Chapter 24:The Name She Almost Said
786 Words
The hospital room was unusually quiet.
Not the heavy quiet that came with fear a softer version. The kind that made people move carefully, as if sound itself might disturb something precious.
Lin Xinyi sat beside her mother's bed, still holding her hand, her heart not yet fully recovered from hearing her own name spoken clearly for the first time in months.
"Mom." Her voice was slightly unsteady. "You scared me for such a long time."
Her mother looked at her tired, weak, but present. Really present. More than she had been in a very long time.
Outside, rain had started falling. Small drops tapping softly against the glass, slow and steady.
Lin Xinyi adjusted the blanket carefully. "You don't need to rush," she whispered. "We have time."
She hoped they did.
Her mother's fingers moved a faint, weak squeeze. Then her lips parted, as if she were carrying a sentence she had held for a long time and needed to finally release.
"Xinyi..."
Lin Xinyi leaned in immediately. "I'm here."
Her mother swallowed. Her eyes took on a strange, distant quality looking at something that wasn't inside the room. A memory. A past she had never fully left behind.
Then slowly, very slowly, she whispered: "Don't trust..."
The words broke apart. Her breathing became uneven.
Lin Xinyi's heart stopped. "Mom?"
Another pause. "...the..."
The sentence stopped again. Frustration moved through Lin Xinyi not at her mother, but at timing, at fate, at everything that always interrupted the most important moments.
"Who?" she asked softly. "Who shouldn't I trust?"
Her mother's eyes focused briefly clearer, more urgent. Then a sound came: "G..."
Then silence. Exhaustion reclaimed her. Her eyes drifted closed, sleep pulling her back before she could finish.
Lin Xinyi sat completely still for a long moment.
G.
A person? A family name? A memory? A warning?
Her mind offered one answer before she could stop it.
Gu.
She pushed the thought away. Maybe she was only thinking of him because he had become impossible to ignore lately. Maybe it meant nothing.
Or maybe it meant everything.
✦ ✦ ✦
The next morning, Su Ruan arrived carrying enough energy for three full conversations before breakfast. She dropped into the seat across from Lin Xinyi. "Xinxin."
"No."
"I haven't said anything yet."
"I know your tone."
Su Ruan leaned forward with theatrical urgency. "Someone from the Business School asked if you're secretly engaged."
Lin Xinyi nearly choked. "What?!"
Su Ruan burst out laughing. "I KNOW!"
"Why would anyone think that?"
"Because people are bored and your life is getting interesting." She wiped her eyes. "Also, you keep looking mysterious."
"I don't look mysterious."
"You absolutely do."
Before Lin Xinyi could argue, a shadow fell across their table.
A girl stood there beautiful, elegant, perfectly composed. The kind of person who attracted attention without trying and seemed entirely unbothered by it. Several students nearby turned to look.
Su Ruan's laughter stopped immediately.
The girl looked directly at Lin Xinyi. Not hostile, not warm simply curious in a very deliberate way. "You're Lin Xinyi?"
"Yes."
A small, controlled smile. "I've heard your name a great deal recently." A pause that pause felt intentional. "I wanted to see what was so special."
She left without waiting for a response.
Su Ruan stared after her. Then turned back. "I don't like her."
"She barely said two sentences."
"Exactly."
"That makes no sense."
"It makes complete emotional sense." Su Ruan crossed her arms. "Something about her is sharp. Not rude but sharp. Like she's measuring something."
Lin Xinyi didn't argue. Because she had felt it too.
✦ ✦ ✦
Across the city, Xu Lian walked into Gu Yichen's office without knocking a habit that irritated everyone except himself.
"Good news," he announced.
Gu Yichen didn't look up. "That phrase usually means something complicated arrived with it."
Xu Lian sat down. "Also true." He dropped a file on the desk. "Someone from the Shen family has started paying attention to your student."
That made Gu Yichen pause briefly. "The Shen family."
"Looks like the Four Families are beginning to notice."
A silence followed. Then Gu Yichen closed the document in front of him slowly the way a chess player closes one line of consideration before opening another.
Back on campus, Lin Xinyi sat under a tree after her last lecture, genuinely trying to enjoy ten minutes of peace.
Peace lasted less than a minute.
"XINXIN!"
Su Ruan was running toward her across the courtyard, phone raised, expression caught somewhere between alarm and excitement.
Lin Xinyi closed her eyes. "What now?"
Su Ruan stopped in front of her, slightly breathless, and pointed toward the campus entrance. "I think another rich person is coming."
- Writer
