The Ceo Of The Company Next Door Seems To Have A Crush On Me Chapter 37

The Willful Patient and the Little Scheme

Yan Xucheng walked out of the bathroom, wiping his hair and trailing the rich scent of roses.

Water droplets fell from the ends of his hair, leaving a round, dark watermark on his pajamas. Yan Xucheng shook his head uncomfortably. His hair was long and thick, and drying it completely took a long time. He had little patience, so he hastily blew it for two or three minutes, and once it stopped dripping, he ignored it.

His body sank into the soft beanbag chair. His legs were crossed, and his pearly white ankles peeked out from beneath the loose pant legs, gleaming with a moist, pearl-like luster under the bright living room light.

“Good evening.” Lu Zhijian was not resting. He was still wearing his work suit, sitting upright at the desk.

Yan Xucheng asked uncertainly, “Are you still working overtime?”

If he was busy, Yan Xucheng could hang up.

He didn’t voice the second sentence. For someone like Lu Zhijian, hearing that would prompt him to say he wasn’t busy, regardless of the truth. Yan Xucheng needed to ask indirectly to get his honest thoughts.

Ah~

Yan Xucheng mentally gave himself a thumbs-up. He suddenly felt he had matured. In the past, how could he have spoken with such subtle indirection? He had successfully become an adult.

He didn’t know if Lu Zhijian had caught his implied meaning, but Lu Zhijian looked down at the documents beside him, then smiled faintly and shook his head: “The overtime is finished. You called at the perfect time.”

Yan Xucheng smugly replied, “Hmph, as expected of me!”

Lu Zhijian played along: “As expected of you.”

Perhaps because the night was gentle, Lu Zhijian’s brief words carried a hint of hazy, unfamiliar meaning. Yan Xucheng couldn’t decipher it, but instinctively, he felt afraid.

Yet, it wasn’t entirely fear. This fear was wrapped in a sense of eager exploration. It was as if he knew what it was, but the word lingered in his mind, not yet surfacing.

Yan Xucheng seemed to be avoiding it, yet not entirely. He brought up something Lu Zhijian hadn’t expected: “Have you been to the hospital recently?”

Lu Zhijian paused, not understanding the sudden shift. “No.”

Indirect speech was a profound skill, and Yan Xucheng hadn’t fully mastered it. “So you haven’t gone for a follow-up either?”

His expression looked a little fierce, but Lu Zhijian suddenly broke into an uncontrollable smile before realizing he should look guilty. “Ah, well, I think so.”

Yan Xucheng originally wanted to ask why he was smiling, but for some reason, he ignored the smile on Lu Zhijian’s face.

“What do you mean, ‘I think so’?” Yan Xucheng slapped the coffee table with a loud pa. His palm tingled from the recoil, and he shook his hand where Lu Zhijian couldn’t see. “Confess and be treated leniently; resist and be treated severely.”

Lu Zhijian gave up the futile struggle and whispered, “But I don’t want to go. I feel like I’m fine already.”

If the person opposite him were Jiang Mingyi, Yan Xucheng would have dragged her, kicking and screaming, into Fang Li’s consultation room chair. But this was Lu Zhijian.

He still couldn’t figure out why Lu Zhijian was different, but he was certain of it. Lu Zhijian was different—different from Jiang Mingyi, and different from Ling Baizhou too.

However, this rare, willful Lu Zhijian was also refreshing.

“Then… why? Do you dislike Fang Li?” Yan Xucheng couldn’t understand. Lu Zhijian seemed like the type of person who lived life mindfully—he made soup every day and kept a balcony full of succulents.

His tone softened, genuinely sounding worried for him, and Lu Zhijian felt cared for.

In truth, Lu Zhijian wasn’t actively avoiding the doctor; he genuinely didn’t care, to the point where he had forgotten about it.

If the report said he was depressed, did that mean he had lost all hope for life?

If the report said he wasn’t depressed, could he instantly become a sunny, cheerful, proactive, and optimistic person?

Lu Zhijian enjoyed the faint, unprovoked melancholy when he was alone. Savoring this low mood allowed him to maintain deep thought and keen perception.

But looking at Yan Xucheng on the screen, whose brows were slightly furrowed—those delicate brows now resembled the gentle ripples on the Haicheng lake—Lu Zhijian relented: “Then I’ll go see him when I get back.”

He wasn’t opposed to seeing a doctor. If it would put Yan Xucheng at ease, then a visit was fine.

“Really!” Just as Lu Zhijian imagined, Yan Xucheng brightened up. “Do you want me to go with you?”

Lu Zhijian didn’t answer his question. “By the way, who is Fang Li?”

“…He is your attending physician.”

How could he not even remember something like that?

Lu Zhijian smiled sheepishly, seemingly wanting to avoid revealing his passive attitude toward treatment. He changed the subject, asking, “Speaking of which, you seem to know him?”

Yan Xucheng didn’t expose his obvious guilt. Since he was willing to see the doctor, Yan Xucheng would let him off the hook. “He’s my martial uncle. He used to be an excellent orthopedic surgeon, but later, for some reason, he focused on psychology.”

Not only was Yan Xucheng’s master, Wang Peiqiong, curious, but Yan Xucheng was too. When they treated Xu Songmian together, Yan Xucheng learned a lot from Fang Li. If Fang Li hadn’t changed careers, he would be an outstanding orthopedic surgeon now.

“Ah, wait, Jiang Mingyi is calling me.”

Lu Zhijian tactfully offered, “I still have a bit of work.”

“Okay! Good night!”

“Goodbye.”

Lu Zhijian hung up the phone, closed his eyes, and tiredly rubbed his temples. A minute later, he put on the gold-rimmed glasses resting beside him.

He hadn’t been entirely making small talk; he really did have work, only it wasn’t just a “bit.” He looked at the stack of documents on the corner of his desk, which reached his shoulder, and thought, it was a lot, a lot.

Sure enough, a person couldn’t be comfortable forever. The blessing of the 996 work schedule had arrived, hadn’t it?

In the Jingji Capital Region, Lu Zhijian often arrived late and left early to avoid crowds. Later, after he started having dinner with Yan Xucheng, his leaving time moved up by half an hour. What supported his ability to arrive late and leave early was his extremely high efficiency. That stack of documents would be halved in a moment.

Knock, knock, knock—

The knocking made Lu Zhijian’s heart sink.

The only person who would come looking for him at this hour was Mo Huai, the workaholic.

“Come in,” Lu Zhijian said without lifting his head.

After a moment, the knocking sounded again. Lu Zhijian looked up from his documents in confusion. Strange. Mo Huai had a key card to his room. She usually knocked and then walked straight in, slamming a stack of documents that could crush Lu Zhijian onto his desk.

And… listening closely, the knocking didn’t sound quite right.

Mo Huai was decisive, and even her knocking was crisp and clean. The person outside seemed to lack strength, and the rhythm was sluggish.

Lu Zhijian directly tapped the smart display screen of the hotel beside him, which showed the surveillance peephole outside the door.

It was a woman with large, wavy hair and revealing clothes, adjusting her hair in circles against the reflection. Her red nails and red lips looked like she had just eaten a child.

Lu Zhijian frowned. He didn’t recognize this person at all.

So Lu Zhijian pressed the hotel service bell.

A female voice answered, “Good evening, Mr. Lu, how may I help you?”

“There is a stranger at my door. I am very scared. Please resolve this quickly.” Although he said this, his voice was flat, like an AI reading a novel, making it hard to believe he was scared.

Moreover, hearing him say he was scared in his mature, magnetic voice, like a resonant cello, felt very incongruous. If Yan Xucheng were here, he would definitely make a sound of disgust.

But the front desk attendant, worthy of a five-star hotel’s training, showed no sign of awkwardness: “Understood. We will resolve this as quickly as possible. If you are afraid, we can also provide security services.”

“Security won’t be necessary.”

Lu Zhijian was very capable in a fight, not just ordinarily capable. Otherwise, Yan Zhu wouldn’t have insisted on waiting for Lu Zhijian to return to the country during the divorce negotiations.

Wasn’t it because he was capable in a fight? What else could he be after? Could he say it?

That was bordering on a horror joke.

Hotel staff resolved the matter within two minutes. The woman pouted unhappily but didn’t say anything, walking away reluctantly. When she returned to her own room, a woman in a white dress was sitting brazenly on her sofa.