Chapter 66: Cosmic Latte (18) You never know what will happen next...
Over the next few days, He Chuan visited Lin Xia every day. He was too busy with work to be with her from morning till night, sometimes only able to sit for a short while, but he always found time to come. He carefully researched the foods she could eat at that time and brought her a variety of porridge, soup, noodles, fruit, and fresh milk every day. He walked with her, chatted with her, and asked the doctor about the healing of her incision. However, he did not interfere too much or cross the line, maintaining a distance that was neither too close nor too distant, a little further than a lover, but closer than a friend.
No one, whether it was the nursing assistant or the doctors and nurses, asked about their relationship, but their eyes showed understanding. Perhaps in the secular system, in this materialistic and self-centered city, there would be no other answer for a man to show such care and consideration to a woman.
Lin Xia did not refuse. She was reluctant to refuse, so she let her indulge in this short-lived warmth and indulge in her weakness for once.
.
On the morning of the fourth day of the Lunar New Year, Lin Xia completed the final examinations and was officially discharged from the hospital. He Chuan drove her home.
On the way back to the apartment from the hospital, Lin Xia noticed that everything was different. In previous years, even during the Lunar New Year holiday, Shenzhen didn't become a deserted city like Beijing. Shops would open, businesses would resume operations, cars would come and go, and tourist attractions and shopping malls would be packed with tourists. But now, after the third day of the Lunar New Year, the streets were still deserted, with few pedestrians or vehicles. How could this desolate scene really be Shenzhen?
Lin Xia knew that around the time of the Spring Festival, a new, unknown virus had begun to spread. Cases had been reported in many cities, and Wuhan, the suspected source and currently the hardest-hit city, had even been locked down, much like the SARS outbreak in 2003. However, she had been hospitalized these past few days, feeling frail and spending her days either sleeping or getting injections and changing dressings, with little time for television or her phone. Furthermore, she was still in elementary school during the SARS outbreak, and Wangchun was so remote that there had been no cases throughout. She only remembered the school being closed for a few days, but she had no real experience of it. Now, the quiet, deserted streets filled Lin Xia with a sense of unfamiliarity and fear. It seemed the situation might be far more serious than she had imagined.
While he was daydreaming, He Chuan's phone suddenly rang. The call was connected to the car's Bluetooth. After the call was connected, the voice on the other end rang throughout the car. It was a middle-aged man who spoke broken Mandarin in an anxious tone:
"Andy, why haven't you left yet? Did you know that the deadline is the day after tomorrow? The situation in China is very complicated right now. Even if you leave a day later, things might change—"
He Chuan disconnected the Bluetooth, reached out to pick up the phone, put it to his ear, and whispered:
"The flight is in the afternoon... Yeah, don't worry... It's okay... No problem..."
Then he confirmed some matters with the other party and finally hung up the phone.
"It's Mr. Dai - Dai Zhicheng." He Chuan explained.
Lin Xia asked him, "Are you going on a business trip? Where are you going?"
He Chuan responded softly, "There's a court hearing in Singapore that I must attend."
He paused, his tone filled with disgust that he himself did not want to forgive:
"sorry."
Lin Xia was helpless: "Don't say sorry anymore. How many times have you said that to me? I've been restraining myself from saying thank you, but why do you keep saying sorry to me? The doctor also said that I'm recovering well. As long as I don't lift heavy objects or exercise, there will be no problem. Besides, I have the next few days off, and I will be fully recovered by the time I go back to work. Don't worry about me. Work is more important."
But He Chuan's slightly frown did not relax. He looked straight ahead and unconsciously tightened his grip on the steering wheel.
Just as she didn't want him to apologize to her, he didn't want her to be so polite to him.
It shouldn't be like this. It shouldn't be like this between her and him.
Lin Xia thought that since she was discharged from the hospital, she would be fine, but He Chuan was really worried about her and felt really guilty about going on a business trip. When she got home, Lin Xia found that He Chuan had bought a lot of things to make it more convenient for her to be alone at home these days, including fruits and vegetables, cooked bread, and instant noodles and other fast foods. As he took the things out of the trunk, he said to her:
"Diseases are very contagious these days. You just had surgery and your immune system is weak. It's best not to order takeout. It's not safe."
"......good."
Lin Xia couldn't lift heavy objects, so He Chuan had to move everything by himself. He ran up and down the stairs twice before he finally finished moving everything. Fortunately, the apartment had an elevator, otherwise it would have been exhausting to climb 24 floors.
In the living room, Lin Xia sat on the sofa, watching He Chuan busying around, feeling a little restless. Before being hospitalized, she had never expected He Chuan to come here. The whole house was not cleaned at all, and the bedroom and bathroom were full of dirty clothes piled up in a mess.
Fortunately, He Chuan didn't pay attention to these. He just helped her put the vegetables, fruits, eggs and milk into the refrigerator, cleaned up the rotten food, and helped her wipe the kitchen counter and sweep the floor.
He packed all the garbage from every room in the house into two large bags and placed them at the door. Standing in the middle of the living room, he looked around to see if there was anything else that needed to be done. Lin Xia said to him from the bottom of her heart:
"That's fine, no need. I can do the rest myself."
She just had an operation, she's not paralyzed and unable to take care of herself.
"How long will your trip to Singapore take this time?" she asked.
"It will take at least a week."
Lin Xia nodded, thinking about treating him to a meal or something after he returned home, after all, he had taken care of her so much during this period.
Before I could figure out how to start, I heard He Chuan continue:
"But there might be another trip to England after this."
"How long will it take to come back?"
"have no idea."
"have no idea?"
Lin Xia was stunned for a moment, "Why?"
"This time when I returned to the UK, my former club, Kaisen, approached me again. They made me an offer that was hard to refuse, both in terms of salary and position. According to UK permanent residency regulations, a single absence from the country cannot exceed 180 days, and I'm about to reach that limit. So, I have to make a choice now: go or stay."
He Chuan paused, looked at her with deep eyes, and said slowly:
"Xia Xia, what do you think I should choose?"
Lin Xia couldn't answer.
In fact, her mind was completely confused at this time.
She thought he would not leave this time he came back. She thought they would all be in Shenzhen from now on, their companies next to each other, and they would see each other every day. She avoided, she refused, she kept pushing him away, just thinking that he would never be able to go far.
But she didn't expect that there was a time limit for reliving this old dream. She woke up so suddenly that everything had to go back to the starting point.
Reason told her that she should persuade him to return to the UK and not give up this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for career advancement, and not give up everything he had worked so hard to obtain. They were all adults now, so they should be realistic and not joke about their own future for something illusory.
But I emotionally told her thousands of times, please ask him to stay, you don’t want him to leave again, you have already missed him once, don’t make the same mistake again, maybe this is your last chance in this life, Lin Xia, don’t you even have this little courage?
Yes, she didn't even have this little bit of courage anymore. She was no longer the ignorant and fearless Lin Xia who dared to love and hate in her teens.
When I first broke up with He Chuan, I was just thinking about not contacting him for a while so that we could both calm down. However, after I finished the things at hand, the postgraduate study, thesis preparation, the defense, graduation, and experienced my parents' divorce and remarriage, as well as the chaotic life of a graduate student, a long time has passed in the blink of an eye. How can I dare to think that he is still waiting for me?
When I was young, I always thought that life would always be like in books and dramas, with ups and downs and a happy ending. However, as I grew up, I realized that the real world is not like that. No matter how many twists and turns the stories have, they always end happily. Real life is always the daily necessities of life, a mess. Everyone rushes through their lives indifferently. No one loves you, no one hates you, no one wastes hysterical emotions on you, no one needs your forgiveness, and no one waits for your apology.
The more fearful I was, the more I procrastinated. The more I procrastinated, the more timid I became. So many years passed in a daze.
Having missed so much time, can they go back to the way they were before?
Time passed by minute by minute, and she was torn between her conscience and her desires. She didn't dare to try to keep him, but she was also reluctant to leave.
In the end, he just managed to spit out a few words:
"Let me calm down and think about it... I need to think carefully..."
After a long silence, a sigh sounded, helpless and gentle.
"Xia Xia, don't make things difficult for yourself."
He Chuan walked towards Lin Xia step by step, leaned over, and gently kissed her forehead:
"I'll be waiting for your answer."
"I'm leaving, take care of yourself."
"goodbye."
Lin Xia kept her eyes lowered from beginning to end, not daring to look at him any longer.
It was not until the sound of the door closing and the number of breaths in the room changed from two to one and returned to silence that she finally collapsed on the sofa as if exhausted, with silent tears streaming down her face.
She blamed herself for her weakness and also blamed him for his indulgence.
Why should she choose? Why should she choose? If everything had a predetermined answer, whether good or bad, she wouldn't need to bother choosing and could just accept it numbly. How much better would that be...
......
Lin Xia fell asleep on the sofa in a daze.
When she woke up again, the sun was setting and the sky was full of sunset glow. She was awakened by hunger. But she just lay on the sofa, not wanting to move at all. The food in the material world could not heal the emptiness in her heart. She always felt that He Chuan's departure took away half of her soul.
It was not until the sun slowly set and night slowly fell, and there was no longer a trace of light in the entire living room, that she struggled to get up and picked up her cell phone to check the time.
You don't know until you see it. She was shocked when she saw it. Because her phone had been on silent before, she found that there were more than 99 unread messages in the owners' group, and new messages were flashing constantly. Everyone was cursing, asking questions, and protesting, and the emotions were very excited.
Lin Xia flipped through it for a long time, until her index finger was almost sore, before she finally understood what was going on.
Around noon, the apartment manager suddenly announced that a young couple living in 1207, who had deliberately concealed the fact that they had driven to Hubei to visit relatives a few days earlier, had developed symptoms such as a cough and fever after returning to Shenzhen. They sought medical attention and were officially diagnosed with the virus and were admitted to the hospital. Currently, in accordance with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the entire apartment building is under lockdown, and all residents will be under home observation for 14 days, with only entry and no exit.
As soon as the news broke, the entire group exploded. What about food? What about supplies? What about work? Everyone's questions kept coming up. The apartment manager responded to each one, but it couldn't calm the public's anger. In just a short while, the group had already erupted into several arguments.
Lin Xia threw down her phone and slowly exhaled. It was really like a house leaking in a rainy night, all the bad luck happened at the same time.
Fortunately, the accident had little impact on her. She had not planned to go out for the next period of time, so now she could continue to take leave with a clear reason. There was plenty of food at home. Fortunately... fortunately, He Chuan had foresight.
When she mentioned this name, her heart couldn't help but feel sad again.
At this moment, he should have flown to Singapore. I don't know when and where we will meet next time, and I don't know if there will be a next time...
She sighed, forced herself to cheer up, walked to the window to close the curtains, and suddenly, she paused, squinted her eyes, and looked out the corner of the window.
If she remembered correctly, when He Chuan sent her back, in order to make it easier to carry things upstairs, he asked the security guard for permission to drive the car into the yard and park it under a street lamp not far from the apartment gate.
She doesn't drive and doesn't know much about cars. Most cars look the same to her, and it's impossible for her to see the license plate clearly from such a distance on the 24th floor. However, the white car parked there at this moment should, probably, maybe...it can't be the Cayenne that Tan Zhizhou borrowed from He Chuan, right?
The car is here, but where is He Chuanren? Did he not drive to the airport? Did he park here to save on parking fees?
A thousand thoughts flashed through Lin Xia's mind, but she couldn't believe the most absurd one. Her phone had automatically shut down because the message kept flashing and all the battery had been consumed. She grabbed her keys and staggered out the door, forgetting even to change her slippers.
The elevator went from the 24th floor to the 1st floor in just a few tens of seconds, but it seemed like a lifetime. Lin Xia didn't know if it was because of her anxiety or because she stretched it, but she felt a dull pain in her incision. After the elevator arrived, she didn't dare to walk fast. She covered her lower abdomen and moved out slowly step by step.
The lobby on the first floor, which was once bustling with people, was now deserted. The rest area, borrowing area, and announcement area were all empty. Only the crystal chandelier on the ceiling was lit alone.
A familiar figure, standing behind the sealed glass door, was arguing with a fully-armed worker wearing protective gear and a mask.
"...I'm sorry, I know this is your policy, but I only entered this building briefly this morning and didn't have close contact with anyone in the building. There's no possibility of infection..."
"That's really not possible. The rule is that you can only enter, not leave. You don't have any evidence to support your claim. Besides, this virus is extremely contagious right now. Even if there's no direct contact, you could still get infected just by passing by in the elevator. Please don't make things difficult for us."
"But I'm not a resident of this building. Even if you lock me in now, where will I live for the next ten days?"
"Is there no one you know in the building? Then what are you doing here today?"
“…sent a friend home from the hospital.”
"That's fine. Since you have a friend, you can stay at your friend's house for the time being. We're really busy here. I also have to rush to disinfect Building B. This incident came up so suddenly that we're completely short-staffed right now. Please be considerate of our work."
The two people argued for a long time but to no avail. The staff left, leaving only the man in the hall inside the door. Just by looking at his back, one could feel his helplessness and fatigue.
He Chuan took off his glasses and pinched his aching brow, his mind racing with various countermeasures. His flight had been delayed, and he would definitely miss the trial. He had already notified his assistant to make the trip in his place, but the crucial documents were still in his car. Dai Zhicheng had already urgently contacted the person in charge of the agency. He wondered if the trial could be rescheduled given this unexpected force majeure event...
Most importantly, where will he go for the next 14 days?
When he put on his glasses and turned around, the person who had just parted with him not long ago caught his eye. The two of them looked at each other in silence for a long time.
Lin Xia held it in for a long time before finally saying:
"Come upstairs with me."
"......good."
Life is neither a tragedy nor a comedy, but an improvisational sitcom. God is the most ridiculous and lame screenwriter. You never know what will happen next.
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