Chapter 55: My Dear Yuanyuan

Zhu Yuan stared at Lu Laotaitai in a daze.

Fifty million... what fifty million?

Seeing the confusion and bewilderment in her eyes, Lu Laotaitai realized she hadn't received that fifty million, and remembered to say, "He was worried I wouldn't give the money to you, so he handed the bank card to Sheng Yu for safekeeping."

Zhu Yuan felt as if she had fallen into an ice cellar.

Waves of chill seeped out from the gaps in her bones, invading her flesh and blood.

She only felt a darkness before her eyes, yet on the surface, she could only feign the shock of having just heard this news, unable to reveal any other emotions.

"This is A Zhan's diary; I felt that handing it to you was the right thing to do.

I also only learned that he had saved money for you after reading his diary, and realized how much my grandson loved you."

Saying this, the old lady lowered her head to wipe away tears.

She did not notice the flash of astonishment and paleness on Zhu Yuan's face.

Loved...

Didn't Lu Huaizhan always despise her for lacking femininity, often get so angry at her that his face turned red, and even take her photo to put on his bedside to ward off evil?

Loved her?

How could Lu Huaizhan love her?

At night, after Zhu Qi fell asleep, Zhu Yuan locked herself in another room; she sat on the bed, clutching Lu Huaizhan's diary.

It was a brown leather notebook; a simple clasp was undone, and a faint scent of ink drifted out.

What came into view was the familiar handwriting of Lu Huaizhan.

Back then, after Lu Huaizhan woke from his coma and was recuperating, he would practice calligraphy every day when he had nothing to do. Once, on a whim, he wanted to teach Zhu Yuan how to write with a brush, and Zhu Yuan boasted shamelessly that who didn't know how to write with a brush.

She held the brush and wrote her own name on the rice paper.

As a result, the moment she turned her head, she was tapped on the forehead by Lu Huaizhan, who scolded her for writing like a chicken scratch.

That very piece of chicken scratch from back then slid out from the inner layer of Lu Huaizhan's diary and landed on Zhu Yuan's lap.

She stared blankly at that piece of paper, a thought in her mind ready to burst forth.

Until she saw the beginning of the diary.

My dear Yuanyuan: I dare not call you this to your face, for I fear you will be angry and scold me for being mushy; I can only call you this secretly in my diary. Yuanyuan, what a lovely name.

Over the course of more than two months, Lu Huaizhan wrote in his diary every single day.

Every day began with "My dear Yuanyuan."

The refined and noble young master who was once so startled by her shocking remarks that he turned red and scolded her for being vulgar and lacking femininity seemed to gradually reveal his other side.

Lu Huaizhan loved her.

Every word and sentence in the diary contained shyness, anger and embarrassment, inferiority, and also... reluctance to part.

Zhu Yuan flipped through the diary page by page, as if she hadn't breathed for a long while.

She moved her stiff, numb body, and the air she inhaled pricked her windpipe like needles.

—Yuanyuan, I saved a sum of money for you, but I didn't dare give it to you personally, fearing you wouldn't accept it, fearing you would scold me, fearing to make you unhappy, so I had to hand the bank card to Yu Ge.

—After I am gone, he will give the money to you. If you encounter difficulties, you can seek his help; Yu Ge is the person I trust most, and he promised me he would take care of you.

Tears fell one by one onto the diary.

Fifty million.

So Lu Huaizhan really had saved fifty million for her and handed the bank card to Sheng Yu!

Yet Sheng Yu hadn't mentioned a word of it to her, even letting her owe him money and be at his mercy.

Why?

Zhu Yuan held her head in agony, her entire head aching as if it were about to explode.

She lay down on the bed, tears sliding from the corners of her eyes, soaking a large patch of the pillow.

She did not know how much time had passed before she drifted into a fitful sleep, dreaming one moment of Lu Huaizhan calling her at the door to get up and accompany him in practicing calligraphy, and the next of Sheng Yu pestering her, wanting to leave his mark on her body.

In the middle of the night, she turned over and sat up, her heart beating rapidly; the palpitations of insomnia left her feeling anxious and uneasy.

She glanced at the night scene outside the window, hugged her knees tightly, and buried her face in them.

The next day, Zhu Yuan acted as if nothing had happened, hiding Lu Huaizhan's diary in her suitcase.

As usual, she pushed Zhu Qi's wheelchair to walk around downstairs at the inpatient department.

The recent turmoil on the internet had not reached Zhu Qi's ears, and Zhu Yuan had also asked the nurses' station not to let her grandfather watch television for those few days.

The weather had been good these past few days, and the temperature was slightly higher, so Zhu Yuan draped a coat over Zhu Qi's shoulders.

"Yuanyuan."

Zhu Qi suddenly reached back and patted the back of her hand.

"What is it, Grandfather?" Zhu Yuan walked forward, squatted down in front of him, and looked up, waiting for him to speak.

Zhu Qi coughed a few times, his voice slightly hoarse, "I've thought about it for a long time and decided to move back to the original ward. I asked the nurse, and the price difference between a regular single ward and the current one is ten times per day; there's no need for us to let your parents waste so much money."

If it were before, Zhu Yuan, under the pressure from Sheng Yu, would not have dared to change her grandfather's ward at will.

But now...

"Okay." Zhu Yuan covered her grandfather's thin, bony hand with both of hers, her eyes moist, "Will you not be used to it?"

"How could I be," Zhu Qi touched the top of her head affectionately, "As long as it's a single ward, that's enough. Why would Grandfather need to stay in such a nice ward? It's just a pity that you have to sleep on a folding bed."

Zhu Yuan smiled and shook her head, "Even the Little Dragon Maiden could sleep on a rope; me sleeping on a folding bed can just be considered training."

Zhu Yuan handled the matter of changing wards that very noon, and just as she finished packing her luggage, her phone rang.

Looking at that string of numbers without a contact name, she felt a sense of suffocation wash over her in an instant.

Until her grandfather urged her: "Yuanyuan, your phone is ringing."

"Oh, Grandpa, I heard you." Zhu Yuan picked up her phone, ran into another room, and only answered the call after closing the door.

"Why did you suddenly change hospital rooms?" The man's deep voice came from the other end of the line.

The news traveled fast; in such a short time, he already knew.

She suppressed the urge to question him over the phone and simply replied, "Grandpa wasn't used to such a nice hospital room, so I respected his choice."

"You respected him, but did you respect me?"

Changing hospital rooms without even saying a word.

The man's tone held a rather intriguing hint of jealousy.

Zhu Yuan quietly let out a breath and instead changed the subject, "When are you coming back?"

Perhaps it was this caring remark that slightly eased the man's weary mood; this cross-border negotiation was not as simple as he had anticipated, but it hadn't reached the point of stumping him.

It just required spending a little more time.

He lit a cigarette with one hand, bit down on the filter, and asked in a low voice, "When do you want me to go back?"

"Does what I say count?" Zhu Yuan gripped her phone tightly, acting no differently than usual, not letting him see any flaws.

Sheng Yu chuckled softly, and after a moment, his nonchalant tone came through the phone, "That really doesn't count; only my wife has that right."