Chapter 13: A Play Directed by Oneself

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I wasn’t surprised by the outcome at all. After all, this wasn’t the first time that Yanxin chose Tingchu over me.

Yanxin hurriedly dressed and rushed into the car, and naturally, I followed along.

But just before getting in, I happened to catch a glimpse of a figure on the second floor of the old Qiao family mansion.

Zhuxin stood there with a cold expression, looking at Yanxin as if she were gazing upon a corpse.

The car soon arrived at the hospital, where Tingchu had already been taken inside.

Yanxin stood anxiously in the hallway, her eyes constantly darting toward the ward.

Watching this scene before me, my mood remained completely unchanged.

Tingchu was perfectly healthy—so why did he suddenly fall ill the moment Yanxin wanted to find me?

Secretary Zhang approached Yanxin cautiously and said, “Ms. Qiao, I’ve already notified Mr. Gu’s family. If we don’t leave now, we’ll miss the only flight available.”

Xicheng was an extremely remote and underdeveloped place.

There was only one flight there each day, and with the recent bad weather, many flights had been canceled.

If Yanxin missed this flight, who knew when she’d get another chance to go to Xicheng.

She was only trying to be considerate by reminding her.

But Yanxin, like a powder keg, furrowed her brows and shouted at Secretary Zhang.

“Are you brainless? Qiao Yunzhou can still manage on his own in Xicheng! Tingchu’s condition is so critical right now; of course I should stay here by his side. If anything happens to him, can you take responsibility for that?!”

Secretary Zhang took a step back, slightly panicked, and quickly apologized.

“I’m sorry, Ms. Qiao, it was my oversight.”

She had originally thought that Yanxin calling her late at night, buying me gifts and my favorite cake, meant that we were rekindling an old romance.

Yanxin had just said yesterday that I was her brother, someone more important than Tingchu.

But today, her words had shifted completely.

Secretary Zhang lowered her head and quietly said, “I’ll handle the ticket refund immediately, Ms. Qiao.”

She had been with Yanxin for a long time and witnessed the relationship between the two of us.

She probably hoped we could reconcile.

But I knew that was impossible now.

Hearing this, Yanxin impatiently waved her hand.

“Hurry up, just hurry.”

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Secretary Zhang acknowledged with a nod and left.

The hospital room door opened, and a doctor in a white coat walked out.

“Who here is a family member of Gu Tingchu? Who is his next of kin?”

Yanxin quickly stepped forward. “I am. I’m family. What exactly happened to Tingchu?”

The doctor scanned Yanxin up and down before speaking sharply.

“The patient has a heart condition. How can you family members neglect to care for him properly and allow him to be stressed like this?!”

“Do you realize that if he hadn’t been rushed to the hospital in time, he could have suffered sudden cardiac death?”

Hearing this, Yanxin felt a wave of fear.

But then she noticed something odd.

“Heart disease? Tingchu never had heart disease before—he never told me.”

The doctor said nothing, only shook her head.

Yanxin looked puzzled and was about to speak when a woman’s wailing voice came from behind.

“My son, how could you suffer like this!”

Yanxin turned around and saw Tingchu’s parents rushing into the hospital.

At this moment, Tingchu had already regained consciousness, and the group noisily entered the ward.

As soon as they arrived, Tingchu’s mother began sobbing uncontrollably.

Yanxin approached Tingchu with concern.

“Tingchu, the doctor just told me you have heart disease. Why didn’t you ever tell me before?”

Tingchu’s expression darkened, and he lowered his eyelashes.

“I didn’t want to worry you.”

Hearing this, Yanxin’s eyes filled with even more tenderness.

At that moment, Tingchu’s mother began to bitterly curse.

“Damn those beasts! If they hadn’t insulted my Tingchu, would he have ended up in the hospital like this?!”

Yanxin’s brow furrowed deeper.

“What exactly happened?”

“It all started with that incident that went viral online. It was almost over, but yesterday a large group suddenly bombarded Tingchu with hateful messages!”

“Let me see.”

Yanxin said, taking Tingchu’s phone from his mother’s hand.

Opening it revealed thousands of messages.

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Yanxin frowned as she began reading them one by one.

“You shameless beast, stealing others’ work is bad enough, but you even cheat on others. Why don’t you just get hit by a car and die!”

“You homewrecker seducing another woman’s husband, ruining weddings—may thunder strike you down. People like you deserve to die early!”

“How could your mother give birth to such trash? You’re a waste of air while alive and a waste of land when dead. Why don’t you just hurry up and die!”

After reading just a few, Yanxin couldn’t bear it any longer and closed the phone.

These messages came from all over the country, and there were even phone calls.

When a call came in, Tingchu wanted to stop her, but Yanxin already answered.

The moment she picked up, a voice full of curses poured through the receiver.

“Why aren’t you dead yet? Scum like you who ruin families should just die! Die! You seduce other women’s husbands—you deserve a terrible fate!”

Yanxin hung up with a frown before hearing the entire call.

Tingchu must have answered countless calls like this already.

Thinking of this, Yanxin looked at Tingchu with a heart full of pain.

Tingchu just hung his head lower, looking even more pitiful.

Tingchu’s mother continued to lament, “My poor son, how did he end up like this? Who did he ever offend?”

Yanxin gritted her teeth.

“Who is behind all this?”

At that moment, Tingchu suddenly grabbed Yanxin’s sleeve.

“No matter what, don’t cause trouble for Yunzhou.”

Hearing Tingchu’s words, Yanxin suddenly saw the truth clearly.

“This has to be Yunzhou’s doing!”

“No one else could have done this. I always knew he was jealous, but I never expected him to stoop to such deeds!”

My childhood friend, the one who grew up with me, had so easily condemned me without a shred of evidence.

Tingchu said nothing and quickly changed the subject.

“Yanxin, aren’t you supposed to pick up Yunzhou? You’d better hurry and not waste time.”

Yanxin’s eyes hardened.

“Grandma’s birthday is coming up in a few days. Let him stay alone in Xicheng.”