Copycat - Chapter 32 

Chapter 32

◎Taming the Sheep◎

The man looked around, his expression showing a puzzling struggle, but he still walked over to a telephone pole and recited his lines like an actor.

“What are you going to do?” Zhou Ziyan opened her mouth, only to find that her throat was full of a rusty, metallic taste of bl00d.

The man was getting closer and closer to her. She screamed for help with her hoarse throat, all the while backing away in fear with her hands propped on the ground.

The alley was silent. Zhou Ziyan’s throat was raw from screaming. She hoped her cries for help would alarm the lively street a kilometer away. It was her only hope of being rescued.

The man kept a grinning, not-too-close, not-too-far distance.

A series of unexpected events made the fear in Zhou Ziyan’s heart reach its peak. When she tried to speak again, she found that she couldn’t make any sound.

She couldn’t stand up, so she could only back away. Tears soaked her clothes. Fear made her tremble, her breathing quickened, and she was almost out of breath.

She was finally cornered. No one heard her cries for help.

Her back was against the dilapidated walls on both sides of the alley. Cold sweat soaked her body.

Only the faint meowing of the cat in her arms made her feel like she was still alive.

Finally, the deafening sound of a car horn echoed through the alley, resounding throughout the entire street.

When the man saw the license plate number, he let out a sigh of relief.

A long limousine drove into the alley.

“You’re lucky. Always poking your nose where it doesn’t belong. You should be glad that a kind person came to save you this time.”

“Don’t let me run into you again next time.”

Zhou Ziyan huddled against the wall with her legs pressed together.

She was holding a dying kitten in her arms.

The sudden heavy rain drenched her.

The rainwater diluted the crimson bl00d on the ground. She couldn’t tell if it was from the cat in her arms or from the scraped wounds on her body when she backed up.

She saw a woman in high heels get out of the car and walk towards her.

She held an umbrella, and her steps were hurried. She seemed to be calling out her name.

The kitten in her arms jumped down from her body and escaped into the bushes, where she would never be able to find it on her own.

Hospital.

The unconscious patient had woken up and was currently in a stable emotional state. Wen Jiao sat by the hospital bed, feeding Zhou Ziyan some porridge.

“…” Wen Jiao sighed and put the bowl down.

The white ceramic spoon clinked against the edge of the bowl, making a crisp sound.

“You need food,” Wen Jiao sighed. “Just staring at me won’t make the food magically go into your stomach.”

Zhou Ziyan was propped up on the bed of the private hospital. A stone on the ground had cut a gash on her calf, and the doctor had given her two stitches. It was bandaged to stop the bleeding, and she was given a tetanus shot.

Zhou Ziyan lay on the bed, looking at the person in front of her with pleading eyes. She held onto Wen Jiao’s arm and refused to let go for even a moment.

“…Ziyan.”

Zhou Ziyan’s fingers were curled. She didn’t dare to grab too tightly, but she remained in a tense state, ready to grab her at any moment.

The female nurse next to them chuckled when she saw this. “Miss Wen, this lady is so attached to you. She really doesn’t want to be separated from you for even a moment.”

A smile unconsciously formed on Wen Jiao’s lips. She picked up the porridge in her hand and gently blew on it with her mouth.

The nurse’s head was full of romantic fantasies. “You must be a couple!”

Zhou Ziyan’s fingers, holding onto Wen Jiao’s pants, suddenly tightened. She immediately saw Wen Jiao’s expression turn cold.

Zhou Ziyan felt her heart jump into her throat, that same feeling of falling from heaven to hell.

She felt a strange sense of oppression rising in her chest, but she couldn’t pinpoint what it was.

Wen Jiao put down the bowl of white porridge. “We are not a couple. I’m already married.”

“Ah. I’m sorry.” The nurse apologized awkwardly.

But Wen Jiao never gave her a friendly look again.

Zhou Ziyan’s face was pale. She pursed her lips, wanting to speak up to make the nurse who had made the mistake feel less awkward.

At that moment, the door to the VIP ward was pushed open.

A male doctor walked in with a medical chart. He said as he walked, “Number three patient, right? Your test results are out. There’s nothing seriously wrong with your body. You can…”

Before the doctor could finish, a woman’s scream suddenly echoed in the not-so-spacious ward.

Wen Jiao was slightly startled. After seeing the male doctor walk in, Zhou Ziyan covered her head with the blanket and screamed uncontrollably.

“Miss Zhou, Miss Zhou?!” The nurse quickly stepped forward and held the suddenly out-of-control patient, gently stroking her back. “It’s okay, it’s okay.”

“He’s a doctor, not a bad person.”

The doctor stood by the bed, at a loss. The screaming lasted for a full three minutes.

Wen Jiao looked at the doctor with a blank expression. “Doctor Zhang, you can leave now.”

Doctor Zhang, holding the medical chart, frowned deeper and deeper. “Her condition could very well be post-traumatic stress disorder. She must receive psychological intervention immediately, otherwise the patient may be affected for the rest of her life.”

“She has no problem,” Wen Jiao said calmly. She picked up the white ceramic spoon and blew on the porridge that had long since gone cold.

“How can she have no problem?!” The doctor looked confused. “CEO Wen, you are an investor in our hospital. I must be responsible for the patients you bring in. I still recommend that the patient receive psychological intervention immediately.”

The doctor stubbornly looked at the woman in front of him, who was exquisite from head to toe, but when he met her indifferent eyes, he understood the hidden meaning.

It wasn’t that there was no problem.

Rather, the existence of this problem was just right.

After the doctor left the ward, the screaming inside quickly stopped.

Zhou Ziyan slowly recovered from her extreme panic, and the nurse finally let out a sigh of relief.

Outside the window, the faint yellow sky gradually turned into a deep black color.

Zhou Ziyan lay weakly on the bed, her eyes tightly closed. In her half-asleep state, she felt something slipping away.

Her weakened nerves instantly became alert.

“Wen Jiao!”

Zhou Ziyan sat up from the bed, grabbing the hem of Wen Jiao’s clothes.

She pleaded, “Wen Jiao, I’m so scared. Can you stay here with me?”

“I’m really scared.”

Wen Jiao lowered her eyelashes. When she hesitated, her brows furrowed together. She looked as beautiful as frost and snow. “But…”

“But what?” Zhou Ziyan felt her body好像 (as if) catching fire, and her chest felt suffocated.

That feeling she couldn’t grasp or touch came back again.

Those indifferent gray pupils looked over: “Alice is still waiting for me at the villa.”

Wen Jiao took out her phone and turned on the screen.

Zhou Ziyan unintentionally saw her phone’s screensaver—a hot blonde woman with a long torso and slender legs, wearing a red bikini.

Zhou Ziyan’s tense nerves snapped again. She let go of her hand, looking completely lost.

Wen Jiao felt that the time had come. She slowly spoke: “If you’re really scared, I can tonight…”

“You should go back.”

Wen Jiao was stunned for a moment.

She saw Zhou Ziyan smile at her weakly.

Zhou Ziyan held on to her last bit of integrity, suppressing her instinctive dependence on Wen Jiao.

She couldn’t be a third party who destroyed someone else’s marriage.

She forced herself to turn her head, using the blanket to block her eyes from seeing Wen Jiao.

In her blind spot, Wen Jiao’s eyes were deep and profound.

A moment later, the door to the ward was closed heavily.

Zhou Ziyan didn’t sleep well that night. In her dreams, she was hurt again.

She heard the mocking laughter of her classmates in the competition class. She heard the faint screams of the kitten. She heard the sound of an axe smashing the door.

Zhou Ziyan opened her eyes. The curtains in the ward were still closed, which she found strange.

She had no choice but to press the red button by the bed for help, but there was still no response for a long time.

She was famished. She put on her slippers and was about to go outside the ward to ask the on-duty nurse to prepare some easily digestible food for her.

Pushing the door open, Zhou Ziyan saw a strange, androgynous-looking person sitting in the chair for family members in the doorway.

The person was wearing a black hat, the brim pulled down to cover their eyes. A blue medical mask covered their entire face.

Zhou Ziyan’s brows furrowed slightly. She was about to ask who the person was.

The strange person sitting in the chair suddenly looked up and stared at her.

Their black pupils only occupied a small part of their eyes. The whites of their eyes were a large area above and below.

Zhou Ziyan was stunned for a moment. She watched as the man slowly took off his medical mask. The sinister face she had seen countless times in her nightmares appeared before her eyes again.

“I told you we would meet again.”

The woman’s scream pierced through the entire hospital.

When Wen Jiao arrived, the doctors at the private hospital all looked flustered.

“CEO Wen,” a female doctor came over.

She sighed, looking at the extremely unstable patient. “The patient’s condition is very bad right now. She refuses to let anyone get close to her. You see…”

Before she could finish, Wen Jiao walked directly towards Zhou Ziyan.

The female doctor quickly stopped her. “It’s no use. As soon as someone gets close to her, she’ll suddenly scream, have a panic attack, pull her hair, and harm herself.”

Wen Jiao pushed aside the arm blocking her path.

The female doctor had no choice but to make way for her.

The patient’s nerves were extremely sensitive. As soon as someone got close, she could sense it immediately.

Therefore, as soon as Wen Jiao got closer, screaming immediately erupted from the ward.

The female doctor spread her hands to the people around her: “I told you so.”

The screaming grew more and more intense with every step Wen Jiao took, but Wen Jiao acted as if she heard nothing, getting closer and closer to where the patient was.

The female doctor’s brows furrowed: “CEO Wen!”

Wen Jiao walked to the glass window and grabbed Zhou Ziyan, whose shoulders were trembling and eyes were unfocused. “Look at me, Zhou Ziyan. Look at me.”

The other person still didn’t react. She just kept screaming and trembling.

“Look at me!”

The woman’s cold roar overpowered the continuous screaming.

The patient’s trembling body slowly calmed down.

The doctors were all stunned. “There’s a therapy like this.”

Amidst the various pieces of advice that were indistinguishable between good and bad, Zhou Ziyan recognized the voice that belonged exclusively to Wen Jiao. She felt as if she had grabbed a lifeline and could no longer let go.