Brilliance
Yu Zou opened the office door of Ji Huisheng. The two people facing each other turned their heads. Ji Huisheng turned his head away from Yu Zou, while the other looked over and made a surprised sound, like honey candy from a freezer.
"Yu Zou, it really is you!"
"Mrs. Lili, are you alright?"
Her long, flowing curls hung down like seaweed, and the beautiful, delicate Omega was much thinner than before. Her light green gauze dress was fresh and cute, but it couldn't bring any vitality to her face, which she was trying so hard to maintain.
She smiled and took two steps toward Yu Zou, her steps and body unsteady as she bumped into the desk in front of her. Ji Huisheng and Yu Zou went to help her up at the same time. She waved her hand and said, "It's okay, I'm fine! I've been wanting to see you ever since Huisheng told me. Congratulations on becoming the boss of a big company."
"Thank you. It was all my fault. I should have come to see you."
Yu Zou had actually mentioned it before, but Ji Huisheng had refused, because Lili hadn't wanted to see anyone for a while, and even seeing people on TV would cause her great distress, making her cry until she fainted.
Even so, I still insisted on watching it.
"Time flies, you've hardly changed at all." Li Li looked at him with the same gentle gaze as always.
"You are the one who still shines brightly."
At that time, Ji Huisheng finally broke free from his exploitative mentor and was hired as a master's supervisor at the school. Among his first students was Yu Zou. The teacher and student, eager to make a name for themselves, hit it off and began to study day and night. They worked tirelessly, often bringing food that was not valued by them to sustain their lives during mealtimes and late at night.
"Huisheng still has work to do. Do you have time to take me home?"
Ji Huisheng immediately refused, saying, "No job is as good as yours. I'll give it to you."
"I don't know what you're insisting on? I asked for a reply myself but you disagreed, and now that Yu Zou is here, it's still not okay? There are so many things that need your help, how can you just ignore them? Didn't you install a monitoring function on my phone? You can see if I'm wandering off."
Ji Huisheng choked for a moment. Her cell phone was constantly receiving calls, and the landline suddenly rang as well.
"Go pick it up." Li Li opened her mouth, her voice barely audible amidst the beeping sound, yet it seemed to have released Ji Huisheng's seal.
Ji Huisheng answered the landline, said "Yes," and then fell silent. He picked up his phone with his right hand, hung up, and typed a message on the screen.
Lili looked at Yu Zou again, with a pleading expression.
Yu Zou smiled, his eyes unconsciously turning to Ji Huisheng. He couldn't hear what the person on the other end of the phone was saying, but Ji Huisheng's brows furrowed more and more. He wanted to spare some attention to the two of them, but the person on the other end seemed to be talking incessantly.
Yu Zou withdrew his gaze and said softly, "I'll see you off."
Lili smiled gratefully, her smile habitually raising her shoulders slightly. Shoulders that used to relax unconsciously now required her to concentrate and exert effort.
The phone call finally ended, and the two looked at Ji Huisheng. Ji Huisheng clenched and relaxed his fists, knowing that he would definitely not be able to get away today, while Yu Zou had already agreed, so he finally nodded.
Lili waved goodbye to her, saying, "Huisheng, I'll have a meal ready for you."
Looking at her closely, Ji Huisheng knew she was waiting for her answer. She said, "I want to eat stir-fried vegetables and seaweed and egg drop soup. The kitchen has all of these things. If they're not fresh, I'll ask Yu Zou to run errands for you."
Lili forced a smile: "Okay, see you later."
The two walked to the steps outside the building. Yu asked Lili to wait a moment while he went to get the car.
Actually, walking to the parking lot would have been more convenient, but even as an outsider, he could see that Lili's body simply couldn't support her feigned health, let alone going out.
Less than three minutes later, as the car rounded the corner, Li Li was seen leaning against the doorpost, head slightly bowed, carrying her bag in both hands, like an autumn reed. She straightened up when she saw the car approaching.
Yu Zou got out of the car and opened the door for her. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Ji Huisheng hiding behind the stairs of the teaching building, watching them, and the phone screen in her hand that still showed the incoming call. Several students were nervously waiting with their materials on the side.
Yu Zou's heart sank even further.
The phone rang; it was Ji Huisheng's address. Yu Zou nodded to Ji Huisheng after reading it, got into the car, and started the engine: "Teacher's wife, are you here to deliver lunch to the teacher today as well?"
Lili nestled back in her chair: "Yeah, I suddenly really want to see her. She's changed a lot, hasn't she?"
"Things have gotten better. Back in the day, with that kind of temper, if it weren't for you, we would have fought eight hundred times over. Kids these days are really lucky to be born in such a good era."
Li Li sat up straight and looked at Yu Zou: "I'll stand in for her..."
"Please don't, I can't accept that. Even so, I am still very grateful to both of you."
Five minutes after the car left the campus, Lili suddenly said, "Can we stop for a bit?"
Yu Zou stopped the car and looked closely at the buttons on the car wall. Not sure which one she wanted, she had to ask Yu Zou for help: "I want to open the car window."
The car window rolled down smoothly, and Li Li took out her phone and held it outside. A food delivery driver stood outside and took the phone.
Yu Zou stopped the deliveryman, trying to keep his voice down so as not to frighten her: "Wait! What do you want to do, Madam?"
"I suspect I'm pregnant. Take me to get checked." He just took my phone and pretended I got home safely. I don't want Huisheng to know.
Yu Zou was taken aback.
Lili pleaded in a low voice, "Please take me to investigate. Okay?"
The car swerved and drove at the speed limit to the city hospital. Yu Zou queued up to get the forms and accompanied him the whole time, except for the ten minutes of the examination.
The results came back quickly. Lili received the report, calmly accepted the outcome—no pregnancy—and gave Yu Zou a smile that only made him more uneasy: "That's great. Huisheng wouldn't agree to keep it. If she really was pregnant, even an abortion would take up Huisheng's time. Let's go home."
Li Li wanted to tear the report apart, but she didn't even have the strength, and she hung her hands dejectedly.
Yu Zou took the report from her hand: "Handle it for me."
Lili said again, "Please keep this a secret, okay? I don't want Huisheng to think that my condition has worsened again, whether it's vomiting or hallucinations, I don't want her to think that way."
“Yes, Madam. This is a secret between us about the teacher.”
Lili smiled again, her curved eyes narrowed, her head tilted slightly, and her curly bangs covered her left eye.
Back when she was just a lecturer, Ji Huisheng would be so tired that she would lie on Lili's lap and say to her, "I'll just sleep for five minutes. You must wake me up in five minutes."
Lili always agreed, but Ji Huisheng was always worried and turned to Yu Zou, saying, "Hey! Call me in five minutes."
At that time, Ji Huisheng was determined to make a name for himself and was not very familiar with Yu Zou, so he couldn't help but boss him around.
Yu Zou agreed.
But once Ji Huisheng's breathing had calmed down, Lili would secretly whisper an apology to him, saying, "Huisheng is just too tired, that's why she's in a bad mood. I apologize to you on her behalf. Let her sleep a little longer."
Yu Zou also agreed, saying that this was a secret between my teacher and his wife about our teacher.
So when Ji Huisheng woke up, he would see Lili pretending to be asleep. He couldn't bear to get angry at her, so he became even stricter with his students.
The students were furious but dared not speak out, only cursing inwardly. Then Lili would come in again, taking all the blame upon herself, saying it was all because she forgot to call him.
Out of consideration for their teacher's wife, the students' initial resentment dissipated, turning into a sour jealousy, and they cursed her even more fiercely in their hearts.
The two sat on a hospital bench for an unknown amount of time before Lili stood up and said, "It's almost time, I should go home."
Yu Zou escorted Lili home. The living room curtains were half-drawn, letting in only a little light. As soon as Lili entered, she turned on the TV, which automatically played the news channel, but she didn't watch it. Instead, she went straight into the kitchen, brought Yu Zou a glass of orange juice, and asked if he wanted to stay for dinner.
Just as Yu Zou was about to answer, Li Li's expression suddenly changed, and she asked, "Did you go to see Hui Sheng for something? Did I interrupt your serious conversation?"
"No, I just happened to have some free time today, so I went to visit my teacher."
"Really? I heard you've teamed up on another big project. Huisheng said it'll make a lot of money, enough for her to retire and take care of me. I don't want her to retire. This is her most beloved career, the one she's dedicated over a decade to. I can't help her, and I certainly can't hold her back. I can't..." As she spoke, Lili hugged her legs and curled up in the corner of the sofa, lost in thought, her large eyes terrifyingly empty.
How could someone who was once gentle and healthy have become so withered and pale? Seeing Li Li's current state, Yu Zou couldn't contain his grief, let alone Ji Huisheng. How come Ji Huisheng had never mentioned this? If he had known, he wouldn't have stood by and watched.
At that moment, the door opened, and Ji Huisheng tossed the keys and Lili's phone onto the shoe cabinet, showing no intention of coming in.
The voice pulled Lili out of her reverie. She saw Ji Huisheng, and after a moment of reaction, she hurriedly stood up from the sofa and said, "Oh dear, I forgot to cook."
"No need to rush, let me talk to Yu Zou first."
Li Li's steps into the kitchen froze. Her gaze fell on the shoe cabinet and then shifted to Ji Huisheng's face. Her eyes flickered, like a child caught doing something wrong: "Huisheng, it's all my fault..."
Ji Huisheng looked down to adjust his glasses, then looked up with a smile on his face, all the gloom from when he first entered the room gone: "What's it all about? I called him to ask about the project testing, what did you think I was going to do to make things difficult for him?"
Li Li relaxed, smiled, and shook her head: "It's nothing."
As Li Li walked into the kitchen, Ji Huisheng tilted his head towards the door, signaling the two of them to go outside to talk.
Upon reaching the stairwell, they went up three more floors. In the dusty, empty stairwell, Ji Huisheng pulled out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, knocked one out, lit it, took a deep drag, and then said, "You know, Lili's health has never been very good. Over the years, she's seen many doctors. Until one doctor told me that her physical problems might be caused by psychological issues. The psychologist I took her to see told me that her mental illness was already very serious. What's worse, she doesn't trust the doctor and refuses to tell him the truth. I thought that if she couldn't tell the doctor, she could at least tell me, but Lili doesn't even trust me and refuses to tell me."
Ji Huisheng rubbed a cigarette, his eyes dim, and put the cigarette down again before bringing it to his lips: "I didn't understand, so I got angry at her. But..." Things didn't go as Ji Huisheng had hoped. In the midst of the heated argument, Lili misunderstood his hope that she would get better completely as an explosion of long-suppressed patience.
"She suddenly started pretending that she was getting better. But the body doesn't lie; she had no strength at all, and forcing herself only made her condition worse."
"So, was the day of the project test also because your wife's condition worsened?"
Ji Huisheng nodded stiffly: "You know everything. Tell me where you took Lili."
Yu Zou told him the truth and handed over the pregnancy test report with the doctor's name removed. Ji Huisheng's face turned even uglier. He crumpled the report into a ball and cursed, "She knows she can't! How could I possibly..."
Ji Huisheng closed his eyes and remained silent, feeling as heavy as lead: "I will ask every doctor in the hospital to find out who it is."
Since Yu Zou had already said all that, he might as well say it all: "Teacher, the doctor who examined your wife told me that she was holding a prescription and asking the doctor if any of the medications on it could cause birth defects. The doctor told her the truth: the medications she was asking about were all antidepressants, and he advised her that she absolutely could not get pregnant, as hormonal instability would worsen her condition."
Ji Huisheng shifted his gaze in confusion, looking down unfocused.
Yu Zou said, "I have a friend who is also a psychiatrist, and he's very skilled. Should I take your wife to see him?"
Ji Huisheng took out another cigarette from his pocket, put one in his mouth, and Yu Zou wisely took out a lighter but was stopped. Ji Huisheng's unsteady hand rubbed the lighter a few times before he finally lit the cigarette.
The stairwell was silent except for swirling smoke. Ji Huisheng's gaze gradually focused as he asked, "Address, number, name."
"Teacher, leave it to me. You can take your wife with you. I will keep this conversation a secret from your wife."
Ji Huisheng patted Yu Zou on the shoulder, whispered a thank you, stubbed out his cigarette, pinched the bridge of his nose and said, "That's not entirely an excuse. Fang Bu told me today that he wants to withdraw from the project."
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