Chapter 48: The Trumpet

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Jiang Ying had long been mentally prepared for Lu Zhixi’s persistence. She had made her stance perfectly clear, leaving no room for him to harbor illusions. Although he couldn’t accept it at the moment, someday he would. People cannot deceive themselves forever.

The two of them sat at the hospital room’s dining table, each harboring their own thoughts. Jiang Ying resumed her usual gentle demeanor, while Lu Zhixi, as always, ladled soup and porridge for her. His meticulous and attentive habits had become deeply ingrained since their courtship, and she simply went along with it.

As they ate dinner in this strange atmosphere of uneasy harmony, Jiang Ying’s phone rang again. She hesitated before picking it up, eyeing the caller ID that showed a number from the United States.

Lu Zhixi asked softly, “Who is it this time?”

She turned the phone screen toward him. “It’s a call from the U.S.”

Recognizing the number, his expression darkened slightly. “It’s my father. Let me handle it.”

This was his family matter, and Jiang Ying didn’t want to get involved, so she handed him the phone. Lu Zhixi immediately blacklisted the number, and while doing so, he noticed his own number, which he had previously used to call Jiang Ying, was also on the blacklist.

Without changing his expression, he looked at the screen and said, “I’ll warn him not to bother you anymore. Don’t worry.”

At the same time, he quietly removed some of his own numbers from the blacklist before handing the phone back to her.

The turmoil within Lu Zhixi’s family had been raging for three months. Although he never mentioned it in their daily interactions, Jiang Ying could sense the tense situation from the frequent calls he had to take and the alert notifications that occasionally popped up on his computer.

Unable to hold back, she asked, “Once, your grandmother also called me, asking where you were, but I didn’t tell her. Why is your father contacting me again?”

“If you’ve seen the news, you’d know he’s still under investigation. Given the current circumstances, he faces hefty fines. My grandfather won’t allow him to touch the family company’s assets. So he’s considering selling the company he secretly gave to his mistress and illegitimate son behind my mother’s back.”

“I instructed the lawyer to sue to recover the assets that belong to my mother, and I’m willing to buy the other half of the shares that should belong to him at a mutually acceptable price, so he can divorce my mother. But he’s not willing to accept my offer yet. He’s probably trying to get you to persuade me.”

Lu Zhixi spoke tactfully, and Jiang Ying guessed he was using this approach to force his father into walking away empty-handed.

“I gave them chances, but they mistook my tolerance for weakness.”

Worrying that Jiang Ying might see him as cold-hearted, he patiently explained further.

“I once told my father that as long as he kept his mistress and illegitimate child hidden, I could pretend I never saw anything. But he didn’t listen, maybe because he prefers children who look like him. In any case, he did many things last year that made my mother lose control. That’s why I intend to help them.”

Jiang Ying fell silent.

Most of the time, she didn’t agree with Lu Zhixi’s forceful way of handling matters, but regarding his parents, she found herself surprisingly understanding.

This wasn’t a pleasant topic, and Lu Zhixi didn’t want to spoil their meal, so he said no more.

Soon after dinner, following routine checks by the nurse, Jiang Ying prepared to sleep, insisting that Lu Zhixi not stay by her bedside.

“If you keep staring at me, I won’t be able to sleep.”

He suggested, “Then you can treat me like a body pillow.”

That was even more unacceptable. Jiang Ying firmly refused and warned him never to suggest such things again, or it would be considered sexual harassment.

Lu Zhixi was clearly disappointed but complied, retreating to the family waiting room to attend to his own matters.

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The hospital room returned to quiet, with only the corner lamp casting a soft glow as Jiang Ying curled up under the covers to sleep.

She had severely underestimated how debilitating the flu could be—it was nothing like the cold and fever she had caught in December that came and went quickly. The high fever was just the beginning. After only two hours of sleep, her throat began burning fiercely, her muscles ached painfully, as if she were being punished.

Restless and uncomfortable, she tossed and turned on the hospital bed. In a drowsy haze, she heard the door open and someone approach her, softly whispering in her ear.

“Not feeling well?”

She didn’t open her eyes. “Mm.”

“Throat hurts?”

“Mm.”

“Body aches too?”

Too weak to respond verbally, she just nodded slightly with her eyes closed.

After a minute or two, Jiang Ying felt a hand supporting the back of her neck. She barely lifted her eyelids to look.

The floor lamp in the corner cast a warm, dim light like the fading rays of sunset, softly illuminating the half-hidden bed and gently lighting Lu Zhixi’s face.

His clear, gentle eyes looked at her with kindness as he coaxed, “Yingying, open your mouth.”

Her sluggish mind barely processed the request before she obeyed instinctively.

Lu Zhixi pressed a spray bottle with a nozzle to her lips, gently squeezing her neck to encourage her mouth to open wider and to keep her tongue down so it wouldn’t block the nozzle.

The mist sprayed into her throat, a tangy-sweet taste followed by a refreshing coolness, like a fire extinguisher quelling the razor-sharp pain in her throat.

Understanding he was helping ease her discomfort, Jiang Ying obediently stayed still. When he finished, she clutched his sleeve, mumbling indistinctly, “A little more.”

He tenderly stroked her cheek. “You can’t use too much at once. It’ll work soon, and the pain will ease.”

Then Lu Zhixi began massaging the sore spots on her body.

Girls are always sensitive to touch from men.

But perhaps as a lingering effect of their past cohabitation, Jiang Ying, drowsy and with her reason asleep, was unaware that she no longer resisted Lu Zhixi’s touch.

On the contrary, she quickly fell back into a deep sleep.

Jiang Ying liked this kind of touch.

When she was very young, before her parents divorced, whenever she had a fever, Wang Xin would massage her like this.

Her mother’s warm, soft palms had comforted her aching skin and soul, forming Jiang Ying’s most vivid memory of safety.

However, massaging someone’s body was an extremely tedious task, and Wang Xin’s patience was limited; she usually stopped after ten minutes.

And Wang Xin’s motivation wasn’t purely kindness—she found Jiang Ying’s moaning during illness noisy.

Jiang Ying knew this, so whenever Wang Xin stopped massaging, she became unusually quiet.

Not because she didn’t hurt anymore, but because she didn’t want to annoy her mother.

During their relationship, Lu Zhixi had unintentionally discovered this little habit of hers. Since then, whether she had a fever or was going through her monthly cycle, he thoughtfully provided this service.

Lu Zhixi’s palms felt very different from Wang Xin’s uniquely feminine warmth.

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Years of playing tennis had toughened his hands with calluses. Despite his gentle movements, Jiang Ying could feel the strength within his knuckles and palms.

Whenever his hand moved over her body through the clothes, she was aware that he could easily clasp her waist with one hand or encircle her calf.

Yet his gestures were always proper, thoughtfully applying just the right amount of pressure to ease her pain without any hint of overstepping.

More importantly, unlike Wang Xin who stopped quickly, Lu Zhixi continued massaging until Jiang Ying fell into a deep, deep sleep.

While she enjoyed this soothing touch, he seemed to find some satisfaction in this otherwise tedious task.

Once he confirmed she was sound asleep, Lu Zhixi reluctantly withdrew his hand, careful not to wake her again.

He felt heartache for her illness but cherished this rare moment when she did not resist his touch.

Though he had held her many times recently, she always curled up like a little hedgehog. Tonight was the first time he could touch her body like this.

If he could, he longed to peel off her clothes, feel her burning skin, and hold her close on this bed.

Clear and pure moonlight quietly bathed Lu Zhixi, casting a soft glow over his handsome face, as if shielding the unspeakable, dirty thoughts beneath his exterior.

Instead of going to the restroom to relieve himself, he leaned over the sleeping Jiang Ying, listening intently to her shallow breathing, inhaling her scent.

In a near-torturous self-restraint, he brushed the stray hairs from her cheek and gently kissed her.

*

On the third night of her flu, Jiang Ying’s temperature finally stabilized at a normal level, though she still had a cough. Lu Zhixi insisted she stay in the hospital for another night of observation.

Jiang Ying messaged Zhou Anning in advance. She replied instantly, hesitant but probing, cautious but testing.

“Has Lu Zhixi been favored? Has he been legitimized?”

After Jiang Ying denied it, Zhou Anning was finally relieved and said she would come to the hospital to pick her up.

The hospital was far from Huada, and Jiang Ying had originally not wanted to trouble Zhou Anning with back-and-forth trips. That was why she had insisted for two days that she didn’t want her to come. But Zhou Anning was very insistent this time, so they arranged a time.

What she didn’t expect was that Yu Siyin also came the next day when she was discharged.

Lu Zhixi had been unhappy already knowing she intended to leave on her own. Seeing Yu Siyin, his face immediately darkened. Noticing Jiang Ying’s surprised expression, he guessed Yu Siyin had come on his own accord.

“What are you here for?” he asked Yu Siyin with a frown.

“Of course, to pick her up.”

Yu Siyin smiled faintly, then apologized to Jiang Ying, “I didn’t get Anning’s call the night you fell ill. Sorry. I’ve turned off Do Not Disturb on my phone now, so you can reach me anytime.”

Zhou Anning whispered into Jiang Ying’s ear, “This morning Yu Siyin came to return books at our hospital library. I bumped into him and mentioned you’d be discharged today. He offered to come. Since you weren’t planning to accept Lu Zhixi, I thought, why not? So I brought him along.”

The two spoke quietly while Yu Siyin approached Lu Zhixi.

Lu Zhixi looked at him coldly.

“I came to pick her up this time also to take the opportunity to tell you this: our breakup wasn’t because I was afraid of you. I just want her to live freely. Don’t think you’re some kind of victor.”