"Don't you miss your husband?"
Upon hearing those words, Luo Xiaolei paused as if she just heard the police yelling at her the word 'freeze!'.
The truth was that Gu Jinyang had been worrying about Luo Xiaolei. She was working a little too much, she almost didn't even find time to rest. Lately, mentioning Yu Chen was the only way Gu Jinyang could make her stop working.
It was obvious that she was burying herself in the work to distract herself. The longer Yu Chen stayed unconscious, the harder she worked. It was hard for everyone to watch her like that but they couldn't really do a thing for her.
"Of course," Luo Xiaolei half-smiled as she slowly put down the document in her hand. "Of course, I miss him. I miss him so much."
Suddenly, she became emotional. This was why Gu Jinyang didn't like to remind her about Yu Chen, because she would inevitably become like this. But he had no choice, she had to stop working and get some rest.
"You should go home now, Miss. I'm sure he's waiting for you." Gu Jinyang said and Luo Xiaolei buried her face in her palms. Her working mode disappeared and now she looked quite drained.
"Mm, okay. I'll leave the rest to you then, Mr. Gu." She finally stood and left the office.
Luo Xiaolei was leaning her head on the car's window as she mindlessly stared outside. She could see Xiao Mimi's face on a huge billboard. Her ad with Yu empire months ago made her popularity boom and many businesses had offered her contracts. But in the end, she accepted only two ads because they were the only ones who agreed to her terms. Despite releasing just one single in the past four months, Xiao Mimi remained strangely popular.
Next to Xiao Mimi's masked photo was I.x.U's, the super rookie boy band's billboard. Luo Xiaolei's lips curved up a little when she saw her babies on an even bigger billboard everywhere. I.x.U's debut was as expected, huge. They easily swept over the country as a monster rookie and just after three months, they were preparing for another comeback.
Luo Xiaolei was truly proud of them. Even though she could no longer check on them every day as she used to, she was always monitoring them through video calls and messages.
Her life in these past few months, since Yu Chen fell into a coma, drastically changed.
She knew that what she was doing was a bit extreme. She knew she should at least take it easy sometimes but if she slacked off even for a while, she would start overthinking. As much as she could, Luo Xiaolei didn't want to think too much. That was why she buried herself in work. She was trying to stay positive and wait for him to wake up but it wasn't easy to avoid thinking negatively. And she couldn't help but feel her heart squeezing in pain every time she thought of him. She was missing him so bad and it was getting worse as the days passed by.
She thought she was strong enough but it seemed like she was wrong. She didn't want to think about the what ifs but she couldn't help it. Waiting wasn't easy, she knew that but… what if he really didn't wake up again?
These kinds of unpleasant thoughts were the reason why Luo Xiaolei was forcing herself to forget about anything else and just work. She hated thinking that way so she could only overwork herself to avoid thinking.
…
By the time she finally stepped inside Yu Chen's room, she weakly leaned on the door, looking at him.
"I'm back," she said, forcing a smile. She slowly walked towards him, stared at his face, bent and then gave him a kiss on his forehead.
Lately, Luo Xiaolei had stopped talking to him about everything. The words that she was uttering were getting less and less as the days passed by. It wasn't because she was tired, it was because she could no longer force herself to stay cheerful when she talked to him. Her emotions become chaotic whenever she saw him, still in a deep sleep, without any sign of him waking up again.
That night, even though she had been away for five days, the words "I miss you so much," was all she said, before she fell asleep right beside him.
The next morning, she woke up on the couch. It seemed that Juu or Kyuu carried her again to the couch again last night. She stood up and immediately went to the other room to get ready. As always, her schedule for the day was tightly packed so she had no time to even enjoy her morning.
When she returned to Yu Chen's room to say goodbye, her attention was pulled from Yu Chen to the phone vibrating inside her bag. She was surprised that the phone ringing was Yu Chen's cellphone.
The old man gave that phone to her that day she took over as the empire's CEO. The phone was the one that important people used to contact her so she took it. Of course, she had a browse when she got handed the phone but all she found in it was their cute photo as the wallpaper and her number labeled as 'my little thunder'. There was nothing more personal in it, not even music or photos. Just private emails and calls from other CEOs.
Thinking that an important person was calling, Luo Xiaolei quickly brought out the phone to answer it but to her surprise, it wasn't a call, it was a reminder.
She had never put any reminders in her husband's phone since she received it so this made her curious.
With a curious frown, Luo Xiaolei tapped on the reminder.
The reminder was entitled 'DEADLINE'. When she tapped on its details, there was nothing else written in it, just dates.
'Start: 07-22-20XX End: 12-22-20XX'
The lines on Luo Xiaolei's forehead deepened as she looked at it. She sat next to Yu Chen's bed.
"What is this? 12-22-20XX is today…"