My Darling, My Dearest

The two days of rest was effective in relieving the pain on her waist. Rachel stretched her waist and felt that she has recovered enough to return to her job at the hospital.

She was worried that she would become lazy if she lay down for even just a day more.

Unexpectedly, she received a call from the director before she could call him and notify him about her decision to return to work.

"How are you today, Rachel?" The director greeted her by asking about her condition as soon as she answered the call.

"It's almost completely healed. I'm okay to go back to work tomorrow," Rachel replied

optimistically.

"Don't worry about it. You can stay at home a few more days to fully recover," the director replied in a positive tone of voice.

His words left Rachel speechless. She wondered if the she was being given special treatment or not. She paused and thought of the most appropriate reply, but the director continued before she could say anything. "How are you at home these past few days? I have a paper that I have to publish in two days, but I have to go on a business trip tomorrow. So, I really have no time to modify it anymore." There was a short pause before the director continued. "Do you think you can help me out with it?"

It turned out that he didn't call only because he cared about her health.

"Yes, of course. Please sent it to me."

"It would be quite simple, really. Just check for any incorrect words and then make any necessary changes to the references as needed."

It might sound like a simple task, but the workload was not that small.

However, since she had already promised that she would help, she would have to do it to the best of her ability.

She went to the study, turned on her computer and carefully read through the director's paper. Only by reading through it would she find any problems with it and correct them.

She didn't notice that she worked on the paper until midnight.

She had a good sleep after she worked on the paper until the ringing of her phone woke her up.

Rachel picked up the phone and answered it in a low voice, "Hello." The director's voice came from the other end of the call. He sounded so angry when he replied back to Rachel. "Where are you now, Rachel?"

"What can I do for you, Director?" Rachel replied as she rubbed her eyes. She worked on the computer for a long time and her eyes felt sore and uncomfortable even after some sleep.

The director snorted when he heard Rachel's voice. "Let me ask you this. Who else read my paper? Why is it now attached to Affiliated No.1 Hospital's Clark Zhao's paper?"

"No one. I'm the only one who read it," Rachel replied.

She was not stupid to allow anyone else to read the director's paper. Additionally, she didn't know Clark Zhao at all.

But the director did not believe her reply at all. "What do you mean, you didn't? You're the only person other than me who had a copy of my paper. But now it was published by that person under his name! It took me a lot of time and effort to complete this paper! I have never wronged you before and I have always treated you fairly. And this is the kind of thanks that I get from you, Rachel?" "But, I didn't!"

Rachel replied despondently. It was all that she could say. She had no idea how his paper was leaked. As expected, Jack cancelled all of his afternoon appointments. As soon as he got out of his car, he saw a man in courier clothing who approached the front of Rachel's house. He held a sealed envelope in his hand.

Jack hurried to catch up to him and stopped him. "Is that a parcel for Rachel Shen? You can leave it with me."

The courier stopped and checked the name on the envelope and shook his head. "I can't. She needs to sign it in person."

Jack stayed quiet and didn't insist anymore. He watched the strange look on Rachel's face as she signed for the parcel. "What kind of letter is it?" he asked.

"It's a lawyer's letter," Rachel replied flatly. She handed him the letter and twisted her lips to one side. She never expected that the director would go so far as to sue her for plagiarism because his paper got leaked.

Jack frowned as he read the letter. "What really happened, Rachel? Why are you getting sued for plagiarism?"

She felt like there was a lump in her throat. She was in no mood to speak and explain herself. She took back the lawyer's letter from Jack, folded it a few times and placed it back into the envelope. She then sat on the sofa with an expressionless face.

She wondered what really caused the problem. However, she was absolutely sure that the problem did not come from her end. The only thing that she could think of was that there was a traitor around the director.

If that was the case, she should not take the blame for what happened.

Rachel dialed the director's number. And as she initially expected, the call was dropped.

She reached out her hand to Jack and said, "Lend me your phone. I need to make a call."

When she called using Jack's phone, the person on the other end of the call picked up the phone immediately. Before he could speak, Rachel said quickly, "Director, I never gave your paper to anyone. You're insisting that I plagiarized your paper without investigating first. Don't you think that it's unreasonable?"

Silence followed after Rachel finished speaking. The director did not reply back right away.

A few seconds later, Rachel finally heard his voice. "I'm not an unreasonable person. I gave you that important task because I trusted you. But you disappointed me, Rachel! Now, Clark Zhao is telling everyone that he wanted to thank you."

Rachel had no idea why Clark Zhao would say something like that to others. At that point, she was convinced that there was no reason for the director to lie to her. It seemed that she had fallen into a trap wher she accepted that paper. However, she would never take responsibility for something that she never did. "I don't know why Clark Zhao is saying that, Director, but I really don't know him. Can you give me some time to investigate this?"

"That is out of the question!" the director replied in an agitated tone of voice.

"Are you going to just let the real plagiarist get away with what he did to you?" Rachel asked and took a deep breath to calm herself down.

But the director never considered Rachel's idea. In his mind, she was only saying these things to defend herself.

'The matter is already ear enough. Th no to do any additional investigation. Wha else do you need to investigate? Are you saying that all this had nothing to do at all with you? At this point, you should have already received the lawyer's letter. You can speak to my lawyer if you have anything else to say!"

The director ended the call without warning before Rachel could speak. And she kept the phone near her ear until she heard a beep. The sound made her feel like she was having a headache once more. She sat quietly on the sofa as she felt her temples throb. She wondered who could possibly use such a despicable method to frame her.

But no matter how much she thought about it, Rachel couldn't figure out who could've possibly framed her.

Jack remained quiet and never said anything. He quietly poured water into a glass.

Rachel turned her head to Jack. She gently coughed twice to clear her throat. "Do you want to know what really happened?"

"Yes. I'm curious," he replied calmly and reached out his hand to stroke her hair.

What he heard from Rachel's phone call gave him a general idea of what happened. "How do you plan to investigate?" he asked her before Rachel could speak.

Rachel shook her head and rolled her eyes to herself. She still had no idea how to do or what do for the investigation.

She had no idea where to begin.

But her mind wandered to the question of who could get into the director's office and has access to his computer. To make it worse, the hospital was always a chaotic place with many people that came and went. As far as she could tell, many of the nurses could access the computer inside his office in order to search for data related to patients, medicines or hospital supplies.

Jack silently stared at her for some time. He then smiled by slightly raising one side of his lips. "Let me deal with this matter, Rachel," he said in his husky voice. But the matter did not seem to be that simple to Rachel.

She hesitated for a while as she thought about Jack's offer. "Forget about it. I should not bother you about it."

No matter how cunning one was, they would give themselves away. Besides, Rachel felt that it was her problem to solve and she should not bother anyone else.

"Rachel, I wish that you would bother me every day and every moment," Jack replied with a grin as he poked Rachel's left cheek.

Rachel looked obviously startled. She leaned back on the sofa and bit her lower lip as her face flushed.

She stretched out a finger and poked him in his shoulder, signaling to him to sit down. "This is a matter between the director and me. I'm afraid that it will be an inconvenience for you if you get involved in it," she explained patiently.

It was rare nowadays to see her facing him like a young girl once more. Jack's dark eyes were immediately overcome with gladness as he smiled broadly at Rachel. "You are one of the parties involved in the case. It's both convenient and safe for me to deal with this matter than you."

"Uhm. Then... thank you, Jack."

Jack felt amused and smiled back at her. "Thank me when the truth has been revealed. Do you agree?"

"Okay," Rachel replied simply. She never expected that she'd feel so relieved when Jack offered to take over the matter for her.

Since the very beginning, she had always a certain sense of dependence on Jack.

But this feeling had been buried too deeply inside her to be easily noticed.

However, she never completely forgot about the issue, so she went back to work on the second day.

The hospital was a very busy place every day, and there were different things that happened daily. Very few people knew anything about the director's paper, so when she got back, Rachel never heard of any talk about the paper.

Only Celia came to her office to ask her about the director during break time at noon.

She knew nothing about the paper, but noticed that the director, who usually smiled, had a very gloomy disposition lately.

Rachel pretended not to know the reason behind the director's gloomy countenance. Instead, she changed the topic and asked about Celia's recovery.

Her face suddenly flushed at Rachel's question. She replied with a whisper that she had recovered and promised not to do such a stupid thing again.

The two of them chatted a while longer before going back to work. They didn't have any more free time in the afternoon.

When her shift ended, all Rachel wanted was to go home and have a good rest, but she was stopped by a strange man as soon as she walked out of the hospital.

"What can I do for you, sir?"

Rachel felt impatient in dealing with the stranger's unusual behavior. So, she decided to take a step back from the strange man.

The man took out a card from his pocket and handed it to Rachel with both hands. "This is my card, miss."

Rachel sighed when she thought that it was nothing more than a mere advertising.

It was common in the streets of the city for people to conduct business in this way. But Rachel can't think of a reason why she should take the card. She waved her hand at the man and said calmly, "I really don't need it."

The man stared at her with a smile. "Don't you really want to take a look at it first before you decide whether you want it or not, Miss Shen?" Author's note

&

Goose

Translator: Scarlett5555