Chapter 204: Willing
Liang Chaosu remained silent.
His upper body was bare, water droplets tracing paths along his firm, muscled barrier and falling onto the bath towel around his waist.
He had wrapped it hastily, and it was about to fall off. With each drop of water that rolled down, the towel became more soaked and loose.
Lian Cheng, with a heart of steel, grabbed the doorknob.
He pressed down, his eyeballs also burning, and reminded her in a deep voice, “You are my secretary.”
Lian Cheng’s palms were still damp with his water, trickling down her palm lines. She shook it off.
Seven parts anxiety, two parts unease, and one part indignation.
In the past four years, what she resisted most was not his favoritism towards Liang Wenfei, nor the stripping away of the Liang family, but close contact.
For the first two years, he was clearly like a brother, but afterward, he was no longer a brother, but a stranger.
Lian Cheng avoided being alone with him, and even more so, she feared being completely alone and naked.
Her face turned purple and pale, “I am your secretary, but my duties do not include the chairman showering in his secretary’s room. I am calling the police now. How many days will you be imprisoned?”
…………………………
At the same time.
Qi Province and Nan Province share a border, but they are separated by the Qinling Mountains, and their diets and customs are very different.
The hospital food was light, similar to some of the windows at the university cafeteria. Lian Cheng could eat it.
Xiao Da couldn’t quite manage. He had strange tastes, liking West Lake vinegary fish, and preferring sweet flavors in noodles.
Asking for sugar at a northern noodle restaurant made the boss think he was purely looking for trouble.
Based on this, the restaurants around the hospital were not to his liking, and restaurants specializing in Zhejiang cuisine were further away.
Lian Cheng returned to the hotel to rest, while he had free time and drove off to try them.
Halfway there, he received a call from Bai Ying. He muted the first one, she persistently called five times, so he turned off his phone.
In the brief moment of holding down the power button, a message refreshed on the screen from Zhang An, “Where are you? Director Liang just arrived in the provincial capital with a high fever. What did the doctor prescribe?”
He released the button, steered the car to the roadside, and replied, “Acetaminophen. Mr. Liang’s heart was injured, so avoid drugs like ibuprofen and loxoprofen that interact with anticoagulant medications.”
Zhang An asked, “Understood. For acetaminophen, do you want tablets or oral suspension drops?”
Xiao Da replied, “If it’s just a fever, the children’s drops are safer. Where is Mr. Liang now?”
Zhang An said, “Miss Lian Cheng’s hotel room. If you have time, buy two sets of clothes for Director Liang on your way, he got soaked in the rain earlier.”
Xiao Da had a bad premonition and gripped the steering wheel, turning the car around.
He was Liang Chaosu’s personal assistant and understood the situation between the two of them better than Zhang An.
Lian Cheng’s attitude had not softened at all. If she met Liang Chaosu at the hotel, soaked and with a high fever, the best outcome would be to send him directly to the hospital.
In the worst-case scenario, Xiao Da thought of her refusing him entry, leading to further conflict, and their already somewhat softened situation would be completely gone.
Rushing to the hotel, he exited the elevator and bumped into Zhang An pacing in the corridor.
He held a gift bag from the pharmacy. Seeing Xiao Da, he breathed a sigh of relief and shifted responsibility, “I bought all the brands of acetaminophen they had at the pharmacy. Hurry and take it to him.”
The paper bag was shoved into his hands. Xiao Da peeked towards the room.
The door was tightly shut, with no sound. He was greatly surprised. There was no argument, no call for security, no being kicked out.
He hesitated to enter, afraid of another blow inside, as lives were at stake. “What’s going on?”
Zhang An simply said, “You go in.”
In those two short words, Xiao Da heard the implication of blood and thunder.
………………………………
Inside the room, the atmosphere had long since changed.
There was a tense sense of imminent conflict, one suppressed, one enduring, and a strange silence between them.
Liang Chaosu put on a hotel bathrobe and sat back on the sofa by the window.
When he traveled on business before, even in five-star hotels, he found the amenities unhygienic. He habitually brought his own sheets, duvet covers, bath towels, and washcloths.
These items were prepared by Lian Cheng, and her luggage was packed by her. But at that time, they were in an unconventional cohabitation, and she dared not resist him.
Now that their relationship had changed, Lian Cheng had no responsibility or obligation to pack for him.
Yet, Xiao Da, his personal assistant, was with her in the provincial capital, and Zhang An was the driver. Liang Chaosu never allowed outsiders to touch his personal belongings.
From Qingxi Valley to the provincial capital, Zhang An didn’t know exactly how long he would stay. Neither man had brought luggage.
“Liang Chaosu,” Lian Cheng called out to him. “Pretending to be stupid, leaving your luggage, getting soaked, and having a fever – are you incapable of basic living? You are not. You are trying to test my bottom line.”
The man’s back stiffened.
Outside the window, the heavy rain had stopped, and the dark clouds dispersed, revealing bright daylight.
However, the light that shone into the room was eerily pale.
It illuminated her expression, which was exceedingly calm, her gaze penetrating.
“I do not deny it, I want to get closer to you.”
Lian Cheng sat at the foot of the bed, silently watching him.
She had not observed Liang Chaosu for a long time, truly looking at his appearance.
Qingxi Valley was actually a turning point, dividing the four years into two stages.
Brother and—
Enemy.
Liang Chaosu must have perceived this, using the restoration of the ancient city to remind her, proving that he had never changed.
It was her.
Her perspective had shifted; looking at him through a filter of hatred, she only saw unscrupulousness, bullying, and ferocity.
Even good intentions were for a purpose, harboring the greatest malice.
Lian Cheng never shied away from the truth. With Professor Wang as a witness, she admitted to her prejudice.
But even with her prejudice corrected, she was still a prisoner.
Trapped beside someone who wanted to escape, stripped of the warmth of his heart.
In the struggle, she lost a child.
Frame by frame, scene by scene.
The snow in Iceland was stained with fresh blood.
It chilled to the bone marrow.
“Do you remember the senior martial brother who was crying while setting up the tent at Qingxi Valley?” Lian Cheng suddenly asked. “He was influenced by you and changed his aspirations, enrolling in the Qi Province Development and Reform Commission. He is now handling the Liang Corporation’s construction waste pollution issue.”
“I saw him the day before yesterday.”
Liang Chaosu’s cheeks were flushed. The lapels of his bathrobe were untied, dangling loosely on his chest, revealing a red scar on his chest.
Everything was bright, warm. He was gloomy, stern.
Lian Cheng used to think his demeanor was a precursor to threats and coercion.
The consequences of disobedience were unbearable.
“You can’t do anything to him now.”
Liang Chaosu understood her meaning and calmly reiterated, “I never did anything to him. I merely perceived his intentions and spoke with him.”
Intentions?
Lian Cheng frowned. Professor Wang had mentioned it at the hospital, and now Liang Chaosu brought it up again. And she was not an innocent maiden.
The “intentions” of an eighteen or nineteen-year-old boy were written as interesting, but read as infatuation.
But she mentioned the senior martial brother not to delve into the past, but to move on for now.
“The senior martial brother said that the provincial department held a joint meeting of several departments, including the Public Security Bureau, indicating that the government is preparing for compulsory measures.”
“When I first joined the Liang Corporation, I didn’t have much contact with the data, but I know you are in great danger now. So dangerous that you need to guard against me.”
Liang Chaosu’s posture remained unchanged. He had a high fever that caused his temples to ache, yet his eyes were sharp and bright, surpassing the clear sky after the rain outside.
He appeared neither arrogant nor impatient, neither happy nor angry.
“I am not guarding against you,” he said steadily, their eyes meeting, showing no fear. “You suspect I came to the hotel, got a fever from bathing, to test if you would loosen up and seize the opportunity to stab me in the back.”
Lian Cheng remained motionless, which was an implicit acknowledgment.
Liang Chaosu suddenly chuckled. After returning to the country, he had curbed his dominance, adopting a posture of longing and yearning.
At this sound, the light from outside the window shone starkly on his face, and Lian Cheng saw his paranoia, deep and ferocious.
“Xiao Da must have revealed some things to you.” He no longer suppressed his desire, those hidden, restless, constantly unappeasable things.
They were his boiling flesh and blood, his clamoring soul, and his bones were also crying out.
Grow flesh and skin.
Go to her side.
“How will you forgive me? By going to prison?” He leaned closer, breaking through the boundaries, crushing the limits, and unexpectedly gripping her, “What’s wrong with that.”
He was always stuck trying to explain in Iceland. They seemed to have countless misunderstandings; which one should he speak of?
The words came out in chaos, and yet he felt there was no need to explain.
He wanted her. He wanted to be locked together with her for the rest of his life.
For that, he would face mountains of knives and seas of fire, lose everything, and be ground to ashes.
All the beauty, joy, and pleasure in this world would be lost, even his own self, and his head would be at her feet.
Willing.
