It fell from his fingertips

The air in the large ward was completely silent.

With his back to Tang Luoqing, Zhou Jinbai tightened his grip on the bowl.

From Tang Luoqing's perspective, the man's back in the distance was still tall and slender, with his shirt sleeves rolled up to his forearms, revealing his pale wrist bones.

In a daze, Tang Luoqing recalled the scene at the beach when Zhou Jinbai said he would take her to see Old Master Lu's paintings and walked in front of her.

The wind was cool that day, and the setting sun cast its light on Zhou Jinbai's silhouette, giving off a reassuring power.

It was like when he rescued her from the water before she lost consciousness, and when he unhesitatingly bent down to shield her from harm when something was being swept away.

When Tang Luoqing looked up again and met Zhou Jinbai's deep gaze, her already unsettled heart skipped a beat.

She quickly lowered her head, avoiding eye contact with Zhou Jinbai, bit her lower lip, and felt a sudden, inexplicable panic.

Then I heard a familiar, deep voice.

"It was just instinct. I would have saved anyone else too."

Tang Luoqing was slightly taken aback. She looked up and saw Zhou Jinbai take two steps closer to her, his gaze fixed on her. He continued slowly, "So you don't need to feel guilty. I have things to take care of at my company. You should rest well. If you need anything, call Assistant Shen."

Before he finished speaking, Zhou Jinbai took two more steps closer, placed Assistant Shen's business card on the bedside table, took one last deep look at Tang Luoqing, turned around, and slowly left.

Tang Luoqing watched Zhou Jinbai's figure walk further and further away, knowing that he had misunderstood why she hadn't looked at him earlier. She opened her mouth as if to say something, but in the end, she said nothing.

Tang Luoqing didn't look away for a long time until she saw Zhou Jinbai walk to the door, open it, and walk out, disappearing from sight.

Her mind was in turmoil, and she never expected that Zhou Jinbai would save her again.

Unfortunately, she couldn't do anything more, otherwise it would only bring unnecessary trouble and give Zhou Jinbai unnecessary false hope.

Just then, Tang Luoqing's phone, which was on the bedside table, rang. She turned her head and picked up the phone with the hand that wasn't receiving the IV drip, and saw that it was Zhou Yanchen's phone number.

Tang Luoqing hesitated for a moment before answering the phone.

"Luo Qing, how are you? I heard there was a flood near your grandmother's house. Are you alright?"

Zhou Yanchen, sounding slightly anxious, said on the other end of the phone, "I just boarded the plane and should arrive in Beijing tonight. Wait for me..."

Tang Luoqing listened to these words and said "okay". The other end said that the phone needed to be turned off, and the two hung up the phone.

Tang Luoqing looked at her phone screen, leaned against the headboard, and closed her eyes.

It was at this moment that she suddenly realized that, at such a crucial moment, she was not unhappy that Zhou Yanchen was not by her side immediately. In fact, she seemed to have anticipated that Zhou Yanchen would not appear in front of her immediately.

When did her expectations of Zhou Yanchen become so low?

That evening, not long after Tang Luoqing had eaten the dinner brought by Assistant Shen, Zhou Yanchen appeared in the ward.

"Are you alright? How are you feeling?"

Looking at Tang Luoqing's pale face and the fact that she was on an IV drip, Zhou Yanchen reached out and took Tang Luoqing's hand.

It was several days after that incident in Beijing that Tang Luoqing finally saw Zhou Yanchen again. She felt a strange, indescribable feeling, as if something she had longed for had been delayed for a whole century, and then suddenly reappeared just when she no longer needed it.

Immediately, Tang Luoqing noticed something resembling a lipstick mark on the collar of Zhou Yanchen's shirt.

She frowned, staring at Zhou Yanchen's collar, forcefully pulling her hand away from his grasp, pointing to the lipstick mark, and her nose stung with tears: "What... happened?"

In the past, when Zhou Yanchen was busy with work and social engagements, he had lipstick marks on his body before. But this time, the lipstick mark was on his back, which made people easily suspect that another girl had deliberately caused it by hugging Zhou Yanchen from behind.

But the location of the lipstick mark this time was so ambiguous that Tang Luoqing couldn't find an excuse to help Zhou Yanchen.

"What?"

Zhou Yanchen hadn't yet realized that something was wrong with his shirt. He looked down and glanced at it, then immediately frowned and his expression changed drastically.

"This, this..."

Zhou Yanchen became unusually incoherent, and his usually calm eyes were filled with panic.

But soon, he suppressed all his outward emotions and tenderly tried to hold Tang Luoqing's hand again, saying, "This is probably because a client I had lunch with this morning lost her balance, and I accidentally bumped into her when I was trying to catch her."

"You know what? I was talking to a client about a collaboration this morning, and then I happened to see a news report while I was eating that something happened at your grandma's house. I remembered you saying you were at your grandma's house last time, so I immediately booked a flight and rushed over. That's why I didn't have time to change my clothes."

After saying a lot in one breath, Zhou Yanchen realized that Tang Luoqing hadn't let him hold her hand at all. Instead, she pulled it back and placed it on the quilt, her gaze fixed on him with an indescribable calmness.

One of them reminded Zhou Yanchen of the detached calm he felt when he fell in love with Tang Luoqing at first sight and began pursuing her, even though her eyes were already red.

Zhou Yanchen panicked and tried to grab Tang Luoqing's hand again: "What? You don't believe me?"

Tang Luoqing glanced at Zhou Yanchen's outstretched hand again, withdrew it, and sniffed: "Zhou Yanchen, you've told too many lies. I... don't know how to believe you anymore."

Tang Luoqing once thought that there would never be a crisis of trust between her and Zhou Yanchen, but she never expected that the crisis of trust would come so quickly.

"Tang Luoqing, so you're planning to never trust me again?"

Zhou Yanchen was also getting a little anxious.

Realizing he was getting a little out of control, he sighed and softened his voice: "Luo Qing, I know there were some misunderstandings between us before, but since you've forgiven me, shouldn't you trust me one more time? For example, this time, this thing on my shirt really was accidentally rubbed off by a client, nothing else. You don't believe me, do you? Okay, I'll call my brother and have him vouch for me. I was indeed talking to a client about a collaboration this morning."

After saying this, Zhou Yanchen picked up his phone without hesitation and dialed a number.

Tang Luoqing was taken aback, not expecting Zhou Yanchen to call Zhou Jinbai.

Recalling how he had used Zhou Jinbai as an excuse to go on a business trip to Haicheng, Tang Luoqing didn't have time to think much. He lowered his voice and said, "Don't mention my name."

Zhou Yanchen was slightly taken aback when Zhou Jinbai's voice came from the other end of the phone.

"What's up?"

Zhou Yanchen: "..."

His original thought was simple: his brother was so good to him, he would naturally help him as long as he heard it was to prove something to Tang Luoqing.

The problem now is that Tang Luoqing said we are not allowed to mention her name?

Zhou Yanchen took a deep breath, suppressing a fleeting unease, and asked confidently, "Brother, I wanted to ask you, wasn't I still in Haicheng this morning meeting with clients? About the operating rights of Q's high-end brand store, right?"

Immediately after a brief silence, Zhou Jinbai on the other end of the phone spoke slowly and calmly: "I haven't received any relevant work reports yet. What's wrong?"