in," a person carrying a food container walked in. "CEO Xi, Miss Luo, the doctor said you've been hungry all day and should eat something easy to digest. I brought two bowls of congee for you to have first."
"Alright."
Seeing the person walk in and place the container on the small table by the bed, Xi Zhoulu let out a quiet sigh of relief, swallowing the words she had been debating whether or not to say.
Why did she anticipate they would make a move?
If the bait hadn't been dropped, why would the fish lurking in the water suddenly start thrashing about?
Xi Zhoulu lowered her eyes, hiding the dark emotions within them. She unconsciously clenched the bedsheet, wrinkling it.
It was the ambition she saw burning in the eyes of the three Xi family members the day the Old Master relented.
Getting into the company was just the first step. Their ultimate goal was to completely oust her and inherit the Xi Group.
Xi Zhoulu knew what they were thinking, but she never tried to dissuade them. She even pretended to be angry with the Old Master, using his cold treatment of Luo Yueqing as an excuse to take a three-day marriage leave. This angered the Old Master enough to arrange for Xi Zhoukang to join the company.
Then, Xi Zhoulu assigned Xi Zhoukang to a do-nothing position and deliberately gave him a troublesome project. The three of them naturally understood that as long as Xi Zhoulu was around, getting into the company was useless.
And how could Tan Xunwen, who had been watching the Xi family so closely, let such an opportunity pass?
He naturally contacted the three of them and arranged this car crash.
Xi Zhoulu's lips curled. She wondered what he had offered them that made them think he was only after something small, leading them to readily strike a deal. Little did they know, his target was the entire Xi family. If something had truly happened to her, Tan Xunwen would have framed the three of them for everything…
As she was lost in thought, a voice from the side drew her attention. She turned her head and saw that Luo Yueqing, who had been so listless and heartbroken for her just moments ago, had turned to look at someone else!
Xi Zhoulu's brow furrowed. This person was one of the people she had requested from Xu Qingxi. She had never met Luo Yueqing before. At most, they had a brief interaction while she was unconscious, but why did they seem so familiar with each other?
"Oh my god, can you just sit there quietly and not cause trouble?" Yu Xing said with exaggerated exasperation, waving away the hand Luo Yueqing extended to help.
"My good lady, Miss Luo, do you not remember that one of your hands is out of commission? And you still want to help! You're being more of a hindrance than a help!"
Luo Yueqing, naturally, wouldn't take that lying down. "I just saw how clumsy you were and wanted to help you hold it down," she retorted.
"Hold down the lid so I can't open it?" Yu Xing shot back.
Luo Yueqing: …
Yu Xing pried Luo Yueqing's hand away with a look of disdain. "Forget it. I appreciate the thought, but next time, just don't make me run after you with your slippers while you're running around the hallways like a headless chicken."
She was referring to earlier, when Luo Yueqing had been so panicked that she didn't even know which room Xi Zhoulu was in and had run out barefoot to find her. Yu Xing had called after her, but she wouldn't listen, which had infuriated her.
Running after her with slippers?
Xi Zhoulu seized on the key point.
Luo Yueqing wasn't one to take an insult lying down. "You're so ungrateful," she shot back immediately.
"Yes, yes, I am. If you really want to help me, then be strong in a bit and drink your congee with one hand. Don't make me feed you."
Yu Xing didn't think much of it. She had only been forced to retire a few days ago and was used to bantering with her teammates, so she had picked up a roguish attitude and would habitually trade a few wisecracks with anyone she met.
She picked up the small bowl filled with congee, turned, and handed it to Xi Zhoulu with both hands, her expression finally turning serious.
She had a good impression of this boss who seemed cold on the outside but was generous with money. If it weren't for Xi Zhoulu, who knew where her squad members would be now, let alone being able to gather together every day like before. So, she was very respectful toward Xi Zhoulu, even using both hands to present the bowl.
But the great benefactor in her eyes suddenly looked at her with a grim face, her light gray-blue eyes filled with cold indifference.
Yu Xing: …
Does the boss not like seafood congee?
A moment later.
Xi Zhoulu sat up, holding her own small bowl, and watched as the person opposite them picked up a bowl for Luo Yueqing, clucking her tongue. "Miss Luo, your one-handed eating skills are a bit lacking."
"That's because I was carrying someone for too long! My arm is sore!" Luo Yueqing protested, shaking her arm. Her nerves had been so tense before that she hadn't even noticed the soreness. It was only when she picked up the spoon that she realized how badly it was trembling.
She couldn't be blamed. No matter how light Xi Zhoulu was, she was still a normal-sized adult. Carrying her for that long would make even a regularly trained person cry out in exhaustion, let alone someone with a fractured arm.
She had truly forced herself to run without stopping, draining every last bit of her strength.
"Right, right…" Yu Xing said perfunctorily. "You got some on your chin, for heaven's sake! I'm not wiping your mouth for you!"
"Get lost!" Luo Yueqing was fuming.
Xi Zhoulu looked back down at the bowl in her hands and bit down hard on the rice in her mouth.
What Xi family… Suddenly, her ribs hurt terribly.
Comments
Post a Comment