Night Fire Lingering

"Me?" Wen Muzhi, who had been pondering something, came back to his senses and poured Wen Yan a glass of warm water. "I think it's best that you're alright. It was probably just an accident. I don't know who just happened to mix the raw peanuts in. Anyway, it's good that you're safe."

The implication is that nothing else matters.

The truth doesn't matter.

"Is that so?" Wen Yan looked at her meaningfully.

Wen Muzhi felt that Wen Yan seemed to know something, but she was not guilty at all and calmly met her gaze.

Wen Yan used the excuse of needing to rest to send the group of people away.

She needs to be hospitalized for observation for two more days.

"Aren't you busy?" Wen Yan glanced at the man sitting on the sofa who showed no sign of leaving.

After replying to the last important message, Gu Yanci tossed his phone aside, walked to Wen Yan's side, and touched her hand, which had just finished receiving an IV drip.

"Why are you touching me?" Wen Yan looked at him, puzzled, and pulled her hand back under the covers.

"Your hands are a little cold," Gu Yanci said. "Shall I ask the nurse to get you a hand warmer?"

"……Need not."

Brother, it's summer now!

"Gu Yanci, go ahead and get busy. While you're at it, please tell Grandma I'm sorry for you." Wen Yan gave him the hint to leave.

Ultimately, it was she who caused the old man worry.

Gu Yanci remained unmoved: "There's nothing to be busy with."

After saying that, he glanced at the time and asked Wen Yan, "What would you like to eat for dinner?"

He seemed determined to stay there and keep her company.

Wen Yan looked out the window several times.

Gu Yanci raised an eyebrow and asked her what she was looking at.

Wen Yan said, "I think the sun rises in the west and sets in the east today."

Gu Yanci clicked his tongue, bent down, and pinched her cheek with one hand: "Wen Zhizhi, who are you trying to implicate?"

The woman was forced to pout.

Wen Yan frowned and pushed him: "Huang Kai!"

--open!

Gu Yanci called a nearby private restaurant and ordered a few dishes.

Dinner was delivered in half an hour.

The meal consisted of seven dishes and a soup, each dish being a perfect portion for two people, and was prepared with exceptional care.

Gu Yanci set up the small table on Wen Yan's hospital bed, arranged the food, and said, "Drink the soup first."

Wen Yan didn't move, staring intently at him.

"Do you want me to feed you?" Gu Yanci said, already picking up Wen Yan's chicken soup and gently stirring it with a spoon.

Wen Yan shook her head and said, "You seem so real today, you're like a stranger to me."

Gu Yanci scooped up a spoonful of soup, held it to Wen Yan's lips, and said expressionlessly, "I can also be unlike a human being."

Wen Yan: "?"

Gu Yanci: "I recovered from the allergy very quickly. This bed is quite big, and I think it's pretty good. I can make do with it."

Wen Yan was stunned for two seconds before realizing what he meant, and her eyes widened in disbelief.

This person isn't... what is he?!

"Gu Yanci, this is a hospital!"

"Okay." Gu Yanci urged, "Let's eat."

Wen Yan took the soup from his hands and drank it herself.

He took a sip and started picking at the meat inside.

She only eats chicken thigh and wing meat, but not chicken skin, the corners of the chicken thigh, or the tips of the chicken wings.

In the eyes of outsiders, Wen Yan is impeccably polite; at formal dinner parties, she wouldn't even pick at the food.

Only Gu Yanci knew how picky she was about food, and he was used to it.

"Gu Yanci, don't you think it's too much of a coincidence that peanuts are being harvested?" Wen Yan suddenly asked, looking up.

She was already frail, and when she fell ill, her face became even paler, making her look pitiful and endearing.

Gu Yanci touched her face: "I will find out the truth."

Wen Yan asked, "Is there a backup list?"

Since it concerned Wen Yan herself, Gu Yanci showed her a list of people investigated by the Gu family's stewards, all of whom had been in contact with the beverage.

Wen Yan glanced at it but didn't see the name she had expected.

She put down her spoon: "If I said I'm pregnant—"

Just as Wen Yan began to speak, a doctor knocked on the door.

"Mr. Gu, Miss Wen Muzhi isn't feeling well and has come to the hospital for a checkup," the doctor said. "She originally said she didn't want to tell you, but we think it's better to tell you."

Gu Yanci stood up and said to Wen Yan, "I'll go take a look."

Before the words were even finished, the person had already left with the doctor.

Wen Yan swallowed back the words she was about to say, "I suspect it's Wen Muzhi."

She gave a self-deprecating laugh.

Wen Yan took out her phone and dialed Luo Beiqing's number: "Beiqing, are you free to pick me up from the hospital?"

Luo Bei heard that Wen Yan was hospitalized and originally wanted to rush over immediately, but Wen Yan told her it wasn't necessary. Unexpectedly, she received another call from Wen Yan that evening.

The discharge procedures at private hospitals are not complicated.

Wen Yan got into Luo Beiqing's Pagani and watched the hospital building drive away into the distance.

Looking at Wen Yan's expression in the passenger seat through the rearview mirror, Luo Beiqing asked, "Did you have a fight with Gu Yanci?"

Wen Yan shook her head: "We didn't argue."

She and Gu Yanci almost never argued.

What normal couple doesn't argue?

They're not a normal couple, so they don't argue.

"Gu Yanci wouldn't leave you alone in the ward, would he?" Luo Beiqing looked like she was about to turn around and fight Gu Yanci.

“Wen Muzhi wasn’t feeling well and came to the hospital for a checkup, so he went to see Wen Muzhi,” Wen Yan said. “I feel it’s a bit unlucky to be in the same hospital as Wen Muzhi.”

"This is so damn unlucky!" Luo Beiqing cursed angrily. "Aren't there any other hospitals in the capital? Why did she have to choose the one you're at!"

Wen Yan didn't mention that the private hospital was owned by Gu Yanci, and that the medical team he hired specifically for Wen Muzhi worked there long-term.

That hospital was one that both Wen Muzhi and Gu Yanci were familiar with.

-

I smelled strongly of disinfectant when I came back from the hospital.

Wen Yan took her pajamas into the bathroom, turned on the shower, and only when the cold water hit her did she remember the injury on her wrist.

But it was too late.

The gauze was soaked with water, and the wound stung faintly; it was a complete mess.

Wen Yan felt deeply wronged, but rationally she knew that this grievance came from nowhere.

Gu Yanci and her relationship was originally like this, so how come she lost her way after only a few days of his special treatment of her?

Wen Yan, you shouldn't have done that!

Wen Yan took two deep breaths to calm herself down and walked out of the bathroom.

"Bei Qing, the water has wet my wound."

"My God!" Luo Beiqing was startled and quickly dressed Wen Yan. "I'll take you to the hospital! Let's go to another hospital!"

Before he even left his house, Gu Yanci called Wen Yan.

"Wen Yan, where are you?" A man's cold voice came through the receiver.

"You've been discharged from the hospital."

Wen Yan watched Luo Beiqing busy himself for her, feeling both warm and bittersweet.

"Who gave you permission to be discharged?" Gu Yanci suppressed his anger.

He never expected that when he went out, the place would be empty when he came back!

"Myself." Wen Yan looked at the blank wall. "Gu Yanci, I plan to go and explain our divorce to Grandma tomorrow."