Love in the Depths of Time (GL) - Chapter 27

One evening, Jia Le finished her work and was ready to go home and rest. As she stepped out of the hospital gate, she saw Lin Xi waiting nearby, just like always, to take her home before heading back herself. Jia Le looked at Lin Xi’s tired face and didn’t want her to work so hard, so she invited Lin Xi to live together.

Lin Xi’s heart trembled slightly when she heard Jia Le’s invitation. A gentle and touched look flashed through her eyes. She stopped and gazed into Jia Le’s eyes, speaking softly, “Jia Le, are you really sure?”

Jia Le smiled slightly, her gaze firm yet gentle. “Lin Xi, I know you’ve always done so much for me. I don’t want you to be so exhausted. If we live together, we can take care of each other. Isn’t that better?”

A warmth rose in Lin Xi’s heart. She knew Jia Le’s invitation was sincere and full of care. She took a deep breath, trying to keep her voice steady. “Jia Le, I really appreciate your invitation. To be honest, I’ve thought about being closer to you too. That way, I can take better care of you.”

Jia Le gently held Lin Xi’s hand, her eyes filled with sincerity. “Lin Xi, we are the most important people in each other’s lives. If we live together, we can support each other better and make life a little easier.”

Lin Xi smiled, feeling warmth fill her heart. “Alright, Jia Le. I accept. I’m looking forward to living with you.”

Jia Le’s eyes sparkled with joy. She held Lin Xi’s hand tightly. “Thank you, Lin Xi. I believe we will have a wonderful life together.”

Lin Xi nodded, her gaze firm. “Yes, Jia Le. No matter what happens in the future, I will always be by your side, supporting you. Let’s work together to make life even better.”

The two of them walked side by side, filled with anticipation for the future and deep affection for each other. Lin Xi had always hidden her love deep in her heart, but she knew that simply being with Jia Le was her greatest happiness.

—

The scent of disinfectant and cedar intertwined in the morning light. Jia Le gazed at the medical journals and financial reports stacked on the dining table, her mind drifting back to the pair of Jimmy Choo heels damp with night dew at the entrance when she returned from an emergency shift the previous night. Lin Xi’s suitcase lay open in the living room like a blooming night flower, neatly packed with anti-anxiety medication and liver supplements.

“The peripartum cardiomyopathy seminar has been rescheduled to nine o’clock.” Jia Le pushed a cup of warm strawberry milk toward Lin Xi, her fingertips brushing the stray hairs at the back of Lin Xi’s neck. The sharp lines usually confined by tailored suits now softened into mist in the morning glow.

Lin Xi’s eyelashes cast butterfly-shaped shadows over the financial reports. “I have to sign the second-phase funding for the pediatric heart surgery building today.” The sound of her sapphire ring tapping against the keyboard subtly matched the rhythm of surgical scissors snapping open and shut. In the aroma of toasted bread, they completed a silent morning meeting, like two plants sharing morning dew through intertwined roots.

When the shadowless lamp in the operating room lit up, Lin Xi was striking the gong at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Under the camera flashes, her new pearl earrings glistened— a gift Jia Le had taken from her white coat pocket the previous night while still wearing gloves stained with glutaraldehyde after suturing a ruptured maternal heart. “Dr. Wen’s sutures today look like she’s embroidering a wedding dress,” an intern exclaimed at Jia Le’s unusually delicate stitches. No one noticed the faint red mark left by the pearl earring on her collarbone, illuminated by the blue glow of the monitor.

Seven hours into an international video conference, Lin Xi’s private phone vibrated on the mahogany desk. The emergency room had sent a photo: Jia Le curled up on the duty room sofa, a strawberry-shaped brooch tucked in her hair, shimmering under the moonlight like sugar frost. At the edge of the image, half an opened box of loratadine was visible—spring pollen had once again started attacking her bronchial tubes.

Lin Xi paused an $80 million acquisition deal, and her black Mercedes sped across half the city. When the car’s fragrance system automatically switched to the scent of disinfectant, she finally understood why her phone’s location had stubbornly remained at Renhe Hospital all these years.

—

On a rainy midnight during the monsoon season, Jia Le woke from a nightmare. Her fingertips touched “Legends of Cardiac Surgery” on the pillow beside her, with a yellowed programming competition certificate tucked between its pages. On the back, seventeen-year-old Lin Xi had drawn a wobbly ECG tracing and scribbled: “When a ventricular septal defect meets strawberry ice cream.”

Their breathing intertwined with the sound of rain, forming an invisible net. The hands-on Lin Xi’s watch glowed blue under the emergency light. They locked eyes in the darkness, like two thieves guarding a time vault, finally finding the key to unlock the summer of 2008. “That year, you said you wanted to be my paladin.” Jia Le traced the cut facets of the sapphire. “Now, it’s my turn to guard your sleep.”

The aluminum foil of anti-arrhythmia medication rustled in the drawer, and the Financial Times covered the latest issue of “Clinical Cardiology.”

—

On the autumn equinox, at the opening ceremony of the Renhe Hospital Pediatric Heart Surgery Building, Lin Xi watched as Jia Le’s paladin pendant shimmered under the camera flashes. When reporters asked about the inspiration behind the “Bitter Chocolate Project,” she smiled at the pearl-gray figure moving among the young patients. “Someone once taught me that the most bitter medicine needs the sweetest coating.”

The sapphire on her ring finger refracted rainbows, illuminating the melted chocolate wrapper peeking out of Jia Le’s white coat pocket.

The evening light stretched their shadows long, as if stitching fifteen years of time into a perfect circle. Amid the wailing of ambulance sirens, a pair of hands—one in medical gloves and the other in crocodile leather—finally formed the perfect shape of a heart.