bookcurios Chapter 212 Killing the Cuckoo (27)
Chapter 212 Killing the Cuckoo (27)
"Go back?" Fang Yi asked in surprise. "Don't you need me to stay with you at the hospital?"
"Need not."
Fang Yihe was even more puzzled.
He originally thought that Li Tingyi's sudden decision to be hospitalized and his insistence on him staying was an attempt to possess him and annoy Gao Li.
Furthermore, the two had been in a cold war, but now that they've reconciled, absence makes the heart grow fonder. Given Li Tingyi's personality, he might be planning to take advantage of his hospital stay to engage in some hospital-related activities...
But now he's kicking me out.
Did I understand it wrong?
"I've already asked for leave from the research institute, so I can stay with you at the hospital for the next couple of days," Fang Yihe said. "It won't interfere with my work."
Li Tingyi frowned, his tone tinged with impatience: "I really don't need you to accompany me. It's almost dawn, you should go back. I'm a little tired, I'll get some sleep first."
After saying that, he lay down, pulled the blanket over himself, closed his eyes, and went to sleep.
Fang Yihe looked at him, completely baffled.
"Are you still angry with me?" Fang Yi reached under the covers, trying to please him, her tone ambiguous. "It's all my fault. You can punish me however you want, just don't hold it against me..."
Li Tingyi immediately grabbed his wrist and pushed him away, opened her eyes and looked at him seriously: "I'm not angry, really. Go back, go to work, rest, and come see me again when you have time."
Fang Yihe: "..."
As Fang Yihe walked out of the hospital, she was still completely bewildered.
Since it wasn't to bother him or to annoy Gao Li, and Li Tingyi's injuries weren't serious enough to require hospitalization, why did he need to be hospitalized?
It can't really be just to teach that spoiled brat who beat someone a lesson.
But Li Tingyi is not short of money. The treatment fee is just a drop in the ocean for a rich second-generation heir with a net worth of hundreds of millions. It has no effect on making him "learn a lesson" at all.
Fang Yihe previously thought she knew Li Tingyi well enough, but now she couldn't quite understand his intentions.
The hospital at the same time.
After Fang Yihe left, Li Tingyi threw off the covers, got out of bed, turned right at the door, and took the elevator upstairs.
When he arrived at Qi Zhaoyi's ward, he had already grasped the doorknob, but he stopped in his tracks.
The person he had kept hidden in his heart for decades was now within reach, but because he had looked up to him for so long, he dared not approach rashly.
After mentally preparing himself for a while, Li Tingyi finally opened the door and went inside.
The ward was quiet. Qi Zhaoyi lay on the bed, still unconscious.
He tiptoed to the bedside and saw Qi Zhaoyi's face clearly. In just one glance, his heart started racing.
After Qi Zhaoyi graduated, Li Tingyi never saw him again.
He had lost a lot of weight, his face was pale, and large red rashes could be seen under his hospital gown, but his face was still so handsome.
From the age of fifteen to twenty-six, he kept this person hidden in his heart for eleven years.
At the age of fifteen, Li Tingyi was a top student who was admitted to a key high school in the city from a small town.
Arriving in an unfamiliar environment, his deep-seated inferiority complex prevented him from fitting into the atmosphere of the prestigious high school. Due to his conflicted personality, he was isolated by his roommates.
This isolation gradually developed into small group bullying.
Despite the school rules preventing his roommates from openly beating him, his shoes were always filled with phlegm, and his school uniforms, which were often hung out to dry, were frequently smeared with various filth.
His roommates would team up to deliberately delay his shower time, so he could only take a cold shower in the dark after the lights were turned off and the hot water supply had stopped.
One winter evening during his first year of high school, after taking a shower, he noticed that his school uniform, which he had just hung out to dry, smelled of urine again.
He dared not speak out against his anger, so he could only fill a basin with cold water, squat in the stairwell, and wash his school uniform with laundry detergent while wiping his sore eyes.
Finally, whether it was because of the cold weather or because the laundry detergent foam got into his eyes, tears streamed down his face and fell into the basin.
Qi Zhaoyi appeared at this time.
He is a senior high school student and lives in the dormitory upstairs.
The boy was slender and tall, wearing a clean sky-blue pajama top under a long black down jacket, and holding a book in his elegant, bony hands—Qi Zhaoyi must have been reading by the light in the hallway, and only came downstairs after hearing him doing laundry and sobbing.
Qi Zhaoyi patiently asked him what had happened, and after listening to his stammering explanation, she glanced at his dormitory room number: "203?"
Li Tingyi nodded: "Yes."
"okay, I get it."
Qi Zhaoyi casually uttered those words and then left.
After that day, no one in the dormitory ever made things difficult for Li Tingyi again. They all tacitly ignored him and pretended he didn't exist.
Because of this incident, Li Tingyi began to pay attention to Qi Zhaoyi.
He knew he was the school's recognized top student and most handsome boy, an excellent student in the eyes of the teachers, knew he had beautiful calligraphy, knew he played basketball very well, and knew he was highly respected among the boys...
Whether it was out of admiration for such an outstanding person or gratitude for him solving the dormitory bullying problem, Li Tingyi developed the desire to get closer to him, befriend him, and become his friend.
He devised many ways to get closer to Qi Zhaoyi, but before he could act on them, it all ended on a Sunday afternoon.
Li Tingyi, who had gone home for the weekend, returned to school and got off the crowded bus. Just then, he saw Qi Zhaoyi get off a car across the street. A driver wearing white gloves opened the car door for him, respectfully handed him his schoolbag, and smiled as he watched him cross the street.
Two boys from the same school behind them also saw it. One of them said sourly, "I heard that Qi Zhaoyi's family is very rich. Is it true or not? If they are so rich, why do they still have to study hard in their senior year of high school and live in the dormitory? Wouldn't it be better to just go abroad to study?"
Another person said, "I don't understand the world of top students, but I've seen that car in a magazine. It's a Rolls-Royce Cullinan. Even the base model costs more than six million. We can't afford one of their cars even if we work our whole lives."
In that instant, as Li Tingyi watched Qi Zhaoyi's retreating figure disappear into the school gate, he suddenly felt that Qi Zhaoyi was unattainable.
I am not qualified to be his friend at all.
The following year, Qi Zhaoyi refused the guaranteed admission offer and was admitted to a top local university.
Li Tingyi took his university as his goal and studied hard. He didn't dare to hope that he could enter Qi Zhaoyi's world and become friends with him. He only hoped to shorten the gap between himself and him, even if it was just a little bit.
Two years later, Li Tingyi became Qi Zhaoyi's junior in a different department at the same school, just as he had wished.
But when he got to college, he found that the gap between him and Qi Zhaoyi had widened even further. Qi Zhaoyi was studying journalism and was only a junior. He not only had access to various high-quality resources, but he had also built his own team. His team not only had filming equipment worth millions, but also experienced industry leaders as instructors.
With his privileged family background, if I were to rashly approach him and befriend him, wouldn't people think I have ulterior motives and am a snob?
Li Tingyi's inferiority complex prevented him from getting close. He watched helplessly as Qi Zhaoyi became more and more outstanding, while he felt like a rat hiding in a ditch, secretly spying on him under the sliver of light that peeked through the gaps in the sky.