Zhou Yanwen was rendered speechless. After a pause, he finally said:
“I feel that if we’re going to be together, this is only natural. After getting married, we’ll have to face having children. You can’t possibly keep working yourself to the bone in the emergency room while pregnant, can you?”
Sheng Nianxi said flatly:
“That’s what you think. It doesn’t represent what I think. You didn’t even discuss it with me, so you have no right to make decisions for me.”
The atmosphere turned completely rigid.
Zhou Yanwen could no longer keep up appearances, and his tone darkened as well:
“If I made you uncomfortable, I’m sorry. But everything I’ve done has been a practical consideration for the future of the two of us.”
A breath caught in Sheng Nianxi’s chest.
She had always felt that something lay between her and Zhou Yanwen. At this moment, she finally saw it clearly.
They followed different paths and could not make common cause.
At their age, they could not possibly settle just because they were “good enough.”
She rose and bowed deeply to Father Zhou and Mother Zhou.
“Uncle, Auntie, I’m truly sorry, but I don’t think I’m suited to be your daughter-in-law. I’m sorry.”
With that, she picked up her bag and turned to leave.
The moment she stepped outside, she nearly collided with someone.
Chen Xuan.
The two women met each other’s eyes.
A smile of unclear meaning hung at the corners of Chen Xuan’s lips.
Her gaze swept over Sheng Nianxi from head to toe, as if inspecting merchandise waiting to be sold to the highest bidder, or verifying the quality of a defeated opponent.
Sheng Nianxi could feel her superiority.
She did not stop, walking straight past Chen Xuan.
Chen Xuan’s smile sank little by little after Sheng Nianxi’s back disappeared from view.
Immediately afterward, Zhou Yanwen came rushing out. His face was livid, and he hurried past her.
Chen Xuan looked up and saw Fu Shennian watching from the second floor.
His gaze followed the direction in which Sheng Nianxi had left, and emotions she had never seen before roiled in his eyes.
It felt as though someone had clenched her heart in their fist.
Fu Shennian’s words from the corridor earlier still echoed in her ears:
“If you go and say any more nonsense in front of my mother, I guarantee that everything you have now will disappear, one thing at a time.”
She took a deep breath and swallowed all her emotions.
Sure enough, Fu Shennian came downstairs.
He thrust Yuan Yuan into her arms, his tone flat:
“I’m going out.”
Before she could respond, he was already striding toward the door.
Chen Xuan stood where she was, holding the child in her arms. Her eyes reddened, but she bit her lip hard and made no sound.
When Fu Shennian pushed open the door, Sheng Nianxi was standing by the roadside waiting for a car.
Zhou Yanwen caught up with her and blocked her path.
Fu Shennian halted, then slipped sideways into the shadows cast by the corridor pillars.
“Let’s leave things as they are.” Sheng Nianxi’s expression was calm. “The hospital is big enough. If we don’t want to run into each other, we don’t have to. There’s no need for things to be awkward.”
Zhou Yanwen was clearly unwilling to accept it.
“You mean you don’t intend to have anything more to do with me?”
“We were only getting to know each other and giving one another a chance. Now that we’ve gotten to know each other, I feel we’re not suitable.”
Sheng Nianxi looked at him, her tone calm and without the slightest ripple.
“Doctor Zhou, you’re a respectable person yourself. You should understand the unspoken conventions between adults. I hope you find someone more suitable.”
Every word was clear. Every sentence was cold.
Zhou Yanwen fell silent for several seconds before suddenly speaking.
“Are you really ending things because we’re not suitable? Isn’t there some other reason?”
Sheng Nianxi lifted her eyes. “What do you mean?”
“For these three months, although we haven’t spent much time together, I’ve felt that you were quite cold, as if… you had never truly been willing to accept me.” His gaze fixed directly on her. “Is there someone else in your heart?”
Sheng Nianxi’s heart shook violently, as if someone had abruptly torn open a scarred wound. She had been caught completely off guard.
Yet her expression did not change in the slightest. Even her eyes remained unmoved.
“You’re overthinking it.”
Behind the corridor pillar, Fu Shennian’s breathing suddenly stopped.
“I made some inquiries.” Zhou Yanwen’s voice continued to reach them. “When you were studying at the medical university, you had an ex-boyfriend who was a top student at the aviation university. Your love was passionate and overwhelming. Was it because of him?”
Sheng Nianxi’s fingers, hanging at her sides, curled slightly.
Ex-boyfriend. Passionate and overwhelming.
Spoken from someone else’s mouth, those words sounded like they were describing a story unrelated to her.
When pain reached its extreme, it became numbness.
The memories that had once kept her awake all night were dug up again now, yet they no longer seemed like much.
She gave an indifferent smile.
“You said it yourself—an ex-boyfriend. He’s practically as good as dead. Who would still remember him?”
Practically as good as dead.
Who would still remember him?
Standing in the darkness, Fu Shennian heard every word clearly.
It felt as though someone had stabbed a knife into his chest, then twisted it viciously, gouging out a gaping hole while he was still alive.
The March wind poured in through the doorway and passed through that hole, leaving him chilled to the bone.
By the time he came back to himself, Sheng Nianxi had already gotten into a taxi and disappeared into the stream of traffic.
Sheng Nianxi had barely arrived home when Lin Jie called.
Lin Jie had known her since high school and was her best friend.
She now taught at Jingbei Film Academy.
“How did it go? How did you get along with Doctor Zhou’s parents?”
“Don’t mention Doctor Zhou.” Sheng Nianxi sank into the small sofa. “There’s nothing between him and me anymore.”
Lin Jie was greatly surprised.
“It ended that quickly? Why? I thought that guy seemed pretty decent.”
Sheng Nianxi’s voice was somewhat tired.
“It’s hard to explain in just a sentence or two. Anyway, we’re simply not suitable.”
There was a moment of silence on the other end of the phone before Lin Jie suddenly lowered her voice.
“Tell me the truth. Are you still thinking about that scumbag?”
Sheng Nianxi gave a bitter smile.
“No.”
She pressed her lips together. As if to prove it, she added:
“Even if he were standing right in front of me now, I wouldn’t feel anything.”
Lin Jie clicked her tongue.
“I don’t believe you. Don’t I know you? You say you’ve forgotten him, but you haven’t forgotten him in your heart.”
She paused, seemingly remembering something, and her tone took on a touch more emotion.
“I’m from the same place as you, so I understand you best. Up to now, you’ve rebelled three times in your life.”
Lin Jie was a liberal-arts student and much more sensitive and perceptive than Sheng Nianxi. Sheng Nianxi liked listening to her talk.
She propped herself up on one arm.
“That sounds interesting. Go on.”
“When the two of us took the exam and came from that small county in Linjiang to Jingbei, you hid it from your parents. You were such a good girl, always obedient to your parents since childhood. Your parents wanted you to attend a teachers’ college in the provincial capital, but you insisted on studying medicine. That was the first time you rebelled in your life.”
“During your freshman year, you met Fu Shennian. You took the initiative to pursue him and turned something impossible into something possible. That was the second time you rebelled in your life.”
“Later, after that incident…” She paused, and her voice softened. “That was the third time.”
“Baby, have you realized that you rebelled three times in all, and two of those times were because of the same person?”
Sheng Nianxi was dazed.
She had never analyzed herself that way.
Only now, with Lin Jie laying out each event one by one, did she realize with a start that most of the times she had gone against the grain in her life had been connected to Fu Shennian.
“So, this whole ‘I wouldn’t react even if he stood in front of you’ thing is just your imagination.” Lin Jie’s voice pulled her back. “If that day really came…”
“It’s true.” Sheng Nianxi immediately sat up, her tone carrying a hint of stubborn insistence. “It happened just a few days ago. His wife was brought to the emergency room, and I treated her. He was standing right in front of me at the time, and I treated him like a stranger.”
“Fu Shennian’s wife? He isn’t married.” Lin Jie’s voice rose eight octaves.