Chapter 69
The moon hung high in the sky, and the chirping of crickets and cicadas was monotonous and dull. Unlike the emergency room, the inpatient ward was already quiet at this hour. Looking up at the row of concrete buildings, apart from a few rooms that still let in a little light, the rest were pitch black, a corner of the city's steel jungle.
Chi Shu repeatedly compared the red signal dots on his phone to confirm that this was indeed where Bian Shu was hospitalized.
...The fourteenth floor, should be the fifth or sixth from the left.
The signal device wasn't that accurate; he'd have to go up and see for himself to be sure.
It's 20 minutes to 10 PM now, so we need to hurry, or we'll be prohibited from entering or leaving.
He put away his phone, pulled up the mask that was resting on his chin to cover half of his face, and went straight into the inpatient department.
The elevator was no longer crowded at night. Chi Shu waited for a while, and only two or three people came in around her. After entering the elevator, they all pressed the floor buttons.
Chi Shu stood quietly in a corner, without looking up or glancing around, trying to minimize her presence as much as possible.
Upon reaching the fourteenth floor, he went straight out without looking up and entered the empty corridor.
The nurses on duty at the nurses' station were busy. Chi Shu glanced at them quietly, and seeing that the nurses weren't paying attention, she immediately lowered her head and pulled down the top of her mask again, leaving only her eyes showing.
He assessed the direction, then tiptoed quickly to the right, walking all the way to the end of the corridor in one go.
It was one of the last few rooms... Around ten o'clock, there were hardly any people walking around in the inpatient department. Chi Shu could hear nothing but his own footsteps, and he became bolder. As he walked, he took out his phone and re-compared the locations.
His attention was focused on his phone. He kept moving back and forth, until finally he stopped in front of a door.
Through the translucent glass in the center of the door, it was pitch black inside; perhaps they were asleep.
Chi Shu subconsciously made his movements even lighter. He put his hand in his pocket, and his phone slid into his pocket. His other free hand couldn't wait to push the door open.
The doorknob was turned quietly. Chi Shu held his breath and looked around one last time.
As he casually glanced up, his gaze inadvertently swept over the department navigation posted right next to the door, which clearly read "Gastroenterology".
Suddenly, a string snapped in his mind, and he froze instantly. Before he could think further, the sound of wind rushed closer behind him.
He kept turning his head, but before he could see who it was, the person behind him grabbed his collar and shoved him roughly into the ward.
The door was kicked shut with a "click," completely cutting off the cold, incandescent light.
The curtains in the room were wide open, and the city lights at night could be seen out, making it even more difficult to distinguish one's own hand in front of another in the ward.
On the windowsill, there was a small and exquisite ornament.
Chi Shu immediately recognized it as the opera house model that he had painstakingly strung together, bead by bead.
Bian Shu was still the same as he was in school, unable to bear seeing other boys giving Lin Langyi things.
Chi Shu felt as if ink had been spilled inside him, and all sorts of dark and viscous emotions seeped into every bone crevice, leaving him only able to stare at the pearl model on the windowsill and sneer.
Not only did he come back from abroad like a clingy dog, but he also swaggered around in front of him. How dare he show off in front of him?
A little bit of familiarity in his tone was enough to break his guard and take the opera house model. If he goes abroad again when the time comes, I'll have to go even further and give Lin Langyi lots of gifts.
Chi Shu was forced forward, his steps were disordered. After being forcibly shoved into the house, he deliberately dragged his right foot to trip someone. Bian Shu indeed stepped on it by mistake, and both of them lost their balance and fell to the ground.
"How can you take other people's things so casually, senior brother?" Chi Shu was not flustered by the fact that he had been tricked and put into a predicament. Instead, he felt a sense of freedom and liberation, as if he no longer needed to pretend and was ready to give up.
He scoffed, "Things aren't like they used to be. What does Sister Langyi's stuff have to do with you? Just because it's yours doesn't mean you can take it."
Bian Shu's breathing was a little heavy. Seeing that Chi Shu was tightening his knees and trying to stand up, he used his strength to press his weight forward without holding back, and instantly pressed the man to the ground again.
"What did you put in that model?" Bian Shu asked sternly, his usually calm voice distorted with anger.
Chi Shu was restrained by him, his waist and back were pressed down firmly with legs, and he could not move.
He cursed inwardly, "After all, I've been doing farm work since I was a child."
"Speak!" Bian Shu grabbed Chi Shu's hair, which reached down to the back of his neck, and his collar, and in a fit of rage, he pulled him up, forcing Chi Shu to crane his neck like a thirsty fish struggling for water.
Humiliated and imprisoned like this, Chi Shu, in a desperate act, violently swung his arm backward, striking with all his might at the man's head, which was still bandaged, while shouting and uttering threats:
"What are you talking about? I have nothing to say to you!"
"You couldn't keep Lin Langyi and broke up with her, so you're taking your anger out on me? You're useless!"
Even though Bian Shu avoided the hand by two inches, it still struck his temple.
He swayed slightly, letting out a barely audible nasal sound, but he had no intention of backing away. Instead, he stretched out his legs and sat completely on Chi Shu's body, grabbing his hair and slamming him hard to the ground.
"No matter what happens between me and her, it has nothing to do with you."
"Chi Shu, I really didn't expect you to be such a despicable and disgusting thing. Back then, you kept calling me 'Senior Brother,' but now that I think about it, you probably wanted to skip over me and get to know Lin Langyi all along, didn't you?"
"It's a pity she's always been my girlfriend. You're only fit to stalk her from the shadows like a rat in a sewer!"
Chi Shu quickly withdrew his retaliatory hand, using his hands as a cushion in front of his face to protect himself from disfigurement. At the same time, he tensed his core and rolled to one side, trying to throw the person off him, his tone sharp:
"Now you're just like me, only able to watch helplessly. What's wrong, senior brother? You're not even at the table, what's there to be smug about?"
Bian Shu bent his left leg, and Chi Shu took the opportunity to turn over and viciously strike the man's head again.
Bian Shu didn't dodge at all; instead, he advanced, clenched his fist, and punched Chi Shu in the nose. Warm blood immediately splattered out.
Bian Shu felt a little dizzy, but the secretion of adrenaline kept him in a state of high fever and anger, as if even the nerves that transmit pain were numb.
"Yes, I'm not at the table now, but you've gone to great lengths to avoid sitting at the table during the years I've been separated from Lin Langyi, haven't you?"
"What's wrong? Don't you want to sit at the table?" Bian Shu's eyes were unusually filled with a violent rage as he looked at the person lying on the ground as if he were looking at a piece of rotting flesh.
He shouted sternly, "You! Chi Shu! Do you enjoy copying my writing like a delusional person?"
Chi Shu's breath suddenly caught in his throat, as if someone had blown it away.
"You even copy the material for your dreams, how pathetic." Bian Shu's phone finally fell out of his pocket, the noise reminding him. Bian Shu grabbed the phone and, in a fit of rage, slapped Chi Shu hard across the face with the screen.
Because there was still blood on my hands, I didn't know whose it was, and it was too slippery to hold. The phone was violently thrown away and crashed to the ground.
Chi Shu's face was slapped to one side, his skin was pale and fragile, and soon a large area swelled up.
Bian Shu had never fought anyone so fiercely before. Even in the countryside, when his jealous neighbor poisoned his grandmother's chickens, he never went up to him and slashed at his face without saying a word.
Chi Shu never expected that Bian Shu, such a quiet and reserved person, would have this side to him.
The taste of rust spread in his mouth, and his throat swelled and ached, so he could only force himself to swallow it down.
Bian Shu grabbed Chi Shu's clothes and pulled him up, his voice rising: "You dare to photoshop a group photo? What do you think you are to stand next to Zhu Zhu? You disgusting pervert!"
"So what?" Chi Shu remained in the position of his face pressed to the ground, his words as provocative as his face looked disheveled. "I also have an account that writes about my sister and me. Since you care so much, I'll reciprocate by letting you copy it. If you can't Photoshop the group photo well, I'll help you."
The veins on Bian Shu's forehead bulged as he was punched several more times in the face.
I felt uneasy, especially as I recalled the past and felt more and more like I had let a wolf into my house.
Bian Shu's lips twitched and pressed downwards, his voice trembling as if he had been stabbed, "What you said back then, that Lin Langyi looked down on a poor boy like me and was just playing around, was that also a lie?"
Blood trickled down Chi Shu's face, smearing her delicate skin with a ghostly, cold, and beautiful appearance.
He swallowed the blood that had seeped into his mouth, his right hand unconsciously reaching into his pocket as he laughed: "Why would I lie to you? You and Sister Langyi are not a good match for each other. Did you really think she was doing targeted poverty alleviation? Don't you have any self-awareness?"
"I'm asking you, is that recording of Lin Langyi you made fake?" Bian Shu quickly bent down and roared.
"Who cares if it's real or fake? If you really didn't care about this difference in status, would you have changed your mind just because of a few words and a recording?" Chi Shu actually chuckled, his throat thick with blood, making his voice indistinct. "You were the one who originally intended to go abroad, so stop pushing all the responsibility onto others!"
Seeing Bian Shu's rapid and labored breathing, Chi Shu felt extremely pleased. His entire face and neck ached and burned, and he could only rely on the ground for support. He provocatively said, "I've long disliked your attitude of occupying a position without doing anything. If you know you're not good enough, then get lost!"
Bian Shu felt as if hot molten lava was churning in his chest, and his skin seemed to be stretched into a balloon about to burst, unable to bear the slightest stimulation.
Chi Shu was still shouting.
“You and Sister Langyi are not a good match. She doesn’t like long-distance relationships, but you are determined to go abroad. Isn’t this your own choice?” Chi Shu had been observing from the corner for three years, which was enough time for him to understand her thoroughly.
His hands were always in his shirt pockets.
He had a small titanium alloy knife in his pocket. He specifically chose a folding knife with an angle of no more than 60 degrees and a blade length of no more than 6cm, so that it could be taken on airplanes and subways and would be convenient to carry around, like now.
Chi Shu gripped the hilt of his knife, then changed the subject, becoming sarcastic again: "Oh right, but if you give up the opportunity to go abroad on a government scholarship, you'll be worlds apart from Sister Langyi forever, right... How pitiful, it's a dead end, Senior Brother!"
“What can you do for her? Help her with her studies? But her grades are already good, there’s no need to help her with those two problems.”
"Not to mention now that she's out of school, don't you know how booming her business is? The distance between you two hasn't shrunk just because you've been abroad for a few years; you're still worlds apart!"
Chi Shu gritted her teeth: "But I'm different. I don't have your so-called backbone. Do you know that when I tried to get closer to your kind of attitude, Sister Langyi was quite nice to me?"
His neck was suddenly and forcefully grabbed, and he laughed intermittently: "I'm both jealous and happy. If things could continue like this, I wouldn't mind being someone else's shadow for the rest of my life."
“My family is better off than yours. I can work tirelessly to meet the production schedule for her. I’m so happy every day when I see all the pearls I’m packaging… I’m content. As long as I can see her and she thinks I’m useful, that’s enough. It’s completely different from you!”
"What's the use of you coming back? You were going to leave anyway, and even if you didn't, you would have missed your chance long ago!" Chi Shu thought of something, his face shifting between light and dark. His long bangs covered half of one eye, making him look sinister and terrifying. "There are more than one disgusting person like you around Sister Langyi."
Bian Shu kept his hands firmly on Chi Shu's shoulders, as if he wanted to nail him to the ground.
His head was lowered, his shoulders slightly curled up, like a caged beast trapped in chains, struggling desperately but unable to break free.
“What can I do?” he murmured, his shoulders hunched, his face completely buried in darkness.
He drifted into a daze, his hands gradually loosening their grip. Chi Shu, quick as a flash, used his blade to swat the person off him, forcing him back before shoving him aside.
The brief exchange just now made Chi Shu fully aware of the difference in their physical abilities; he had no chance of defeating Bian Shu, who had helped his family with farming since childhood.
He didn't hold back at all when pushing, but Chi Shu didn't think it was a big deal. Of course, it takes some effort to overturn a grown man.
This kind of knife, as long as it's not used to stab vital organs, won't cause much damage if it cuts the arm.
But to his surprise, as soon as he waved his hand, Bian Shu, as if he had eyes in the dark, precisely covered the blade with his palm without uttering a sound.
The sensation of the thin blade cutting into flesh was exceptionally clear. Chi Shu flicked his wrist and released his hand as if he had been electrocuted.
But Bian Shu, with his stubborn nature like an old ox, wouldn't turn back until he hit a wall. With half a knife stuck in his palm, he slapped Chi Shu as if he had lost all feeling of pain.
The cool sensation on my face was fleeting, quickly turning into a burning pain, with warm liquid gushing out from the stinging area of my cheek.
Chi Shu's mind went blank for a moment, then he screamed shrilly.
Face!
Face!
For her, a face is the ticket to the audition.
Chi Shu lost control of his mind and body. The thought of being disfigured was like the sharp teeth of a venomous snake, gnawing at him and causing him to completely lose his mind.
He recklessly fought for the knife, grabbing it in the chaos and wildly swinging it indiscriminately. He was clearly cutting through thin air, but Bian Shu deliberately swung his elbow horizontally, pressing down on him with the weight of his upper body.
A short, thin knife was embedded completely into the flesh.
The feeling of losing control is like peeling a banana and finally pinching the core at the very end. It feels top-heavy and unsteady, and the flesh naturally slips out of your hand.
The knife in Chi Shu's hand also completely slipped out of his control.
He felt as if he had fallen into murky, soapy water, with slippery, sticky liquid everywhere.
Extreme fear finally brought him back to consciousness. Chi Shu, still in shock, used both hands and feet to yank open Bian Shu's robe.
Bian Shu fell to the side like a frail willow branch, and a loud "thud" echoed through the room. Even in the darkness, the shaking of the hospital bed could be heard.
"Who's in there?!" The door was suddenly flung open from the outside.
Bright light streamed in from the corridor, and the nurse reached out and tapped the light switch with her writing pad, instantly revealing the entire room.
The prolonged darkness caused Chi Shu to squint slightly. As his vision blurred, he heard a nurse's gasp.
He turned his head sluggishly and saw Bian Shu sitting slumped at the foot of the bed with his head hanging down.
Fresh bloodstains were faintly visible through the gauze on his head from the side, and his face was also covered in blood. A small knife had almost pierced through his left forearm, and blood was flowing like a gushing stream, soaking through his clothes.
*
Lin Langyi came out of the bathroom after taking a shower and drying her hair. The house was already quiet.
She went into the bedroom, then remembered that she hadn't taken her phone, so she went back out and rummaged through her bag.
Just now, Cheng Yanjin said something through the door that he was going out for a while, but she didn't listen carefully and has no idea what he went to do.
Of course, that's not important.
She turned on the screen, and the first thing she saw was Bian Shu's missed call and a message.
Very brief:
I might get into trouble. If necessary, please call the police for me.
Lin Langyi's heart skipped a beat.
This message is incoherent and clearly appears to be a distress message, but it lacks any mention of time or location, making it seem like a chaotic plea for help made in a moment of extreme urgency.
How could someone with Bian Shu's meticulous and rigorous personality send a message that fails to convey any key information?
Lin Langyi quickly scrolled through the missed calls and saw that it was already twenty minutes ago. Because she missed a phone call, this WeChat message was sent shortly after, and then there were no more messages.
Feeling uncertain, she sent him several messages, but they all went unanswered.
Unable to wait any longer, she called back while hurrying back to her room to change her clothes, preparing to go to the Second Hospital for a checkup.
During this time, she never gave up calling Bian Shu, and she didn't have time to look at the remaining miscellaneous messages and calls.
The calls went on and on, but no one answered.
She had many unforeseen and dire scenarios in mind.
What could have caused Bian Shu to say such a thing?
He was all alone here, with no one else to turn to but himself.
Lin Langyi was still worried. Since Cheng Yanjin, who was always asking questions, wasn't around, she decided to go all the way. She went downstairs, started her car, and drove straight to the Second Hospital, intending to see him in person.
When she arrived at the Second Hospital, she still didn't give up and kept calling Bian Shu as she ran towards the inpatient department, but damn it, she couldn't get through to any of them.
Lin Langyi felt uneasy, and a vague sense of foreboding rose in her heart.
After 10 o'clock, the inpatient department was no longer open to visitors. Lin Langyi begged and pleaded, saying that something had happened to her family. The doctor on duty was moved by her anxious appearance and asked her what department she was in, which bed she was in, and what her name was.
She answered them one by one, her feet moving restlessly in place, unable to stop for a moment.
"He went to the emergency room," the on-duty doctor said suddenly after checking the computer. "He just got into a fight with a man carrying a knife, and he was stabbed in the arm. He's currently—"
Lin Langyi's expression changed drastically. Without even hearing the rest of what was said, she turned and rushed towards the emergency room.
Who would hurt him? Bian Shu has been away from China for many years, and City A is not his hometown. He doesn't have a wide network of connections here. Who would have such a deep-seated hatred that they would stab someone while he is hospitalized and recuperating?
Lin Langyi's mind was in a mess. She rushed into the emergency room, where the entire space was filled with groans and cries, making everyone's nerves clench.
She asked several doctors in succession and finally found out that it was bed 23.
Rushing towards her bed, Lin Langyi spotted the tall, muscular man standing beside bed 23 when she was only six or seven meters away.
He stood with his back to the person, his head slightly lowered as he looked at the hospital bed, completely blocking the gap in the loosely drawn bed curtains like a sculpture.
He was clutching a hat tightly in his hand. It was a baseball cap she had bought for Bian Shu, and she had watched him wear it all night.
Lin Langyi's breath hitched, and all the noise around her suddenly disappeared.
She remembered Cheng Yanjin's collection of knives in several cabinets, and realized that the time he left home was exactly the same time that Bian Shu sent the message. She also figured out who could have such a deep hatred for Bian Shu.
On that occasion at Ying Shan Lake, Bian Shu suffered a head injury. Under such circumstances, Cheng Yanjin disregarded the fact that Bian Shu had saved his life and repeatedly offended him.
Has he gone mad?!
Lin Langyi's anger surged, and he could no longer hold back. He strode toward the hospital bed and pulled open the half-covered bed curtain.
Bian Shu was not resting on the bed; he was leaning back, his left hand wrapped in fresh gauze.
Hearing such a loud commotion, Cheng Yanjin suddenly turned his head. As soon as he saw that the person in front of him was Lin Langyi, his expression changed. Before he could speak, Lin Langyi swung her arm and slapped him hard.
The slap was delivered with full force, loud and crisp.
The blow made her palm go numb and tingly instantly, as if tiny blood vessels were throbbing within her veins, burning hot.
Caught off guard, Cheng Yanjin's face was turned completely to the side by her slap, and a bright red mark immediately appeared on his cheek.
His eyes were wide open, his lips were slightly parted, and he remained motionless with his head tilted to one side, as if he had stopped breathing.
"Cheng Yanjin, I thought you had a brain and were at least somewhat useful, but I never expected you to be such a violent and rude person!" Lin Lang was furious and relentlessly pushed and punched his chest, wishing she could slap him again.
Cheng Yanjin, a strong man who is 1.87 meters tall, was actually pushed backward by her and staggered backward. Finally, his leg slammed into the headboard with a loud thud.
Lin Langyi didn't say a word of concern. Her first reaction was to look at Bian Shu, as if she was afraid that this fragile piece of tofu would break.
"Get out of here!" she yelled at Cheng Yanjin without even sparing him a glance. "Don't ever show your face in front of Bian Shu again."
"I..." Bian Shu had abrasions on his face and looked indeed disheveled and miserable. He hesitated, glancing at the silent Cheng Yanjin before looking back at Lin Langyi, "He..."
"You don't need to be afraid of him!" Lin Langyi thought that the observing gaze was a sign of someone's displeasure, and she became even more furious. "Who does he think he is? I'm right here, let's see if he dares to lay a hand on me."
"You're so arrogant, you dare to use a knife? I'm calling the police right now!"
“He is not…” Bian Shu seemed to suddenly lose his composure, stammering out his words.
Lin Langyi's chest heaved violently as she turned her face away from Cheng Yanjin, sitting lightly on the edge of the bed and focusing all her attention on Bian Shu.
She frowned and leaned closer to look at his arm, which was wrapped in bandages. Her fingers seemed to want to touch it through the air, but she didn't dare.
Cheng Yanjin remained stiffly standing with his back against the wall, unusually quiet.
Lin Langyi couldn't help but feel heartbroken when she saw Bian Shu covered in injuries. No matter what, Bian Shu was no match for Cheng Yanjin. He was injured like this, while Cheng Yanjin didn't have a scratch on his body. Just thinking about it made one of the most brutal one-sided battles.
And they even used a knife! They even used a knife!
No wonder Bian Shu told her to call the police. It was because he felt that she and Cheng Yanjin were engaged, and that they would share both glory and misfortune. He was afraid of involving her, so he gave her the decision-making power and let himself be beaten up even though he knew it was dangerous.
"I didn't answer your call, I'm sorry." She was extremely annoyed. "I was taking a shower, I didn't mean to not answer your call. If I had known this was the case earlier, I would have come to you directly."
“You don’t need to worry anymore. I’ll transfer you to another hospital. Didn’t Yuan Chuyu say he knew someone there? We’ll go to a better hospital. You don’t need to worry about being unfamiliar with the place. I’ll go with you. I’ll stay with you for as long as you’re hospitalized.”
As she spoke, she opened her phone, intending to contact Yuan Chuyu to ask for his contact information. However, upon checking her phone, she discovered that Yuan Chuyu had already sent her two WeChat messages earlier.
[Be careful of Chi Shu; he seems to have found the address for the 17th floor.]
[I wasn't comfortable with that, so I investigated him and found that he hadn't told a single truth, and that he harbored extreme hostility towards Bian Shu.]
Lin Langyi's brow twitched, and she stared at the two messages for a full two minutes.
She only had time to read Bian Shu's text message at that time, and ignored everything else.
But let's put that aside for now; we have an injured person to deal with right now.
Lin Langyi turned off her phone, looked up and was about to say something with a frown when she glanced at the table and suddenly saw a model of a pearl from the Sydney Opera House placed next to the bed.
The pearls, stained with blood, cast a sinister, Phantom-of-the-Opera atmosphere over the elegant and exquisite building.
She paused, gripped her phone, and asked, "Bian Shu, I couldn't find this model anywhere. Was it with you?"
Bian Shu looked at her, nodded, and then glanced at Cheng Yanjin's face: "Chi Shu came to see me, Zhuzhu, stay away from him. No matter what he says to you or what he gives you, don't believe him or take it."
Lin Langyi's eyelashes trembled, and she suddenly realized that she might have made a mistake.
She hadn't turned her head to look at Cheng Yanjin to the left until now, but now she was actually a little hesitant to turn around.
"Your injury...?" she asked.
"It is a pond."
Lin Langyi's lips moved slightly, but she suddenly didn't know what to do.
You've insulted the wrong person.
They even resorted to violence, attacking the moment they saw each other... without any explanation.
She swallowed hard, and finally turned to look at Cheng Yanjin.
He stood against the wall, his eyelashes drooping as he looked down at the ground. The handprint on his fair and delicate face was very obvious, and even the corner of his mouth was slightly swollen and red with some broken skin.
He stood alone with that face, his broad shoulders slightly hunched inward, expressionless.
All parts of his body were as still as if he were dead, with no reaction at all. Only his left hand was gripping the hat tightly, crumpling the newly bought hat into a mess.
Lin Langyi wasn't one to be stubborn and argumentative. After pausing for two seconds, she stood up and walked towards Cheng Yanjin.
"Are you alright?" As soon as she reached out to touch his cheek, he reacted dramatically, turning his head away to avoid her touch.
Cheng Yanjin stood against the wall, his head completely turned to one side, exuding an aura of resistance.
"I was impulsive, I'm sorry." Lin Langyi withdrew her hand and continued to apologize.
He remained silent, biting his lower lip, looking stubborn and obstinate. His downward-looking eyes conveyed only sorrow, while his left hand gripped his hat even tighter.
"I misunderstood, I thought it was you—" She was interrupted halfway through her sentence by Cheng Yanjin suddenly turning his head sharply.
He clearly didn't accept her apology, raising his eyebrows defiantly as he listened to her words, his eyes devoid of any life despite his harsh words.
He pretended to be nonchalant and sneered, "It doesn't matter. I came to find him to teach him a lesson, but I didn't have time to. This slap was just right."
"If you want to hit me, then go ahead." He took a heavy breath, forcing a smile as he tried to lift the corners of his drooping eyes. "It won't hurt."
"Why did you come looking for trouble with Bian Shu?" Lin Langyi felt apologetic, but she didn't understand what had gotten into Cheng Yanjin that made him rush to the hospital in the middle of the night. She asked, "He didn't do anything to you."
"Didn't provoke me?" He sneered, blood seeping from the gash at the corner of his mouth.
He defiantly bit down on the soft flesh inside his mouth, his entire face tense as he spoke: "He's practically shitting on my head, and you call that not bothering me?!"
Lin Langyi glanced at Bian Shu and received a denial from him, which was described as honest and upright.
He pointed to the hat in Cheng Yanjin's hand and mouthed, "The moment you arrived, you tried to snatch my hat, like you were crazy."
Lin Langyi turned her gaze back to Cheng Yanjin and saw his hands clenched so tightly that they trembled slightly, and the well-made hat was almost ruined in his hands.
"Give the things back to them." Lin Langyi reached out to take them, but Cheng Yanjin hid them behind his back and refused to take them out no matter what.
"Go ahead and slap me again!" he reacted fiercely, his eyes instantly turning red, his voice trembling and loud. "You might as well slap me a few more times! But I'd rather die than give him that hat!"
As he spoke, he became agitated, bracing his feet against the wall and slightly hunching over, as if he had been cornered and could only bolster his courage with this bluffing act, his eyes reddening.
Lin Langyi was stunned by his current possessive behavior towards his food, and asked in astonishment, "Why are you taking other people's things?"
"Is it his?!"
He abruptly pulled his arm out from between his back and the wall, pointed his hat at the hospital bed, and asked a second time, "Is it his? Huh?"
"This isn't his property at all! What right does he have to take it!"
The hat dangled in his hand, and he bit his lip hard, his eyes welling up with tears, forcing himself not to shed them.
"Why isn't it his?" Lin Langyi didn't expect Cheng Yanjin to do this for a hat. What, does he own the store?
Cheng Yanjin stiffened his neck, a drop of water clinging to his thick, stiff eyelashes. He said, slowly and deliberately, "From the beginning to the end, it will never be his."
Bian Shu suddenly interjected, "Give it back to me."
It would have been better if we hadn't said anything; saying it is like adding fuel to the fire.
Cheng Yanjin suddenly looked up and glared at him, like an enraged wolf, with the veins on his neck bulging.
Did you pay for it?
No, but this is mine.
"roll!"
"That's enough!" Lin Langyi stepped between the two to call a halt.
Cheng Yanjin, however, did not stop. He was tall and could easily leap over her head without any effort, looking directly at her: "That's why I said I didn't make a mistake in slapping her."
He patted his reddened cheek with the back of his hand; the face with the slap mark seemed like some kind of wild and domineering totem, making him look fierce and menacing.
He continued to hurl threats: "I really can't stand you. If you weren't in this dying state, I would have already taken action. You deserve it!"
"Get out of here now." Lin Langyi grabbed Cheng Yanjin's arm and pushed him out. "Go sit in the car and calm down. Don't come any closer."
He was pushed back a few steps by her. He looked down at her eager movements to get rid of him, his jaw tightening, and asked, "What about you?"
Lin Langyi was clear-headed; how could she possibly answer him now? She simply grabbed him and shooed him outside.
Without a second's hesitation, Cheng Yanjin rolled his shoe over the trash can, stepped on the pedal to open it, and threw the hat inside.
Lin Langyi's gaze swept over him like a knife.
His face contorted slightly under her blatantly reproachful gaze; he was consumed by jealousy.
“It’s not like I haven’t bought them before, who hasn’t?” He took out his phone and started transferring money to her, one transaction after another, as if he had lost his mind. “It’s a hat that costs six or seven thousand, it’s not some expensive thing, I’ll compensate him with 100,000.”
The amounts he transferred to her were increasingly large, with countless zeros: "You can transfer the money to him instead. Anyway, the hat is gone; I threw it away."
Lin Langyi was too lazy to argue with the man who was caught up in his emotions, so she dragged him to the parking lot without stopping.
She didn't know where he had parked his car, so she took him to her car, opened the back door, and shoved him inside.
She saw that he had been stuffed inside, but his legs were still stretched out, his slender calves sticking out and touching the ground.
She hooked his leg in with her toe, then slammed the door shut with her hand.
A hand suddenly squeezed out from the crack in the door that was about to close, and with lightning speed, firmly pressed the door shut.
She watched as his hand got caught in the door. His hand, with its extremely low body fat percentage, had skin that clung to the bone. The moment the door pressed down, a deep purple bruise immediately appeared.
He didn't even frown: "You're still going to see him?"
"Of course, he was injured like that."
She thought he would act the same way as before, making a scene and refusing to give up if things didn't go his way, insisting on keeping her here.
But to her surprise, he just stared at her intently, as if some kind of heart-wrenching, suppressed emotion was slowly collapsing in his eyes, and the last glimmer of light in his bright, light brown eyes was extinguished.
Without saying a word, he turned his head and pulled the door shut.
It was hard to see inside the car through the window. He sat motionless inside, as if he had become one with the dim environment.
Lin Langyi left anyway, heartless as ever.
He leaned his head back until he could no longer see her, raised his arm to cover his eyes, and sniffed.
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