Chapter 27

These two paintings gave Chi Zhihan an unexpected shock.

First, Qi Ning called Chi Zhihan almost immediately after Qi Cheng finished speaking. Her tone was as distant as ever: “Don’t give the paintings to Lin Jingwu.”

Chi Zhihan was stunned for a moment, then put her phone on speaker: “I’ve put you on speaker. You two can talk directly.”

She was still confused about why the name “Cheng Yi” seemed so familiar and felt she wasn’t in a position to get involved in this matter yet.

Qi Ning’s voice softened slightly on the other end, tinged with resignation: “Qi Cheng, I signed the contract with Miss Chi, and the pay cut was her own suggestion. You can’t use that to threaten me.”

“It was my idea,” Chi Zhihan nodded, speaking truthfully.

She felt she needed to be taught a lesson, and for her, the most painful and profound lesson was having her pay docked. So indeed, she had voluntarily requested the salary deduction this month.

Qi Cheng didn’t say anything, pressing his lips together while looking at Chi Zhihan’s phone.

Chi Zhihan instinctively pulled her hand back, feeling inexplicably guilty, especially after Qi Cheng gave her that look when she withdrew her hand.

Was he upset that she wasn’t siding with him?

She needed to know what was happening before she could take sides!

Besides, Qi Ning’s husband was now her big boss, and the unresolved issue of the IOU still bothered her. Being the timid person she was, she naturally gravitated toward siding with the one who paid her salary…

“Qi Cheng, you can’t just hand out your paintings like this,” Qi Ning, who was always cold toward Chi Zhihan, sounded defeated. “You’ve signed the copyright. Promoting someone else’s work without permission could lead to a lawsuit.”

“The copyright agreement specified that promotions for Qi Family Industries were allowed when needed,” Qi Cheng replied quickly. “Brother-in-law bought Chi Zhihan’s company, so this company now belongs to Qi Family Industries.”

…

It felt like watching a drama…

After caring for him for so long, this was the closest she’d seen him being the Second Young Master of the Qi family.

And the way he said her name made her dazed for a fraction of a second… people who are too good-looking really are dangerous…

“Qi Cheng…” Qi Ning’s voice sounded tired, as if she couldn’t find a way to persuade him.

“Um…” Because of the childbirth incident, Chi Zhihan’s attitude toward Qi Ning had somewhat improved. She quietly reminded Qi Cheng, “She’s still in her postpartum recovery period.”

…

Then she received another glare from the Second Young Master of the Qi family.

“I promise I won’t interfere in matters between you and Miss Chi anymore. Will you take back the paintings?” Qi Ning’s tone was so childlike that it completely shocked Chi Zhihan.

Such a patient tone, like coaxing a child.

“No.” Qi Cheng’s response was simple and decisive, shattering Chi Zhihan’s expectations once again.

She knew this person had a temper. His young master’s temperament was textbook. But why were they fighting so intensely over two paintings?

“You know I promised Grandfather that if your identity as Cheng Yi were revealed, you’d be forcibly taken to America, right?” Qi Ning was clearly issuing her final ultimatum.

“I know.” Qi Cheng still only used two words, but this time he glanced at Chi Zhihan again.

“I’ll have Miss Chi sign a contract directly with you. I won’t interfere in your affairs anymore,” Qi Ning sounded exhausted. “Miss Chi, please remember your promise. The fact that Qi Cheng is Cheng Yi cannot be known by anyone, including your close friend whom you tell everything to.”

“…Alright.” Chi Zhihan sensibly agreed first, then asked the question she’d been wanting to ask all along, “But who is Cheng Yi?”

…

Silence.

Qi Cheng’s mouth twitched slightly, while Qi Ning’s reaction was more direct—she sighed and hung up the phone.

…

Only Chi Zhihan was left, innocently holding the seemingly troublesome paintings in both hands, making eye contact with Qi Cheng.

“I’ll look it up on Baidu myself,” feeling uncomfortable under Qi Cheng’s stare, Chi Zhihan decided to be self-reliant. Now, besides Cheng Yi, she had a more important question to ask, “Did you argue with her about docking my salary?”

“I didn’t argue.” After five days of liquid diet, his complexion looked slightly better than when he was on IV drips, but he had still lost a lot of weight, his features appearing colder when not speaking.

…

So he really did argue about this.

“What’s this about signing a new contract?” she thought for a moment and asked again.

This patient, Qi Cheng, seemed to have done quite a bit while she was out shopping and wandering around.

“Your private chef contract won’t change, just the contract with me needs to be renewed.” Qi Cheng rubbed his wrist. “The lawyers should finish it in the next day or two. I was planning to tell you after it was done.”

“It just removes some restrictive clauses, and changes Party A to my name.” Seeing Chi Zhihan still looking confused, he explained in more detail, unconsciously rubbing his left wrist again.

“But why?” Although this question seemed a bit stupid, personally speaking, having Qi Cheng as her direct boss was much better than having Qi Ning.

But Qi Cheng… was too easy to bully…

She would feel guilty toward her boss…

“…Convenience.” Qi Cheng remained silent for a long while before squeezing out these two words.

…

Chi Zhihan’s lips trembled, somehow developing inappropriate associations with this very ordinary word.

Ever since that day when Qi Cheng’s hand brushed against her cheek, she had been easily developing inappropriate associations with anything he said.

“This way you won’t be restricted in whatever you want to do.” Qi Cheng pulled at the blanket covering him with his left hand, paused, then switched to his right hand. “Dr. Zhao also said removing these restrictions would help with the treatment plan.”

“What’s wrong with your hand?” Chi Zhihan asked a completely unrelated question. She had noticed something off about his left hand when giving him juice this morning, but then got busy going out to buy fruit and saying goodbye to the departing nurse and forgot about it.

During their conversation just now, he had rubbed it three or four times.

Qi Cheng didn’t answer. His half-reclining body shifted deeper under the blanket, then probably realizing it was too obvious, he dared not move again.

…

These past few days, Qi Cheng’s mental state had been normal. The only thing that made him seem like a patient was that when faced with pressure like this, he would become flustered.

The aura of the Second Young Master instantly vanished without a trace.

“Let me see.” Chi Zhihan put the paintings aside and knelt on one knee at the edge of the bed, moving forward a bit.

Qi Cheng’s Adam’s apple bobbed up and down, his body becoming even more rigid.

Since that day, Chi Zhihan had maintained a safe distance from him, never actively approaching him like this again.

So this sudden proximity made gray spots appear instantly before his eyes.

“…Chi Zhihan.” Qi Cheng closed his eyes, his voice trembling, “I’m starting to lose my vision…”

“…Too close.” Afraid she didn’t understand, he added another trembling sentence.

With his eyes closed, he felt the depression in the bed quickly spring back, heard the rustling of Chi Zhihan’s clothes as she hurriedly retreated, gritted his teeth and suppressed the rising sense of loss welling up inside.

“It’s okay now.” Chi Zhihan’s voice came from not far away, then muttered puzzledly, “It wasn’t like this before when I got close…”

Qi Cheng bit down harder, his heart filled with bitterness.

This time, perhaps only he knew why his reaction had suddenly become so intense – that day’s initiative seemed to be more than just an accident.

“Could it be because I haven’t been getting close as often lately?” Before he could open his eyes, Chi Zhihan’s muttering continued. “How about we try getting close more often after you’re feeling better?”

…

He opened his eyes helplessly, looking at Chi Zhihan standing by the bed with her hands behind her back, not daring to get too close, yet her eyes showing some restless desire to approach.

“My hand is just sprained, it’s not caused by psychological issues.” He extended his left hand, successfully diverting Chi Zhihan’s attention.

He really couldn’t handle her actively getting close right now; he still felt dizzy.

“How did it get sprained?” She looked at his wrist, only able to see slight redness and swelling from across the bed. “Wait, I’ll go get some ice.”

“You should have said earlier that it was sprained. Were you already not feeling right this morning?” She muttered while standing on tiptoes to get ice from the refrigerator, then winced from the cold and turned back to glare at him, “You should sometimes listen to Dr. Li too, physical injuries need attention as well.”

Qi Cheng remained silent.

He watched as Chi Zhihan skillfully retrieved gauze from the drawer, wrapped the ice in it and added a layer of plastic wrap, carefully packaging it and even testing it on herself before standing by the bed.

She was really a strange person. Usually clumsy, her absent-mindedness often scared him, but when it came to being meticulous, she could be so detailed it seemed unlike her usual self.

Not daring to get close, she could only toss it over with both hands.

Then she still obsessed over the earlier question: “How did you really sprain it?”

“Twisted it in my sleep.” He said with an unchanged expression, then inconspicuously glanced at the camera in the corner.

“…But you barely move when you sleep.” Chi Zhihan was still muttering, then clicked her tongue, “You can’t ice it like that, you need to put it on the reddest area.”

She peeked and clicked her tongue again, looking particularly disdainful.

“Why do you look so clumsy when handling these things?” For someone who doesn’t let people get close, he looked rather foolish when taking care of himself.

Qi Cheng frowned.

“Can I come over?” Chi Zhihan started getting restless again.

“No.” The person who had been disdained for being clumsy seemed to have developed some temper, lowering his head and no longer looking at her.

Leaving Chi Zhihan standing alone with her hands behind her back, rising on her toes, unable to use her strength, continuously muttering to herself.

…

She had sleepwalked last night.

Without any warning, she suddenly got up and walked toward the kitchen.

Worried that the sharp objects in the kitchen might hurt her, Qi Cheng pulled out his IV needle and followed.

When he wanted to wake her up, he was stopped by the sorrowful expression on her face.

By the time he came back to his senses, she was already mimicking cooking motions, taking out a cutting board to chop vegetables, her movements skilled but her expression still sad.

His hand was sprained when he tried to take the knife from her hands without touching her skin, unable to apply force properly.

Then, because she stood swaying in place for too long, he somehow got the idea to carry her back to the sofa.

The result, naturally, was that he couldn’t lift her.

She wasn’t heavy, he was just weak from the long fasting.

So one sprain became two.

He stood with her for a long time, waiting until she returned to the sofa and fell asleep before pressing the bell to have the nurse reinsert his IV.

Chi Zhihan would never know.

But the camera definitely knew…

He didn’t know what Dr. Zhao would say after seeing this scene, and had been feeling uneasy.

He checked Chi Zhihan’s schedule in the middle of the night and found that her reunion special was coming up next week on Weibo.

She probably started sleepwalking again due to the pressure from the video.

So he drew two paintings, using the name Cheng Yi.

It was also perfect timing to help divert their attention.

He felt very guilty, with a sense of impending loss of control, guilty to the point of despair.

「Author’s Note」

Qi Cheng: She’s not heavy, I’m just too weak…

Chi Zhihan: …I’ll stop eating midnight snacks from now on…