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The news of Lin Ruoyin and Lu Yan's agreed divorce caused quite a stir.
The financial section reacted the fastest, providing an in-depth analysis of the potential impact of the dissolution of this marriage, once seen as a "powerful alliance," on Lu's strategic layout, especially its future cooperation model with "Yinsheng" Studio. The article revealed a calm examination and speculation.
Meanwhile, in the fashion and social circles, public opinion presented a completely different picture. The various rumors and speculations surrounding the relationship between Xu Jia, Lin Ruoyin, and Lu Yan resurfaced, transforming into all sorts of "essays" and spliced "short videos," flying all over the gossip forums, providing onlookers with endless topics to discuss and digest.
However, all the noise and commotion from the outside world had no effect on the two parties involved, who were already mentally prepared.
All the consideration and goodwill behind it were deeply hidden in their hearts.
As a result, the two remained unaffected by any turmoil and calmly continued on their respective paths.
That afternoon, there was a knock on the studio door. Xiao Tang went to answer the door and returned a moment later with a strange expression. He whispered to Lin Ruoyin, "President Lin, it's... Mr. Zhou Hui from Mohe. He says he has something urgent to discuss with you."
Lin Ruoyin's fingers tightened suddenly around the pencil. She looked up. "Zhou Hui?"
Xiao Tang nodded: "Mm."
Lin Ruoyin put down her pen and said in a calm voice, "Please invite him in."
Zhou Hui walked in. He still looked as professional and proper as ever, dressed in a sharp suit, but upon closer inspection, a lingering weariness and anxiety were visible between his brows.
“President Lin.” Zhou Hui nodded slightly and got straight to the point. “Excuse me for disturbing you. I… am here for President Xu.”
Lin Ruoyin's heart sank. She stood up and gestured for Xiao Tang to leave first. The door closed gently, leaving only the two of them in the office.
"What's wrong with him?" Lin Ruoyin's voice rang out as soon as the door closed.
Zhou Hui didn't mince words: "President Xu is very ill. He's in the hospital now, and his condition isn't good."
"The hospital?" Lin Ruoyin's pupils contracted slightly. "Why is he in the hospital?"
Zhou Hui sighed, his tone heavy: "He collapsed after the press conference. He locked himself in, barely eating or sleeping. We tried everything, but he refused all help. A few days ago, he fainted due to severe dehydration and electrolyte imbalance and was rushed to the hospital. But even in the hospital, he still refused to eat and was kept alive entirely by intravenous nutrition. The doctor said his bodily functions were already very weak, and if this continued, his organs would suffer serious problems... But without addressing his psychological issues, physical treatment will be difficult to be effective."
Lin Ruoyin's face grew paler and paler as Zhou Hui narrated, and she heard her own voice gradually becoming dry.
Which hospital is he in now?
After Zhou Hui gave her the name of the hospital, Lin Ruoyin didn't care about anything else. She grabbed her coat from the back of the chair, and without even saying a word to Xiao Tang, she followed Zhou Hui, practically running out of the studio.
...
It was drizzling.
The car stopped at the hospital entrance. Lin Ruoyin opened the car door and followed Zhou Hui quickly into the lobby.
The elevator ascended steadily, the numbers ticking away, each second feeling exceptionally long.
With a "ding," the elevator arrived.
Zhou Hui led her to the innermost ward and pushed open the heavy door for her.
The ward was dimly lit but rather cold. Various monitoring instruments emitted soft, rhythmic beeps, and numbers and waveforms flickered on the screens. On the large hospital bed, a person lay quietly, covered with a white blanket.
Lin Ruoyin's steps faltered at the doorway. The instant her gaze fell upon the face of the person on the bed, her breath caught in her throat, and tears streamed down her face.
That's Xu Jia.
Yet, he was almost no longer the Xu Jia she remembered.
He was emaciated, his cheeks deeply sunken, his cheekbones prominent, and his skin an unhealthy pale white, with faint blue veins visible beneath. His eyes were closed, his thick eyelashes casting deep shadows beneath his eyelids, and his lips were cracked and bloodless. An oxygen mask covered his mouth and nose, wisps of white mist rising with his weak breaths. One hand protruded from under the blanket, an IV dripping into the back of his hand, clear medication slowly being administered.
He lay there quietly, so still as if he were lifeless, with only the lines and numbers on the instruments beside him proving that he was still alive.
Lin Ruoyin covered her mouth and dragged her weak legs to the bedside step by step. She bent down and gently brushed away the sweaty stray hairs on his forehead with her trembling fingers, the skin her fingertips touched was icy cold.
Zhou Hui stood a few steps behind her and whispered, "He's mostly unconscious. When he does wake up, his eyes are vacant, he doesn't eat, drink, or speak. The doctors have used sedatives and nutritional support, but the key is him..."
Lin Ruoyin slowly sat down on the chair by the bed and gently held Xu Jia's hand that was not receiving an IV drip.
“Xu Jia…” she began, her voice hoarse and almost incoherent, tears streaming down her face, leaving dark stains on the white sheets. “It’s me… Lin Ruoyin.”
The person in bed did not react.
Lin Ruoyin burst into tears. She sniffed and tried to make her voice clearer: "Xu Jia, can you hear me? Please don't do this, okay? Please..."
She leaned down, gently pressing her forehead against the back of his cold hand, her scalding tears soaking his skin.
"Why..." She turned to look at Zhou Hui, her voice trembling, "Why did he suddenly become like this?"
Zhou Hui took a deep breath and looked at her with a complicated expression: "Because... because of your sister, Miss Lin Ruomeng. She went to see President Xu and told him the whole truth about your marriage to the Lu family back then."
It was as if a thunderclap exploded in Lin Ruoyin's ears.
The lingering worries deep in my heart were now completely confirmed by Zhou Hui's words.
She was afraid that Xu Jia would punish her like this if she knew the truth.
She raised her tear-filled face, looked at his tightly closed eyes, and felt as if her heart was being torn apart.
The person in the hospital bed seemed to tremble very slightly upon hearing the voice they had been longing for.
The heart rate curve on the monitor showed a slight fluctuation.
Unaware of what was happening, Lin Ruoyin pleaded sadly, "Xu Jia, open your eyes and look at me. I still have something to say to you."
Just then, Xu Jia, who had been unconscious, moved his Adam's apple with great difficulty, and his dry lips moved slightly, emitting a faint, almost inaudible breath.
Lin Ruoyin suddenly held her breath and moved closer to him.
"...If...yin..."
Lin Ruoyin's tears welled up again. She held his hand tightly: "It's me, Xu Jia, it's me, I'm here."
Xu Jia struggled to open his eyelids, as if using all his strength, barely managing to pry them open a crack. Those eyes, once deep and sharp, filled with starlight or ice, were now dull and lifeless, empty as if shrouded in a layer of gray mist. His gaze was unfocused, and as he struggled to focus, it finally landed on Lin Ruoyin's tear-streaked face.
His pupils contracted almost imperceptibly, and his chapped lips moved again, but no more sound came out. Only a single, cloudy tear slid slowly from the corner of his eye and disappeared into the hair at his temple.
That tear was like a key, instantly unlocking all the strong defenses in Lin Ruoyin's heart. She bent down and hugged him tightly, burying her face in his thin shoulders and neck, crying and trembling all over.
Xu Jia was held in her arms, his body stiffened for a moment, and then he raised his hand very slowly, as if he wanted to hug her back, but then he let it fall limply, only lightly touching the strands of hair that were scattered on his neck.
After an unknown amount of time, the ward door was gently pushed open.
Zhou Hui walked to the bedside and said softly, "President Lin, the doctor is here. Let the doctor examine President Xu."
Lin Ruoyin then snapped out of her daze and realized her lapse in composure. She quickly released Xu Jia, wiped the tears from her face with her sleeve, and stepped back to make room for him.
The doctor bent down and used a flashlight to check Xu Jia's pupil response, then listened to his heartbeat and breathing with a stethoscope. Xu Jia obediently cooperated with the examination, but his gaze remained fixed on Lin Ruoyin, whose eyes were red and swollen, and whose nose was also red, making her look disheveled and vulnerable.
“Mr. Xu,” the doctor straightened up, his tone gentle yet professionally serious, “you have barely eaten for four days. Although we are maintaining your basal metabolism through intravenous nutrition, your body will not be able to handle this. Your gastric mucosa will atrophy, you will lose muscle, and your immunity will decline…”
Xu Jia slowly shifted his gaze from Lin Ruoyin to the doctor, his lips moved but no sound came out.
The doctor continued, "We just detected some positive changes in your vital signs. Would you like to try some liquid food?"
Xu Jia remained silent, his gaze unconsciously drifting towards Lin Ruoyin.
Seeing this, Lin Ruoyin immediately stepped forward and took Xu Jia's hand, which was not receiving an IV drip, back into her grasp. Although she was extremely anxious after hearing the doctor's words, she tried her best to make her tone sound calm and gentle, "Xu Jia, listen to the doctor."
Xu Jia looked at her, his deep-set eyes flickering slightly. After a long while, he nodded very slightly.
This small gesture brought a sigh of relief to the doctor and nurses. Lin Ruoyin's tears welled up again, but she held them back, instead gripping his hand even tighter.
The nurse quickly brought over a small bowl of warm rice porridge. Lin Ruoyin took it, scooped up a little bit with a small spoon, gently blew on it to cool it, and then offered it to Xu Jia's lips.
Xu Jia slightly opened his mouth and took the spoonful of rice soup into his mouth. His swallowing was slow and labored; his Adam's apple bobbed a few times before he finally swallowed it.
"Very good," Lin Ruoyin encouraged, "Drink a little more."
So, encouraged by Lin Ruoyin, Xu Jia swallowed spoonful after spoonful.
With positive feedback, Lin Ruoyin continued to feed him spoonful after spoonful.
"That's enough for today. Take it slow, and you can try a little more tomorrow."
The nurse wiped the sweat from Xu Jia's forehead and adjusted the IV drip rate. The doctor gave a few more instructions and then left the ward with the nurse.
The door closed gently, and silence returned to the room. Zhou Hui intentionally withdrew.
Lin Ruoyin sat back down on the edge of the bed. She looked at Xu Jia, and he looked at her. Their eyes met, and a heavy yet tender atmosphere filled the air.
Xu Jia moved his lips, uttering an extremely weak and hoarse voice: "...You've lost weight."
Those three simple words caused Lin Ruoyin's tears, which she had barely managed to hold back, to flow again. She shook her head, wanting to say, "You're the one who's incredibly thin," but she choked up and couldn't utter a sound.
“I’m sorry…” His voice was hoarse, each word seeming to be squeezed out from his broken chest, “These past five years… you must have had a very hard time.
He closed his eyes, tears streaming down his face.
Lin Ruoyin's tears also flowed uncontrollably.
She shook her head, reached out, and gently covered his cold cheek, softly wiping away the tears that kept seeping from the corners of his eyes with her fingertips. "It's all over now."
Sunlight streamed through the clouds, and Lin Ruoyin turned to Xu Jia and said, "Look, it's all clear outside the window."
As the words fell, it was as if some silent spell had been broken. Outside the window, the heavy clouds that had been pressing down suddenly cracked open, and a beam of golden sunlight pierced through the gloom, penetrating the glass of the ward and falling on the two people's clasped hands. It illuminated the fine lines on Xu Jia's pale knuckles and also reflected the tears that had not yet dried in Lin Ruoyin's eyes.
Lin Ruoyin turned to look out the window and saw the city outline reappear after the clouds gradually dispersed. The sky was visibly fading from gray to reveal a clear light blue.
She turned back to Xu Jia, a slight smile curving her lips, her voice carrying a cool, gentle quality, as if washed clean by rain.
"Look, the sun is shining again."
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