I beg you, do not leave me. (Updated for the diamond milestone)

Linglan pushed the door open and entered, staring blankly at Ye Shenghan. What had the doctor just said? If there were any further delay, his hand might be crippled for good.

Ye Shenghan cast a weary glance at her. Bai Yuchen stood between them, looking from one to the other; they appeared like two people who had just finished a brutal, mutually destructive fight, both left battered and bruised. He couldn't help but shake his head and sigh. Secrets could not be kept forever, but emotional wounds required a healer of the heart; the one who tied the knot must be the one to untie it.

Bai Yuchen tactfully withdrew, nudging Linglan into the emergency room as he did so. He quietly closed the door and waited outside.

Linglan walked slowly toward him. A tearing pain radiated from the back of Ye Shenghan’s hand; he hissed, drawing a sharp breath. His bloodless lips were tightly pressed together, and fine beads of cold sweat broke out across his pale face. He struggled to hide his agony in front of her. The emergency room was so quiet that the only sound was that of debris falling onto a tray. Watching him, Linglan pulled out a tissue and carefully wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.

Ye Shenghan froze, feeling a touch as soft as a feather. He opened his half-closed, star-like eyes, looked up at her, and took her hand, holding it firmly in his palm.

Linglan averted her gaze, looking at the blood-stained medical tray. She narrowed her eyes, feeling a chill run down her spine as she remembered his madness during the night; she still felt a lingering fear.

The minor surgery on Ye Shenghan’s hand lasted until five in the morning. The sky had already turned a hazy, dim gray.

Linglan didn't dare to imagine the newspaper headlines for the day. In this era of digital information, even the slightest leak would be seized upon by the media to weave rumors. She gripped her phone tightly; it had been silent for the entire night.

When Bai Yuchen saw him emerge, he stood up and draped a coat over his shoulders. Linglan followed a short distance behind, both of them remaining silent.

Bai Yuchen sighed. Ye Shenghan’s pace was hurried, and Bai Yuchen quickly followed, stepping forward to steady his arm. "Slow down!"

Ye Shenghan paused, catching a glimpse of the woman in the clear glass door, and finally stopped walking.

Linglan watched as he turned around. Their gazes met, and he said faintly, "I lied to you."

"——"

"The information wasn't leaked. The negatives are still on my phone."

Ye Linglan realized the truth, and she looked at him with sadness. "You were testing me?"

Bai Yuchen watched the two of them tormenting each other back and forth. He said nothing, simply releasing his grip on Ye Shenghan’s arm.

Ye Shenghan smiled bitterly, his face full of pain. His sharp, dark eyes had dimmed, and his throat felt tight, as if choked by a sour, suffocating ache.

Linglan felt a jolt in her heart, finally realizing how out of control her actions and accusations had been the night before. She furrowed her brows, struggling to murmur an apology: "I’m sorry..."

Unexpectedly, Ye Shenghan stepped forward quickly and pulled her into his arms. "Linglan..."

His voice was suppressed. He held the back of her head and pressed her into his chest. He knew what those three words signified. "I don't need your apology."

He kept murmuring, saying so many things. What he said most was that he wanted her back—to return to his side. He could give up the Ye family business; they still had Shengqi. He had secured a very important contract, and he could rise from the ashes.

But he could not lose her; he could not let her get lost again. He knew the secret hidden in her heart: she had loved him for seventeen years. He had loved her for so long, for so long that she herself had forgotten the deadline.

Ye Shenghan whispered, not knowing how long he held her, until everything went black before his eyes, and he collapsed to the ground in a haze.

"Young Master Ye..."

"Shenghan..."

Ye Linglan and Bai Yuchen cried out in unison. The sounds of hurried footsteps and emergency cries echoed from all directions. Linglan frantically grabbed his hand while Bai Yuchen hoisted his body up, looking as anxious as an ant on a hot pan. Medical staff arrived at the sound of the commotion. Linglan rose, but a wave of dizziness hit her. She leaned against the railing on the wall, and as she gently let go of him, she watched his figure disappear through a blur of tears.

Linglan clutched her chest, her body sliding down the wall. The medicine... her medicine. Her body could not stop trembling violently. She frantically rummaged through her bag, her fingers shivering as she pulled at the hidden pocket.

"Linglan... Linglan..." Bai Yuchen was blocked outside the emergency room. When he turned and saw her, he cursed, "Damn it!" He strode over, scooped her up into his arms, and asked, "Is your condition acting up again?"

He only heard her murmur, "Medicine... in the bag..." She gasped for air, as if trying to empty her lungs. She was on the verge of suffocation, her whole body trembling like chaff from the tearing pain. In moments, her clothes were soaked through.

Bai Yuchen hurriedly rummaged through the bag. The pill box in the hidden pocket fell to the ground with a clatter, scattering everywhere. He didn't care about anything else; he picked up a pill and pushed it between her bloodless lips. In that moment, Bai Yuchen realized how terrified he truly was.

After taking the medicine, Linglan’s breathing gradually steadied. She closed her eyes tightly; it had been a long time since she had suffered two attacks in one night.

"Are you feeling better? Hmm?" Bai Yuchen asked anxiously. He was the only one who knew about her health condition, ever since he had secretly come across her medical records in the orphanage's archive years ago and discovered her congenital defect.

That day, Linglan had happened to run into him in the archive. Bai Yuchen was terrified, and in his guilt, he had dropped the files everywhere. When Linglan bent down to help pick them up, she realized he had been looking at her records.

Back then, she was deeply in love with Young Master Ye, silently watching over him. Bai Yuchen knew her secret. He had tried to probe her, but she never confessed, choosing to love him in secret. Was it because of her physical defect?

The only answer she gave him then was silence, followed by a plea. She begged him to keep her secret, saying that her love for him was her own business, and she did not want her affection to become a burden to him.

So, to this day, he had kept that unspoken secret for her.

Bai Yuchen looked down at the woman in his arms. She covered her eyes gently, gradually regaining her composure. "Linglan!" he called out.

Linglan opened her eyes and asked softly, "How is Young Master Ye?"

"Worry about yourself first."

"I'm fine, I won't die," she said with a smile. She had been living like this for all these years.

"Yes," Bai Yuchen scoffed, "except that when the attacks come, you wish you were dead."

"Don't tell Young Master Ye..." she whispered.

Bai Yuchen sighed deeply. What could he say?!

"Linglan, do you still remember what the Southern Orphanage was like?" he asked, easily evoking her nostalgia for the past.

She nodded. "Of course I remember."

But in Bai Yuchen’s memory, back then, she loved Shenghan so much—loved him with such caution. Every weekend, Shenghan would drag him to the orphanage to play. He remembered the green grass growing by the basketball court; at the turn of spring and summer, tiny yellow flowers would sprout among the grass.

Linglan would sit in that grass, resting her chin on her hands, blinking as she watched Ye Shenghan’s heroic figure on the court.

He also remembered when Linglan first entered high school. There were always people better than her, and she couldn't keep up with the other students in various subjects. She couldn't even afford an English dictionary back then. He had secretly used his pocket money to buy her a thick "Oxford English Dictionary," pretending to tell her that Ye Shenghan had asked him to give it to her.

He would always remember the joy on Linglan’s face. In the golden morning light, she smiled faintly, and the sun fell upon her dark hair, casting a clear, bright luster.

She was as refined as a painting. It was hard to imagine that beneath that cheerful, transcendent, and beautiful exterior lay a congenital defect—a cruel touch of fate. She had been working hard, striving to overcome her own limits.

When he finished telling the story, Linglan stared blankly into the distance. Bai Yuchen whispered, "You remember all of this, don't you?"

"Yes!" She choked back a sob. The past was too beautiful, too pure; it had been sealed away in her memory.

In high school, she studied English hard because Ye Shenghan spoke it fluently. Every time he recited that English poem in front of her, she always remembered that one line: *To the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world!*

She had carved that sentence onto the headboard of her bed, writing it in fine pencil lead. The fluid English script was deeply etched there. Every night before falling asleep, she would recite it, closing her eyes to imprint it in her heart.

It was only much later that she truly understood that sentence: To the whole world, he might just be one person, but to her, he was her entire world!

"Linglan," Bai Yuchen called out. "Do you know why I brought all this up?"

Linglan nodded. She knew his intentions. She pushed him away as the doctor stepped out of the emergency room. Linglan and Bai Yuchen hurried over. "Doctor... is he alright?" Bai Yuchen asked.

"Has the patient been coughing for a long time?"

"Yes, it was said to be bronchitis. I kept telling him to come to the hospital, but he wouldn't listen."

"It has developed into pneumonia, causing a high fever."

"Is it serious?" Linglan asked anxiously.

"He needs to be hospitalized for treatment. We must get his fever down first." After the doctor finished giving instructions, he turned and left.

Bai Yuchen patted her shoulder and said, "You go check on him in the ward; I’ll go home and pack some clothes for him."

******

Linglan sat by his hospital bed, looking at his sleeping face. She sighed softly, looked away, and gazed at the bright sky. Bai Yuchen had brought up the past; she understood what he meant. It was over. She closed her eyes gently. Everything between her and Mo Zhicheng had to end.

She fell asleep with her head resting on the bedside. In her dreams, a warm, broad hand stroked her hair.

The phone in her pocket rang again and again, then fell silent.

—I really want to ask you if you have ever felt anything for me.

—I really want to ask you if you have ever felt anything for me.

Finally, the man took it out, removed the battery, and tossed it aside.

At last, the pleasant music fell into eternal silence.

When Linglan woke up, she found Ye Shenghan staring at her.