Copycat - Chapter 37
Chapter 37
◎Drug Control◎
“What nonsense are you talking about?”
Ren Li looked at the woman on the bed, who was weakly coughing. “But…”
Zhou Ziyan pulled the young girl closer, her expression gentle, and softly stroked her hair. “This is a matter between Wen Jiao and me. You’re still young. Work hard at the Wen family, and you’ll have a great future.”
“Miss!”
“That’s enough,” Zhou Ziyan said, placing her hand with the IV on the bed railing. “I’ll seriously consider your suggestion. Tell me what happened when I was unconscious.”
Ren Li told her the truth.
As soon as it happened, the entire villa was woken up. A private doctor did a quick check and suggested she be taken to the hospital immediately.
“CEO Wen drove the car over right away. You were completely unconscious at the time. I was the one who carried you into the car. Before I could even get out, the car started.”
Ren Li said reluctantly, “CEO Wen seemed quite anxious.”
Zhou Ziyan’s expression softened slightly.
“We ran ten red lights in a row. While driving, CEO Wen was on the phone with a doctor who spoke a foreign language. It was all stuff I couldn’t understand.”
Zhou Ziyan frowned. “A foreign-speaking doctor… was his name Leicester?”
“Yes, that’s the name!”
Zhou Ziyan lowered her eyelashes. She knew there was something wrong with the medicine the doctor prescribed, and she had also deluded herself into thinking that Wen Jiao might not have known about the medicine’s effects. But when the bloody truth was laid out in front of her, she still subconsciously tried to make excuses for Wen Jiao in her mind.
Perhaps Wen Jiao just loved her too much and tried to use drugs to control her freedom so that she could always be by her side.
Seaside villa.
With the best doctors in the country treating her, Zhou Ziyan was discharged quickly. She resumed her three-point-line life, but this time… Zhou Ziyan’s gaze fell on the woman sleeping on the sofa.
“Wen Jiao.”
In the dark, the woman curled up on the sofa opened her eyes. “What is it, Ziyan?”
Zhou Ziyan bit her lip and was silent for a while. Wen Jiao lifted the blanket, walked from the sofa to the bed, and pried open her tightly clenched palm. “Did you have a nightmare?”
It was like this again.
Zhou Ziyan turned her head, held back the tears in her eyes, and said in a muffled voice, “No, darling. You should go to sleep.”
“Do you need me to stay with you?”
Zhou Ziyan shook her head, but Wen Jiao still sat silently by her bed. She could feel Wen Jiao’s warmth, which she adored, and her scent, which made her want to depend on and submit to her.
“Don’t worry, I won’t touch you while you’re sick,” Wen Jiao’s voice sounded even colder in the dark. Zhou Ziyan heard her tone pause slightly. “I’m not… that much of a beast.”
“If you have a nightmare, just hold my hand.”
Zhou Ziyan didn’t agree but she didn’t refuse either. However, the fact that Wen Jiao was right beside her made her feel an unparalleled sense of security. This sense of security was something that no amount of wealth or power could replace.
She closed her eyes, and her mind gradually sank into a heavy dream. The recurring nightmare came again. She subconsciously wanted to grab onto something, but then she suddenly realized that she was in a warm embrace. She had a good night’s sleep.
After returning from the hospital, Zhou Ziyan and Wen Jiao gave each other the silent treatment for about a week. Although they weren’t speaking, they still slept in the same room every night and said some normal pleasantries.
The only difference was. Zhou Ziyan stood on her tiptoes, leaning against the expensive mahogany railing of the loft. Her gaze fell on the woman who was drinking coffee and reading the news, scanning her serene face and her indifferent eyes, which showed no emotion.
This was Wen Jiao, a woman who, no matter what happened, would wake up on time the next day, repeat a fixed routine, and never get tired of it, day in and day out for over ten years. She couldn’t help but call out in a low voice, “Wen Jiao.”
A look of surprise flashed in those indifferent eyes. For a whole week, Zhou Ziyan hadn’t greeted her, let alone prepared meals or eaten with her.
Zhou Ziyan smiled calmly. “What are you eating? Do you want to eat together?”
After the signal of reconciliation was sent, the two of them returned to their normal selves. No one mentioned the bankruptcy of the Cheng and Zhou families or the arrests. All the conflicts and misunderstandings seemed to have ended so lightly.
Zhou Ziyan voluntarily told Wen Jiao that she no longer wanted to take the red pill. She was expressing her wishes and also subtly hinting at something. She remembered that Wen Jiao had frowned at the time, but she quickly returned to her expressionless face and agreed.
Because she was worried that Ren Li was getting too close to her and that Wen Jiao would notice something, Zhou Ziyan arranged for Ren Li to do some odd jobs outside the villa. Fortunately, the head chef and the housekeeper took good care of her. Aside from not being able to see her often, Ren Li had settled down in the Wen family.
In the end, Zhou Ziyan still forgave Wen Jiao for her roughness that night.
In the villa’s garden.
Zhou Ziyan was wearing a light yellow dress today, paired with small black high heels. She hummed a song while holding a watering can, watering the red roses in the garden that had not yet bloomed.
“Miss!”
A crisp voice interrupted the song Zhou Ziyan was humming. She looked up and saw Ren Li’s young smiling face and also smiled in return. “Ren Li?”
She put down the watering can and held Ren Li’s slightly rough hands from work. “I haven’t seen you in a few days. How have you been doing at the villa recently?”
“Thanks to you, Miss, I’ve been doing great. Sister Head Chef and Sister Housekeeper have been taking good care of me. CEO Wen gave me a long-term contract, and now I can support myself and my parents after their surgery!”
Zhou Ziyan gave a sincere smile. Perhaps this was the best outcome.
The Zhou and Cheng families, who had made big mistakes, went bankrupt, and her grievances with them were settled. Her mother’s tomb was moved to a national cemetery, and she was no longer adrift. The people who had genuinely helped her were also living a good life because of her choices.
And Wen Jiao. Zhou Ziyan gave a relieved smile.
She had known for a long time that she and Wen Jiao were people from two different worlds. If it weren’t for her, her phoenix would have soared even earlier. Now that she was successful and still willing to keep her by her side, it was a great deal. She was unwilling and didn’t dare to greedily ask for a title or more.
As long as she could stay by Wen Jiao’s side, anything was fine.
Ren Li looked around to make sure no one was there. She held up four fingers. “Miss, I swear that even when I’m not by your side, I’ll keep helping you get information.”
“Ren Li, you really don’t have to…” Zhou Ziyan smiled helplessly.
Ren Li interrupted her. “I respect your choice to stay with CEO Wen, Miss, but no matter what you say, I am your person. As long as you are at the seaside villa, I will continue to help you gather more information.”
“One day, CEO Wen will realize how wonderful you are and divorce that… Alice!”
Zhou Ziyan gently covered her mouth with her palm and put a finger to her lips, shushing her. “It’s fine to say it in front of me, but you can’t talk nonsense around other people, got it?”
“Yes, Miss, I swear!”
Midnight, it was time to take her medicine again.
Tonight, Wen Jiao called her in advance to say that there was an urgent matter at the company and she couldn’t rush back to spend the night with her. Zhou Ziyan returned to her bedroom fifteen minutes early and sat on the sofa waiting for the housekeeper to come.
Time passed by, minute by minute. A thin layer of cold sweat seeped from her body. After a few more minutes, she grabbed her collar and repeatedly scratched the increasingly unbearable itching on her neck, as if millions of tiny insects were crawling all over her skin.
What was happening to her?
Her fingertips dug into her flesh, and the pain helped her stop the strange discomfort. In the deathly silence, the door to the room was finally opened. When the housekeeper saw what was happening, she was so scared that she rushed over. “Miss Zhou, Miss Zhou, what’s wrong with you?!”
“Medicine,” the housekeeper heard a weak voice, hoarse and muffled.
“Miss Zhou, what did you say?”
“I said give me the medicine!” The woman’s roar pierced through the door, startling the maids who were cleaning the rooms in the villa. Even the housekeeper froze in place, and it took her a long time to come back to her senses. She hesitated before speaking. “But… CEO Wen said you don’t need to take the medicine anymore.”
“Medicine, give me the medicine!” Zhou Ziyan had completely lost her mind at this point. She walked over and grabbed the housekeeper by the collar. The weak person’s immense strength at that moment lifted the housekeeper completely off the ground. Ren Li ran over and hugged her from behind. “Miss!”
“The paint box! There’s still medicine in the paint box!”
The only remaining sanity Zhou Ziyan had was related to the medicine. Almost as soon as Ren Li blurted it out, Zhou Ziyan immediately ran up the stairs barefoot, found the dusty paint box on the shelf, and greedily licked the remaining powder on it with her tongue.
“Miss…” Ren Li stood at the door, crying and sobbing.
The female housekeeper silently picked up her phone and called CEO Wen, who was in a meeting in B Province, hundreds of kilometers away.
When Wen Jiao rushed back, it was already late at night. She ran into the room, gasping for breath. She saw the woman on the bed sleeping peacefully and contentedly. She grabbed the housekeeper by the collar and roared in a low voice, “Didn’t I tell you to stop giving her the medicine and that she shouldn’t take it anymore?!”
“CEO Wen, I…”
The housekeeper glanced at Ren Li, who was standing behind her, and whispered, “CEO Wen, can we talk somewhere else?”
In the basement, the housekeeper explained, her voice trembling. “CEO Wen, I really didn’t expect this to happen. About a month ago, I noticed that Miss Zhou seemed to have stopped taking the medicine on her own. Every time, she would hold the pill under her tongue and spit it out after I left.”
“I was afraid you would blame me, so…”
“I added an extra dose of medicine to the fruit and vegetable juice Miss Zhou drinks every day.”
“I really didn’t expect that Miss Zhou only stopped taking one pill.”
Wen Jiao clenched her fist tightly. “Do you know what you’ve done?!”
“The dosage of those drugs must be strictly controlled by a doctor, otherwise they will become addictive drugs!”