FIO CH43

Chapter 43: Regaining Memory

Lu Fangchi couldn’t see the expression on his face at the moment, but he knew that his mood was completely different from when he had come and when he was leaving. Scenes flashed through his mind like a lantern show, flipping pages rapidly.

At that time, Liu Assistant had a surprised look on his face, and then he got up to greet and thank him: “Mr. Lu, have you eaten? If not, let’s eat together.”

“These past few months have been quite troublesome. Thank goodness that Mr. Zhou has finally remembered,” Liu Assistant said, relieved and grateful as he patted his chest. “Speaking of the devil, I was just discussing with him about finding a day to formally visit and thank you.”

Lu Fangchi couldn’t describe how he felt at that moment; he just forced a smile and twitched the corners of his lips, “No need, it’s good that he remembered.”

“You guys eat, I have to leave now,” he said hastily, not waiting for a response before leaving in a rush.

During this time, he accidentally bumped into a waiter, and the tray in the waiter’s hand, holding a pot of water, was spilled all over Lu Fangchi. His entire front was soaked, and the light gray sweater was instantly drenched into a dark gray, dripping water.

The waiter frantically wiped and apologized, “Sorry, sorry.”

Fortunately, it was cold water, and it only made him look disheveled. Lu Fangchi declined the waiter’s offer to change clothes; he just wanted to leave as quickly as possible.

Lu Fangchi made his way to the underground garage in one go. He leaned against the car, his chest heaving slightly, his brows furrowed, and his lips pursed, even biting them hard.

Lu Fangchi felt that he had fled in a very undignified manner, not even having the courage to take another look at Zhou Zheng. He really didn’t want to see it again; just recalling that disdainful look made his heart uncomfortable, as if it were being tightly clenched and tortured by a hand.

Lu Fangchi’s Adam’s apple moved as he swallowed the bitter feeling in his throat. He unlocked the car door, got in, and a sense of helplessness washed over him. He felt so tired, as if all his strength had been drained. Was being sick this fragile?

In this state, it wasn’t suitable to go back to work. Lu Fangchi didn’t make things difficult for himself. He took out his phone, logged into DingTalk to inform his assistant that he wouldn’t be coming in the afternoon, and arranged his work, dealing with what he could in advance.

Switching back to WeChat, he noticed a change in the top conversation. The nickname had been changed, from “Little Zhou” to “Zhou Zheng.” No, it would be more accurate to say it had been changed back.

Seeing these two formal words, it brought back a little memory.

It seemed there was a time when he was taking a shower, and his phone alarm went off, asking Zhou Zheng to turn it off for him. When he came out, Zhou Zheng was quite upset, sulking for half a day. Finding that no one paid attention to him, he shyly approached Lu Fangchi and complained in a low voice, “You didn’t even give me a nickname; it’s just cold, two words.”

“I don’t have the habit of giving nicknames. The nickname is what it is, and everyone is the same,” Lu Fangchi scrolled through his phone to show him, not lying.

A few days later, Lu Fangchi noticed that Zhou Zheng had changed his WeChat nickname to “Little Zhou,” a name that, paired with Zhou Zheng’s identity, exuded an extremely unreliable vibe.

At that time, Lu Fangchi had hinted to him, both openly and subtly, “Shouldn’t you choose a more formal name? There are still quite a few clients in the contact list, right?”

Zhou Zheng flatly refused. He countered, “Don’t you think ‘Little Zhou’ shows my approachability?”

It turned out he had a point. Suddenly changing it back made it feel strange and distant to Lu Fangchi.

The “ding-dong” sound brought Lu Fangchi’s thoughts back. A floating window prompted a new text message—【Government SMS Platform】You have successfully booked a marriage registration service. The service number is A010203045. Please come on [date]…

Just reading the beginning, Lu Fangchi swiped to the right to exit. Without saying goodbye, not answering calls, not replying to messages, not coming home, the cold look and the changed nickname all reflected Zhou Zheng’s attitude—once he remembered, their relationship was null and void.

This was in stark contrast to the current text message about the marriage registration appointment. Lu Fangchi felt extremely ridiculous.

As Lu Jingfeng had predicted, their love didn’t even last four months, let alone a year.

With a face full of mockery, Lu Fangchi canceled the top follow. There was no need to delete friends; adults should say goodbye with dignity. The new message instantly pushed Zhou Zheng down the list. He threw his phone onto the passenger seat, stepped on the gas, and drove home.

“Ding-dong ding-dong ding-dong…” Who was ringing the doorbell so impatiently?

Lu Fangchi was woken up by the noise. He opened his eyes to darkness, turned on the bedside lamp, and squinted for a while to adjust to the light. He threw off the quilt, got out of bed, and as soon as his feet touched the ground, he felt dizzy and almost fainted. He sat back on the bed, rubbed his temples, and shook his head slightly.

The frantic doorbell ringing turned into pounding on the door, “bang bang bang,” each knock striking fear into his heart.

It was too noisy; this was going to lead to a complaint from the neighbors.

After a moment, Lu Fangchi felt better enough to stand without dizziness and hurried to open the door. He was worried that if he didn’t hurry, the person would kick the door open and barge in.

He leaned against the door frame to open it, and the visitors were Jiang Mingyi and Yu Yao. Jiang Mingyi’s eyebrows were furrowed, and he was about to raise his hand in anger, which explained the aggressive knocking.

The sudden opening of the door left Jiang Mingyi’s hand suspended in mid-air. He awkwardly withdrew it, intending to scold Lu Fangchi for his behavior. However, upon seeing Lu Fangchi’s current state, the words of reproach died on his lips. His brows furrowed even deeper as he stepped into the house, took Lu Fangchi’s wrist, and led him towards the closet, “Change your clothes, I’m taking you to the hospital.”

Lu Fangchi let himself be pulled along, watching Jiang Mingyi’s furious back and blinking in confusion, “I’ve taken medicine.”

“It’s not working. Look at you now,” Jiang Mingyi released Lu Fangchi’s wrist and knocked on the full-length mirror in the closet, producing a crisp sound.

Lu Fangchi faced the mirror and saw his current appearance. His hair was messy and flat, his eyelids were swollen, his eyes were bloodshot, and the stubble on his chin added to the overall look of exhaustion. He truly looked haggard.

Yu Yao, standing a bit further back, gave Jiang Mingyi a meaningful look.

Jiang Mingyi slightly subdued his temper and said with a frown, “Jiang Mingyu said you haven’t been to the company for three days. You haven’t been replying to our messages since the day before yesterday. You’re not even responding to urgent ones.”

Lu Fangchi instinctively reached into his pocket for his phone, only to realize it was on the bedside table in the bedroom. Without any evidence to back him up, he could only dryly explain, “I haven’t checked. I’ve had a headache these past few days and have mostly been sleeping.”

Lu Fangchi wasn’t lying. After returning home that day, he had started packing up Zhou Zheng’s belongings, putting all the large and small items into cardboard boxes and stacking them in the corner. Having lived there for over half a year, his luggage had grown from four boxes to eight, which took quite an effort.

Only after everything was packed did Lu Fangchi take a shower. Already running a low fever and having worn wet clothes while packing for two or three hours, his condition worsened.

Lu Fangchi had thought that taking some medicine and getting some sleep would alleviate his symptoms, but this time the virus was aggressive and seemed to be getting worse instead of better. Intellectually, he knew he should go to the hospital, but he felt too weak and listless to leave the house, and so he dragged on for three days, his condition fluctuating.

Jiang Mingyi didn’t bother with Lu Fangchi’s excuses, found some clothes, and thrust them into his hands, urging, “Hurry up and change. Yu Yao and I will wait for you outside.”

Five minutes later, Lu Fangchi came out in fresh clothes to see Jiang Mingyi and Yu Yao both looking at the stack of cardboard boxes in the corner.

The eight cardboard boxes, piled as high as a person, were too conspicuous to ignore. Yu Yao looked as if he wanted to say something but held back, while Jiang Mingyi, being more straightforward, patted the towering stack of boxes in front of him and said bluntly, “I saw that guy at the new game launch event. He was acting like he owned the place.”

You can’t keep a secret forever; this matter would eventually come up, and there was nothing to hide. Lu Fangchi nodded in agreement: “Yes, he regained his memory, we broke up, and we’re not getting married anymore.”

Judging from the situation, it was easy to guess what had happened. Jiang Mingyi wasn’t good at comforting people and immediately started cursing: “I never thought that idiot was any good. I was afraid he was just trying to trick you, and as soon as he remembered everything, he turned his back on you. He’s really not worth it. I spit on him.” With that, he kicked the cardboard box.

Yu Yao quickly reached out and stopped the box from falling and potentially hitting someone. He frowned at Jiang Mingyi and said, “Can you be a bit more sensible?”

Jiang Mingyi, not entirely convinced, raised his chin and put his hand on Lu Fangchi’s shoulder, saying, “It’s for the best. It’s better than getting married and then realizing things and getting divorced. ‘Second marriage’ sounds so bad. Now it’s just a breakup. Out with the old, in with the new, right?”

Lu Fangchi was amused and nodded in agreement, “You’re right.”

At eight in the evening, they had no choice but to go to the emergency room. After an hour of waiting for blood tests, the medical report showed that the white blood cell and lymphocyte counts were slightly high.

The fever was mainly caused by tonsillitis, and it would be fine after a few bottles of intravenous fluids. There was nothing serious.

The doctor prescribed two large bottles and one small one, which would take at least three hours. During this time, Yu Yao received a phone call and said he had to leave due to some family matters. Jiang Mingyi stayed to accompany Lu Fangchi while he received the IV.

The infusion room was filled with listless patients. Besides the intermittent coughing sounds behind the masks, there was hardly any conversation. Jiang Mingyi couldn’t chat with Lu Fangchi either, and the lack of activity made him very bored.

At first, he could play mahjong on his phone, but by eleven, he started to feel sleepy. His eyelids seemed to be magnetized, constantly wanting to stick together. His head nodded forward, and every once in a while, a sharp pain would jolt him awake.

Seeing Jiang Mingyi rubbing his eyes vigorously, his eyelids turning red, Lu Fangchi said, “You should go home.”

Jiang Mingyi blinked hard and sat up straight, “No, it’s okay. I’ll stay with you.”

“There’s no need. I can manage on my own. I’ll press the bell when it’s done. You being here won’t help,” Lu Fangchi said.

“Why won’t it help? This is called companionship,” Jiang Mingyi retorted.

Lu Fangchi smiled, “I don’t need your company. I’m really sick, and it has nothing to do with him. It’s not that serious.”

Jiang Mingyi, whose bluff had been called, raised an eyebrow and dropped the act, “Really?”

“Absolutely,” Lu Fangchi nodded, “I’m not made of glass. I won’t break that easily.”

Jiang Mingyi was truly exhausted. Hearing Lu Fangchi’s words, he didn’t make a fuss and left after giving a few instructions.

It turned out that Lu Fangchi was indeed delicate at the moment. He couldn’t be without someone. During the infusion, he lost focus and spaced out, not paying attention to the IV bottle, which led to blood flowing back halfway through the tube. In the end, it was an old man sitting opposite who reminded him. Lu Fangchi quickly pressed the button to call the nurse to change the bottle.

After this small incident, Lu Fangchi couldn’t afford to daydream anymore. He kept glancing up at the IV bottle from time to time. By one in the morning, he had finished all three bottles of IV fluids.

Lu Fangchi pressed on his hand and sat for two or three minutes before getting up and walking outside the hospital building to hail a taxi.

It was late at night and a short trip, so it was hard to get a car. After waiting for about ten minutes, a driver finally accepted the order and drove around for five or six kilometers to get there. Lu Fangchi waited in the cold wind for nearly twenty minutes before getting into the car, feeling his condition subtly worsening again.

However, once in the car, it was quick. It took only about ten minutes to reach the building under his apartment. Lu Fangchi got out of the car, opened the door, and took the elevator upstairs.

“Ding——” As he stepped out of the elevator and approached the door, he saw a large dark figure not far away.

Lu Fangchi’s eyebrows furrowed slightly as he walked up. The motion sensor light illuminated the hallway, and he saw the person standing at the door.