Chased by My Heartless Ex - Chapter 71

The medical staff confirmed Zhou Siyu’s location from Xu You, and several people quickly moved to the second floor.

Shortly after Xu You left, Zhou Siyu fell into unconsciousness again. Her condition was clear, so the emergency personnel went up, attached monitoring devices to her, and immediately brought her downstairs.

“Ms. Xu, is it? The patient needs someone to accompany her. Please come with us to the hospital for now. If it’s inconvenient, you can arrange for someone else to replace you once we arrive,” one of the two emergency doctors said in a rapid-fire tone, grabbing hold of Xu You, the only conscious person in the empty villa. The other doctor had already entered the ambulance to monitor the data.

The situation was urgent. Xu You glanced outside, where the ambulance was shrouded in darkness, concealing Zhou Siyu’s figure along with it.

She opened her mouth but found herself unable to refuse. “Alright.”

With that, she followed the doctor into the ambulance and sat beside the stretcher carrying Zhou Siyu.

Cold, the moment she sat down, Xu You shivered.

The low-saturation cool-toned lighting illuminated the rear compartment. The smooth, white-painted interior walls reflected the stretcher and the deep blue floor, creating an atmosphere that made one’s pores stand on end with unease.

A machine monitoring Zhou Siyu’s vital signs stood to the side. Most of the readings were stable, but the heart rate column showed an anomaly, and the machine emitted a piercing alarm that grated on the nerves.

Xu You had ridden in an ambulance a few times before, but she had always been the one lying down, with her parents accompanying her.

She sat up straight, pressing her entire back against the ambulance wall. The chill emanating from the metal was blocked by her thick coat, and having something to lean against gave her a sliver of stability.

She sighed. So, this was what it felt like, the fear of loss and the endless waiting.

The two medical staff busied themselves preparing an IV to stabilize Zhou Siyu’s heart rate while questioning Xu You about her medical history and drug allergies. The exchange was almost seamless, with Xu You answering every question fluently.

When all the questions were over, she realized with bewilderment that she knew Zhou Siyu far more deeply than she had thought. She averted her gaze from Zhou Siyu’s face, which was turned toward her.

The ambulance moved faster than her own car. With its siren blaring, it cut through the streets unimpeded except for traffic lights. From departure to arrival, it took only a few minutes.

The rear door opened, and Xu You followed the stretcher into the emergency room. Zhou Siyu was wheeled in, while Xu You stayed outside to handle the payment.

Unconscious, Zhou Siyu had no idea what was happening. An IV was inserted into the back of her hand, and she received injections for fever reduction and anti-inflammatory purposes, all unbeknownst to her. In her bleak world, only half of Xu You’s cold, detached profile replayed on a loop as she had turned to leave downstairs.

The painful moment replayed repeatedly, wearing down her spirit bit by bit.

Several times, the thought flashed through her mind: if she couldn’t be loved by Xu You, she might as well die. But each time, she was pulled back by the indistinct sounds and voices around her, audible yet unseen.

“I have work tomorrow. Whether you hire a caregiver or transfer her to another hospital, it’s up to you. I’m leaving now. Contact me if there’s an emergency.”

“Aren’t you staying to wait for her to wake up?”

“No, it’s too late.”

Zhou Siyu’s soul struggled violently, yet her body lay motionless.

Hearing the conversation between Xu You and Lu Ang, she immediately retracted her reckless thoughts of death and wanted to beg Xu You to stay. Unfortunately, her limbs were immobilized, and she couldn’t even muster the strength to lift her eyelids.

Inside, a storm raged, a lonely, small world where she was left screaming and going mad. On the surface, all was calm and peaceful, a scene of tranquility to any observer.

In the battle between spirit and flesh, one side had to prevail. As Xu You’s footsteps faded into the distance, Zhou Siyu’s heart finally triumphed over her mind.

“Xu You!” She opened her eyes and instinctively called out the name.

Lu Ang, who had been sitting in the visitor’s chair, quickly stood up and approached upon hearing her voice. “Old Zhou, how are you feeling? Are you in pain anywhere?”

Zhou Siyu ignored him, her gaze fixed dazedly on the hospital door with its half-panel of glass. Her tone was despondent. “Where’s Xu You?”

“She just left.” Lu Ang’s expression was filled with worry and concern. Remembering something, he added, “Do you want to see her? I’ll call her back now, she probably hasn’t gone far.”

Lu Ang was her friend, so naturally he would always consider things from her perspective and act in her best interest.

She had taken Xu You’s words to heart, carefully breaking them down and mulling them over. Her distorted views on love, laid bare under the sunlight, made her feel nauseated when she looked back on them.

“No, don’t disturb her. I just need to rest for a while, then I can be discharged. You can take me home later,” Zhou Siyu hurriedly stopped Lu Ang from taking out his phone to contact Xu You, her voice weak.

Lu Ang opened his mouth, the words caught in his throat as if he wanted to say more but hesitated. In the end, he withdrew his hand from his pocket, sat back down by the bed, and muttered under his breath with frustration.

“You need to take better care of yourself. With your stomach problems and weak constitution, if you end up dying young, I doubt Xu You would ever look back.”

“Tch, whatever. Do as you please. It seems she’s already made up her mind to end things with you. The legal representative of the company is her lover, and she hasn’t even bought a car for getting around in Beicheng. If we hadn’t insisted on keeping her, she would have left long ago.”

“Maybe you should take the initiative to let go, for your sake and hers. If you two keep going on like this, you might not even remain lovers; you could end up as enemies.”

Lu Ang’s muttering was loud enough for every word to reach Zhou Siyu’s ears clearly. The words made her temples throb, and her nerves felt visibly frayed.

Whether they remained lovers or became enemies depended on her attitude, it wasn’t something Lu Ang could decide with a few casual remarks.

Annoyed by his words, Zhou Siyu directly dismissed him. “Shut up and leave. I’ll take a taxi home by myself.”

“Hey, am I the kind of person who would abandon you?” Lu Ang was caught off guard, only grasping the most superficial meaning of her words, assuming she was just tired of his nagging.

Zhou Siyu paid him no further attention, simply closing her eyes and letting him be.

The night was dark, the moon high, and the shadows of trees swayed gently.

Xu You returned home, washed up, and collapsed onto the large bed, shedding the exhaustion of the day. Scenes from the evening flashed before her eyes.

Zhou Siyu’s fragility, Zhou Siyu’s panic.

If this had happened earlier in their timeline, she might have softened. But now, aside from helplessness, all she felt was weariness.

As Lu Ang had said, she was being forced to stay.

At that moment, all she wanted was to finish her work as quickly as possible. Every extra day she spent in Beicheng was another day of torment for her mind and body. The ailments she thought had vanished were showing signs of returning. Her beautiful new life could not collapse and be destroyed again because of Zhou Siyu and the others. She could no longer let her family and friends worry about her, especially after experiencing the ambulance ride and realizing that even minor emergencies felt overwhelming.

With these thoughts, her long-tensed nerves gradually relaxed. Unconsciously, she closed her eyes and fell into a deep sleep.

That night, her rest was far from peaceful. Nightmares assaulted her, leaving her unable to save herself. It wasn’t until the third alarm from her phone in her jacket pocket rang that she slowly opened her bleary eyes.

The fatigue in her body radiated from within, and the indescribable exhaustion was a mental ordeal in itself.

She arrived at the office on an empty stomach. Just as she stepped out of the elevator, she received a meeting notice from the current head of the design department. She hurried to her desk, dropped her bag, gathered her laptop, and rushed to the conference room.

The entire department meeting was held in the company’s largest conference room. At one end of the long table sat the department head, while the two sides were reserved for Qian Doudou and another deputy department head whom Xu You was not very familiar with.

When Xu You pushed the door open, most of the seats were already occupied. Qian Doudou waved at her, so she abandoned the corner spot and sat beside her.

“Have you all heard? The higher-ups at the company actually managed to secure a deal with Esme. With this collaboration, our company’s stock is bound to rise significantly.”

The department head hadn’t arrived yet, and colleagues were casually chatting.

Xu You settled into her seat and pricked up her ears when she heard her own name mentioned by a colleague. She didn’t reveal herself but quietly listened to everyone’s opinions.

“I heard, I heard! Wow, just thinking about it is thrilling! I’m so curious about what kind of characters Esme will design! I absolutely adore her art style, but her prices are just too high, way out of reach for us poor folks.”

“Compared to the characters, I’m more curious about what she looks like.”

“I feel like she must be a little fairy. Has anyone noticed how beautiful our team leader Xu is? If she weren’t in design, she could easily outshine a bunch of celebrities.”

The topic shifted from the pseudonym to the person herself. Caught off guard by the sudden praise, Xu You maintained her posture and smiled, accepting her colleagues’ admiring glances.

Before she could speak, someone else chimed in.

“Pfft, what’s so great about Esme? It’s all just a marketing persona. So mysterious, who even knows if it’s a man or a woman, a human or a ghost underneath? As for Team Leader Xu, sure, she’s got some looks, but she’s no fairy.”

Li Rui had slipped into the conference room unnoticed. Instead of choosing any of the many empty seats, she walked straight over to Xu You, spouted her sour remarks, and sat down with an inscrutable expression.

The earlier comments had been lighthearted banter. Xu You was genuinely beautiful, and everyone was just flattering her a bit, trying to curry favor with the new leader. Li Rui didn’t have to agree, and even if she voiced her opinion, it wouldn’t have been a big deal, at most, it would have been a minor conflict between the two of them.

But she just had to badmouth Esme. Several colleagues who had previously been indifferent to her instantly frowned.

Before Esme emerged, the international art scene had been spreading rumors that the country lacked any presentable young oil painters. They had mocked this openly and covertly, year after year. Amid excessive attention and ridicule from the outside world, Esme, as a national, held a stunning global exhibition in Europe, the birthplace and hub of oil painting, and rose to fame overnight. She broke through the ranks of young painters and became one of the most valuable emerging artists internationally.

Her emergence not only vindicated local painters but also inspired many young people on their own paths. At the same time, she drew more attention to the industry. That year, sales of oil painting products on shopping platforms doubled compared to previous years, and parents choosing painting as an interest for their children kept many art studio teachers employed.

It’s no exaggeration to say that Esme is a minor fortune god. Merely mentioning her name or riding on her coattails can bring profits. Li Rui, having benefited from this, now bit the hand that fed her, despicable and infuriating.

After speaking, she showed no remorse. Squeezing in next to Xu You, she ignored the sarcastic and exasperated looks from everyone and stared fixedly at Xu You.

“Team Leader Xu, I wonder if you’ve heard the news that President Zhou hasn’t come to the company for two days? You two are so close, you must know a lot of inside information, right?” Her voice was perfectly controlled, neither too loud nor too soft, just enough for Xu You and the nearby colleagues to hear.

As soon as she spoke, she earned several eye-rolls.

She didn’t seem to care at all, propping her chin on her hand as she leaned closer to Xu You, whispering in a voice only the two of them could hear.

“Unlucky people bring misfortune wherever they go. The company couldn’t tolerate you four years ago, and it’s no different now. Esme is here, it’s time for you to step aside.”