Although the woman looked utterly haggard, Sang Luo recognized her at a glance—it was her half-sister, Sang Yun.
What was she doing here? And how had she ended up looking like this?
Sang Yun was clearly even more shocked than Sang Luo.
Those eyes that should have once been bright and lively were now bloodshot, filled with disbelief at seeing Sang Luo.
She stared fixedly at Sang Luo’s neat clothes and healthy, rosy complexion. Her lips trembled, but she couldn’t utter a single word.
At that moment, she felt as though she had returned to her previous life.
The difference between herself and Sang Luo was still enormous.
“Sang Yun?”
Sang Luo tentatively called her name.
As if scalded, Sang Yun suddenly stepped backward. Her eyes darted around frantically as she searched for the best escape route.
“You’ve got the wrong person!” she rasped, her voice as dry as sandpaper.
Sang Luo quietly looked at her but didn’t press the matter.
She remembered how insane Sang Yun had been when she set the fire in her previous life. Looking at the woman before her now, dressed in rags and clearly terrified, Sang Luo understood everything.
It seemed that after Sang Yun had stolen her “opportunity” to go to the northwest, she hadn’t lived the good life she’d imagined. Instead, she had suffered terribly.
Running into Sang Luo here must have shocked her. She was probably even more ashamed that Sang Luo had seen her in such a state.
“Is that so? Then I must have mistaken you for someone else.”
Sang Luo’s tone was calm, as though she had genuinely mistaken her for a stranger.
She stopped looking at Sang Yun and turned around to open the hospital room door.
Seeing her reaction, Sang Yun felt humiliated by being completely ignored.
She bit her lower lip, then glared viciously at Sang Luo’s back before quickly disappearing into the shadows of the stairwell.
Sang Luo took a deep breath, putting the brief disturbance caused by Sang Yun out of her mind, and gently pushed open the hospital room door.
Only a dim bedside lamp was lit inside.
A tall figure was leaning against the raised hospital bed.
Dündup’s left leg was in a cast, while layers of bandages wrapped around his waist, abdomen, and shoulders. The exposed parts of his shoulder and arm were covered in gruesome scars.
He was gazing out at the deep darkness beyond the window, the sharp lines of his profile appearing especially cold and lonely beneath the dim light.
Hearing the door open, he slowly turned his head.
When he saw that the person standing there was Sang Luo, an unmistakable spark of light immediately appeared in his eyes.
“Sang Luo?”
His voice was slightly hoarse, but the surprise and delight in it were impossible to hide.
“Why are you here?”
“Zhandui A-Bu and Ciren had to go to the pasture, and there was no one else at home who could come. So I came instead.”
Sang Luo walked to the bedside and placed her luggage on a nearby chair, explaining naturally.
Her eyes quickly swept over his injuries.
“How are you feeling? Does it still hurt badly?”
“I’m fine. It hurts a little once the anesthesia wears off, but I can handle it.”
Dündup paused.
“And I made you come all this way. I’m sorry to trouble you.”
“You’re my A-Bu. What’s there to trouble me about?”
Sang Luo took out the protective amulet Danzeng had given her.
“Danzeng insisted that I give this to you. He made it himself.”
“Danzeng is home?”
Dündup took the tiny auspicious-knot amulet. His fingers gently brushed over the carefully sewn stitches, and his stern features visibly softened.
“Yes. The day after you left, A-Bu went to bring him home. He searched the house for you several times. When he learned that you’d returned to your unit, he was gloomy for several days.”
“When he heard I was coming to take care of you, he repeatedly told me to keep it safe and make sure I gave it to you personally.”
“That kid…”
Dündup murmured softly, his voice carrying an almost imperceptible warmth.
For the next several days, Sang Luo stayed at the hospital to take care of Dündup.
Because the hospital was overwhelmed with wounded soldiers, Sang Luo simply took over changing Dündup’s dressings.
She also used the medicinal herbs she had brought with her to prepare medicinal meals that helped improve blood circulation, reduce bruising, and promote healing.
Her movements were always gentle, carrying a reassuring sense of concentration.
Whenever she lowered her head to tend to his wounds, Dündup would often watch her silently.
Once, he tried moving a stiff joint and accidentally pulled at the wound on his back.
Sang Luo immediately put down what she was holding and supported him, letting him lean against her shoulder while she quickly checked whether the bandages were bleeding through.
The faint herbal fragrance from Sang Luo’s hair drifted into his nose.
For a moment, Dündup was dazed, and even the pain seemed to lessen.
“Don’t move around recklessly. Wounds need time to heal. Why are you in such a hurry to start moving?”
“Mm. I was too impatient.”
Dündup readily admitted his mistake.
If the young soldier who had previously been responsible for taking care of him had seen this, his jaw probably would have dropped.
“How many times has this happened these past few days?”
Sang Luo glared at Dündup.
“They’ll arrange rehabilitation for you later. If you keep reopening your wounds like this, you’ll never get discharged.”
“Okay, I understand. I definitely won’t move around recklessly again.”
As Dündup said this, his eyes were filled with the satisfied smile of someone who had been cared for.
Looking at Dündup, who had been so stern and expressionless when he returned home last time, now smiling so openly, Sang Luo knew he hadn’t taken Zhandui’s earlier suggestion to heart.
As a result, she gradually became more relaxed around him as well.
Neither of them knew that the warmth slowly building inside the hospital room was being watched from the shadows by a pair of eyes filled with hatred.
Sang Yun had never actually left the hospital.
She remembered clearly that in her previous life, Sang Luo had told Lajun that her husband had suffered a life-threatening injury around this time and had nearly died.
She had originally planned that if she could stay by that man’s side during this period, he would surely fall in love with her after recovering.
But she hadn’t expected to miss her intended target and encounter Sang Luo instead.
Like a rat hiding in a sewer, she used this time to familiarize herself with the hospital layout. She often hid around stairwell corners or at the ends of corridors, secretly watching Dündup’s room.
When she saw that Sang Luo hadn’t been worn down by the harsh life in the northwest as she had imagined, but had instead become even more beautiful—and that Dündup clearly treated her differently—Sang Yun’s jealousy spread wildly like poisonous vines.
She clenched her fists so tightly that her nails dug deep into her palms, yet she barely felt the pain.
In her previous life, she had also tried to approach this young, accomplished, and formidable officer.
What she received in return was nothing but his undisguised disgust and cold rejection.
Later, he had even stopped returning home just to avoid her.
Why?
Why was it that when it came to Sang Luo, he could treat her with such gentleness?
And that look in his eyes…
It clearly held the attention and affection that Sang Yun had desperately wanted but could never obtain in her previous life!
She cast a poisonous glance at the hospital room door glowing with warm light, then turned and disappeared into the deeper darkness.
“Sang Luo…”
As Sang Yun left, she gritted her teeth in hatred.
“Just you wait. Once I become the battalion commander’s wife, you’ll regret it!”