Fell Deeply In Love With My Ex-Husband's Fiancé - Chapter 84

Chapter 84: Main Text Concluded – Impatiently Taking…

Lu Feiran slowly opened his eyes, seeing a pure white ceiling. The sensation of bobbing on the waves had vanished, replaced by a stable position on a thin, slightly firm mattress.

He was saved.

Lu Feiran slowly moved his arms, found no needle attached to him, and felt relieved. He gently turned over, just in time to see Dr. Benjamin, with his brown hair, pushing the door open.

Benjamin wore a three-piece suit under his white coat. As a hospital partner, he primarily managed administrative tasks. Seeing Lu Feiran awake, he called a nurse to perform more checks.

“Where is he?” Lu Feiran only asked this one question before trying to get out of bed. His body felt perfectly fine; aside from tiredness, he had no significant discomfort.

“…Drug overdose, he’s in ICU observation,” Benjamin said, steadying the slightly swaying Lu Feiran.

“Can I go see him?” Lu Feiran asked.

“You can view him from outside.”

Lu Feiran, dressed in a green patient gown, had blank eyes and a tense face. How was he supposed to imagine Lance lying in a hospital bed?

His weakness was always easily exploited. Lance knew he cared, and this wasn’t the first time he had used self-inflicted pain to soften him.

In the quiet corridor, Benjamin asked, “Did you induce vomiting for him?”

His train of thought interrupted, Lu Feiran clasped his hands together and looked up hesitantly, seeing Benjamin’s serious expression. He grew even more uneasy, unable to move his feet, terrified that he had done something wrong.

“Without professional tools, do not induce vomiting in an unconscious person. There is a high risk of suffocation.”

Lu Feiran felt close to suffocating right now. He widened his eyes and hurried a few steps to catch up with Benjamin: “Is he okay?”

“Fortunately, he must have still had some consciousness then and cooperated with you to vomit it out,” Benjamin said, looking at him with a calm expression as he finished the second half of the sentence.

Lu Feiran loosened his tightly clasped hands, letting them hang by his sides. His posture looked calmer, but his eyes were still flickering, consumed by self-blame: “I didn’t know when the rescue would arrive, so…”

Benjamin raised his hand, gesturing for Lu Feiran to relax: “I’m not intentionally trying to scare you, just objectively reminding you. The situation was unique then, and you could only perform emergency treatment. But the result is good. Lance is fine and can be transferred to a regular ward after another twenty-four hours of observation.”

There was a glass window on the ICU door. Lu Feiran slowly walked over, glanced at Lance’s figure lying inside, and quickly looked away, asking, “Have his family been notified?”

Benjamin: “No. I’ve only seen him once, and he only left your phone number.”

“Mine?”

“He wrote the surname, LU. It should only be you.”

Lu Feiran nodded, borrowed Benjamin’s phone, and called Zhou Zihua. But he didn’t dare tell Zhou Zihua what had happened recently, only saying he had an urgent matter and needed to find Noen, asking him to help make contact.

It was only when Noen called that Lu Feiran told him the truth.

After the call, Lu Feiran changed out of the patient gown. He seemed to fear the cold more than ever, wearing three layers of sweaters and wrapping himself in a thick jacket. Sitting in the warm ward, a thin layer of sweat broke out on his forehead, yet he still kept his jacket tightly wrapped.

When Noen arrived, fifteen hours had passed.

Lu Feiran quietly looked behind the young man. There was only an elderly, butler-like figure, and no one else.

He sprang up, advancing toward Noen step by step. He was a head shorter, but his imposing aura pushed Noen backward.

“Just you? Where are the other family members?” Lu Feiran demanded sharply. “Did I not tell you he was seriously injured? Why aren’t you, his family, here to see him?”

Noen hung his head under the reprimand, like a very large puppy.

“I’m sorry, Brother Lu, I didn’t tell them…” Noen admitted honestly. “Grandpa had heart surgery and can’t fly over. My mother… their relationship is a bit…”

“Forget it!” Lu Feiran interrupted him, unwilling to hear more unpleasant words, and muttered softly, “It doesn’t matter. I will be his family from now on.”

“What?”

“Nothing.” Lu Feiran looked up and said, “Stay here and watch over him. When he comes out, please take care of him, okay? I’m troubling you.”

Lu Feiran sincerely pleaded with Noen, leaving Noen completely confused. As Lance’s nephew, taking care of him was natural, especially with the butler present.

Why did Lu Feiran look so uneasy entrusting Lance to him?

“Do you know your family has a property on an island?” Lu Feiran asked. “I’m not clear on the exact location. Can you take me there? There’s something I absolutely must get and bring back to him now.”

Noen nodded. He thought Lu Feiran had indeed forgotten some important item and immediately instructed the butler to arrange for Lu Feiran to be transported to the island.

The gate of the house on the island was tightly shut. Lu Feiran walked a couple of steps toward the gate. The camera above scanned his face, and with a click, the door opened.

Lu Feiran was surprised. He hadn’t recorded his face for entry.

Walking inside, Lu Feiran told the butler, “Please wait here briefly. I need to find something first.”

Before he finished speaking, his peripheral vision caught sight of a bright red object on the cabinet next to the entrance. He turned to look, and it was his passport! His phone was also placed next to it.

Lu Feiran stood stunned for a long time. It wasn’t until he opened the cover with the national emblem and saw his smiling photo that he awoke from the dream.

But when were the passport and phone placed here? Were there things here that morning when they left?

Lu Feiran wasn’t sure, but if the passport had been there, he couldn’t have failed to notice it.

The passport he had longed to recover was now in his hand, yet it felt strangely hot, becoming a fuse. The spark ignited a series of difficult-to-ignore questions.

If it were just a typical fishing trip, they would be back by the afternoon. Why would Lance place the passport here?

Soon, he heard a dog barking from a distance. He put down the passport and followed the sound.

The door behind the kitchen, which was usually kept closed, was open. Cold, damp wind rushed in. Knight ran in from the wet ground outside, leaving paw prints on the floor. Seeing Lu Feiran, he wagged his tail even more excitedly and jumped onto his leg.

Lu Feiran picked him up, suddenly realizing the puppy had grown quite a bit in these days. He could barely hold him.

He asked casually, “Have you eaten anything these past two days?”

“Woof woof—” Knight barked twice and looked towards the corner.

Lu Feiran followed Knight’s gaze. The automatic feeder in the corner was full of food and water, enough for Knight to stay there alone for a week.

While leaving a week’s worth of food isn’t ideal, it was enough to ensure Knight wouldn’t starve. Moreover, the back door was open. Knight could easily go out for walks, excrete, and even find food outside on his own.

An incredible thought gradually formed. Lu Feiran felt a chill in his heart. He put Knight down and walked out stiffly.

The butler was still waiting in the portico. Lu Feiran hid the lapse in his composure, nodded to him, and went upstairs to Lance’s study.

The marriage registration form was still lying intact in the drawer. Lu Feiran took it out and placed it on the desk. He sat in the office chair, the signing pen warming in his hand, but he didn’t put pen to paper.

His intuition told him that all of this was carefully orchestrated.

From the moment they left that morning, every step was within Lance’s plan, including the passport, the phone, Knight’s dog food…

Lu Feiran was uncertain. A mental battle raged in his mind. He instantly simulated countless possibilities, continuously arguing with himself and proposing new hypotheses.

But no matter which direction his thoughts took, they ultimately pointed to one core idea—

Lance was prepared.

He was prepared not to let Knight starve, prepared the passport for Lu Feiran so he could return to China smoothly. So, did Lance intentionally strand them at sea? Was Lance genuinely trying to commit suicide… or not?

“What if I lose you after I die?” “Don’t be afraid. You are healthy and will live a long life.”

No one was going to die.

Lu Feiran worked backward based on the time. The rescue team likely arrived two hours after he induced vomiting and they both passed out. Even the timing of the rescue was perfectly precise.

Speaking of inducing vomiting… Lu Feiran recalled Benjamin’s words about the risk of suffocation when inducing vomiting for an unconscious person, but fortunately, Lance had cooperated with him at the time.

Upon hearing Benjamin say this, Lu Feiran’s first reaction was one of relief—thank goodness Lance was okay. But recalling the sentence now, Lu Feiran felt a chill run through him.

How could he dare to gamble with his own life? If even one detail in this process went wrong, the outcome could very likely have been a tragedy!

But then again, was the GPS really broken? Was he truly unconscious? Did he truly take half a bottle of medicine?

Lu Feiran sat listlessly in the chair, staring at the incomprehensible marriage registration form in front of him. He sat motionless at the desk for an hour. Rather than being clueless, it was more that he was unwilling to think further.

He had never broken free from that massive net. He had nowhere to go, and… he didn’t actually want to make any other choice. The only thought that surfaced at the moment of life and death was the thing he truly desired the most.

He simply couldn’t accept truly losing Lance.

Regaining his focus, Lu Feiran put pen to paper at the end of the form, signing his name.

His phone was fully charged. After turning it on, Lu Feiran immediately booked a direct flight back to China. He changed his clothes, found a backpack, put his laptop and other personal items inside, and finally took out the drawing from his pocket.

The drawing was water-stained. The blue ballpoint pen marks had blurred, leaving wrinkled traces on the paper. Lu Feiran smoothed out the drawing, tucked it into his laptop, found a piece of cardstock in the study, wrote a line of text, put it into an envelope along with the marriage registration form, picked up his bag, and went downstairs.

He retrieved Knight, held him effortfully in his arms, boarded the helicopter with the butler, comforted the startled puppy, and said calmly, “Please deliver this envelope to Lance. It’s a very important document. I have an urgent matter and need to return to China first, so I won’t go to the hospital. Please arrange transport to the airport for me. And the puppy, tell him to take good care of it. He will comply once he opens the envelope.”

The butler showed a hint of confusion but still followed the order. After reporting to Noen, he arranged a car to take Lu Feiran directly to the airport.

Noen was very nervous. He didn’t know why Lu Feiran, after returning to the island, wasn’t coming back and had even flown directly back to China. He felt he shouldn’t have let Lu Feiran go alone and should have accompanied him the entire time.

But since things had come to this, Noen genuinely didn’t want to show disrespect to Lu Feiran, and he couldn’t physically drag him back from the airport. He simply played with the dog in the ward, waiting for Lance to wake up so he could hand over the envelope. His duty would then be complete.

The next morning, Lance saw Noen sleeping on the sofa while hugging Knight. His heart stirred. He scanned the entire room with dry eyes.

He pulled out the IV needle himself, supporting his heavy head, forcing himself to sit up. A pure white envelope on the bedside table caught his eye.

The bottom right corner of the envelope had a single word written on it: “Lu.”

He pounced on it, seizing the envelope tightly in his hand like he had grabbed the first gulp of oxygen in a vacuum. Then he suddenly let go, worried about creasing the letter. He cautiously picked it up and pulled out the already signed marriage registration form.

Seeing Lu Feiran’s neat and forceful signature, Lance’s eyes instantly widened. His lake-like emerald green eyes flickered with a strange light. The detached coldness on his face could no longer be maintained, replaced by a frightening euphoria.

He was so excited his soul almost left his body. His heart rate accelerated continuously, and the cardiac monitor’s numbers changed rapidly, emitting a piercing high-frequency alarm.

He was impatient for an embrace, a kiss. His disembodied soul yearned to drill into Lu Feiran’s body and merge with him.

But why wasn’t Lu Feiran here?

Lance felt another piece of cardstock in the envelope. His heart sank. He took it out and looked at it for a long time. His poised body went limp, his shoulders slumping. He stared at the black text, immobile like a grey statue.

【Get along well with Knight. Come back to me after you’ve been cured. You know what I hate most about you.】

After a while, Lance lay exhausted on his side on the bed, the card held in his mouth, like he was holding his lover’s finger.

Sure enough, he had been seen through, but he had also succeeded.

…

As spring set in, the temperature clearly rose, and the city became covered in green. Lu Feiran was in the habit of finding a crowded park on weekends, parking his convertible in the open-air parking lot, listening to the noise of the crowds, and sitting in the car to soak up the spring sun.

He was thinking about how the lawn here was vast and pet-friendly, and when he might have a chance to bring Knight along. Simultaneously, he listened to Zhou Zihua excitedly tell him about Zhai Qiance’s verdict.

Due to the abundance of evidence, this major case was unexpectedly concluded in about half a year.

Economic crime plus attempted murder-for-hire was enough to ensure he spent the rest of his life in prison.

But if Zhou Zihua hadn’t called, Lu Feiran would have long forgotten about Zhai Qiance.

He hired a professional manager for Lu Corporation, negotiated with Lu Xingli and his mother, bought back the shares, and then shifted his focus to Tuowei. It wasn’t easy to revitalize Tuowei, but he had never worried about funding, thanks to their exceptionally generous investor.

Other than providing money, Lance only sent the translated and compiled diagnostic report to Lu Feiran after his weekly follow-up appointment. He was surprisingly quiet and obedient.

Before leaving, Lu Feiran had been prepared for Lance to come looking for him non-stop after reading the message, but… it was truly unexpected. He wondered if that marriage registration form had soothed him, as he had genuinely managed to stay away for several months without appearing.

Had the goal of establishing the marriage relationship been achieved? But without his physical presence, the so-called marriage relationship could not take effect. That piece of paper was perhaps just a piece of paper, a promise that could be revoked at any time.

Lu Feiran shook his head, no longer dwelling on it.

His life was focused solely on work, with virtually no social life or entertainment. It was busy but utterly monotonous. Lu Feiran found himself somewhat unaccustomed to it and regretted not bringing Knight back.

Separated from his father when he was so young… would he not recognize him when he returned?

The spring sun wasn’t strong. After three in the afternoon, it became soft and mild, and a chill set in. Lu Feiran closed the car roof and drove away without hesitation.

He drove slowly. The ample horsepower was completely underutilized. He ambled back to Lu Yuan, noticing that the roadside fence was entangled with fully bloomed roses.

He drove even slower, reluctant to step on the accelerator, letting the car glide slowly the whole way, enjoying the scenery along the road.

Suddenly, a large brown dog appeared around the corner. Lu Feiran slammed on the brakes.

The dog trotted over with a pure and innocent expression, came to the car door, lifted its front paws, rested its chin on the open window, and looked at Lu Feiran expectantly.

Lu Feiran was startled, shrinking slightly to the right. Seeing that the large dog made no other movements, he slowly sat up straight again.

“Are you lost?” Lu Feiran stroked its head. The fur on the dog’s head still carried the smell of sunshine. It was a very well-behaved and clean dog. He wondered who had been so careless as to let it wander out alone.

The car chassis was low. Lu Feiran could easily reach out and touch the dog’s head. As he felt downward, he encountered a hard leather collar around the dog’s neck.

“Alright, let me see your name and call your owner…” Lu Feiran fumbled for the name tag on the collar with one hand while unlocking his phone with the other. “K… Your name is Knight… Hmm?”

Lu Feiran’s face went blank. He dropped his phone and cupped the dog’s head with both hands, scrutinizing it.

It was a Bernese Mountain Dog, no doubt, but… was it just a coincidence of names? It looked completely different from before. In a few months, had it grown this large?

Hearing Lu Feiran call his name, Knight excitedly leaped up, trying to jump directly into the car, but was forcefully pushed on the head and stopped, whining aggrievedly.

Up until now, he hadn’t opened his mouth or barked. At most, he made sounds in his throat, and not even a drop of drool came out of the corners of his mouth.

For some reason, Lu Feiran felt he was incredibly well-behaved, and even felt a little pity for him.

But it shouldn’t be his dog, right? If it could appear here, that meant…

“Did you forget him?”

A familiar voice fell from behind. Lu Feiran’s eyelashes fluttered rapidly. He suspected he misheard. He stiffly turned his head, unable to hide the surprise on his face, giving the false impression that he wasn’t expecting this.

“And did you forget me too?”

The speaker took another step. Leather shoes tapped lightly on the pavement. Lu Feiran’s gaze followed the footsteps.

He saw the person approaching had slightly long, platinum-blond hair, a handsome face with a faint smile, yet his eyes held a touch of melancholy, as if he had spotted a faithless lover.

Lu Feiran quickly withdrew his gaze, and as he lowered his head and turned, he saw his own reflection in the rear-view mirror. A large grin was spread across his face, his eyes curved like crescent moons. His entire face was radiant, unable to conceal any emotion.

Realizing this, Lu Feiran immediately rubbed the corners of his mouth, making his face cold again.

In just a few steps, Lance had reached the car door, standing with Knight. He bent deeply at the waist. As Lu Feiran looked up, his cheek was brushed by strands of hair, tickling him.

“You’re cured?” Lu Feiran asked flatly.

“I’m sorry, I couldn’t wait that long. I really wanted to see you,” Lance said. “But I hid well.”

“Hid well?” Lu Feiran raised an eyebrow, the corner of his eye lifting. He scrutinized Lance. “Let me see.”

He suddenly reached out, grabbed Lance’s tie knot, and pulled hard in his direction, forcing Lance to bend even further at the waist, having to use one hand to brace himself on the car window frame for balance.

Lu Feiran completely ignored whether his posture was uncomfortable. He pulled forcefully with his left hand, while his other hand lifted to pinch Lance’s face, examining it side to side.

Lance obediently allowed Lu Feiran to manipulate him. His gaze remained calmly fixed on Lu Feiran’s face, greedily tracing every inch of his skin, watching his lively eyes show surprise and happiness, and watching him put on a cold, aloof expression. He willingly lowered his head and bent down, waiting for the verdict, his teeth aching.

He hid his inner thoughts well. Lu Feiran looked left and right but couldn’t spot any clue.

He was consistently calm and smiling. Despite his noble posture, he became easily accessible in Lu Feiran’s grasp, even exhibiting a subtle submission.

Lu Feiran was more concerned that the dark circles under Lance’s eyes had disappeared. His high brow bones were no longer gaunt, his complexion was healthy, and his expression was peaceful. It looked like the treatment had been very effective.

As for a complete cure, Lu Feiran hadn’t dared to hope for it.

He patted Lance’s cheek as if giving a reward, saying, “You did well.”

With that, he pulled the tie again. Before Lance could react, his lips lightly pressed against Lance’s. It was just a simple touch. Lance’s body stiffened. The veins on the back of the hand supporting the window frame bulged. He forcefully restrained his subconscious movement, doing nothing, waiting for Lu Feiran to slowly and gently pull back, ending the fleeting kiss.

Lu Feiran sat up straight. His forced indifference faded, replaced by a soft and gratified expression. He meticulously straightened Lance’s skewed tie, patted his chest, and said, “The past is in the past. Let’s go home. Get in.”

“…Okay.” Lance’s fingertips trembled as he gently touched Lu Feiran’s face before straightening up. As he walked around the front of the car, he rubbed his own face, smoothing away the overly excited expression, leaving a perfectly measured faint smile.

Lu Feiran directed Knight to squeeze into the back seat. After Lance sat down, he restarted the car.

This time, the car sped up considerably, impatiently taking them home.

-End of Main Text-