Silent Chess
Chapter 3/5 of the week.
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Listening to Yang Chen’s sudden question, Li Jingjing lightly shivered. She continued lowering her head and kept completely silent.
She requested to visit the house, and came to knock on his door and hug him before intentionally voicing out the ambiguous entanglements. Yang Chen quickly arrived at the conclusion that this definitely wasn’t a coincidence.
Yang Chen stared at her for a while before sighing deeply. He didn’t force her to say anything.
“I don’t know why you did that, but I believe the Li Jingjing I know isn’t someone wicked who would intentionally destroy people’s relationships,” Yang Chen said as he gazed upon Li Jingjing. “If you still don’t want to tell me now, I won’t ask any more questions. However, I hope that this is your first and your last time being someone who isn’t like yourself.”
When Yang Chen finished speaking, Li Jingjing finally couldn’t hold back anymore. Tears dripped onto the ground as she started sobbing.
Yang Chen didn’t go forward to comfort Li Jingjing, because there’s someone who needs to be consoled more waiting for him.
Walking to the door, Yang Chen looked at the shattered porcelain plate and scattered fruits as he vaguely felt a pain in his heart.
Her heart now should be the same as this porcelain plate, broken.
Yang Chen wasn’t an indifferent fool when it came to love. In the days where he interacted with Lin Ruoxi, she started talking more to him, restraining him in some ways, and asking about his past occasionally. Today, he even saw that she had been learning cooking secretly to show him the hardworking and lady-like side of her.
Although these signs didn’t show that this woman had fallen deeply in love with him, they were enough to prove that she had been working hard to accept him, and to become a qualified wife.
However, the words Li Jingjing said earlier when she hugged Yang Chen acted like a sharp knife which stabbed into the woman’s arrogant and pure heart.
In front of Lin Ruoxi, Yang Chen acted like he didn’t know Li Jingjing, who also concealed the fact that she knew him.
Lin Ruoxi trusted Li Jingjing so much and treated her as her good friend. However, she got a dual betrayal from her husband and good friend together in return.
Being a man who often upset his wife, Yang Chen hated his unfaithful personality when it came to love. However, this time, Yang Chen’s hatred towards himself was much deeper than before.
Regardless if Li Jingjing did it on purpose or not, it was still his fault to some degree.
Yang Chen walked to Lin Ruoxi’s bedroom door. His sensitive hearing allowed him to faintly listen to the sound of sobbing in the room, even when the room was nicely sound insulated.
Yang Chen reached out his arm and wanted to knock on the door. However, when his hand travelled half way, he withdrew it at last.
I want to explain, but what can I explain? I don’t even know how the situation turned out this way.
After standing outside the door for a long time, Yang Chen returned to his room.
Currently, Li Jingjing was paralyzed on the ground. Her eyes were red and swollen as a result of crying. Seeing Yang Chen walk over, she didn’t dare to look at Yang Chen in the eyes.
Yang Chen slowly sat down on his bed. After a short while, she said, “Jingjing, tell me why you did that. If you refuse to do so, then we may have to cut our friendship as well.”
Li Jingjing raised her head and revealed her watery eyes. Looking at Yang Chen, she said, “Brother Yang, I’ll tell you. But can you go to a place with me?”
“Where?”
“City Two Hospital.”
Li Jingjing’s words made Yang Chen feel that the matter wasn’t so simple. Without asking more questions, he brought Li Jingjing out of the bungalow and quickly arrived at City Two Hospital by car.
Li Jingjing led the way and walked to an intensive care unit. Outside the room, Yang Chen looked through the window and saw the patient lying on a bed.
“Old Li?”
Yang Chen stunned. Unexpectedly, the one lying unconscious on the bed was Li Jingjing’s father, his old friend Old Li!
Li Jingjing said softly, “Brother Yang, do you remember the day where I brought my father to the hospital and bumped into you?”
Yang Chen carefully recalled. Something like that definitely happened once. On that day, he purposely treated Li Jingjing coldly and even greeted Old Li before.
“During the time, my dad kept saying that he hadn’t been feeling well. I brought him here for a medical check-up… and found out that…” Li Jingjing mumbled and sniveled, “it was a liver tumor…”
Yang Chen got serious. He seemed to have thought of something, but remained silent.
Li Jingjing continued speaking, “At that time our family was frightened. The doctor said if surgery wasn’t done immediately and once cancer cells spread out in his body, he couldn’t be saved anymore. However, we couldn’t fork out that amount of money at all. I told Father that we could borrow from you, Brother Yang, but both my parents strongly opposed my suggestion and even scolded me loudly. Dad said he’d rather drink pesticides to die earlier if I trouble you again.”
“I was really afraid at the moment, afraid that he’d leave us suddenly. But being a new teacher, even if I take a mortgage using the house and take up a bank loan, I still won’t be able to gather enough money,” Li Jingjing said. “When I felt hopeless, someone suddenly appeared, and said that he’d pay for all the costs induced for Father’s surgery if I was willing to do as he said.”
Yang Chen sighed in his heart. It was the same as he expected. He asked, “Who was it?”
Li Jingjing slowly raised her head. “Brother Yang, do you remember the guy we bumped into when you accompanied me to buy furniture?”
Yang Chen recalled and violently stood up straight. “Zeng Xinlin?!”
When he went to get furniture with Li Jingjing, they met Zeng Xinlin. Although he felt that his smile was really peculiar, nothing special happened afterwards. Unexpectedly, he had his eyes on Li Jingjing since then!
“Yes,” Li Jingjing said. “He said he’d pay for the surgery fees if I follow his instructions.”
“He’s indeed very patient…” Yang Chen thought that Zeng Xinlin would withdraw from the war after getting defeated by Lin Ruoxi in the business world. Yang Chen didn’t think that he’d use Li Jingjing as a chess move. Even if Zeng Xinlin lost in the business world, he didn’t plan on letting Yang Chen live a good life with Lin Ruoxi.
The two slowly walked to a secluded corner of the hospital where Li Jingjing elaborated on what happened, to allow Yang Chen understand the entire situation.
When Zeng Xinlin noticed the intimacy between Yang Chen and Li Jingjing, he sent his men to check on Li Jingjing’s family background. While he did that, he accidentally noticed that Li Jingjing always volunteered in the same orphanage as Lin Ruoxi. After a while, he got brutally struck by Lin Ruoxi, forcing him to leave Zhonghai. So he wasn’t able to instantly use the information he got.
After Old Li got sick and stayed in the hospital, Zeng Xinlin appeared once again. He told Li Jingjing that the woman she often met at the orphanage was Yang Chen’s wife, and asked her to improve her relationship with Lin Ruoxi before finding an opportunity to cause a disturbance in the relationship of the married couple.
It was undoubtedly a partly inciting and threatening act towards Li Jingjing. Zeng Xinlin knew that Li Jingjing must be feeling envious towards Yang Chen’s wife due to the sudden coldness Yang Chen gave her, and was worried about his father’s operation fee.
Combining both reasons together, enduring the pain, she accepted the offer at last.
Furthermore, Li Jingjing was merely an ordinary young teacher. She wouldn’t dare to go against a wealthy family like Zeng family. Zeng Xinlin only had to simply threaten Li Jingjing to prevent her from disclosing everything.
After that, concealing everything, Li Jingjing quickly got close to Lin Ruoxi, and found an opportunity to put up today’s act when she said she wanted to learn cooking. This was also the result Zeng Xinlin had been waiting to see.
Zeng Xinlin wanted to use Yu Lei International as his base which he can firmly stand on. However, he got defeated in the business world and naturally lost hope in getting Lin Ruoxi. This time, his cunning act of putting Li Jingjing in between Yang Chen and Lin Ruoxi successfully caused a disturbance in their relationship and did harm to everyone involved, even if doing this wouldn’t earn him Lin Ruoxi.
He won something in the end, though he lost severely.
Yang Chen’s facial expression changed for a long time. He said, “Jingjing, you should know that he’s using you this way. You should’ve told me earlier.”
Sorrowfully, Li Jingjing replied, “I know I did something wrong. Brother Yang, but I… I really lost my mind back then. Every time I notice that you ignore me completely and treat me so coldly, I would get a negative idea towards Sister Lin. I can’t control myself no matter what… I now know that I’m wrong, but I hurt you and Sister Lin. I… I really don’t know what I should do… Brother Yang, you won’t forgive me anymore, will you?”
“There will be times where people make mistakes. It’s my fault for treating you overly cold as well. If people were more understanding and forgiving, this matter probably could’ve been avoided. I won’t allow Zeng Xinlin to do something like this anymore.” Yang Chen sighed. “Since it ended up this way, you just have to take care of your father. Don’t tell him what happened. Just say that an anonymous donated money. I’ll be leaving now.”
“Brother Yang!”
Li Jingjing shouted as she cried, stopping Yang Chen who was turning around.
“Is there anything else…” Yang Chen felt that his heart was exhausted.
“Do… do you… do you really not like me anymore…”
Listening to this stuttering question, Yang Chen stood still stiffly.
Li Jingjing saw that Yang Chen didn’t have any reactions, tears dropped from her eyes once again. She felt like her heart turned into ashes. She mumbled, “Brother Yang, I know that you must hate me a lot now, for my stupidity and hypocritical acts. But please listen to what I have to say.
“Do you know how I’ve been living these days… I never have appetite to eat, and can’t sleep at night. These are the most fundamental ones. After I fall asleep, it’s common that I woke up in the middle of the night, because I didn’t understand why the person I loved and was closest to suddenly became a stranger who wouldn’t look me in the eyes even for once.
“I don’t dare to talk to my parents or anyone else about it. I’m afraid of bothering them, so all I can do is to find a place with no one to cry at.
“But the most painful thing is… the one I cry for, seems to not think about me at all. I’m the only one doing this. That person seems to have forgotten about me, and is enjoying his life with another woman himself.
“I really want to die, but I can’t, because I’m afraid… of not seeing that person anymore. I’m afraid of not seeing you anymore, Brother Yang…”
Yang Chen’s clenched his fists tightly as they trembled. Slowly, they loosened up again. Exhaling a deep breath, he walked away with big steps without looking back.
Li Jingjing seemed to have finished all her energy. She kneeled on the ground with both her knees and she stared at Yang Chen’s back which got further and further away. In the lonely winter night, she was just like a flower that couldn’t withstand any damage, silently dying away...