[Ding! Congratulations, host, on completing the side mission in the domineering CEO career storyline. You eliminated the company's rotten elements through an anonymous tip-off letter and successfully established your authority, earning one day of life.]
Throughout the morning's meeting, Ji Hanxing's nerves had been stretched taut. Now that the mission was complete and his life was no longer in danger, the tension in his mind finally eased.
Ji Hanxing stepped out of the elevator, feeling a chill spread through his body while his head throbbed terribly. His vision went black, and he stumbled, pitching forward uncontrollably.
"President Ji!"
"Ji Hanxing!"
Xue Hui's suddenly high-pitched, terrified voice seemed to reach his ears through a barrier, gradually fading into the distance.
Who had just called his name? The voice sounded so familiar, but he no longer had the energy to think about it. He was so tired.
The whole world went dark and quiet.
"President Yan?"
Xue Hui stared in surprise at Yan Jinyue, who had caught Ji Hanxing in his arms. He reached out to take Ji Hanxing from him.
"Thank you, President Yan. I'll support President Ji..."
"No need."
At that, Xue Hui hesitated for a moment before quickly withdrawing his hands.
Yan Jinyue lowered his gaze to Ji Hanxing in his arms. His lips were pale, his body burning hot, and Yan Jinyue's brows drew tightly together.
"He has a fever."
Yan Jinyue had initially supported Ji Hanxing with an arm around him, but when Ji Hanxing began sliding down uncontrollably, he scooped him up into his arms.
Although Ji Hanxing wasn't fat, he still had the height and weight of a grown man, yet Yan Jinyue lifted him effortlessly.
"I'll take him to the hospital."
With that, Yan Jinyue strode off with Ji Hanxing in his arms.
Xue Hui froze, giving the retreating figure an odd look before coming to his senses and immediately following.
As he passed reception, Xue Hui stopped and turned toward the receptionist. His stern expression frightened the young woman into gripping her phone tightly.
Xue Hui glanced at the phone in the receptionist's hands. The receptionist was on the verge of tears. "Assistant Xue, I'll delete them right away. Please don't tell President Ji..."
"You don't have to delete the photos, but remember not to circulate them."
Xue Hui stared hard at her. "You know I'll track you down if they get out."
The young woman nodded frantically. She was just shipping them with her girlfriends. That scene just now had been brimming with sexual tension.
If nothing else, she could simply take out her phone and show her girlfriends when they met up. She absolutely wouldn't circulate them!
Xue Hui nodded, leaving her with one last remark before hurrying after Yan Jinyue.
"Remember to encrypt the photos and email them to me."
The receptionist trembled with apprehension. Was Assistant Xue still going to report her to President Ji?
She looked down indecisively at the two men on her phone. They looked so harmonious together that even adding pink bubbles wouldn't seem out of place. She gritted her teeth and kept the photos. They were simply too pleasing to the eye.
Yan Jinyue had come to the Ji Group alone that day, bringing neither a driver nor an assistant. Xue Hui had the good sense to drive, and the car sped all the way to the hospital Ji Hanxing had been discharged from only a few days earlier.
Director Xu had already received Yan Jinyue's call and was waiting at the hospital entrance with a group of staff, fully prepared.
Seeing Yan Jinyue get out of the car carrying Ji Hanxing, Director Xu hurriedly called for someone to bring a gurney over.
Ji Hanxing's fever had fully taken hold, turning his cheeks bright red. His condition startled Director Xu.
"What happened to President Ji?"
Xue Hui immediately explained the reasons for Ji Hanxing's fever to Director Xu, including, but not limited to, staying up all night working, filling the conference room with ice, and blowing fans over the ice.
There was a note of remorse in his voice. He should have stood his ground and insisted that Ji Hanxing take care of his health. This had been a failure on his part.
Xue Hui also noticed that as he spoke, President Ji's friend, President Yan, looked increasingly grim, his expression growing thunderous.
"Director Xu, treat him as soon as possible," Yan Jinyue said.
Director Xu nodded. "Rest assured, President Yan. We'll do everything we can."
Director Xu then called the medical staff together, and they wheeled Ji Hanxing into the emergency room for treatment.
Yan Jinyue and Xue Hui waited outside.
"Thank you for your help today, President Yan," Xue Hui said. "Once President Ji wakes up, I'll be sure to report it to him."
Instead of responding to that, Yan Jinyue asked about Ji Hanxing working through the night and putting ice in the conference room.
Xue Hui hesitated. Those matters involved internal personnel changes and business adjustments within their group. They counted as business secrets, and he couldn't discuss them with Yan Jinyue.
Even though he knew Yan Jinyue and Ji Hanxing were probably on good terms, his professional standards told him he couldn't say anything.
So Xue Hui avoided those matters, saying only that urgent company business had required Ji Hanxing to work through the night.
"As for the ice, I'm not at liberty to tell you, President Yan. Please wait until President Ji wakes up and ask him yourself."
Ji Hanxing felt as though he were in a sea of flames. His body felt as if countless needles were stabbing him, as if he were being roasted over a fire, the scorching heat unbearable.
"Mm... water..."
He struggled in discomfort, trying to escape the sea of flames, but his limbs seemed to be shackled to stone balls weighing a thousand pounds. He couldn't move.
Just as Ji Hanxing thought the flames would dry him out completely, the coolness of a clear spring washed over him, bringing relief and comfort. He wanted more and instinctively tried to hold on to it.
Yan Jinyue had just moistened Ji Hanxing's lips with a damp cotton swab when Ji Hanxing caught his wrist as he pulled his hand away.
The hand gripping his wrist was damp and burning hot from the fever. Yan Jinyue shifted his wrist, only for Ji Hanxing to tighten his grip.
He looked at Ji Hanxing's hand around his wrist, then at the cotton swab pinched between his own fingers. Even Yan Jinyue himself found it a little strange.
With Ji Hanxing, he had done things he had never done before.
Yan Jinyue gazed steadily at Ji Hanxing, who lay in the hospital bed with flushed cheeks and tightly knitted brows. Lowering his eyes, he pulled over a chair with his free hand and sat down.
Hunger woke Ji Hanxing. His eyelids fluttered a few times before he slowly opened his eyes. Before his pupils had even focused, he could already smell the disinfectant in the air.
He was in the hospital again.
As his mind gradually cleared, Ji Hanxing guessed that he had fallen ill. He couldn't help feeling a little like laughing.
In his previous life, he had braved nighttime temperatures more than ten degrees below freezing to sell egg fried rice from an outdoor stall.
He had rarely fallen ill. Or rather, he couldn't afford to fall ill. He had to earn money to support himself and his younger brothers and sisters, and he couldn't afford to go to the hospital either.
The poor didn't deserve to get sick, nor could they afford to.
Yet now, he had only been here for about ten days, hadn't he? He had spent two-thirds of that time in the hospital, more days than all his hospital visits in his previous life combined.
He tried moving his aching limbs and barely managed to sit up, only to see someone push open the bathroom door in his private room.
Yan Jinyue walked out, water still clinging to his hair. He looked as though he had just washed his face.
Ji Hanxing instinctively clutched the covers to himself, his long, narrow eyes going round. Why was Yan Jinyue here?!
Why was Yan Jinyue everywhere?!