Fu Jingshu stopped and slowly turned around. She lay on the bed, looking frail and pitiful, but instead of pity, he felt a sense of disgust.
"Can you act normally?"
Lin Minglan choked back the pain stabbing her heart. "I just like you, why are you so cruel to me? Is there no room for anyone else in your heart but Shen Qingqing?"
Fu Jingshu said coldly, "It's none of your business."
Lin Minglan bit her lip. "Jingshu, if I had come back sooner, would everything be different?"
"It doesn't matter when you come back. It's all the same," Fu Jingshu said, finally looking at her properly, but his words were utterly indifferent. "If I don't like you, I don't like you. It won't change."
Jealousy and shame filled Lin Minglan's heart. The more he refused to stay, the more she wanted to keep him. "Anyway, Auntie asked you to stay and take care of me, you can't leave."
"Do you still need taking care of?"
Lin Minglan froze. "What do you mean?"
Fu Jingshu's gaze fell on the back of her hand. "The needle hasn't even gone in, what are you injecting?"
Since he entered, the liquid in the hanging IV bag hadn't decreased, and no doctor had come to see her.
"I..." Lin Minglan panicked and instinctively raised her hand to cover the needle on her hand. "I'm not faking it, it's just that I'm afraid of injections, so..."
Fu Jingshu laughed.
This was the first time he had laughed in front of Lin Minglan. Although the smile was full of ice and sarcasm, it still made her stare blankly.
"Jingshu..."
She knew he was handsome since he was young, a prince-like figure when he was a child, and the man every girl dreamed of marrying when he grew up.
She was no exception.
"You truly disgust me," Fu Jingshu said coldly.
It was like a dagger piercing her heart, instantly bleeding. The pain made her tremble all over. "How... how can you bear to treat me like this?"
Fu Jingshu's answer was to turn and leave.
A thud echoed from behind.
He paused, looked back, and saw Lin Minglan had fainted again. This time, she had fainted directly onto the bed. Fu Jingshu walked slowly to the bedside and stopped, looking at her.
To the reporters peeking from the doorway, it looked like a deep gaze of affection.
Especially when, in the next second, Fu Jingshu pulled out the needle from Lin Minglan's hand.
He glanced at the needle and put it aside.
Everyone watched, feeling surprised. Master Fu actually had a caring side. It seemed this Miss Lin was Master Fu's true love!
The reporters quietly took pictures and posted them online after leaving the hospital, with a very ambiguous title.
— Master Fu's happy event is approaching, a perfect match between a talented man and a beautiful new wife!
Such a title was enough to attract most people to click.
Soon, the post became popular online and directly hit the trending searches. Fu Jingshu, as the CEO of Ruizhi Group, his private life had always been under public scrutiny.
At first, people didn't believe it. After all, there had been two before Lin Minglan, Shen Yaoyao had been engaged to him, and Shen Qingqing was the only woman he had ever shown tenderness to.
But as the trending topic grew hotter, and the protagonist, Fu Jingshu, remained silent, people finally began to believe it.
Master Fu really had someone he liked!
The comments under the trending topic were varied. Some sympathized with Shen Qingqing, some envied Lin Minglan, and more mocked Shen Qingqing.
— Shen Qingqing is so pitiful!
— I heard she was framed before, then the misunderstanding was resolved, and she and Master Fu reconciled. I didn't expect them to break up so quickly.
— I really didn't expect that Master Fu would finally be won over by Miss Lin!
— Am I the only one who thinks this is sweet?
This comment received the most likes and many replies, with many people expressing their delight.
— So sweet, you're not alone!
— I wish I could possess Lin Minglan's body.
— She's so lucky to have tamed such an excellent man as Master Fu. Her methods, tsk tsk tsk, impressive.
— Upstairs, I think you're just envious.
In the ward, Fu Jingshu had no idea how outrageous the rumors had become online.
Meanwhile, Shen Qingqing, who was abroad, accidentally stumbled upon the trending topic and was instantly disgusted.
As soon as she left, these two were trending? How remarkable!
She was currently in a training class, preparing for an upcoming competition. She was taking a break between classes and idly scrolling through her phone.
Then she saw this disgusting thing!
Perhaps seeing her displeased expression, her classmates couldn't help but ask, "Shen Qingqing, what's wrong?"
"Yes, your face looks very bad."
Shen Qingqing snapped back to reality, shook her head, and said, "It's nothing, just thinking about something."
She put her phone away, but a woman behind her saw it.
"What are you pretending for? It's just some gossip news, why don't you dare to admit it? Are you afraid the teacher will find out and say you're not focusing on your studies?"
Everyone took a step back, giving them space. It was known to everyone in the class that these two didn't get along; they quarreled almost every day.
Everyone felt that things were based on ability and that no one would take sides, and they even enjoyed the show.
Shen Qingqing ignored her.
This woman was Alisa, her competitor in the class. She had an arrogant and sharp personality and was always hostile towards people better than her.
Before she came, there was another girl. After she arrived, it became her.
"Whether I read gossip or not has nothing to do with you."
Seeing that it was time for lunch, Shen Qingqing tidied up her pens and notebooks, preparing to leave, but was blocked by an enraged Alisa.
"Did I say you could leave? I'm not done talking!"
She was aggressive. Shen Qingqing took a step back, a normal action, but it was like a match igniting a bomb, quickly igniting Alisa's anger.
"You dare to look down on me? What are you? You're just a Chinese. Why are you here? Why are you occupying resources that should belong to our country!"
With one sentence, she separated Shen Qingqing from them, drawing a clear line. Most people present were locals, and girls like Shen Qingqing instantly became unwelcome outsiders.
"If it weren't for you guys, we could have had more of our peers come in. You're occupying their spots, and you still don't cherish it!"
The more Alisa spoke, the angrier she became, and her speed increased. Her already clumsy Chinese became difficult to understand.
"If we didn't have to accommodate you, we wouldn't have to abandon our mother tongue and speak your language. This is all your fault, and you don't even have the self-awareness!"
Shen Qingqing frowned slightly. "Don't cause trouble."
"Pah!" Alisa put her hands on her hips and said fiercely, "It's only since you came that the conflicts have increased!"