Chapter 125 The Crowded Elevator
Back at the apartment building, Lin Yu ran into Chen Guang, who was leaning against the door smoking. He was wearing a light gray hooded sweatshirt, with the hood pulled down over his head, and most of his face was hidden in the shadows.
As she approached, he casually stubbed out his cigarette, scattering the last wisps of smoke into the air. "Want to chat?" He smiled, his tone relaxed, as if the previous unpleasantness had never happened.
Lin Yu stopped a few steps away from him, her gaze wary. "What are you talking about?" Her voice was indifferent, tinged with a hint of aloofness.
"Don't worry." Chen Guang noticed her wariness, shook his head with a wry smile, and straightened up from the wall. "Let's talk about the hospital."
Lin Yu was taken aback. "How did you know?"
"You forgot?" Chen Guang stepped out of the shadows by the door, leaned down slightly to look at her, and tapped his phone lightly with his fingertips. "I have your brother's WeChat."
Lin Yu was taken aback, then remembered that Chen Guang had visited her hometown during college and had indeed met Zou Lang. The family still kept several pairs of limited-edition sneakers that Chen Guang had given her.
Lin Yu didn't want to go to Chen Guang's house again, so the two found a milk tea shop near their home. He ordered a taro boba drink for Lin Yu, her favorite, and an iced orange juice for himself.
After sitting down by the window, he took a neatly folded piece of paper from his pocket, pressed it on the table with two fingers, and gently pushed it towards Lin Yu. "Open it and take a look."
Lin Yu unfolded the paper with a puzzled look, staring at the unfamiliar name and phone number on it. He looked up at Chen Guang, his eyes filled with confusion. "What's this?"
"Weren't you going to transfer your aunt to another hospital?" Chen Guang's gaze remained fixed on the hurried crowd outside the window, his tone indifferent. "Find this person, he'll take care of it for you."
Lin Yu tightened his grip on the piece of paper, remained silent for a moment, then carefully folded it and stuffed it into his pocket, whispering, "Thank you."
"If you want to thank someone, thank Cheng Yuan." Chen Guang turned his gaze back, his expression frank, showing no intention of accepting her favor. "I only used his connections."
"Without you, he wouldn't have helped me with this."
Lin Yu understood. Ruijin Hospital waived all upfront costs for its clinical trials, and spots were scarce; it was very difficult to secure an appointment through the usual channels.
Cheng Yuan and she were only casual acquaintances, so there was no reason for him to go to such lengths for her. Although she and Chen Guang probably couldn't even be friends anymore, she couldn't pretend not to see his feelings.
"Perhaps...it's more because of your friend." Chen Guang didn't refute anymore, but stirred the orange pulp at the bottom of the glass, picked up the glass and took a sip. The cloying sweetness made him unconsciously frown.
Upon hearing Cheng Shi's name, Lin Yu recalled that the two hadn't seen each other for a long time since their unpleasant encounter, and casually asked, "What are their plans now?"
“We’ll raise the child together, but…” Chen Guang put down his cup and looked up at Lin Yu. “We won’t get married.”
"Cheng Shi agrees too?" Lin Yu frowned. "What about the child's household registration?" Thinking of the difficulties of raising a child as a single parent, she couldn't help but feel worried for her.
"That's her idea, the household registration should follow the woman's." Chen Guang's fingertips unconsciously rubbed the condensation on the cup, a self-deprecating smile on his lips.
"They probably learned a lesson from me and realized that a marriage without love will only harm both the person and the other."
Lin Yu was momentarily speechless, as if anything she said would seem insincere. She lowered her head and thought for a moment, then looked up and said, "I'll treat you to dinner another day, and invite Cheng Shi and Cheng Yuan too."
Such a great favor deserves to be expressed in person, and there should be an opportunity for her and Cheng Shi to break the ice.
The conversation sounded familiar, as if their relationship had returned to when Chen Guangchu first arrived in Shanghai. He nodded slightly, no longer declining. "Then you'd better hurry, I'm being transferred back to Linjiang next month."
"So fast?" Lin Yu's straw froze in mid-air as he looked up in surprise.
"It wasn't entirely unexpected; job rotation was supposed to happen at the end of the year anyway..."
Chen Guang observed the changes in Lin Yu's expression, stirred the fruit at the bottom of his glass, paused, and then added, "I'll accompany you to the hospital in a couple of days to complete the formalities and arrange for hospitalization as soon as possible."
Lin Yu understood, of course, who those extra three months were for. But some things were best left unsaid.
"Actually, you don't need to accompany me. I've been going in and out of the hospital so many times these days, I'm familiar with it." She sighed softly, it was hard to tell whether it was disappointment or relief.
Chen Guang pushed the iced orange juice aside, leaving a half-circle of watermarks on the table at the bottom of the glass. "Out of politeness, I should check on it before I leave."
......
Early Saturday morning, Chen Guang accompanied Lin Yu to the hospital to handle the transfer procedures for his aunt. Zou Lang hadn't seen him for a long time, only hearing from him a few days ago via WeChat that he was working in Shanghai.
"Brother, what brings you here?" He hurried over, his voice brimming with excitement. The familiar "brother" without any prefix suggested a close relationship between the two.
"Come and take a look." With that, Chen Guang handed over the supplements he had bought for Lin Feng.
“Visits now require advance booking…” Zou Lang scratched the back of his head helplessly. “I haven’t seen my mom for several days either.”
"It's nothing." Chen Guang naturally hooked his arm around Zou Lang's neck and ruffled his hair as he always did. "Give my regards to my family. There will be plenty of opportunities in the future."
The three of them stood in the lobby on the first floor, chatting idly.
"Are you still playing games lately?" Chen Guang subtly changed the subject, unable to bear seeing him worry about family matters all day long.
“Occasionally…” Zou Lang recalled that when Lin Yu was in college, Chen Guang came to his hometown with his sister once. At that time, the two of them could play games together every day. So many years have passed in the blink of an eye.
"I have a brand new red switch keyboard, but I'm not comfortable using it. I'll bring it to you another day."
Zou Lang's eyes lit up, but then he lowered his head and sighed. "Never mind, bro, I haven't had time to play games lately."
"Don't overthink it." Chen Guang patted his shoulder and comforted him, "The new treatment in Ruijin has a very high cure rate. Once your mom recovers, we'll play games together again."
As noon approached, Lin Yu frowned as he watched the two chatting amiably and couldn't help but interrupt. "Stop talking, let's go get something to eat."
Due to strict hospital controls during the pandemic, visits required a negative nucleic acid test result and advance appointments, so Chen Guang was unable to see Lin Feng. However, he had already conveyed his feelings, so he followed the siblings out of the hospital.
As the three of them approached the hospital entrance, Lin Yu's right eyelid suddenly started twitching uncontrollably. She raised her hand to rub it, and in her haste, nearly bumped into the glass door in front of her.
Chen Guang swiftly pulled her into his arms, and Lin Yu instinctively grabbed his arm to steady herself. The two snuggled together, and when they looked up, they were met by Jiang Chuan, who was leaning against the car, looking at them with a playful expression.
This damned coincidence made Lin Yu sigh inwardly, "Truly, nothing is more coincidental than this."
At their second meeting, neither Jiang Chuan nor Chen Guang showed any intention of leaving first. They even shook hands with each other with composure, which made Lin Yu, who was standing to the side biting his lip, look particularly forlorn.
Because of Jiang Chuan's sudden appearance, the place for dinner was changed to a local Shanghainese restaurant near the hospital.
The four of them squeezed into the cramped elevator car as it slowly ascended. Chen Guang and Zou Lang stood in front, Lin Yu was sandwiched in the middle, and Jiang Chuan leaned against the handrail behind them.
In the cramped space, only the faint hum of the cables pulling the metal could be heard; no one was willing to speak first and break the suffocating silence.
Zou Lang turned around to say something to Lin Yu, but was met with his sister's sharp gaze. He immediately turned his face away as if he had been burned.
Ever since his sister discovered that he had been secretly contacting Jiang Chuan, he had promised not to act on his own again and cause trouble for his brother-in-law.
But he felt that such a big thing as transferring to another hospital should not be kept from him, after all, it was Jiang Chuan who used his connections to arrange the hospital for them.
In fact, Lin Yu had no intention of hiding it from Jiang Chuan and had already thought about how to explain it to him when they met tonight.
However, Zou Lang once again acted on his own initiative, bypassing her and contacting Jiang Chuan directly, which suddenly put her in a very passive position.
Lin Yu was sulking and angry when he suddenly felt a warm touch behind him.
Before she could react, a large hand silently covered her waist and pinched her sensitive flesh lightly, as if it were a warning or a secret act of possession.
Lin Yu froze, instinctively reaching back to grab, but Jiang Chuan had already nonchalantly withdrawn her hand, her fingertips resting on the armrest, tapping it lightly as if everything just now was merely her illusion.
Lin Yu's heart raced. He glanced at the two unsuspecting people in front of him, then used the reflection from the elevator door to look at the culprit behind him.
Jiang Chuan was looking at her with a half-smile. The mirror distorted his features, but Lin Yu could still sense the hidden meaning in his eyes.
She cleared her throat, turning the tables and asking, "Why did you suddenly come over?"
Jiang Chuan slid his arm toward the armrest beside Lin Yu, leaned closer, his warm chest almost touching her back, and his slender fingers, holding a folded piece of paper, discreetly slipped it into her pants pocket.
Her fingertips brushed against the outside of Lin Yu's thigh, and from the side, it looked as if she were completely enveloped in his firm and warm embrace.
"Keep this safe, take it back and give it to your aunt to try."
Lin Yu took out the piece of paper that was still warm from her body, and unfolded it to find that it was a handwritten Chinese medicine prescription. The strokes were hidden and well-spaced, loose on the outside and tight on the inside. She recognized Jiang Chuan's handwriting at a glance.
"You made a special trip just for this?"
Lin Yu was worried that his recent recovery from a serious illness would be hampered by the travel, hindering his full recovery. However, his tone was inevitably somewhat harsh in front of outsiders.
She realized her mistake as soon as the words left her mouth, and softened her tone to add, "You need to rest more now."
Jiang Chuan paused, still maintaining his previous posture, leaned close to Lin Yu's ear, and said in a deliberately low but loud enough voice for everyone to hear, "I mainly wanted to see you."
The warm breath brushed past his ear, and Lin Yu's ears instantly burned.
Chen Guang, standing in front, coughed lightly twice, whether intentionally or unintentionally, it was unclear. Lin Yu turned to the side, glaring angrily at the unrestrained Jiang Chuan, only to meet his smiling eyes.
Just then, the elevator doors popped open with a "ding," and fresh air rushed in, releasing the oppressive and ambiguous atmosphere in the car.
Lin Yu felt as if he had been rescued. He sidestepped Zou Lang and Chen Guang, quickly walked out of the elevator, took a few deep breaths, and tried to calm his racing heart.
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