Chapter 21: Heartache Is the Ultimate Proof of Love

The rhythmic ticking of the cold medical equipment echoed through the hospital room as Bo Ye’s fingers twitched slightly.

“He’s awake! A-Ye is awake.”

A woman reached out to touch Bo Ye’s hand, but as soon as he felt her touch, he used every ounce of his remaining strength to shake her off.

“Get out…”

He realized his strength had been completely exhausted after uttering those two words. It hurt—it hurt so much.

Then, a pair of small hands gently touched his face, her expression filled with anxiety.

“Does it hurt, Brother?”

“It does…”

It really did. Recalling what happened before he fainted, he remembered his instinctive reaction to throw himself over the woman. He had truly asked for this suffering.

“What happened to Wen Zhi?”

“She was driven out by Jiang Shiwei,” Zhuang Sui replied, blinking her small eyes.

“How does she have the right to do that?”

“She claimed that you were the one who wanted to break off the engagement,” Zhuang Sui said.

That was true; she had been in the emergency room the entire time and had no way of knowing what was happening outside. Recalling the things he had done to Wen Zhi, Bo Ye stared at the ceiling for a long time.

He sat up, and Zhuang Sui quickly reached out to support him, startled.

“I may have said it, but I have changed my mind now.”

The words were spoken softly, yet they carried a sense of unwavering determination. Zhuang Sui nodded vigorously, clutching his sleeve.

They had not walked far before they ran into Bo Heng and Jiang Shiwei. Bo Ye’s eyes turned cold. Before the man could interrogate him, Bo Ye asked, “Where is Wen Zhi?”

“You still dare to mention her? You got her pregnant and then claimed you didn’t want anything to do with her. I have already negotiated the dissolution of the engagement with the Wen family! And as for her kidnapping—how could you fall for the same woman’s schemes twice?”

Bo Ye couldn’t be bothered to argue with him and strode away.

“My phone?”

“Here,” Zhuang Sui obediently placed the phone into his outstretched hand.

“Let Wu find out where Wen Zhi is.”

“After Bo Ye broke off the engagement, I heard Miss Wen was taken back to the Wen family home…”

“I understand.”

He called the woman several times, but each attempt resulted in a busy signal. What on earth was going on?

***

“Eat something, for the sake of the child in your womb,” Ye Xin said.

Wen Zhi, lying on the bed like a broken doll, did not even lift her head upon hearing these words. This was her fourth day trapped in the Wen residence; she had been dragged back here the very day the Bo family officially and unilaterally broke off the engagement. Ironically, this place was her “home”—a home she had never known.

She shook her head.

“If you don't eat and lose the child, it will be even harder to keep a hold on Bo Ye later…”

Wen Zhi looked up, meeting Ye Xin’s gaze.

“What, are you still hoping that young master will take a fancy to you?” Ye Xin slammed the rice bowl onto the table. “Hmph, a mute playing the part of a high-born lady!”

Her eyes flickered, resting on the fragmented wounds covering the girl’s body. The door was slammed shut, and the room returned to silence.

How… how was he? Wen Zhi had assumed he acted out of guilt, but why bother? Some things, once spilled, could never be gathered up again.

***

Night fell, shrouding the earth in darkness and returning the world to tranquility. Without any electronic devices, she felt lost in this small room, unable to even remember how many days she had been there. Her ears and heart had long since grown numb to the biting, venomous words. All that remained was endless darkness and a silence that offered no answers.

The Wen residence was unsettled tonight; the clamor outside even startled Wen Zhi awake. It was footsteps—footsteps drawing closer and closer to her room. Wen Zhi, ignoring the pain of her wounds, curled up tightly beneath the thin sheet.

The sound of expensive leather shoes striking the floor echoed with every step. To Wen Zhi, it felt like a torture where every second dragged on like a year. She assumed it was her father, her father with his whip, until a pair of large hands pulled her blanket away. She was still shivering violently from sheer terror.

Bo Ye looked at the scene before him in disbelief. Ye Xin, who had been chasing after him, only just caught up; the man’s sudden, unexpected arrival had left them no time to prepare.

She had become even thinner. When he touched her cold arms, it felt as though they might snap at the slightest pressure. Wen Zhi fell into his embrace, just as she had when he had rushed to hold her that day. Only then did she realize that this man’s embrace was warm—so warm, a warmth that her own bedding could never replicate.

“Are you willing to come with me?”

“Yes.”

Her body lifted into the air as the man scooped her up.

“You…” Ye Xin was rendered speechless.

“Does your Wen family ignore the laws of the household?” Bo Ye asked. His eyes seemed as if they would kill Ye Xin, and Wen Zhengshan, who had also caught up.

He finally seemed to understand why Wen Zhi had been so obsessed with flying—flying to a place where they couldn’t find her, flying to… France.

“I’m so cold.”

“You have a fever.”

So that was it. She had reached a point where she could barely perceive her own body temperature. Bo Ye quickened his pace and placed the woman into the car.

“Let Wu, drive faster.”

The only answer was the streetscape blurring past at an even higher speed.

“Wen Zhi, they hit you, didn’t they?”

Even Bo Ye didn’t notice the slight tremor in his own voice, a tremor choked with bitterness. Her body was stiff; she began to resist his touch, though only physically. Perhaps she was delirious from the fever; her body kept fluctuating between hot and cold, seeking a source of warmth. She said nothing. Bo Ye simply draped his coat over her and held her tightly.

“The fever is caused by the infection of her wounds,” the female doctor said, frowning.

Wen Zhi was wearing a light blue dress; red bloodstains were visible beneath the fabric. Bo Ye’s hands trembled as he removed her clothes. On her back, her arms, her waist… the wounds were of varying severity, some new, some old.

So that was it. This was the reason she refused to break off the engagement and clung to him.

Bo Ye supported her while the doctor used a cotton swab to apply medicine to the wounds, bit by bit. Half an hour later, her forehead was drenched in sweat. He could not even begin to imagine that kind of pain.

After safely settling the girl in bed, Bo Ye made a phone call…

Everyone in the Wen family, except for Wen Zhi, would suffer in the darkness. Bo Ye intended to make the rest of their lives a hundred times more agonizing and painful than what Wen Zhi was enduring now.

At the same time, he finally understood the state of his own heart. He understood that nameless, inextinguishable fire that had burned within him ever since he felt betrayed. Betrayal—the betrayal of the one his heart desired. That was the source of that nameless flame. And the heartache he felt now was the greatest proof that love existed.

Would she ever forgive him? Or perhaps, had Wen Zhi never truly looked at him with genuine eyes to begin with?

If she would not forgive him, then Bo Ye would spend his life chasing after her.

***

When Wen Zhi woke, it was already noon the following day. She felt as though she could no longer distinguish between dreams and reality, such as the fact that she had been taken from the Wen residence by Bo Ye yesterday.

But standing before her now was Yu Hang. Yu Hang’s eyes were swollen beyond recognition.

“Zhi Zhi…”

“I… I should have left with you that day.”

“And those wretched parents of yours…”

Wen Zhi gently wiped the tears from Yu Hang’s face. “Yu Hang, I only ever regarded you as my family.”