That night, many people did not sleep.

Yu Hanfeng was a woman long accustomed to storms. The moment Fang Yongnian’s phone call ended, she had someone stop Lu Boyuan at the airport, and conveniently confiscated his possibly bugged phone.

She arranged for Fang Yongnian and Zheng Fei to be admitted into the hospital, even forging emergency surgery records. Fang Yongnian’s name was listed in the ICU roster, letting Lu Boyuan personally witness what it meant to “do whatever you want if you have money.”

“All done.”

Yu Hanfeng, who had been on the phone for over an hour inside the ward, hung up and walked over to Fang Yongnian’s bedside.

“You and Zheng Fei will stay in the ward these few days. Among you, only Lu Boyuan’s phone was tapped. I had someone set it up so that, if necessary, the phone can serve as bait.”

Fang Yongnian nodded. Lu Boyuan took back the overheated, bugged phone.

“The people you wanted have all been arranged. I’m leaving the country tomorrow. Handling the rest on your own shouldn’t be a problem, right?” Yu Hanfeng teased with a smiling face.

Fang Yongnian pinched the space between his brows, holding the phone that had gone silent after a “good night,” and smiled faintly. “Thank you.”

“Let’s call it even for that scandal before, consider this me paying you back a favor.” Yu Hanfeng waved a hand, glanced at Lu Boyuan who was still staring at the wiretapped phone, then bent slightly toward Fang Yongnian and lowered her voice.

“I can’t help but feel…”

Her voice dropped even lower.

“That little Lu girl and you, something doesn’t seem quite right between the two of you.”

Fang Yongnian froze.

Zheng Fei, who heard her clearly, choked on his own saliva and coughed violently.

“So you noticed too?” Zheng Fei whispered gossipy words in a mosquito-like voice. “That’s why I kept saying he’s abnormal.”

Yu Hanfeng straightened her back, looked up and down at the pale Fang Yongnian half-leaning against the bed, and nodded. “Mm.”

The two of them truly acted as if Lu Boyuan were dead.

This kind of thing couldn’t be explained away. From the moment Lu Yixin started chasing after him without care for anything, he had already foreseen this situation.

It was just—doing this in front of Lu Yixin’s father was far too awkward.

“Aren’t you catching a plane?” He began to chase them away.

“I’m not in a hurry.” Yu Hanfeng folded her arms, raising her brows.

Lu Boyuan had already snapped out of the surreal realization that his phone had been tapped. Now, he was looking at them in complete confusion.

“I originally thought it was just one-sided.” Yu Hanfeng tilted her head, her expression probing. “But now it seems, you don’t look quite right either.”

Fang Yongnian couldn’t respond.

In front of Lu Boyuan, anything he said would be wrong.

“What doesn’t look right?” Lu Boyuan asked nervously.

After deep reflection, he had decided to unconditionally protect his junior.

Fang Yongnian was his disciple, the capable junior he had personally mentored. He had been selfish for four years, he couldn’t afford to keep being selfish.

“What about him looks right?” Yu Hanfeng countered, then picked up her handbag. “Rest properly here these next few days, you’re about to turn into a skeleton.”

“I’ll get going.” She waved at the men in the ward, dropping the gossip.

Before closing the door, she saw Fang Yongnian through the crack—thin, with his brows perpetually furrowed, the delicate, shy look of his younger years long gone.

She had watched him enter the world, watched him transform from an innocent bookworm into who he was now—versed in business rules, sometimes ruthless, and no longer frowning at filth.

He didn’t belong in this world of money.

When she had first met him, he had even been like another Lu Yixin. Someone who could make people relax and smile.

It should be coming to an end soon.

Yu Hanfeng’s high heels clicked softly along the hospital corridor.

This floor was for senior staff; it was quiet, the lights dim and hazy.

Her silhouette looked powerful, yet solitary.

She didn’t have many friends. Fang Yongnian was probably her only one.

He should return to the world he belonged to. Return to the way he used to be, even if incomplete.

୨୧ ⏔⏔⏔⏔♡⏔⏔⏔⏔ ୨୧

Lu Boyuan was not a gossip by nature.

His life revolved around his research and his wife and daughter.

Yet, at this moment, he couldn’t help but glance repeatedly at Fang Yongnian, words rising and falling at the tip of his tongue.

“What do you want to ask?” Fang Yongnian felt uneasy under his stare.

He might truly be becoming more and more abnormal—because now, even when facing Lu Boyuan, he felt guilty.

“That Miss Yu…” Lu Boyuan hesitated. “Is she your girlfriend?”

The way they interacted didn’t seem like a couple at all…

Although she had rushed here overnight to Hecheng when the accident happened, their manner of talking was… really not like that.

“No.” Fang Yongnian took out his phone again.

Four o’clock in the morning.

“Your daughter is still online.” He pulled up WeChat.

In the chat with Lu Yixin, every few minutes a line would appear—typing…

Lu Boyuan: “…”

He forgot all about gossip, grabbed the unmonitored phone Yu Hanfeng had given him, and roared the moment the call connected: “Are you itching for a beating? Do you know what time it is? And you’re still online!”

Lying in bed, nervously fidgeting with her phone, Lu Yixin: “??”

“Don’t think I can’t see you!” Lu Boyuan was helplessly exasperated with this daughter of his.

“What are you trying to say to Yongnian? He’s in the hospital! He doesn’t have time to bring you food.”

Fang Yongnian: “…”

Lu Yixin: “…”

What kind of impression had she given these adults, that they all thought her soul revolved around eating?

“I…” Lu Yixin was choked for words, then snapped back, “You woke me up when you came back, so now I can’t sleep!”

Her father’s voice was loud and vigorous, clearly in good spirits.

So, Fang Yongnian must really be fine.

Lu Boyuan was once again struck speechless by his own daughter’s sharp retort.

“I’m going to sleep now!” she said righteously. “I was about to fall asleep, but you called, and now I can’t sleep anymore!”

Lu Boyuan: “…”

Fang Yongnian gave his senior brother a sympathetic glance.

He didn’t even need to hear the words; just from the man’s expression, he could guess that Lu Yixin had probably turned the tables again.

Raising a daughter like that must be exhausting.

He thought his senior brother was about to have a stroke.

Closing his eyes, he successfully avoided Lu Boyuan’s rare burst of curiosity.

As for his relationship with Yu Hanfeng…

It wasn’t something that could be explained in just a few sentences.

The rumor reporters wrote about them “falling in love at first sight in the hospital” was pure fabrication.

He had known Yu Hanfeng for nearly twenty years.

Yu Hanfeng was the illegitimate daughter of the Yu family’s old master, and one of the people he had known the longest.

When her biological mother had Alzheimer’s, most of the errands—running back and forth—had been handled by him.

When she later forcefully entered the Yu family, the two of them had already lost contact almost completely.

They reconnected when he joined the Alzheimer’s project, the one that cost him a leg. In order to obtain more patient data, he had taken the initiative to reach out to Yu Hanfeng.

So Yu Hanfeng knew everything about him, including that car accident.

She was his financial backing—his prosthetic leg, the pharmacy he invested in, the company he now ran, every cent of the investigation costs he had spent over the past four years, even the expensive disability car he was currently driving—all had been provided by her.

But it was not without conditions.

Every generic drug application he submitted had to succeed.

What the Yu family valued was the state policy of encouraging the development of generic drugs in recent years, and the profits behind them.

As for him—he was only after the truth, and a way to stay alive.

A trade of goods for goods, that was the surface of his relationship with Yu Hanfeng.

Behind that, there was perhaps something darker: helping Yu Hanfeng secure the generic drug line, helping her stand more firmly, as the illegitimate daughter, in her claim to the Yu family inheritance.

The shadowy, unspoken, inglorious war over property.

He and Yu Hanfeng—aside from feelings—knew everything else about each other.

Not lovers.

Not exactly like-minded friends.

Just partners—partners who could safely expose their backs to each other.

When Lu Boyuan, on the companion’s sofa, had fallen asleep, he looked at his phone again.

Five minutes later, at the top of his WeChat, the chat with Lu Yixin once again showed “typing…”

Fang Yongnian: “…”

He directly exited WeChat, choosing not to look. This time, he switched to the news page.

Yu Hanfeng was very reliable in handling matters.

Local news in Hecheng was already running reports on the highway accident, complete with images.

The destroyed car was exactly his—an expensive, custom-made vehicle for the disabled.

The pictures weren’t clear.

The broadcast was brief: a sedan lost control on the highway tonight, two passengers were seriously injured and sent to the hospital. No further details.

Such traffic accidents—without fatalities—rarely stirred much public attention. But for those with ulterior motives, it was enough.

If the person wasn’t dead—then, for the one hiding in the shadows, that would be the reason for sleepless nights.

Under the cold glow of his phone screen, Fang Yongnian’s face looked even paler. His eyes, framed by long lashes, were pitch black.

His lips remained tightly pressed. This plan had been improvised—but for this “improvised” plan, he had prepared for four years.

There was no room for failure.

“Not sleeping yet?” On the bed beside him, Zheng Fei turned over and mumbled drowsily.

Fang Yongnian made a sound of acknowledgment and turned off his phone.

He turned over. His prosthetic leg hit the side of the hospital bed with a dull clang.

Lu Boyuan opened his eyes.

Zheng Fei opened his too.

None of them spoke again. Even the one who had made the noise pretended it hadn’t happened. They all acted as though that sound had been a hallucination.

Fang Yongnian closed his eyes.

The hospital’s distinct scent of disinfectant made his right leg ache again. Every memory tied to his amputation was a trigger for his phantom pain.

He stopped turning over, he didn’t want to make that sound again.

When the pain became unbearable, he reached once more for his phone.

The fake news about his car accident had stopped rolling. It now sat quietly among a row of other traffic accident headlines, not many views—but he knew the people who needed to see it already had.

He took a deep breath, keeping the sound of his inhaling and exhaling as soft as possible.

When he exited the news page, he saw the WeChat icon again.

This time, he tapped it.

In the chat with Lu Yixin, once again, the words “typing…” appeared.

He closed his eyes. When he opened them again, his own message had already been sent:

“It’s five o’clock.”

Lu Yixin’s replies came instantly, her speed perfectly matching her age. Flooding his screen line after line.

“!!!”

“I’ll sleep right now, right now!”

“Don’t tell my dad!!”

“Ahhh, why aren’t you asleep?”

“I wasn’t slacking off, I was looking at the questions I sent you earlier, I was reviewing!!”

“Forget it…”

“I’m sleeping…”

“Good night.”

“…Good morning.”

Her messages came fast, punctuation and all.

Fang Yongnian locked his screen, closed his eyes, and kept breathing—lightly, evenly, as quietly as he could.

Author’s Note:

Fang Yongnian actually spoils Lu Yixin a lot.

The separation and the big reveal you’re all worried about… might not be what you imagine, hmm…