Ling Ruoke returned to the Yuntian Villa. But only her body returned; her heart had vanished.
Throughout the journey, Cang Wei held her close, keeping her tightly by his side. But she remained dazed, giving no reaction to anyone.
It was already evening when we arrived at Yuntian Villa. Cang Wei had instructed the kitchen to prepare a sumptuous meal early in the morning.
Ling Ruoke was pulled to a seat at the table by Cang Weiwo. She blinked and finally spoke her first words: "I'm not hungry, can I not eat?"
"No way!" Cang Wei refused outright. She had barely eaten anything today, and if she continued to go hungry, she wouldn't be able to hold on.
Ling Ruoke grunted an "oh," picked up her rice bowl and chopsticks, and started eating. She could chew three grains of rice for ten minutes straight without even blinking. She was like a robot whose chewing button had been pressed; she only knew how to do that one thing.
Cang Wei snatched the bowl and chopsticks from her hands and slammed them down on the table.
The theft and the loud noise finally made Ling Ruoke look up at him.
Cang Wei was so angry at her innocent eyes that she wanted to punch her. "Who are you trying to fool by acting like this, half-dead? Do you think I'll feel sorry for you or Huo Qingfeng will? Let me tell you, I won't feel sorry for you. Huo Qingfeng will never feel sorry for you. So, if you want to, just eat properly, or you might as well starve to death. No one will pity you!"
"I didn't," Ling Ruoke retorted softly. But she really didn't want to eat, so she stood up and walked towards the stairs.
Cang Wei grabbed her and pulled her into a chair. "Where are we going?"
Ling Ruoke looked at him and felt so tired. "I'm not hungry, I want to go back to my room."
Cang Wei wanted to yell again, but seeing her disoriented state, she finally cursed and let go. She frowned as she watched her walk up the stairs and disappear from sight.
With a wave of his hand, a table full of food was fed to the Earth God with a whoosh and a clang.
Cang Wei turned around to chase after him, but after going up the stairs, he turned back and drove straight to Ru Mingyue's apartment.
Just as Mingyue finished dinner and was about to clear the dishes, the doorbell rang. She was overjoyed and hurried to open the door.
Sure enough, Cang Weiwo stood outside the door with a dark expression.
Ru Mingyue didn't ask the reason for the dark face, but simply asked, "Would you like to eat something?"
Cang Wei let out a soft "hmm" through his nose, plopped down on the table, and furrowed his brow.
Ru Mingyue glanced at him and hurriedly went to the kitchen to get a set of bowls and chopsticks. The food was still hot, and there was enough for two people. She always cooked for two people for every meal. "Eat up, while the food is still warm."
Cang Wei took the chopsticks and silently began to eat.
Ru Mingyue found the newly bought cup, washed it again, and poured him a glass of water. She then sat down at the table herself. She loved watching him eat heartily, as if her cooking was the most delicious food in the world.
Perhaps because he had once been a soldier, Cang Weiwo ate very quickly in private. So, after a while, he had already finished eating and drinking. However, his brows were still furrowed.
Ru Mingyue had already turned on the TV and tuned it to the financial channel.
Once the man moved to the sofa, she started washing up, cleaning the dishes, and tidying up the kitchen. She enjoyed this feeling; call it being a masochist if you will. She simply liked it when he watched TV or worked while she did the housework. It felt a lot like a married couple.
But whenever she thought of the word "husband and wife," she couldn't help but smile bitterly. If she couldn't break free from the poison that was Cang Weiwo, she would never have a marriage, children, or a family. Cang Weiwo hadn't bound her; it was she who couldn't let go.
Before I could finish tidying up, Cang Wei suddenly appeared at the kitchen door.
Ru Mingyue stopped what she was doing, turned to him and asked, "What's wrong? Do you want to take a bath?"
Cang Weiwo held a cigarette between his fingers, exhaling smoke without saying a word. But the face behind the smoke always had a furrowed brow.
As Mingyue understood, she lowered her head and continued with her work. But out of the corner of her eye, she couldn't help but glance towards the kitchen doorway.
Suddenly, Cang Wei strode over.
Ru Mingyue was startled and stared at him in astonishment.
Cang Wei hugged her waist and buried his face in her neck.
Like the moon, he stood frozen, not daring to move. They had been intimate countless times, but almost never had such a quiet embrace.
"Move." A muffled sound came from his neck.
As for Mingyue, she was stunned, unable to understand his meaning for a moment. After a while, she continued tidying up the kitchen. However, with a large bundle on her back, still scorching hot, her movements were much slower.
However, Mingyue suddenly wished the kitchen were bigger, ideally infinitely bigger, so she could keep cleaning it forever. Unfortunately, her kitchen was only a dozen square meters, and she had already almost finished cleaning it.
After putting down the rag and carefully washing her hands with hand sanitizer under the tap, she hesitated whether to tell him that it was over.
She dried her hands and stood there quietly, waiting for him to see the reality: she was Ru Mingyue, not Ling Ruoke.
However, what she got in return was a sudden bite from the man on her shoulder, so hard that tears welled up in her eyes.
Then, as if provoked by the taste of blood in his mouth, he ripped off her dress—no, tore it off. Like a wild beast, he brutally took her.
As she bit her lip, tears streamed from her eyes as she looked ahead. It hurt terribly, but she didn't refuse or struggle.
The man behind her paid no heed to any of this, blindly and recklessly plundering her. She knew he fantasized about possessing Ling Ruoke, not Ru Mingyue.
Like the bright moon, you will always be a substitute, a tool for sexual release!
...
Ling Ruoke sat in front of the computer, typing all night. Her arms ached, her back ached, her neck hurt, and her eyes were dry before she finally climbed into bed.
She was very tired and sleepy, but couldn't fall asleep. She started counting sheep, but as she counted, the image shifted to her father, mother, Qingfeng, and Fu'an; then she switched to counting pigs, but the image returned to the same one. She tossed and turned, like a pancake on a griddle, but showed no sign of falling asleep.
She acted as if she'd been furious with someone, rudely throwing off the covers and running into the bathroom for a bath. The water was cold in the morning, and she was shivering, but she just didn't want to use hot water.
After soaking for half an hour, she came out, her teeth chattering from the cold. Crawling into bed, she felt even more awake. Tears began to stream down her face, and as they flowed, her head began to spin. She felt hot and uncomfortable, but also somewhat on the verge of falling asleep.
Ling Ruoke relaxed her body, hoping to fall asleep soon. Once asleep, she could stop thinking about anything. It seemed as if God heard her voice; her consciousness finally began to fade.
...
This is the first time I've spent the night in Ru Mingyue's bed. Before, no matter how late it was, he would always leave.
As the moon nestled in his arms, she barely slept a wink all night. She couldn't bear to sleep; it was like a beautiful dream, and she wished she could hold onto it for just one more second, and then another.
Unfortunately, dawn will eventually break.
Cang Wei still maintained his soldier's habits, and his biological clock rang precisely on time. When he woke up and saw Ru Mingyue, he was stunned for a moment, then went to the bathroom to wash up as if nothing had happened.
Ru Mingyue covered him with the blanket she had pulled off before getting up and following him inside.
Cang Wei went straight to the company. He wanted to grow his wings and fly solo, so he'd been incredibly busy lately. Yesterday he went to B City again, accumulating even more work. From the moment he sat down, he hadn't had a moment to breathe. He even ordered takeout for lunch.
In the afternoon, he was extremely busy when he received a call from his servant.
Ling Ruoke has a high fever!
"Damn it!" Cang Wei cursed under his breath, grabbed his coat, and rushed out of the office.
"President, wait a moment—" The secretary wanted to tell him that an important meeting was about to start, but he had already disappeared.
Cang Wei didn't drive himself. He was extremely anxious while calling his secretary to explain the work adjustments. After hanging up, he was like a raging torrent about to explode.
The driver, seeing this in the rearview mirror, also felt a little uneasy and carefully drove the car steadily and quickly.
When I arrived at Yuntian Villa, the doctor was already there.
"A fever of 39.5 degrees Celsius, and it's been going on for quite some time. If the fever doesn't break, it could lead to pneumonia; even more seriously, it could damage the brain." The implication is that if the fever doesn't subside, the person could become mentally impaired.
Cang Wei's face was extremely ugly. In fact, he really wanted to drag the woman who was burning up on the bed and beat her up!
After wiping her entire body with alcohol several times, Ling Ruoke's fever finally subsided. Outside the window, it was already dark.
"Alright, you're out of danger for now. Be careful, you absolutely can't get a fever again." After giving the instructions, the doctor grumbled as he went to eat, take a shower, and go to bed.
Cang Wei stayed by her bedside for almost the entire night, and once he was sure she didn't have a fever, he simply climbed into bed with her. He held her in his arms, so he could sense if she had a fever.
When Ling Ruoke woke up, she felt weak and limp, and her body ached from the inside out. The only thing that felt better was her previously dry eyes. When she saw the firm chest, she was overjoyed, but when she looked up, she met the gaze of the heavens above her.
She lowered her eyes sadly and moved away from him.
Cang Wei watched coldly, but secretly breathed a sigh of relief. He threw off the covers and got out of bed. He pulled on his pants, grabbed the doorknob, and said, "If you want to die, just kill yourself. Don't bring yourself to suffer from illness and torment others."
Ling Ruoke paused for a moment before understanding his meaning; it seemed she had been ill. Watching the door close, a servant soon entered. She suddenly thought, perhaps Cang Weiwo wasn't as heartless towards her as she had thought.
The doctor gave her an injection and, while packing her things, said, "Young lady, why are you so upset? That's life; there are always joys and sorrows. Everyone goes through that. Don't think you're the most miserable one. Aren't those who have never received love since birth and struggle their whole lives just to survive worse off than you?"
Ling Ruoke was embarrassed; she knew that giving up on life was shameful. "I...I didn't want to die. I just...I just couldn't sleep, so I took a cold shower."
"Girl, who told you to take a cold shower if you can't sleep? If you're going to take one, take a hot shower." The doctor looked at her like she was stupid and shook his head.
Ling Ruoke didn't know what to say; she herself didn't know what she was thinking at the time. But she had indeed dragged others into this mess, and she was wrong. "I'm sorry."
The doctor shook his head and took a pill from the medicine box. "If you can't sleep, take this."
Ling Ruo knew that those were sleeping pills.
She ate it before going to sleep that night, and sure enough, she fell asleep, although she still kept having nightmares.
After lying in bed for several days, Ling Ruo finally recovered. However, her physical condition was getting worse and worse.
Cang Wei watched her stay up all night, always sitting by the window, hugging her knees and looking outside. Even when I carried her to bed, she would stay awake until dawn.
He watched her wither away, little by little, like a flower at the end of spring; no matter how much care he gave her, he couldn't stop it from fading.
Cang Wei angrily stripped off her clothes, biting and slashing her body, leaving bloody marks. But the person beneath him didn't react at all, her eyes just staring blankly, unfocused. Only her body lay beneath him, her soul had long since flown to another world.
Cang Wei desperately wanted to possess her, hoping it would wake her up, but she just couldn't bring herself to do it. In the end, she could only slam her fist on the bed in frustration and let out a low growl.
"Who are you trying to impress? Huo Qingfeng won't see it, he never will! What's the point of ruining yourself like this..."
But no matter how much he yelled, she didn't react at all, as if she were just a doll that couldn't move or speak.
"Ah—" Cang Wei shouted and slammed the door shut as he left.
The person on the bed finally reacted, but only blinked once.
Ling Ruoke knew very well that she didn't want to be half-dead and make anyone feel sorry for her; she just couldn't find her own heart. It was as if everything was empty, and nothing mattered anymore.
It's not that I don't want to eat, it's that I really don't feel hungry and have no appetite.
It's not that I don't want to sleep, it's that I'm really not sleepy and can't fall asleep. At first, sleeping pills would help me sleep for a while, but then they stopped working.
It's not that I don't want to laugh, it's that I really can't laugh, and I've forgotten how to laugh...
She understood the principles of "there is hope as long as you live" and "you must be strong"... but understanding them didn't bring her any joy. She knew she shouldn't be like this, that it wasn't right, but that was all she knew; she didn't know how to act on it.
After Cang Weiwo left, Ling Ruoke lay on the bed in a daze until dark. She had no appetite for dinner as usual and barely ate anything.
When she walked into the bathroom with her pajamas, her legs were weak and her head was spinning. Taking off her clothes, she practically collapsed into the bathtub. The warm water soothed her body, giving her a brief moment of clarity.
Slowly, Ling Ruoke closed her eyes. Her hand touched the necklace on her chest, gently tracing its shape as if she were tracing his face. But she knew clearly in her heart that this had become an eternal dream, an illusion forever.
Every day, her mind was filled with replays of events. From the once warm family of three to her utter loneliness, from her passionate love with Cang Weiwo to guarding the Cang family mansion alone, from her meeting and companionship with Qingfeng to their separation by death... each and every one of them was like a knife piercing her heart.
She kept thinking of Gu Zhenzhen's words—"You're a jinx, a jinx!"
Is that really the case? That's why everyone around her left one by one, leaving her alone to face the rest of her life. If it weren't for her, would her parents be living happy lives? If it weren't for her, would Qingfeng be married with children and living a happy life?
Throughout the long night, she asked again and again, but no one answered. Each question felt like a knife piercing her heart, and even with only a hole left, the pain was excruciating! Only this pain reminded her that she was still alive.
Her body slowly slid down, water seeping over her neck, mouth, and nose, until it reached the top of her head. Breathing became increasingly difficult, but Ling Ruoke didn't want to move at all. She let the water engulf and devour her, and then her consciousness gradually faded.
Dad, Mom, Qingfeng...
...
Cang Wei drove to Ru Mingyue's place and vented his frustrations. In the end, he didn't stay to have dinner with her and drove back to Yuntian Villa.
Unsurprisingly, the servants reported that Ling Ruoke hadn't eaten anything and was hiding alone in her room.
Cang Wei's brows furrowed deeply. He strode up the stairs and arrived at the door. He pushed it open, glanced around, and saw that the room was empty.
He frowned, walked to the bathroom, and knocked on the door, but there was no response. Suddenly, a sense of panic washed over him, and he kicked the door open, only to see a person completely still, soaking in the bathtub.
"If possible!" Cang Wei shouted, suppressing his panic, he scooped the person up and began a series of rescue measures.
When a coughing fit occurred, Cang Wei's heart finally settled. Without thinking, she grabbed a large bath towel, scooped her up, and ran out of the room. "Call the doctor right now, or I'll kill her!"
"Ling Ruoke, you haven't been allowed to die yet, get up!"
...
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