Zhou Yu stayed in the hospital for a full week before being discharged.
On the day of her discharge, Shen Nanyue only paid her medical expenses and then let her return home with Lin Shu and Lin Siwan.
Before leaving, Zhou Yu looked at Shen Nanyue as if she wanted to say something but hesitated.
Shen Nanyue didn’t notice.
She had stepped aside to answer a phone call.
Zhou Yu lowered her eyes helplessly and followed the others out.
The call Shen Nanyue received was work-related.
After hanging up, she prepared to leave the hospital.
Just as she turned around, she saw a familiar figure walking toward her.
Gu Linlang seemed to spend a lot of time in hospitals.
She approached Shen Nanyue with obvious ill intent.
Beneath her reddened eyelids, her eyes stared fixedly at her.
“Do you need something?” Shen Nanyue asked indifferently.
“You’re feeling pretty pleased with yourself now, aren’t you?”
Gu Linlang gritted her teeth and deliberately lowered her voice, as though trying to suppress the rage surging inside her.
She was wearing a hospital gown.
Her face was so pale it resembled a thin sheet of paper, and her body looked frail and weak.
Only her bloodshot eyes seemed remotely alive.
Ever since Zhou Yushen had learned about what she did three months ago, he had acted swiftly and decisively, investigating everything and taking revenge on Shen Nanyue’s behalf.
She had been tied up and locked inside a remote, abandoned building.
There wasn’t another soul around.
In the pitch-black nights, the only sounds were her own frightened sobs.
Cold winds howled through the building, battering her frail body.
She coughed continuously in the darkness, nearly coughing up blood, for two full days and nights.
Her already fragile health only worsened.
She would faint, wake up, faint again, and wake up once more.
At times, she truly thought she was going to die.
Finally, just as despair consumed her, Zhou Yushen arrived.
In her heart, Zhou Yushen had always been someone as bright and noble as the moon.
Though cold on the outside, he was warm beneath it all.
His words to her had often been blunt, but he had genuinely cared about her health.
But for the first time, in the faint dawn light filtering into the abandoned building, she saw something different.
Standing in the doorway in a black overcoat, Zhou Yushen’s coat fluttered in the chilly wind.
Pale light traced the contours of his figure from above.
It was broad daylight.
Yet she felt as though she were looking at a demon emerging from the darkness.
She still remembered the cold words he spoke as he looked down at her before she lost consciousness.
“Remember this. If you ever dare hurt Shen Nanyue again, I won’t mind sending you to join your mother.”
His voice had been soft and cold, but it sent an uncontrollable chill through her entire body.
When she woke up in the hospital, she could no longer get through to Zhou Yushen.
In a panic, she rushed out of her room and happened to see Shen Nanyue talking on the phone in the hallway.
All her anger instantly surged to her head.
Without thinking, she charged over.
Shen Nanyue looked at Gu Linlang’s frail, sickly appearance with a hint of surprise.
In just a few days, she looked as though she had become seriously ill.
But that had nothing to do with her.
“If there’s nothing else, I’ll be leaving.”
She had no interest in wasting time on irrelevant people.
Gu Linlang stepped in front of her, blocking her path.
“If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have ended up like this! Shen Nanyue, I swear I won’t let you keep living such a comfortable life!”
Her eyes were filled with hatred, as though Shen Nanyue were responsible for some blood feud.
Shen Nanyue laughed coldly.
These days, it seemed every problem in the world was somehow being blamed on her.
“Miss Gu, have we ever had much interaction? Or do you simply think I’m someone easy to bully?”
She bent slightly at the waist and leaned closer to Gu Linlang.
“Go ahead and try.”
She lifted her eyes and glanced at Gu Linlang before walking away without another word.
After Shen Nanyue left, the tears that Gu Linlang had stubbornly held back finally fell from her rigid, staring eyes.
Her entire body trembled.
The next second, her vision went black and she collapsed.
The doctors and nurses nearby rushed over immediately.
Two hours later, Gu Linlang woke up in a hospital bed with an IV drip attached to her hand.
A man stood with his back to the bed.
He was broad-shouldered and tall.
His silhouette resembled the figure she had dreamed of countless times.
Her eyes lit up.
Her dry lips parted as she prepared to call out the name she had repeated in her heart for so long.
“A—”
Hearing movement behind him, the man turned around.
The face she expected to be Zhou Yushen’s turned out to be Xu Ping’s.
The brightness in Gu Linlang’s eyes gradually faded.
“You’re awake. Is there anywhere that still hurts?” Xu Ping asked with concern.
“Where’s Ah Shen?”
A troubled expression appeared on Xu Ping’s face.
“Your health was already poor to begin with. Right now, you should focus on recovering. What Yushen did this time was truly excessive. I’ll help you get an explanation from him.”
Xu Ping had never expected Zhou Yushen to go this far against Gu Linlang for Shen Nanyue’s sake.
Gu Linlang closed her eyes.
Tears slid down from the corners of her eyes, and she didn’t say another word.
Xu Ping sighed.
After giving her a few more instructions and arranging for a female caregiver to look after her, he left the hospital.
He headed straight for Zhou Yushen’s residence.
The moment he stepped through the door, he threw a punch at Zhou Yushen’s face.
Zhou Yushen took a step back, and the punch missed.
Li Che, who had been playing video games in the living room, heard the commotion and immediately tossed aside the controller.
He rushed over and grabbed Xu Ping’s fist before he could strike again.
“Xu Ping, have you lost your mind?”
Xu Ping angrily shook off Li Che’s hand and glared at Zhou Yushen.
“No, I think you’re the one who’s gone completely insane! You knew Gu Linlang’s health was poor, yet you left her exposed to the cold wind for two days and two nights. You’re trying to kill her!”
“So you’re here to seek justice for Gu Linlang.”
Li Che let out a mocking laugh, and his eyes suddenly turned cold.
“But she didn’t die, did she? Just like Shen Nanyue three months ago—she walked out of that abandoned building alive.”
“How can Shen Nanyue be compared to Linlang?” Xu Ping shot back.
“Shen Nanyue is healthy. She would’ve been fine even if she’d been locked up for three days and three nights! Linlang was already frail to begin with. After being exposed to the cold mountain winds for two days and two nights, she practically lost half her life!”
Then he turned to Zhou Yushen.
“Yushen, after everything, how can you face her mother?”
Zhou Yushen looked at Xu Ping’s anger with indifferent eyes.
“Lawyer Xu, are you saying that in your eyes, Shen Nanyue’s life is worth less than Gu Linlang’s?”
Xu Ping said nothing.
“You’re a lawyer who prides himself on justice, yet even you have your biases. If I’m a little biased toward Shen Nanyue, what’s wrong with that?”
At last, Xu Ping heard Zhou Yushen speak the truth.
He had become so obsessed with Shen Nanyue that he no longer cared about anyone else’s well-being.
“Do you realize that if Gu Linlang had died, you would have been responsible for her death?”
“Heh.”
Zhou Yushen let out a cold laugh.
For once, a layer of obsession surfaced in those abyss-dark eyes.
“If something had really happened to Shen Nanyue back then, what I did wouldn’t have been nearly enough.”
Xu Ping was startled by the expression on Zhou Yushen’s face.
He stood frozen.
It had been a very long time since he had seen Zhou Yushen look so dark and menacing.
So long that he had almost forgotten that Zhou Yushen’s true nature had always been wrapped in shadows and buried beneath grim emotions.
Even Li Che was surprised by the look on Zhou Yushen’s face.
Afraid the situation might spiral out of control, Li Che quickly pushed Xu Ping toward the door.
“Why are we even arguing over Gu Linlang? Come on, get out, get out!”
Xu Ping didn’t insist on staying.
Allowing Li Che to push him along, he left the house.
— The end of the Chapter–
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