The Scumbag Alpha's Plan to Save the Female Lead - Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Li Te subconsciously shielded the jade token. Just then, the sound of high heels clacking against the hospital floor emanated from the token, like an enjoyable symphony. But to Li Te, who was most familiar with the sound, it was like a death knell from the Grim Reaper.

He remembered clearly: after Director Zhi fell into a coma, the Boss took over the company.

Everyone in the company, including himself, thought she would be easy to manipulate. The result was that everyone who thought so ended up with High Heel PTSD.

After hanging up the communication, Li Te couldn’t help but marvel at Ruan Ning’s drastic change. While the Boss had only been slightly obsessive and clingy before, now that the Boss’s in-game persona was gone, she had directly transformed into a new boss who ruthlessly exploited them.

Although he didn’t know what caused her to change this way, he had been involved in many of the details surrounding the internal conflict that led Director Zhi to speed wildly and crash, as well as the progress of Director Zhi’s treatment.

He recalled that the most significant surge in Director Zhi’s vital signs was at the moment the Boss’s in-game persona threatened suicide and jumped into the sea.

At that time, the data on the numerous wires and instruments connected to Director Zhi continuously updated and peaked. Her body even began to show reactions to external stimuli, and almost all medical staff believed she was about to wake up.

But ultimately, it failed. Instead, it was Ruan Ning, who woke up from the game, who had suffered severe emotional trauma and had to recuperate in the hospital for several months.

Director Zhi being only a step away from waking up greatly encouraged many doctors, allowing them to truly see the effectiveness of terminal treatment, except for the pessimistic Elder Doctor Chen.

When informed that Director Zhi had a strong desire to re-enter the game, the Boss, before even fully recovering mentally, crawled out of her sickbed. She told the doctors she agreed and requested to take over the protagonist’s identity in the game from the start.

“Sigh.” Li Te genuinely felt bad for the two of them.

If they had known this would happen, why did they argue every day? Both were darlings of heaven and a match made in heaven. Their constant disagreements made things very difficult for him as a subordinate.

At the hospital.

Without time to change into more comfortable shoes, the graceful woman, wearing high heels and a satin black Qipao, rushed from the office to the hospital. When she pushed the door open, she was stunned by the scene in the ward.

It was three in the morning. Logically, only the overworked Doctor Chen should have been in the ward. Ruan Ning had counted on this when she rushed over. She was certain she could leverage Chen Ru’s guilt toward her father to force him to help her enter the game.

But at this hour, almost all the attending physicians had rushed over and were busy in Zhi Qiu’s ward.

The only quiet spot in the room was the central bed where Zhi Qiu lay, connected to countless wires, breathing evenly.

“You…” Ruan Ning was startled, unaware that this small butterfly effect was caused by the phone call she made to Li Te.

Before she could finish her sentence, Elder Chen, who was engrossed in his work, shushed her with a gesture.

Ruan Ning fell silent. She calmed down, took off her high heels, and sat quietly by Zhi Qiu’s bedside, watching the constantly updating data on the instruments with Elder Chen.

An hour later, Zhi Qiu, whose consciousness was in the terminal, entered a sleep state, and the data on the instruments stabilized.

Elder Chen adjusted his reading glasses, which were sliding down his nose, and spoke to Ruan Ning with an unprecedentedly grave tone. He said, “I hope you do not enter the patient’s consciousness via the terminal for at least one month.”

“Why?” Ruan Ning abruptly stood up. This was what she came for, and she instinctively prepared to object.

To maintain her composure just now, her fingernails had deeply dug into her pale palms. The pure white manicures were stained with a few drops of crimson blood.

Doctor Chen didn’t speak. He simply gently pried open Ruan Ning’s tightly clenched left hand. Her palm was already bruised and bloody. The old man’s weathered eyes saw through everything.

He didn’t continue the previous conversation but instead brought up events from three years ago.

“I knew your father a long time ago. After losing contact, I received an invitation to the wedding of the Zhi family heir, Zhi Qiu, and Ruan Ye. At the time, I was determined to distance myself from the wealthy and didn’t go. It wasn’t until Zhi Qiu’s accident and you came to me that I learned you had changed your name to Ruan Ning.”

Chen Ru’s face was etched with the ravages of time. Thinking of the days fighting alongside his comrade and seeing the girl who inherited his comrade’s excellent looks and heroic brows, he choked up slightly: “Xiao Ye, why did you suddenly change your name?”

Mentioning “father,” Ruan Ning knew what he was going to say next.

She took out her mahogany hairpin and styled her messy hair into a neat, low bun. Her light-grey eyes were filled with indifference, and her attitude was frank: “‘Ye’ (leaf) is too light, too common. ‘Ning’ (peace/serenity) is better.”

Autumn leaves are trampled by others; what she wants is serenity.

She wanted the autumn leaves, which were destined to fall, to find peace under her protection.

The ward gradually became quiet. Their conversation sounded especially abrupt. The medical staff pricked up their ears, listening to their dialogue.

Chen Ru wiped the tears from the corner of his eye and no longer looked directly at the greatly changed Ruan Ning. He simply shook his head: “Forget it. I owe your father and daughter after all. Now is not the best time to enter the game. Zhi Qiu believes she has been reborn, and her emotions are highly volatile. Your entry now will only worsen her condition. When she stabilizes, I will immediately arrange for you to go in and wake her up.”

“What counts as ‘stable’?” Ruan Ning frowned. She did not want Zhi Qiu to spend too much time with her in-game self.

They fell in love when they were both at their peak, but out of fear, she had never mentioned her past self to Zhi Qiu.

That was her untouchable scar, a shameful memory.

Chen Ru’s eyes were full of the weariness of time. The youthful spirit had long since been worn down to ashes. He stood up, trying to straighten his hunched back, but even so, he was still not as tall as the vibrant woman before him.

Through the woman’s mature attire and indifferent attitude, he felt as if he could still see the shadow of the small girl who had broken down and cried after losing everything.

He offered a bitter smile, hummed a song his comrade often sang, gently patted the girl’s shoulder, and said softly, “I don’t know what ‘stable’ means to your lover. Perhaps it’s settling down, perhaps it’s reaching the peak of her life, or perhaps it’s… meeting someone who truly loves her.”

“Everyone has a different definition of stability, but data doesn’t lie. You can stay here and monitor it with me. I will never lie to you. You two rushed into marriage and didn’t truly know each other. Blessings come with misfortune. Perhaps this accident can help you understand Zhi Qiu better, and also let her… understand you better.”

Ruan Ye fell silent, tacitly agreeing to the doctor’s plan. She sat by the bed, gazing at her lover, whose brows were now relaxed.

At this moment, she suddenly realized that since their marriage, she hadn’t seen her lover this relaxed in a long time.

Arguments.

Constant arguments.

Arguments over the company, arguments over outsiders, arguments over family.

The initial love at first sight was replaced by the mundanity of life, and even though they could afford to hire the best help to manage household chores, they couldn’t avoid the commonplace struggles.

When she fell in love with Zhi Qiu, she knew her lover was an intrinsically reserved person.

So reserved that she bore all responsibilities alone, and so reserved that she concealed all her love.

At this thought, Ruan Ning suddenly let out a cry and covered her mouth, but tears streamed down her face uncontrollably.

Had she truly asked for too much?

She hated the past pain, hated everyone who had ever hurt her.

She hated that she didn’t grow out of the mud looking unsullied, and she was so insecure that she needed constant reassurance of being favored.

If she hadn’t been so willful and argued with Zhi Qiu, her beloved wouldn’t have driven out late at night and ended up in a coma.

It was all her fault. When Zhi Qiu woke up, she was willing to leave with nothing, giving everything she owned back to the person she had harmed.

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