Summer was nearing its end, yet the noon sun remained fiercely scorching.
Bai Lu stood by the floor-to-ceiling window of the study, gazing outside as the leaves on the trees reflected the sunlight.
Originally meant for greenery and to please the eye, the foliage at noon in summer now only pricked her eyes painfully.
Today was her birthday, with only a few hours left until the planned Birthday Banquet.
Yet she was far from happy.
She took out the gift bag that Lu Weizhu had dropped yesterday and opened it.
Unfolding the embroidery inside, a lush bamboo forest scene came into view.
The pattern had some faint creases, which Lu Weizhu had smoothed out.
“Bamboo, huh?”
Bai Lu thought of Lu Weizhu’s name.
“Does this carry some deep meaning? Or is it just a coincidence?”
Closing her eyes, Bai Lu pondered for a moment.
She quickly came to a conclusion: this was probably meaningless.
After all, Lu Weizhu undoubtedly disliked her.
How could she have sent something symbolizing herself?
“D…”
Sighing, even though she had apologized, something still weighed heavily on her chest.
She rolled up the embroidery and tied it with two strings.
She didn’t have time to frame it yet.
“Really, is it necessary to care so much? I’ve already given her so much money, I don’t owe her anything.”
Rubbing her forehead, Bai Lu muttered to herself.
She decided to go out for a walk.
At the doorway of the study, she caught sight of something off-white against the wall.
Bending down, she found it was a mobile phone.
The phone’s screen was cracked in one corner, spiderweb cracks spreading outwards.
Trying to power it on, she realized it was off due to a dead battery.
“This must be Lu Weizhu’s phone.”
Bai Lu recalled the scene from last night when Lu Weizhu had dropped it.
The fear and grievance on the girl’s face were vivid in her memory—an expression strangely captivating, but appearing at the wrong time.
Tracing the phone’s screen, Bai Lu’s mind drifted back to a year ago.
Her first encounter with Lu Weizhu had been at an intersection, where Lu Weizhu was numbly handing out flyers.
Bai Lu noticed the girl’s face resembled that of her own girlfriend, sparking a wicked idea.
After investigating Lu Weizhu’s background and learning of her difficulties, Bai Lu found her again and asked her to be a stand-in.
Looking at the calligraphy hanging in the study, Bai Lu rubbed her fingertips thoughtfully.
To control that exhausted girl, the price she offered was just enough to cover Lu Weizhu’s sister’s medical expenses.
It wasn’t that she couldn’t afford more, nor was she stingy—she was simply using money as a means of control.
In this city, living expenses weren’t high except for the exorbitant cost of medical care.
Bai Lu gave her a lot of money, but not enough, which was why Lu Weizhu’s sister’s surgery was delayed until recently.
She believed that Lu Weizhu couldn’t leave her—
Bai Lu—no matter what.
“Phew…don’t think too much, nothing will happen anyway. She can’t leave me, right?”
Putting the somewhat old phone into the study drawer, Bai Lu shook her head.
“… Still feels a bit cruel.”
Trying to soothe herself, Bai Lu still felt her actions were a little awful.
“Little white! I’m here!”
Lost in thought, Bai Lu heard a knock outside the study.
Opening the door, Ning Wan appeared, holding a small cake.
“Hm~ The Birthday Banquet is still a while away. Let’s have a little cake together first.”
Ning Wan squeezed into the study.
“Okay.”
Without asking why Ning Wan had the villa keys, Bai Lu tidied her mood.
Her keys were probably taken when she wasn’t paying attention.
It didn’t matter—
Ning Wan would be living here sooner or later.
After clearing the desk, Ning Wan opened the cake box and shared the cake with Bai Lu.
“Hm? What’s this?”
Squinting, Ning Wan spotted the rolled-up embroidery on the desk and picked it up.
Swallowing the bite of cake in her mouth, she unfolded the embroidery.
“Cross-stitch…kind of cheap.”
Ning Wan shrugged.
“A Wan, that was…a gift from a friend.”
Bai Lu took back the embroidery and rolled it up again, hesitating before explaining.
“Hah…a friend, huh? Maybe it’s really a friend?”
“Do you have friends I don’t know about? Not bad, Xiao Bai.”
Looking at Bai Lu with curiosity, Ning Wan thought her lover was somewhat solitary.
“Tell me about this friend. Will she come to the Birthday Banquet?”
Meanwhile, in the hospital ward, Lu Weizhu was bored out of her mind.
Aside from eating, the only thing left to do was to stare blankly.
She didn’t have much in common with Lu Weiyu, who scrolled through videos while she listened to the sounds from them.
After a while, she stopped paying attention since most were strange posts.
After lunch, Lu Weizhu spent the entire afternoon by the window.
There was an empty bed in the ward.
She stood by the window, watching the street view outside.
When tired, she could sit back and rest.
Not too bad?
The air conditioner was set to a constant 26 degrees, its hum somewhat noisy.
Lu Weizhu placed her hand on the glass, watching time slip through her fingers.
Before she knew it, it was already past five in the afternoon.
“Weiyu, stop watching videos. Order takeout first.”
Turning around, Lu Weizhu reminded Lu Weiyu to remember the food, then went back to gazing at the bustling street outside.
So this was what being alone in a hospital ward felt like?
Lu Weizhu thought about how Lu Weiyu had been before having a phone—probably even more bored than herself.
“Okay, Sister.”
Lu Weiyu exited the Short Video Platform.
“Weiyu, were you very bored before?”
Sitting on the edge of the empty bed, feeling the hard wooden slats, Lu Weizhu spoke to Lu Weiyu.
“Hmm…it was okay.”
Lu Weiyu ordered the food and lay on the bed, watching Lu Weizhu’s back.
“My stomach has problems, not paralyzed legs. Although I can’t leave the hospital much, walking around here is fine. The doctors and nurses talk to me, too.”
“Ah…right.”
The sadness that had just begun to rise vanished as Lu Weizhu patted her head, suddenly enlightened.
“Pfft…Silly sister, you weren’t thinking of apologizing again just now, were you?”
Lu Weiyu laughed, seeing right through Lu Weizhu’s thoughts.
“Haha…no, I wasn’t.”
Lu Weizhu smiled awkwardly, her ears slightly flushed.
She really had wanted to apologize again.
“Sister, actually, you could go out and walk around more. Like visiting Sister Bai Yun.”
Lu Weiyu brought up Bai Yun again.
“Uh…I can’t really help right now.”
“Aren’t you friends? Why does it have to be about helping? Just being there in the shop to keep her company would make Sister Bai Yun happy too.”
Lu Weiyu held back her pain, doing her best to support Bai Yun.
“……”
Lu Weizhu was momentarily speechless.
She suddenly felt frustrated—she wasn’t working or busy, but she still could do quite a lot, right?
Yet here she was, wasting time in the hospital room.
But then again, if she left, Lu Weiyu would be left alone in the ward.
“Never mind, I want to spend more time with you.”
Once her injury healed a bit more, she’d have to work again.
There’d be plenty of chances to see Bai Yun.
But when she recovered, the time she spent with Lu Weiyu would decrease again.
Though they didn’t say much when together, Lu Weizhu felt reassured being with Lu Weiyu.
She was always afraid something would happen to Lu Weiyu when she wasn’t around.
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