“It’s not serious… just a fever… a fall… Please don’t worry.”
“Wait… until he wakes up… then send a message?”
“Chairman, please don’t rush… you just… had surgery… You need to take care of yourself.”
A faint noise could be heard.
Who’s speaking?
His eyelids felt heavy; stiffness spread through his entire body. Ye Ning had to put some effort before he could slowly open his eyes.
Dim and soft light filtered in through the cracks of the window. Ye Ning’s eyelashes quivered slightly. After a bit of pause, he was finally able to make out his surroundings.
An IV drip and a monitor… This was a hospital.
Ye Ning followed the noise and looked over. Not far away stood a person by the sofa with their back to him, talking on the phone.
Ye Ning opened his mouth. The cold and damp air instantly rushed down to his throat, causing a small coughing.
“Chairman, let’s not talk about it for now. It seems like the young master is awake!” Hearing the cough from behind, the person immediately covered the phone, hung up, and turned around, quickly stepping forward.
Ye Ning looked at him.
He didn’t recognize this person.
Afraid of revealing too much, Ye Ning didn’t say much but still tried to ask a few questions.
This person was one of his ‘grandpa’s’ personal assistants. His main job was to take care of him.
Before he woke up, Ye Ning vaguely remembered that he seemed to have heard this person say something about the ‘Chairman.’
“Were you just on the phone with… grandpa?”
Ye Ning keenly sensed that when ‘grandpa’ was mentioned, this person became noticeably tense.
“No, no,” the person turned around and fiddled with the vase on the bedside table. “I was talking to the Chairman’s assistant.”
The actions showed a sense of guilt.
Ye Ning was silent.
After a moment, the person hesitantly asked, “Do you want to call… the Chairman?”
Ye Ning remained silent once more.
“No need,” Ye Ning said. “Grandpa is busy. I don’t have anything urgent, so don’t let him worry.”
“Good, good.”
The two people let out a sigh of relief.
Ye Ning found an excuse to send the person out, then tried to get out of bed. The moment he moved, he hissed sharply.
His entire body felt like it was soaking in water, aching terribly.
He looked down.
His left wrist and right ankle were both wrapped in bandages, and there were marks on the back of his hand from the injection drip.
Ye Ning: “……”
He was beaten?
For a moment, Ye Ning couldn’t even remember what he had done before losing consciousness.
Just as he was deep in thought, the phone next to the bed buzzed. Ye Ning picked it up and took a look.
[Lu-er: Young Master Ye, one of my people saw that after we left yesterday afternoon, Zhao Haonan and his group went back! Did you guys run into them?!]
Ye Ning roughly concluded that this person was one of the thugs from yesterday.
Zhao Haonan and his people returned?
He was just about to reply ‘no,’ when the phone buzzed again.
[Lu Er: I received news that Luo Guang’s leg is broken, and they’re saying it was you, Young Master Ye, who did it. Did you send a second batch of people? Zhao Haonan and his group took the opportunity to strike while we were gone, right?!]
Ye Ning: “?”
Ye Ning’s hand froze.
Is there… some sort of bug in this world?
Luo Guang broke a leg, and now he’s lying in the hospital.
Why does this plot feel so familiar?
The plot suddenly back on track again?
What was the point of his acting then?
Lu-er sent a third message right after.
[Lu-er: Young Master Ye, don’t worry. As long as you give an order, us, the brothers, will make sure to help you take back control of the situation!]
This was truly insane.
Ye Ning didn’t even know if he had really hired two groups of thugs, but he was extremely aware that he couldn’t take back control of this situation.
The deeply angered Lu-er finally received a response, only two words.
[No need.]
Lu-er slapped his thigh. The fact that Young Master Ye didn’t deny the existence of the second group meant he had arranged one, which in turn proved that it was Young Master Ye who had broken Luo Guang’s leg!
Ye Ning could never have imagined that ‘underworld information’ could spread as swiftly as the wind rustling through the grass. Nearly as soon as he sent out the message, Zhao Haonan and his group got wind of it too.
Luo Guang, who slipped and broke his leg on a rainy day, upon receiving the information that ‘Young Master Ye admitted to breaking Luo Guang’s leg,’ stared at his plastered leg for a long time and uttered an earth-shaking question, “Did Young Master Ye really break my leg?”
The room was in complete silence.
Until—
“Damn, Young Master Ye doesn’t actually want to take the blame for this, does he?”
“Why? This is not exactly a good thing, is it?”
“Do you still remember, Young Master Ye once said to Nan-ge: ‘If I break your leg, will he come to see me?’”
–
Ye Ning had a terrible headache. He thoroughly searched his phone but couldn’t find any information about the second group of thugs.
He chose to give up. If there really was some kind of bug, then that would be an act of God.
Ye Ning sat on the hospital bed, facing the window with his eyes closed, exerting a full ‘clinging to life effort.’
It’s not like he wished to die.
But it’s also true that he didn’t feel that much like living.
Knock knock—
Two knocks sounded neither too light nor too heavy.
Ye Ning sighed, thinking it was the assistant.”Come in.”
He didn’t really want to see anyone right now; he just wanted to be alone.
Then came a cough.
It was somewhat strange and also a bit deliberate.
“I’m fine here. You can go back to the office first,” Ye Ning said. “If anything comes up, I’ll contact you.”
“That, that,” the person finally spoke from behind, “Ye Ning.”
This voice… sounded kind of familiar?
He kept feeling like he had heard it somewhere before.
Ye Ning hesitated for a moment, and as he turned around, his mind seemed to react a bit too late, flashing back to a couple of brief images.
At 8:13 AM Beijing time, after a day of unconsciousness in the hospital and being overwhelmed by Lu-er’s message, Ye Ning finally recalled what happened before he fainted yesterday.
He turned his body. The image of a person lying on the stairs kept overlapping with the image of the person standing in the hospital room right now, wearing the hospital gown and holding a fruit basket.
Qin Lezhou glanced once and immediately saw the bandage on Ye Ning’s forehead and the scratches on the side of his face.
From birth until now—no, until yesterday afternoon, his life, which had been smooth sailing, had never been this awkward.
Qin Lezhou didn’t forget the heart-wrenching words from the villa’s security guard before he completely passed out yesterday afternoon even when he reached the door of this hospital room.
—— “Young Master Qin, sigh, Young Master Ye was out in the rain by himself, yet still gave you his umbrella, and also kindly helped you. Why did you still push him down?!”
The look of ‘You ungrateful, immoral, repaying kindness with hatred, and turning goodwill into resentment’ from the security guard made Qin Lezhou have three nightmares in a row, even when he was in his unconscious state.
Qin Lezhou swore to the heavens that he truly didn’t push Ye Ning on purpose; it was just that his body unconsciously stepped back, and he couldn’t control it at all.
He didn’t know Ye Ning was so fragile; a single push made him fall, and he even developed a high fever, staying unconscious longer than Qin Lezhou, who had a concussion.
Before coming, Qin Lezhou originally planned to deliver the fruit basket, apologize and thank him with a proper attitude, and then give a gift after Ye Ning was discharged to settle the matter. After all, if you really want to discuss it, Ye Ning was definitely the ‘main culprit’ relating to him falling and getting a temporary unconsciousness on the long stairs in the neighborhood yesterday.
—It was not like anyone could stay calm upon hearing that ‘Ye Ning causes trouble for Huai-ge everywhere because he likes Huai-ge.’
If someone could, then they wouldn’t be human.
When Haonan-ge told him this news, he was already on that damned stairs.
Qin Lezhou had originally planned it this way.
But now…
He stared at Ye Ning’s face, which looked even paler due to the injury, and was rendered speechless.
Ye Ning didn’t know that the person in front of him was fighting a battle in his mind; he just remembered the horrible scene from yesterday and asked, “Are you alright?”
Qin Lezhou lowered his head and said, “I’m fine.”
“Where should I put this fruit basket?”
“By the bedside.”
“…Oh, oh.”
Ye Ning saw him standing there, not knowing where to put his hands and feet, could only point to the sofa, saying, “Sit.”
“I won’t sit,” Qin Lezhou said dryly. “About yesterday, thank you. And I’m sorry for accidentally pushing you…”
“It’s nothing,” Ye Ning said. When he woke up, his assistant had already told him that the reason he had blacked out yesterday was actually due to exhaustion from a high fever. The fall was just the ‘a small trigger that caused a larger issue.’
However, these external injuries were indeed from the fall.
Ye Ning was about to explain further when the person, standing by the bed as if he was being punished, spoke up, “I… I’ve heard about your situation.”
Ye Ning: “?”
Situation?
What situation?
“I know you saved me because you wanted to see…” Qin Lezhou said in one breath, “but, sorry, I can’t make decisions for my brother.”
Ye Ning was completely bewildered. “??”
What’s going on?
Qin Lezhou raised his head, looking at Ye Ning’s expression, which showed a moment of heartbreak and confusion because of his words. In his mind, the security guard’s words, ‘You ungrateful, immoral, repaying kindness with hatred,’ echoed again. Gritting his teeth, he said, “Fine, fine. Forget what I just said. I… I’ll figure a way out for you.”
Ye Ning: “???”
“Figure… a way? What way… hey!”
What answered Ye Ning was the loud noise of a door slamming shut, brought about by someone losing control of their strength.
What kind of riddle person is this?
Ye Ning felt like he had been smashed in the head by a heavy object.
So tired.
The hospital room was filled with the smell of disinfectant. In the morning, first it was the assistant, then Lu-er, and finally, another little riddle person showed up. Ye Ning was mentally and physically exhausted. The thought of the assistant possibly coming again later made him unable to lie down any longer.
He tore a piece of paper from the notebook on the bedside, wrote two lines of text, placed it on the pillow, and dragged his foot, which was wrapped in bandages, toward the rooftop.
He was staying on the 21st floor in a VIP hospital room. When he looked out of the window, he discovered a rooftop.
It rained all night, and by this morning, it had stopped. The sky still bore traces of the drizzle, gray and misty.
Every blade of grass and tree in the VIP area showed signs of careful maintenance. The rooftop environment was excellent, and they had thoughtfully installed railings.
Ye Ning’s foot was slightly sprained, but there was no damage to the bone. Although he walked slowly while using the railing to support himself, it didn’t hurt too much.
He walked slowly, pausing with each step, and reached the vending machine. He didn’t notice that someone had been leaning against the wall not far away, watching him for a long time.
–Bang.
The water bottle fell from the track and quietly lay in the retrieval area.
Ye Ning bent down and picked up the water.
Only at this moment did he realize a problem.
His right hand was injured, so he couldn’t twist the cap.
Ye Ning’s shoulders trembled slightly. He sighed and was just about to set the water aside—
A hand with distinct joints and slender fingers reached out from behind and took the bottle of water he was about to set down.
The 21st-floor hospital rooftop was very calm, with only a bit of wind. Ye Ning had his back to the person. The sound of the bottle cap being twisted open was faint, but Ye Ning heard it clearly.
He turned around. “Thank…”
The last ‘you’ was swallowed back down to his throat.
Ye Ning had seen plenty of good-looking people before. Honestly, kids from prominent families rarely looked bad. But someone as eye-catching as the one in front of him… was extremely rare.
He was wearing a pure black coat. His figure was tall and slim, but not at all frail. With his deep-set eyes and defined brows, standing with the light behind him, his whole person was shaped by light and shadow
He had an aura that made him hard to approach, yet the smile at the corners of his lips gave a hint of casualness.
Ye Ning instinctively felt… danger.
