Chapter 324: I need you

Now there's no way to pretend not to know each other.

Du Wanhe stood before the car, her white dress fluttering slightly in the wind, the black hair hanging on her shoulders also swayed, a few strands sticking to her neck, making that section of her neck look slender and white.

She looked at Lin Yuan through the car window, her voice soft: "Long time no see."

The softness at the corner of her eyes seemed soaked in spring light; even without any extra movement, it revealed a clean, striking beauty.

Lin Yuan stared at Du Wanhe standing outside the car, his brows tightly furrowed.

Lin Yuan's hand on the steering wheel tightened unconsciously, his tone full of surprise: "How did you come here?"

Actually, as soon as he saw that hint of milky-white dress, he had already recognized Du Wanhe.

Just thinking about getting involved with this woman made Lin Yuan's temples throb, and he felt a headache from the bottom of his heart.

Du Wanhe lightly stepped half a pace toward the car front, her skirt hem fluttering in small arcs from the wind.

She curled the corner of her mouth with a faint smile, her tone teasing: "What are you panicking about? I won't eat you."

Su Monong in the back seat slowly lowered the window, her gaze lingering on Du Wanhe for two seconds—

The white dress made her figure look slender, her brows and eyes clean as if washed in water.

Su Monong then asked Lin Yuan: "Who is she?"

Lin Yuan immediately looked away, deliberately avoiding Du Wanhe's gaze, his tone cold and firm: "I don't know her; she's just some random woman, maybe a scammer trying to extort money."

Hearing this, Du Wanhe's pretty face flushed with annoyance: "Lin Yuan, who are you calling a scammer?"

Lin Yuan directly rolled up the window, turned to Su Monong and said: "Director Su, let's not waste time here; let's hurry to the underground parking."

Seeing this, Du Wanhe quickly stepped forward and firmly stood in front of the car.

She still held the faded kraft paper file bag lightly in both hands, and politely said to Su Monong: "Hello, I'm Du Wanhe, daughter of Du Yun Dian."

"Du Yun Dian?" Su Monong heard the name, her eyes widened instantly, her tone full of undisguised shock.

She of course knew Du Yun Dian—

He was the president of Zhijiang University; when her company previously discussed cooperation with the school, she had even specially met him several times!

Obviously, Lin Yuan and this girl clearly know each other.

Su Monong could tell that Lin Yuan had merely been avoiding this girl all along.

Su Monong shifted her gaze back to Lin Yuan, her brows slightly raised, her eyes full of obvious suspicion:

"How exactly did you know her?"

Du Wanhe didn't wait for Lin Yuan to speak, she lightly took over the conversation, her tone casual:

"Nothing special, just back in school we had a little rumor between us."

Lin Yuan hurriedly cut her off, his tone a bit urgent, as if afraid she'd say more: "Don't talk nonsense, we were just ordinary classmates."

Su Monong blinked, then followed Lin Yuan's words and asked: "Were you university classmates?"

"No." Lin Yuan shook his head, slowed his speech, and deliberately added:

"We were high school classmates; I attended a provincial key high school."

As he said this, his eyes unconsciously flickered—

Actually, he was subtly concealing his true past identity, not wanting Su Monong to know too much.

His attendance at Zhijiang University must also be kept from Director Su.

Su Monong was now truly stunned, her eyes full of disbelief:

Lin Yuan actually still has such connections?

He actually went to high school with the daughter of Principal Du?

This completely exceeds her previous understanding of Lin Yuan!

Du Wanhe looked at Lin Yuan, her tone becoming more sincere, a hint of softness still at the corner of her eyes:

"I just wanted to catch up with you, and besides, I've recently studied some traditional Chinese medicine; I have a few questions I don't understand and want to ask you."

Su Monong heard this, immediately nodded, reached out and patted Lin Yuan's arm: "Then you two have a good talk; I'll go to the office to handle some matters."

Before getting out of the car, she couldn't help but glance at Du Wanhe twice—

"This girl is both beautiful and well-educated; Lin Yuan's luck with women really isn't bad."

She even secretly calculated in her mind: perhaps she could help matchmake them.

After all, as long as Lin Yuan can successfully get out of being single, it's a good thing for him personally, and also for his daughter Su Zhiyuan.

Su Monong nodded at Lin Yuan and Du Wanhe, said nothing more, turned and walked in her high heels into the glass doors of Su Group.

Only Lin Yuan and Du Wanhe remained at the company entrance; Lin Yuan looked at the empty doorway, then turned to the white-dressed girl before him, his brows knotted into a bump, his voice full of helplessness: "What did you come to me for?"

Actually, from the moment Du Wanhe stood at the company entrance and called his name, Lin Yuan knew he wouldn't easily get away today—

He had long known how "entangling" this woman could be.

Du Wanhe still held the edge-worn kraft paper file bag in both hands, her fingertips lightly rubbing the creases on the bag, her eyes resting on Lin Yuan's tense face.

Her tone held a hint of probing: "Are you being fierce toward me? Still holding a grudge over what happened back then?"

"The rumor back then wasn't something I deliberately stirred up," she paused, the corner of her mouth turning up in a faint, nostalgic smile:

"It's just that our scores were too eye-catching back then—you got a perfect 750 on the college entrance exam, I got 749, just one point shy of catching up to you."

Upon hearing the words "college entrance exam scores," Lin Yuan's face instantly darkened—

How could he forget? Back then, because of those inexplicable rumors, Du Wanhe's admirers queued up to go to his dorm to cause trouble, blocking him, arguing with him, even deliberately disturbing him while he was reading; that period tormented him endlessly.

Back then he had even specially gone to find Du Wanhe, hoping she would come forward to clarify things.

But back then she merely tossed off a light "What does it have to do with me? It's not like I started the rumor," and shoved all the trouble onto him, leaving him to deal with it himself.

Du Wanhe seemed to see through Lin Yuan's memories, her tone softened, her eyes gaining a touch of genuine apology: "For what happened back then, I apologize to you."

"I admit I had selfish motives back then, wanting to use those rumors to disrupt your study rhythm so I could surpass you," she gave a self‑deprecating laugh, her tone tinged with helplessness, "but later I realized I was wrong—you're just a study 'freak'; no matter how I cram night after night, I can't outdo you."

Lin Yuan abruptly lifted his eyes to Du Wanhe, his gaze holding a long‑suppressed chill and also a sense of relief at finally hearing those words: "You finally admit it was deliberate back then."

Du Wanhe shrugged indifferently, did not avoid Lin Yuan's gaze, and her tone was candid to the point of being excessive:

The gossip wasn't something I deliberately created; it was an accident, but I didn't step forward to solve those pursuers' troubles—that was intentional.

Lin Yuan frowned, still not understanding the competition back then: "Back then we weren't even in the same field, so what's there to compete about between us?"

"Who made you so famous back then?" Du Wanhe's tone carried a hint of grievance and a touch of unwillingness:

I am Du Yun Tian's daughter; everyone at school is watching me, so I must surpass you—I can't let a nameless nobody with no background press me down. If I don't surpass you, I won't accept it.

Lin Yuan looked at her, his eyes showing a weary insight into everything.

Lin Yuan slowly said: "Are you satisfied now? You've already surpassed me by many levels thanks to your family background and ability, so stop disturbing my life."

Having said that, Lin Yuan gave Du Wanhe no chance to speak, turned and headed toward the Su Group building, just wanting to escape this conversation quickly.

Seeing this, Du Wanhe hurried forward a step, gently grabbed Lin Yuan's arm—not with force, but firmly blocking his path.

"Speaking reasonably, you're living so ordinarily now, even somewhat lacking, I actually feel a bit sad," Du Wanhe looked at Lin Yuan's back, her tone losing its earlier competitiveness and gaining sincerity.

"I've lost a strong rival, Lin Yuan," her voice carried a hint of regret and also nostalgia for our past competition.

You were the top-scoring scholar in the provincial college entrance exam back then; your score was even one point higher than mine.

"You should be doing better," Du Wanhe stepped in front of Lin Yuan, her eyes full of expectation: "Only when you become strong can I have a worthy opponent, and only then can we continue the competition we left unfinished back then."

Hearing Du Wanhe's words, Lin Yuan frowned, twitched the corner of his mouth, his tone full of impatience and aloofness:

You're really boring.

Having said that, he didn't glance at Du Wanhe again, turned and headed for the Su Group's main gate, just wanting to end this annoying conversation quickly.

Seeing this, Du Wanhe hurriedly pulled a dark-blue-covered notebook from her bag, quickly caught up to Lin Yuan, and handed it to him.

"This is something Professor Dong Chao locked in his office cabinet before his death; the school only discovered it last week while organizing his belongings, and most of its contents concern you." Du Wanhe's voice lost its earlier competitiveness and gained solemnity.

Lin Yuan hesitated for a moment, but still reached out and took the notebook, then lowered his head to look at the kraft paper file bag in his hand, instinctively opened the file bag, and found that there were no valuables inside, only a stack of yellowed paper—

It was the manual of traditional Chinese medicine case notes he wrote during his third year of university.

He casually flipped open a page, and immediately appeared Professor Dong's familiar red-pen annotation: "The pulse-diagnosis differentiation approach for this tuberculosis patient predicts the condition three days earlier than Western medical indicators; don't lose this sensitivity to the illness."

Flipping further, another page of the manuscript showed Professor Dong's red-pen characters pressed harder: "Your acupuncture-assisted postoperative recovery plan resulted in no relapse for patients during one-year follow‑up; this is the value of traditional Chinese medicine hidden in the details."

Lin Yuan's fingertip lightly brushed over the red ink, and suddenly he felt his eye sockets grow warm.

He continued turning to the bottom of the file bag, discovering a neatly folded letter pressed underneath—an unsent letter……

The envelope bore "To Lin Yuan", and the signature was Dong Chao……

He tore open the letter, looked at the handwriting, and instantly recalled what happened at graduation——

That year he cured a patient with a difficult and complicated condition using an ancient Chinese medicine prescription, yet his peers questioned it as unscientific; even though the patient recovered, he still abandoned clinical practice of Chinese medicine.

The words in the letter seemed to carry warmth, drilling into his heart:

【Xiao Yuan, you said Chinese medicine must be 'useful' to be recognized, but you forgot that 'useful' has never been defined by others; it is the warmth returning to the patient's chest, the repeated 'improvements' recorded in the case notes.】

【I know you feel wronged now, thinking your efforts go unnoticed, but someday you will realize that the pulse‑diagnosis notebook you clutch in your hand outweighs any voice of doubt.】

Lin Yuan stared at the last sentence in his heart, and his fingertips began to tremble.

Du Wanhe stood to the side, watching Lin Yuan's reaction.

She slowly spoke, bringing another piece of news:

"The school has already incorporated your acupuncture‑assisted postoperative recovery protocol from back then into the integrated Chinese‑Western clinical textbook; last year, using this protocol on ten postoperative patients shortened their average recovery period by 20%."

"Professor Dong Chao used to mention this in every meeting while he was alive, saying the solution should be shown to more people; now the school wants to display it at the national Chinese medicine competition, and also wants you to see that someone is carrying on the work you didn't persist with back then." Du Wanhe's tone held a hint of regret and also anticipation.

"But we would rather have you come yourself—after all, this is the evidence of 'Chinese medicine is useful' that you and Professor Dong found together; only you speaking in person would make it most meaningful."

After she finished speaking, she looked at the letter in Lin Yuan's hand and did not urge him further.

Lin Yuan flipped through the manuscript, his thoughts drifting into recollection……

Du Wanhe watched Lin Yuan space out, then spoke softly:

"After Professor Dong Chao passed away, Zhijiang University's Ancient Chinese Medicine department had no one to lead it, and it has been shut down for many years."

"But now the school wants to revive this department; we have approached many Chinese medicine teachers, yet none dare to take on the responsibility." Du Wanhe's voice lowered, though her eyes were earnest.

Lin Yuan lifted his gaze to Du Wanhe.

Du Wanhe met Lin Yuan's gaze and said, word by word: "We want to ask you to take charge of teaching for the revived Ancient Chinese Medicine department."

"I promised my grandfather I would never again engage with Chinese medicine, whether in clinical practice or teaching." Lin Yuan's voice was a little hoarse, but his tone was firm.

Du Wanhe looked at Lin Yuan's resolute demeanor, fell silent for a few seconds, then suddenly spoke, her voice carrying a barely perceptible tremor: "Back then I didn't help you explain those rumors, and there was another reason I never voiced—because I actually liked you back then."

When Lin Yuan heard the three words "I like you," his whole body froze.

The letter in his hand slipped from between his fingers, fluttered to the ground, and Professor Dong's handwriting stood out starkly in the sunlight.

At this moment, Lin Yuan was shocked again; looking at Du Wanhe's reddened eye corners, he suddenly felt he had never truly understood this girl who had competed with him back then.

Du Wanhe bent down, picked up the letter from the floor, and gently handed it back to Lin Yuan.

Her tone held a hint of pleading and also frankness: "This time I came to see you with a personal motive, Lin Yuan—to come to Zhijiang University to help my father, to help Professor Dong fulfill his last wish, alright?"

Du Wanhe took half a step forward; the wind blew the black hair hanging at her shoulders, making it sway, a few strands sticking to her reddened eye corners.

Her milky‑white skirt swept over the gravel on the ground, setting off her ankles as slender and white; she resembled a white jasmine softened by the morning light.

When she lifted her gaze, her eyes shimmered with an inexplicable expectation and vitality: "Lin Yuan, Zhijiang University needs you. I… I also need you."