The words in He Jichen's mouth came to a sudden stop. After a second, Ji Yi realized that he was speaking to Dr. Xia, "Excuse me, please wait..."
Then Ji Yi felt his voice become a lot clearer than before and assumed that he put the phone to his ear. "Mhm?"
"My wound is fine. I was calling you to..." Ji Yi's voice was soft. She was mid-speech when He Jichen interrupted her words: "Wait just one moment."
Then Ji Yi heard He Jichen apologize to Dr. Xia and bid him farewell. After a while, He Jichen's voice sounded clear again. "Go ahead..."
"I..." Ji Yi had called He Jichen too suddenly. She hadn't even planned what she wanted to say. She merely said one word then suddenly stopped. He Jichen, however, was really patient - he didn't rush her. After some time, Ji Yi moved her lips and said, "... I saw the top searches on Weibo."
"Mhm?" replied He Jichen. Ji Yi was speaking so vaguely that he didn't quite know how to respond. After his confused reply, he realized what she was referring to and let out an "Oh."
Oh... What kind of answer is that?
Ji Yi made the call instinctively without even thinking about what she was going to say to He Jichen, so as she heard him reply like that, she didn't quite know what to say.
A wall of silence fell on both sides of the call.
After who knew how much time had passed, Ji Yi suddenly remembered that she could say "thank you" to He Jichen. She gulped but before speaking again, she heard a "Dong!" over the phone.
Like something hit the ground?
Ji Yi furrowed her brows and instinctively asked, "What's wrong?"
She was met with a wall of silence.
"He Jichen?" repeated Ji Yi.
She finally got a reply from the other line but it sounded like Chen Bai's voice. "Mr. He?!"
His worried voice made Ji Yi's brows furrow more tightly. She was going to cry "Assistant Chen" when she heard hurried footsteps over the phone. Then it was Chen Bai's voice that entered her ears. "Hello, hello, 120? Someone fainted here. The address is ..." Chen Bai cried, "Mr. He? Mr. He?!"
Fainted?
Does that mean the "Dong!" I just heard was the sound of He Jichen falling?
Ji Yi bolted up from her bed as she intended to politely cry "Assistant Chen," but the words came out as "Chen Bai! Chen Bai!"
Ji Yi shouted quite a few times, so Chen Bai must've heard her from He Jichen's phone after he hung up his call. Chen Bai picked up the phone and replied to her, "Miss Ji?"
"What's wrong with He Jichen?"
"Mr. He hasn't been feeling well lately. I don't know why, but he hasn't been home for the past two days and has been staying in the office doing overtime. I came into his office just now to give him breakfast and saw him on the floor..."
He stayed at his office to work overtime? Didn't he say he was on a business trip and no one was going to be home, so I could stay over?
In just one instant, Ji Yi suddenly understood everything.
He Jichen knew she was afraid that her parents would see her roughed up and worry about her, so she didn't want to go home. Yet, he was worried about her staying in a hotel alone, so he lied about going on a business trip and took her to his place...
In the past two days, she had been attentively taken care of by Zhang Sao, but He Jichen was in the office doing overtime...