After Encountering My Deceased Wife, I Became the Male Lead's Love Rival - Chapter 43

Chapter 43: Grievance

“Boss, President Wang’s side has breached the contract,” the little assistant reported with a grim face.

The woman sitting directly opposite her was wrapped in a blanket, shivering slightly. She coughed twice into her hand before taking the documents.

Even though a high fever had flushed her face crimson and a watery mist clouded her eyes, the clarity in Fang Ziyue’s gaze had not dissipated. She flipped through the files. The resource war with Qu Haoyu had reached its late stages; she had swallowed most of the resources, but Qu Haoyu was still clinging to a few pieces, refusing to let go. To protect his remaining interests, he had even deployed Ling Nianyao, the so-called “heartthrob.”

Fang Ziyue looked at the data provided by her assistant. Three more deals they had already negotiated had fallen through. The CEOs of the Wang, Zhao, and He corporations had all suddenly changed their minds. It seemed Ling Nianyao had been showing her face in front of them quite a bit over the past two days.

“No rush… cough, cough…”

Fang Ziyue tossed the documents onto the desk, her voice terribly raspy. She grunted and coughed, attempting to clear her throat to speak again, but found that besides making her throat sting, it did nothing to clarify her voice.

“Forget it, you’d better stop talking,” the assistant sighed, handing her a glass of warm water. After drinking to moisten her throat, Fang Ziyue was finally able to articulate words normally.

“We’ll extend the front lines; there’s no need to rush.”

Her voice had dropped from a mezzo-soprano to a low bass. The assistant calculated that in another two days, her boss would probably be too sick to speak at all. Recalling what she had done that afternoon, she suddenly felt that “striking while the iron is hot” was exactly right if she didn’t sell out her boss now while she was sick, there might not be another chance later!

With that in mind, the assistant slipped out of the office under the pretext of making coffee. Seeing several burly men in the breakroom, she gave them a hand signal. The five hulking men understood; they marched out of the breakroom with heads held high, turned a corner, and merged with a dozen or so of their comrades.

The assistant’s jaw dropped. She stared open-mouthed as twenty odd bodyguards charged toward her boss’s office. Wait? For a sick, frail woman like my boss, was it really necessary for the other side to send so many people to catch her?!

“BANG!!” A sudden, massive crash echoed from the distant office.

Holding her coffee cup, the assistant watched as one burly man after another—each nearly 1.9 meters tall—flew out of the office. They were literally flying! Some landed face-first, some on their shoulders… thud, bang, crash they were strewn all over the floor!

“The coffee, be careful not to burn your hand.”

A cold, crisp fragrance swept past. The assistant hurriedly looked down at the cup in her hand. The scalding coffee had almost splashed onto her hand. After deftly adjusting the angle of the cup, she looked up to say thank you, only to see the back of someone in a wheelchair.

“I… holy sh*t!” The assistant covered her mouth with one hand. Heavens, what was happening? The Head of the Ling family had personally come to catch someone?! Wait, could it be… her boss wasn’t just pining one-sidedly? Could it be mutual love?!

The assistant’s body shuddered with excitement. Her hand shook, and coffee splashed onto the back of her hand, making her yelp from the sting. The young girl hopped around with teary eyes, and by the time she recovered, the Head of the Ling family was nowhere to be seen. The distance from the breakroom to the boss’s office wasn’t short; the fact that Head Ling was in such a hurry suggested she cared quite a lot about the boss.

The assistant beamed, the corners of her mouth curling higher and higher. These two are so ship-worthy.

Inside the office, the person they were gossiping about, Ling Qiu, entered to see her “sick fox” acting with the strength of a titan, pinning a bodyguard’s neck against the wall.

“Fang Ziyue! Put him down!”

The woman’s cold, angry voice caused the woman—who was fighting more fiercely the sicker she got to freeze.

“Wife…?” Fang Ziyue, who was so sick she could barely distinguish people, let go of her hand, dropping the poor bodyguard. She looked at the double-vision in the doorway and shook her head dizzily, trying to shake the “fake” Ling Qiu out of her sight, only to make herself even more lightheaded.

Ling Qiu didn’t know whether to be angry or amused by this behavior. She had been afraid Fang Ziyue was so sick she’d be delirious and knock out her guards, so she had sent twenty people. The result…

Ling Qiu sighed helplessly. Thank goodness she hadn’t felt at ease and had followed them here.

Not far away, unable to shake off the “fake” Ling Qiu and feeling miserable all over, the “Big Fox” found her eyes turning red. Under her wife’s gaze, the beautiful fox simply plopped down on the floor, rubbed her misty eyes, and began to cry out of sheer grievance.

Ling Qiu hurried over and pulled at the troublesome fox twice, but couldn’t get her up. In desperation, Ling Qiu could only bend down. Her cool hands cupped Fang Ziyue’s face, wiping away her tears with a gentle motion that carried a trace of heartache.

“What’s wrong? Why are you crying? Don’t cry. Let’s go see a doctor, okay?”

Ling Qiu had arrived with a stomach full of rage after hearing her subordinates report that the bastard Fang Ziyue was working while sick. But now, this fox was sobbing with a look of total grievance: “You yelled at me… hic, ugh… I don’t want you anymore…”

Despite saying this, the woman held onto Ling Qiu’s cold hands and refused to let go, insisting on warming them for her. Even while delirious from illness, Fang Ziyue didn’t forget to take care of her wife. This subconscious concern was engraved into her very marrow, impossible to forget.

Ling Qiu squeezed her hands back. She leaned down to press her forehead against Fang Ziyue’s burning one, coaxing her: “I didn’t yell at you. I was afraid he would fall and hit you. It’s my fault for not explaining clearly. Don’t be mad at me, okay?”

The stubborn Big Fox curled up on the floor as if hugging her own tail, clearly telling Ling Qiu: If you don’t coax me properly, I’m not going with you.

Ling Qiu was anxious. From the contact just now, she could tell Fang Ziyue’s temperature was dangerously high; she needed a doctor immediately. Outside, Ling Qiu’s private doctor had been standing there for a while, but she didn’t dare enter. Looking at the “tragically defeated” hulking men, the doctor wiped cold sweat from her face. If her small frame went in, wouldn’t Steward Fang tear her apart with one hand?

“No… not right… you’re lying.” The sick fox wouldn’t believe anything. She widened her eyes, tears falling in strings, yet she tried to maintain a stern face as she muttered incoherently, “You don’t like me… you’re lying to me… you don’t like me…”

The woman on the floor was so sick she couldn’t even speak straight, yet she remained fixated on the idea that Ling Qiu didn’t like her.

“You…” Ling Qiu sighed softly. She suddenly reached out to cup Fang Ziyue’s face, forcefully squeezing those pale, dry lips (from the fever) into a pout, and then kissed her hard!

The Head of House, who hadn’t been in a relationship for over twenty years, hadn’t watched adult content, and had never cared for romance, had terrible kissing skills. Fang Ziyue’s lips were rubbed red by her, yet no “invading” momentum came. That “scratching an itch through a boot” sensation made Fang Ziyue so aggrieved she wanted to cry again. She was already feeling so miserable, yet her wife was still bullying her.

“Waaaaa…”

The great beauty on the floor cried so pitifully, even hugging Ling Qiu’s legs and pressing her head against her knees, whimpering. Sticky and clingy like a spoiled child, she was so cute it made one want to ruffle her hair.

Ling Qiu hadn’t expected her skills to be so poor that she’d not only fail to comfort the person but actually make her cry. If Fang Ziyue were healthy, Ling Qiu would surely think she was being ungrateful after getting a benefit. But not now. Ling Qiu clumsily patted and stroked Fang Ziyue’s back, trying to soothe her emotions.

Her wife’s awkward comfort made the dazed Fang Ziyue tighten her arms around Ling Qiu’s legs. She finally quieted down, leaning against Ling Qiu’s legs in a sickly manner, her eyelids drooping as she drifted in and out of sleep.

Ling Qiu simply signaled the doctor to come in. Whatever—treat her first. If Fang Ziyue tried to attack, Ling Qiu could hold her and stop her. Ling Qiu completely overlooked the fact that compared to the doctor, she was the weakest and most likely to be hit.

Her heart was full of Fang Ziyue’s listless state and her moans about her body aching. Perhaps it was because she was so sick, or because fighting those bodyguards had exhausted all her energy. When the doctor took her temperature, she only lightly rubbed her cheek against Ling Qiu’s palm, obediently listening to her wife.

Ling Qiu’s heart softened at the touch. She pursed her lips and reached out to stroke Fang Ziyue’s long hair, whispering, “Get well quickly.” Having seen Fang Ziyue full of spirit, steady, and cheerful, Ling Qiu had become captivated by that warm presence. Her fox should be running in the open fields and basking in the sun, not collapsed in a corner, hidden in gloomy, solitary endurance.

Once Ling Qiu arrived, the woman who had let down her guard fell completely unconscious. After all, facing over twenty adult men—even with the system boosting her combat power in every world had drained her entire reservoir of energy. In her unconscious state, the woman’s brow remained tightly knit, and she let out a groan of pain from time to time.

Having worked while sick for so long, not taking medicine and constantly drinking coffee, Ling Qiu was just thankful to see Fang Ziyue alive. She didn’t dare hope that everything else was fine. Taking advantage of her unconsciousness, she kept her on the hospital bed and had the doctor perform a thorough examination.

The Ling family home didn’t have much medical equipment, so Ling Qiu endured her discomfort and accompanied Fang Ziyue to the hospital the place she liked least. The smell of disinfectant swirled around her nose, along with the scents of medications, all of which reminded her of an unpleasant past.

When she was eighteen, if her legs had received long-term treatment and rehabilitation, she might not have been able to stand, but she could have taken a step or two with crutches. But she had foolishly believed the doctor her mother sent, and those chronic poisons became the final force that destroyed her legs.

Ling Qiu pressed her hand to her brow, kneading it impatiently. Let the past stay in the past. Ling Qiu, you have to look forward.

In a bad mood, Ling Qiu consoled herself while looking through the documents her subordinates had given her. The cold, serious woman flipped through the data rapidly, the atmospheric pressure around her dropping lower the more she read.

Fang Ziyue’s hospitalization this time was largely thanks to Ling Nianyao. What kind of mindset does a woman who supposedly loves Qu Haoyu have to climb into someone else’s bed? And what was inside Qu Haoyu’s head he who supposedly loved Ling Nianyao to actually send his woman away for others to play with?

To be honest, in Ling Qiu’s eyes, this resource war between Fang Ziyue and Qu Haoyu wasn’t particularly large. But because of the opponent’s despicable methods and her own “silly fox” being too eager to grow strong, they had given the opponent an opportunity to slow down the pace. This made her very unhappy.

Ling Qiu closed the folder and instructed her assistant, “Lift the restrictions on Little Wang. Tell him the time is ripe.”

In the eyes of the cold woman, there was a dark fire of rage and chill. She was still alive. If that Qu person was blind enough to touch her fox, then he shouldn’t blame her for teaching him the meaning of “drawing water with a bamboo basket” all for nothing.

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