Chapter 24

Darkness, endless darkness.

Zhu Xinyue thought she could get used to seeing nothing, after all, after severe myopia, the world without glasses was just a blur. But when she truly couldn’t see anything, she would rather not see clearly than see nothing at all.

The doctor examined her, but modern medicine certainly couldn’t find any problem with her eyes. After all, the real culprit was the system that allowed her to live a new life, which was not a technological product of this world at all.

The system did not say when her eyes would be healed. Zhu Xinyue called it in her mind thousands of times, but there was no response.

According to the doctor, it might be better tomorrow, or it might never be better at all. The patient and her family members needed to prepare themselves psychologically.

This hospital was already the best ophthalmology hospital locally, and Ji Linyu did his best, contacting experts in the field of ophthalmology, both domestic and foreign, to come and conduct various examinations for her.

Sitting in the hospital corridor, Zhu Xinyue waited for the newly arrived expert to pronounce her sentence, hearing passers-by comment, “So young, and she’s actually blind.”

“She’s so good-looking, what a pity.”

“I heard she’s an actress.”

“How can she act if she’s blind? It must be very difficult to live independently.”

…

She had heard similar comments these past few days.

Each one pierced her heart.

After the accident on set, filming was temporarily suspended for a week.

Zhu Shilang also rushed over from Qingyang. Seeing Zhu Xinyue sitting expressionlessly on the sofa, with empty eyes, as if two glass beads embedded in her eye sockets, like a delicate doll.

Only the two of them were in the hospital room. The crew members who had originally come to visit Zhu Xinyue had all left. Ji Linyu escorted them out, leaving them space to talk.

“I didn’t agree with you entering the entertainment circle as an actress in the first place!” Zhu Shilang became angry and spoke bluntly, “If you had just come home, you could have been a young lady of the Zhu family. No one could have mistreated you. Look at you now!”

Zhu Xinyue couldn’t see anything. Just now, when people came to visit her, she knew they cared about her and felt sorry for her blindness. So she forcibly suppressed the negative emotions in her heart, raised her spirits, and socialized with them. Occasionally, she could even squeeze out a smile to deal with them.

But facing Zhu Shilang, hearing him speak like this, she felt suffocated.

“Can’t you wrong me?” Zhu Xinyue sneered. She was already annoyed because of her blindness, and now all the sharp thorns on her body stood up.

“You mean return to Qingyang, obey your arrangements, keep going on blind dates, and then choose a man that you think is good, hastily getting married, even if he cheats on me, I have to pretend not to know, and still cover up for him? Does this not count as mistreatment? Or do you think the fiancée of the eldest young master of the Zhu family really doesn’t know that he’s cheating on her?”

From the matter of the eldest young master of the Zhenheng Group, one could see that these so-called “high-quality suitors” who would proceed to blind dates were not so great.

Zhu Shilang didn’t expect Zhu Xinyue to refute what he said so fiercely, as if he was back to the day when he brought her back to Qingyang from Nancheng.

It had been so long, he thought Zhu Xin Yue would be sensible.

“Otherwise what? You want to live in that dilapidated rental house? The room is so small that it’s not even as big as your closet! Or do you want to go out and find a job that pays three or four thousand a month, be looked down upon, and the money you earn is not even a fraction of the interest on my bank deposit?”

“Zhu Xin Yue, you’re too naive! You’ve never lacked money since you were young. You don’t know how tough life is outside, so you say these silly things. If you think it’s painful for you to get married, I’ll tell you, this is the biggest pain in your wealthy life. Apart from this, it’s all sweetness, and there’s no easier way to go than this!”

Every word Zhu Shilang said was like a chain that was stuck around Zhu Xinyue’s neck, wrapping around her again and again, and Zhu Xinyue was almost unable to breathe.

Yes, he is right.

She was not outstanding, nor did she have the talent or ability to make money. She was not sensitive to wealth. She was just an ordinary person, so before she traveled through time, she had worked for so long but was still a low-level employee in the company. Half of her 6,000 salary was used to pay rent and living expenses. She used the money she saved from her frugal life to do some financial investment, but she was so stingy that she did not make any profit in a year and instead lost 20%.

She didn’t have any big dreams at the beginning. She just wanted to have a house of her own and a job that could support herself, that’s all.

How come this fucking world hasn’t been destroyed yet?

Who is happy after all?

Zhu Xinyue’s pain lies in the fact that she knows too clearly what she wants. She wants wealth, freedom, and love. But also because of her greed, laziness, and selfishness, she wants to get something for nothing, the freedom to not do anything she wants, and unrequited love.

It was not until today that Zhu Xinyue realized that the unlimited credit card Zhu Shilang gave her was not a rope to pull her out of the well, but a perfect and exquisite golden cage built for her.

Fall.

Fall downward.

This kind of luxurious life is so easy and effortless to get everything you have ever wanted.

She was indeed naive.

I naively thought that this was the family’s love for “Zhu Xinyue” and that this kind of love was selfless love.

It turns out that this is an investment.

Zhu Xinyue groped for the sofa and stood up. She couldn’t see the road and bumped into the coffee table in front of her. Her knee hit the heavy object, making a “bang” sound.

Zhu Shilang didn’t know what she was going to do, and was about to help her up, “Where are you going?”

As soon as his hand touched Zhu Xinyue, Zhu Xinyue pushed it away and hit Zhu Shilang in the face.

“Don’t touch me, don’t touch me!” Zhu Xinyue pushed him away almost hysterically.

She finally understood why the original owner had quarreled with the Zhu family, and she was almost strangled to death by them.

Relying on the memory of the nurse bringing her into the ward, Zhu Xinyue groped her way towards the bed in the front and side, not knowing what she would bump into with every step.

Zhu Shilang was also irritated by her strange temper. His chin was scratched by her nails, leaving red marks and burning pain. So he stood aside and watched her trip over him and fall to her knees on the carpet.

Zhu Xinyue stood up with her hands on the carpet, felt her way to the side, finally found the hospital bed, and then felt her way along the bed towards the bedside table.

Her personal belongings were placed on the bedside table. Jiang Rui, who came to visit her, helped her pack her luggage and brought it over.

Zhu Xinyue touched a familiar handbag, which she often used. She could find the card that Zhu Shilang gave her in the compartment with her eyes closed.

Zhu Xinyue took out the card and handed it to the place where she had come from, thinking that Zhu Shilang was still standing there.

“Back to you!”

Zhu Shilang stood in front of her, watching her talking to an empty place, and felt sorry for her.

She was spoiled by her mother. She can’t do anything but lose her temper with her family, just like her mother.

“I’m here.” Zhu Shilang spoke up, reminding her that she couldn’t see anything at all, and couldn’t even find the other person’s location when she was talking to him.

Zhu Xinyue shuddered and the card in her hand fell to the ground. He suddenly changed his position, and the sound was too close to her, but she didn’t notice anything. If the other party was a dangerous person, she would have died a hundred times by now.

As a family member, Zhu Shilang knew best what words were the most heartbreaking and hurtful. He was not angry at all. Instead, he smiled and asked her, “Do you know how much it costs to stay in this ward for a day? Do you know how much it costs to have those experts check you up and treat you? Do you know how much you have spent on food, clothing, and daily expenses since you were a child? Do you know how much alimony your mother took from your father in your name? You will never be able to pay it back in your lifetime.”

“You’re hypocritical!” Zhu Xinyue thought he was so good, but he was just like her previous boss, buying out her time with a fixed price.

She pointed in Zhu Shilang’s direction and cursed: “Who are you showing your condescending attitude to? Did I beg you to let me stay in a ward like this? Did I beg them to give birth to me? Did they ask for my opinion before giving birth to me? Get out! Get out now!”

Zhu Xinyue was so angry that she threw her handbag at Zhu Shilang, and the messy things inside fell to the ground, making a clinking sound.

Zhu Shilang could easily dodge the things she threw at him, and it couldn’t hurt him at all.

He looked at her as if she were an impotent and furious child, not to mention that she was now blind.

Zhu Shilang picked up the card that Zhu Xinyue threw back, but did not take it away. Instead, he put it on the coffee table.

“Think about it carefully. If you can’t see anymore in this life, returning to Qingyang and the Zhu family is your only way out,” he said.

After Zhu Shilang left, the ward became quiet again.

It’s too quiet.

As quiet as a morgue.

Zhu Xinyue sat on the hospital bed, leaning backwards.

It’s so dark.

She can’t see anything.

What time is it now? She doesn’t care or mind, because to her, whether it is day or night, it is the same.

Darkness easily breeds negative emotions. There are too many complicated voices in her mind. She even wonders if she would still save Ji Qingyuan and the others if she knew she would go blind.

Once Zhu Xinyue started thinking this way, she couldn’t control those malicious thoughts.

Her soul split into two halves, with the malicious soul morphing into a vulture, pecking at the benevolent soul, gnawing on her body and bones, leaving her unable to move.

Already not particularly smart, lacking exceptional abilities, kindness was probably one of her few virtues. Yet now, she started to regret it.

She could barely take care of herself, so why should she save others? What capability did she have? Was she worthy?

Zhu Xinyue hated this less-than-kind version of herself and despised her dark and cowardly self.

She silently wept, exhausted from crying, falling asleep with clenched fists, her stress having no outlet, constantly on guard.

In her dreams, she felt someone beside her, lifting her body, adjusting her posture, gently placing her head on a pillow, covering her with a blanket.

Zhu Xinyue heard the person picking up the bottles and jars from the ground, putting them into her handbag. The sound of the clinking was familiar, she used to do this when packing her bag.

Was it a nurse? Zhu Xinyue clenched her fists, refraining from making a sound.

She didn’t like strangers touching her things.

“Did I wake you?” It was Ji Linyu’s voice.

Zhu Xinyue’s anxious heart settled back down, her tightly clenched fist gradually loosening as she heard him place her handbag on the bedside table.

“What time is it?” she asked.

“It’s almost seven in the evening. Would you like something to eat?” Ji Linyu had met an acquaintance at the hospital entrance and chatted with them at a nearby restaurant, returning to find her asleep.

Zhu Xinyue had been eating very little recently and had no appetite.

She shook her head. “I don’t want to eat.”

Ji Linyu looked at the tear stains on her face, feeling heavy-hearted.

He took a chocolate ball out of his pocket and placed it in her palm. “Chocolate.”

Zhu Xinyue sat up, holding the chocolate ball. The feel of the packaging was familiar. She had opened it twice before. But the last time she ate this brand of chocolate, it was particularly sweet. Why was he giving it to her again?

She opened the wrapper and was about to put it in her mouth when Ji Linyu grabbed her wrist.

“There’s a bit left to unwrap.” Ji Linyu removed the paper scraps from the chocolate ball and was about to release her hand when he saw a tear roll down from her eye.

It was as if she hadn’t realized she was crying, mechanically putting the chocolate into her mouth.

“Ji Linyu, it’s not sweet at all.” Zhu Xinyue quietly shed tears.

Ji Linyu instinctively raised his hand, paused in front of her, and gently wiped away the tears.

“This is a new flavor. Feeling a bit better?” His movements were light and tender, making one unconsciously want to indulge.

Zhu Xinyue grasped Ji Linyu’s fingertips and asked softly, “Ji Linyu, is your kindness to me also a trap?”

Ji Linyu froze, feeling a sour ache in his heart.

He had been doubted by countless people for his intentions, some genuine, some not. But with her, it was simply because he couldn’t help it.

If the first time was out of compassion, what about every subsequent time?

He saw her petite, fragile figure, bearing such heavy chains, holding a fragile red umbrella, rescuing people from a sea of fire.

He dared not recall the scene back then. Everyone was fleeing, but she alone foolishly went against the current.

And it was precisely such a figure that occupied his thoughts entirely, causing him to lose all sense of reason and charge into the fire, coming to her side.

At that time, he could have let the professionals save her.

But he couldn’t wait a moment longer, fearing something might happen to her.

What was this?

Ji Linyu was unfamiliar with such emotions.

Without responding to her probing, he neither refused nor accepted her.

Instead, he solemnly made a promise, a reciprocal commitment that Zhu Xinyue herself might not be able to fulfill.

He said, “Until your eyes recover, I won’t leave your side.”