Chapter 54: Did You Know President Chu Before?
Every word Huai Xing said fell heavily on Chu Wantang’s heart.
After so many years, their first non-business conversation was like this. The pain in her foot, which had been delayed, now spread throughout her body.
She still remembered the scene when she had first tried to call her by that name. It was in the master bedroom in Jingcheng. Huai Xing, under her teasing, was still a little unsure about what was about to happen. So, to comfort her, she had said, “It’s okay, Xingxing. Trust me.” At that time, Huai Xing had indeed trusted her very much, her whole heart and soul on her.
For a period of time after that, they had called each other by their pet names, which had become an ambiguous hint, a signal.
Later, this form of address had extended to their daily lives, becoming a habit.
Now, upon their reunion, Huai Xing had told her not to call her that. The meaning of not wanting Lu Xianyue to hear was obvious—
Huai Xing did not want to lay their past bare in front of Lu Xianyue.
Chu Wantang’s mind flashed with the homework she had done last night, and she had learned a little about “Silk Season’s” current model: the company had been founded by Lu Xuerong ten years ago, but Lu Xuerong had retired behind the scenes a few months ago. Now, Huai Xing and Lu Xianyue were co-managing this silk company that was only based in Haicheng.
So what was the relationship between Huai Xing and Lu Xianyue now? Colleagues? Friends? Or…
With these doubts in mind, she had specially downloaded the “Silk Season” brand forum app. On it, she had spent the whole night flipping through the brand’s news, and from these news, she had seen many photos of Huai Xing and Lu Xianyue at various occasions.
The two young people were full of vigor, their smiles just right, like the morning sun that brought infinite hope.
Her gaze couldn’t help but be fixed on Huai Xing. In their photos from the past few years, most of the Huai Xing were obedient, submissive, soft, and without an edge. But the Huai Xing standing with Lu Xianyue was confident, flamboyant, and bright.
The reality of their five-year separation only began to fill in at this moment.
On the forum, an employee had said that Little President Huai and Little President Lu were twin trees, their root systems firmly planted in “Silk Season.”
Twin trees referred to the phenomenon of two trees combining to form one main trunk, but with two Y-shaped branches. They relied on and intertwined with each other, growing on the same branch or from the same root.
Chu Wantang stared at the three words, the light from the screen illuminating her ugly face.
Did these people know what nonsense they were talking about?
They were the most intimate relationship in the world. The twin trees that relied on and intertwined with each other were clearly her and Huai Xing.
How could it be Huai Xing and someone else?
But now, in Huai Xing’s eyes, she was someone else.
She was actually someone else.
Even, just a form of address could test Huai Xing’s current attitude towards her.
Realizing this, Chu Wantang’s reason returned. She temporarily gave up the idea of playing word games with Huai Xing. Her somewhat pale lips curled up, and she said with great apology, “I’m sorry, President Huai.” She half-lowered her eyelids and said softly, “I was used to calling you that before.”
Huai Xing caught the word “before,” raised an eyebrow, and said nothing.
The emergency room fell into a brief silence. The nurse carefully removed the somewhat exaggerated fragment.
Fresh red blood flowed out again. She first plugged it with gauze and sighed. “How did it get so deep? It’s a good thing you came in time.” She then looked at Chu Wantang’s face. “You’re quite tolerant.”
She hadn’t even cried out in so much pain.
Hearing this, Chu Wantang twitched her lips. “This is nothing.”
“Do you get injured often?”
The nurse’s gaze swept over the two of them. She had been too focused on removing the fragment just now and hadn’t heard what they were saying. She only knew that the two of them were young but had unusual identities. Only now did she remember to start a casual chat.
Chu Wantang was still holding Huai Xing’s wrist and didn’t let go. Her fingers seemed to be able to feel Huai Xing’s real pulse, which made her feel at ease.
Facing the nurse’s question, she neither nodded nor shook her head, but only asked, “Doctor, will this affect my normal walking?”
“Of course. Your foot will probably be inconvenient to land on for the next few days. Otherwise, it will hurt like hell. You also have to be careful to wrap it in plastic wrap when you shower so that it doesn’t get wet.” The bleeding stopped, and the nurse disinfected it for her again.
Hearing this, Huai Xing’s gaze fell on the top of Chu Wantang’s head for half a second, then moved away.
She stood up straight, unlocked her phone with one hand, and called Lu Xianyue.
Lu Xianyue happened to come in with the bill. The special ringtone sounded for a few seconds and then was hung up. She looked at Huai Xing strangely and raised an eyebrow, as if asking what she meant.
Huai Xing slowly shook her head, and Lu Xianyue did not ask again. She walked closer, looked at Chu Wantang’s calm expression, and said with admiration, “President Chu, I can’t even imagine how much this hurts. You didn’t even shed a tear. If it were us, we would have been crying our eyes out.”
Of course, she had embellished this herself. In fact, only she would cry from a little pain. She had never seen Huai Xing cry, but that didn’t stop her from dragging Huai Xing down with her. She couldn’t be the only one whose image was damaged.
But this casual remark had a clear lineup.
You—the two of us.
Chu Wantang heard it and recalled their tacit understanding just now. The words “twin trees” she had seen last night once again pricked her brain nerves, making it difficult for her to maintain a normal expression. She evened her breathing, smiled, and asked casually, “Have you and President Huai had something like this happen before?”
“It was when we were exercising together and fell,” Lu Xianyue said, not saying any more on this topic, and then asked the nurse about the details of her recovery.
The gauze was wrapped around Chu Wantang’s foot layer by layer. Especially with the cuff of her suit pants rolled up to her knee, a section of her graceful and pearly-lustered calf was exposed, making her foot look even more like a swollen cocoon.
“…” Chu Wantang had never been so embarrassed in front of Huai Xing before, and she was silent for a moment.
Soon, the nurse reminded her of some precautions and then let them go back with the medicine.
Chu Wantang stood up from the chair on one leg and almost fell again.
Lu Xianyue came over to support her on the other side. “Let us support you out, President Chu. Your injury is so serious.”
“Thanks.”
Huai Xing’s wrist was finally free, but her shoulder was soon held by the woman. The distance between them had not been far since Chu Wantang was injured.
She couldn’t say whether she was used to it or not. She looked ahead with a blank expression.
The three of them slowly walked towards the hospital entrance. The daylight had already brightened a lot, and there were several more patients coming to the hospital, brushing past them.
After putting Chu Wantang in the back seat, Huai Xing sat in the driver’s seat, fastened her seatbelt, and opened the navigation on the display screen, asking, “Where does President Chu live? We’ll take you back.”
Chu Wantang gave a complex address, and Lu Xianyue was very surprised. “President Chu isn’t staying at a hotel?”
“I bought a house here.”
“Very good. You really know how to enjoy life,” Lu Xianyue said with a smile. “I’ll be like that in the future. Staying at a hotel is not as good as staying at home. And Nancheng is not bad. Although it can’t compare to Jingcheng or Haicheng, it’s definitely no problem to come here to relax.”
“Mm,” Chu Wantang asked very casually. “Is Little President Lu a native of Haicheng?”
“No, I’m also from Jingcheng, but I got tired of staying in Jingcheng, so I’m in Haicheng now.”
“What about President Huai?”
The gentle morning sun shone into the car. Huai Xing held the steering wheel and drove forward, her voice without any fluctuation. “A native of Yuncheng.”
Just as she was about to change the subject, Lu Xianyue slapped her forehead and suddenly said, “I almost forgot something important. I specially asked the hospital if they sold crutches. The staff said no, but there’s a medical equipment store nearby, about two kilometers from here.” She turned her head to look at Chu Wantang. “President Chu, it’s better for you to use crutches at this stage, the kind that go under your armpits.”
“Thank you for your suggestion, Little President Lu.”
Lu Xianyue navigated to the location of the medical equipment store. Just as Huai Xing was about to go down with her, she unbuckled her seatbelt. “I’ll go buy it. It’ll be faster with one person.”
With a “thud,” the car door closed, leaving the two of them, one in the front and one in the back.
Huai Xing’s phone rang at this moment. She glanced at the caller ID and answered.
It was a call from Ding Rong, confirming a detail of her work. The call ended in less than a minute.
A moment later, Huai Xing lifted her eyelids and looked at Chu Wantang in the back seat through the rearview mirror.
Chu Wantang was tilting her head back slightly, her long lashes covering her eyes. The sunlight shone through the car window and flowed on her face, illuminating the fatigue on her face.
Huai Xing tapped the steering wheel with one hand, then retracted her gaze and looked at her own wrist, which had been held by Chu Wantang in the emergency room for half a day. The mark had already disappeared.
The next second, the special ringtone sounded in the space again. Huai Xing didn’t even have to look at the caller ID. “What’s wrong?”
“This underarm crutch comes in several colors. Can you ask President Chu what color she wants?”
“…” Huai Xing was silent for half a second. “Then I’ll put it on speaker.”
“Okay.”
“President Chu, what color do you want for this underarm crutch?”
“Is there green, Little President Lu?” She was also liking spring and green now.
“There is.”
“Thank you for your trouble.”
The call was hung up again, and the space was quiet again.
Chu Wantang pressed her lips together, her gaze falling on the profile of the person in front. Or rather, from the moment she had met Huai Xing on the beach today, all her attention had been on Huai Xing, and had never moved away.
So…
What was with this phone ringtone?
At the hospital, she had noticed Huai Xing calling Lu Xianyue, and had naturally heard Lu Xianyue’s phone ringtone. Now, in a different scene, Huai Xing’s phone had also rung with the same ringtone. But before this, Huai Xing had also taken a work call, and it was not this ringtone at all.
The answer was almost floating on the surface.
The pain in her foot deepened again at this moment, making her feel as if the oxygen in the car had been sucked out, and she couldn’t even breathe freely.
She thought for a moment, surrendered first, and parted her somewhat pale lips, saying, “Qiaoqiao is Su Cheng’s child.”
“Mm,” Huai Xing said, looking at the message on her phone, not even lifting her head, and asked back very calmly, “What does that have to do with me?”
“…I was afraid you would misunderstand.”
“I won’t misunderstand,” Huai Xing suddenly laughed and said very refreshingly, “I only asked her age last night out of politeness. Please rest assured, I wasn’t trying to confirm anything. Because I’m not interested in your life at all. Whether the child is yours or not, I’ve never even thought about this question. I really don’t have the energy or the mind. Please don’t misunderstand me.”
Good news, since their reunion, Huai Xing had finally said a lot in one go.
Bad news, every word she said turned into a thorn, fiercely stabbing into Chu Wantang’s flesh and blood.
The Huai Xing of the past would also always say to her, “Don’t misunderstand me.” The memories and the scene in front of her overlapped, but the layers were clearly defined.
The light seemed to become harsh at this moment, and the car seemed to be filled with seawater.
Chu Wantang gently rolled down the car window a little, trying to let herself breathe in some oxygen, but it seemed to be of no use. She tried her best to calm down and also curled her lips. “Then thank you, President Huai, for taking me to the hospital at such a busy time, and now for taking me home.”
“My mother taught me not to fail to do good, no matter how small,” Huai Xing said with great composure. “The one you should be thanking the most is not me, but Xianyue, who has been busy. I didn’t do anything, President Chu.”
Chu Wantang once again heard her call Lu Xianyue so intimately, and then heard her call her “President Chu” in a distant manner.
The sourness in her heart was churning. On the surface, she nodded. “Mm, I will thank Little President Lu.”
As soon as she finished speaking, Little President Lu came over with two green adjustable underarm crutches. She opened the back seat door, put the crutches inside, and said to Chu Wantang with a smile, “This can be adjusted. President Chu can try it when we get out of the car.”
“Thank you for your trouble, Little President Lu.”
“No trouble,” Lu Xianyue said, waving her hand and sitting down in the passenger seat. “My sister broke a bone before. I have experience.”
A few seconds later, the car drove towards its destination.
Facing the morning breeze, Chu Wantang took out her phone and asked Lu Xianyue in the passenger seat, “Little President Lu, how much did these cost today? Can I add you on WeChat and transfer it to you?”
“No need. It’s not much money.”
Chu Wantang smiled faintly. “President Huai just said, ‘Do not fail to do good, no matter how small.’ Then in my case, it’s ‘Do not fail to transfer, no matter how small the amount.’ I appreciate your kindness, Little President Lu, but I must transfer this money.” She pressed her lips together. “Someone once taught me this principle. Even the smallest amount of money must be counted, so I’ve developed this habit.”
“Alright.”
After successfully adding Lu Xianyue on WeChat, Chu Wantang transferred a sum of money.
Time slipped by quietly. The house she had bought was not far from here. In less than ten minutes, the car stopped on the side of the road.
Lu Xianyue got out of the car and adjusted the height of the underarm crutches. “President Chu, what do you think of this height?”
Chu Wantang first stood on one leg, then propped herself up with the underarm crutches, and showed Lu Xianyue a dimple. “Thank you, Little President Lu. This height is just right.”
“Right? We’re about the same height. This height is just right for me, so it must be the same for you,” Lu Xianyue also smiled. “Then President Chu can go back and rest well. We still have things to do, so we’ll be leaving.”
It was the phrase “the two of us” again. The thought of this phrase being tied to Huai Xing and Lu Xianyue made Chu Wantang’s grip on the underarm crutches tighten.
But on the surface, Chu Wantang nodded gently. “Okay.”
Then she bent down slightly and said to Huai Xing in the driver’s seat with a smile, “Thank you also, President Huai.”
Huai Xing cooperated and said, “President Chu, please also take care of yourself.”
After the car had driven away and disappeared from her sight, the smile on Chu Wantang’s lips faded. She turned around, looked at her swollen right foot, and her whole face was covered with dark clouds—
The result of her “accidental” injury was to hear a “Do not fail to do good, no matter how small”?
Also, the intimacy between Huai Xing and Lu Xianyue was beyond her imagination. She soothed the feeling of suffocation, and after a long while, she limped towards the complex.
…
In the car, Lu Xianyue was scrolling through Chu Wantang’s Moments and asked nonchalantly, “Did you know President Chu before?”
