"Director, come over and let's take a picture together," Lin Qianxue said with a gentle smile.
Tang Wu and Xia Zhiwan both turned their heads to look at the woman walking toward them.
Lin Qianxue looked exactly as Tang Wu remembered her.
Pure, gentle, and elegant, smiling without showing her teeth.
She wore a long white dress, her long, straight black hair draped over her shoulders. With light, elegant makeup on her face, she exuded the refined aura of an artist.
It was very similar to the aura that Si Yanli possessed.
When the two of them stood together, they felt like a match made in heaven, likely because of this shared temperament.
Tang Wu knew Lin Qianxue, but Lin Qianxue probably didn't know her.
"Director, we'll be taking our leave then," Tang Wu said, linking arms with Xia Zhiwan, ready to go.
Lin Qianxue walked over and stopped Tang Wu. "You must be my junior, Tang Wu, right?"
Tang Wu froze slightly, a flash of surprise in her beautiful eyes. "You know me?"
Lin Qianxue's lips curled into an elegant smile. "I saw you back at Isha Academy. Such a pretty junior. The boys in our class even talked about you back then!"
Tang Wu's heart skipped a beat.
When Lin Qianxue and Si Yanli were in their senior year of high school, Tang Wu was in her last year of middle school.
Back then, just to catch a few more glimpses of Si Yanli, she would frequently run over to the high school teaching building.
Could it be that they had seen right through her feelings even back then?
"Talked about me? What did they say?" Tang Wu asked subconsciously.
Lin Qianxue maintained her gentle and elegant smile from beginning to end. "They argued over who was the true campus belle between you and me. The boys in our class even held a voting ceremony. In the end, I narrowly won by a single vote. They were really bored back then."
Before Tang Wu could say anything, she heard Xia Zhiwan ask, "Did Si Yanli vote too?"
"Him? Yes, he voted. But it was probably just because of our relationship that he gave me his vote."
Looking at Lin Qianxue's gentle and intellectual smile, Tang Wu wondered if it was just her imagination, but she felt like Lin Qianxue had said that on purpose for her to hear.
Could she possibly know about her relationship with Si Yanli?
"I'm holding a piano recital in Yecheng on the sixth of next month. You and your friend are welcome to come." Lin Qianxue took out two VIP tickets and handed them to Tang Wu.
Tang Wu did not refuse.
After Lin Qianxue and the Director left, Xia Zhiwan said with righteous indignation, "I feel like she was deliberately showing off in front of you. What is she so smug about? You're the legal wife! Even if she was with your dog of a husband back then, she's nothing but a mistress now!"
Tang Wu felt a sharp, throbbing pain in her temples. She didn't say anything, just pursed her red lips and turned to leave.
Xia Zhiwan chased after her. "Sister, aren't you going to go confront your husband?"
Thinking of that man with his gold-rimmed glasses and elegant but scummy aura, Tang Wu's lips twitched in a mocking smile. "Confront him about what? We're just a plastic couple to begin with. As soon as he helps me find my grandmother, I'll divorce him immediately."
Xia Zhiwan nodded. "I support you. The sooner you kick a dog of a man who can't cut ties with his ex to the curb, the sooner you'll be free!"
Xia Zhiwan drove Tang Wu back to her apartment.
Tang Wu sat in the passenger seat, staring blankly out the window.
Perhaps it was because she hadn't slept well, but her head felt heavy and painful. Her temples were throbbing, feeling as if they were being pricked by needles.
When the car pulled up downstairs at Yujing Mansion, Xia Zhiwan turned to look at Tang Wu.
"Wuwu, we're here."
Tang Wu was curled up in her seat with her eyes closed, seemingly asleep.
Sensing something was wrong, Xia Zhiwan reached out and touched her forehead.
It was burning hot.
"Wuwu, you have a fever."
Tang Wu didn't react.
Xia Zhiwan immediately drove to the hospital.
...
Xia Zhiwan took Tang Wu into the hospital for an examination.
Not only did she have a fever, but she also had acute gastroenteritis and needed to be hospitalized for two days.
Xia Zhiwan took care of the admission procedures for her.
While receiving an IV drip, Tang Wu fell asleep again.
Looking at the faint shadows under her eyes, Xia Zhiwan knew she had been exhausted lately.
To let Tang Wu sleep peacefully, Xia Zhiwan put her phone on silent.
Just as she was about to set the phone down, a call came in.
The caller ID read: Assistant Xu.
Xia Zhiwan took the phone outside to answer it.
"Xiao Tang, if you have time today, come to the Translation Institute."
"Is this Assistant Xu? I'm Tang Wu's best friend. She is currently unwell and hospitalized, so I'm afraid she won't have time to go over."
"What's wrong with her?"
"A cold and acute gastroenteritis."
Hearing this, Xu Zhou immediately informed Si Yanli, "Vice President, Miss Tang is sick."
Xia Zhiwan vaguely heard Si Yanli's voice. She thought of something and hung up the phone.
Tang Wu slept for nearly twenty minutes before Xia Zhiwan woke her up.
"Wuwu, I bought some millet porridge. Eat a little something first!"
Tang Wu had no appetite.
Xia Zhiwan looked at Tang Wu, hesitating to speak.
Tang Wu sat up in the hospital bed. "What's wrong? Is there something you can't just tell me directly?"
"Earlier, your dog husband's assistant called. He wanted you to go back to the company. I'm honestly speechless; they want you to go back and work overtime during your time off."
Tang Wu said, "I don't want to talk about him."
Xia Zhiwan nodded. "After the news broke this morning, the fans of your dog husband and Lin Qianxue even created a super topic for their ship. It's called something like Ten Thousand Threads of Qian and Si."
Tang Wu lowered her thick, long eyelashes. She tightly pursed her pale lips and remained silent for a long time.
"Wuwu, there's really no need for you to be heartbroken over that kind of man anymore."
Tang Wu raised her eyelashes to look at Xia Zhiwan, a faint, mocking smile curling her lips. "I'm not heartbroken. I just feel like a total failure. Did you know, after coming back from Seville, I made a plan to get revenge on him."
A trace of confusion appeared in Xia Zhiwan's eyes. "What plan?"
"First, I'd bait him and seduce him, and then I'd kick him to the curb!"
It was a pity that just as the plan was set in motion, his first love came back.
For a man as aloof and noble as him, it was truly hard to imagine that he would get into a physical fight with another man over a woman!
In a romance between three people, one is destined to fade away in the end.
And she was that extra person!
"What? You actually wanted to bait him, seduce him, and then kick him away?"
Tang Wu nodded. "Yeah, it's just a pity that the plan failed completely before it even started."
There was a hint of regret and pity in Tang Wu's tone.
This week, when she had taken the initiative to seduce him, he had responded, and she had actually felt a little smug about it!
Looking at it now, she was just a joke!
A self-deprecating smile curled Tang Wu's lips, but before it could fully form, she suddenly noticed something wasn't right.
It felt as if a bone-chilling, icy draft had surged into the hospital room.
As soon as she looked up, her gaze met a pair of cold, emotionless, narrow phoenix eyes at the door of the ward.
Tang Wu's body trembled violently.
When did he get here?
Did he hear everything she and Xia Zhiwan just talked about?
