Chapter 10: Heartbeat Warning
A few days after the accident on the rainy night, Huo Linshen seemed to have completely disappeared from Su Lingwan's world.
No texts, no calls, not even a single word from Assistant Chen. Su Lingwan knew he was deliberately avoiding her. The vulnerability she had witnessed that night was like a thorn, piercing the heart of this man, accustomed to being in control. He needed time to rebuild his defenses, or perhaps he simply needed space to lick his wounds alone.
Su Lingwan understood this feeling, but she didn't initiate contact. She carefully suppressed the turmoil caused by his unnatural behavior and returned to the production of the "First Reveal" series. In the studio, the sounds of cutting and polishing equipment, the soft clink of metal and gemstones, became the main theme of her world.
However, during breaks at work, when she picked up her cold coffee and glanced out the window, she would always remember his pale face that night, the cold touch of his hand as he gripped hers, and the deep fear in his eyes. A subtle tug at her heart would arise, a feeling she hadn't even considered.
That day, she was prong-setting the center stone of the "First Reveal" collection—a colorless diamond of exceptional clarity. This task demands immense patience, steadiness, and complete concentration. When she finally precisely positioned the last micro-set diamond, she breathed a sigh of relief, and as she set down her tools, she noticed the lights outside were already coming on.
The studio was so quiet that only the sound of her own breathing could be heard.
She stood up, stretched her stiff neck and wrists, and prepared to pack up and go home. Her eyes swept across the empty design desk and past the vibrant pot of Phalaenopsis orchids in the corner. Suddenly, an inexplicable sense of emptiness came over her.
It's too quiet.
She suddenly realized that this silence was different from the immersive silence she'd experienced when working alone. This was a kind of silence... a silence that carried a sense of loss.
It seems like something is missing.
What's missing?
Missing the occasional text message alert from someone specific? Missing Assistant Chen's formulaic yet punctual messages about schedules or "Mr. Huo asks..."? Even missing the invisible pressure and aura lurking beneath her daily routine, demanding her constant vigilance?
This realization made Su Lingwan slightly stunned.
Since when did that man's existence permeate her life so subtly that when he suddenly withdrew, she could feel the void so clearly?
She shook her head, trying to dispel the absurd feeling. It was just habit, just like wearing headphones for a long time makes you uncomfortable with the sudden silence. Yes, just habit.
She picked up her phone and bag, turned off the lights in her studio, and stepped into the elevator. The metal walls of the elevator reflected her slightly tired yet still delicate face, and in her eyes there was a hint of something she wasn't even aware of...waiting.
The elevator goes down and the numbers keep changing.
Just as the elevator was about to reach the first floor, the second before the "ding" sound was heard, the mobile phone in my hand suddenly vibrated.
The screen lights up, showing a new message.
Sender: Huo Linshen.
Su Lingwan's heart seemed to clench at the slight vibration, skipping a beat. She swiped the screen almost anxiously.
The message was unusually brief, consisting of only four words and one punctuation mark:
What are you doing?
“…”
Su Lingwan stared at the line of words and was stunned.
She was completely unaware of the elevator door opening until someone outside, who was about to go upstairs, cast a puzzled look at her. Only then did she snap back to her senses and quickly walk out.
Standing in the brightly lit lobby on the first floor, she looked at the message, and her heart began to beat violently, again and again, hitting her chest, making a clearly audible drumming sound.
What are you doing?
What is this?
Routine check-up? A perfunctory gesture of concern from a boyfriend? Or...?
This was completely unlike Huo Linshen's style. He was always clear-minded and concise, either informing about his schedule or asking about official business. This kind of almost...chatty, slightly probing questioning had never happened before.
After the rainy night, there was silence for a few days, and then this message without a beginning or an end came.
Su Lingwan's finger hovered above the screen, and for a moment she didn't know how to reply.
She could reply businesslike, "Just finished work." or with a touch of distance, "Mr. Huo, is there something going on?"
But her fingertips hesitated, and the words she finally typed carried a trace of truth that she herself had not anticipated:
[Just finished setting the last center stone in the "Chu Lu" series. Getting ready to go home.]
She sent it out.
Then, she stood there, phone in hand, waiting, a strange mixture of nervousness and a hint of hidden anticipation spreading through her heart.
What will he reply?
Is it the same formulaic "Hmm." or "Got it."
Time seemed to be stretched, and every second became clear and perceptible.
A few seconds later, the phone vibrated again.
Su Lingwan immediately looked down.
Huo Linshen's reply was still brief:
【Is it going well?】
Su Lingwan looked at these three words and her heart skipped a beat for no apparent reason.
Was he... concerned about her work progress? Not as an investor or partner, but... in a more personal, sharing way?
This is so un-Huo Linshen.
She leaned against the cold wall and slowly squatted down, as if this was the only way to support her suddenly weakened body. She held her phone as if it were a fragile treasure, and her fingertips trembled as she typed:
It went very smoothly. The results were better than expected.
This time, there was a pause. Just when Su Lingwan thought the conversation was over, new information came in:
【Um. 】
【Go to bed early.】
It was still a brief, imperative tone, but Su Lingwan could sense a different... warmth in it.
She didn't reply, but just looked at those few short messages, reading them over and over again, from "What are you doing?" to "Is everything going well?" to "Go to bed early."
Every word was like a pebble dropped into the lake of her heart, causing ripples that spread out layer by layer and could not be calmed down.
She suddenly remembered that he was on a business trip. Assistant Chen had mentioned a few days ago that he was going to Shanghai to handle an important merger and acquisition. At this moment, he might have just finished a lengthy negotiation, or perhaps he was catching up on emails in his hotel room. In some unfamiliar city, in some exhausted moment... he thought of her.
Not out of agreement, not out of responsibility.
Just... thought of her.
Hence, the post "What are you doing?" that broke the silence.
This realization, like a subtle but clear electric current, instantly ran through Su Lingwan's limbs and bones, making her whole body numb and her cheeks unconsciously hot.
She clutched her chest, where her heartbeat was deafening, with an unfamiliar, throbbing rhythm.
This is not the response that should be included in the agreement.
This was not the emotion she should have towards Huo Linshen.
But, it really happened.
Because of a text message with no beginning or end, because of a few simple greetings, because she clearly felt that the cold and hard man was taking a small step closer to her in a clumsy way, perhaps even without his own awareness.
As he came closer, her heart began to beat uncontrollably and became out of rhythm.
Su Lingwan buried her burning cheeks in her knees and smiled silently in the corner of the deserted lobby. That smile was filled with confusion, helplessness, and a hint of... a secret sweetness that even she herself could not deny.
It turns out that the warning of heartbeat comes so quietly, yet so... irresistible.
At the same time, in a suite of a top hotel on the Bund in Shanghai.
Huo Linshen had just finished a cross-border video conference and rubbed his tired brow. Outside the window was the dazzling night view of the Huangpu River, full of light and color, but it couldn't attract his attention at all.
He picked up his phone, the screen still stuck on the conversation with Su Lingwan. He read those few short questions and answers several times.
He didn't know why he sent that "What are you doing?"
It was just that during the break of the meeting, looking at the unfamiliar lights outside the window, her worried eyes on that rainy night, the warm light in her studio, and her slightly furrowed brows as she lowered her head to concentrate on designing flashed uncontrollably in my mind... Then, my fingers typed out those four words as if they had their own consciousness.
After sending it, he actually felt a rare hint of… nervousness? Waiting for her reply.
Seeing her reply, "Just finished setting," he could almost imagine the satisfaction and relief that might have flashed across her clear eyes as she put down her tools. So, for some unknown reason, he asked again, "Is it going well?"
This is totally inconsistent with his principle of efficient and direct communication.
But he did.
Moreover, when he saw her reply "It went very smoothly", a corner of his heart actually relaxed a little, as if her joy could be transmitted to him across the long distance.
He put down his phone, walked to the floor-to-ceiling window, and looked at the city that never sleeps below him.
Su Lingwan.
This name, along with her bright smile, her gentle comfort, her focused eyes, her occasional stubbornness... in his world originally filled with calculations and interests, the place it occupied seemed to become increasingly clear, and increasingly... impossible to ignore.
He frowned and tried to analyze this anomaly with rational thinking.
Was it because she had seen his vulnerability that night, creating some kind of empathy or dependence? Or was it because her own radiance had indeed attracted his attention?
The answer is vague.
But he knew one thing clearly.
This agreement, which started out as a matter of interest, is gradually deviating from the track he had set.
And he seemed... not as eager to correct this disconnection as one might imagine.
Thousands of lights outside the window were reflected in Huo Lin's deep eyes, just like his confused and confusing mood at the moment.
The heartbeat warning has already sounded.
I just don’t know who the authorities are confused about.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
