Chapter Ninety-Two: Unworthy of Love

Before dawn, Lin Yu packed her things simply. Actually, there wasn't much to pack. Almost everything here was a gift from Jiang Chuan, and she could only take a small handbag with her.

Before leaving, she glanced back. Jiang Chuan sat on the sofa with his back to her, not even sparing her a glance.

She took off her watch and the ring on her middle finger, placed them on a tray in the entryway cabinet, and turned to gently close the door.

Before the elevator arrived, she couldn't help but glance back. The door remained tightly shut, never to be opened for her again.

The moment the apartment door slammed shut, Jiang Chuan jumped up from the sofa. He instinctively looked towards the entrance and immediately saw the things Lin Yu had left there.

Water droplets slid down his neck from the ends of his hair, like tears that had failed to flow. But his tear ducts were already dry, and he could no longer squeeze out a single tear.

He bent down to pick up the crumpled painting from the ground, tossed it into the nearby trash can without even glancing at it. But not long after, he picked it up again and haphazardly stuffed it into a book he would never open again.

The phone rang abruptly in the living room at three in the morning. Jiang Chuan stared at the name flashing on the screen and suddenly felt an urge to grab the phone and smash it against the living room wall.

But he suppressed his anger, opened the refrigerator, grabbed two ice cubes from the ice tray, and stuffed them into his mouth. He bit down hard on the ice cubes and swallowed them before they melted.

A cold, stinging pain spread, and he felt an uncomfortable spasm in his stomach. He felt as if he was getting better again.

After a while, Jiang Chuan leaned against the refrigerator door and calmly pressed the answer button.

Bai Qianhe was surprised that Jiang Chuan would answer her call this time. She was stunned for a moment before her voice came through the phone.

"Xiao Chuan, can we talk again?" Her tone in the darkened room at dawn was like a viper's hiss, carrying an eerie and morbid chill.

"Ms. Bai, as of yesterday, all our business has been handed over." His voice was icy, leaving no room for negotiation. "Don't contact me again."

"Why? Even if it's out of pity, even if it's out of indebtedness, I don't believe you have absolutely no feelings for me anymore." She couldn't understand, couldn't accept it, and couldn't help but beg in a lowly manner.

Her humble posture at that moment made Jiang Chuan instantly understand the feelings she had when he begged Lin Yu to stay.

His voice grew even lower. "I have never pitied you. I have no feelings for you whatsoever."

Jiang Chuan spoke each word carefully, each syllable seeming to echo Lin Yu's ruthlessness from the past, as if he were trying to persuade the other party or reminding himself. "I just did what I was supposed to do."

Bai Qianhe was stunned for a long time, then suddenly chuckled. "You're so heartless, aren't you afraid I'll tell your little girlfriend the truth?"

"She seems to care about you a lot; she went through my entire Weibo profile using your account." Over the phone, she lightly tapped her finger, and the number noted on my Weibo profile was clearly displayed.

"So guess what? If I call her now and tell her all the things you did to me before, will she continue to love you foolishly, or will she run away in the middle of the night in fear?"

Before he could finish speaking, Jiang Chuan's expression changed. His face darkened, and his previous composure vanished. "You don't need to do this. After all, the most important thing for you right now is the divorce."

He slowed his pace, his words carrying a subtle threat. "Your case will be tough; the odds are even."

"But if your husband suddenly sees something he shouldn't have, that number might have to be recalculated."

There was a deathly silence on the other end of the phone, followed by a burst of hysterical laughter. Her voice was almost manic, as if she were mocking herself or laughing at Jiang Chuan.

"Jiang Chuan!" she gasped, calling his name, her voice twisted with pleasure. "We're the same kind of people. People like you and me are destined not to be loved."

......

Lin Yu opened the door and returned to her rented apartment. Putting down her bag, she suddenly felt thankful she hadn't cancelled the lease earlier; otherwise, she'd probably be sleeping on the street right now.

It was nearly 5 a.m. when she asked the hospital director for half a day of sick leave via WeChat. She tore open the packaging of the medicine she had bought at the pharmacy and swallowed one pill with warm water.

As she wrapped herself in the blanket, she smelled the lingering scent of white pine needles in her hair, the same scent of aftershave that Jiang Chuan usually used.

Despite his aching body, his mind was unusually sharp. The digital clock by his bedside jumped from 4:57 to 5:30, and finally, exhaustion dragged Lin Yucai into the boundless darkness.

He didn't sleep soundly; recurring nightmares disturbed his already poor sleep quality. Lin Yu kept falling in his chaotic dream.

She returned to Jiang Chuan's home and saw him entangled with a limping restaurant waiter on the bedroom bed.

The overlapping silhouettes of the two figures twisted into a man-eating monster on the wall, while the waiter's severed leg writhed eerily like a venomous snake.

Lin Yu hid by the door and saw Jiang Chuan lift his head from the third person's shoulder, staring at him with empty eyes as if he were a stranger.

She angrily lunged at them, tearing at them, the three of them locked in a desperate struggle like glue in the murky air. The next second, Lin Yu's hands were twisted behind her back by the third person, and she was forced to the ground.

The ceiling suddenly lowered, and she cried out for help to Jiang Chuan, but no sound came out. She could only watch helplessly as the waiter's face gradually turned into Bai Qianhe's.

Consciousness detached from his body and floated in mid-air. Lin Yu watched as he knelt behind Bai Qianhe, his arm piercing through her body.

Holding a hairpin that he had obtained from who-knows-where, he plunged it fiercely into her neck, the sharp tip piercing Lin Yu's heart.

"Don't kill me! Don't kill me!"

She should have died immediately, but in her dream she was still pleading pitifully, her voice like that of a broken old radio. "I've lost so much blood... I'll slowly die alone..."

Jiang Chuan held the hairpin the whole time, standing in front of her quietly watching her. The shadows cast on his face by his eyelashes looked like two small guillotines.

The dream twisted and distorted in the crimson light. They quickly lost interest in her, letting go as if discarding a worn-out doll, only to turn around and entangle themselves again.

Lin Yu, clutching her bleeding neck, staggered towards the living room and began packing her things from Jiang Chuan's house. She kept her voice down, dragging her luggage and quietly closing the door behind her, afraid of disturbing the two people in the bedroom.

She clutched her bleeding neck, dialing 110 as she walked, but all she heard was the cold, electronic voice of the outpatient department: "You are currently number 1024 in the emergency room queue. Please wait patiently."

Suddenly, the sound of skateboard wheels came from afar. Cheng Yuan, wearing a white coat, came to an abrupt stop in front of her on his skateboard, with a sign hanging on his chest that read "Trainee Grim Reaper".

"Hold on tight." He grinned and pulled her onto the skateboard without saying another word.

Before Lin Yu could react, he slammed down on the back of the skateboard. The next second, she plunged headfirst onto the cold operating table.

The operating lights instantly turned on, and the sound of leather shoes clicking on the floor echoed from the corridor outside the door, a rhythmic clatter that sent a chill down one's spine.

The footsteps stopped outside the operating room window, and a distorted shadow was reflected behind the window. Lin Yu saw a blurry face that kept changing behind the dirty glass, sometimes becoming Chen Guang, sometimes becoming Jiang Chuan.

She tried to get up and escape, but the doctor pressed her back down. The monitor's alarm went off, the sharp sound piercing her eardrums, and Lin Yu suddenly began to convulse uncontrollably on the operating table.

She opened her eyes abruptly, her chest heaving violently, cold sweat soaking the sheets into a dark stain. She leaned forward and swatted away the alarm clock; the time was exactly ten o'clock, and sunlight streamed in through the slightly ajar curtains.

She stared at the dust cover on the air conditioner vent, the phantom pain in her neck still lingering. She couldn't tell where she was for a moment, curled up in the blanket, trembling slightly with fear.

The phone rang abruptly. Lin Yu gradually emerged from the lingering effects of the nightmare, fumbled for the answer button, and held the phone to his ear.

"Are you feeling unwell? Why did you take leave?" Chen Guang's voice came through the phone.

He went to deliver breakfast to Lin Yu in the morning, but was told by her colleague that she had taken the day off and was not coming to work.

Lin Yu cleared his throat, only to find his voice hoarse and unlike his own. "It's nothing, I drank a bit too much yesterday and caught a chill."

“Where?” he asked.

"My own home." She threw back the covers, got out of bed, pressed the speakerphone button, and placed the phone on the sink.

Lin Yu turned on the tap and splashed the cold water on his face. He looked up at his swollen face in the mirror, with shocking finger marks and red marks still remaining on his neck.

Chen Guang didn't ask any more questions, only told her to rest well, and then hung up the phone.

After washing up, Lin Yu ordered takeout. While waiting, she received a WeChat message from Xiao Zhao: "Team leader, are you sick? Section Chief Chen came looking for you this morning, but you weren't there, so I ate all the breakfast he brought!"

Lin Yu twitched the corners of his mouth and tapped lightly on the screen with his fingertips. "I'm fine. But you, if you keep eating like this, even a handsome guy with eight-pack abs might not be able to carry you."

Two minutes later, Xiao Zhao called. When Lin Yu answered, he heard her deliberately lower her voice, the last syllable carrying the hollow echo unique to the stairwell.

"Team leader, something terrible has happened..."

Xiao Zhao's words seemed to drift over from a great distance. "At the meeting this morning, the dean suddenly announced that the organizational structure would be adjusted soon. You weren't there, so I went in your place. I heard it was an order personally given by the chairman."

The day finally arrived, but it came a full three months earlier than the dean had predicted at the beginning of the year. Once this news was made public at the meeting, any subsequent layoffs or reassignments would only proceed more quickly.

She pressed her hand to her throbbing temples, took a deep breath, and tried to keep her voice steady. "What exactly did you say?"

"They only touched on it briefly at the meeting, and later said they'd meet with each of us individually..." Xiao Zhao paused. "Team leader, are we all going to lose our jobs?"

“My dad said if I have nothing to do, I should go home and go on blind dates. I don’t want to get married so early.”

“The integrated project is still progressing, and there shouldn’t be any major disruptions at this juncture.” Lin Yu understood that she was trying to convince herself, who was also feeling uneasy, with these words.

"No, that's not it." Xiao Zhao is young and not very mature. "I heard from the site that the construction progress is quite slow. The company might not want to continue supporting the design team."

Lin Yu had some lingering worries. At the beginning of the year, the dean had indeed assured her that even if the company restructured, each position would retain at least one staff member.

He had seen all her efforts; just a few days ago, he patted her on the shoulder and called her a key technical member. But after all, the dean's promise had been made for more than half a year, and the new chief engineer, Wang, always seemed to dislike her, so the situation was indeed unclear.

She was so engrossed in her personal feelings during this period that she didn't even notice the change in the company's atmosphere.

"Don't panic." She heard her own voice become calmer. "I'll talk to the leaders this afternoon and try my best to buy everyone some buffer time."

After hanging up the phone, the blinding sunlight shone through the window onto his face, and Lin Yu suddenly felt a sense of irony.

Life's blows never come alone. It turns out that when a person loses love, even their career can crumble. Isn't this a chain reaction of fate?