Xu Mingji didn't come the next morning.
Gu Huai came instead.
When Xu Zhihan heard footsteps outside his hospital room, he was leaning against the headboard, looking at his phone. It held chat histories left by the body's original owner, most of them useless. His most frequent contact was Xu Mingji, and the messages were polite and cautious.
Xu Mingji used to message the original owner often.
[Brother, you don't blame me, do you?]
[Brother, Dad said you're not well and told you not to come out for dinner.]
[Brother, Gu Huai was just worried about me. Don't misunderstand.]
After reading a few, Xu Zhihan closed the chat.
Each message was more irritating than the last.
Yet the original owner had actually replied earnestly to every one.
His fingertip rested on the screen. He wasn't in a good mood.
There were two knocks at the door. Before he could answer, the person outside pushed it open and walked in.
Gu Huai wore a well-tailored black suit and carried a bouquet. The flowers were white, exquisitely wrapped. He looked like he had come to visit a patient, but his expression held none of the warmth such a visit called for.
Xu Chengyuan's assistant followed him, along with a secretary from the Gu family.
Quite the entourage.
Xu Zhihan glanced up, then lowered his gaze again.
Gu Huai walked to the bedside, looked down at him, and spoke first. "I heard you woke up."
His tone was flat.
Xu Zhihan didn't respond.
Gu Huai frowned slightly and placed the flowers on the cabinet beside him. "How are you feeling?"
Xu Zhihan looked at his phone. "Still alive."
Gu Huai paused.
The Xu Zhihan he remembered never spoke like this. In the past, Xu Zhihan had always been a little nervous around him, his eyes soft. Even when Gu Huai treated him coldly, Xu Zhihan would take the initiative to make conversation.
The person in the bed now was pale, his lips nearly colorless. He looked even more sickly than before, but that timid air was gone.
Gu Huai didn't much like the change.
He sat in the chair, his gaze passing over the needle in the back of Xu Zhihan's hand. "Since you're awake, let's get straight to the point."
Xu Zhihan finally looked at him. "Go on."
Gu Huai was displeased by his attitude, but held it in.
"Our engagement should end."
The hospital room was very quiet.
Xu Chengyuan's assistant kept his head down, as though he didn't exist.
The Gu family's secretary took a document from his briefcase and placed it on the bedside table.
Gu Huai continued, "You've always been in poor health, and there isn't much affection between us. We got engaged because our elders wanted it. Dragging this out won't benefit you, me, or either of our families."
After hearing him out, Xu Zhihan first glanced at the document.
An agreement to dissolve the engagement.
They'd come well prepared.
He looked back at Gu Huai. "What about Xu Mingji?"
Gu Huai frowned. "This has nothing to do with Mingji."
Xu Zhihan gave a soft laugh.
At that laugh, Gu Huai's expression grew colder. "What's so funny?"
"You all say the same things."
Xu Zhihan's voice was flat.
"Whenever you take something from someone, you say it has nothing to do with him."
Gu Huai's brow tightened. "Xu Zhihan, don't make it sound so ugly. Mingji hasn't taken anything from you. The Gu family simply thinks he's better suited than you."
"Suited to what?" Xu Zhihan asked.
Looking at his pale face, Gu Huai spoke more bluntly. "To standing beside the Gu family. Your health is so poor that even living a normal life is difficult. The Gu family needs a partner who can attend events with us and support business collaborations."
"Oh," Xu Zhihan said.
Gu Huai's irritation deepened.
He hated the way Xu Zhihan was reacting now.
Too calm.
As though every word he spoke landed in empty space.
"You don't have to pretend you don't care." Gu Huai's tone grew heavier. "I know you like me, but you can't force feelings. Uncle Xu must have spoken to you after you woke up. There's no room for negotiation."
At this, Xu Zhihan finally found something mildly interesting.
He looked at Gu Huai. "I like you?"
Gu Huai looked slightly uncomfortable. "There's no need to deny it."
Xu Zhihan fell silent for two seconds, as though searching through the original owner's memories.
The original owner had indeed liked Gu Huai.
It had been a quiet affection, one that dared neither disturb nor ask for anything. When Gu Huai occasionally replied to a message, the original owner could stare at it for ages. Gu Huai had once given him an old fountain pen, which he had always kept in his drawer.
What a shame.
That affection hadn't earned him even a trace of kindness.
Xu Zhihan set his phone aside, his voice turning cold. "He liked you because he had bad taste."
Gu Huai's expression darkened. "What do you mean?"
Xu Zhihan looked at him. "Not anymore."
Gu Huai froze for a moment.
He quickly sneered. "Xu Zhihan, you don't need to say things like that to save face."
Xu Zhihan coughed softly twice, his chest beginning to tighten again. He didn't want to keep going in circles with Gu Huai, so he picked up the agreement and skimmed it.
The contents were simple.
The Gu family would dissolve the engagement, and the Xu family could not demand any compensation from them over it. In addition, they had to cooperate in issuing a public statement saying the engagement had been dissolved through amicable negotiations.
Amicable.
Xu Zhihan found that word rather jarring.
They hadn't treated the original owner as a human being, yet even at the end, they wanted him to preserve their dignity.
Seeing him read the agreement, Gu Huai assumed he had finally listened. His tone softened a little. "Sign it. You're not well. Making a scene would only look bad."
Xu Zhihan raised his eyes. "Pen."
A flicker of surprise passed through Gu Huai's eyes.
He had expected Xu Zhihan to cry, to ask why, to bring up that ridiculous affection he'd once harbored.
None of it happened.
The Gu family's secretary handed him a pen.
Xu Zhihan took it, his fingertips slightly cold. His hand wasn't steady as he signed, the strokes trembling faintly from his physical weakness, but the name was clear.
Xu Zhihan.
Once he finished, he pushed the agreement back.
Looking at that name, Gu Huai felt inexplicably uncomfortable.
Everything had gone too smoothly.
So smoothly that Xu Zhihan felt like a stranger.
Xu Zhihan looked up at him. "I've signed. You can get the hell out."
Gu Huai's expression changed on the spot.
"Xu Zhihan, do you have to be so nasty?"
Xu Zhihan settled back against the pillow, his voice weary. "You came in without asking whether I wanted to see you. You broke off the engagement without asking whether I agreed. You wrote an agreement that gave you every advantage. Now you don't like how I speak?"
For a moment, Gu Huai had no answer.
Xu Chengyuan's assistant went pale and hurried to smooth things over. "Young Master, Young Master Gu is doing this for the good of both families."
Xu Zhihan turned to him.
"Who are you?"
The assistant choked. "I..."
"Get out."
The look Xu Zhihan gave him sent a chill down his back. He didn't dare say anything else.
Gu Huai stood, looking down at him. "Xu Zhihan, you'd better think this through. Without the Xu family or your engagement to the Gu family, what do you have left?"
The moment those words fell, the temperature in the room suddenly dropped a little.
Xu Zhihan looked at Gu Huai.
Gu Huai had a sin line on him, too.
Dirtier than Xu Mingji's.
A dark red line extended from Gu Huai's right shoulder, as though soaked in blood. Trailing at its end was a mangled car, along with a hand reaching out for help.
Xu Zhihan narrowed his eyes.
This man had blood on his hands.
The kind that hadn't quite finished dying.
Unsettled by his stare, Gu Huai asked, "What are you looking at?"
Xu Zhihan asked, "Were you in a car accident three years ago?"
Gu Huai's expression shifted slightly.
The secretary instinctively looked at him, too.
Their reactions already gave away the answer.
Gu Huai quickly regained his composure. "That's none of your business."
Xu Zhihan watched the dark red sin line on his shoulder, his voice soft. "You hit someone and didn't help?"
Gu Huai's pupils sharply contracted.
"Xu Zhihan!"
Xu Zhihan said flatly, "So it's true."
Gu Huai's face darkened, and he reached to grab Xu Zhihan's wrist. "Where did you hear that?"
Before his hand could touch Xu Zhihan, someone suddenly pushed the hospital room door open from outside.
Lu Wenchuan stood in the doorway, a bag of fruit in his hand and a smile still tugging at his lips.
"Well, well."
He looked at Gu Huai's hand, then at Xu Zhihan in the bed.
"Did I come at a bad time?"
Xu Zhihan was expressionless. "You did."
As though he hadn't heard him, Lu Wenchuan put the fruit on the cabinet and strolled inside.
"Should I pick a time when you're not fighting next time?"
"Get out," Xu Zhihan said coldly.
Lu Wenchuan laughed. "Can't do that. I'm too thick-skinned to budge."
Gu Huai frowned. "Who are you?"
Lu Wenchuan looked back at him, his smile unchanged. "Someone dropping by to visit."
Gu Huai clearly didn't believe him. "This is a private matter between Xu Zhihan and me."
Lu Wenchuan glanced down at his hand.
"Private or not, getting physical isn't very polite."
Gu Huai's expression darkened.
But Xu Zhihan no longer looked at him. He only said quietly, "Within three days, misfortune will find you."
Gu Huai sneered. "Are you trying to scare me?"
Xu Zhihan closed his eyes, his voice flat. "I'm not trying to scare you. I'm informing you."
When Gu Huai left with his secretary, his expression was utterly foul.
Only after watching the hospital room door close did Lu Wenchuan turn to Xu Zhihan.
"Your hospital visits are livelier than my missions."
Xu Zhihan didn't open his eyes. "You're noisy, too."
Lu Wenchuan clicked his tongue.
"Fine. I'll keep it down."
With that, he pushed the bag of fruit onto the bedside table.
Xu Zhihan opened his eyes and glanced at it. "I won't eat it."
Lu Wenchuan sat down and said lazily, "I know. I bought it for you to look at. Makes me seem polite."
Xu Zhihan looked at him.
Lu Wenchuan smiled. "Don't look at me like that. It's kind of scary."
After a moment of silence, Xu Zhihan closed his eyes again.
Lu Wenchuan didn't ask about Gu Huai either. He merely glanced toward the door, his gaze cooling slightly.
A car accident three years ago.
The Gu family.
It seemed this young master of the Xu family could see more than he'd thought.