Chapter 61

Lu Yao noticed Shen Zhirou looking at her too. Thinking she was waiting, Lu Yao hurried over. “Jie Jie, were you waiting for me?”

Shen Zhirou kept two steps of distance between them. “I just said I’m going home. Following someone without their permission is very rude, Miss Lu. Please have some self-respect and stop following me.”

Lu Yao’s face turned pale, her eyes reddening slightly. In her anxiety, she reached for Shen Zhirou’s wrist, but Shen Zhirou stepped back, evading the touch. Lu Yao stared at her own stiff right hand as tears rolled down her cheeks uncontrollably, one after another. Like an abandoned little beast, she sniffled through her sobs. “Does Jie Jie hate me so much now? You won’t even let me touch you. But you let that other girl hold your arm while you walk. I don’t want to have self-respect anymore. If I keep it up, are you going to make that girl your girlfriend?”

“It has nothing to do with you. I made myself very clear just now. I hope Miss Lu won’t disturb me anymore in the future.” Seeing Lu Yao crying like this tugged at Shen Zhirou’s heart, filling her with faint reluctance. But there were too many problems between them. Continuing to get entangled like this wouldn’t be good for either of them.

“What a ‘Miss Lu.’ Jie Jie, didn’t you miss me at all this past month?” Lu Yao seemed to remember something. She smiled through her tears and continued, “Jie Jie, do you remember that time in the kitchen? I deliberately didn’t want you to cook and pestered you for ages. And that business trip when you came with me—those two days we basically spent in bed. I even wrapped myself around you and made you help me bathe. Oh, right, and this.”

Lu Yao wiped her tears haphazardly and traced the little red mole below her collarbone with her fingertip. “Don’t you love kissing right here the most? Jie Jie, from now on, you can kiss it every day, okay? You can do anything you want to me. Please, please don’t ignore me. I really miss you. I like you—I really like you. Please don’t abandon me. Can you just stay away from that girl? I don’t like her.”

Those past memories stirred reluctance in Shen Zhirou’s heart. She gazed steadily at Lu Yao for a long moment before sighing helplessly. “Yaoyao, we’re not right for each other.”

Lu Yao frantically wiped away her tears and took two urgent steps forward, reaching out to take Shen Zhirou’s hand. Halfway there, she silently pulled back. Jie Jie didn’t like her touching, and she couldn’t make her angry again. “Wherever we’re not right, I’ll change it, okay? I know I was awful before—not a good partner at all. I really know I was wrong now, and I’ll change. Give me one more chance, please? Jie Jie, let’s start over, alright?”

Shen Zhirou shook her head silently. “Yaoyao, don’t come looking for me anymore. This is the last time I’ll call you that. Take good care of yourself. Your health matters most.”

Shen Zhirou glanced at Lu Yao a few more times before turning and walking away, her own eyes reddening faintly. Lu Yao had gotten so much thinner; she’d noticed it at a single glance. Why was she tormenting herself like this?

“Jie Jie, Jie Jie, don’t go! Don’t abandon me!” Lu Yao wanted to chase after Shen Zhirou, but she realized she had no strength left from all the crying. She staggered a few steps before sinking to her knees on the ground. She simply sat there, tears streaming down her face. Only after a long while did she force herself to her feet and hail a cab home.

Even after arriving home, Lu Yao remained dazed. She couldn’t shake the feeling that Shen Zhirou had been saying goodbye today—calling her Yaoyao one last time, even reminding her to take care of her health. But that only made her heart race with panic. Was Jie Jie really letting go of their relationship? Really done with her for good?

Lu Yao had no idea when she finally fell asleep, probably from exhaustion after crying so long the night before.

She’d slept on the sofa all night without a blanket. Her nose was stuffy, and her forehead burned with fever.

She hadn’t eaten anything the night before, and now her stomach ached faintly. But she paid it no mind—a little stomach pain was at least a distraction from the ache in her heart. She dragged herself up for a shower in the bathroom, then had Jiang Chen drive her to the company first before heading to AFN Group to retrieve her car and bring it back.

Seeing how pale Lu Yao looked, Chen Qingqing hesitated before asking, “CEO Lu, you don’t look well. Should I go buy some medicine for you?”

“No need. Carry on with the meeting as scheduled. I have to wrap up all the handover work this week. Tell everyone to head to the conference room.”

“Yes, CEO Lu.” Chen Qingqing didn’t dare press the issue and went out to gather the others.

As Lu Yao rose from her seat, her vision blackened, and she collapsed straight onto the office floor.

Chen Qingqing, who hadn’t quite left yet, jumped in fright and rushed over to check on her. In a panic, she had a colleague call an ambulance.

Jiang Chen phoned Lu Yao’s parents. After all, something like fainting was best reported to family.

When Zhang Huichun arrived, tears were already streaming down her face. “How is Yaoyao? Why on earth did she suddenly faint like that?”

“Auntie, please don’t worry. She’s fine now. The doctor said CEO Lu was exhausted from overwork, and on top of a fever, she hadn’t eaten much from yesterday until today. Her acute gastroenteritis flared up again. She’ll be okay once she wakes up and gets a few days of IV fluids,” Chen Qingqing hurriedly explained.

“That’s a relief, that’s a relief. This girl never takes care of herself. You all go back to work; we’ll handle things here,” Zhang Huichun replied. Only after hearing that Lu Yao was out of danger did she relax, staying by the bedside alongside Lu Jitong.

Zhang Huichun thought for a moment before turning to Lu Jitong. “Should we call Wen Jin over?”

“Call Wen Jin for what? Isn’t everything chaotic enough already? Yaoyao’s already furious with us. Don’t make it worse. I’ve come to terms with it—Shen Zhirou it is. As long as those two can be happy together, that’s what matters. Just look at what Yaoyao’s done to herself in such a short time,” Lu Jitong said with a sigh.

Zhang Huichun let out a sigh of her own and decided against calling Wen Jin. Instead, she secretly dialed Shen Zhirou, only to hear the phone powered-off message again and again. It dawned on her then: Shen Zhirou had blocked her.

Zhang Huichun took several deep breaths, but she couldn’t swallow the humiliation of being blocked by someone so much younger. She’d held back from calling Wen Jin earlier, but now she couldn’t anymore. “That Shen Zhirou actually blocked me? Fine. I’ll get Wen Jin here today. She’s the perfect match for our Yaoyao. I want Shen Zhirou to regret it.”

With that, Zhang Huichun dialed Wen Jin.

Wen Jin rushed to the hospital as soon as she got the call. “Auntie, how is Yaoyao?”

“She hasn’t woken up yet, but she’s on IV fluids now. She should come around soon. I’m sorry to drag you here like this,” Zhang Huichun said with a smile.

“What are you talking about, Auntie? I’m thrilled that you trust me enough to call,” Wen Jin replied at once.

Her eyes shifted to Lu Yao, who lay pale and utterly drained on the hospital bed, her condition shockingly poor. Wen Jin couldn’t help thinking of Shen Zhirou. Was this all because of that woman?

It was nearly four in the afternoon, and Lu Yao’s fever kept spiking and falling. Around four-thirty, the emergency room doctor added more fever-reducing fluids along with nutritional supplements.

When Lu Yao woke again, she realized she was in the Emergency Ward with an IV dripping into her arm. This was her second trip to the hospital in recent memory. The pain in her stomach had eased somewhat, though her head still felt faintly dizzy.

Zhang Huichun hurried to her side the moment she stirred. “Yaoyao, how are you feeling? Does anything still hurt? Mom will fetch the doctor.”

Lu Yao kept her eyes closed, pinching the bridge of her nose. In a flat voice, she said, “No need. Where’s my phone? What time is it?”

“It’s almost five in the afternoon. The doctor says you’re weak right now—don’t use your phone. I’ll go buy you some porridge.”

Lu Yao slowly opened her eyes and fixed her gaze on Wen Jin, who had just spoken. “Who let you come here?”

Her tone was icy cold, devoid of any warmth.

Wen Jin picked up on the hostility right away and tried to smooth things over. “Auntie was worried something might happen to you, so she asked me to come and help out.”

Lu Yao’s stare remained frigid as she addressed Wen Jin. “I told you, we’re just colleagues. That’s why I stepped away from the project—to avoid you. I’ve made it crystal clear. Hasn’t Miss Wen gotten the message? Heh, all right then. Let me spell it out: stay away from me. I don’t want her getting the wrong idea.”

“Yaoyao, how can you speak to her like that? Wen Jin only came to help because she cares. How could you say something so rude?” Zhang Huichun scolded Lu Yao at length, ignoring Lu Jitong’s meaningful glances from the side.

Lu Yao let out a cold laugh. Gritting her teeth against the discomfort, she pushed herself up to a sitting position and turned an icy gaze on Zhang Huichun. “For my own good? Looks more like it’s for your good. You like someone, so you try to force her on me? Even after I’ve ended up like this, it’s still not enough for you? Do you really have to drive me to my death before you’re satisfied?”

Without another thought, Lu Yao yanked the IV needle from the back of her hand, ignoring the blood welling up.

“Yaoyao, don’t do anything rash! Your hand’s bleeding—don’t scare your mom like this,” Zhang Huichun said, completely panicked. She jumped up from her chair, trying to intervene.

But Lu Yao had already snatched the IV bag from the stand beside her bed and hurled it to the floor. It shattered with a sharp crash, plunging the Emergency Ward into stunned silence. Every eye in the room turned toward Lu Yao.

Lu Yao looked at her mother with red-rimmed eyes, pointing at the shattered glucose bottle on the ground as she forced a smile onto her face. “Are you satisfied now?”

The spot on her right hand where she had just pulled out the IV needle was still oozing blood, and the needle mark on the back of her hand had swollen up. Her face was deathly pale, bearing no resemblance whatsoever to the decisive woman she had been just a month earlier.

“Yaoyao, don’t scare Mom like this. Whatever you want to say, let’s talk it out properly. Don’t do anything foolish—I’m begging you. Your hand is still bleeding.” Zhang Huichun was genuinely panicked. She called over a nurse, but the nurse took one look at Lu Yao’s gloomy expression and didn’t dare approach.

Lu Yao turned and rummaged through the bedsheets until she found her phone. She glanced at Zhang Huichun and the others, who were frozen in place with fright. “If you like her so much, then go stay with her. From now on, just leave my affairs alone.”

She asked the nurse for a Band-Aid and stuck it over the swollen spot on the back of her hand. Then she had the doctor write up a discharge order, settled the bill, and checked herself out.

Zhang Huichun was utterly terrified and could only turn to Wen Jin with an apology. “Xiao Wen, Yaoyao’s not in a good state of mind right now. Why don’t you head home first? Her father and I are truly afraid she’ll do something drastic.”

“Alright, Auntie. Don’t worry about me—just go keep an eye on Yaoyao. Make sure nothing really happens.” Wen Jin stared at the shards of glass scattered across the floor. She clearly hadn’t expected Lu Yao to go this far. It seemed she had underestimated Shen Zhirou this time.

After paying the bill, Lu Yao headed out of the hospital. She checked her phone and saw that it was nearly five o’clock, so she planned to hail a cab from the roadside.

Zhang Huichun hurried after her and called out. “Yaoyao, slow down! Where are you headed? Your father and I will drive you there.”

Lu Yao shot Zhang Huichun a single glance but said nothing. That look sent a chill through Zhang Huichun’s entire body. She forced a smile onto her face. “Yaoyao, don’t be angry. I promise you—nothing like this will ever happen again. Give your father and me one last chance. Yaoyao, you’re our only daughter. Don’t scare me like this. Please don’t do anything rash over something like this.”

Tears welled up in Zhang Huichun’s eyes as she spoke. The sight of Lu Yao smashing the IV bottle had truly frightened her to her core. She had never seen her daughter that furious before, and even thinking about it now filled her with lingering dread.