The hospital room finally fell quiet, leaving only Gu Wangshu and Sister Wen, who had been standing quietly in the corner the entire time.
“Miss,” Sister Wen hesitated before finally asking, “you… you really don’t remember?”
Gu Wangshu set down her glass of water and looked at her.
When the doctor had examined her earlier, she had said that she could only remember things from before she was in her teens. Everything from the past few years was gone.
It was the best excuse she could come up with.
Since she wasn’t the real Gu Xihe, there were bound to be things she didn’t know, and sooner or later she would give herself away. It was better to simply claim that she had lost her memory.
Gu Wangshu looked at the loyal older woman before her.
In her own memories, Sister Wen wasn’t just her younger cousin’s nanny. Back when she had been recuperating in Hong Kong, Sister Wen had also made nourishing soups for her.
“I remember the soup you used to make, Auntie Wen. It was especially delicious.” She smiled faintly.
Sister Wen’s eyes immediately reddened.
“You still remember that…”
She wiped away her tears. “When we get home, I’ll make some soup for you. You need to build yourself back up.”
Gu Wangshu hummed in response. Then her smile faded, and she asked, “Auntie Wen, what did Mother mean when she told you to call Second Madam’s place just now?”
Sister Wen’s movements paused, and her expression grew complicated.
Looking at the young woman in front of her, she couldn’t help feeling sorry for her.
When her husband had taken a second wife all those years ago, Miss had made a huge fuss. She had quarreled with him several times and had even nearly run away from home.
Now that she had lost her memory, was she going to have to go through all of that again?
“Miss,” Sister Wen began carefully, choosing her words, “Master… Master married his second wife a few years ago. She was his first love—the eldest daughter of the Yang family.”
The Yang family.
Something stirred in Gu Wangshu’s heart.
After she had arrived in Hong Kong all those years ago, she had heard her grandfather mention that her second uncle had once had a childhood sweetheart and first love. She was the daughter of the Yang family, Yang Huijuan.
They had grown up together and had been very close. They were even supposed to get married.
But her grandfather had objected.
The reason was simple.
During the war, when Hong Kong fell into Japanese hands, the Yang family had sided with the Japanese.
Not only that, they had betrayed her grandfather, who had been supplying cotton yarn and medicine to the mainland. As a result, he had been arrested by the Japanese and sent to a concentration camp, where he had nearly lost his life.
After surviving the concentration camp, her grandfather had severed all ties with the Yang family. He had even strictly forbidden her second uncle from having any further contact with Yang Huijuan.
Later, Yang Huijuan had married a businessman. The two of them had left Hong Kong and gone to Southeast Asia to make a living.
Gu Wangshu had thought that chapter of the story had ended long ago.
She never expected…
“That Miss Yang,” she asked, “wasn’t she already married?”
Sister Wen sighed.
“Ah, her husband passed away, and the Yang family fell into decline as well. She had a daughter with her, and with nowhere else to turn, she came back to Hong Kong to seek Master’s help.”
“And then?”
“Then… Master took her in. He said he would let her work as a clerk at the company for the time being, just so she could get settled. But not long afterward, she… she became pregnant.”
Gu Wangshu let out a cold laugh.
“And then?”
“Then Master simply went along with it and officially married her as his second wife.”
Sister Wen lowered her head.
“By then, Old Master had already been dead for three years. There was no one left who could stop him…”
Gu Wangshu fell silent.
So all of this had happened after her death.
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
Her grandfather had hated the Yang family more than anything. Even on his deathbed, he had specifically warned her second uncle never to have anything to do with them.
And yet, the moment her grandfather was gone, her second uncle had eagerly brought a daughter of the Yang family through the door.
How… filial of him.
“Miss…” Sister Wen looked at her worriedly.
Gu Wangshu opened her eyes, her expression once again calm.
“It’s fine,” she said. “I’m just a little tired.”
She leaned back against the pillow and stared at the ceiling.
She was no longer a sickly invalid.
Gu Xihe’s body was young and healthy. She was only twenty-three, in the prime of her life.
Ten years ago, at twenty-three, she had died of tuberculosis.
Ten years later, she had returned to the age of twenty-three.
She stretched out her arms, then moved her legs, feeling the strength in this body.
She was no longer the frail Gu Wangshu who would be out of breath after walking only a few steps.
She had a healthy body now.
It felt wonderful.
It was just that the real Gu Xihe—the foolish girl who had given up her life for a man—was truly gone.
Gu Wangshu sighed softly to herself.
Her thoughts drifted involuntarily back to that “cold” spring.
The spring of 1976 had been a complete nightmare for Gu Wangshu.
That year, fate had shown her its most vicious fangs.
First, both of her parents died at a farm in the northwest. Her grandmother couldn’t withstand the blow of losing both her children and passed away not long afterward.
One tragedy followed another.
Before she could even send the news to her older brother, Gu Xiuyuan, who had been sent to Yunnan as part of the rural youth program, she received a telegram instead.
Her brother had accidentally fallen down a mountain while cutting sugarcane in Yunnan.
His life hung in the balance.
She was twenty-two that year, in the third year of her marriage to Zhong Jiming.
Just when she felt as though the entire sky had collapsed around her, news arrived from Hong Kong.
Her grandfather, Gu Shiyong, had managed to get in touch with the authorities through a series of connections.
The patriotic businessman claimed that he was terminally ill and had little time left. His only wish was to see his biological granddaughter one last time before he died.
Her grandfather, Gu Shiyong, was originally from Suzhou. During the war, he had been separated from his pregnant wife.
Although they eventually managed to get back in touch, by then her grandfather had already remarried in Hong Kong. Her grandmother was a strong-willed woman and refused to go to Hong Kong. Later, as the situation on the mainland grew increasingly tense, the two of them lost contact completely.
But her grandfather was, after all, a patriotic businessman.
During the darkest days of the war against Japan, he had risked his life to break through blockade after blockade and deliver desperately needed supplies to the mainland.
Faced with the final request of a dying old man, the authorities approved it.
And so, under those circumstances, Gu Wangshu traveled alone to Hong Kong.
Before leaving Beijing, with the help of her father-in-law, Zhong Mian, she and Zhong Jiming quickly completed the formalities for their divorce.
Apart from a doctor at Peking Union Medical College Hospital, no one knew that when Gu Wangshu left Beijing, there was already blood in the handkerchief she used to cover her mouth when she coughed.
Six months after arriving in Hong Kong, her grandfather, Gu Shiyong, passed away.
Another six months later, in the spring of 1977, Gu Wangshu succumbed to severe tuberculosis and quietly closed her eyes in a hospital room at Hong Kong’s Hong Kong Adventist Hospital.
At the time, she had believed that was the end.
Gu Wangshu turned toward the window.
The night view of Victoria Harbour glittered brilliantly outside.
She drew in a deep breath.
This time, there was no searing pain tearing through her lungs.
Being alive felt wonderful.