My Childhood Friend, Who Is An Omega, Has Become My Personal Secretary - Chapter 26.3

Ji Zeyuan was silent for a moment, still not answering, then followed up with another question.

“Did you know that Xiao En is taking medication for depression and anxiety?”

Ji Zeyuan observed Zhang Qian’s reaction. Although she wasn’t sure what reaction she was hoping for, it certainly shouldn’t have been this look of avoidance and distaste.

It seemed this matter was true. Zhang Qian knew, Shen Jiuyue knew, and only she didn’t.

Ji Zeyuan thought self-deprecatingly: With our contact broken for so long, it would be a miracle if I did know.

“Xiao Yuan, why are you suddenly saying such things? Did someone say something to you? Was it Linen?” Zhang Qian asked with concern. The level of care she showed for this matter was far higher than her concern about Zhang Linen’s hospitalization.

Ji Zeyuan frowned and said nothing. After a moment of thought, she sighed, and without answering Zhang Qian’s question, she simply stood up and left.

As she reached the entrance of the hall, Zhang Qian chased after her, calling from a distance, “Xiao Yuan, when are you coming back next time?”

Ji Zeyuan clenched her teeth. She looked at Zhang Qian, found it incredibly ridiculous, and replied sarcastically, “I don’t need your concern. Instead of me, you should care more about your own daughter.”

With that, she left the house without looking back.

Sitting back in the car, Ji Zeyuan saw it was past five o’clock. Zhang Linen had sent her two messages at some point.

“Is the matter still not resolved?” “Are you still not back at the company?”

Ji Zeyuan’s gaze was bleak. Having just learned such significant news, her heart was in a mess.

“I’m coming to pick you up now. Let’s finish work early today and go home together.”

A moment later, Zhang Linen replied with one word: “Okay.”

When she arrived downstairs at the headquarters building, Zhang Linen was already standing at the entrance waiting. From a distance, Ji Zeyuan saw that fluttering white figure, solitary and fragile.

As the driver brought the car to a halt, Ji Zeyuan pushed the door open impatiently. Zhang Linen smiled faintly and walked toward her.

“Why did you come out first? There are so many people out here, you’ll be affected by the pheromones.” Ji Zeyuan scolded her with concern.

Zhang Linen said with a light smile, “Aren’t I fine now? Let’s not say any more; let’s go home together.”

Ji Zeyuan wasn’t sure if it was her imagination, but she felt that when Zhang Linen said “go home together,” she deliberately emphasized the words, as if intentionally stressing the special meaning of the phrase.

Ji Zeyuan forced a slight tug at the corner of her mouth and nodded.

On the way home, Ji Zeyuan was silent as usual, but the number of times she looked toward Zhang Linen was much more frequent than usual.

Zhang Linen had sensed Ji Zeyuan’s unusual behavior since that earlier message. She quietly peeked at Ji Zeyuan, trying to deduce the reason for this situation.

Amidst her swirling thoughts, Ji Zeyuan suddenly spoke: “How about we don’t go back tonight? Is there somewhere you want to go?”

As soon as she said this, both the driver and Zhang Linen were stunned.

The driver was the first to react, pulling the car to the side of the road and waiting quietly for Ji Zeyuan’s orders.

“…Yes.” Zhang Linen answered slowly, but after speaking, she fell silent.

Ji Zeyuan watched her quietly. When Zhang Linen didn’t continue after two minutes, she smiled and asked, “So where do you want to go?”

Zhang Linen blinked blankly, then smiled with curved brows: “I want to go to the amusement park.”

Ji Zeyuan’s expression changed slightly: “Do you have to go to the amusement park?”

“Can’t I?” Zhang Linen’s eyes narrowed as she asked with a smile, “Didn’t you just go there?”

Ji Zeyuan stared down at Zhang Linen. After a moment of silence, she said with a compromise-like laugh, “It’s too late today. If you want to go, let’s go another time.”

Zhang Linen looked at Ji Zeyuan quietly, her beautiful peach-blossom eyes exceptionally bright.

The atmosphere was quiet and somewhat ambiguous. Ji Zeyuan turned her face away to avoid Zhang Linen’s gaze, her throat feeling a bit hot.

“Anyway… cough, how do you want to arrange things tonight?” Ji Zeyuan’s voice was a bit strained.

Zhang Linen was silent for a moment, finally answering quite dejectedly, “Let’s just go home.”

Hearing the disappointment in Zhang Linen’s emotions, Ji Zeyuan’s heart instantly tightened. After struggling internally for a moment, she finally spoke as if having made up her mind: “Let’s go to the amusement park. I remember the group has shares in the A City amusement park; I’ll give their president a call.”

With that, Ji Zeyuan reached for her phone to make the call. Zhang Linen immediately pressed her hand down and smiled brightly: “No need, I really just want to go home now.”

Ji Zeyuan stared fixedly at Zhang Linen and didn’t say anything more. After waiting a moment, she instructed the driver: “Home.”

This so-called “home” was a place where Ji Zeyuan had lived for nearly two months since returning to the country, but only today, as she stepped through the door with Zhang Linen, did she truly feel a sense of “coming home.”

“Did you buy these?” Ji Zeyuan pointed at the glass display case that was originally empty but was now filled with green plants.

Zhang Linen put on her slippers and walked toward the display case with a faint smile, saying, “Mm. I originally wanted to buy some ornaments to put there, but those wouldn’t really match the four-leaf clover you bought.”

Ji Zeyuan looked at the center of the display stand and only then discovered that the four-leaf clover she had bought had been placed in the “center position.”

Ripples rose in her heart. Shortly after, Ji Zeyuan sat on the sofa in the living room and spoke with a light smile, “It looks very good.”

Zhang Linen’s pearl-like eyes moved as she walked gracefully over and sat down beside Ji Zeyuan.

“Did you meet someone today?” Zhang Linen suddenly asked.

Ji Zeyuan was startled internally, but she remained calm on the surface: “I met Shen Jiuyue, didn’t you know?”

Zhang Linen watched her quietly and didn’t respond.

Ji Zeyuan knew this was a sign that Zhang Linen was not convinced.

To appear more authentic, Ji Zeyuan suddenly added as if just remembering: “I also ran into Mia. She waits for me in Imperial City every day, hoping to get my forgiveness, although she doesn’t even know what she did wrong.”

Zhang Linen continued to smile faintly without saying a word. Looking at her, Ji Zeyuan felt as though her heart were about to melt.

Clearly, everything looks fine now.

Ji Zeyuan thought painfully. She didn’t dare to ask Zhang Linen about the Sertraline tablets and Auntie Zhang. If Zhang Linen had wanted to tell her, she would have said it long ago.

But if there were things that Zhang Linen couldn’t even bring herself to say to her, she certainly wouldn’t say them to anyone else.

Digesting these terrible things and emotions all by herself… it must feel incredibly lonely and isolated.

At this thought, Ji Zeyuan’s self-loathing deepened. Clearly, Zhang Linen was having such a hard time, yet she had selfishly only cared about her own feelings, blindly immersing herself in her own world and completely ignoring Zhang Linen, who was likely suffering a hundred times more than she was.

“Talk to me, Xiao En,” Ji Zeyuan said softly. “Tell me everything about your life over these past eight years, if you’re willing.”

Zhang Linen’s face was calm, her thin lips trembling as if she were about to speak, when her phone suddenly rang.

She withdrew her gaze, pulled her phone from her pocket, and Ji Zeyuan caught a glimpse out of the corner of her eye—the name displayed on the screen was “Zhang Qian.”

Zhang Linen frowned slightly, appearing confused. She turned to Ji Zeyuan and said, “I’ll take this call first.”

Then Zhang Linen went into the bedroom.

Ji Zeyuan stayed where she was, sitting on the sofa, feeling a sense of loss.

The house was silent. She leaned back against the sofa tiredly when suddenly a loud sound of breaking glass came from the bedroom.

Ji Zeyuan was startled and jumped up to rush into the bedroom. The moment she pushed the door open, a floor full of glass shards and Zhang Linen with hands full of blood met her eyes.

“Xiao En, what happened?” Ji Zeyuan stepped forward anxiously, wanting to check her injuries. Zhang Linen looked up and saw her, then suddenly retreated several steps.

Ji Zeyuan was stunned for a moment, but she didn’t stop. Instead, she more forcefully pulled over Zhang Linen’s injured hand. This time Zhang Linen didn’t pull away but absent-mindedly allowed Ji Zeyuan to remove the glass fragments embedded in the back of her hand.

“You lunatic! I told you long ago, you’re a lunatic, you’re a psycho!” Zhang Qian screamed hysterically. Zhang Linen silently turned down the phone volume to keep Ji Zeyuan from hearing Zhang Qian’s yelling.

“What’s wrong?” Ji Zeyuan asked in a very soft voice.

Zhang Linen looked at the bloody mess on the back of her hand and listened to Zhang Qian’s verbal abuse from the other end of the phone.

“It wasn’t enough that you ruined yourself, you want to ruin me too? Ruin my relationship with Xiao Yuan?” Zhang Qian was roaring with almost all her strength.

Zhang Linen pursed her lips and smiled faintly as she looked at Ji Zeyuan, saying, “Sorry, I used too much force when closing the window just now.”

“You think you’re a big deal just because you’re the daughter of Jixia? Look at who’s sitting in the CEO chair of Jixia now—it’s my daughter! My daughter!”

Ji Zeyuan’s eyes were full of heartache and worry. She said, “I’ll go get the medical kit.”

With that, she turned and left the bedroom. In the brief moment Ji Zeyuan was out, Zhang Linen spoke back to Zhang Qian.

“Are you saying that Xiao Yuan knows about me taking medication?”

“Don’t play dumb! No one else knows about this except you and me! You wanted to tell Xiao Yuan so she would blame me and stop talking to me, didn’t you? You really are too wicked! You won’t let me reconcile with her…”

Zhang Linen hung up the phone and didn’t listen to any more of Zhang Qian’s illogical ranting. She knew very well who this “third person” was.

Ji Zeyuan entered the room carrying the medical kit. Zhang Linen looked up at her, her dark eyes having already returned to their usual tenderness.

“Maybe we should call a doctor,” Ji Zeyuan said, frowning. She sat with Zhang Linen on the edge of the bed, carefully using alcohol to disinfect her wound.

“Does it hurt?” Ji Zeyuan asked with every application. Zhang Linen’s fingers trembled slightly, but she didn’t cry out in pain. She just smiled faintly and replied, “It doesn’t hurt.”

It was as if she truly felt no pain.

Blood flowed steadily from the wound. Ji Zeyuan hurried to take out gauze to bandage it.

“If you bandage it like that now, the gauze will stick to the wound,” Zhang Linen said.

Ji Zeyuan paused and looked up at Zhang Linen helplessly, suddenly not knowing what to do.

“Do you remember in high school PE class, when your hand was cut by a piece of iron on the fence? Do you remember how I helped you stop the bleeding?” Zhang Linen spoke softly, raising her hand to Ji Zeyuan’s chest.

Blood flowed from the jagged wound, branching into several thin red lines that eventually merged at the base of her palm to drop off. Ji Zeyuan stared blankly at Zhang Linen, then, as if bewitched by a shaman, she lowered her head and sucked the blood from Zhang Linen’s hand.

Her soft lips pressed against the fragile wound, grazing it gently. Ji Zeyuan lightly licked the mottled scar. The saliva hitting the open cut caused a sting of pain, but Zhang Linen laughed as the pain was transmitted.

“Pfft… hahahaha…” Zhang Linen laughed very unrestrainedly and happily. “Are you a high schooler? You actually believe that?”

Seeing her laughing so happily, Ji Zeyuan’s habitually furrowed brows relaxed, and she laughed too.

“You tricked me and then you laugh like this,” Ji Zeyuan said with a smile.

Zhang Linen pulled her hand back, fished the hemostatic spray out of the medical kit, and waved it in front of Ji Zeyuan’s eyes: “It’s because you never used to listen in health class that you don’t even recognize hemostatic spray.”

With that, she sprayed a dose onto her wound, and the blood indeed stopped flowing.

Ji Zeyuan smiled faintly and didn’t argue. Traces of Zhang Linen’s blood still clung to her lips, making their color appear very vivid.

“Xiao Yuan.” Zhang Linen’s tone took on a layer of added weight. Ji Zeyuan looked up and froze.

“The fact that you suddenly spoke so much today… is it because you’re worried about my…”

Zhang Linen paused, seemingly finding the words hard to say. “My depression?”