After Dumping the Scumbag Top, I Was Relentlessly Chased by a Top-Tier Idol - Chapter 2

Anjing Municipal Super-Grade People’s Hospital.

The doctor re-bandaged Lin Yizhou’s wound and admonished him, “You must not let this touch water under any circumstances, otherwise it will easily fester and suppurate. Remember to apply the medication frequently.”

Lin Yizhou nodded. “Thank you, doctor.”

After speaking, he got up and left the doctor’s office. When he reached the corner of the hospital staircase, he paused and said to the driver behind him, “Xiao Li, can we not tell Ah Zheng about this?”

Just as the words left his mouth, the phone in his pocket suddenly began to vibrate.

Seeing the caller ID on the screen, Lin Yizhou subconsciously frowned. After a brief hesitation, he answered the call: “Mom, what’s wrong?”

A cold, emotionless voice came from the other end: “I heard you’re at the hospital?”

Lin Yizhou paused for a moment, realization dawning on him, but he simply gave a faint “Mm.”

The voice on the other end let out a sneer. “What, you’re already here, and it never occurred to you to stop by and see your mother?”

Lin Yizhou lowered his gaze to the floor and replied calmly, “I’m heading over now.”

The moment he finished speaking, the other party hung up without hesitation, as if she weren’t worried at all that he might be lying.

Xiao Li, who had been standing nearby, spoke up at the appropriate moment to answer Lin Yizhou’s previous question: “I’m sorry, Mr. Lin. President Song instructed me to report everything truthfully.”

Lin Yizhou didn’t say much else, only asking, “Are you going back first, or…?”

Xiao Li replied mechanically, “President Song ordered me to ensure you are delivered home safely.”

Lin Yizhou: “Then wait for me in the car.”

Presumably sensing the nature of the phone call, Xiao Li didn’t press further and turned to leave first.i

Lin Yizhou rounded the back garden of the main hospital building and entered the sanatorium area. This was the high-level VIP ward; the environment was quiet, with an artificial garden built in front for residents to chat and relax.

Walking through the long corridor, Lin Yizhou stopped in front of the ward at the very end. Placing his hand on the doorknob, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath before pushing the door open and stepping inside.

“Hahaha, how is this female lead so stupid?”

Inside the ward, Gu Lan sat on the hospital bed. Her beautiful hair was braided into a single plait resting against her chest. Her exquisite face was distorted by laughter, deepening the wrinkles at the corners of her eyes.

Three caregivers surrounded the bed: one was peeling fruit, one was feeding it to her, and another was giving her a massage. Gu Lan herself was busy watching a drama.

Seeing him enter, Gu Lan pushed away the fruit being offered to her and said, “You three go out for a bit.”

The three caregivers put down their work and exited the room.

Lin Yizhou stood at the foot of the bed, keeping a slight distance. “Did you call me here for something?”

Gu Lan rolled her eyes, her face full of impatience. “You always have that dead look on your face in front of me, yet you act so flattering and sycophantic in front of Chi Zheng. I gave birth to a son, but it feels like I gave birth to a losing bargain.”

Lin Yizhou pursed his lips slightly and remained silent.

Gu Lan glanced at his bandaged hand and said coolly, “So, how did you offend Chi Zheng?”

Lin Yizhou kept his head down. “I don’t know.”

“I don’t know, I don’t know—you never know anything.” Gu Lan’s expression was one of disgust, her tone irritable. “You’d better reflect on yourself quickly. Chi Zheng definitely wouldn’t turn on you for no reason. When he called me just now, he even told me to check on your hand.”

“Your greatest use was snagging me such a ‘Golden Turtle’ son-in-law, which got me moved to such a nice sanatorium without you having to spend a single penny. This is good for both of us.”

“Don’t blame me for being harsh. If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have ended up like this.”

“While he’s still interested in you, be well-behaved and sensible. Don’t make people unhappy, do you understand?”

Lin Yizhou nodded slightly.

“Get lost. If I look at that ‘dead man’ face of yours any longer, I feel like I’ll catch your bad luck.”

Lin Yizhou walked out of the room and hurried to a deserted corridor. Leaning against the glass wall, he exhaled sharply, releasing the breath he had been holding in his chest.

Suddenly, something caught his eye with a flash of light.

He looked out through the glass wall.

In the back garden below, a youth with platinum-blonde hair was half-crouching on the grass. He wore all white, with a white sleeve-cover on his raised left hand and a cartoon band-aid on the right side of his neck. A brilliant smile radiated from his face, his tiger teeth peeking through as he spoke. The golden sunlight draped over him like a veil, giving him an aura that was mysteriously ethereal yet somehow fragile.

At the youth’s feet lay the wreckage of a camera. In front of him, a man dressed entirely in black with a baseball cap was kneeling on the ground, clutching his stomach with his head slightly tilted back.

Shen Xu?

It really was Shen Xu!

The youth described by fans as “sunshine incarnate” and “the boy with an angel’s face.”

Lin Yizhou’s pupils dilated slightly.

But this youth was currently holding a shard of glass against the black-clad man’s throat.

The flash that had caught his eye earlier was the light reflecting off that very piece of glass in Shen Xu’s hand.

Lin Yizhou scanned the garden. It was during working hours, and there was no one else around. But even so, for a highly famous celebrity like Shen Xu, this was incredibly bold.

Suddenly, he saw Shen Xu use the glass shard to cut two of his own fingers. Dropping the blood-stained shard, Shen Xu took out his phone and aimed it at his own hand and the man’s face—it was unclear if he was taking a photo or recording a video. After saying a few words, he stood up.

The kneeling man frantically gathered the camera wreckage and scrambled away from the scene.

As if sensing a gaze, Shen Xu looked up toward his direction.

Their eyes met through the glass wall.

Shen Xu maintained that impeccable smile. He tilted his head and raised the hand dripping with bright red blood, giving him a wave.

Lin Yizhou ignored him and left the corridor, heading downstairs. At the stairwell landing, he happened to run into two nurses coming around the corner.

They were engrossed in conversation and didn’t notice Lin Yizhou behind them.

“Did you see? Shen Xu came by today.”

“No way. Didn’t he already visit this month? And where did you see him?”

“I saw him heading this way when I was coming from the main building. I thought I was mistaken too, but I wasn’t. Even if you can’t see his face, he has that signature single sleeve-cover and the cartoon band-aid on his neck.”

“What is he doing over here? The psychiatric department is on the 18th floor of the main building. Did he get lost again?”

“Who knows.”

The nurses’ voices weren’t loud, but because the stairwell was so quiet, Lin Yizhou heard every word.

He stood at the first-floor exit, glanced toward the spot where Shen Xu had been standing, and then left the hospital.

Returning home with nothing to do, Lin Yizhou did as he usually did and tried to pick a movie on the TV. The first film recommended on the homepage starred Shen Xu.

Seeing that face on the movie poster, he inadvertently recalled the scene at the hospital.

Setting everything else aside, he had seen every one of Shen Xu’s movies. In the less than three years since his debut, Shen Xu had starred in one television drama and three films. His acting became more mature with every performance. Thus, when Shen Xu won the Best New Actor award at the end of last year, Lin Yizhou felt it was well-deserved—contrary to some netizens who claimed he was just a “resource hire” with back-door connections.

Lin Yizhou shook his head slightly, pushing the person out of his mind. Whatever that man was like had nothing to do with him, and it never would.

He pressed the remote to scroll through the options. After a round of searching, he finally settled on a movie he had starred in himself.

Time slipped away through the shifting scenes of the film. Lin Yizhou glanced at the clock and sent a message to Song Chizheng: Ah Zheng, do you need me to bring you dinner?

An expectant emoji.

This message received no reply, even as Lin Yizhou waited on the sofa until he fell asleep.

In the morning, he woke up from a nightmare as usual.

The first thing Lin Yizhou did was look at the light above him; it hadn’t been turned off.

—Song Chizheng hadn’t come back at all.

For a moment, he didn’t know whether to feel relieved or worried.

He took out his phone; as expected, there was no reply to his message.

His fingertips tapped the screen as he sent a new message: 【Ah Zheng, are you coming back this morning?】

The message remained like a stone sinking into the ocean.

He didn’t send any more messages, fearing that Song Chizheng might block him entirely.

Keeping his phone close to his person, he took some tools to water the sunflowers in the small garden in front of the villa.

The garden was full of golden sunflowers, blooming vigorously toward the sun, their petals fluttering slightly in the wind.

This garden of sunflowers was a gift from Song Chizheng when they moved in together because the man knew sunflowers were his favorite.

Now, he wanted to plant some white lilies—Song Chizheng’s favorite—amongst these sunflowers.

By next April, the flowers should be in bloom.

Suddenly, his phone chimed.

Lin Yizhou dropped the small trowel, wiped his hands on his apron, and hurriedly pulled out his phone, only to find it was just an advertisement.

Gazing down at the sea of gold, Lin Yizhou put the phone back in his pocket and continued gardening.

It wasn’t until eight o’clock in the evening. During that time, he had called Song Chizheng once, but the call didn’t go through. He then called the only friend of Song Chizheng’s he knew; the man was evasive, claiming he didn’t know anything either.

Lin Yizhou could finally hold back no longer and took the initiative to message Song Chizheng again: 【Ah Zheng, do you know what day it is today?】

Unexpectedly, Song Chizheng replied quickly this time, though it was only a single question mark: 【?】

Even so, Lin Yizhou felt extremely satisfied. His dark eyes seemed to have been polished, brightening several degrees. His fingers flew across the screen: 【It’s our two-year anniversary.】

A long time passed after the message was sent without a response. He repeatedly typed and deleted messages in the input box, but finally sent one: 【Ah Zheng, can you come back a little earlier tonight?】

About half an hour later, Song Chizheng replied: 【Mm.】

Though the reply was still just one word, Lin Yizhou was happy. At least this time, the other man hadn’t ignored his request and had agreed.

He read that simple word three times over, suppressing his bubbling excitement. He replied with a “Great” and began preparing tonight’s dishes.

He personally cooked a table full of Song Chizheng’s favorite foods and ordered a heart-shaped cake. After nearly two hours of busy preparation, everything was finally ready.

He sat quietly at the dining table, glancing occasionally at the wall clock in the living room.

But even when the hour hand reached eleven, the other man had not returned.

He picked up his phone and put it down several times, typing messages and deleting them all over again.

Song Chizheng must have gotten busy and lost track of time again. If that were the case, no matter what message he sent, the man wouldn’t respond.

I’ll wait another half hour, he thought. If he still isn’t back, I can pack the food and take it to the company. After all, the drive from home to the office was only ten minutes.

Half an hour passed in the blink of an eye. Lin Yizhou sent Song Chizheng a message telling him he was coming over.

He quickly packed the food into thermal containers and drove to the Song Group headquarters.

It was a quarter to midnight. The office staff had all gone home, and the entire building was quiet. He softened his footsteps, moving silently.

As he stood before the elevator, the phone in his pocket chimed.

Perhaps Song Chizheng had replied to his message, but his hands were full, so he didn’t check it. He took the elevator directly to the top floor of the building.

Just as he reached the office door, a “clatter” came from inside, as if something had been knocked to the floor.

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